Castle Rackrent

M >> Maria Edgeworth >> Castle Rackrent


If you want to know any more, I'm not very well able to tell you; but
my Lady Rackrent did not die, as was expected of her, but was only
disfigured in the face ever after by the fall and bruises she got; and
she and Jason, immediately after my poor master's death, set about going
to law about that jointure; the memorandum not being on stamped paper,
some say it is worth nothing, others again it may do; others say Jason
won't have the lands at any rate; many wishes it so. For my part, I'm
tired wishing for anything in this world, after all I've seen in it; but
I'll say nothing--it would be a folly to be getting myself ill-will
in my old age. Jason did not marry, nor think of marrying Judy, as I
prophesied, and I am not sorry for it: who is? As for all I have here
set down from memory and hearsay of the family, there's nothing but
truth in it from beginning to end. That you may depend upon, for where's
the use of telling lies about the things which everybody knows as well
as I do?

The Editor could have readily made the catastrophe of Sir Condy's
history more dramatic and more pathetic, if he thought it allowable to
varnish the plain round tale of faithful Thady. He lays it before the
English reader as a specimen of manners and characters which are perhaps
unknown in England. Indeed, the domestic habits of no nation in Europe
were less known to the English than those of their sister country, till
within these few years.

Mr. Young's picture of Ireland, in his tour through that country, was
the first faithful portrait of its inhabitants. All the features in the
foregoing sketch were taken from the life, and they are characteristic
of that mixture of quickness, simplicity, cunning, carelessness,
dissipation, disinterestedness, shrewdness, and blunder, which, in
different forms and with various success, has been brought upon the
stage or delineated in novels.

It is a problem of difficult solution to determine whether a union will
hasten or retard the amelioration of this country. The few gentlemen of
education who now reside in this country will resort to England. They
are few, but they are in nothing inferior to men of the same rank in
Great Britain. The best that can happen will be the introduction of
British manufacturers in their places.

Did the Warwickshire militia, who were chiefly artisans, teach the Irish
to drink beer? or did they learn from the Irish to drink whisky?




GLOSSARY

SOME FRIENDS, WHO HAVE SEEN THADY'S HISTORY SINCE IT HAS BEEN PRINTED
HAVE SUGGESTED TO THE EDITOR, THAT MANY OF THE TERMS AND IDIOMATIC
PHRASES, WITH WHICH IT ABOUNDS, COULD NOT BE INTELLIGIBLE TO THE ENGLISH
READER WITHOUT FURTHER EXPLANATION. THE EDITOR HAS THEREFORE FURNISHED
THE FOLLOWING GLOSSARY.



GLOSSARY 1. MONDAY MORNING--

Thady begins his memoirs of the Rackrent Family by dating MONDAY
MORNING, because no great undertaking can be auspiciously commenced in
Ireland on any morning but MONDAY MORNING. 'Oh, please God we live till
Monday morning, we'll set the slater to mend the roof of the house. On
Monday morning we'll fall to, and cut the turf. On Monday morning we'll
see and begin mowing. On Monday morning, please your honour, we'll begin
and dig the potatoes,' etc.

All the intermediate days, between the making of such speeches and the
ensuing Monday, are wasted: and when Monday morning comes, it is ten to
one that the business is deferred to THE NEXT Monday morning. The Editor
knew a gentleman, who, to counteract this prejudice, made his workmen
and labourers begin all new pieces of work upon a Saturday.



GLOSSARY 2. LET ALONE THE THREE KINGDOMS ITSELF.

--LET ALONE, in this sentence, means put out of consideration. The
phrase, let alone, which is now used as the imperative of a verb, may in
time become a conjunction, and may exercise the ingenuity of some future
etymologist. The celebrated Horne Tooke has proved most satisfactorily,
that the conjunction but comes from the imperative of the Anglo-Saxon
verb (BEOUTAN) TO BE OUT; also, that IF comes from GIF, the imperative
of the Anglo-Saxon verb which signifies TO GIVE, etc.



GLOSSARY 3. WHILLALUH.

--Ullaloo, Gol, or lamentation over the dead--

Magnoque ululante tumultu.--VIRGIL.

Ululatibus omne
Implevere nemus.--OVID.

A full account of the Irish Gol, or Ullaloo, and of the Caoinan or Irish
funeral song, with its first semichorus, second semichorus, full chorus
of sighs and groans, together with the Irish words and music, may
be found in the fourth volume of the TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL IRISH
ACADEMY. For the advantage of LAZY readers, who would rather read a page
than walk a yard, and from compassion, not to say sympathy, with their
infirmity, the Editor transcribes the following passages:--

'The Irish have been always remarkable for their funeral lamentations;
and this peculiarity has been noticed by almost every traveller who
visited them; and it seems derived from their Celtic ancestors, the
primaeval inhabitants of this isle. . . .

'It has been affirmed of the Irish, that to cry was more natural to them
than to any other nation, and at length the Irish cry became proverbial.
. . . .

'Cambrensis in the twelfth century says, the Irish then musically
expressed their griefs; that is, they applied the musical art, in
which they excelled all others, to the orderly celebration of funeral
obsequies, by dividing the mourners into two bodies, each alternately
singing their part, and the whole at times joining in full chorus. . . .
The body of the deceased, dressed in grave clothes, and ornamented with
flowers, was placed on a bier, or some elevated spot. The relations and
keepers (SINGING MOURNERS) ranged themselves in two divisions, one
at the head, and the other at the feet of the corpse. The bards and
croteries had before prepared the funeral Caoinan. The chief bard of the
head chorus began by singing the first stanza, in a low, doleful tone,
which was softly accompanied by the harp: at the conclusion, the foot
semichorus began the lamentation, or Ullaloo, from the final note of the
preceding stanza, in which they were answered by the head semichorus;
then both united in one general chorus. The chorus of the first stanza
being ended, the chief bard of the foot semichorus began the second Gol
or lamentation, in which he was answered by that of the head; and then,
as before, both united in the general full chorus. Thus alternately were
the song and choruses performed during the night. The genealogy, rank,
possessions, the virtues and vices of the dead were rehearsed, and a
number of interrogations were addressed to the deceased; as, Why did he
die? If married, whether his wife was faithful to him, his sons dutiful,
or good hunters or warriors? If a woman, whether her daughters were fair
or chaste? If a young man, whether he had been crossed in love; or if
the blue-eyed maids of Erin treated him with scorn?'

We are told, that formerly the feet (the metrical feet) of the Caoinan
were much attended to; but on the decline of the Irish bards these feet
were gradually neglected, and the Caoinan fell into a sort of slipshod
metre amongst women. Each province had different Caoinans, or at least
different imitations of the original. There was the Munster cry, the
Ulster cry, etc. It became an extempore performance, and every set of
keepers varied the melody according to their own fancy.

It is curious to observe how customs and ceremonies degenerate. The
present Irish cry, or howl, cannot boast of such melody, nor is the
funeral procession conducted with much dignity. The crowd of people who
assemble at these funerals sometimes amounts to a thousand, often to
four or five hundred. They gather as the bearers of the hearse proceed
on their way, and when they pass through any village, or when they
come near any houses, they begin to cry--Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Agh! Agh!
raising their notes from the first OH! to the last AGH! in a kind of
mournful howl. This gives notice to the inhabitants of the village that
a FUNERAL IS PASSING and immediately they flock out to follow it. In
the province of Munster it is a common thing for the women to follow a
funeral, to join in the universal cry with all their might and main for
some time, and then to turn and ask--'Arrah! who is it that's dead?--who
is it we're crying for?' Even the poorest people have their own
burying-places--that is, spots of ground in the churchyards where
they say that their ancestors have been buried ever since the wars of
Ireland; and if these burial-places are ten miles from the place where
a man dies, his friends and neighbours take care to carry his corpse
thither. Always one priest, often five or six priests, attend these
funerals; each priest repeats a mass, for which he is paid, sometimes a
shilling, sometimes half a crown, sometimes half a guinea, or a guinea,
according to their circumstances, or, as they say, according to the
ability of the deceased. After the burial of any very poor man, who has
left a widow or children, the priest makes what is called a COLLECTION
for the widow; he goes round to every person present, and each
contributes sixpence or a shilling, or what they please. The reader will
find in the note upon the word WAKE, more particulars respecting the
conclusion of the Irish funerals.

Certain old women, who cry particularly loud and well are in great
request, and, as a man said to the Editor, 'Every one would wish and be
proud to have such at his funeral, or at that of his friends.' The lower
Irish are wonderfully eager to attend the funerals of their friends
and relations, and they make their relationships branch out to a great
extent. The proof that a poor man has been well beloved during his life
is his having a crowded funeral. To attend a neighbour's funeral is a
cheap proof of humanity, but it does not, as some imagine, cost nothing.
The time spent in attending funerals may be safely valued at half a
million to the Irish nation; the Editor thinks that double that
sum would not be too high an estimate. The habits of profligacy
and drunkenness which are acquired at WAKES are here put out of the
question. When a labourer, a carpenter, or a smith, is not at his work,
which frequently happens, ask where he is gone, and ten to one the
answer is--'Oh, faith, please your honour, he couldn't do a stroke
to-day, for he's gone to THE funeral.'

Even beggars, when they grow old, go about begging FOR THEIR OWN
FUNERALS that is, begging for money to buy a coffin, candles, pipes, and
tobacco. For the use of the candles, pipes, and tobacco, see WAKE.

Those who value customs in proportion to their antiquity, and nations in
proportion to their adherence to ancient customs, will doubtless admire
the Irish ULLALOO, and the Irish nation, for persevering in this usage
from time immemorial. The Editor, however, has observed some alarming
symptoms, which seem to prognosticate the declining taste for the
Ullaloo in Ireland. In a comic theatrical entertainment, represented not
long since on the Dublin stage, a chorus of old women was introduced,
who set up the Irish howl round the relics of a physician, who is
supposed to have fallen under the wooden sword of Harlequin. After the
old women have continued their Ullaloo for a decent time, with all the
necessary accompaniments of wringing their hands, wiping or rubbing
their eyes with the corners of their gowns or aprons, etc., one of the
mourners suddenly suspends her lamentable cries, and, turning to her
neighbour, asks, 'Arrah now, honey, who is it we're crying for?'



GLOSSARY 4. THE TENANTS WERE SENT AWAY WITHOUT THEIR WHISKY.

--It is usual with some landlords to give their inferior tenants a glass
of whisky when they pay their rents. Thady calls it THEIR whisky; not
that the whisky is actually the property of the tenants, but that it
becomes their RIGHT after it has been often given to them. In this
general mode of reasoning respecting RIGHTS the lower Irish are not
singular, but they are peculiarly quick and tenacious in claiming these
rights. 'Last year your honour gave me some straw for the roof of my
house and I EXPECT your honour will be after doing the same this year.'
In this manner gifts are frequently turned into tributes. The high and
low are not always dissimilar in their habits. It is said, that the
Sublime Ottoman Forte is very apt to claim gifts as tributes: thus it is
dangerous to send the Grand Seignor a fine horse on his birthday one
year, lest on his next birthday he should expect a similar present, and
should proceed to demonstrate the reasonableness of his expectations.



GLOSSARY 5. HE DEMEANED HIMSELF GREATLY--

Means, he lowered or disgraced himself much.



GLOSSARY 6. DUTY FOWLS, DUTY TURKEYS, AND DUTY GEESE.--

In many leases in Ireland, tenants were formerly bound to supply an
inordinate quantity of poultry to their landlords. The Editor knew of
thirty turkeys being reserved in one lease of a small farm.



GLOSSARY 7. ENGLISH TENANTS.--

An English tenant does not mean a tenant who is an Englishman, but a
tenant who pays his rent the day that it is due. It is a common
prejudice in Ireland, amongst the poorer classes of people, to believe
that all tenants in England pay their rents on the very day when they
become due. An Irishman, when he goes to take a farm, if he wants to
prove to his landlord that he is a substantial man, offers to become an
ENGLISH TENANT. If a tenant disobliges his landlord by voting against
him, or against his opinion, at an election, the tenant is immediately
informed by the agent that he must become an ENGLISH TENANT. This threat
does not imply that he is to change his language or his country, but
that he must pay all the arrear of rent which he owes, and that he must
thenceforward pay his rent on that day when it becomes due.



GLOSSARY 8. CANTING--

Does not mean talking or writing hypocritical nonsense, but selling
substantially by auction.



GLOSSARY 9. DUTY WORK.--

It was formerly common in Ireland to insert clauses in leases, binding
tenants to furnish their landlords with labourers and horses for several
days in the year. Much petty tyranny and oppression have resulted from
this feudal custom. Whenever a poor man disobliged his landlord, the
agent sent to him for his duty work; and Thady does not exaggerate when
he says, that the tenants were often called from their own work to do
that of their landlord. Thus the very means of earning their rent were
taken from them: whilst they were getting home their landlord's harvest,
their own was often ruined, and yet their rents were expected to be paid
as punctually as if their time had been at their own disposal. This
appears the height of absurd injustice.

In Esthonia, amongst the poor Sclavonian race of peasant slaves, they
pay tributes to their lords, not under the name of duty work, duty
geese, duty turkeys, etc., but under the name of RIGHTEOUSNESSES. The
following ballad is a curious specimen of Esthonian poetry:--

This is the cause that the country is ruined,
And the straw of the thatch is eaten away,
The gentry are come to live in the land--
Chimneys between the village,
And the proprietor upon the white floor!
The sheep brings forth a lamb with a white forehead,
This is paid to the lord for a RIGHTEOUSNESS SHEEP.
The sow farrows pigs,
They go to the spit of the lord.
The hen lays eggs,
They go into the lord's frying-pan.
The cow drops a male calf,
That goes into the lord's herd as a bull.
The mare foals a horse foal,
That must be for my lord's nag.
The boor's wife has sons,
They must go to look after my lord's poultry.



GLOSSARY 10. OUT OF FORTY-NINE SUITS WHICH HE HAD, HE NEVER LOST ONE
BUT SEVENTEEN.

--Thady's language in this instance is a specimen of a mode of rhetoric
common in Ireland. An astonishing assertion is made in the beginning of
a sentence, which ceases to be in the least surprising, when you hear
the qualifying explanation that follows. Thus a man who is in the last
stage of staggering drunkenness will, if he can articulate, swear to
you--'Upon his conscience now, and may he never stir from the spot alive
if he is telling a lie, upon his conscience he has not tasted a drop of
anything, good or bad, since morning at-all-at-all, but half a pint of
whisky, please your honour.'



GLOSSARY 11. FAIRY MOUNTS

--Barrows. It is said that these high mounts were of great service to
the natives of Ireland when Ireland was invaded by the Danes. Watch was
always kept on them, and upon the approach of an enemy a fire was
lighted to give notice to the next watch, and thus the intelligence was
quickly communicated through the country. SOME YEARS AGO, the common
people believed that these barrows were inhabited by fairies, or, as
they called them, by the GOOD PEOPLE. 'Oh, troth, to the best of my
belief, and to the best of my judgment and opinion,' said an elderly man
to the Editor, 'it was only the old people that had nothing to do, and
got together, and were telling stories about them fairies, but to the
best of my judgment there's nothing in it. Only this I heard myself not
very many years back from a decent kind of a man, a grazier, that, as he
was coming just FAIR AND EASY (QUIETLY) from the fair, with some cattle
and sheep, that he had not sold, just at the church of ---at an angle of
the road like, he was met by a good-looking man, who asked him where he
was going? And he answered, "Oh, far enough, I must be going all night."
"No, that you mustn't nor won't (says the man), you'll sleep with me the
night, and you'll want for nothing, nor your cattle nor sheep neither,
nor your BEAST (HORSE); so come along with me." With that the grazier
LIT (ALIGHTED) from his horse, and it was dark night; but presently he
finds himself, he does not know in the wide world how, in a fine house,
and plenty of everything to eat and drink; nothing at all wanting that
he could wish for or think of. And he does not MIND (RECOLLECT or KNOW)
how at last he falls asleep; and in the morning he finds himself lying,
not in ever a bed or a house at all, but just in the angle of the road
where first he met the strange man: there he finds himself lying on his
back on the grass, and all his sheep feeding as quiet as ever all round
about him, and his horse the same way, and the bridle of the beast over
his wrist. And I asked him what he thought of it; and from first to last
he could think of nothing, but for certain sure it must have been the
fairies that entertained him so well. For there was no house to see
anywhere nigh hand, or any building, or barn, or place at all, but only
the church and the MOTE (BARROW). There's another odd thing enough that
they tell about this same church, that if any person's corpse, that had
not a right to be buried in that churchyard, went to be burying there in
it, no, not all the men, women, or childer in all Ireland could get the
corpse anyway into the churchyard; but as they would be trying to go
into the churchyard, their feet would seem to be going backwards instead
of forwards; ay, continually backwards the whole funeral would seem to
go; and they would never set foot with the corpse in the churchyard. Now
they say that it is the fairies do all this; but it is my opinion it is
all idle talk, and people are after being wiser now.

The country people in Ireland certainly HAD great admiration mixed with
reverence, if not dread, of fairies. They believed that beneath these
fairy mounts were spacious subterraneous palaces, inhabited by THE GOOD
PEOPLE, who must not on any account be disturbed. When the wind raises
a little eddy of dust upon the road, the poor people believe that it is
raised by the fairies, that it is a sign that they are journeying from
one of the fairies' mounts to another, and they say to the fairies, or
to the dust as it passes, 'God speed ye, gentlemen; God speed ye.' This
averts any evil that THE GOOD PEOPLE might be inclined to do them. There
are innumerable stories told of the friendly and unfriendly feats of
these busy fairies; some of these tales are ludicrous, and some romantic
enough for poetry. It is a pity that poets should lose such convenient,
though diminutive machinery. By the bye, Parnell, who showed himself
so deeply 'skilled in faerie lore,' was an Irishman; and though he
has presented his fairies to the world in the ancient English dress
of 'Britain's isle, and Arthur's days,' it is probable that his first
acquaintance with them began in his native country.

Some remote origin for the most superstitious or romantic popular
illusions or vulgar errors may often be discovered. In Ireland, the old
churches and churchyards have been usually fixed upon as the scenes of
wonders. Now antiquaries tell us, that near the ancient churches in
that kingdom caves of various constructions have from time to time been
discovered, which were formerly used as granaries or magazines by the
ancient inhabitants, and as places to which they retreated in time
of danger. There is (p.84 of the R. I. A. TRANSACTIONS for 1789) a
particular account of a number of these artificial caves at the west
end of the church of Killossy, in the county of Kildare. Under a rising
ground, in a dry sandy soil, these subterraneous dwellings were found:
they have pediment roofs, and they communicate with each other by small
apertures. In the Brehon laws these are mentioned, and there are fines
inflicted by those laws upon persons who steal from the subterraneous
granaries. All these things show that there was a real foundation for
the stories which were told of the appearance of lights, and of the
sounds of voices, near these places. The persons who had property
concealed there, very willingly countenanced every wonderful relation
that tended to make these places objects of sacred awe or superstitious
terror.



GLOSSARY 12. WEED ASHES.

--By ancient usage in Ireland, all the weeds on a farm belonged to the
farmer's wife, or to the wife of the squire who holds the ground in his
own hands. The great demand for alkaline salts in bleaching rendered
these ashes no inconsiderable perquisite.



GLOSSARY 13. SEALING MONEY.

--Formerly it was the custom in Ireland for tenants to give the squire's
lady from two to fifty guineas as a perquisite upon the sealing of their
leases. The Editor not very long since knew of a baronet's lady
accepting fifty guineas as sealing money, upon closing a bargain for a
considerable farm.



GLOSSARY 14. SIR MURTAGH GREW MAD

--Sir Murtagh grew angry.



GLOSSARY 15. THE WHOLE KITCHEN WAS OUT ON THE STAIRS

--means that all the inhabitants of the kitchen came out of the kitchen,
and stood upon the stairs. These, and similar expressions, show how much
the Irish are disposed to metaphor and amplification.



GLOSSARY 16. FINING DOWN THE YEAR'S RENT.

--When an Irish gentleman, like Sir Kit Rackrent, has lived beyond his
income, and finds himself distressed for ready money, tenants obligingly
offer to take his land at a rent far below the value, and to pay him a
small sum of money in hand, which they call fining down the yearly rent.
The temptation of this ready cash often blinds the landlord to his
future interest.



GLOSSARY 17. DRIVER.

--A man who is employed to drive tenants for rent; that is, to drive the
cattle belonging to tenants to pound. The office of driver is by no
means a sinecure.



GLOSSARY 18. I THOUGHT TO MAKE HIM A PRIEST.

--It was customary amongst those of Thady's rank in Ireland, whenever
they could get a little money, to send their sons abroad to St. Omer's,
or to Spain, to be educated as priests. Now they are educated at
Maynooth. The Editor has lately known a young lad, who began by being a
post-boy, afterwards turn into a carpenter, then quit his plane and
work-bench to study his HUMANITIES, as he said, at the college of
Maynooth; but after he had gone through his course of Humanities, he
determined to be a soldier instead of a priest.



GLOSSARY 19. FLAM.

--Short for flambeau.



GLOSSARY 20. BARRACK-ROOM.

--Formerly it was customary, in gentlemen's houses in Ireland, to fit up
one large bedchamber with a number of beds for the reception of
occasional visitors. These rooms were called Barrack-rooms.



GLOSSARY 21. AN INNOCENT

--in Ireland, means a simpleton, an idiot.



GLOSSARY 22. THE CURRAGH

--is the Newmarket of Ireland.



GLOSSARY 23. THE CANT

--The auction.



GLOSSARY 24. AND SO SHOULD CUT HIM OFF FOR EVER BY LEVYING A FINE,

AND SUFFERING A RECOVERY TO DOCK THE ENTAIL.--The English reader may
perhaps be surprised at the extent of Thady's legal knowledge, and at
the fluency with which he pours forth law-terms; but almost every poor
man in Ireland, be he farmer, weaver, shopkeeper, ox steward, is,
besides his other occupations, occasionally a lawyer. The nature of
processes, ejectments, custodiams, injunctions, replevins, etc., is
perfectly known to them, and the terms as familiar to them as to any
attorney. They all love law. It is a kind of lottery, in which every
man, staking his own wit or cunning against his neighbour's property,
feels that he has little to lose, and much to gain.