G[eorge] F[rancis] Savage Armstrong
Life
1845-1906 [George Savage Armstrong ]; b. 5 May, Co. Down; Prof. of English
and History, Queen’s College, Cork; contender for laureateship after
Tennyson; edited the poems of his gifted younger brother Edmund Armstrong
(d.1865); wrote extensively on his mother’s family, the Savages of
the Ards Peninsula, and received a DLitt from QUB (1891); S. Shannan Millis
lectured on Armstrong to the Irish Literary Society, 30 March 1920. CAB
DNB PI DBIV DIL MKA OCIL
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Works
Poems (London: E. Moxon 1869), vii. 155pp.; Poems: Lyrical and
Dramatic [new edn.] (London: Moxon 1873), and Do., 3rd edn.
new ed. (1873; 3rd ed. 1892), viii. 340pp.; Ugone, A Tragedy
(London: E. Moxon 1870); The Tragedy of Israel, 3 vols. (London:
Longmans 1872-1876); A Garland from Greece (London: Longmans, Green
& Co. 1882), 360pp.; Stories of Wicklow (London: Longmans 1886;
3 edns.), xii, 431pp.; ed., Ancient and Noble Line of the Savages of
Ards (1888); Victoria Regina et Imperatrix (London:
Longmans 1887); and Mephistopheles in Broadcloth (London: Longmans
1888); One in the Infinite (London: Longmans 1891); Queen Empress
and Empire 1837-1897 (Belfast: W. Ward 1897); Ballads of Down (London:
Longmans 1901); A Genealogical History of the Savage Family in Ulster
(1906); S. Shannan Millin, ed., Poems, National and International,
A Selection (Dublin: Ponsonby 1917).
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- Austen Clarke, ‘Gaelic Ireland Rediscovered’, in Seán Lucy, Irish Poets in English, (Dublin: Mercier 1972);
- Shannon Millin [sic], Irish Book Lover Vol. XI, No. 10 (May 1920);
- W. B. Yeats, Autobiographies (London: Macmillan & Co1955), pp.409-10
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Notes
Dictionary of National Biography, bio-dates
1845-1906; poet, br. Edmund John Armstrong, published verse incl. Poems
Lyrical and Dramatic (1869) and Stories of Wicklow (1886);
Queen’s College Cork, Prof. of History and English Lit., 1870-1905;
DLitt, QUB, 1891.
Peter Kavanagh, The Irish Theatre: Being a History of the Drama in Ireland from the Earliest Period up to the Present Day (Tralee: Kerryman 1946), George Francis Armstrong, 1845-1906; Ugone, 5 act tragedy (1870); The Tragedy of Israel in three parts, King Saul (1872), King David (1874), and King Solomon (1876).
John Cooke, ed., Dublin Book of Irish Verse 1728-1909 (Dublin: Hodges, Figgis 1909), gives "Glens of Wicklow"; "Lugnaquillia"; "Home-Longings"; "Silence"; "Summer Rhyme"; "Helen’s Tower (65).
Justin McCarthy, Irish Literature (Washington: Catholic University of America 1904), gives poems incl. "The Scalp".
British Library holds Ballads of Down (1901); One in the Infinite (1891); Garland for Greece (1892); Poems, (1869), vii, 155pp.; Poems Lyrical and Dramatic, new edn. (1873; 3rd edn. 1892), viii, 340pp.; Queen Empress and Empire 1837-1897 (1886), verse; Stories of Wicklow (1886 & 3 edns.), verse, xii, 431pp.; Victoria Regina (1887); S. Shannan Millin, ed., Poems National and International: a selection (Ponsonby, Dublin 1917).
Belfast Public Library holds Ballads of Down (1901); Mephistopheles in Broadcloth (1892); One in the Infinitive (1891); Poems, Lyrical and Dramatic (1892); Poems, National and International (1919); Queen-Empress and Empire 1837-1897 (1897); Stories of Wicklow (1892); Ugone, A Tragedy (1892). Also ed., A Genealogical History of the Savage Family in Ulster (1906), and ed., Savages of Ards (1888).
Linen Hall Library, Belfast, holds Ancient and Noble Line of the Savages of Ards (1888); Mulganey MSS. .
COPAC lists George Savage Armstrong, A Garland from Greece (London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1882), [2],360,[2],11,[3]pp. under Samuel Ferguson
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T. W. Rolleston could find ‘no influence
of the Celtic literary tradition,’ but thought Armstong the most
important poet ‘outside the Celtic tradition since the time when
Ferguson and Mangan began to lead the waters from that ancient source
into the channels of modern Irish verse.’
Postcript: S. Shann[a]n Millin’s posthumous edition of Armstrong, Poems, National and International, (Dublin: Ponsonby 1917) is is ‘Dedicated to Lieu-Col. Francis S. N. Savage-Armstrong and Maj. William H. K. Redmond and all other brave Irishmen, this volume includes a copy of a letter from Powerscourt to John Redmond with condolences at the death of William Redmond, his brother, 7 June 1917’; also a ‘last message’ from William, Irish Life (14 May 1917), calling for Irishmen to join the Irish Divisions after the entry of America into the war; quotes poem, “The Poet’s Address to his Mother” and contains photograph of the poet’s home, Beech Hurst, Bray during 1891-1905.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)