NOTES

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 9, 1 March 1923, Page 30

NOTES

Who Wrote Hamlet? We all know the story about the School Inspector who told the local squire (or was it the Minister of Education for New Zealand he told it to ?) that having asked a small boy rather peremptorily "Who wrote Hamlet?" the boy replied apologetically: Please, sir, I didn't." And then the Minister of Education (or the squire) is supposed to have said: "Well, I suppose the little beggar did write it all the same." However, the following extract from the Dublin Weekly Freeman removes for ever all doubt on the point: LIMERICK MAN WHO WROTE "HAMLET." "Buying books at the barrow" has always been a much-cultivated fad amongst seekers for quaint and curious "volumes of forgotten lore," writes a correspondent, and it sometimes happens that quite an interesting folio is picked up at these al fresco book-stalls on the Dublin quays. An old play-bill is to many a real treasure. The original of the following is worth its weight in gold : KILKENNY THEATRE ROYAL, Saturday, May 14, 1793. Will be performed .by command of several respectable people in this learned metropolis for the benefit of Mr. Kearns, THE TRAGEDY OF "HAMLET,"

originally written and composed by the celebrated Owen Hayes, of Limerick, and inserted in Shakespere's works. "Hamlet," by Mr. Kearns (being his first appearance in that part), who between the acts will perform several solos on the double bag-pipes, which play two tunes at the one time. Ophelia (by Miss Prior), who will introduce several favorite airs in characterparticularly the "Lass of Richmond Hill." The parts of the King and Queen, by direction of the Rev. Father O'Callaghan, will be omitted as being too immoral for any stage. Polonius (the comic politician), by a young gentleman, being his first- appearance on the stage. The Ghost, the Gravedigger and Laertes, by Mr. Sampson, the great London comedian. The characters to be dressed in Roman shapes. The whole to conclude with the farce of "MAHOMET THE IMPOSTER." Mahomet (by Mr. Kearns). Tickets to be had at the Sign of the "Goat's Head," Castle St. Charles Kickham f «K 1 0 Z 3 As in deference to the wishes of many readers we have begun to publish Knocknagow, a brief account of its author will not be out of place in our "Notes" this week. Charles Kickham was born in the. year 1825, at Mullinahone, Co. Tipperary. The river Anner flows by the little town of his birth, and over it looms the mountain of "the fair women" (Slievenamon, from the Gaelic Sliabh na Moan, Flown) which is so often mentioned in Kickham's books. In his youth Kickham was deeply influenced by the Nation, then inspired by Davis, Duffy, and Mitchel. He took an active part in the '4B movement, and was "on his keeping", for some time after Ballingarry. One day, while drying a flask of damp powder, the explosion which injured his sight occurred. Later, when his political activities conducted him to an English gaol, both sight and hearing became much worse under the hardships of prison life. He was one of the writers for The Irish People, the organ of the Fenian movement. He was arrested in November, 1865, and brought to trial in Green Street, Dublin, on January 5, 1866. Judge Keogh sentenced him to penal servitude for fourteen years. As he was led away something on the ground attracted his attention. He picked it up and found that it was a little paper picture of the Mother of God. Kissing it reverently, he said to the warder: "I was accustomed

to have the likeness of the Mother of God morning and evening before my eyes since I was a child. Will you ask the governor if I may keep this?" To Miss Rose Kavanagh, whose kindness soothed his last years, we owe this touching little story. So he went to his exile at Pentonville, whence on account of his ill health he was removed to Woking later. His wretched health, and his good character shortened considerably his term of imprisonment, and he was set at liberty in March, 1869. Asked what he missed most in gaol, he said: "Children and women, and fires." Father Russell tells us that one who knew him well said that it delighted him when the little ones tried to talk to him on their fingers, and that, the children who loved him were playing about his feet when the stroke of paralysis came upon him. "There was much," says Father Russell, ''of what was best in woman and in child in his nature; and it was impossible, says a devoted young friend, to know him well without feeling that he was is trustful, kindly, and sympathetic as a woman. His slender hand, too, was fashioned like a woman's. There was a great deal of silky hair in curls about his head, which was finely shaped, and he was very tall." Of Knocknagow, we read "No writer has produced more faithful pictures of Irish country life than Charles Kickham. For no othe- posseted a mind quicker to see, or wider to hold the best feelings of our people; none other owned head or hand more obedient to the highest impulses of the Celtic character, and his memory was with the traditions of our land and race. Knocknagow illustrates many sides cf his own personality and of his ready humor, which was never cynical. In this book as in all he wrote tears and laughter are close together. . . Knocknagow had always been my favorite Irish story, and when an opportunity came of meeting its author, it was an event in my life I remember giving him the sort of information he must have had from hundreds of perion>-of what a pleasure his stories and songs were, and hew dear to me and my friends were Grace Kiely, and Mary Kearney, and poor Norah Leahy, whom, in spite of bis nieces' entreaties, he had to let die. He bore the infliction good-humor-edly, and. talked about his heroines as if they had just gone out for a walk." Besides Knocknagow, and Sally Kavanagh, he wrote a long novel, For the Old Land, which is full of tenderness, humor, and pathos. Among his poems, Rorif of the Mils, and Patrick Sheehan, are well-known to every Irishman. He was a most lovable character, a good friend and also a good hater. His life was shadowed by suffering, and there was something sad in his appearance. He died at Blackrock on August 22, 1882. His body was brought to Tipperary and he was buried with his parents where his cradle had been, "beside the Anner at the foot of Slievenamon." '

Monsignor Coffey Memorial Fund We have been notified that at a meeting held on last Sunday evening, in St. Joseph's Hall, it was decided to offer to the numerous friends of the late Monsignor Coffey an opportunity of expressing their appreciation of his work in New Zealand by opening a Memorial Fund. In consideration of the late Monsignor's interest in Catholic education, it was considered that his memory would be perpetuated in the manner he would approve himself, were he living, if the Fund was devoted to providing Scholarships for our Primary Schools. Such a Memorial Fund would, in his name, continue after his death the grand work to which he gave so much time and labor, and it would also be for the Catholic people for generations to come a living link with the dead, more eloquent and more useful than monuments of marble or brass. Later, we hope to notify our readers of the progress of the Fund. While leaving its organisation entirely in the hands of the Committee, we are ready to hand on to them any donations sent through the Tablet, and to acknowledge the same from time to time as lists may be supplied by the Treasurer.