Powered by Versioning Machine v3
This text has 2 versions
Display New VersionBack to List of TextsBibliographic Information
Display Line Numbers   •  Note Format  
Need help?
Image and Note Viewer
Version Controls
Note Display
Line Numbering

Bibliographic InformationX

Homage to Hieronymus Bosch

by Thomas MacGreevy

Edited by Susan Schreibman

Original Source:

Diplomatic editions of MacGreevy's poetry were created from Collected Poems of Thomas MacGreevy: An Annotated Edition, edited by Susan Schreibman (Anna Livia Press and The Catholic University of America Press, 1991). Images of MacGreevy's published poems were taken from MacGreevy's own copy of Poems (Heinemann, 1934). Manuscript copies are from MacGreevy's papers at Trinity College, Dublin (individual manuscript numbers appear in the Witness Details below).

Witness a1: Draft version (TCD MS 7989/1/24). ()
Witness pub: The image of the published version of 'Homage to Hieronymus Bosch' is taken from MacGreevy's own copy of Poems published in 1934. () () ()

Textual Notes:

There are four TS drafts of the poem entitled 'Bosch' and 'Dance of Life'. The earliest reference to the poem is in October 1926. This poem was originally published in transition 21 (March 1932) 178-9, with the title 'Treason of Saint Laurence O'Toole b Saint Laurence O'Toole was the archbishop of Dublin from 1162 to 1180. His brother-in-law, King Diarmuid of Leinster, brought the invading Normans to Ireland. O'Toole unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate peace with the invaders during the siege of Dublin in 1170. During his term as archbishop, All Hallows Priory (the site of Trinity College) was established. ', and the epigraph 'for Alexander Andreyevitch Balascheff'. It has been reprinted in One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (1947) 704; The Lace Curtain 4 (Summer 1971) 37; The Faber Book of Irish Verse (1974) 259; Surrealist Poetry in English (1979) 76; and Poets of Munster (1985) 31.

In 1924 MacGreevy took his first trip to Spain. At the Prado he discovered the 'masterpieces of grotesquerie' of Hieronymus Bosch. While Bosch's paintings supplied the imagery for the poem, it was an incident during MacGreevy's days at Trinity College, Dublin, that provided the inspiration. In a letter to M.E. Barber, the general secretary of the Society of Authors, MacGreevy explains:

You will see that the Homage to Bosch title was chiefly a warning to the reader to expect images that were not exactly Parnassian. When I was a student a number of us, 17 in all I think, who were ex-British officers asked the Provost of Trinity College, Dublin to send an appeal on our behalf for the reprieve of a student of the National University who was captured in an ambush and condemned to be hanged. It was believed he had been tortured by the Black and Tans and our appeal was that he be reprieved only long enough for it to be verified that he had British justice and not torture. Only two or three of the signatories were nationalists. But the Provost refused to have anything to do with the appeal and Kevin Barry was hanged. We were the inhabitants of the nursery in the poem. John Bernard the nursery governor, etc. The well of Saint Patrick is in the grounds of Trinity College, Dublin which used before the Reformation or up to Elizabethan times to be the Abbey of All Hallows.(29) That is the kernel of the poem but the spirit of Ireland, powerful and powerless, shabby and inspiring and a dozen other things is knocking about the whole time.



render:Additions appear in a green, fixed-width font.

Electronic Edition Information
Markup by Lara Vetter.
Annotations by Susan Schreibman

Published by Susan Schreibman
Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH), University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742

Thomas MacGreevy's poetry is reprinted here with the kind permission of Margaret Farrington and Elizabeth Ryan. Permission to reproduce images of Thomas MacGreevy's manuscripts has been generously granted by The Board of Trinity College Dublin.

This poem and manuscript drafts are available from this site for demonstration purposes only. They may not be reproduced without explicit permission from the copyright holder. For copyright information, please contact Susan Schreibman at ss423@umail.umd.edu


X Version
View ImagesView ImagesView ImagesView Images DANCE OF LIFE HOM M AGE TO HIERONYMUS BOSCH b Hieronymus van Aeken (c.1450-1516), the Flemish painter known (from his birthplace) as Bosch. Works by him in the Prado include The Haywain, a triptych with representations of Eden, Hell, and the dangers besetting mankind, an allegory of society with a haywain at its centre, and the Adoration of the Kings, where the normal devotional iconography is surrounded by grotesque building and landscape elements.
Homage to Hieronymus Bosch b Hieronymus van Aeken (c.1450-1516), the Flemish painter known (from his birthplace) as Bosch. Works by him in the Prado include The Haywain, a triptych with representations of Eden, Hell, and the dangers besetting mankind, an allegory of society with a haywain at its centre, and the Adoration of the Kings, where the normal devotional iconography is surrounded by grotesque building and landscape elements.
For Alexander Andreyevitch Balascheff b Balascheff was a friend of MacGreevy's in Paris in the 1930s. Brian Coffey recalls that Balascheff's grandfather was the Ambassador from Czarist Russia to the United States. Balascheff may have secured emigration papers after the 1917 Revolution in return for a loan to Lenin during the war.


A woman with no face walked into the light ,
A woman with no face walked into the light ;
A boy, in a brown-tree norfolk suit holding on
A boy, in a brown-tree norfolk suit ,
Holding on
            without hands to her seeming skirt.
Without hands
To her seeming skirt.


She stopped
She stopped ,
And he stopped
And he stopped ,
And I, in terror, stopped, staring.
And I, in terror, stopped, staring.


Then I saw a half-circle of shadowy figures behind her.
Then I saw a group of shadowy figures behind her.


It was a wild wet morning ,
It was a wild wet morning
The little world was moving
But the little world was spinning on.


And she addressed it .
Liplessly, somehow, she addressed it :
The book must be opened g Perhaps a reference to the opening of the book with seven seals: 'Who is worthy to open the book? . . . And no man was able . . . to open the book, nor to look on it . . . . [but] one of the ancients said to me: Weep not; behold . . . the root of David hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof' (Apocalypse 5:2-5). The opening of the book was one of the scripture readings at Mass for the 31st of October, the eve of the feast of All Saints (All Hallows) and of Kevin Barry's execution. The phrase may also refer to the resentment of some nationalists to the Book of Kells being held by Trinity College, Dublin. -- And the park too. g 'The park here has to do symbolically with the four green fields of Irish tradition and more particularly with the Dublin squares that are still closed except to residents.'
The book must be opened g Perhaps a reference to the opening of the book with seven seals: 'Who is worthy to open the book? . . . And no man was able . . . to open the book, nor to look on it . . . . [but] one of the ancients said to me: Weep not; behold . . . the root of David hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof' (Apocalypse 5:2-5). The opening of the book was one of the scripture readings at Mass for the 31st of October, the eve of the feast of All Saints (All Hallows) and of Kevin Barry's execution. The phrase may also refer to the resentment of some nationalists to the Book of Kells being held by Trinity College, Dublin.
And the park too. g ' The park here has to do symbolically with the four green fields of Irish tradition and more particularly with the Dublin squares that are still closed except to residents.'


 That was what, liplessly, somehow, she articulated.

I might have tittered
I might have tittered
But my teeth chattered
But my teeth chattered
And then I saw that the words, as they fell,
And I saw that the words, as they fell,
            lay , wriggling, on the ground.
Lay , wriggling, on the ground.


There was a stir of wet wind
There was a stir of wet wind
And the shadowy figures began to stir
And the shadowy figures began to stir
When , another, one who had seemed dead ,
When one I had thought dead
Raised himself slowly out of his great effigy
                        on a tomb near by .
Filmed slowly out of his great effigy on a tomb near by
Then they all shuddered .
And they all shuddered
He bent as if to speak to the woman her
 He bent as if to speak to the woman
But the nursery governor c John Bernard, the Provost of Trinity College Dublin. flew up out of the
                        well of Saint Patrick,
But the nursery governor c John Bernard, the Provost of Trinity College Dublin. flew up out of the well of Saint Patrick,

Confiscated by his mistress g Queen Elizabeth I founded Trinity College, Dublin on lands confiscated from the Priory of All Hallows. Here regarded as the 'nursery governor's' (i.e. the provost's) mistress. ,
And -- his head bent,
And , his head bent,
Staring out over his spectacles,
Staring out over his spectacles,
And scratching the gravel furiously --
And scratching the gravel furiously ,
Hissed , (the words shooting upwards past his spectacles ):
Hissed --
            The words went pingg! like bullets,
            Upwards past his spectacles --
Say nothing, I say, say nothing, say nothing!
Say nothing, I say, say nothing, say nothing!
Then he who had seemed to be coming back to life
And he who had seemed to be coming to life
Gasped,
Gasped,
Began , hysterically, to laugh and cry,
Began hysterically, to laugh and cry,
And, with a gesture of impotent and [?] alsohalfrather -petulant despair,
And, with a gesture of impotent and halfrather -petulant despair,
Filmed back into his effigy again.
Filmed back into his effigy again.

High above the Bank of Ireland n The old Irish Parliament House, opposite Trinity College, was designed in 1729 by Edward Lovett Pearce. After the Irish Parliament was dissolved due to the Act of Union in 1800, the building was converted into a bank. 'It was the dream of all Nineteenth Century Nationalists to see an independent Irish Parliament established there again.'
 High above the Bank of Ireland n The old Irish Parliament House, opposite Trinity College, was designed in 1729 by Edward Lovett Pearce. After the Irish Parliament was dissolved due to the Act of Union in 1800, the building was converted into a bank. 'It was the dream of all Nineteenth Century Nationalists to see an independent Irish Parliament established there again.'
 Unearthly music sounded,
Unearthly music sounded,
Passing westwards. c 'In Ireland we tend as a result of a poem written by Thomas Davis about 1840 to regard the west of Ireland ('of which Dublin in the east is but the capital expression') as the spirit of the nation. When the west is awake, that spirit is awake. When the west is asleep, that spirit is asleep.' The last stanza of 'The West's Asleep' captures that essence of MacGreevy's idea of the west:

And if, when all a vigil keep,
The West's asleep, the West's asleep --
Alas! and well may Erin weep,
That Connaught lies in slumber deep.
But, hark! some voice like thunder spake:
'The West's awake! the West's awake!'
'Sing, oh! hurra! let England quake,
We'll watch till death for Erin's sake!'

 Passing westwards. c 'In Ireland we tend as a result of a poem written by Thomas Davis about 1840 to regard the west of Ireland ('of which Dublin in the east is but the capital expression') as the spirit of the nation. When the west is awake, that spirit is awake. When the west is asleep, that spirit is asleep.' The last stanza of 'The West's Asleep' captures that essence of MacGreevy's idea of the west:

And if, when all a vigil keep,
The West's asleep, the West's asleep --
Alas! and well may Erin weep,
That Connaught lies in slumber deep.
But, hark! some voice like thunder spake:
'The West's awake! the West's awake!'
'Sing, oh! hurra! let England quake,
We'll watch till death for Erin's sake!'
From the drains,
Then, from the drains,
Small sewage rats slid out ,
Small sewage rats slid out .
They numbered hundreds of hundreds, tens, thousands. c

This and the later phrases 'a multitude', and 'bowed obsequiously', appear to evoke a parody of the worship of Christ in heaven: 'And I beheld . . . the living creatures, and the ancients; and the number of them was thousands of thousands' (Apocalypse 5:11).

This was the passage read at Mass on the Eve of All Saints, the 31st of October.


They numbered hundreds of hundreds, tens, thousands. c

This and the later phrases 'a multitude', and 'bowed obsequiously', appear to evoke a parody of the worship of Christ in heaven: 'And I beheld . . . the living creatures, and the ancients; and the number of them was thousands of thousands' (Apocalypse 5:11).

This was the passage read at Mass on the Eve of All Saints, the 31st of October.


Each bowed obsequiously to the shadowy figures
Each bowed obsequiously to the shadowy figures
Then turned and joined in a stomach dance with his brothers and sisters.
Then turned and joined in a stomach dance with his brothers and sisters.
Being a multitude, they danced irregularly.
Being a multitude, they danced irregularly.
There was rat laughter,
There was rat laughter,
Deeper here and there
Deeper here and there ,
And occasionally she-rat cries grew hysterical.
And occasionally she-rat cries grew hysterical.
The shadowy figures looked on, agonised
The shadowy figures looked on, agonized
The woman with no face gave a cry and collapsed.
The woman with no face gave a cry and collapsed.
The rats danced on her
The rats danced on her
And on the wriggling words ,
And on the wriggling words
Smirking.
Smirking.
The nursery-governor flew back into the well
The nursery governor flew back into the well
With the little figure without hands in the brown-tree clothes.
With the little figure without hands in the brown-tree clothes.
X Notes
About the Image and Note ViewerX

The image and note viewer may be dragged anywhere within the browser window. It is closed by clicking on the X button. Only one image and one popup note can be viewed at a time.

Because of a limitation in the way the browser handles XSLT transformations, users of Firefox and other Mozilla-based browsers cannot view images within untransformed XML documents. In order to view manuscript images in Firefox, it is recommended that readers use HTML versions of the text. This restriction applies only to the image viewer: the note viewer work across all browsers.

About Version ControlsX

Each witness functions independently of each other. The first two witnesses are opened in the VM by default and displayed according to the order established by the editor/encoder. Users can open further witnesses through the Display New Version button. Witnesses can then be displayed in any order via the pull down menu. The X button removes the current version and resizes the remaining versions to maximize available space. All but one version can be removed.

About Note DisplayX

The Display Notes menu provides three choices for viewing notes when viewing texts encoded using the parallel segmentation method, and two when viewing texts encoded as discrete witnesses. In both cases, the default displays notes in a JavaScript popup whenever the reader clicks upon the footnote icons. When viewing parallel segmentation-encoded texts in Internet Explorer and Firefox, there is also the option to display all notes simultaneously within an inline panel. Lastly, there is an option to hide all notes.

About Line NumberingX

The Show Line Numbers checkbox toggles the display of line numbers on and off. Proper display of line numbers depends upon the TEI encoding of the document. This option is only available for documents that have been encoding using the parallel segmentation method.

To track the changes in a line across witnesses, click the line number before the start of the line. To remove the bolding, click the line number again.