Stories of Famous Songs, Vol 2

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STORIES OF
appropriating the Irish song altogether. "This," adds Lover, "is Scottish song-making made easy with a vengeance."
" Coolin" or " Coulin" is known through Moore's adaptation entitled " Though the last glimpse of Erin with sorrow 1 see." It is an exceptionally fine melody and much older than the Irish words extant, translated by Furlong:
" Had you seen my sweet Coolin at the day's early dawn, When she moves thro' the wild wood, or the wide dewy lawn; There is joy—there is bliss in her soul-cheering smile, She's the fairest of flowers of our green-bosom'd isle."
This lyric—there are six stanzas—has been attributed to Maurice O'Dugan, an Irish bard, who lived near Benburb, in the County of Tyrone, about the year 1641. An excellent rendition of the ancient ballad has been made by Caroll Malone, commencing:
"The last time she looked in the face of her dear."
" Coolin" means, the maiden of fair flowing locks, but the original word is retained in the trans-lation, being now, as it were, naturalized in English. There are several versions in vogue. Walker tells us in his " Memoirs" that when Henry VIII. ordered the mere Irish to be
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