Brian Merriman

The author explores Brian Merriman's famous poem, The Midnight Court, a classic of Irish literature.

Banned and beloved in equal measure, The Midnight Court is a canonical eighteenth–century text widely considered to be one of the greatest comic Irish poems. Despite its simple story line, Merriman’s poem addresses a wide range of themes from its satirical treatment of sexuality to its biting social commentary. This volume, the first critical edition, offers readers a fluid translation and five essays that contextualize the poem, making it an ideal text for any student of eighteenth–century Irish literature. Written specifically for the nonspecialist reader, Ó Conchubhair’s edition contains notes, a glossary, a map, and explanations of the rhyme, meter, form, and genre that traditionally puzzle those unfamiliar with the Irishlanguage tradition. The essays explore the text’s themes and allusions, acquainting readers with the poem’s controversies and critics’ competing interpretations of Merriman’s achievement.

Originally written in the Irish language by the 18th-century poet Brian Merriman (circa 17451805), The Midnight Court is here translated by one of Ireland s distinguished contemporary poets, Ciaran Carson. This extended satiric poem assesses the growing economic, political, and familial constraints of late 18th-century Catholic Ireland under British colonial rule, while subversively playing on the tradition of the aisling (or vision) poem in which a beautiful woman represents Ireland s threatened sovereignty. At the beginning of The Midnight Court, a dreadful female envoy from the fairies appears in a dream to the unmarried poet. She summons him before the court of Queen Aoibheall in order to answer charges of wasting his manhood while women are dying for want of love. He listens to complaints that vary from the celibacy of the clergy to marriages performed between old and young for purely economic reasons. In all their bawdy tales, the female courtiers praise fertility, as well as sexual fulfillment, and condemn the conventions of the day. At last the Queen pronounces judgment on the poet, who awakens as he is being severely chastised by all of the women of the court. While containing many insights into 18th-century social conditions, The Midnight Court is also an exuberant, even jaunty work of the comic imagination. As the translator Ciaran Carson states in his foreword: The protagonists of the Court, including Merriman himself, are ghosts, summoned into being by language; they are figments of the imagination. In the Court the language itself is continually interrogated and Merriman is the great illusionist, continually spiriting words into another dimension. "

Originally written in the Irish language by the 18th-century poet Brian Merriman (circa 1745-1805), The Midnight Court is here translated by one of Ireland's distinguished contemporary poets, Ciaran Carson. This extended satiric poem assesses the growing economic, political, and familial constraints of late 18th-century Catholic Ireland under British colonial rule, while subversively playing on the tradition of the aisling (or vision) poem in which a beautiful woman represents Ireland's threatened sovereignty. At the beginning of The Midnight Court, a dreadful female envoy from the fairies appears in a dream to the unmarried poet. She summons him before the court of Queen Aoibheall in order to answer charges of wasting his manhood while women are dying for want of love. He listens to complaints that vary from the celibacy of the clergy to marriages performed between old and young for purely economic reasons. In all their bawdy tales, the female courtiers praise fertility, as well as sexual fulfillment, and condemn the conventions of the day. At last the Queen pronounces judgment on the poet, who awakens as he is being severely chastised by all of the women of the court. While containing many insights into 18th-century social conditions, The Midnight Court is also an exuberant, even jaunty work of the comic imagination. As the translator Ciaran Carson states in his foreword: "The protagonists of the 'Court, ' including 'Merriman' himself, are ghosts, summoned into being by language; they are figments of the imagination. In the 'Court' the language itself is continually interrogated and Merriman is the great illusionist, continually spiriting words into another dimension."

Award-winning edition of this outstanding translation of Brian Merriman's eighteenth-century erotic masterpiece. Translated by Frank O'Connor Illustrations by Brian Bourke.