Collection P88 - Thomas Moore Letters and Corrected Poem

4 items

ore, Thomas (1779–1852), writer and musician, was born 28 May 1779 at 12 Aungier Street, Dublin, the first child of John Moore and his wife, Anastasia (née Codd). He went to Trinity, and after some time in Bermuda returned to England, and in 1808 his most famous work "Moore's Irish Melodies" was published. His musical works were very popular, and he would also earn a reputation in the early nineteenth century as a satirist. He spent some time in France during financial difficulties, before returning to England in 1822 until his death in 1852. Moore's posthumous reputation as a Georgian sentimentalist, which endures to the present day, has almost wholly eclipsed the true nature of his achievement in music and letters, to say nothing of his fame as a political satirist and his monumental undertakings in biography, poetry, fiction, and history. He was among the most widely noticed and famous writers of the romantic generation not only in Britain and Ireland, but throughout Europe and the United States, and his published work was formative in many spheres of public opinion (notably Ireland, the catholic question, and slavery). His Irish melodies defined the reception of music in Ireland for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, specifically with regard to the politicisation of folk music which Moore himself helped to encourage, and they consolidated the notion that art music in Ireland should function exclusively as a vital but dependent intelligencer of verbal meaning.
This material was acquired by the James Hardiman Library in 2006. Some of the material appears to to have been offered for sale earlier by American book-sellers in 1931.

Four items associated with Thomas Moore. The first letter is from Thomas Moore to [James Power], Moore's music publisher, stating his intention to forward a parcel to him that night, including a song for John Braham, a noted tenor at the time. He also forwards a Bank Post Bill. "I have just eaten your salmon and it was super-excellent" (22 Apr 1815). The second letter is possibly also addressed to [James Power] asks him to call into Bicknell's hatters at the corner of Old Bond St. and procure for him a light hat. He also says that he has written two sacred songs that he might get his opinion on. He was delighted to see two pieces performed at the Covent Garden Oratories "But why don't you make them announce "Hark, the Vesper Hymn" is from Moore's National Melodies?" (6 May, 1819). Letter to Mrs. Bowles asking what herself and Getterie had arranged for Wednesday, commenting that Bessy would like Mrs. Napier to come along. (1826). The fourth item is a corrected version of a printed version of "Ode to Don Miguel", with handwritten amendments by Thomas Moore, along with a typescript version incorporating the amendments. The poem was written around 1813, and is a satirical poem on George, then Regent, later George IV. In 1813 Moore published "Two Twopenny Post Bag", which consisted of satires about the behaviour of the Regent at the time.

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V. Ní Chinnéide, ‘The sources of Moore's melodies’, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, lxxxix/2 (1959), 109–54; W. S. Dowden (ed.), The letters of Thomas Moore (1964); E. MacWhite, ‘Thomas Moore and Poland’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, lxxii C (1972), 49–62; H. H. Jordan, Bolt upright: the life of Thomas Moore (1975); T. Tessier, La poésie lyrique de Thomas Moore, 1779–1852 (1976); S. Deane, ‘Thomas Moore’, in Deane (ed.), The Field day anthology of Irish literature (1991), i, 1053–6; H. White, The keeper's recital: music and cultural history in Ireland, 1770–1970 (1998) The John J Burns Library, Chestnut Hill, holds the Thomas Moore Collection. See http://irishliterature.library.emory.edu/content.php?id=moorethomas_10225 .

Catalog

02/09/2014
25/07/2025