Life
1709-1785 [var. 1781, Cabinet]; b. Blarney, Co, Cork; ed. TCD;
published poetry from 1730s incl . Abelard and Eloisa (Dublin
1730), and answer to Pope; engaged in literary skirmishes with William
Dunkin, assisted by Charles Carthy; issued A Prospect of Poetry
(Dublin 1743), praised by James Thompson, and reprinted with 338 subscriptions,
Dublin 1770, including verse to Thompson; curate of Ballinaboy 1744-55; Poems (Cork 1778); later styled ‘the mad parson’ and
deemed to be alcoholic. RR CAB PI FDA OCIL
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Works
Abelard and Eloisa (Dublin 1730); A Prospect of Poetry (Dublin
1743). COMM, Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica: Irish Worthies
(1821), Vol. II, p.60-62, as De la Cour, or De la Court, James.
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Commentary
Bryan Coleborne, ‘“They Sate in Counterview”, Anglo-Irish
Verse in the Eighteenth Century’, in Paul Hyland & Neil Sammells, Irish
Writing, Exile and Subversion (1991), pp.45-63, Delacourt argues in
his satiric lyric, ‘On his Brother’s marriage’, that a
man who marries a woman not above his social equal will face opposition
of her circle; ‘How comes it, neighbourly Bob, / That you should
thus surmount us. / And all the nobles rob, / By wedding a rich countess?
/ Happy Bob ... ‘Twill be nulled, of course, / Her friends will not
allow it; / They’ll put the act in force, / For nobles can undo it.
/ Happy Bob.’ (p.54); this poem collected in ‘Poetry and legendary
Ballads of the South of Ireland, in Journal of the Cork Hist. and Arch.
Society (1894), p.270.
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References
British Library holds Poems comprising ‘A Prospect of Poetry’,
‘To Mr. Thomson on his Seasons’, Abelard to Eloisa’, and
other poems (Thomas White, Cork 1778); Prospect of Poetry (John Harris,
Cork 1807); Prospect ... [ded.] to John, Earl of Cork, with a poem to
Mr. Thomson, 3rd edn. (Corke [sic]: Thomas Lord 1770).
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Quotations
(“On Seeing A Lady at an Opposite Window”) ‘So Moses
from fair Pisgah’s height / The Land of Promise ey’d; / Surveyed
the regions of delight,- / He saw, came down, and died.’ (In Cabinet of Irish Literature, ed. Charles Read.)
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