A Sixteenth-Century Context for the Poetry of Tadhg Dall Ó hÚigínn

• In Event: Irish Bardic Poetry and the Transition from Medieval to Early Modern

Abstract

In the 1580s Tadhg Dall Ó hUiginn composed a praise poem “Cormac is a good merchant” for local lord Cormac Ó hEadhra. In the poet-patron exchange, the material rewards from the patron are ephemeral, but the poet’s praise endures eternally. Cormac therefore buys up as many poems as he can as he understands the nature of value. Or does he? The poem compares poetry to gold. Medieval Europe believed that value was physically present in gold; therefore the more one had the better. This belief was seriously shaken in the sixteenth century by a massive influx of bullion from the New World leading to rampant inflation. Now more meant less, value-wise. As with gold, so with the language of eulogy, is value not nominal, symbolic and fluctuating rather than intrinsic? That is the poet’s key question which has serious implications for the traditional poet-patron exchange in a changing world.

Author

• Peter T. McQuillan, University of Notre Dame