MOORE, Thomas. Moore’s Irish Melodies. Illustrated by Daniel Maclise [WITH PROOF PLATES]

London: Printed for Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, Paternoster-Row, 1846. Quarto. pp. iv, 280. Bound in contemporary full green morocco, covers blocked in gilt to a panel design, board edges ruled in gilt; turn-ins gilt; cream endpapers. Spine divided into six panels by five gilt raised bands, title in gilt direct in the second, the remainder tooled in gilt to a centre-and-corner design with Shamrocks in centre; green and gold endbands. Bookplate of Robert J. Hayhurst on front pastedown. All edges gilt. Occasional mild spotting. A near fine and attractive copy.
Moore’s parents were staunch nationalists and his boyhood and youth coincided with a world revolutionary period; the war of American Independence had concluded and the French Revolution was in full flood. These movements which resulted in each case in a republican form of government were looked upon as hopeful events for the liberation of Ireland and the establishment of an Irish Republic. It is reported in the poet’s memoir that being taken by his father to a public dinner in Dublin to celebrate the French Revolution he sat on the knee of the Irish patriot and revolutionary Napper Tandy while the toast “May the breezes of France fan the Irish oak to verdure” went round amidst enthusiastic and triumphant cheering. The social atmosphere of his home was likewise strongly charged with patriotism and a bitter hatred of the excesses of English despotism. Here too were often gathered his student friends who were deep in the revolutionary movement of 1798 although they were too young to
take part in it; amongst them were Robert Emmet, two years his senior, Edward Hudson, and the brothers Brown. It was on one of these evenings that Moore composed the stirring poem :
“Let Erin remember the days of old
Ere her faithless sons betray’d her
When Malachi wore the collar of gold
Which he won from her proud invader
When her kings, with standard of green unfurl’d
Led the Red-Branch Knights to danger
Ere the emerald gem of the western world
Was set in the crown of a stranger”.