LECTURE XXXII. [Delivered June 17th, 1862.) (IX.) OF MUSIC AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS (continued). Reference to the different parts of a harp in a poem of the seventeenth century. The number of strings not mentioned in references to harps, except in two instances; the first is in the tale of the Iubar Mic Aingis or the "Yew Tree of Mac Aingis"; the instrument mentioned in this tale was not a Cruit, but a three stringed Timpan; the second reference is to be found in the Book of Lecan, and the instrument is eight stringed. The instrument called "Brian Boru's Harp" has thirty strings. Reference to a many stringed harp in the seventeenth century. Attention paid to the harp in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. References to the Timpan as late as the seventeenth century, proving it to have been a stringed instrument. The Timpan was distinguished from the Cruit or full harp. No very ancient harp preserved. The harp in Trinity College, Dublin; Dr. Petrie's account of it; summary of Dr. Petrie's conclusions. Dr. Petrie's serious charge against the Chevalier O'Gorman. Some curious references to harps belonging to O'Briens which the author has met with: Mac Conmidhe's poem on Donnchadh Cairbreach O'Brien; Mac Conmidhe's poem on the harp of the same O'Brien; the poem does not explain how the harp went to Scotland. What became of this harp ? Was it the harp presented by Henry the Eighth to the Earl of Clanrickard? Perhaps it suggested the harp-coinage, which was in circulation in Henry the Eighth's time. The Chevalier O'Gorman only mistook one Donogh O'Brien for another. There can be no doubt that this harp did once belong to the Earl of Clanrickard. If the harp was an O'Neill harp, how could its story have been invented and published in the lifetime of those concerned? Arthur O'Neill may have played upon the harp, but it could not have been his; this harp is not an O'Neill, but an O'Brien one; Dr. Petrie's antiquarian difficulties: author's answer; as to the monogram I. H. S.; as to the arms on the escutcheon. The assertion of Dr. Petrie, that the sept of O'Neill is more illustrious than that of O'Brien, is incorrect. Ar the close of the last Lecture I quoted a stanza containing an old authority for the names of the three principal parts of the harp. But even in comparatively modern times also we may find authority for these names, and for the form of the instrument, which seems to have remained the same. the different poem of the century. I have in my possession a curious poem of twenty-six qua- Reference to trains, written by Pierce Ferriter, of Ferriter's Cove, on the parts of a coast of the county of Kerry, about the year 1640, on a harp barna which had been presented to him. Pierce Ferriter was a gentle- seventeenth man and a scholar, a poet and a musician; and he wrote this Gaedhelic poem in praise of a certain harp which was presented to him by Mr. Edmond Mac an Daill, the son of Mr. Donnell Mac an Daill, of Magh Lorg, in the county of Roscommon. In this poem he speaks of the harp under both the Gaedhelic names of Cruit and Clairseach (the former, of course, being by VOL. II. 17 XXXII. far the more ancient name); and, as there are some interesting Reference to details introduced into his verses, I may quote a few stanzas of the different them here. At the tenth stanza, the poet, speaking of his harp, calls it parts of a harp in a poem of the seventeenth century. "The key of music and its gate, The wealth, the abode of poetry; The richly festive moaner. "Children in dire sickness, men in deep wounds, The merry witch has chased all sorrow, The festive home of music and delight. "It found a Cor in a fruitful wood in [Magh] Aoi; "It found Mac Sithduill to plan it, It found Cathal to be its artificer, And Beannglan,-great the honour,- Got [to do] its fastenings of gold and its emblazoning. "Excellent indeed was its other adorner in gold, Parthalon More Mac Cathail, The harp of the gold and of the gems, The prince of decorators is Parthalon". (334) This harp, the poet says, found its Corr, that is, its harmonic curve, or crosstree, was found in the fruitful woods of Magh Aoi, in the plains of Roscommon. It found its Lamhchrann, that is, its front pillar was found at the fort of Seantraoi (a place I am unable to identify); and it found its Com, that is, its soundboard was found at Eas da Ecconn, now the falls of Ballyshannon, in the county of Donegal. In the same language he goes on to name the artificers. So it was Mac Sithduill that designed it, and Cathal that made it; and it was bound and emblazoned by Bennglan, and it was decorated with gold and gems by Parthalon Mor Mac Cathail. So that in this instance, so great was (334) [original: -- Eoċair an ċeóil sa čoṁla, coolaid ris an celar ecorera; is caom com ó Eas [da] Ecconn. Fuair Mac Sitduill dá suideaċt, fuair Catal dá cerduiġeċt, is fuair beannglan, mór an mod, a ceanglad dór sa hionnlod. Mait a hoirċéard eile suin, Pártalón Mór Mac Catuil, clairseaċ an óir sna nallán, dóig na praisneaċ Pártalán. -Miscellaneous Poems, chiefly copied from the O'Connor Don's Book, O'Curry MSS., Cath. Univ., p. 294.] XXXII. of strings not harpe ces the care bestowed on the manufacture of a harp, that it engaged the professional skill of four distinct artists, the modeller, the wood-worker and carpenter, the binder and emblazoner, and the decorator; and the services of these artizans are referred to as if their occupations were in the usual course, each of them living by his own independent art. The shape and general de- The number sign of the ancient harp, and the materials used in its framework, are then frequently alluded to; but there is, unfortunately, to one great omission in all the references to the harp that I have cept in two met with-I mean the absence of any allusion to the number of strings which it properly contained. I have, indeed, met one or two references to harps of a certain limited number of strings; but it is evident from their being so particularized, that they were exceptions to the general rule. To these references I have next to direct your attention. instances: the tale of the "Yew ingis"," 'Tree of Mac The first of them, and which is contained in the tale called Iu- the first is in bhar Mic Aingis, or the Yew Tree of Mac Aingis (which alludes to a harp of the kind called Timpan), is of undoubtedly great antiquity, though the tale is one of those belonging to the most fabulous class, as far as the incident connected with the harp is concerned. The tale is preserved in very old language in the "Book of Leinster", and may be shortly stated as follows: Oitioll Oluim (the ancestor of the great families of south and north Munster, and who was king of that province, died after long reign, in the year of our Lord 234), was married to Sadhbh (or Sabia), the daughter of the monarch of Erinn Conn of the Hundred Battles, and widow of Mac Niadh, a distinguished Munster prince; and Sadhbh had a son by her first husband, named Lugaidh, more popularly called Mac Con, and several sons by Oilioll, her second husband, the eldest of whom was Eoghan Mór, or Eugene the Great. So much as to the personages mentioned in this story, which proceeds as follows: "At a certain time [this] Eoghan, the son of Oilioll [Oluim], and Lugaidh Mac Con, his stepbrother, set out to pay a visit to Art, the son of Conn [monarch of Erinn], their mother's brother, who was then on a visit in Connacht, for the purpose of receiving some bridle-steeds from him. Now, as they were passing over the river Maigh or Maigue [at Caher ass, in the county of Limerick], they heard music in a yew tree over the cataract, [and saw a little man playing there]. After that they returned back again to Oilioll with him, that is, with the [little] man whom they took out of the tree; because they were disputing about him [as to who should have him], so that Oilioll might give judgment between them. He was a little man, with three strings in his Timpan. What is your name?' [said in the tale of the "Yew Aingis"; XXXII. Oilioll. Fer-fi, the son of Eogabhal' [said he]. What has the first is brought ye brought ye back?' said Oilioll. We are disputing about this man [said they]. What sort of man is he?' [said Oilioll]. Tree of Mac A good timpanist' [said they]. Let his music be played for us' [said Oilioll]. It shall be done', said he. So he played for them the crying tune (Goltraighe), and he put them to crying and lamenting and tear-shedding, and he was requested to desist from it. And then he played the laughing tune (Gentraighe), till they laughed with mouths so wide open, that all but their lungs were visible. He then played the sleeping tune (Suantraighe) for them, until they were cast into a sleep [so deep, that it lasted] from that hour till the same hour next day". He then", continues the story, "went away from them to the place whence he was brought, leaving a bad feeling between them, such as he particularly wished should exist".(35) The bad feeling which the little timpanist left between the stepbrothers arose not so much in regard to himself, as about the ownership of the wonderful yew tree in which he was found, and which appeared to have sprung up spontaneously by necromantic art for their misfortune. The remainder of this wild story is too long for my present purpose, and it is therefore sufficient to say, that the little man was one of the Tuatha Dé Danann race from the neighbouring hill of Knockany (Cnoc Ainé). The famous Tuatha Dé Danann lady, Aine, from whom this hill takes its name, had been some short time previously abused, and herself and her brother Eogabhal slain in a fit of anger, by king Oilioll Oluim, and it was to have revenge for this deed that the little timpanist, Fer-fi, the son of Eogabhal, raised up the phantom yew tree at the falls of Caher-ass, in order to excite a dispute between the sons and the stepson of Oilioll. In this he succeeded to the full. Oilioll awarded the yew tree to his own son Eoghan, and Mac Con charged him with partiality, and challenged him, with all (335) [original:-Luid dan Feċt aile, Eogan mac aililla acas Lugaid mac Con, .1. a comalta co`art mac Cuind diambái for cuairt Connaċt, do tabairt eċ srían úad, .1. brathair matar do Eogan. Oc tect doib sec an mag co cualatar in ceol issindus ibair robúi ossindess. Berait leo co h-ailill aridisi, .i. infer tucsat assinduess; arbatar oc imresain imme, corrucad breith doib. ren bec, cụ thét mà chimpán, Ciatainm? Fer-fi mac Eogabail. Cid dobrintai? Or ailill. Ataam oc imresain immofersa. Cinnas fir so? Timpanać maith. Sentar dún a ceol, or ailill Dogentar orse. Rosepaind dóib dan goltride, conad corastait ingol, ácas 1 cói, acas dercóiniud. Rogess dó anad de. Rofeind dan, gentride, conadcorastar ingen ñgaire, aċt noptar ecnai ascaim. Rosephaind dóib dán suantṛaige condacorastar isúan on tráth coaraile. at. rullaiseom iarsuidiu álleth dia tuodro acar Foracarb opodimcel eturru ar basirsan leis.—H. 2. 18. f. 206. b. b.] his forces, to a battle, at a time to be fixed afterwards. When XXXII. the appointed time came, both parties met at the hill of CennAbrat, in the neighbourhood of Kilfinan, on the borders of the counties of Cork and Limerick, where a battle ensued, in which Mac Con was defeated, and forced to fly the country. He went into Scotland, but in some years returned with a large force of Scottish or Pictish and British adventurers, who sailed round by the south coast of Erinn, and entered the bay of Galway, and there, in the neighbourhood of Oranmore, at a place called Magh Mucruimhé, a battle was fought between them and the monarch Art and his forces, aided by his nephews, the seven sons of Oilioll Oluim, and the forces of Munster, under the leadership of Eoghan Mór, the eldest of them. This celebrated battle, which forms one of the cardinal points of the history of the period, proved fatal to the royal arms, the monarch himself having been slain in it, as well as Eoghan Mór and all the other six sons of Oilioll Oluim. So the little timpanist, Fér-fi, the son of Eogabhail, had ample revenge for the death of his father and his aunt. There is a metrical version of the part of this story which relates to the little timpanist and the phantom yew tree preserved also in the "Book of Leinster". I believe Cormac Mac Cuileannain was the author of this piece, and that it was copied into the "Book of Leinster" from his " Psalter of Cashel". The authority, then, for this distinct allusion to the Timpan is old and high enough. ment in this tale It must be observed that the three stringed instrument men- the instru tioned in this story, is not called a Cruit, or harp, but a Timpan. mentioned But even though it were not a Cruit of the ordinary kind, it was not a certainly must have been some species of it; and it is important Cruit, but a to know, on authority so undoubted, that the Timpan was a stringed stringed instrument, and therefore some kind of harp, though perhaps of an inferior class. three Timpan; reference is in the Book of Lecan; The next reference to an instrument with a definite number the second of strings, is found in the "Book of Lecan", in the library of the Royal Irish Academy; and this, as well as the last, was probably taken from the "Saltair of Cashel"; and the instrument referred to must also have been of a peculiar character both in shape and size. I may premise that the Feidlimid Mac Crimthain mentioned in this story was king of Munster and monarch of Erinn, a distinguished scholar and a scribe or writer of books, and that he died at Cashel in the year 845. The Ui Cormaic mentioned in it were a tribe of the Eoghanachts, or Eugenians of Ui Fidhgheinte, who at an earlier period crossed the Shannon and the |