Exhilarating, too, is "The Major"s Niece," which is founded on an extremely improbable _imbroglio_. So precise and business-like a man as Major Kent was not likely to make a mistake of seven or eight years in the age of a visitor especially when the visitor happened to be his own sister"s child. However, the initial improbability may be readily condoned in view of the entertaining sequel. "J.J." reappears in his best form, Marjorie is a most engaging tomboy, and the fun never flags for an instant. But much as we love "J.J.," we reluctantly recognise in "The Simpkins Plot" that you can have too much of a good thing, and that a man who would be a nuisance as a neighbour in real life is in danger of becoming a bore in a novel. At the same time the digressions and irrelevancies are as good as ever. It is pleasant to be reminded of such facts as that wedding cake is invariably eaten by the Irish post office officials, or to listen to Doctor O"Donoghue on the nutrition of infants:
"You can rear a child, whether it has the whooping cough or not, on pretty near anything, so long as you give it enough of whatever it is you do give it."
Canon Hannay excels in the conduct of an absurd or paradoxical proposition, but he needs a word of friendly caution against undue reliance on the mechanism of the practical joke. Perhaps his English cure has demoralized "J.J.," but we certainly prefer him as he was in Inishgowlan, convinced by practical experience that he would rather do any mortal thing than try to mind a baby and make b.u.t.ter at the same time.
Of Canon Hannay"s later novels, two demand special attention and for widely different reasons. In "The Red Hand of Ulster," reverting to politics--politics, moreover, of the most explosive kind--he achieved the well-nigh impossible in at once doing full justice to the dour sincerity of the Orange North, and yet conciliating Nationalist susceptibilities. In "The Inviolable Sanctuary," he has shown that a first-rate public-school athlete, whose skill in pastime is confined to ball games cuts a sorry figure alongside of a chit of a girl who can handle a boat. This salutary if humiliating truth is enforced not from any desire to further Feminist principles--Canon Hannay"s att.i.tude towards women betrays no belief in the equality of the s.e.xes--but because he cannot be bothered with the sentimentality of conventional love-making. It may be on this account that he more than once a.s.signs a leading role to an ingenuous young Amazon into whose ken the planet of love will not swim for another four or five years.
During the last thirty years the alleged decadence of Irish humour has been a frequent theme of pessimistic critics. Various causes have been invoked to account for the phenomenon, which, when dispa.s.sionately considered, amounted to this, that the rollicking novel of incident and adventure had died with Lever. So, for the matter of that, had novels of the "Frank Fairleigh" type, with their authors. The ascendancy of Parnell and the regime of the Land League did not make for gaiety, yet even these influences were powerless to eradicate the inherent absurdities of Irish life, and the authors of the "R.M." entered on a career which has been a triumphal disproval of this allegation as far back as 1889. At their best they have interpreted normal Irishmen and Irishwomen, gentle and simple, with unsurpa.s.sed fidelity and sympathy.
But to award them the supremacy in this _genre_ both as realists and as writers does not detract from the success won in a different sphere by Canon Hannay. His goal is less ambitious and aim is less unfaltering, but as an improvisor of whimsical situations and an ironic commentator on the actualities of Irish life he has invented a new form of literary entertainment which has the double merit of being at once diverting and instructive.
But as we believe this volume will sufficiently show, though these three novelists have so far transcended the achievements of contemporary writers on Irish life, they are being followed at no long distance by younger writers, for whom they have helped to find a public and in whose more mature achievements they may have to acknowledge a serious literary rivalry. We have dealt with the women writers to be found in this new group. It remains for us to criticise the work of the men who belong to it.
Mr. John Stevenson, otherwise Pat Carty, whose Rhymes have been so charmingly set to music by Sir Charles Stanford, and so delightfully sung by Mr. Plunket-Greene, possesses a whimsical gift, both in prose and verse, which gives fresh evidence of the awakening of an Ulster school of humorists. His "Boy in the Country" is descriptive of a child"s companionship in the country with farmers and their wives and servants, his falling under the spell of a beautiful lady whose romance he a.s.sists like a true young cavalier, and his a.s.sociation with that formidable open-air imp, Jim, a little dare-devil poacher and hard swearer, who sailed his boats with strips cut from his shirt tails and could give a canting minister as good as he got, instead of cowering under his preachment. The manners and customs of the farming cla.s.s in the "Nine Glens of Antrim" could not be more simply and humorously told, and when the author divagates into such sketches as "The Wise Woman and the Wise Man," and breaks into occasional verse faithfully descriptive of his natural surroundings, he is equally delightful.
Of course, he is not as old a craftsman as Mr. Shan Bullock, whose dry drollery has given the readers of his novels and stories so much pleasure, and whose serious purpose and close observation of Northern Irish character are so well recognised by all serious students of Irish life. He is represented in the volume by "The Wee Tea-Table," a life-like sketch taken from his "Irish Pastorals."
Mr. Frank Mathew, whose first literary work was his biography of his ill.u.s.trious grand-uncle Father Mathew, has also written some admirable stories of Irish life, which appeared in "The Idler," and have been collected in a volume called "At the Rising of the Moon." "The Last Race," by which he is represented in this volume, will give our readers a good taste of his graphic quality.
Mr. Padric Colum will speak for himself on Irish fiction in his introduction to an edition of Gerald Griffin"s "Collegians," which is to form part of this series of Irish volumes. His finely distinctive literary style and intimate knowledge of Irish peasant life so clearly exhibited in his poems, plays and stories, is shown in these pages by that remarkable sketch of "Maelshaughlinn at the Fair," written with the elemental abandon of Synge himself.
Finally, in absolute contrast with Mr. Colum"s idealistic work, comes the humorous realism of Lynn Doyle"s pictures of the Ulster Peasantry.
But their efforts to over-reach one another, their love of poaching, and their marriage operations, afford the author of "Ballygullion" a congenial field for the display of his observation, his high spirits, and his genuine sense of the ridiculous. His comedy of "The Ballygullion Creamery Society" which fitly concludes this volume, is good, hearty, wholesome fun, and we only trust, in Ireland"s best interests, that its official stamp, a wreath of shamrocks and orange lilies--is not merely an unlikely if amiable suggestion, but is yet to have its counterpart in reality.
Preface.
The fiction of which this volume consists is in part fabulous in character, in part descriptive of actual Irish life upon its lighter side.
The Heroic stories and Folk-tales are, on chronological grounds, printed early in the book and are then followed by extracts from the writings of the Irish novelists of the first half and third quarter of the 19th Century--Maginn, Lever, Lover, and LeFanu.
Then come the writers who have made their mark in recent times, such as Miss Jane Barlow, the authors of "Some Experiences of an Irish R.M.,"
and Canon Hannay, and lastly those of a new school amongst whom may be named Mr. Padraic Colum, "Lynn Doyle," and Miss K. Purdon.
This may be said to be the general order of the contents of "Humours of Irish Life." But where artistic propriety, suggesting contrasts of local colour and changes of subject, has called for it, a strict chronological sequence has been departed from; yet enough of it remains to enable the critic to observe what we believe to be a change for the better, both in the taste and technique of these Irish stories and sketches, as time has gone by.
It remains for us to express our cordial obligations to the following authors and publishers for the use of copyright material. To Messrs.
Macmillan and Miss B. Hunt for the story of "McCarthy of Connacht," from "Folk Tales of Breffny"; to Canon Hannay and Messrs. Methuen for chapters from "Spanish Gold" and "The Adventures of Dr. Whitty,"
ent.i.tled "J. J. Meldon and the Chief Secretary," and "The Interpreters"; to Mr. H. de Vere Stacpoole and Mr. Fisher Unwin for "The Meet of the Beagles," from the novel of "Patsy"; to Miss O"Conor Eccles and Messrs.
Ca.s.sell for "King William," a story in the late Miss Charlotte O"Conor Eccles"s "Aliens of the West"; to Miss Eleanor Alexander and Mr. Edward Arnold for "Old Tummus and the Battle of Scarva," from "Lady Anne"s Walk," and to the same publisher and to Mr. John Stevenson for a chapter ent.i.tled "The Wise Woman" from "A Boy in the Country"; to Messrs. James Duffy and Sons for Kickham"s Story of "The Thrush and the Blackbird"; to Mr. William Percy French for "The First Lord Liftenant"; to Mr. Frank Mathew for "Their Last Race," from his volume "At the rising of the Moon"; to Miss K. Purdon for a chapter ent.i.tled "The Game Leg," from her novel "The Folk of Furry Farm," and to its publishers, Messrs. James Nisbet and Co. Ltd.; to Dr. Douglas Hyde for his Folk-tale of "The Piper and the Puca"; to Martin Ross and Miss E. [OE]. Somerville and Messrs.
Longmans, Green & Co., for the use of two chapters--"Trinket"s Colt" and "The Boat"s Share"--from "Some Experiences of an Irish R.M." and "Further Experiences of an Irish R.M." respectively; to Mr. Shan Bullock for "The Wee Tea Table," from his "Irish Pastorals"; to Miss Jane Barlow and Messrs. Hutchinson for "Quin"s Rick," from "Doings and Dealings,"
and for "A Test of Truth," from "Irish Neighbours"; to Mr. Padraic Colum for his sketch "Maelshaughlinn at the Fair," from his "A Year of Irish Life," and to the publishers of the book, Messrs. Mills and Boon, Ltd.; to its author, "Lynn Doyle," and its publishers, Maunsel & Co., for "The Ballygullion Creamery," from "Ballygullion"; and to Mr. P. J. McCall and the proprietors of "The Shamrock" for the story "Fionn Macc.u.mhail and the Princess."
Finally, acknowledgment is due to the courtesy of the Proprietors and Editor of "The Quarterly Review" for leave to incorporate in the Introduction an article which appeared in the issue of that periodical for June, 1913.
CONTENTS
PAGE DANIEL O"ROURKE _Dr. Maginn_ 1
ADVENTURES OF GILLA NA CHRECK AN GOUR _Patrick Kennedy_ 9
THE LITTLE WEAVER OF DULEEK GATE _Samuel Lover_ 18
FIONN MACc.u.mHAIL AND THE PRINCESS _Patrick J. McCall_ 30
THE KILDARE POOKA _Patrick Kennedy_ 38
THE PIPER AND THE PUCA _Douglas Hyde_ 42
MCCARTHY OF CONNACHT _B. Hunt_ 46
THE MAD PUDDING OF BALLYBOULTEEN _William Carleton_ 58
FRANK WEBBER"S WAGER _Charles Lever_ 72
SAM WHAM AND THE SAWMONT _Sir Samuel Ferguson_ 82
DARBY DOYLE"S VOYAGE TO QUEBEC _Thomas Ettingsall_ 84
BOB BURKE"S DUEL _Dr. Maginn_ 92
BILLY MALONEY"S TASTE OF LOVE AND GLORY _Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu_ 105
A PLEASANT JOURNEY _Charles Lever_ 123
THE BATTLE OF AUGHRIM _William Carleton_ 131
THE QUARE GANDER _Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu_ 139
THE THRUSH AND THE BLACKBIRD _Charles J. Kickham_ 148
THEIR LAST RACE _Frank Mathew_ 154
THE FIRST LORD LIFTINANT _William Percy French_ 159
THE BOAT"S SHARE _E. OE. Somerville and Martin Ross_ 167
"KING WILLIAM" _Charlotte O"Conor Eccles_ 179
QUIN"S RICK _Jane Barlow_ 200
MAELSHAUGHLINN AT THE FAIR _Padraic Colum_ 213