THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] Sm,—In a letter signed "F. H." which appeared in the Spectator of September 8th the writer states that " the elegy commonly known as The Burial of Sir John Moore' is not an original composition of the Rev. Mr. Wolfe's, but a very happy and spirited translation from the French of, I think, an unknown writer of lines descriptive of the hasty burial of Colonel de Beaumanoir, killed in the defence of Pondicherry when it was taken by the British under Sir Eyre Coote." Your correspondent has been the victim of an innocent mystification on the part of " Father Prout " (F. S. Mahony), who, as is recorded in the " Dictionary of National Bio- graphy," in 1837 contributed to the first number of " Bentley's Miscellany" " a clever French rendering of Wolfe's Burial of Sir John Moore,' which he entitled Les Funerailles de Beau- manoir,' and pretended to regard as the original of Wolfe's poem." This French version of Mahony's was reprinted in the edition of " Father Prout's Reliques" which was issued in 1860 as one of the volumes of "Bohn's Illustrated Library." Wolfe's authorship of the famous lines, which are said to have been suggested to him by his perusal of Southey's account in the " Edinburgh Annual Register" of Sir John Moore's death, though disputed for some years, was finally established some sixty years ago by the discovery of an autograph letter from Wolfe containing a copy of the poem. The circum-
stances are related in the article on Wolfe in the " Dictionary of National Biography."—I am Sir, &c.,
Dorney Wood, Burnham, Bucks. PAGET TOYNBEN.
Previous page
