etty in size may, with great
justice, be said to "creep" in a "petty pace," requiring no less than
ten steps to walk the length of a line.
Pope was criticising compositions intended to pass as poetry of the best
kind. Will [Greek: ph]. point out in any existing poem of such
profession and character, a single heroic line, consisting of _ten_
words, _all_ which _ten_ words shall be "low" in the sense of "vulgar"?
Can even the Muses of burlesque and slang furnish such an instance?
Has not [Greek: ph]. suffered himself to be carried too far by his
exultation in being "down" (the last-named Muse has kindly supplied me
with the expression) upon a piece of verbal carelessness on the part of
K.I.P.B.T.?
* * * * *
REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.
_Concolinel_ (Vol. ii., pp. 217. 317.).--As _Calen O Custore me_, after
sorely puzzling the critics, was at length discovered to be an Irish
air, or the burthen of an Irish song, is it not possible that the
equally outlandish-looking "_Concolinel_" may be only a corruption of
"_Coolin_", that "far-famed melody," as Mr. Bunting terms it in his
_last_ collection of _The Ancient Music of Ireland_ (Dublin, 1840),
where it may be found in a style "more Irish than that of the sets
hitherto published?" And truly it is a "sweet air," well fitted to "make
passionate _the_ sense of hearing," and melt the soul of even Don
Adriano de Armado. The transmogrification of "_Coolin_" into
"_Concolinel_", is hardly more strange than that of "_Cailin og astore
mo_" [_chree_] (=my dear young girl, my [heart's] darling) into _Callino
castore me_.
J.M.B.
DR. RIMBAULT'S communication is very interesting, but not quite
satisfactory, not affording me any means of identifying the air. It
would under most circumstances, have given me much pleasure to have lent
DR. R. the MS., for I know no one so likely to make good use of it; but
the fact is, that without pretending to compete with DR. RIMBAULT in the
knowledge of old music, I have also meditated a similar work on the
ballads and music of Shakspeare, and my chief source is the volume which
is said to contain the air of Concolinel. It will be some time before I
can execute the work alluded to, and I would prefer to see the Doctor's
work published first. Whichever first appears will most likely
anticipate much that is in the other, for, although Dr. R. says he has
spent "many years" on the subject, the accidental possessi
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