‘Translation in itself is, after all, but a problem, how two languages being given, the nearest approximation may be made in the second to the expression of ideas already conveyed through the medium of the first. The problem almost starts with the assumption that something must be sacrificed, and the chief question is, what is the least sacrifice.’ So wrote Cardinal Newman, in the preface to his Church of the Fathers, and of course, this problem had to be solved by me, as best I could, before penning a word of the following version of O'Sullivan's history.
I found the brothers Langhorne, the popular translators of Plutarch's lives, commending Amiot, because he ‘had, indeed, acquitted himself in one respect with great happiness. His book was not found to be French-Greek. He had carefully followed that rule, which no translator ought ever to lose sight of, the great rule of humouring the genius, and maintaining the structure of his own language.’ For themselves they said: – ‘Sensible that the great art of a translator is to prevent the peculiarities of his author's language from stealing into his own, they have been particularly attentive to this point, and have generally endeavoured to keep their English unmixed with Greek... Where something seemed to have fallen out of the text, or where the ellipsis was too violent for the forms of our language, we have not scrupled to maintain the tenor of the narrative, or the chain of reason, by such little insertions as appeared to be necessary for the purpose.’
The plain reading of these propositions would seem to be that the translation should be written as an original work, plagiarised, as it were, from the author, whose writings were being 'done into' English, and these rules seem to have the approval of Boileau, Lord Bolingbroke, Beloe —
On the other hand, Dr. Bloomfield in the preface to his translation of Thucydides (i. xi.), emphatically lays it down: ‘It has, indeed, ever been the opinion of our greatest critics, that what are called free translations of ancient prose writers, whose matter is of high authority, and, therefore, whose sense requires to be ascertained with precision, ought not to be tolerated. Indeed, how instruction or gratification can be obtained from a translation of an antient writer which does not faithfully represent the original, it is not easy to see. But besides fidelity, good taste requires that the translator should preserve the manner and characteristics of his author, without which the utmost verbal accuracy will but inadequately represent the original. As to the style and phraseology of prose versions of antient writers, few will fail to see that they should not be neoteric, otherwise the effect thereby produced will be such as cannot but shock a correct taste.’
This latter rule has the support of our own O'Donovan in his introductory remarks to that monumental work The Annals of the Four Masters (xl.), and in all his published translations with which I am familiar. It has been followed by Dr. Todd ( Wars of the Gael and Gaill, etc.), and Mr. Hennessy ( Chronicon Scotorum, lii., liv.), and other translators from the Gaelic, and also by translators for Bohn's excellent versions of the Classics.
In a letter to Mr. Cromwell, Pope says of translation: ‘Let the sense be ever so exactly rendered, unless an author looks like himself, in his habit and manner, it is a disguise and not a translation.’ Hence, Montesquieu thanks Dr. Nugent, ‘for rendering my work into English so well. ... It would seem that you intended to also translate my style; for there is exactly that resemblance, qualem decet esse sororum.’ ( Spirit of Laws i., Introduc.)
Weighing as best I could the arguments pro and con I finally decided, in the words of the classical Mitford, to prefer, ‘occasionally running the risk of some uncouthness of phrase, to those wide deviations from the original for which French criticism allows large indulgence.’
I believe I was mainly influenced by the following considerations, which may be my apology to those who dissent from my judgment.
I.—A profound reverence for O'Donovan.
I imagine it almost impossible that anyone pursuing for eighteen years—as I have done—with ever increasing interest and assiduity, the study of Irish history, could fail to be impressed with an affectionate awe of those Herculean labourers in this field—O'Donovan and O'Curry. It is really not too much to say that nothing written in the English language is of any real authority on the pre-Norman period of our history, which has not passed through either of their hands. None were so satisfied of this as Todd, Petrie and others whose scholarship gilded, indeed, and, perhaps, refined the output of these miners but to them belongs the credit of the discovery, and of the raising of the ore. Take away their work and only the dross remains; take away the works of all others, and yet the precious metal remains more or less unpolished, according to the time it spent in the masters' hands. I believe that after a while one regards the name of O'Donovan or O'Curry as the hall-mark of authenticity in our Gaelic history, and distrusts all material not so marked.
The respect I entertained for these patient and persevering labourers, as historians, easily extended to them in other capacities.
II.—The danger of sacrificing accuracy to an attempt at elegance, and so substituting an English composition by myself, for the history of O'Sullivan. I had in mind Dr. Johnson's censure on Pope's version of Homer, and the severe strictures on Dr. O'Connor's Latin translation of our annals, passed by Drs. O'Donovan and Todd. I was also struck by some observations of Dean Butler in his preface to Thady Dowling's annals, published by the Irish Arch. Society (viii.), and of Mr. Leslie Stephen, ridiculing the simplicity of those middle-aged romancers, who transferred to the classical or Hebrew histories the customs of chivalry. ( English Thought in the 18th Century, ii., 445.)
III.—Being myself rather a student of History, than of histories, I regard O'Sullivan's work more in the light of material for an Irish history of the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., than as itself supplying that want. In this view, accuracy as to dress, arms, currents of thought, and the like, are of equal importance with the chronicling of actual events. Hence I translate 'leaden bullets' and use such words as 'gunmen' to show the Irish had at such times the use of firearms, etc. Hence, also, the importance of adjectives. A single short sentence will well illustrate my argument. ‘Elizabetha regina non immerito
Now, viewing O'Sullivan merely as an historian, the only fact in this sentence is that Elizabeth was excommunicated by Pius V. Regarding O'Sullivan, however, as an exponent of the sentiments of his countrymen of that age, we have two other important facts, namely, that they approved of this excommunication,—'non immerito'; and regarded it with awe, as of dreadful effect,—'mucrone percussa'. It is canvassed by Moore and others how far religious opinions affected the wars of these times, and on this question side-lights are often of more importance than the direct statements of partisan writers.
Again, an author's credibility is often tested by his style. A bombastic and fulsome eulogy is regarded more as evidence of the partisanship of the writer, than as an accurate description. Hence, the importance of imitating style.
IV.—And finally, I am desirous rather of encouraging the reading of O'Sullivan's own work, than of offering a dissuasive substitute.
I am, indeed, in the words of Cardinal Newman, ‘very sensible what constant and unflagging attention is requisite in all translation to catch the sense of the original, and what discrimination in the choice of English to do justice to it; and what certainty there is of shortcomings after all.’ I can only plead with Horace:
- — Si quid novisti rectius istis,
Candidus imperti.
I have at this tedious length, discussed the basis of my translation, because, should this volume find favour, I purpose to offer similar versions of Lombard, Rothe, and other contemporary writers of events in Ireland during the reign of Elizabeth, and this preface may serve as an introduction to a series of Tudor historians.
The printed materials for an Irish history of our author's times, so far as they have come under my notice, consist mainly of the following:
I.—The State Papers, calendars of which have been officially published, and especially the calendar of Carew Manuscripts.
These calendars are now so numerous, that official guides to their use are periodically published, and the student would do well at the outset to read the late Sir
II.— The Liber Munerum Publicorum Hiberniae, compiled by Mr. Rowley Lascelles, and the reports and indices of the Deputy Keeper of Irish Public Records, and of the Historical Manuscripts Commissioners. Here, too, the search will be for a needle in a bundle of straw without some preliminary training in the method of indexing, etc.
III.—The State Trials, and Sir John Davies' law reports and statutes of the realm. Only the existing statutes are published in the revised editions. The student must consult the statutes at large, published by authority of the Irish Parliament in nineteen folio volumes with two index volumes. These, from the historian's point of view are like detached pieces of a mosaic—one needs the plan to fit them in their places. The student must have a general knowledge of the history of the times before examining these records.
IV.—Beside the official publications there are many excellent collections of State Papers and such like contemporary documents, published by private persons, and arranged in a readily intelligible manner. Such are:— Cardinal Moran's Spicilegium Ossoriense (vols. i. and iii.); Mr. E. P. Shirley's original letters, etc., illustrating Church of Ireland history; Dr. Maziere Brady's State Papers concerning the Irish Church, temp. Eliz.; Rev. Edmond Hogan's Ibernia Ignatiana; Mr. Hore and late Dr. Graves The Social State of the Southern and Eastern Counties of Ireland in the 16th Century; Sydney Papers (letters, etc., from Lord Deputy Sydney), Folio, London, 1746; Bush's Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica (vol. i.); Mr. Gilbert's Facsimilies.
V.—The contemporary writers on the Irish side whose chronicles have been printed, are:— The Four Masters, whose Annals of the kingdom of Ireland as translated and annotated by O'Donovan, are the basis of all Irish History. Vols. v. and vi., of O'Donovan's edition comprise our period.
O'Clery's Life of Hugh Roe O'Donnell, recently published with a translation, by Rev. Denis Murphy, whose last work, Our Martyrs, contains excerpts translated from many contemporary accounts of those who suffered for the Roman Catholic Faith, between 1535 and 1691; our Author, Philip O'Sullivan, whose history is the most readable and complete of the works of the Irish writers of his time; Peter Lombard, Archbishop of Armagh,
David Rothe, Bishop of Ossory, 1618-50, whose Analecta Sacra, etc., has also been republished by Cardinal Moran. Part III. of this work deals with our period.
The second volume of the Annals of Loch Cé, as published in the Rolls series.
Fr. Meehan's Rise and Fall of the Franciscan Monasteries, seems to aim at being a free translation of Donatus Mooney's co-temporary history of the Irish Franciscans. I have never met this latter book, and believe it has not been printed. I understand there is a manuscript copy in the Maynooth library.
Dominic O'Daly, O.P., a translation of whose Rise and Fall of the Geraldines has been published by Fr. Meehan.
O'Duffy's Apostasy of Myler Magrath, a translation of which, by O'Daly, has been published.
On the English side we have:
Ware's and Camden's Annals of the Reign of Elizabeth, Camden's Britannica, which contains Fr. John Good's description of Ireland about the year 1566.
Spencer's View of the State of Ireland.
Fynes Morison's Ityniraie, Part II. I understand this part has been separately published under the title of Moryson's History of Ireland, 2 vols., Dublin, 1735.
Carew's Pacata Hibernia, which has recently been republished with valuable notes, by Mr. Standish O'Grady.
Stanihurst's description, and Hooker's history, both published in Hollinshed's chronicles.
Bingham's services in Connaught, and Dowcra's in Lough Foyle, both printed in The Celtic Society's Miscellany, 1849.
John Derrick's Image of Ireland, republished in 1883, by Mr. Small, Edinburgh.
Payne's Brief Description of Ireland, published in the Irish Arch. Society's Miscellany, 1841.
Dymmok's Treatise of Ireland, in same Society's Miscellany for 1842.
Dowling's Annals, published by same Society, in 1848.
Campion's history has only a brief reference to Shane O'Neill's and Fitzmaurice's insurrection and nothing else belonging to our period.
The History of Sir John Perrot, K.C.B., London, 1728.
Barnaby Rich Description of Ireland, published in 1610, small 4 to.
Fr. E. Hogan, S.J., has published an anonymous description of Ireland, written in 1598 with copious notes, and the Public Record Commissioners have issued with the volumes of State Papers, Henry VIII., dealing with Ireland, two old maps and a map of Munster. These maps show the territories of the principal Irish clans. See also a list of Descriptions of Ireland in Fr. Hogan's book, p. xii.
Most of the foregoing sources of history are out of print, and to be picked up only at second hand book-stalls, or occasionally at auctions.
I am afraid the time for writing the History of Ireland is still as far off as when O'Curry died, but in the hope of facilitating the future historian, I have collected in the table of contents, under each chapter, all references to its subject matter, contained in contemporary accounts which the kindness of my friends or my own shelves supplied.
Words introduced into the text and not in the original are printed in italics. The names of persons and places are given in present-day form when I was able to identify them, otherwise they are given as in the original text merely dropping the Latin termination.
In conclusion, I have to thank my subscribers, and many friends for kind encouragement and generous assistance in my work, and especially are my thanks due and tendered to The Most Rev. Dr. O'Doherty, Bishop of Derry, himself a master in the science of which I am a devoted student; Mr. T. D. Sullivan our National Bard; and to my life-long, sincere and valued friend, the Very Rev. Father James F. Murphy, Provincial of the Jesuits in Ireland.
‘THE family of O'Sullivan,’ says Sir Bernard Burke, ‘deduces its descent from Olioll Ollum, king of Munster, who reigned A.D. 125.’ Mr. O'Hart in his Irish Pedigrees, traces their genealogy still further back (4th ed. i., 243.)
Until 1192 the O'Sullivans were seated in South Tipperary, on the banks of the Suir, between Clonmel and Knockgraffan, on which was their principal fort, celebrated in the third century as the residence of their progenitor, king Fiacha, who compelled Cormac MacArt, the Ardrigh, to send hostages thither from Tara ( Annals Four Masters, iii., 94-95, n.; Book of Rights, 91, n.; O'Callaghan's Irish Brigades, 374; Lewis's Topographical Dictionary, 239.) The Anglo-Norman invaders gradually expelled this family from its ancient territory, and compelled it to seek a home in that wildest part of south-west Cork and Kerry, skirting the Atlantic, and now comprised in the baronies of Beare and Bantry, County Cork, and baronies of Iveragh, Dunkerron and Glanlough, in Kerry ( Book of Rights, 46-91, n.; Annals Four Masters, iv., 1132; O'Callaghan's Irish Brigades, 374;) The family became divided into two great sections—O'Sullivan More, in Kerry, and O'Sullivan Beare, in Cork ( O'Callaghan's Irish Brigades.)
Mr. Joyce tells us ( Irish Names of Places, i., 134), that our author's district acquired its name from Beara, a daughter of Heber, king of Castile, and whom Olioll Ollum's father, Owen More, married. On his return from Spain with his bride, Owen More called the harbour 'Beara' in her honour. This harbour is now Bearhaven, the island which shelters it is the Great Bear Island, and the neck of land between Bearhaven and Kenmare Bay is the barony of Bere or Bear. Prefixed to the second volume of State Papers Henry VIII. (Ireland) are three curious
The O'Sullivans appear to have been settled in their new home early in the fourteenth century, as in 1320 we find them founding a Franciscan monastery at Bantry, in which they and many other nobles chose burial places Annals Four Masters, iii., 523). A century later the line of cleavage between the two families is marked by an entry in the Annals of the Four Masters, iii., 566-7, that O'Sullivan More chose a burial place in another Franciscan monastery founded by The MacCarthy More, on a site near the lower lake of Killarney, which an old legend relates to have been miraculously pointed out. At what time our author's family assumed the cognomen 'Bear', I have not been able to ascertain. It first occurs in the Annals of Four Masters under the year 1485. The name is now always spelled O'Sullivan, but our author wrote O'Sullevan. The Irish word is O'Suilebhain ( O'Hart's Irish Pedigrees). To count up the various spellings in the patents, etc., of James I., and Elizabeth would be a tedious and profitless task. The deeds of derring-do of the historian's father, and the unhappy dissensions in his family, form part of his history, so need not be anticipated here. Apparently the only materials for a biography of our author are contained in his own works. Harris, the continuator of Sir James Ware, seems to have been unable to discover any others, ( Irish Writers, 110.)
From the Catholic History we learn that his father's name was Dermot (Tom. ii., lib. iv., cap. xv., et passim), that his grandfather was also a Dermot, and was The O'Sullivan Bear (Tom. ii., lib. iii., cap. iv., et passim); that his father was a younger son appears from the fact that he was not The O'Sullivan Bear, whose name was Daniel, and to whom our author refers as his 'patruelis' (Tom. iv., lib. iii., cap. iv.); that he was born in Dursey Island, off Crow Head (Tom. i., lib. i., cap. iv.); that in the year 1602, while yet a boy, he was sent to Spain with his cousin, son of the O'Sullivan Beare, and who was going as a hostage to Philip III (Tom. iii., lib. vii., cap. i.), that he was educated by a Jesuit Father, Synott, ‘one of his own people,’ and by Roderic Vendanna, a Spaniard, and other professors (Tom. iii., lib. vii., cap. i.); that he obtained a commission in the Spanish Navy from Philip III. (Dedication of History); and that in 1618 he fought a
The first-mentioned letter is reprinted at page 391 of The Celtic Society's Miscellany (Dub. 1849.)
From a poem prefixed to another of his works, Decas Patritiana, we learn that he was one of seventeen children; that thirteen of his brothers having reached man's estate perished in the dark days of Ireland, meaning the wars of the closing years of Elizabeth's reign; that after what he calls the sad fall of Ireland, the remaining four emigrated to Spain, whither also came his parents; that he was educated at Compostella; that Synott taught him Latin; Vendanna enlightened him on physics; Marcilla instructed him in divine wisdom; then he engaged in the wars of His Catholic Majesty, serving in the army and navy; that his brother Daniel also served in the navy, and after many vicissitudes perished in the war with the Turks, and was buried at sea; that his sister Helena, was drowned returning to Ireland; that his father, the son of Sheela FitzGerald, lived to the great age of nearly one hundred years, and was buried in Corunna; and that his mother soon followed her husband to the grave; that her maiden name was Johanna McSwiney; that her mother (Margaret), was of the MacCarthy More family; and that when he wrote this poem, only his sister Leonora and himself remained of all his family, the former being a nun in the convent of Stelliferi.
From the Decas Patritiana (1646) we learn that Philip learned the rudiments of his religion in Ireland from Donagh O'Cronin, who was martyred in Cork in 1601. (See Our Martyrs, p. 212.)
Mr. Webb says ( Compendium of Irish Biography), O'Sullivan died in 1660, relying on a letter from Peter Talbot to the Marquis of Ormonde, saying: ‘The Earl of Birhaven is dead, and left one only daughter of twelve years to inherit his titles in Ireland and his goods here, which amount to 100,000 crowns.’ Mr. Webb does not show how he identifies the Earl of Birhaven, nor what our author's Irish titles were; and I should imagine the letter refers to the cousin, the son of The O'Sullivan Bear. (See Catholic History, III., viii., 5.) The historian must have been about ten years of age when, in 1602, he emigrated to Spain, as he was able to translate Irish into Latin, and
The only works of which I have any knowledge were:—
1. The Compendium of the History of Catholic Ireland, written in Latin, and published at Lisbon in 1621.
2. Letters to The O'Sullivan Bear, Fr. Synott, and Patrick Trant, also in Latin, describing his doings whilst in the navy, and printed with the history.
3. Decas Patritiana; or A Life of St. Patrick, divided into ten books of ten chapters each, published in Madrid, 1629. There is a neatly bound copy of this rare work in Marsh's Library, Dublin. The first book gives a summary description of Ireland, the birth, education, and early life of St. Patrick, whom he states to have been born in Armoric Gaul. The second book opens with an account of the learning and arts in Ireland before St. Patrick's arrival, and asserts the knowledge of letters. Here also is a relation that a description of the person and passion of Our Saviour was given by a pilgrim eye-witness to King Connor MacNessa. O'Sullivan asserts that the Apostle James preached the faith here, and that his father, Zebedee, was our first Archbishop. In this second book he relates the mission and first successes of St. Patrick. Then follow five books dealing more particularly with the mission in the several districts, a separate book being devoted to Meath, Connaught, Ulster, Munster, and Leinster respectively. The eighth book deals with miscellaneous acts, such as the expelling of serpents, etc., and also relates his preaching in England and the Isle of Man, his miracles and death. The ninth book is devoted to Patrick's Purgatory, to which also he gives up the second book of his Catholic History. The tenth book is a glorification of the Irish for their steadfastness in the creed preached by St. Patrick.
4. In the same volume as the Decas Patritiana are Latin elegies in the author's praise by Don Geo. Mendoza and Don Antonio Sousa, with O'Sullivan's verses in reply and the long poem on his family which I have already cited. Mendoza's poem, after congratulating O'Sullivan on the publication of his history, refers to the other works still lying in darkness, and hence we know of the following works: —
5. A confutation of the histories of Giraldus Cambrensis, and Stanihurst as calumnies on the Irish. This work was called Zoilomastix. I do not know if it be now extant.
6. A work on astronomy.
7. Various lives of Irish saints. O'Sullivan himself tells
8. With the Decas Patritiana he published a reply to the famous Archbishop Ussher's censure on his history, which reply he called Archicornigeromastix. As Ussher's work would not be allowed into Spain, being heretical, O'Sullivan was obliged to answer what he had not seen. The entire tract is simply an abuse of Ussher, to whom he applies every coarse epithet he could command. This work reflects little credit on its author, and it is a pity it did not give place to some worthier effort.
9. To the Dempsterian controversy as to Ireland's title to the ancient name of Scotia, O'Sullivan contributed his Tenebriomastix vindicating Ireland's title.
O'Flaherty, of Ogygia fame, tells us ( Ogygia Vindicated, 69) he had a copy of this work, and that it was not published. He describes it as ‘a large volume in Latin, not yet printed, where he also inveighs against all the Scotch impostures whereof I have a copy.’ Lynch, the celebrated Gratianus Lucius, quotes ( Cambrensis Eversus, cap. xxv., ii. 662) from this work, and gives this description of it, ‘Philip O'Sullivan ... has already crushed and utterly demolished Camerarius in a work consisting of six books, which is as much superior to his adversary's in nervous eloquence as it is in the justice of its cause. His ardour was indeed too vehement for my tastes; but a son of Mars must get some indulgence for virulent invectives, as those who live in the camp generally resent injuries more indignantly and punish them more severely than others.’
10. Bound with the Patritiana Decas is a long letter to an Irish Jesuit, Cantwell, urging him to publish a history of Ireland he had undertaken. This letter is in reality an essay on the writing of history. Colgan speaks very highly of O'Sullivan ( Acta, 791).
11. Harris never saw the Zoilomastix, but says O'Sullivan was supposed to have drawn up the account of Irish affairs presented to the king of Spain by Florence Conroy, Archbishop of Tuam.
12. There are occasional references in the history to some other work from which our Author takes extracts. See Chapters 11 and 19 of Book IV., Tome II. If these excerpts are typical of the lost work, we might conjecture it was a martyrology of the reign of Elizabeth. These
Most potent Monarch! I venture to commit this, my Compendium of Irish Affairs, to the patronage of your Catholic Majesty, for many reasons. I pass over its being due to you in earnest token of a grateful spirit, by me who, in an honourable commission all too generously bestowed by your royal father, bear arms in your fleet: I refrain from dwelling on yourself or pleading the course becoming your officer: I omit enumerating the generous and noble succours to the Irish people afforded by yourself and the mighty monarchs, your father, and grandfather.
But there is one reason I cannot refrain from mentioning: You are the strongest bulwark and protector of the christian family: Ireland for christian piety and devotion to the holy faith is overwhelmed with the most tremendous load of calamities. You are striving to spread amongst all peoples, and far and wide to propagate, the worship and splendour of the holy and apostolic religion, and to enlarge the confines of the Roman Church: Ireland has never swerved from that law which Christ our Redeemer instituted, the blessed Apostles preached, and the Roman Pontiffs instructed us to cherish. You are ever a barrier to the pestilence of hellish heresy: Ireland is overwhelmed with the most violent fury of heresy. You are the refuge of Catholics: Ireland turns to you as to an asylum. You above other kings are most justly styled 'Catholic': Ireland stands forth Catholic, amidst the monstrous confusion of the errors of the north.
Add to these the singular piety of your disposition and the eminently admirable spirit wherewith in the very beginning of your reign you commenced so excellently to establish your sway, forbidding all apostates from the Catholic faith access to your kingdoms, and determining that the Batavians and other assertors of nefarious doctrines and persons ill-disposed to the christian law should be reduced by force to proper obedience to the church, so that the holy faith of our Saviour should appear practised and honoured, not only in those realms which were handed down to you by your ancestors, but, also, it is hoped that your labours and zeal will in a short time under happiest auspices restore and re-establish it in its former splendour, authority and dignity in other realms in which, dishonoured by the crimes of impious men, it has fallen to the lowest depths. For these reasons I have thought that this History of Catholic Ireland, which 'till now hath lain in the dark, should go forth into the light under the patronage of your royal majesty. Long live your invincible majesty.
Philip O'Sullevan.
Don Philip O'Sullevan of Bear in Ireland to the Catholic Reader
ALTHOUGH, Catholic reader, in ancient times and even at this present day, there have been many and various affairs of the kingdom of Ireland well worth knowing and commemorating, yet its records, either wholly unpublished, lurk in darkness shrouded in the thickest mist, or are so much written in the Irish language that they are confined to the home circle and have not been sufficiently published by anyone in Latin.
And so those who have compiled the church histories of our times have either altogether passed over that island in silence, or recorded the fewest and most meagre particulars of it, notwithstanding that it endured for the preservation of christian piety the severest trials-aye, greater than is generally known.
Hence, some foreign writers justly complain that there is no Irish historian bringing to light the knowledge of his country's affairs, and placing them before the eyes of foreign people, and this is all the more strange because at this very time there are many religious and secular Irishmen distinguished for their talents in theology, philosophy, canon and civil law, and the study of other sciences.
Verily, unless I am deceived in my judgment, the current of present events, and the accumulation of many calamities deter our people from the attempt. For we are so distracted and tossed about on the most turbulent waves and by the confusion of all our affairs that there is no leisure for writing. Whence might be said of us that verse which Ovid sings of himself; —
- Though were my soul with fortitude sustained,
As great as his whom Anytus arraigned:
Yet, since the wrath of Gods so far transcends,
The utmost rigours to which men's extends;
Wisdom itself, falls shattered by its weight:
And even he whom 'wise man' Delphi hight,
Unnerved–would fail to write in my sore plight.
However, I resolved to save from oblivion and destruction the fame of the greatest and most distinguished Irishmen, who displayed great virtues, both in fighting for the Catholic faith and in peace; for men celebrated in history, after the body is turned into dust, live as if endowed with a kind of immortality, as the same poet happily testifies:
- In song is valour made immortal,
And rescued from death's gloomy portal.
It's fame lives on through generations.
Stone nor iron, time's depredations
May resist; and all must yield to age:
Yet long will live the written page.
The record tells of Agamemnon:
And tells us also about each one,
Who fought against him, and who for him;
Were Thebes not sung in ancient rhythm,
Who now would know the chieftains seven?
And so e'en older things are proven,
And later tales preserved till now.
E'en gods (if reverence will allow),
With all their might, need poet's song,
To sing what meeds to them belong.
In a less lofty strain, however, I will commence describing the nature of the Island; the origin of its people; their