Gerald Griffin (1803-40)

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Bibliographical Details
The Invasion. By the Author of “The Collegians”, &c. In Four Volumes. (London: Saunders and Otley, Conduit Street, 1832), Vol. I: xv, 300pp.; Vol. II: 310pp.; Vol. III 312pp.; Vol. IV 347pp., 12°, boards [42s first noticed Dec. 1831); held in 11 libraries. Preface, pp.[v]–xv, warns the reader against expecting an historical novel: ‘The accuracy which we have endeavoured to use in the delineation of manners could hardly be extended to the necessary historical allusions, for not only is the chronology of the period exceedingly confused, but many of the persons and events alluded to are so much a subject to antiquarian controversy, as to leave their very existence problematical.’ (p. vi). Adverts. verso facing t.p. in each vol.; printer’s marks and colophons read ‘B. Bensley, Printer, Andover’.

Further edns. (Dublin 1832); (Dublin 1850); (Dublin & London [1861]). See English Novels 1830-36: A Bibliography of British Fiction (Cardiff) - online; accessed 20.06.2010.] (See also remarks by Joep Leerssen - as infra.)

The Duke of Monmouth. By the Author of “The Munster Festivals,” &c. In Three Volumes. (London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, 1836), Vol. I: 303pp.; Vo. II: 311pp.; Vol. III: 284pp., 12°. [boards 31s. 6d.; first noticed Nov 1836 [‘nearly ready’]; held in 6 libraries incl. BL where pencil note on t.p. of Vol. 1 reads: ‘[G. Griffin.]’. Printer’s marks and colophons of Samuel Bentley, Dorset Street, Fleet Street. Bentley MS List records print run of 1,000 copies. Further edns: (Dublin [1836]); (1841); (1842); (Dublin 1850); (1857); (Dublin 1857); (Philadelphia 1837). [See English Novels 1830-36: A Bibliography of British Fiction (Cardiff) - online; accessed 20.06.2010.]

The Christian Physiologist. Tales Illustrative of the Five Senses: Their Mechanism, uses, and Government; with Moral and Explanatory Introduction. Addressed to a Young Friend. Edited by the Author of “The Collegians,” &c. (London: Edward Bull, Holles Street, 1830), xxvi, 376pp., 12°. [10s. 6d/] first notivced Feb libraries incl. BL. ‘Lines to a Departed Friend’ [verse], pp.[xvii]–xxiii; list of contents, pp.[xxv]–xxvi; running title varies according to chapter headings. The Tales are mixed with more essayistic items. Incls. 5pp. list of ‘New and Interesting Works Published by Edward Bull [... &c.]’ and a 1p. notice of terms for the ‘British and Foreign Public Subscription Library’ follow main text, the latter ending with an adv. for ‘A Catalogue of Books, chiefly modern, which are all in perfect condition, and equal to new copies, and are sold at the prices affixed, which will be found to be less than one-half, and in many instances less than one-third of their published price’. Printer’s marks and colophons of Gunnell and Shearman, Salisbury Square. Announced in Star as ‘Tales of the Five Senses’. Further edns.: (Dublin 1830); as The Offering of Friendship; or, Tales of the Five Senses (Dublin 1854); (Dublin 1860); , as Tales of the Five Senses (New York & Boston 1853); stories also reprinted separately. Preface, pp.[v]–xvi incls. remark: ‘[T]he purchaser of the book should be made aware, that one of the tales, “The Day of Trial”, has appeared already, under the title of “The Deaf Filea” [sic], in Mr. Roscoe’s Juvenile Keepsake’ (p. xv). The preface also suggests that the work was written [‘]for the amusement and instruction of young persons. [See English Novels 1830-36: A Bibliography of British Fiction (Cardiff) - online; accessed 20.06.2010.]

The Poetical and Dramatic Works by Gerald Griffin [orig. 1877; 2nd edn.] (Dublin: Duffy 1904), viii, 395pp., ill. [by Mulcahy; engraved by Johnson]. CONTENTS: “The Fate of Cathleen”; “The Bridal of Malahide”; “Shanid Castle”; “Orange and Green”; “The Traveller and the Moon”; “Anna Blake”; “My Spirit is Gay”; “The tie is broke, my Irish girl”; “When Love in a Young Heart”; “Sleep, that like the Couched Dove”; “The Sally-coop, where once I strayed”; “The Mie-na-mallah now is past”; “The Wanderer’s Return”; “Old Times! Old Times!”; “A Place in thy Memory, Dearest”; “My Mary of the Curling Hair”; “Gilli-ma-chree”; “For I am desolate”; “The Bridal Wake”; “Once I had a True Love”; “Hark! Hark! the Soft Bugle”; “Farewell!”; “The Mother’s Lament”; “To a Lady”; “Let others Breathe in Glowing Words”; “You Never Bade Me Hope, ‘tis True”; “A Soldier, a Soldier, To-night is our Guest”; “Duet (from the Duke of Monmouth)”; “Though Lonely here by Avon’s Tide”; “Monmouth’s Address”; “Like the Oak by the Fountain”; “Falta Volla! Falta Volla!”; “Cead Millia Falta! Elim!”; “The Isle of Saints”; “No! Not for the Glories of the Days that are Flown”; “Come to Glengariff! Come!”; “The Phantom City”; “While the Stars of Heaven are Shining”; “War! War! Horrid War!”; “War Song of O’Driscol” [sic] ; “Fare thee well! my Native Dell!”; “Aileen Aroon”; “Gone! Gone! for ever Gone!”; “Ancient Lullaby”; “Know ye not that Lovely River?”; “I love my Love in the Morning”; “Merrily Whistles the Wind on the Shore”; “When Filled with Thoughts of Life’s Young Day”; “Hark, Erin! the blast is Blown”; “The Merriest Bird on Bush or Tree”; “ ‘tis, it is the Shannon’s Stream”; “I am Alone! I am Alone!”; “Sonnets: To Friends in America; To his Native Glens; To a Friend; The Future; A Fragment; To his Sister; Benevolence; Friendship; Fame; Mitchelstown Caverns; Written in Adare, in 1820”; “On Remembering an Inadvertent Jest on Lord Byron’s Poetry”; “Lines to a Departed Friend”; “Sweet Taunton Dene”; “Adieu to London”; “My Spirit is of Pensive Mould”; “Lines on a Lady’s Seal Box”; “A Portrait”; “Lines addressed to a Young Lady, on reading a Poem of hers, addressed to Death”; “Inscription on a Cup formed of a Cocoa-nut”; “Impromptu (on seeing an Iris formed by the Spray of the Ocean, at Miltown-Malbay)”; “The Wake without a Corpse”; “To a Young Friend on his Birth-day”; “To a Friend”; “On Pulling some Campanulas in a Lady’s Garden”; “They speak of Scotland’s Heroes Old”; “O Brazil, the Isle of the Blest”; “To a Seagull, seen off the Cliffs of Moher, in the County of Clare”; “Past Times”; “The Wreck of the Comet”; “The Sister of Charity”; “Nano Nagle”; “To Memory”; “To ****”; “The Nightwalker” [see note]; “The Danish Invasion”; “The Joy of Honour”; “Would you choose a Friend”; “When some Unblest and Lightless Eye”; “The Song of the Old Mendicant”; “Mary-le-bone Lyrics”; “Mr. Graham to Miss Dawson in the Clouds”; “To Claude Seurat, on leaving London”; “When Dulness, Friend of Peers and Kings”; “Matt Hyland”; “Gissipus, a Play in Five Acts”. (See Catalogue of Longford Co. Libraries [online; accessed 15.11.2009].

Poems by Gerald Griffin [Centenary Edn.] (Dublin: M. H. Gill 1940), 144pp. [no index; photo-port. of sculpture], with anonymous biog. introduction abridged from Webb’s Compendium, here pp.[3]-4. CONTENTS: “Orange and Green”; “The Fate of Cathleen”; “Shanid Castle”; “The Sister of Charity”; “Nano Nagle”; “O’Brazil [O Brazil, in 1877 edn.], “The Isle of the Blest”; “The Nightwalker”; “To a Seagull [on the Cliffs of Moher, in the County Clare, 1877 edn.]”; “The Traveller and the Moon”; “My Spirit is Gay”; “The Tie is Broke, my Irish Girl”; “When Love in a Young Heart”; “Sleep, that like the Couched Dove”; “The Wanderer’s Return”; “Old Times! Old Times”; “A Place in thy Memory, Dearest”; “My Mary of the Curling Hair”; “Gilla na Cree”; “For I am Desolate”; “The Bridal Wake”; “Hark! Hark, the soft Bugle”; “The Mother’s Lament”; “Let Others breathe in Glowing Words”; “You never bade me Hope, ‘tis True”; “A Soldier - A Soldier to-night is Our Guest”; “Though Lonely here, by Avon’s Tide”; “Like the Oak by the Fountain”; “The Isle of Saints”; “No, not for the Glories of Days that are flown”; “Come to Glengarriff! come”; “The Phantom City”; “While the Stars of heaven are Shining”; “War Song of O’Driscol [O’Driscoll in 1877 edn.]”; “Fare thee Well, My Native Dell”; “Aileen Aroon”; “Ancient Lullaby”; “Know ye not that lovely River”; “I love my Love in the Morning”; “Merrily Whistles the Wind on the Shore”; “When filled with thoughts of Life’s Young Day”; “hark, Erin! the blast is blow”; “The merriest Bird on bush or tree”; “ ‘tis, it is the Shannon’s Stream”; “Addressed to Friends in America”; “Addressed to his Native Glens”; “Addressed to a Friend”; “The Future”; “In Remembrance of his Sister”; “Friendship”; “Mitchelstown Caverns”; “Written in Adare, in 1820”; “Lines to a Departed Friend”; “Sweet Taunton Dene”; “My spirit is of Pensive Mould”; “Lines on a Lady’s Seal Box”; “A Portrait”; “Inscription for a Cup formed of Cocoa-Nut”; “The Wake without a Corpse”; “Addressed to a Friend”; “The speak of Scotland’s Heroes Old”; “Past Times”; “The Wreck of the Comet”; “To memory”; “The Danish Invasion”; “The Joy of Honour”; “Would you choose a Friend”; “The Song of the Old Mendicant”; “The Prayer of Dulness” [“When Dulness, Friend of Peers and Kings”, in 1877 edn.] Note that the following poems, prev. contained in The Poetical and Dramatic Works (1877, 1904) are not reprinted here: “The Bridal of Malahide” and “Anna Blake”. Lyrical Poems, among which in addition to those in 1940 Centenary Edn.: “The Sally-coop Where Once I Strayed”; “The Mie-na-mallah is now Past”; “Once I had a True Love”; “Farewell!”; “To a Lady”; “Duet (from the Duke of Monmouth)”; “Monmouth’s Address”; “Falta Volla! Falta Volla!”; “Cead Milla Falta! Elim”; “The Phantom City”; “War! War! Horrid War!”; “Gone! Gone! for Ever Gone!”; “Know ye not that Lovely River?”; “Merrily whistles the Wind on the Shore”; “Th Merriest Bird on Bush or Tree”; “I am Alone! I am Alone!” Sonnets, among which in addition to those in 1940 Centenary Edn.: “A Fragment”; “Benevolence”. Miscellaneous Poems, among which in addition to those in 1940 Centenary Edn.: “On Remembering an Inadvertant Jest on Lord Byron’s Poetry”; “Adieu to London”; “Lines addressed to a Young Lady on reading a Poem of hers, addresed [sic] to Death”; “Impromptu (on seeing an Iris formed by the Spray of the Ocean, at Miltown Malby)”; “On Pulling Some Campanulas in a Lady’s Garden”; “The Joy of Honour”; “When some Unblest and Lightless Eye”; “Mary-le-Bone Lyrics”; “Mr Graham to Miss Dawson in the Clouds”; “To Claude Seurat, on leaving London”; “Matt Hyland”; Gissipus [drama].

The Collegians, by Gerald Griffin, with an Introduction by Padraic Colum (Dublin: Talbot Press [1919]), xxii, 437pp. Introduction, pp.ix-xxii; CONTENTS (Chaps.): 1. How Garryowen rose and how it fell [1]; 2. How Eily O’Connor puzzled all the inhabitants of Garryowen [7]; 3. How Mr. Daly, The Middleman, sat down to breakfast [17]; 4. How Mr. Daly, The Middleman, rose up from breakfast [29]; 5. How Kyrle Daly rode out to woo, and how Lowry Lorby told him some stories on the way [41]; 6. How Kyrle Daly was more puzzled by a piece of paper than the abolishers of the smallnote currency themselves [55]; 7. How Kyrle Daly discovers that all the sorrow under the sun does not rest upon his shoulders alone [60]; 8. How the reader, contrary to the declared intention of the Historian, obtains a description of Castle Chute [69]; 9. How Myles Murphy is heard on behalf of his ponies [79]; 10. How Kyrle Daly sped in his wooing [86]; 11. How Kyrle Daly has the good luck to see a staggeen race [98]; 12. How Fortune brings two old friends together [105]; 13. How the two families hold a longer conversation together than the reader may probably approve [117]; 14. How Lowry becomes philosophical [125]; 15. How Hardress spent his time while Kyrle Daly was asleep [136]; 16. How the friends parted [146]; 17. How Hardress learned a little secret from a dying huntsman [155]; 18. How the gentlemen spent the evening which proved rather warmer that Hardress expected [163]; 19. How Hardress met an old friend and made a new one [173]; 20. How Hardress had a strange dream of Eily [184]; 21. How Hardress met a strange trial [193]; 22. How the temptation of Hardress proceeded [206]; 23. How an unexpected visitor arrived in Eily’s cottage [217]; 24. How Eily undertakes a journey in the absence of her husband [227]; 25. How Eily fared in her expedition [236]; 26. How Hardress consoled himself during his separation from Eily [245]; 27. How Hardress answered the letter of Eily [256]; 28. How the Little Lord put his master’s wishes into action [267]; 29. How Hardress lost an old acquaintance [276]; 30. How Hardress got his hair dressed in Listowel, and heard a little news [286]; 31. How Kyrle Daly hears of the handsome conduct of his friend, Hardress [298]; 32. How Kyrle Daly’s warlike ardour was checked by an untoward incident [306]; 33. How Hardress met a friend of Eily’s at the wake [315]; 34. How the wake concluded [325]; 35. How Hardress at length received some news of Eily [331]; 36. How Hardress made a confident [342]; 37. Hardress finds that conscience is the sworn foe of valour [353]; 38. How the situation of Hardress became more critical [362]; 39. How the danger to the secret of Hardress was averted by the ingenuity of Irish witnesses [372]; 40. How Hardress took a decisive step for his own security [382]; 41. How the ill temper of Hardress again brought back his perils [391]; 42. How Mr. Warner was fortunate enough to find a man who could and would speak English [400]; 43 How the bride was startled by an unexpected guest [408]; 44. How more guests appeared at the wedding than had been invited [415]; 45. How the story ended [430]. (See full text in RICORSO Library, “Irish Literary Classics”, via index, or direct.)

The Collegians [1st US Edition] Title page [no author;] Vol. I: The / COLLEGIANS / IN TWO VOLUMES / VOL.I / NEW YORK: / PRINTED BY J. & J. HARPER, 82 CLIFF-ST. / SOLD BY COLLINS AND HANNAY, COLLINS AND CO., AND G. AND C. AND H. CARVILL; - PHILADELPHIA, CAREY, LEA, AND CAERY, AND J. GRIGG; - BOSTON, RICHARDSON AND LORD, AND HILLIARD, GRAY, AND CO.; - BALTIMORE, F. LUCAS, JR, AND W. AND J. NEAL. / 1829 [to Chap. XXIV; ending p.208.] Vol. II: The / COLLEGIANS / IN TWO VOLUMES / VOL.II / NEW YORK: / PRINTED BY J. & J. HARPER, 82 CLIFF-ST. / SOLD BY COLLINS AND HANNAY, COLLINS AND CO., AND G. AND C. AND H. CARVILL; - PHILADELPHIA, CAREY, LEA, AND CAERY, AND J. GRIGG; - BOSTON, RICHARDSON AND LORD, AND HILLIARD, GRAY, AND CO.; - BALTIMORE, F. LUCAS, JR, AND W. AND J. NEAL. / 1829 [to Chap. XXIV; ending p.184.]

Index of works available at Internet Archive with inks supplied by Clare County Library The Collegians, or, The Colleen Bawn, a tale of Garryowen, by Griffin, Gerald Published in 1907, The Century Co. (New York) Pagination: 369 p., [3] leaves of plates. Available at Internet Archive Tales of the Munster festivals, by Gerald Griffin Published in 1827, Saunders and Otley (London) Available at Internet Archive See also ... The Colleen Bawn; or, The Brides of Garryowen, A domestic drama in three acts, by Dion Boucicault [based on novel by Gerald Griffin, 1803-1840]. Publisher: S. French (New York, London) [Printed not Published] Pagination: 42pp. Available at Internet Archive

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[The Works of Gerald Griffin] THE / INVASION / by Gerald Griffin (NY: D & J. Sadlier & Co., 164 William Street; Boston: 128 Federal Street; Montreal: Cor[ner] of Notre Dame & St. Francis Xavier Sts. [Epigraph:] One foot on sea, and one on shore, / To one thing constant never. / Shakespeare. Title verso: Stereotyped by Vincent Hill 29 & 31 Bookman St., N. Y., / J. D. Torrey, Printer, / 13 Spruce Street, N. Y. Preface to the American edition: The publisher of the American Edition of the Works of GERALD GRIFFIN are happy to be able to complete it by the great Irish historical tale, THE INVASION - thus making it the first and only complete edition of the works of the most admirable of Irish fiction writers, THE INVASION not being included in either the Dublin or the London editions. / To none of his works did GERALD GRIFFIN devote more of his time than to THE INVASION. Before entering upon it, he spent a considerable time in preparing himself for his proposed task, and the antiquarian treasures of Dublin and London Institutions were consulted and studied, long and carefully. In this Tale, therefore, is united to the charms of fiction, the interest of valuable information, regarding the manners and customs of the Ancient Irish, the Northmen, and [iii] Anglo-Saxons; their laws and systems of government; their military organization, dress, weapons, musical instruments, the Druidical rites, &c. In its pages is also interwoven, in a highly attractive form, a compendium of Scandinavian mythology. Thus, while the Author enlists the attention of the reader, by the adventures of his personages, he gives him an excellent historical lesson by making them act in accordance with the spirit of their respective nations, by dressing them with scrupulous care in the garb of the time and country. A distinguished Irish poet and essayist, the late THOMAS DAVIS, thus speaks of the work:- “There is in it the most exquisite beauty of scene and form, the purest loveliness, the most original heroism of any work we own, and it contains, besides, invaluable and countless hints on the appearance of Ancient Ireland.” [iv; end.] See Internet Archive, University of Toronto Scanner Center [online]; accessed 16.11.2009.] Note 1 : Each of the works is produced in a volume with an ornate title page - e.g., The Works / of / Gerald Griffin / The Invasion, and with an engraving [landscape format] facing; also, an second title confined to the title of the work in question, chiefly in capitals, on this occasion simply hemmed with fine double lines as to page design. Note 2: According to the article by M. J. Flaherty in the Catholic Encyclopedia [online; 13.11.2010], an edition of the Works was published by Sadlier of New York in 10 vols. in 1896.

Talis Qualis: Tales of the Jury Room (Dublin: J. Duffy 1857), 2pp. 463pp. ill. [front.], 17 cm. [engraved t.p.]. CONTENTS: “Sigismund; “The Story-teller at Fault”; “The Knight without Reproach”; “The Mistake”; “Drink, My Brother”; “The swans of Lir; McEneiry, the covetous; “Mr. Tibbot O’Leary, the Curious”; “The Lame Tailor of Macel”; “Antrim Jack, and his General”; “The Prophecy; “Sir Dowling O’Hartigan”; “The Stranger’s Tale: The Raven’s Nest”.

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Commentary
See separate file [infra]

Quotations
See separate file [infra].

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References
Charles A. Read, ed., The Cabinet of Irish Literature, [1876-78]; lists contents of collected edition, which includes a ‘Life’ by his brother, The Collegians; Card-drawing; The Half-Sir; Suil Dhuv; The Rivals; Tracy’s Ambition; Hollandtide; Duke of Monmouth; Tales of the Jury-room; and Poetry. No date given.

D. J. O’Donoghue, The Poets of Ireland: A Biographical Dictionary (Dublin: Hodges Figgis & Co 1912), notes that he wrote journalism in London as “Oscar” and slight dramatic pieces for Covent Garden Th. as “G. Joseph”.

Alfred Webb, Compendium of Irish Biography (Dublin: Gill 1878), refers to ‘[a] notice of his elder brother, William Griffin, M.D. (born, 25th October 1794; died, 9th July 1848), author of a few tales published in Gerald’s Hollantide and Tales of a Jury-room, and of some medical treatises [which] will be found in the Dublin Journal of Medical Science, Vol. IV.’ Also quotes a Miss [?Nancy] Mitford: ‘The book that, above any other, speaks to me of the trials, the sufferings, the broken heart of the man of genius, is that Life of Gerald Griffin, written by a brother worthy of him, which precedes the only edition of his collected works.’ (See LibraryIreland, online; accessed 16.11.2009.)

Justin McCarthy, gen. ed., Irish Literature (Washington: Catholic University of America 1904); selects ‘the Knight of the Sheep’; four passages from The Collegians; a passage from The Rivals; and poems, ‘Gile Macree’; ‘Eileen Aroon’; ‘Hy-Brasil, the Isle of the Blest’. Biog.: b. Limerick, 12 Dec. 1803; refined mother who required special instruction in pronunciation from their first teacher; at seven, removed to Fairylawn, on the Shannon 28 miles from Limerick; copied Moore melodies to his scrapbook; his parents emigrated to the USA leaving him to care for his brother and sister; met Banim in the Irish newspaper world; finished The Tragedy of Aguire, and left for London, 1823; found Banim after weary searching; writing in 1824, ‘What would I have done if I had not found Banim? I should never be tired of talking and thinking of Banim. Mark me! he is a man - the only one I have met since I left Ireland. We walked over Hyde Park together on St Patrick’s day, renewed our home recollections by gathering shamrocks and placing them in our hats, even under the eye of John Bull’; play rejected in an era of sensational drama; wrote Gissipus, a play in classical form, on slips of paper in coffee-house; abandoned playwrighting; contrib. articles to The Fashion News; successfully issued Holland-Tide, 1827; returned to Limerick, Feb. 1827, his sister dying the evening before his arrival; the lines ‘Oh! not for ever lost!’ written in her memory; produced Tales of the Munster Festivals in four months; returned to London in latter part of 1827; soon after wrote The Collegians (1828); entered London Univeristy as law student; turned to study of Irish history; historical novel, The Invasion; spent his time partly in London and partly with his brother in Ireland; amusing account of his visit to Moore at Sloperton in 1832 seeking with others to get Moore to stand for Limerick; Christian Physiologist or Tales of the five Senses (1830); The Rivals (1835), a success; also The Duke of Monmouth and Tales of My Neighbourhood; Scottish Highland tour provided material for a series of letters; on returning to Ireland, he burnt his manuscripts, including Aguire, and divided his money between his brothers, entering the Christian Brothers as Brother Joseph on 8th Sept. 1838; moved to North Monastery, Cork, summer 1839; d. June 12 1840; a stone marked Brother Gerald Griffin marks his gave. [See also under Criticism, supra.]

Stephen Brown, ed., Ireland in Fiction (Dublin: Maunsel 1919); lived Pallas Kenry; Dr Sigerson, ‘he was the first to present several of our folk customs, tales, and ancient legends in English prose.’ Collected ed. in 7 vols. published in New York by P. J. Kennedy; 10-vol. Duffy edn. includes a life by his brother (1842). Holland Tide [Simpkin & Marshall 1827]. The Collegians, or The Colleen Bawn (Duffy [1828]; Duffy, new edns. to 1918; Talbot 1918, intro. Padraic Colum; founded on a real murder trial in which O’Connell defended the prisoner and which Griffin reported for the Press; Brown reports finding a book (Dublin 1910, 111pp.) without author or publisher entitled Ellen Hanly, or The True History of the Colleen Bawn by one who knew her and saw her in death, opening its account in 1819, with dashes for names. Card-Drawing &c. (1829), 2nd series of Tales of the Munster Festivals. The Christian Physiologist, tales illustrative of the five senses, “The Kelp Gatherers”; “The Day of Trial”; “The Voluptuary Cured”; “The Self Consumed”; “The Selfish Crotarie”. The Invasion (Duffy [1832]), Danish matter, deficient in plot, but with archaeological notes by Eugene O’Curry. The Rivals, 3rd Series of Tales of the Munster Festival. Note that Brown [IF] lists a collection entitled Tales of the Munster Festivals (NY Pratt, n.d.), and states that the constituent stores first appeared in three series, 1827, 1829, and 1832. Holland Tide contained “Aylmers of Ballyaylmer”, dealing with a small-gentry Kerry family and smuggling; “The Hand and Word”, “The Barber of Bantry”, with the typical middle-class family like the Dalys in The Collegians; several shorter stories. The Second Series [Munster Festivals, 1827] contained “Card Drawing”, “The Half-Sir”, and “Suil Dhuv the Coiner”; the Third Series included “The Rivals” and “Tracy’s Ambition”. Tales of My Neighbourhood, 3 vols, of which Vol I contains “The Barber of Bantry”, a supernatural story of a somnambulist; Vol 2 contains sketches and a dramatic ballad, “The Nightwalker”; Vol 3 contains eight short sketches and the poems “Shanid Castle” and “The Orange and Green”. The Duke of Monmouth (Maxwell ed. 1842), a historical novel with two Irish soldiers as comic relief; Tales of the Jury Room (Duffy [1842]), originally published as Talis Qualis, thirteen tales, three set in Poland, the East, and France in the days of Bayard, the others in Ireland, including “The Swans of Lir”. The Offering of Friendship (London 1854), a reprinting of The Christian Physiologist; Juvenile Tales (n.d.) contains some tales from The Christian Physiologist, as well as “The Young Milesian”, “The Knight Without Reproach”, et al.

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Peter Kavanagh, Irish Theatre (1946); Gerald Griffin 1803-1840; Gissipus, or The Friend, trag., and the only surviving one of four which he commenced; Shakespearean, set in Athens and Rome; printed 1842, never acted [err.; see supra]. See Poems and Plays by Gerald Griffin (Dublin 1929).

Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English, The Romantic Period, 1789-1850 (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1980), Vol. I; Griffin - a romantic if ever there was one! - sometimes assumed the role of Don Juan, ‘Wordsworthy and mouthy’. (Quoted by Mannin, Two Studies in Integrity, p.45.) [42]. FURTHER, Gerald Griffin wrote to R. L. Sheil, following a famous speech of the latter in Clare, ‘... the whole attitude of our dear country, is just now gratifying in the highest degree. I have lately been writing to it ‘Songs for Irish Catholics’ (not yet done) which I hope may serve to connect my name with the present glorious struggle and (humbly indeed be it spoken) perhaps to do some little good to our cause.’ (quoted in Mannin, Two Studies in Integrity, p.63). The title would change and become Chaunt of the Cholera (1831) [but see CORR. NOTE, infra]. In it “The Irish Mother to Her Child” (p.31) shows a fierce anti-slavery spirit already also seen in Damon and Pythias [by Banim and Sheils]. “The Clare Election’ (‘July the first, in Ennis town, / There was a glorious battle, / Though not a man did there go down / or not a cannon rattle; / And yet ‘twas strength and courage, too, / That put them to the rout, boys – / The courage to be blunt and true, / And for ourselves speak out, boys.’; p.70.) [136]. [Bibl. in Vol. 2, as in Criticism, supra.]

Barbara Hayley, ‘Irish Periodicals’, Anglo-Irish Studies, ii (1976) [pp.83-108]: An article on Gerald Griffin, one of its [Dublin Review ] favourite writers, begins, ‘One of the worst faults in the literature of a country is want of nationality. It is like want of self-respect in an individual, a sort of tacit avowal that the nation deserves not from others the respect and sympathy which it does not entertain for itself.’ (Dublin Review, vol. 16, no. 32, June 1844, p.281; here p.97.)

Seamus Deane, gen. ed., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 2: selects “Ancient Lullaby” [22], “Aileen Aroon” [22-23]. See also ed. comments: Gerald Griffin died at 36, after imposing on himself the severest monastic fasts during his final two-year retreat from the world [2]; Griffin advised John Banim to forgo the stage and send poems to the periodical press [3]. See also cross-reference to commentary and annotations on The Collegians in The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 1, linking it with Carleton’s subject-matter in “Wildgoose Lodge” [W. J. McCormack, ed.; 839n.]; T. W. Rolleston, ‘[Is] Griffin to mean nothing to me because I am a Protestant?’, answering D. P. Moran [973]; Griffin listed by Thomas MacDonagh as an Anglo-Irish novelist; & ftn., the first important native Catholic novelist [990]; Corkery (1931): Griffin ‘may be taken as type of non-Ascendancy writer who under stress of the literary moulds of his time wrote Colonial literature’; gave up in London, as be put it, because of ‘the fickleness of public literary taste’ [1009-10]; Griffin as regionalist fiction [ed. Augustine Martin; 1021].

Iain McCalman & Jon Mee, An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age: British Culture, 1776-1832 (OUP 2001), contains article on Griffin, remarking that he knew no Irish but was fascinated by social and linguistic change on the Irish peasantry; produced grittily realistic Munster Tales on return to Ireland, after struggling to launch a writing career in London with assistance of John Banim; calls The Collegians an ardently romantic but darkly violent tale set against the sublime mountain scenery of Kerry and Wicklow [sic], and based on a notorious contemporary murder trial, followed by The Invasion, his most significant and undervalued work set in the pre-colonial [i.e. pre-Norman] Gaelic period and ‘as rich in antiquarian detail as anything written by Walter Scott’. Gissipus gained a respectful reception at Drury Lane in 1842. There is also a cross-referenced article on the ‘Irish cultural revival’ but none on John Banim.

British Library (1957) lists [inter al.] W. S. Gill, Gerald Griffin, Poet, Novelist, Christian [140], with port.; D. Griffin, Life (n.d.); Robert W Jackson, Brian Taaffe’s Money, based on short story of G. Griffin (1944); E. Mannin, Two Studies in Integrity &c. (1954), port; Works of G.G., 8 vols. (Lon, 1843); Poetical and Dramatic Works of Gerald Griffin (James Duffy 1867), viii, 393pp., engraved titlepage; Poetical Works (London 1851); Irish Poetic Gems (1887); Poetical Works inc. his play Gissipus, pref. John P. Dalton (J. Duffy 1926), xxiv, viii, 393pp; the Beautiful Queen of Leix, or The Self-Consumed, an Irish Tale (Dublin 1854 [1853]), in Duffy’s Popular Library; Card Drawing, The Half Sir, and Suil Dhuv the Coiner (Dublin 1857); The Christian Physiologist, as The Offering of Friendship or Tales of the Five Senses (Duffy 1854 [1853]); another ed. (Duffy 1860); Collegians, [eds. 1829, 1847] (Dublin 1857); The Collegians, intro. Padraic Colum [1918], xxii, 437, also AP Graves (1914), in Every Irishman’s Library; Day of Trial, an Irish Tale (Dublin 1854 [1853]), in Duffy’s Pop. Library; Holland-Tide, The Aylmers of Bally Aylmer; The Hand and Word [printed with Carleton’s The Tithe Proctor]; The Barber of Bantry (Dublin 1857); The Kelp Gatherer, an Irish Tale (Dublin 1854), in Duffy’s Pop. Library)’ The Rivals (Dublin 1857); A Study of Psyche (1854), Duffy’s Pop. Library; Talis Qualis ... Jury Room (London 1847; Dublin 1857); The Voluptuary Cured, an Irish Tale (Dublin 1854 [1853]), Duffy’s Pop. Library; Knight Without Reproach, extract from Talis Qualis [Duffy c.1900], 61pp.; The Young Milesian, The Selfish Crotarie (Dublin 1854 [1853], in Duffy’s Pop. Library. Query: Daniel Griffin, ‘Life of Gerald Griffin’ in The Works of The Works of Gerald Griffin, Vol. 1 (Dublin: Duffy 1843), xii, 484pp.; Do ., another edn. (Dublin: James Duffy 1857), 404pp.

Anthologies (sundry), Arthur Quiller Couch, ed., Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1918 (new ed. 1929), p.671; Kathleen Hoagland, ed., 1,000 Years of Irish Poetry: The Gaelic and Anglo-Irish Poets from Pagan Times to the Present (NY: Devin Adair 1947), incls. “Aileen Aroon” reprinted in (p.415).

Booksellers

Cathach Bks. (Cat. 12) lists Christian Physiologist and Other Tales (Duffy n.d.), as well as the Life of Gerald Griffin by his Brother (Duffy n.d.); Do. (Dublin 1857), port. [red cloth] [De Burca Books]. Holland Tide, The Aylmers of Bally-Aylmer, The Hand and Word, and The Barber of Bantry (Dublin n.d.), port. frontis.[single item].

Emerald Isle Books (1995) lists A Collection of Gerald Griffin’s Writings (NY edn. Sadlier) [pale plum cloth]: 1. The Christian Physiologist; A Night at Sea. 2. The Aylmers of Ballayler &c.; Tales of the Munster Festivals. 3. The Collegians [or the Colleen Bawn]; A Tale of GArrowen 4] The Invasion. 5. The Duke of Monmouth. 5 The Rivals of Gisippus. 8. The Life of Gerald Griffin, by His Brother. also sep., The Life of Gerald Griffin (NY: Sadlier c.1878) [blue cl.] [£150.]

De Burca Books (Cat. 44, 1997) lists The Collegians: A Tale of Garryowen. London, Simms, 1848. Pages, ii, 345 [£60]. Belfast Public Library holds 15 titles. Belfast Linen Hall Library holds Poetical Works (Belfast 1851). University of Ulster Library, Morris Collection holds The Day of Trial (Duffy 187?); The Kelp-gatherer (Duffy ?1854); A Story of Psyche (Duffy 1876). See also Irish Book Lover 1, 2.

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Notes
The Collegians (1829): Griffin’s plot is that novel based on the fate of Ellen Hanley [“Eily”], a young woman from a peasant family who secretly married John Scanlan [Hardress in the novel], a local squire. Scanlan grew tired of her murdered her with the assistance of his man-servant Stephen Sullivan. Her body was washed ashore, bound with rope, in 1819. In spite of a defence by Daniel O’Connell, Scanlan was convicted and sentence to death along with Sullivan. Dion Boucicault reprised the story of the novel with a happy ending.

Collegians: That the term collegian used for university students and graduates was in currency in 1832 when Barney Mahoney was written. In that novel, published under the name of T. C. Croker [q.v.] but actually written by Mrs. Croker [née Nicholson], the irritable old tradesman, having been taken for a seaside walk by his “edicated” son, finds himself at risk of perishing with the incoming tide: “I see. Sir - I see - see it all; I am to be -to be killed, destroyed, that’s the plan. So because I would not tumble over the cliff to please you, I am to get the gout, scrambling over these cu-cu-cursed rocks, and wet my feet. Oh, I see it all, in hopes - in hopes of flinging it into my stomach. Oh! that ever - ever I should be such a fool, such a bo-bo-booby, as to go trampoozleing out wid a co-co-co-collegian. Well, Sir, you’ll come into a pretty - pretty little property. I’ve made my - made my will, so [212] there’s no more occasion tor me, I suppose; but remember, Sir, I expect to be buried decently; I won’t be left here, mind that. Your poor mother lies in Shoreditch, and -” (p.211; for a whole-text digital edition, see RICORSO > Library > Authors - as attached.)

See also the account of the Scanlan’s trial at Limerick - ‘on which Gerald Griffin founded his tragic story of The Collegians’ (“Memoir”, in Sketches, p.15) - given in R. L. Sheils, Sketches of the Irish Bar (1855), Trial of John Scanlan for Murder” [sect. in “An Irish Circuit”]: “[...]Such were, in substance, the most material facts (excepting one particular hereafter mentioned), that had fallen under Ellen Walsh’s observation ; and, upon the magistrates being apprized that she had such evidence to give, she was summoned as a witness upon the inquest. She accordingly attended, and accompanied the coroner’s jury to the place where the remains had been deposited by the fishermen. The circumstances she detailed were pregnant with suspicion against Mr. his servant. A young and defenceless female had disappeared. Upon the last occasion of her having been seen, she was in their company, in an open boat on the river Shannon. A declaration had been made by the servant, “that she was to be got rid of.” On the very next day her trunk of clothes is seen in their possession, and, soon after, a part of the dress she wore in the boat on the servant’s sister, and one of her rings on the master’s finger; add to this the mysterious allusion to the money — “Mr. John, you know I have as good a right to that money as you have.” A few weeks after, a body is washed ashore, near to the place where this young woman had been last seen — the body of a young female, who had manifestly been stripped, and murdered, and flung into the river, and exhibiting symptoms of decay (according to the report of the fishermen), that exactly tallied with the time of her suspected death. [...] On the other hand, there were some circumstances in the case, as detailed by Ellen Walsh, which justified the magistrates in considering that a jury should pause before they pronounced her evidence to be conclusive. Of Sullivan they had no knowledge ; but his master they knew to be a young gentleman of some territorial property, of respectable parentage, and nearly allied by blood with more than one of the noble families of Ireland. This naturally compelled them to entertain some doubts. Then upon the supposition that he and his servant had concerted the murder of the young woman Ellen Walsh had seen with them, what could have been more clumsy and incautious than their previous and subsequent conduct? [...].” (See longer extract under R. L. Sheil [q.v.] - as attached.)

Note therein that Sheil does not mention John Scanlan by name but does refer to his supposed wife and victim as Ellen Hanlon [sic for Hanley] - at first parenthetically and then in open use (pp.50-51). A footnote by the editor, R. S. Mackenzie, makes it clear that Sheil abstained from calling the defendent Scanlan out of respect for his family which, we are told by Mackenzie, was ‘one of the most respectable in the South of Ireland’ (p.42; ftn.). In that footnote Mackenzie refers to John Scanlan by name using the correct spelling. In Sheil’s account, the name - though not applied to John Scanlan - is spelt Scanlon. Instead, it is applied to a women in Glyn who is identified as his sister - one Grace Scanlon [sic]. In fact the marriage of Ellen to Scanlan is expressly dismissed in Sheil’s account and insteads she is identified as an orphan child adopted by a Mr Hanlon who suffered the loss of a sum of £100 on the night when she disappeared. Though discrediting her with the jury and the public, that evidence served to lock the case against John Scanlon in conjunction with the testimony of one Ellen Walsh who met the party on the night of the murder, and even travelled with them on the newly-purchased boat on which it was presumably committed later on the day when she was set ashore on her way home. Walsh also had information about clothes and jewelry in “Mrs S-----’s possession which she afterwards saw on the persons of several members of Scanlan’s entourage and family - some of it in a trunk which she peered into out of feminine curiosity while they were waiting in a public-house for a storm to subside which had broken the initial boat-journey. She also heard them speak of the intention to “get rid of” Mrs ---- and, in fact, received that statement in response to a request to board the boat again with the suggestion that Scanlan and Sullivan might pick her up after then had done so. [BS 25.04.2024; see Shiel, Sketches, 1855, pp.422ff.; available at Internet Archive - online.]

The Colleen Bawn (based on The Collegians of Gerald Griffin - a melodrama by Dion Boucicault: The story involves Hardress Creegan, a young Irish gentleman secretly married to a peasant girl, Eily O’Connor (the Colleen Bawn or “fair-haired girl” of the title), whose family estate can only be saved from foreclosure by his marriage to his cousin and social equal, Anne Chute (the Colleen Ruadh or red-haired girl). Danny Mann acts as Hardress and Eily’s go-between and, through a set of circumstances dictated by melodramatic convention, a glove becomes the token of a misunderstanding that leads Danny to attempt the fair-haired Eily’s murder. All, of course, works out well in the end for the play’s upper-crust characters while Danny pays the ultimate price as a social inferior who goes too far. The Colleen Bawn, or The Brides of Garryowen was first performed at Laura Keene’s Theatre, New York, on 27 March 1860 with Laura Keene playing Anne Chute and Boucicault as Myles na Coppaleen. (Various notices on internet; 12.02.2021.)

Tales of Munster: The introduction includes a dialogue between the author and an elderly gentleman who is made the mouthpiece for an Irish viewpoint, suggesting that Griffin was attempting formulate a theory for Irish fiction in English. Ditto, Tales of My Neighbourhood; uneasy amalgam in three volumes of short and longer stories interspersed with narrative poems; inclusion of the latter as separate items may suggest that Griffin had some difficulty in extending the work to the desired length, having previously used poems only as introductory pieces to his prose works.

The Chaunt of the Cholera: Banim remarks that ‘His authorship of The Chaunt of the Cholera (1831) is disputed with Gerald Griffin, a close friend in London’ while the British Library lists Chaunt under J. & M. Banim, and not Griffin [see British Library supra]. John Cronin writes (letter to BS 17 Feb. 1993), that the passage quoted from Ethel Mannin by Patrick Rafroidi is actually Banim, not Griffin, speaking. Cronin knows of no connection regarding the Chaunt, and portrays the relationship between the two men as one in which Banim is seen ‘genuinely trying to help but meeting with touchy responses from Griffin’. He conclude: ‘The songs for Irish Catholics seems to have been Banim’s not Griffin’s and I did not at any stage see any reference to it from Griffin’.

“The Nightwalker” is a poem counselling pacifism; the narrator goes walking at dawn and see a ‘gallant brig’ weighing anchor with convicts ‘bound for Van Diemen’s Land’; on board man is singing whose ‘accents reached the shore’; he tells of an idyllic married life disturbed by the arrival of a stranger in a storm [see Quotations, supra; and note the title in common with a poem by Thomas Kinsella, q.v.]

Tom Moore MP?: On Moore’s refusing after consideration to stand as MP, the Griffins, Gerald and William, left Sloperton in tears. [See Letters of Moore, ed. W. S. Dowden, vol. ii.; cited by R. Welch, Irish Poetry from Moore to Yeats ].

Film: See Dion Boucicault, q.v., for details of film version.

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