Text: William Mentzel Forrest, “Appendix,” Biblical Allusions in Poe, 1928, pp. 151-208 (This material may be protected by copyright)

[page 151:]

In the following tables will be found set forth all the quotations, allusions, and reflections of style that repeated reading of Poe's works has enabled me to identify with the Bible. Also there are given lists of phrases that seem due to the influence of the Bible though not all verbally found therein, and word lists, both of scriptural names and things mentioned by Poe, and of biblical and Christian terms, no matter in what sense employed. It is appreciated that these latter lists, with the number of times each important word occurs, are rather suggestive of the folly of the rabbis who counted the number of verses in the Bible and recorded how many times each letter of the alphabet was used. But in carefully searching Poe's volumes for more important matters it required little labor to note the words as met, and, in the case of some, to indicate how many times they occurred. And after all, a perusal of the word lists may do more to prove the extent of Poe's dependence upon the Bible than the table of his more extended and conscious borrowings.

The method followed in collecting these quotations and words makes it quite certain that they are not absolutely exhaustive. Each writing was carefully read and everything thought pertinent was marked. Then each marked passage was re-examined and transcribed to a provisional list. Finally their pertinency was tested by the use of a concordance of the Bible, and the most apposite references selected to set after the Poe passages. All the writings were read through twice in marking the biblicisms and some of them were read many times while [page 152:] studying them for other purposes. Yet to make the lists perfect by such a method would demand an infallible knowledge of the contents of the Bible, and an alert attention to Poe that would never get lost in the interest or dullness of his writings. It is hoped, however, that nothing of first importance has been omitted, and that whatever has escaped record would not require any serious modification of the views set forth in this volume, or of the impression made by an examination of the lists.

Since some of the passages set down only vaguely or remotely suggest the Bible references, they may seem farfetched. But it has seemed best to record them, for with them before his eyes each reader can make his own decision.

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[page 204:]

Numerous passages in Poe express or imply some knowledge of Hebrew. Detailed references to volume, page, and line are the following:

With the exception of the single passage given three times in the Criticisms of Vol. X. and repeated in the Marginalia, Vol. XVI. 65, most of the items are of a kind to be easily culled from biblical commentaries, encyclopædias. and the like. They are nearly all mere scraps of knowledge given in Pinakidia and Marginalia. It is not now worth while to point out their many errors, typographical and otherwise. For their day they generally passed for correct information, and show Poe's interest, and his appreciation of public interest, in biblical matters.

The other passage, four times published in different connections, gave the Hebrew original of Isa. XXXIV. 10 and Ezek. XXXV. 7, the first time in Hebrew characters. and the other three times in typographically varying and mangled transliteration. With their [page 206:] literal translation and commentary they might have served as proof that Poe had a working knowledge of Hebrew, had he not preserved a letter among his papers whose publication after his death showed that Professor Chas. Anthon had furnished the information. That revelation led the late Professor Harrison to condemn Poe for the unacknowledged use he made of Anthon's letter: “The scrap of Hebrew learning in his notice of Stephens' Arabia Petraea, which was due to the assisting pen of Professor Charles Anthon. Poe was immensely proud of this ‘red rag’ of learning, and waved it repeatedly in the Marginalia and elsewhere, bringing his reputation for erudition thereby perilously near charlatanry.” (Introduction, Criticism, X. vii, viii.)

This is not altogether fair or accurate. Poe used the item once in Marginalia with no undue pretense. In the three Criticisms where he introduced it, once it was very pertinent, once it was not quite so, and once it was needlessly dragged in. However, that seems due more to a hard-driven reviewer's effort to say something interesting about a current book than to a literary man's desire to win credit for learning he did not possess. Poe did not acknowledge his debt to Anthon, but that is not without parallel even in more recent and exacting times, and Professor Harrison gave a corrected transliteration of Poe's Hebrew (XVI. 64, 65), and signed it “Ed.”, although his co-editor, Professor R. A. Stewart, informed me that the correction was made by a professor of Hebrew in a theological seminary upon just such a request for aid as Poe had made to Anthon. Furthermore, Poe was not entirely dependent upon Anthon. He evidently knew that the verses in question admitted of such translation as he sought from Anthon. And when he got it he was able to give the Hebrew quite without aid from his correspondent. As Harrison published the Anthon letter it has the Hebrew printed above the transliteration (Letters XVII. 42, 43). Noticing that the Hebrew thus given was without the accents and punctuations found in Poe's Hebrew (X. 17. 18) I became interested in the question of the source. Not being able to visit the Boston Public Library where the letter is kept, I had my friend and sometime fellow-student of Hebrew, the Rev. E. C. Davis, M. A., of India, who was in Boston on furlough, make an exact copy of the letter. With the exception of minor errors in capitalization and punctuation the Harrison letter is correct, but it has added the Hebrew as an interlinear to Anthon's English translation, and numbered all the words in each. That, in addition [page 207:] to being most extraordinary in an edition of the letters said to have “been carefully transcribed from the originals for this work” (Introduction, Letters XVII. vii.) , at once proves that Poe was sufficiently independent of Anthon to use the original Hebrew instead of the transliteration. But Poe did not possess nor claim to possess any real knowledge of Hebrew. In July 1841, four years after his first use of this (he published in Oct. ‘37, Mch. ‘40, Aug. ‘41, Dec. ‘44) , he offered to decipher any piece of secret-writing sent him, and no doubt then listed all the foreign languages he was able to work in: “the key-phrase may be either in French, Italian, Spanish, German, Latin, or Greek, or in any of the dialects of these languages.” (On Secret Writing, Essays and Miscellanies, XIV. 124.) If Poe really sinned in giving his readers an impression that he was a Hebrew scholar he wilfully sinned against his own moral sense. Referring to certain Latin words in a writer's poetry, he said they brought “into very disagreeable suspicion the writer's cognizance of the Latin tongue. ... Now, no one is presupposed to be cognizant of any language beyond his own; to be ignorant of Latin is no crime; to pretend a knowledge is beneath contempt” (Criticism, The Poetry of Rufus Dawes. XI. 137).

That the reader may see bow the matter stands, the Hebrew as Poe supplied it in his review of Arabia Petraea in October, 1837, after getting Anthon's letter in June of that year, is here copied from Harrison X. 17, 18. Then the Hebrew, which Anthon did not put in his letter, but which was doubtless supplied to Harrison by the theological professor to whom he appealed, is printed just as it stands in the letter as given by Harrison, XVII. 42, 43.

Isaiah XXXIV. 10.

Ezekiel XXXV. 7.

Thus far we have Poe's Hebrew just as given by Harrison, with all its imperfections upon its head.

So runs the interlineation and numbering of Hebrew foisted upon Anthon by someone at the instigation of Harrison.

In the absence of any original manuscripts save Anthon's it is now impossible to say how many of the glaring errors came from author, editor, and printers. Certainly the editor had little right to throw stones at Poe.

[[Footnotes]]

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 152:]

1 References are to Harrison's Virginia Edition. Roman numeral = volume; figure before colon = page; figure after colon = line.

In counting lines, titles of books, articles and the like are ignored. Poe's capitalization, punctuation, etc., are often ignored in the quotations.

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 153:]

2 A few non-biblical phrases are included, from the Catechism, the Prayer Book, etc.

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 154:]

3 This familiar phrase is in the Douay, or Catholic, version.

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 155:]

4 This is probably intended for Adummim. It is not easy to get any meaning out of it: but Poe seems to be making a play upon the names of these two valleys or ghors near Jerusalem. See Josephus, Ant., VII. a. 3; Smith, Historical Geog., pp. 264. 265.

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 156:]

5 Apparently Poe's transliteration of the Heb. [[Hebrew text]] = shame. The “he” is incomprehensible.

6 These are in the Hebrew, but not in the English Bible.

7 Ibid.

8 This piece is filled throughout with biblical phraseology, names, and allusions, so that almost every word of it might be quoted in this list. Names are listed below, pp. 198-200.

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 157:]

9 These readings give variations used by Poe in different reprints of his works. They are appended in the Notes at the end of the volumes of Harrison's edition.

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 167:]

10 Literally “a sound of gentle stilness [[stillness]].”

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 169:]

11 Cf. “Descended into Hell ... ascended into Heaven” (Apostles’ Creed).

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 172:]

12 This and the three poems following are almost certainly not Poe's. See VII. 225-256.

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 173:]

13 Titles of the books reviewed are omitted. Transition from book to book is marked by double space.

[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 178:]

14 In this review of Stephen's Arabia Petraea Poe had opportunity to display considerable biblical lore and took advantage of it. The technical parts of it were gathered from various sources for the occasion: but Poe knew where to look. This passage he copied from Keith, On the Prophecies, p. 340, n., and mistook the first sentence for Bible.

15 For Poe's discussion of the literal meaning of the Hebrew of Isa. 34:10-17, and Ezekiel 35:7, see below, pp. 205-208.

[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 179:]

16 The nature of he work reviewed involved Poe in a host of references to biblical places, etc.

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 180:]

17 The Geneva Version of 1660 has “till time shall be no more.” For a discussion of this passage see above, pp. 137, 138,

[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 188:]

18 This is incorrect, but was so printed by Poe (see Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. II. p. 580, 1836). This illustrates the mechanical way in which Poe copied such notes from various sources, for be gave the item correctly in the other paragraph of the same page of the Messenger, as copied above (64:16). None of his statements on such matters should be accepted without verification, for many were palpably erroneous then, and advances in knowledge have since disproved others.

19 Poe then quotes the verse in a quaint metrical paraphrase. Elsewhere he quotes similar paraphrases of Psa. 52:7 and 125:1: also Acts 1:1. See XIV. 66, 67, 71, 72.

[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 193:]

20 This and the next, printed in the Biography of Harrison's ed.

21 This printed as an introduction to the Poems.

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 195:]

22 All references are to Harrison, Last Letters of Edgar Allan Poe to Sarah Helen Whitman, Putnam's Sons, 1909.

23 The writings of Poe from which these references have been extracted are not found in any edition of his works. Prof. R. A. Stewart, Ph.D., collected them from publications in which they originally appeared, and kindly let me examine his Mss.

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 196:]

24 For a discussion of these see above, pp. 138-140. The figures following are to Poe — volume, page, line.

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 197:]

25 Probably due to biblical influence. The list might be greatly extended; that of the Hebraic phrases, while not exhaustive, is nearly so.

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 198:]

26 Bible names not referring to Bible characters are in italics. Poe's spelling is followed. The letters placed after Words indicate the class of writings where employed: T = Tales; P = Poems: C = Criticisms; E = Essays and Miscellanies; M = Marginalia and Eureka; L = Letters. In the case of words frequently used a superior figure indicates the number of times noted: Paradise T12 P4 C5 L1. Some significant words occurring but few times are also thus indicated.

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 200:]

27 For explanation of abbreviations see above, p. 198, n. Many words are used figuratively, or in nonbiblical senses.

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 203:]

28 Numerous other words used in the Bible and religious literature might have been included, but were omitted because they are commonly employed in other senses: e.g.. confess, forgive, praise, soul.

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 204:]

29 For a discussion of these words see pp. 132-137 fl. above. The notation is the same as in the preceding lists, in a few cases reference is given to the volume, page, add line where the word is used.

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 207:]

30 In all this remarkable mixup nothing is stranger than a footnote at this point. printed as though by Poe, stating, The R. V. is correct, “None shall pass through it for ever and ever” — as though Poe were quoting in 1837 the version that appeared in 1881.