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FAMOUS SONGS
many authorities as to the authenticity of the legend!
Not long ago (1894) Dr. C. Villiers Stanford traced back the originals of all" Moore's Melo-dies," and embodied them in a very useful volume called " The Irish Melodies of Thomas Moore/' with the sub-title of " The Original Airs restored and arranged for the Voice." In his preface Dr. Stanford says: "Some few of the ' melodies' I have omitted, because they are not Irish at all. These are ' Eveleen's Bower/ ' Believe me if all those endearing young charms/ and i Oh the Shamrock/" And in speaking of the music he says: " As will be seen in my notes I have appended to the airs in the appendix, there is scarcely a melody which Moore left unaltered, and, as a necessary consequence, unspoilt. Whether he or his arranger was responsible for these corruptions is a matter which is lost to history; but as the name of the poet had the greater prominence in the original publication, I have laid to his door any blame which I am compelled to allot . . . Some airs are, owing to long usage in the form in which they were first dressed, almost hope-lessly spoilt . . . Moore has assisted this trans-mogrification by supplying words often beautiful in themselves, but quite out of keeping with
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