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Life
1709-1785 [var. 1781, Cabinet]; b. Blarney, Co, Cork; ed. TCD; published poetry from 1730s incl . Abelard and Eloisa (Dublin 1730), and answer to Pope; engaged in literary skirmishes with William Dunkin, assisted by Charles Carthy; issued A Prospect of Poetry (Dublin 1743), praised by James Thompson, and reprinted with 338 subscriptions, Dublin 1770, including verse to Thompson; curate of Ballinaboy 1744-55; Poems (Cork 1778); later styled ‘the mad parson’ and deemed to be alcoholic. RR CAB PI FDA OCIL
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Works
Abelard and Eloisa (Dublin 1730); A Prospect of Poetry (Dublin 1743). COMM, Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica: Irish Worthies (1821), Vol. II, p.60-62, as De la Cour, or De la Court, James.
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Commentary
Bryan Coleborne, ‘“They Sate in Counterview”, Anglo-Irish Verse in the Eighteenth Century’, in Paul Hyland & Neil Sammells, Irish Writing, Exile and Subversion (1991), pp.45-63, Delacourt argues in his satiric lyric, ‘On his Brother’s marriage’, that a man who marries a woman not above his social equal will face opposition of her circle; ‘How comes it, neighbourly Bob, / That you should thus surmount us. / And all the nobles rob, / By wedding a rich countess? / Happy Bob ... ‘Twill be nulled, of course, / Her friends will not allow it; / They’ll put the act in force, / For nobles can undo it. / Happy Bob.’ (p.54); this poem collected in ‘Poetry and legendary Ballads of the South of Ireland, in Journal of the Cork Hist. and Arch. Society (1894), p.270.
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References
British Library holds Poems comprising ‘A Prospect of Poetry’, ‘To Mr. Thomson on his Seasons’, Abelard to Eloisa’, and other poems (Thomas White, Cork 1778); Prospect of Poetry (John Harris, Cork 1807); Prospect ... [ded.] to John, Earl of Cork, with a poem to Mr. Thomson, 3rd edn. (Corke [sic]: Thomas Lord 1770).
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Quotations
“On Seeing a Lady at an Opposite Window”: ‘So Moses from fair Pisgah’s height / The Land of Promise ey’d; / Surveyed the regions of delight,- / He saw, came down, and died.’ (In Cabinet of Irish Literature, ed. Charles Read.)
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