Stephen Gwynn

“ Now the distinctive characteristic of the Augustan literature is that we have no longer in a book the mind of an individual, but the mind of a Society finding expression through the mouth of one of its members. It was a natural result of that intellectual ascendency of France, which at this time made itself so strongly felt; for the Frenchman is always social rather than individualist; and, at least in criticism, men had come to take their beliefs from France. ”

“ Eleven thousand men of his fourteen thousand volunteered to follow him to France, setting the example of that disastrous emigration which continued for a hundred years. Still, perhaps, the main reason why Sarsfield is held so high as a hero by the Irish is that he never compromised; he never accepted defeat, and the position of inferiority. Another reason, and a good one, why his name has more power than those of greater and more successful leaders is that he fought not for himself but for Ireland. Sarsfield could at any time have secured lands and position by accepting William's rule ”

“ It is seldom, however, that Pope can be excelled in condensation and the happy turn of a phrase. His workmanship everywhere approaches perfection. The inherent weakness of his poetry is, as Mark Pattison has pointed out, that the workmanship often outvalues the matter; that our admiration is compelled for the expression of a mean sentiment, a half-truth, or an ignorant fallacy. To his mastery of style Pope united no store of knowledge, no wide and lofty range of feeling. ”

“ History proves that Ireland might, with more vigorous aid from France than she received, have been held for King James or King Louis. Even with the resources that were available, something might have been done had Sarsfield headed the Irish army, and had a free hand. Several letters in the State Papers emphasise the difficulty—sufficiently proved before—of completely subjugating the Irish. [10] Too numerous to be killed in fight, disease and famine could alone be relied on, says one writer, to crush out the race. ”

“ It can be easily shown that although the Restoration inaugurated in England an age of prose, yet the position of poetry as the chief and natural medium for pure literature was still accepted almost without question. For that reason Pope was taken in his own day to be the undisputed head and front of English letters. His contemporaries probably felt, as we feel, that Swift's was immeasurably the greater genius; but they held, and held rightly, that Pope in his work was the true representative of what has come to be called the Augustan literature. ”

“ General Douglas had been sent by William from Dublin to seize Athlone, the key of Clare and Connaught. But Colonel Grace the Governor held it for ten days, and meanwhile Sarsfield had moved swiftly out of Limerick, and at the news of his approach the siege was raised. He was recalled by Tyrconnell, but again sent out to watch the movements of William's army; and in his absence the proposal to surrender was again urged persistently by the official chiefs and the men of the "New Interest," who feared worse than any English conquest a return of the Irish to power. ”

“ It is not the King of France who supplies the Irish, he not being at one penny's expense to do it, but it is the advantageous trade in hides and tallow that does it; the profit is cent. per cent., and the trade with Ireland is better than the trade with the Indies. ”

“ Yet it sometimes happens that the master of prose can beat him on his own ground. "Who are the critics?" says Mr. Phoebus in Lord Beaconsfield's Lothair. "The critics are those who have failed in literature or in art." That is happier than Pope's lines ”

“ It seems probable in truth that resistance in the central parts of Ireland could have been almost indefinitely prolonged. But the factor always dominant in Ireland's history was never more felt than at this period. England, controlling the sea, could make descents at her own time and place. With the help of France this might at that time have been checked, but France was half-hearted in support of the Irish campaign; and consequently after the failure at Limerick William soon gained a compensating success 1n a maritime expedition. ”

“ Owen Roe is the only man who stands in a position like Sarsfield's, and he stands higher by right. Yet there is scarcely the glamour about him that has shaped itself into the traditional picture of Sarsfield's death; the tall Irishman, in his gorgeous marshal's uniform, lying there on the field of Landen, and, as he looked at the lifeblood flowing, muttering to himself, "Would to God this were for Ireland."
↑ D'Avaux (Négociations en Irlande, p. 30) , Letter to Louis XIV., 26th May, 1689: "I believe there are nearly 50,000 of the finest men that can be seen, hardly one under 5 ft. ”

“ No letters in the world show a warmer feeling of one man for another than those which Swift wrote to him and about him.
Pope was best known in his own day by his translation of Homer—the most profitable book, financially, to its author that had ever been published in England. His most pretentious work, the Essay on Man, abounds in much-quoted distichs and is singularly barren of real thought. Those poems of Pope which the average reader to-day is likely to enjoy are first, the Essay on Criticism ”

“ But when William's approach drove Sarsfield back to Limerick all talk of surrender ceased, and the work of fortification was hotly pushed on. Yet the ill-feeling was in no way subdued, and before William had reached the left bank of the Shannon, Lauzun with all his French marched up the right bank to Galway, whither Tyrconnell followed them, on the evening after William's appearance—drawing off as he went all the regiments that were guarding the fords. [9] Under these circumstances the Irish were to fight for their own hand. ”

“ When his matter is intrinsically valuable apart from expression it consists in reflections upon the human life with which he was in contact socially. He is the poet of Society, and his observation, if acute, is often petty and malicious to a degree that spoils our pleasure in his triumphant mastery of language. ”

“ He fought for a principle. The great lords, Shane and Hugh O'Neill, and the O'Donnells, fought each for his own principality; the idea of an Ireland that was a whole, making the first claim on every Irishman, was scarcely evolved till Ireland was united by the final conquest. ”

“ Todhunter, quotes from the French records an encomium from the Abbé Gravel, an agent of Louvois, who writes that Sarsfield "keeps our men always on the alert" and shows wonderful resource in obtaining intelligence of the enemy's movements and in annoying them with skirmishes. Berwick, also, at this time took the practical step of making the Irish leader Governor of Connaught, but in after years he spoke slightingly of his ability and contemptuously of his vanity. ”

“ But while James and de Rosen lay about Dundalk within striking distance of Schomberg's army, Sarsfield was sent into Connaught with a small body of troops. Here he exerted himself to such purpose that he raised two thousand men. ”

“ He came of an old Norman family of the Pale, but there was a strong, perhaps even a virulent, admixture of the pure Celt in him, for his mother was a daughter of the rebel, Rory O'Moore. And though he succeeded to an estate of some £2,000 a year in county Dublin (worth at least £5,000 or £6,000 nowadays) which might well have predisposed him to acquiescence in any good composition, he kept a wild trick of his ancestors and was of no stuff to make a helot. ”

“ We only know that James at this time had a low opinion cf the brave, good-natured, gigantic Irishman; and it is scarcely probable that Sarsfield had a high opinion of James. The letters of Count d'Avaux, Louis's confidential agent, give a lamentable picture of the imbecility with which the Jacobite cause was then conducted. In Ireland itself everything was lacking, except men, and again and again the French observer dwells on the plenty and goodness of the recruits. ”

“ And once Cork and Kinsale were taken the Irish held only Connaught and the line of the Shannon.
Nevertheless, in November of this year, 1690, Mr. Terence McDermott of Galway wrote to his correspondent at Boulogne, [11] "The enemy are dying fast and our men are in good health." He had word also that His Majesty of France was resolved to stand by them, "which if he does effectually, the country may yet be retrieved." About the new year, Ginkel, whom William had left in command, planned an attempt to take Lanesborough and establish a post west of the Shannon ”

“ One can see the swiftness and the glee with which such orders would be carried out by a body of Irishmen working as Irishmen will work on a dangerous and exciting employ, for there was always the prospect of a fresh escort arriving, and in fact one was on its way. ”

“ Ruth regarded the man best fitted to help him.
The state of affairs in May before the serious fighting began may be inferred from one or two letters. On May 28th the Lords Justices wrote describing the commanding position held by the Irish army, which, stationed at Lough Rea, could move quickly to reinforce either Limerick or Athlone. For the English, success depended upon getting over the Shannon. A demonstration against Galway by the fleet was strongly urged. On May 20th Sir Charles Porter wrote from Dublin to Sydney proposing a proclamation giving "large terms." ”

“ Sarsfield got the news by private message from the deputies, and forced Tyrconnell's hand by making public proclamation of the fact in Galway where James's viceroy was keeping high state.
There is no evidence that Sarsfield was jealous that a Frenchman should be put over his head; this had, indeed, come to be part of the natural order in Ireland. But the final campaign had fully begun by May, when St. Ruth arrived at Limerick. Ginkel had moved on Ballymore, aiming at Athlone ”

“ But Sarsfield was for playing a waiting game, and risking no battle against Ginkel's trained troops. For St. Ruth, however, reputation could only be retrieved by a great victory, and he only sought to give battle in an advantageous. spot. Aughrim offered what he looked for, and there the stand was made, the final stake was played for. All that energy could do seems to have been done by St. Ruth to strengthen his position and hearten the rank and file; but Sarsfield, the natural leader of the Irish, was posted with the reserve of cavalry, behind the hill on the slope of which St. ”

“ He thinks himself secure of Scotland, and is not disposed to give Ireland the independence which she ought to have. The Irish recognise that the English who are about the King, even the Catholics, are their greatest enemies, the strongest opponents of Irish liberty, especially in the matter of commerce, which they wish to keep for England." (Translated.) ↑ Cal. State Papers, Domestic Series, 10 Aug., 1689. ↑ Ibid., 17 Feb., 1691. ↑ For instance, D'Avaux to Louis, Dublin, 4 Apr., 1689, p. ”

“ Letter from Sheridan to say that Schomberg, "had been infallibly cut off at landing, if the King had expected him." ↑ Cal. State Papers, Schomberg to William, Dundalk, Sep. 12, 1689. ↑ I take the traditional phrase from Dr. Todhunter. There is no doubt as to Lauzun's view. ↑ In his despatch to Louvois (Ranke, vi., 124) from Galway, dated 3 Sept., 1690, Lauzun explains that he withdrew his men because they could not stand the malaria and privations. No bread could be got, owing to the scarcity of mills. The Irish troops got on with oats, which they ground roughly. ”