Wail and Warning of the Three Khalendeers, J. C. Mangan,

402

Ballads of the Affections.

THE IRISH WIFE.

BY T. D. M'GEE.

[In 1376 the statute of Kilkenny forbade the English settlers in Ireland to intermarry with the old Irish, under penalty of outlawry. James, Earl of Des mond, and Almaric, Baron Grace, were the first to violate this law. One married an O'Meagher; the other a M'Cormack. Earl Desmond, who was an accomplished poet, may have made a defence like the following for his marriage.]

I WOULD not give my Irish wife

For all the dames of the Saxon land

I would not give my Irish wife
For the Queen of France's hand.

For she to me is dearer

Than castles strong, or lands, or life-
An outlaw-so I'm near her

To love till death my Irish wife.

Oh, what would be this home of mine-
A ruined, hermit-haunted place,
But for the light that nightly shines,
Upon its walls from Kathleen's face?
What comfort in a mine of gold—
What pleasure in a royal life,
If the heart within lay dead and cold,
If I could not wed my Irish wife?

I knew the law forbade the banns-
I knew my King abhorred her race—
Who never bent before their clans,
Must bow before their ladies' grace.

Take all my forfeited domain,

I cannot wage with kinsmen strife-
Take knightly gear and noble name,
And I will keep my Irish wife.

My Irish wife has clear blue eyes,
My heaven by day, my stars by night-
And twinlike truth and fondness lie
Within her swelling bosom white.
My Irish wife has golden hair-
Apollo's harp had once such strings--
Apollo's self might pause to hear
Her bird-like carol when she sings.

I would not give my Irish wife

For all the dames of the Saxon land-

I would not give my Irish wife
For the Queen of France's hand.

For she to me is dearer

Than castles strong, or lands, or life,—

In death I would be near her,

And rise beside my Irish wife!

THE COULIN.

BY CARROLL MALONE.

[In the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Henry VIII. an act was made respecting the habits and dress in general of the Irish, whereby all persons were restrained from being shorn or shaven above the ears, or from wearing glibbes, or Coulins (long locks) on their heads, or hair on their upper lip, called Crommeal. On this occasion a song was written by one of our bards, in which an Irish virgin is made to give the preference to her dear Coulin, or the youth with the flowing locks, to all strangers (by which the English were meant), or those who wore their habits. Of this song the air alone has reached us, and is universally admired.-Walker, as quoted in Moore's Melodies. It so happens, however, on turning to the above statute, that no mention is to be found therein of the Coulin. But in the year 1295, a Parliament was held in Dublin; and then an act was passed which more than expressly names the Coulin, and minutely describes it for its more effectual prohibition. This, the only statute made in Ireland that names the Coulin, was passed two hundred and forty-two years before the act cited by Mr. Moore; and in consequence of it, some of the Irish Chieftains who lived near the seat of English government, or wished to keep up intercourse with the English districts, did, in or soon after that year, 1295, cut off their Coulins, and a distinct memorial of the event was made in

writing by the Officers of the Crown. It was on this occasion that the bard, ever adhesive to national habits, endeavoured to fire the patriotism of a conforming chieftain; and, in the character of some favourite virgin, declares her preference for her lover with the Coulin, before him who complaisantly assumed the adornments of foreign fashion.-Dublin Penny Journal.]

THE last time she looked in the face of her dear,
She breathed not a sigh, and she shed not a tear;

But she took up his harp, and she kissed his cold cheek—
""Tis the first, and the last, for thy Norah to seek."

For beauty and bravery Cathan was known,
And the long flowing coulin he wore in Tyrone;
The sweetest of singers and harpers was he,
All over the North, from the Bann to the sea.

O'er the marshes of Dublin he often would rove,
To the glens of O'Toole, where he met with his love;
And at parting they pledged that, next midsummer's day,
He would come for the last time, and bear her away.

The king had forbidden the men of O'Neal,
With the coulin adorned, to come o'er the pale;
But Norah was Irish, and said, in her pride,
"If he wear not his coulin, I'll ne'er be his bride."

The bride has grown pale as the robe that she wears,
For the Lammas is come, and no bridegroom appears;
And she hearkens and gazes, when all are at rest,
For the sound of his harp and the sheen of his vest.

Her palfrey is pillioned, and she has gone forth
On the long rugged road that leads down to the North;-
Where Eblana's strong castle frowns darkly and drear,
Is the head of her Cathan upraised on a spear.

The Lords of the Castle had murdered him there,
And all for the wearing that poor lock of hair:
For the word she had spoken in mirth or in pride,
Her lover, too fond and too faithful, had died.

'Twas then that she looked in the face of her dear,
She breathed not a sigh, and she dropped not a tear;
She took up his harp, and she kissed his cold cheek:
“Farewell! 'tis the first for thy Norah to seek."