a key to "dublin acrostics". no. 116

Irish Jesuit Province

A Key to "Dublin Acrostics". No. 116Source: The Irish Monthly, Vol. 28, No. 324 (Jun., 1900), pp. 388-391Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20499608 .

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( 388 )

A KEY TO " DUBLIN ACROSTICS."

No. 116.

W TE have ascertained that Messrs. Hodges and Figgis, 104

V- T

iGrafton StrEet, DubliD, have still some copies of the dainty little quarto of Dublin Acrosiics, which they are ready to

give for half-a-crown. We claim for it the glory of being the

best and cleverest and most refined in its own peculiar department;

and no wonder, since it was the result of the combined efforts of

Baron Francis Fitzgerald and his brother the Bishop of Killaloe,

Judge O'Hagan, and a set of clever barristers who all have passed

away, except one who is now a Lord Justice of Appeal. One of

them, the late Robert Reeves, Q (C., wrote out for us in full the

answers to all the acrostics. Any possessor of the little tome may propose to us any difficulty that puzzles him, and we shall solve it

for his private satisfaction. In public we shall confne ourselves for the future to two contributors, one of whom (strange to say) was

the Very Rev. G. W. Russell, D.D., President of Maynooth. H is contributions are marked by the letters " C. W.," the initial " R."

having been already monopolised by Mr. Reeves. Dr. Russell's acrostics were only added in the second (and last) edition.

Our first specimen of Mtynooth acrostics is referred to in a

letter which we venture to print from the very bold and fine

handwriting of the Duchess of Norfolk, mother to the late

Postmaster- General. Norfolk House,

May 5 1869.

My Dear Dr. Russell,

Many thauks for the very pretty little volume of Acrostics

which you were so kind as to send me. I looked at once for your

own contributions, and I think you have made a great improvement in ' Cur-few " and that " Cobweb "' is a remarkably pretty one.

IIam sure my son will be miost happy to give any assistance in his

power to your important and interesting undertaki ngc. I hope your next visit to England may be a less flying one and

that we may have the pleasure of seeing you. I remain

Yours very sincerely, MI. NonoLa



Clavis Acrostiec. 389

Her Grace's remark about Ctrfewtt will be our excuse for printing Dr. Russell's first version, which happens to be the only piece of verse that has survived in his handwriting. The first lines, as some of our readers know describe a word of three letters; the next quatrain another word of three letters that has some sort of right to pair with the first; and the remaining verses describe the word formed by combining the two.

1. Forlorn, unfriended, bowed with years,

A wanderer wends from door to door,

Craving with scarcely hidden tears

The slender bounty of the poor.

Ilis tottering steps my first attends,

Of homely mien and rugged face;

Forlorn. like him, bereft of friends

Like him atn outcast of his race.

II. M1y second, if you catch the pun,

A strange confusion shows.

'Tis sometimes by a halter done

And sometimes-by a nose.

III. You know it already, I fear,

So ill have I played my role;

My first appears so clear

That it half betrays my whole.

But if you still report

Your guess as uncompleted,

Remember a judge in court

In his robes of office seated.

Or think of a lady fair

As at her glass she lingers

For the last touch to her hair

From her maid's artistic fingers.

Not yet P-Then take another chance;

Forget your calmer reason,

And ask the reigning belle to dance

At the best ball next season.

If she declines, observe with care

One most expressive feature;

You'll read the answer in the air

Of the couceited creature.

1. Seek me in garden shade.

2. I'm half a sprite, half maid.

S. On me a god once played.

The two words are cur and led, and the lights are "cool," "lUndine," and " reed." Perhaps the Acroatician thought it was

VoL .xxvI No. 324. 24



390 The' IK8h Monthlej.

not quite lawful to jumble up cuwr-led and curl'd ; but at any rate the

printed version substitutes curfew. Cmr is described as in the manuscript with some slight improvements-" And craves" instead of " craving,"

M ,v faithful first his steps attends,

Of rugged form and homely face."

The second " upright," few, is thus described:

Seek for my next on the autumn field

Where sickle and gleaner their work have done,

In the meagre heap which its gatherings yield

To the toiler's search from sun to suu.

Or, where December's storm has passed

With icv breath o'er the forest's side,

See the scant leaves crouching from its blast,

Or caught aloft in its whirling tide.

Or count how often celestial spirits Descend to brighten this world of sin,

Foreshowing the hope which man inherits,

WVaking for heaven the voice within.

The last quatrains of course allude to Campbell's line: "Like angels, visits few and far between."

Cuirfew is made the theme of quite a dainty little poem:

The scene shifts back to an olden time,

And a nation stricken with nameless woe,

Where the surging wave of war and crime

Has left the track of its angry flow.

Hark! a sound ascends on the calm of even,

Stealing soft through the languid air!

Say, does it herald the message of heaven,

The blessed summons to peace and prayer?

Ah no! at that dread ill-omened call

Franklin and hind in the hamlet cower

The grim thane chafes in his darkened hall,

The lute is hushed in the lady's bower.

No more the yeoman trims his bow,

Stilled is the busy shuttle's sound,

The gleeman's voice is silent now,

The cold and cheerless hearth around.

The clerk forsakes his learned lore,

The poet leaves his lay aside;

Nor book nor lay availeth more

Till the light of morning tide.

The three lights are as follows:

1. Base recreant from the fight.

2. Ani arbiter of right.

3. Disturber of the night.



Claris Acroxtica. 391

These are easily guessed-" Caitiff," " umpire," and "row,

the initials and finals of which spell respectively car and SIC.

What acrostic shall we leave unsolved till next month ? Dr.

Russell's are all too long for our present requirements. The

following is by his friend Judge O'Hagan.

No. 129.

Renowned of old for power to charm,

In many a classic hall of pleasure;

As famous now for power to harmn,

And dealing death in murderous measure.

Say, who between us shall decide,

Which is the deadlier, which the dearer,

The more remorseless homicide,

The sunken heart's more potent cheerer?

I. Smooth, but superficial.

2. Squatting in the prairie.

3. Garment sacrificial.

4. Useful in the dairv.

a. Drink of which be wary.

0.

We had almost forgotten to refer to last month's legacy of

puzzlement. Was there ever a more ingenious poem about pillow, with artful allusions to down pillows, and insomnia, and nighteaps and the abolition thereof ? The comrade word is

repose. The " lights " are Psalmanazar, Inkle, Loop [Head, and

also Loop Line], Leporello, Oasis, and Winkle. The last, of

course, is Mr. Pickwick's friend. J. W. A. (the only successful solver at this date) very kindly informs us out of Brewer's "; Reader's

Handbook " that George Psalmanazar was an Englishman, name unknown, who was born in London and died in 1763. In

1704 he published (as a pretended Japanese) " An Historical and

Geographical Description of the Island of Formosa, belonging to the empire of Japan." Inkle is the hero of a story by Sir

Richard Steele in 1lhe Spectator (No. I) -a young Englishman who is lost in the Spanish Main. He falls in love witi Yarico,

an Indian maiden, with whom he consorts; but no sooner does a vessel arrive to take him to Barbadoes than he sells Yarico as a

slave. Leporello is the valet of Don Giovanni in Mozart's opers,

in which the statue of the murdered father of the girl seduced by Giovanni banquets with him. This is the " stony guest " of

Judge O'Hlagan's brilliant acrostic.



a key to "dublin acrostics". no. 116

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