Life
1817-1882; b. 26 May, Sackville St., Dublin (later of Imperial Hotel);
ed. Maynooth, where he learned Spanish from Catholic priest returned from
Spain; married with 9 children; contrib. verse to Dublin Satirist,
aetat. 17 (April 1834); studied at King’s Inns and called to the
Irish bar, 1846, but did not practice law; edited and intro., The Poets
and Dramatists of Ireland (1846), the first and only volume of Duffy’s
‘Library of Ireland’, prefaced by an essay on early history
and religion of Ireland; ed. The Book of Irish Ballads (1846),
with introductory essay; issued Ballads, Poems and Lyrics (1850),
including original and translated work; contrib. Dublin University
Magazine [generally anonymously PI]; The Irish Monthly; The
Nation [signing ‘Desmond’, Vig., ‘Trifolium’,
‘D F McC’, ‘D-’, and ‘Antonio’], and other
papers, incl. Duffy’s Catholic Magazine for 1847, as ‘S.E.Y’;
considered successor to Moore, on whom he wrote and ‘Ode’; wrote
committee-commissioned poems celebrating Moore and O’Connell (e.g.,
‘The Dead Tribune’); first Professor of English at the Catholic
University, he gave a series of lectures at Catholic University in 1855;
other series on Spanish poets and 16th c. drama; lived mainly at Killiney
Hill but moved to the continent, and then settled in London, after 1864;
Shelley’s praise of Calderon (in an essay) led him to publish six
translations of the plays of the ‘Spanish Shakespeare’ under
the pseudonym ‘J.H.’ (1853), these including Calderon’s
St. Patrick’s Purgatory, with further instalments in 1861,
1867, 1870, and 1873; prolonged visit to the Continent for reasons of
health; settled in London; published Shelley’s Early Life
(1872) including an account of the poet’s visit to Ireland in 1812;
Poems (1882), ed. John McCarthy, his son, contains a previously
unpublished long poem, ‘Ferdiah’, an energetic versification
of Cuchulain’s fight at the ford of Ardree; version of Calderon’s
Daybreak in Capacabana completed a few months before his death;
celebrated poems incl. ‘The Bridal of the Year’, ‘Summer
Longings’ [alias Waiting for the May], and ‘The Voyage of St.
Brendan’, a long narrative poem which contains paraphrase of ‘Ave
Maria Stella’ rendered as the evening song of the sailors; returned
to Dublin shortly before his death; d. 7 April, Blackrock; Rosa Mulholland’s
Life of Sir John Gilbert (1905) contains many references to him;
There is a bust of MacCarthy in the City Hall (Dublin). CAB DNB PI
DBIV RAF DIW DIL GBI MKA JMC FDA OCIL DIL
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Works
Ed. The Book of Irish Ballads (Dublin: Duffy 1846); The
Poets and Dramatists of Ireland (Dublin: Duffy 1846), 252pp.; English
trans., Justina, from Calderón de Barca [signature J.H.]
(London: J. Burns 1848); Ballads, Poems and Lyrics, Original and Translated
(Dublin: McGlashan 1850); English trans., The Dramas of Calderón,
Tragic, Comic and Legendary, from Calderón de Barca(London:
C. Dolman 1853); Ode on the Death of the Earl of Belfast (1856);
Underglimpses [var. Under Glimpses] and Other Poems
(London: David Bogue 1857); The Bell Founder and Other Poems (London:
D. Bogue 1857); Mysteries of Corpus Christi by Calderon de la Barca
(Dublin: James Duffy 1857); Irish Legends and Lyrics (Dublin: McGlashern
& Gill 1858); Love, the Greatest Enchantment, &c, from
Calderón de Barca (1861); English trans., Mysteries of Corpus
Christi by Calderón de la Barca (London: Duffy 1867); English
trans., The Two Lovers of Heaven, from Calderón de Barca
(Dublin: John J. Fowler 1870); Shelley's Early Life from Original Sources
(London: J. C. Holten [1872]); The Wonder Working Magician, from
from Calderón de Barca (1873); The Centenary of Moore,
May 28th, 1879: An Ode [with trans. into Latin from Rev. M.
J. Blacker] (priv, London 1880); Poems (Dublin: Gill 1882), xxii+287pp.,
and Do. [2nd edn.] (Dublin 1884; another edn. 1887).
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Criticism
Freeman’s Journal (10 April, 1882).
Nation (15 April, 1882).
J. S. Crone, ‘A Centenary Sketch,’ Irish Book Lover, 8 (1917).
Matthew Russell, Irish Monthly 10 (1882), also Irish Monthly, 31 (1903, reprint from Donahoe’s Magazine [Russell defends his literary reputation, quoting correspondence].
Ellen M. Clarke, in Dublin Review, 3rd series XL (1883), pp.260-93.
Joep Leerssen, Remembrance and Imagination: Historical and Literary Representations of Ireland in the Nineteenth Century (Cork UP 1996), p.5; pp.110-11; p.137; 140; 143-45; 163; 177.
Mary Cusack, Life of the Liberator (1872 edn), pp.772-74.
Chris Morash, The Hungry Voice (1989), p.190-92.
David Lloyd, Anomalous State: Irish Writing and the Post Colonial Moment (Duke UP 1993), p.25.
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Notes
Charles Read, ed., A Cabinet of Irish Literature (3 vols.,
1876-78) asserts that his Poets and Dramatists of Ireland, (1846)
claims many writers as Irish for the first time.
Alfred M. Williams, ed., Poets and Poetry of Ireland (1881); biog. notice on Denis Florence McCarthy: ‘distinguished in general literature as well as an Irish national poet’; ‘His father was a tradesman, but of ancient family, and his descent has been traced to the MacCauras, or MacCarthaighs, kings of Desmond or Southwestern Munster’. Further, ‘Mr McCarthy’s national poetry is rather didactic than historical or dialectic, with a few exceptions, such as the very spirited balled “The Foray of Con O’Donnell”, in which the portrait of the ancient Irish wolf-dog is very admirable; and he has also some graphic descriptions of national scenery.’ [403].
Dictionary of National Biography, descendant of Irish sept of Maccauras; espoused repeal, contrib. to Nation; admirable trans. of Calderon [and works].
Irish Literature, gen. ed. Justin McCarthy (Washington: Catholic Univ. of America 1904), gives ‘Cease to Do Evil, Learn to Do Well’, and other pieces.
D. J. O’Donoghue, Poets of Ireland (Dublin: Hodges Figgis 1912) notes that his numerous and most of his national pieces were omitted from his collected poems by his son.
John Cooke, The Dublin Book of Irish Verse (Dublin: Hodges Figgis 1909), selects ‘The Dead Tribune’ and other poems, and notes, St. Patrick’s Purgatory, trans. Denis Florence McCarthy 1853).
Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English, The Romantic Period, 1789-1850, Vol. 2 (1980), Bio-Bibl., Poets and Dramatists of Ireland (Duffy 1846); The Spirit of the Nation; Scenes and Stories from the Spanish Stage, 3 vols. (1848), and other works.
Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English: The Romantic Period, 1789-1850 (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1980), Vol. 1:‘D. F. MacCarthy trans. Vigny’, in Dublin University Magazine, XXXII, 192 (Dec. 1848), in ‘sounds and Echoes’, pp.648-58. [46, n.]
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 2 selects from Ballads, Poems and Lyrics, Original and Translated, ‘The Pillar Towers of Ireland’ [‘The pillar towers of Ireland, how wondrously they stand/By the lakes and rushing rivers through the valleys of our land;/In mystic file, through the isle, they lift their heads sublime,/These gray old pillars temples, these conquerors of time!’, and ending, ‘Bright prophets of the future, as preachers of the past!’ 59-60]; cited with translators and collectors Hardiman, Petrie, John O’Daly, Edward Walsh and Douglas Hyde [Seamus Deane, ed.], 5, 113 [Biog.]
Ulster University Library (Morris Collection) holds The Book of Irish Ballads (Duffy 1869) and Poems (1884), 287pp. Belfast Public Library holds Shelley’s Early Life (?1920); Ode on the Death of the Earl of Belfast (1855); Poems (1882, 1887); Underglimpses (1857); Book of Irish Ballads ([1846] 1869, 1881).
Hyland Books (1995 Cat.) lists Poems, 1st edn. (Dublin 1882), xxii+287pp.
“Ode sur Moore” by Denis Florence McCarthy appears
[in French] in H. Hovelaque, Anthologie de la Littérature irlandaise
des Origines au XXe siècle, Paris Libraire Delagrave 1924:
here called ‘poète de valeur qui a publi e sur la jeunesse
de Shelley une œuvre très attachante; il fut également
undees meilleurs rédacteurs de la Nation’ (p.364).
Hovalque was ‘professeur’ at the Lycée Saint-Louis.
Sterile booklover: A writer in the Irish Book Lover, describing Denis Florence McCarthy’s library on Sackville St., calls it more sterile than Thomas Davis’s. (See Irish Book Lover, Vol. 27 [q.d.].)
James Joyce taught at Clifton School, Dalkey, established ‘at Summerfield Lodge, once the residence of minor poet Denis Florence McCarthy [sic] whose name keeps coming up in Finnegans Wake.’ (Richard Ellmann, James Joyce, [1959], 1965 Edn., p.158.
Leopold Bloom’s library in Eccles St. contains Denis Florence MacCarthy’s Poetical Works, with ‘copper beechleaf bookmark at p.5’ (see Ulysses, Bodley Head Edn., p.832.) Note also that his collection Underglimpses becomes, in Finnegans Wake, ‘Denis Florence MacCarthy’ combies’ [i.e., underclothes] (FW200.34-35). See Bishop, Joyce’s Book of the Night (1989), p.350.
Abbey playwright: The Abbey Theatre considered a production of Calderon’s Purgatory in 1910 (see A. N. Jeffares, W. B. Yeats, A New Biography, London: Macmillan 1988, p.339).
St Patrick’s Purgatory: Denis Florence McCarthy calls Luis Ennius, Calderon’s equivalent of Knight Owen in Henry de Saltrey’s Tractatus de Purg. S. Patricii, a ‘heinous hero-villain-convert’ (Poems, Dublin 1884) preface, p.x. (See Robert Hogan, Dictionary of Irish Literature, 1979). Hogan further quotes, ‘An accountable assemblage/All recumbent in fire: /Through their bodies and their members/Burning spikes and nails were driven’. Note also that Edward M. Fitzgerald translated six plays of Calderon in the same year as MacCarthy.
Davis Coakley, in The Importance of Being Irish (1994), establishes a link between Wilde’s "Ballad of Reading Gaol" and a poem by D. F. McCarthy [q.p.].
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)