My Own Dark Maiden

DESCRIPTION: "Not a youth from Dublin town Unto Galway of renown,. but is laden... with love-gifts to thee... My own dark maiden." He could find a girl elsewhere, "But could I have my choice, How much I wold rejoice To wed thee, my dark maiden of all yet."
AUTHOR: English version by James Clarence Mangan (1803-1849)
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Hyde, Abhráin grádh chúige Connacht)
KEYWORDS: love poverty
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 285-286, "My Own dark Maiden" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Douglas Hyde, _Abhráin grádh chúige Connacht, or, Love songs of Connacht_, T. F. Unwin, 1893 (available on Google Books), p. 113, "(Not a youth from Dublin town" (1 text, apparently with an Irish original)
Roud #15017
NOTES [707 words]: "The Dark Girl of the Valley" and "My Own Dark Maiden," both printed by Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, have common elements; it appears that the middle section of the two poems are different translations of the same Gaelic original, the first apparently by Douglas Hyde, the latter by James Clarence Mangan. If any proof were needed that Shoemaker's versions came from Hyde, and not from true oral tradition, it is the fact that Shoemaker's "My Own Dark Maiden" includes *only* the portion of Mangan's text printed by Hyde (that is, the parts with parallels to "The Dark Girl of the Valley"), dropping all the rest of Mangan's text; as Hyde says, "The two songs are altogether different from one another, except in these two verses" (meaning that the cross-fertilization is in the Gaelic, not the English) -- but the common element is all that Shoemaker prints of Mangan.
According to Benet/Murphy, p. 515, Douglas Hyde (Gaelic name Dubhglas deh-Ide, 1860-1949) was an "Irish poet, scholar, and statesman. The first president of Eire (1938-1945), he wrote much of his work in Irish and devoted himself to the restoration of Irish culture. He was one of the many founders of the ABBEY THEATRE and wrote many books on Irish history, literature and folklore. His Love Songs of Connaught (1894) is a classic compilation."
Foster, pp. 447-448, note CCVIII, says "Douglas Hyde (1860-1947): born in Sligo; educated at Trinity College, Dublin; co-founded the Irish Literary Society in London, 1891, and President of the National Literary Society, Dublin, 1892; co-founder and find President of the Gaelic League, 1893; wrote the first modern play in the Irish language, Casadh an tSuágín, 1901; sat on the Commissions for Irish Secondary and University Education, 1901 and 1906; Professor of Modern Irish at the National University of Ireland, 1908-32; resigned as President of the Gaelic League upon its politicization, 1915; Irish Free State Senator, 1925-6; President of the Irish Republic, 1938. Major works: Love Song of Connacht, 1893, and A Literary History of Ireland, 1899. An autobiography, Mise agus an Conradh, 1931."
Power, pp. 163-164, "[T]he major influences from the old Gaelic literature at this time [the period around 1900] came through the translation of Gaelic folkverse by Dr Douglas Hyde. His three books, Love-Songs of Connacht (1893), Songs Ascribed to Raferty (1903), and Religious Songs of Connacht (1906) were the fruit of some years spent collecting verse from the Connacht peasantry and were issued with translations which were almost literal. The poems were seized avidly by many of the poets and poems were adapted by some, while others, such as Yeats, used turns of phrase found in the translations. The first two books were most influential in this regard.... Hyde's influence was a major one."
Biographies include (probably not a comprehensive list):
-- Gareth Dunleavy, Douglas Hyde, Bucknell University Press, 1974 (a small volume of just 92 pages, according to Google Books)
-- Janet Egleson Dunleavy, Gareth W. Dunleay, Douglas Hyde: A Maker of Modern Ireland, University of California Press, 1991 (presumably based partly on the preceding, but five times as long!)
-- Diarmid Coffey/Diarmid O. Cobhthaigh, Douglas Hyde, President of Ireland (1917?)
-- Gerard Murphy, Douglas Hyde 1860-1949, Educational Company of Ireland, 1949
See also:
-- Colm O Lochlainn, The Literary Achievement of Douglas Hyde (1938?)
-- Patrick Sarsfield O'Hegarty, A Bibliography of Dr. Douglas Hyde, privately printed, 1939
-- Attracta Halpin, Áine Mannion, editors, Douglas Hyde: The Professor of Irish who Became President of Ireland : Proceedings of Seminar Held to Explore Aspects of the Life and Achievements of Douglas Hyde, the First President of Ireland, National University of Ireland, 2016
Other songs in the Index associated with Hyde include:
-- Bas an Chroppi (The Dead Croppy)
-- Callino Casturame (Colleen Og a Store; Cailin O Chois tSiure; Happy 'Tis, Thou Blind, for Thee)
-- The Dark Girl of the Valley
-- Darling Black Head
-- Dark Moll of the Valley
-- Lament of John O Mahony
-- Nelly of the Top-Knots
-- The Pretty Pearl of the White Mountain
-- The Red Man's Wife
- RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe285

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