357 



The passage to which Swift has alluded occurs in Sir 

 Philip Sidney's Defence o/Poesie : — " Though I will not wish 

 unto you to be driven by a poet's verses, as Bubonax was, to 

 hang himself, nor to be rhymed to death, as is said to be done 

 in Ireland," &c. 



Dr. Todd stated, that having met with these passages, he 

 called the attention of Mr. Eugene Curry to them, and re- 

 quested him to make search in our ancient Irish manuscripts 

 for such notices of the alleged powers of Irish rhymers as 

 might throw light on this superstition. The following paper 

 contains the substance of what Mr. Curry has collected on the 

 subject. 



The antiquity of satire in Ireland is, according to our 

 ancient writings, of a very remote date. In the early ages 

 of Christianity it appears to have been so frequent and so 

 much dreaded, that the " Brehon Laws" contain severe en- 

 actments against it, and strict regulations regarding its kind, 

 quality, and justice, something like the law of libel of more 

 modern times. 



Several references to ancient satires and satirists will be 

 found in the Preface, by Dr. John O' Donovan, to a low, 

 scurrilous poem on the native and Anglo-Norman noblemen 

 of Ireland, written at the close of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and 

 lately published by John O'Daly, of Dublin. The most in- 

 teresting in its results, and perhaps the most authentic, of 

 these satires mentioned by Dr. O'Donovan is that composed 

 by the poet Laidginn (not Athairne of Binn Edair, as Dr. 

 O'Donovan by an oversight has stated). The story is pre- 

 served in the Book of Ballimote, in the Library of the Royal 

 Irish Academy, and the following is a literal translation of it : 



" Eochaidh, the son of Enna, king of Leinster [having 



been for some time at Tara, as an hostage from his father to 



Niall of the nine hostages, monarch of allErinn], absconded 



and repaired to the south to his own country. He decided on 



2 n 2 



