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“LITERARY NOTICES: Dermot Mac Morrogh, or the Conquest of Ireland; an Historical Tale of the Twelfth Century. In Four Cantos. By John Quincy Adams,” The New-England Magazine, vol. 3 (December 1832), pp. 503–507; selection from pp. 504–506.
Richard Hildreth
Richard Hildreth (1807–65), a miscellaneous writer and lawyer, was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, where his father was a professor of mathematics. Graduating from Harvard College in 1826, Hildreth studied to become a lawyer and practiced in Boston and Newburyport. In 1832 he founded the Boston Daily Atlas. Besides contributing to the New-England Magazine, Hildreth also submitted pieces to the American Monthly Magazine and the Ladies’ Magazine. In his later years he wrote and published history and philosophy. The New-England Magazine was founded in Boston in 1831 and edited by Joseph T. Buckingham. In 1835 it was merged into The American Monthly Magazine. On Richard Hildreth see Evert A. Duyckinck and George L. Duyckinck, eds., Cyclopaedia of American Literature (reprinted Philadelphia, 1965), vol. 2, pp. 298–301; Kenneth B. Murdock, “Richard Hildreth,” DAB, vol. 5, part 1, pp. 19–20. On the New-England Magazine see API, p. 155; BAP, p. 114; Frank Luther Mott, A History of American Magazines, 1741–1850 (Cambridge, 1938), pp. 599–603.
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Having thus despatched the title page, which, as we have before remarked, is, by far, the most important portion of the book, let us now proceed to the “Preface and Dedication.” The chief part of this portion of the work, consists of two extracts from that very rare book, — Hume’s History of England, the first of which, contains the historian’s summary of the events of the Irish conquest, ending, be it remembered, in this manner: —
“By these trivial exploits, scarcely worth relating, except for the importance of the consequences, was Ireland subdued, and annexed to the English crown.”
The other extract is Hume’s character of Henry II. the king in whose reign this conquest was achieved. It is only at the beginning and conclusion of the “Preface and Dedication,” that our author blesses us, with the light of his own bright intellect. It must be confessed, however, that when he does shine out, it is with his accustomed fierceness and brilliancy. The following paragraph is the commencement of the “Preface and Introduction,” and introduces the extracts from Hume. We consider it a great curiosity, and give it entire: —
“History, it hath been said, is Philosophy, teaching by example. This aphorism has made a greater fortune in the world than it deserves. The examples which history presents to the contemplation of mankind, if they teach any philosophy at all, it is that of the philosopher Apemantus in Shakspeare’s Timon of Athens. To test this truth I would ask the young men and women of my native country, who may charge an idle evening with the perusal of the History which I now dedicate to them, what sort of philosophy would be taught by the example of Henry the Second of England, or of Dermot Mac Morrough, king of Leinster, which resulted in the conquest of Ireland by the English monarch.
History, as it should be written and read, is the school of morals, teaching sometimes by example, but much more frequently by admonition. It is a narrative of a few prosperous voyages and multitudes of shipwrecks. But how is history written? How is history read? David Hume passes for a philosophical historian; and he is much celebrated for the interest which he infuses into his narrative, and for his skill and discernment in the delineation of characters. Now listen to his account of the conquest of Ireland by the murderer of Becket, and then mark the character which he gives of the man.”
What a nice distinction does our author make, and how grandly does he put down that dull fellow, David Hume! Now, to our limited intellect, the word philosophy, in the aphorism, which our author criticises, and the phrase, “school of morals,” in his own, would seem to be perfectly synonymous; and should one relate a tale of crime and blood, by way of warning to his auditors, we should consider it mere verbal quibbling, to dispute, whether the narrator taught, by example, or by admonition. But the acuteness of our author has enabled him to take a refined distinction, just, no doubt, but to ordinary intellects, totally invisible. The mild manner, and bland modesty, too, with which he announces his discovery, and denounces the stupidity of poor Hume, will serve as a fine example, or — admonition, to the young men and women, to whom he particularly addresses himself.
After giving us the extracts from Hume, our author proceeds as follows: —
“So much for Hume’s philosophy, teaching by the example of Henry the Second. If there be in the annals of the human race, a transaction of deeper and more melancholy depravity than the conquest of Ireland by Henry the Second, it has not fallen under my notice. It would seem as if it could not be accomplished but by a complication of the most odious crimes, public and private. Dermot Mac Morrogh, for insupportable tyranny over his subjects, aggravated by the violation of the most sacred of human ties, the seduction of another’s wife, is justly expelled from his kingdom. He immediately repairs to “the greatest prince of his time, for wisdom, virtue, and abilities,” and sells his country for the price of being restored by the foreign invader to his principality. The English king, to cover the basest of aggressions with the mantle of religion, applies to Pope Adrian the Fourth, an Englishman, for authority to ravage Ireland with fire and sword, under pretence of reforming the inhabitants, and reducing them to the orthodox faith of paying tribute to the Roman See. This authority Poor Adrian grants him without scruple. You may read in Rapin the brief itself. And with this sacrilegious abuse of religion, Henry, reeking with the blood of Becket, and Dermot, the russian builder of monasteries, achieve the conquest of Ireland, in vassalage to the crown of England. And this is the tenure by which Ireland is held, as an appendage to the sister island, at the present day.”
And this is the subject, too, which John Quincy Adams, late President of the United States, but now, poet, and teacher of morality, has especially chosen for the edification, instruction, and moral improvement of the young men and women of his country! a subject, which affords such ample opportunities to illustrate and inculcate all those mild and gentle virtues, those tender and delicate emotions, on which the happiness of private life so essentially depends, and in which the “young men and women” of our author’s country are so principally interested.
. . .
The very truth of the case is, that Dermot Mac Morrogh, though divided into four cantos, each with its separate title, and though written in a stanza of eight lines, which we do not distinctly recollect to be used elsewhere, except occasionally in a collection of Methodist Hymns, has no pretensions whatever to be called a poem. It is a sort of chronicle in rhyme, and, so far, resembles the first rude efforts of the English muse. It is a dull, and tedious versification, in some ninety pages, of the same story which Hume tells in five pages of prose; and tells, too, plainly and perspicuously, and without the omission of a single incident contained in the rhyming version, — except, indeed, some few corruptions of the story, which our author probably intended as embellishments, but which add neither dignity nor interest to the narration. We think he has acted with great judgement in prefixing Hume’s version of the story to his own; for though he is guilty of no such flights of imagination as might distract the thought and divert the attention of his readers, from the tenor of his narrative, yet he drawls it out in such a tiresome, sleepy way, that very few people, by the time they had reached the end of the poem, would be able to tell what they had been reading about.