Copyright, 1902
By Frederick A. Stokes Company
Published in September 1902
FOURTH EDITION
To
ANDREW MACK
With the author's grateful acknowledgment and appreciation
of the convincing art and rare personal charm of
the actor who has done so much to make
"Tom Moore" a success upon
the stage
Preface
In this book the author has endeavored to give to the reading public an intimate presentation of one of the more famous of the literary giants who made the beginning of the last century the most brilliant period in the history of English Letters since the days of the Elizabethan authors.
Of Tom Moore's rank and attainments as a poet of the finest gifts very little need be said. Posterity has placed the seal of everlasting approval upon the best of his work and in the main is admirably ignorant of his few less worthy productions. So it need not be feared that the memory of the author of "Lalla Rookh," "The Last Rose of Summer," "Love's Young Dream," and, lastly, the most tender and touching of all love songs, "Believe Me, if All Those Endearing Young Charms," will ever be less brightly preserved, less tenderly treasured, than it has been in the years that have intervened since his death.
"Moore has a peculiarity of talent, or rather talents--poetry, music, voice, all his own; and an expression in each, which never was, nor will be, possessed by another.... There is nothing Moore may not do, if he will but seriously set about it.... To me some of his Irish Melodies are worth all the epics that ever were composed," wrote the hapless Lord Byron, who was one of the gifted Irishman's most intimate and faithful friends.
"The poet of all circles and the idol of his own."