Aubrey Thomas de Vere | |
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 Aubrey Thomas de Vere | |
| Born | (1814-01-10)10 January 1814 Curraghchase House,Curraghchase,Kilcornan,County Limerick, Ireland |
| Died | 20 January 1902(1902-01-20) (aged 88) Curraghchase, Kilcornan, County Limerick, Ireland |
| Occupation | Author |
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| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Dublin |
| Influences | |
Aubrey Thomas de Vere (10 January 1814 – 20 January 1902) was anIrish poet and critic.[1]
Aubrey Thomas Hunt de Vere was born at Curraghchase House (now in ruins) atCurraghchase,Kilcornan,County Limerick,[2] the third son ofSir Aubrey de Vere, 2nd Baronet (1788–1846) and his wife Mary Spring Rice, daughter of Stephen Edward Rice (d.1831) and Catherine Spring,[3] of Mount Trenchard,County Limerick. He was a nephew ofLord Monteagle, a younger brother ofSir Stephen de Vere, 4th Baronet and a cousin ofLucy Knox. His sister Ellen married Robert O'Brien, the brother ofWilliam Smith O'Brien.[4] In 1832, his father dropped the original surname 'Hunt' by royal licence, assuming the surname 'de Vere'.
He was strongly influenced by his friendship with the astronomer SirWilliam Rowan Hamilton, through whom he came to a knowledge and reverent admiration for Wordsworth and Coleridge. He was educated privately at home and in 1832 entered Trinity College, Dublin, where he read Kant and Coleridge. Later he visited Oxford, Cambridge, and Rome, and came under the potent influence ofJohn Henry Newman. He was also a close friend ofHenry Taylor.[5]
The characteristics of Aubrey de Vere's poetry are high seriousness and a fine religious enthusiasm. His research in questions of faith led him to theRoman Catholic Church where in 1851 he was received into the Church by Cardinal Manning inAvignon.[6] In many of his poems, notably in the volume of sonnets calledSt Peters Chains (1888), he made rich additions to devotional verse. For a few years he held a professorship, under Newman, in the Catholic University in Dublin.[5]
In "A Book of Irish Verse," W. B. Yeats described de Vere's poetry as having "less architecture than the poetry of Ferguson and Allingham, and more meditation. Indeed, his few but ever memorable successes are enchanted islands in gray seas of stately impersonal reverie and description, which drift by and leave no definite recollection. One needs, perhaps, to perfectly enjoy him, a Dominican habit, a cloister, and a breviary."
He also visited the Lake Country of England, and stayed under Wordsworth's roof, which he called the greatest honour of his life. His veneration for Wordsworth was singularly shown in later life, when he never omitted a yearly pilgrimage to the grave of that poet until advanced age made the journey impossible.[7]
He was of tall and slender physique, thoughtful and grave in character, of exceeding dignity and grace of manner, and retained his vigorous mental powers to a great age. According to Helen Grace Smith, he was one of the most profoundly intellectual poets of his time.[7] His census return for1901 lists his profession as 'Author.'[8]
He died at Curraghchase in 1902, at the age of eighty-eight. As he never married, the name of de Vere at his death became extinct for the second time, and was assumed by his nephew.[7]
His best-known works are: in verse,The Sisters (1861);The Infant Bridal (1864);Irish Odes (1869);Legends of St Patrick (1872); andLegends of the Saxon Saints (1879); and in prose, "The Foray of Queen Meave and Other Legends of Ireland's Heroic Age" (1882),Essays Chiefly on Poetry (1887); andEssays Chiefly Literary and Ethical (1889). He also wrote a picturesque volume of travel-sketches, and two dramas in verse,Alexander the Great (1874); andSt Thomas of Canterbury (1876). According to theEncyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, both of these dramas, "though they contain fine passages, suffer from diffuseness and a lack of dramatic spirit."[9] One of his best remembered poem isInisfail while two of his historical poems used to be on the Junior Cycle English syllabus,[10]The March toKinsale[11] andThe Ballad ofAthlone.[12]
In hisRecollections he says thatByron was his first admiration, but was instantly displaced when Sir Aubrey put Wordsworth's "Laodamia" into his hands. He became a disciple ofWordsworth, whose calm meditative serenity he often echoed with great felicity; and his affection for Greek poetry, truly felt and understood, gave dignity and weight to his own versions of mythological idylls. A critic in theQuarterly Review of 1896 said of his poetry, that next to Browning's it showed the fullest vitality, the largest sphere of ideas, covered the broadest intellectual field since Wordsworth.[7]
But perhaps he will be chiefly remembered for the impulse which he gave to the study ofCeltic legend andCeltic literature. In this direction he has had many followers, who have sometimes assumed the appearance of pioneers; but afterMatthew Arnold's fine lecture on Celtic Literature, nothing perhaps did more to help the Celtic revival than Aubrey de Vere's tender insight into the Irish character, and his stirring reproductions of the early Irish epic poetry.[9]
A volume ofSelections from his poems was edited in 1894 (New York and London) byG. E. Woodberry.[9]
The de Vere Hunt Male line DNA
Several members of Aubrey's family from two brothers of his ancestor Captain Vere, namely those referred to as Henry "of LIgadoon" (1) and John " of Glangoole" Aubrey's ancestor (4) have determined that he belonged to the rareJ-FTA83121 Hunt group and subsequently to the J-FTA84824 for John. In relation to other families, it points to Norman origin of the family via VIenne, originating from an ancient Jewish line via the Levant.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "De Vere, Aubrey Thomas".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 121. This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Aubrey Thomas Hunt de Vere".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
