long standing. At the age of seventeen he wrote some lines to the
poet's memory, which appeared in the "Dublin Satirist" already
mentioned, and an elaborate review of his poetry in an early number of
the Nation. I have before alluded to Shelley's influence in directing
his attention to Calderon. The centenary odes in honour of O'Connell
and Moore were written, in 1875 and 1879, at the request of the
committees which had charge of these celebrations. He returned to
Ireland a few months before his death, which took place at Blackrock,
near Dublin, on April 7th,[7] in the present year. His nature was most
sensitive, but though it was his lot to suffer many sorrows, I never
heard a complaint or and unkind word from his lips.

From what has been said it will be evident that this volume contains
only a part of his poetical works, it having been found impossible to
include the humorous pieces, parodies, and epigrams, without some
acquaintance with which an imperfect idea would be formed of his genius.
The same may be said of his numerous translations from various languages
(exclusive of Calderon's plays). Of those published in 1850, "The
Romance of Maleca," "Saint George's Knight," "The Christmas of the
Foreign Child," and others have been frequently reprinted. He has since
rendered from the Spanish poems by Juan de Pedraza, Antonio de Trueba,
Garcilaso de la Vega, Gongora and "Fernan Caballero," whom he visited
when in Spain shortly before her death, and whose prose story, "The Two
Muleteers," he has also translated. To these must be added, besides
several shorter ballads from Duran's Romancero General, "The Poem of the
Cid," "The Romance of Gayferos," and "The Infanta of France." The last
is a metrical tale of the fourteenth or fifteenth century, presenting
analogies with the "Thousand and One Nights," and probably drawn from an
Oriental source. His translations from the Latin, chiefly of mediaeval
hymns, are also numerous.