Matheson Collection > Measgra dánta

NOTES 63
3
The author, probably in ridicule of a certain type of would-be poet,
strings together, with mock gravity, a number of platitudes.
The short poem (no. 4) that follows is similarly built up, as is also
another short poem (not printed here) beginning hear iasg i mBaile
Shoe (23 A 45, p. 15). In the Scottish Book of the Dean of Lismore
(p. 165 of the MS.) there is a poem of the same type ; it is ascribed
(probably wrongly) to Gofraidh Fionn [Ó Dálaigh], and the first
quatrain transliterated would run somewhat as follows :
Do-nithear lionta don lion ;
don tsiol do-nithear an lionn ;
iomdha troigh as so go Róimh ;
is mór na slóigh do bhi ag Fionn.
Similarly Dáiví Ó Bruadair's Ld Lúnasa spiúnaid lucht saidhbhreasa
(I. T. S0C.5 xi, 70) is deUberate doggerel, full of obvious truisms or of
what were meant as such, the writer's object in composing it being
revealed in the final quatrain :
An uair na cluinim cion ar chéill i nduain, . . .
Is guagán gUog, dom thuigse, an dréacht is dual !
Séamus Mac Cuarta's Ni méféin a chuir an chéadchloch i gcaiseal Dhroi-
chead-dth (F. v. 3, p. 177) is a later example of the same type.
Sources. I have collated eight copies of the poem, but only three
need be referred to here, viz., 23 D 4, p. 225 ; 23 L 27, p. 89 ; 23 G 25,
p. 335 bis. The poem is anonymous in nearly all the MSS., including
D and L ; but G (written by Ml. Óg Ó Longáin) gives the heading :
On Chdinte cct. .i. duanóg dhúnta dheaighdhéanta.
MS. Readings. D, the oldest copy, is that mainly followed; de-
partiures from it are indicated below. L omits q. 5, but a later hand
inserts it. Most MSS., including L, omit the final q., but D and G
have it. G omits q. 2, and interchanges qq, 5 and 6. In 11. i, 3, 20,
24 D has bia for bi of the other MSS. 6 churthur D. 7 gach MSS.
8 da threise L ; fleasgach D ; dd threise is also the reading in E. iv. 3,
p. 5, where 11. 5-8 are quoted in a grammatical tract. 9 tortn D. 11
go LG ; an ghó D. 14 a mbaile LG. 16 corr DL ; tonn G. 18 luach
L; luacht D. 23 neach LG ; fear D. 25 dóith DG ; dóigh L. 26 is
minic L ; fuath Horn D ; fuaith Horn G. 29 is] om. D. 32 ag seilg G.