Irish Jesuit Province

The End of "Dublin Acrostics"Author(s): M. R.Source: The Irish Monthly, Vol. 28, No. 330 (Dec., 1900), pp. 701-705Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20499687 .

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( 701 )

THE END OF " DUBLIN ACROSTICS."

IT seems best not to carry forward our "Key to Dublin Acrostics " into the Twentieth Century but to use it now for

the last time. Those who are not too serious to relish this ingenious trifling have seen enough, even in our pages, of this dainty little quarto to agree with the opinion that I have more than once ventured to express that Double Acrosticism reached its high-water mark in the volume which a knot of Dublin barristers (with the help of a Protestant bishop and a Catholic priest) concocted in the Sixties.

These late months we have confined our selections to the contributions of Dr. Russell of Maynooth and Mr. Justice O'Hagan. Let us carry out that arrangement in this concluding paper. But let us first give the answer to No. 122 left unsolved in our last Number. Has not the President of Maynooth played very skilfully with Lana and its two syllables la and ma ? The lights are loom and the Alabama that played so memorable a part in the American Civil War. The next acrostic is also by "a C. w."

No. 123.

I.

Where, 'neath yon willow's waving shade, The pleasant waters softly sigh,

My frolic first unconscious played, Nor dreamed of doom or danger nigh.

And yet-perplexing mystery My first may still deserve its name,

E'en though a blackened mass it lie

Beneath my second's breath of flame.

II.

Enchained full many a fathom deep

My captive second long did dwell, Where murky elves their vigils keep, With smouldering brand, and fiery spell. But lo ! the spell is broken-See!

Science hath issued her behest, The captive speeds o'er land and sea,

To every home a welcome guest.

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702 The Iri/h Monthly.

ILI.

So time's recurring cycles roll, And fashion runs its chequered race;

My second now supplants my whole,

And fills, or more than fills, its place.

And thus, capriciouisly defying The laws of geometric art,

Axioms and rules alike belying, The whole is lesser than itspart.

1. Champion of Saxon right. 2. Foremost in every fight.

3. A blood-empurpled stream.

4. A baffled nation's dream.

All this is simple charcoal. Some may not know that, besides

other meanings, a char is a small delicate fish of the salmon or trout

kind. The lights are Cedric, hero, Alma, and Repeal, I hope it will

not be indiscreet to print a letter which I found among Dr. Russell's papers referring to this acrostic, in the large, bold, yet elegant handwriting of the mother of the present Duke of

Norfolk. The irrelevant parts are the most interesting.

Arundel Castle, Jan. 12, 1868. MY DEAR DR. R-USSELL,

I waited to thank you for your kind letter til! we had guessed the Acrostic. This has been rather a family effort, but I think

Victoria deserves the chief praise for " Budget " and Mary for " charcoal." Without any flattery to the author, I think the latter far the best and prettiest acrostic I have yet seen. I mean to send them to Mary Monica Hope Scott, who is as usual at Hyeres for the

winter. She wrote to Dublin for a copy of the "H Heath and Gorse" to take with her. Victoria is not quite equal to a long journey just now and is here with her children. I have eight children and three grandchildren at home. All those who can remember your kindness

beg their best regards to you. My eldest son has been lately at

Dresden, learning German as well as carrying on his studies with Mr.

Ornsby. He is here now for some hunting and shooting. He saw his sister in Paris on his return, in all her usual health and

happiness, and I had a delightful account from my brother of a visit

he had paid to her, although of course he could not see her. Edmund came home from Edgbaston with a most excellent character.

The others are all well, and my little grandchildren are very

flourishing. You see I presume on the kind interest whicb I believe

you to take in us to send you these details. Many thanks for your good wishes which I reciprocate most

heartily. I trust in your good prayers and remain,

Yours very sincerely,

M. NoRroIx.

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The End of Dlublin Acrosties. 703

Two of Judge O'Bagan's acrosties remain; and after quoting them we put the little book aside finally. How ingeniously the translator of The Song of Roland, the author of Dear Land, " Slieve Gullion " of l'he Nation, the first judicial Head of the

Irish Land Commission, plays with the historical associations of Bothtwell and with all the meanings of its component parts, both and well! The lights are dark enough for some-bow, oriflamme, Teniniel, HIoel. John Tenniel has been a Punch artist since 1851; and the Welch harper, Hoel, we all have heard of in Gray's " Bard." Were bowmen specially serviceable at the Battle of Ivry? Or does the first couplet refor to an earlier battle like Crecy ? " And be your oriflamme to-day the helmet of Navarre." But probably I am betraying gross ignorance of European history.

No. 139.

Unlike in structure, sense, and sound,

No common letter to be found,

Yet might I pledge my' troth,

Such curious words compose my theme,

That, when you name my first, you seem

Perforce to mention both. My second's sure to come as well,

Possessing a familiar spell

For soothing asfor teasing. For once refreshing, cool and nice,

Yet, if you chance to say it twice,

It is not half so pleasing.

My whole recalls a fatal fight,

A lovely dame, and felon knight.

1. Most famous of fields, but for me and my men,

Old Europe enfranchised were perilled again.

2. What standards were rent in that fearful affray;

And I, the most famous of standards, away!

3. You all know my pencil, of pencils the sharpest.

4. A royal, a Celtic, magnificent harpist.

The winding up of the enterprise was fitly entrusted to the most gifted of the little band. Pilgrim's Progress are the acrostic words, and the eight lights are parsnip, Iser, lasso, gag, rover, i.e.,

mess, supplies. How ingeniously John O'Hagan joins here Chaucer and Bunyan, and in the second of the " lights" how finely he alludes to Campbell's Battle of Hohenlinden ! " Acrostic

making of this sort is literature. We should not have given so much of our space to the solution of " Dublin Acrostios " if we

did not believe that it is another of the glories of Erin to have

outstripped all competitors in this department.

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704 The Irssh Monthly.

No. 144.

This is the last of all my doubles,

And when 'tis ended, I vow and swear

I'll blow no more of these colored bubbles

That float a moment to melt in air.

They're death and ruin to all my reading,

The charms of prose and the heights of song.

A s I count on my fingers the words succeeding

To try if the letters go right or wrong.

So this is my last; and my first will bring you

Back half a thousand years of time,

And summon an elder bard to sing you,

In strains as fresh as the May morn prime,

How the good knight's sword lay at rest in scabbard,

And the laughing dame rode abroad to pray,

And those nine and twenty met at the Tabard

With one who has made them survive for aye.

My next is full of the busy present,

And fuller still of the days to be,

Of an onward march and a rush incessant

To a goal predestined to fade and flee

Of science, queen of a mighty era,

Of hope unfolding the future's plan; But alas! of many a fond chimaera,

For ever and ever denied to man.

Times and feelings so wide asunder,

Where is the power that shall blend in one ?

Genius and faith may achieve the wonder,

And lo ! the task is already done.

Behold the hero, though wiles ensnare him,

Though foes encircle, and pitfalls yawn,

Valour and hope at the last will bear him

To the golden gates and the realm of dawn.

1. Words however soft they be

Seek in vain to soften me.

2. White the plain, and dark my stream

'Tis a glorious lyric theme.

3. Vain is struggling, vain is flying

From the noose there's no untying!

4. Vanquished by the fatal wood,

Open-mouthed and mute he stood!

5. Pausing from the goal that's near,

Wandering for my partner dear.

6. Pity us, unhappy twain

Called soyoften to explain.

7. What displeasure at the making,

What enjoyment in partaking. 8. " Stop us !" what an awful threat

Seldom executed yet.

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Some femories of Versailles. 705

This was a worthy ending of one of the daintiest collections of facetiw elegantes in the English language or in any language.

No one could have rhymed more gracefully or punned more ingeniously than Judge O'Hagan has here done about Canterbury Pilgrims and modern Progress, and the words chosen to stand between the letters making up Pilgrims and progress. "Soft words butter no parsnips" is the proverb; but to show that " parsnip " is here used in the singular the poet puts his pronoun in the singular also. The fourth and sixth of the lights seem to

me particularly olever. Indeed this last of the Dublin Acrostics, as it is the longest in the whole book, is also one of the best; and higher praise than this no double acrostic could receive or deserve.

M. R.

SOME MEMORIES OF VERSAILLES.

ANY and long are the years which have elapsed since at the whim of Louis XIV. a simple hunting box was

transformed as if by magic, into one of the most beautiful palaces in the world, and fair and glittering Versailles became the chosen residence of the " roi soleil " and his court.

The ancient palace of Saint Germain had become distasteful to him; overlooking in the distance as it still does, the royal vaults of St. Denis, the last resting place of a long line of kings, it must

have been to him a perpetual reminder that there comes a time for all men, when earthly dignities are of no avail, and when kingly crown and sceptre count for less than the simple, heartfelt prayer of a little child. A hard truth to one of Louis' temperament, and which he did not care to have thus constantly before his eyes. Other and bitter memories were also connected with the old forest-girt palace; much of his time had been passed there as a boy during the stormy years of the Fronde, when he had even felt the pinch of cold and want, and might have envied the warm bed-coverings of many of his humble subjects. To shut out all these things from his mind, Versailles rose from the ground, and

was destined at once to have the most splendid and tragic fate which has ever been known, and to command as much interest in

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