∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
187/1-2} The volume, by Thomas Holley Chivers (1807-58), is 32 pages in length (5 of them prefatory) in double columns. The preface is an apologue by Chivers concerning a stranger's choosing the best of a flock to comfort the father, who has lost [page 142:] his favorite child. Each poem is preceded by a poetic quotation, that before “To My First Born in Heaven” being from “Israfel,” line 40: “Yes, Heaven is thine.” These points may have influenced Poe's major emphasis in his brief review.
Chivers, as man and author, is intimately connected with Poe. Woodberry wrote a long account of this connection (App. V, Life of Poe, 2.376-90), a masterpiece of irony and abundant facts, explaining the difficult intertangle of influences whereby Chivers and some of his devotees contended that major poems and major strains in Poe's oeuvre are owed to this eccentric from Georgia, son of a rich planter whose medical degree from Transylvania Univ. was never used. For years he frequently lived in the North but his comfortable plantation life with his family at Oaky Grove and his numerous offers to help Poe with the Stylus roused Poe's interest; he knew Chivers' poems sent to periodicals, as early as 1835. The weirdest, most individualistic style of poetry certainly attracted Poe, as ed. and as recipient of numerous letters (Ostrom counts 36, 10 by Poe — only 8 extant). Poe's first is an apology for his cogently stated opinion of Chivers' poetry in the 12/41 Graham's “Autography” article (H 15.241-42). This needs partial quotation by contrast with the present 1845 article, issued just before Poe sent a private letter to Chivers urging his desperate need for funds to sustain and purchase a full share (one-third) of the magazine: He is “one of the best and one of the worst poets in America. His productions ... a wild dream — strange, incongruous, full of images of ... monstrosity, and snatches of sweet unsustained song .... Is there any meaning in his words — ... His figures of speech are metaphor run mad, and his grammar is often none at all. Yet there are ... fine individual passages. ... ”In his answer of 7/6/42 (Letters, 207-209; and 697), Poe spoke of some errors back in the early contributions to the SLM, of his own hastiness, and of the fine qualities of his poem about Shelley, q.v. in the present rev. Of course he asked for his help with subscribers to the projected Penn. Mag. The file of letters between them invariably concerns the same topics: Poe's grudging promise of individual poems by Chivers, his need for money for his mag., and his promise to give up drink. One variation is ironic, his inability after much effort to salvage some Florida bank bonds, via Wall Street, to save the wealthy Chivers $210 in losses. Another is his congratulations on the Southerner's invention of a silk-unwinding machine that was to bring him financial gain. But never did he keep any of his promises to aid the publishing venture (see pp. 214, 293, 296, 302, 325). Poe showed admirable self-control. For a covert ref. to “T.H.C.” on 6/21, see 82/18 (end of note). [page 143:]
187/30} Poe's first para. obviously took its cue from Chivers' invoking his consolation over the death of his child, and he sounds the theme that became prominent in “Phil. of Comp.” — death of the beloved as apt for poetry. Poe's language is like that in a few of his poetic sketches (cf. “Shadow,” sentence 1, on p. 188). The ref. to “Byronic affectation of melancholy” is rather inapposite, since the Corsair type of regret after conquest or the young-love-rejected theme of some of the short lyrics is not in Chivers' scope.
Poe's attempt to set up eras for the development of each nation's literature derives from the standard division into three levels: the epic, the classical, and (see M 181) the romantic. Surely strange is his representing the “critical era” through William Cowper (1731-1800), the pietistic, melancholy poet, but Poe knew and cited a few of his works (see PD, 23-34 for 10 loci).
Totally disproving Poe's insincere flattery in “an air of a rapt soliloquy” is a letter from Chivers to Poe, of 9/9/45, cited by Hull from a copy of the Huntington MSS.: “My poems have been spoken of in the very highest terms in this state, by all who have seen them. Several papers have republished your notice, with also remarks on their merits, of the most flattering nature, at the same time that you were spoken of in the highest terms.” On the other hand, see Chivers' letter to a Georgia paper, the Southern Courant, defending Poe in this rev. against the Washington Bee's charge that Poe was merely “puffing” Chivers' book (in Poe Log for September).
Poe's exempting Chivers in this small volume and in his many periodical poems from any “taint” of the major 19th century poets' works is hardly a tribute to Chivers' wide reading or sensitivity, according to what Poe has said about the lurking influences of the best models, but it does acknowledge the eccentric originality or mere oddity of his work, which in his odd coinages and compounds and riotous alliteration and stenographically truncated syntax appealed to the risibility of later Victorians, such as Swinburne and Bayard Taylor. It was the only kind of continuing appeal that Chivers could have (see Woodberry, 2.376, 388). Woodberry tartly notes that his next (4th) vol. of verse, in 1850, called Eonchs of Ruby, had a title “antiseptic against time” (2.377).
187/31-73} This poem on Shelley was entitled “The Wife's Lament for Her Husband Lost at Sea” (p, 14). Collations show two substantive changes that sound deliberate on Poe's part: [page 144:] “Like lost Archytas from Venetia's Sea,” (line 36) and “Like Orion on some dark Autumnal night” (188/3). In a now lost letter to the poet Poe had apparently argued for these changes, in terms of the accenting of the proper names. We have Poe's follow-up letter of 11/15/45: “You are wrong (as usual) about Archytas & Orion — both as I accent them / the first with a short y and the second with a long i /. Look in any phonographic Dictionary — say Bolles. Besides, wherever the words occur in ancient poetry, they are as I give them. What is the use of disputing an obvious point?” (302). Clearly, Poe's insistence upon improving the rhythm of the two lines and altering them in his BJ reprint entitles them to enter “Appendix III: Collaborations” in the Harvard ed. of Poems (491 ff.).
This poem, which is full of touches of “Adonais” despite Poe's “exemption,” is an indication of Chivers' being “Shelleymad” from 1837 on, a likely consequence of the publication in Phila. of the reprint of the large Galignani, Paris ed. of the three major Romantic poets' work (Woodberry, 381).
Concerning “a few extracts at random” — two more extracts aside from these testify to Poe's tactful promotion of Chivers, the earlier being a reprint of “To Isa Singing” at the start of this, the 8/2 number of the BJ (2.49). A curious correction made by Poe in 1842 warrants giving the five stanzas here: “Upon thy lips now lies / The music-dew of love; / And in thy deep blue eyes, — / More mild than Heaven above — / The meekness of the dove. [st.] More sweet than the perfume / Of snow-white jessamine, / When it is first in bloom, / Is that sweet breath of thine, / Which mingles now with mine. [st.] Like an Aeolian sound / Out of an ocean shell, / Which fills the air around / With music, such as fell / From the lips of ISRAFEL, [st,] Over thy lips now flow, / Out of thy heart, for me, / The songs, which none can know / But him who hopes to be / For evermore with thee. [st.] And like the snow-white Dove / Frightened from earth at even — / On tempests borne above — / My swift-winged soul is driven / Upon thy voice to heaven!”
In his letter of 7/6/42 to Chivers responding to the latter's protests over the “Autography” item, Poe wrote: “What I said of your grammatical errors arose from some imperfect recollections of one or two poems sent to the first vol. of the SLM” (Letters, 207) but not there printed, according to D.K. Jackson's checklist of the contributors to the SLM. Ostrom records an envelope notation, presumably by Chivers, that line 18 read “The song which none can know” through a copyist error, but that the original form should have been “Sweet songs” — now changed to “The songs.” We may assume that its ref. to “Israfel” in line 15 [page 145:] caused its reprinting here. Another “extract” was reprinted by Poe in the 12/6 BJ, on 2.338; it was a sonnet “On Reading Miss Barrett's Poems,” full of characteristic language: “godenchanting,” “Honey-tongued,” “Crystal-shining,” “sapphire-paven,” “rapt the stars ... with wonder,” “music-troubled ether-sea.”
188/10-85} The first excerpt is from the title poem of the volume, pp. 5-12, specifically, p. 7. The second comprises the last three stanzas of “The Soul's Destiny” on pp. 16-17, and the last is “Sonnet. — to Isa Sleeping” on p. 20. There is an obvious misprint in line 38: “Upon thy mother's arm” is the obvious text.
188/88} Poe is being evasive in not specifying the “gross demerit” here and on the next page that lowers the rank of Chivers as poet, but he undercuts his own standards in claiming that mere conventionality determines the basis for criticism. The jumble of metaphors, the vagueness, the overworked themes which derive from third-rate sentimental poetasters — all these are regular targets for Poe's vituperation when he is not trying to please the writer.
189/5} See p. 296/20 [facsimile text] for an utterly noncommittal ref. to a magazine poem by Chivers.
189/12} Poe left it untreated in the BJ hereafter — a fuller justice.
189/16} Childe Harold, 2, st. 81.
189/33} Mrs. Mowatt, like Poe, was steeped in Byron's works; Poe also uses “Egeria” at the end of “Brown and Miss Chaworth” in the 12/44 mag. article (see SM 12 for full explication) deriving it from Childe Harold (4.115): “Egeria! sweet creation of some heart” for his pictured ideal of a youth.
190/57-64} This collection, pirated, of course, had vii-x + 189 p. This is only an announcement, with the proper rev. following in the next issue (see 198 ff.). The statement comes from p. vii.
190/65-73} The pagination is as follows: “Preface to Hood's Own” (1-6); “The Pugsley Papers” (7-20); “The Dream of Eugene Aram” (21-27), poem; “Black, White, and Brown” (28-33); “I Remember, I Remember” (34-45), poem; “The Portrait” (36-40); “Literary Reminiscences” (41-48, 51-100); “My Apology” (49-50); [page 146:] “The Lost Heir” (101-105), poem; “An Undertaker” (106-108); “Miss Kilmansegg and her Precious Leg” (109-179), poem; “Fair Ines” (180-181), poem; “Ballad” (182), poem; “Ruth” (183), poem; “Autumn” (184), poem; “Song” (185), poem; “Ode to Melancholy” (186-189), poem.
191/1} This para. is from pp. ix-x of the Preface, and expresses very well Poe's views on the need for International Copyright laws.
191/12-19} The date is 1844. Each of the novels is in two columns, separately paged as follows: 3-136, 3-136, 3-139, 3-184, 3-138. See pp. 92, 150, 302.
191/20-22} This work appeared in parts at long intervals. It was finally published as one vol. (of 1104 p.) under the following title: Pictorial History of the World, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time. New ed., with additions, corrections by the author. Ill. with 540 engravings from drawings by Croome, Devereux, and other distinguished artists. Richmond, Va.: Harrold & Murray, 1848. There were also Phila., 1851 and Hartford, 1855 eds.
For separate notices in the BJ see 215, 262, 281 [facsimile text].
191/24-28} This numbers 3-32 p., and is set in 1732.
191/29-34} Poe is correct about the pages (252 to be exact) and wrong about his placement of pointing before Author. She appears to be Maria Jane McIntosh, although not indicated on the book, which concerns one Frank Derwent, who seeks to answer the question, “For what shall I live?” and finds the answer, “God,” on p. 252. It is didactic, like Thomas Day's classic, which contrasts the sons of the upper class and the yeomanry, but is far from “equal.”
191/35-38} The cheap newsprint format of these novels in parts has guaranteed their extinction at present. For other notices of the continuing parts see 215, 259, 271, 295, 321, 333.
191/39-41} This 48 p. work is by Douglas Wm. Jerrold (180357), and has this title: Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures, delivered during thirty years by Mrs. Margaret Caudle, and suffered by Job, her Husband. There are 29 lectures in all. For their inordinate popularity, through their many reprints from Punch, throughout [page 147:] England and America, see p. 109 [facsimile text], which discusses their material and effect.
191/42-47} Thomas De Quincey's “Suspiria de Profundis” is a continuation of “Confessions of an Opium Eater,” correctly noted in Poe's rev. of the 4/45 Blackwood's (p, 111). This Am. ed. is paged differently: “Suspiria..,” on 43-55, “Househunting in Wales” on 74-86, and not in the April British ed. In both instances Poe speaks well of this one of De Quincey's work.
191/48-53} The author appears to be Harriet Maria (Gordon) Smythies (1838-83). The novel, pub. in London, then in NY, achieved a reprint in 1869, having 138 p. and leaving no copy in NYC. Poe avoids telling us what “class” of fiction it belongs to.
191/54-59} This “select novel” is paged 5-72. No date is given on the title page but the translator's preface, signed W.H., is dated April 16, 1845. The translator further explains that, while all the previous translations were done by Mary Howitt, Mr. Howitt had to do The Parsonage of Mara. An “advertisement” by F. Bremer admits having “committed several minor offences against time and space ... knowingly and purposely.”
Frederika Bremer (1801-65), world-renowned Swedish novelist, wrote of middle class family relationships, with much melodrama and appeal for improving the status of women. She was on her way to America for a lecture tour, which finally had to be postponed. See 197, 238, 255 [facsimile text].
192/1-4} The full title comprises 7 words detailing the content of the vol., ix-xiv + 1225 p., by Thomas Webster (from the 1845 L. ed.). The separate nos. no longer are available.
192/5-9} This is one of the nos. of a series of “outlines” of the histories, “ancient and modern” of all nations by Samuel Maunder (1785-1849) with the U.S. history added (by John Inman). It is in 2 vols.: vi + 760; 638 p.
192/10-11} See earlier reviews: 65-69, 76-78, 176-78. Her “last” was 7/26.
192/15} The theatrical “vaudeville” of Poe's day appears to have been a “piece, usually comic, the dialogue or pantomime of which is intermingled with light or satirical songs, sometimes set to familiar airs, and with dancing” (Webster's New International Dictionary, 1909, reprinted, 1923). Johnson's Cyclopaedia is cited [page 148:] for the word: “The early vaudeville, ... forerunner of the opera bouffe, was light, graceful, and piquant.” It originated in the French satirical verses called vaudevilles, q.v. in Pin 154, explicated. Although prominent in the stage annals of Poe's day, it has received little attention in stage histories.
193/13} The last two are Poe's coined compounds.
193/31} While Poe here tries to temper his admiration, he generally belongs to the group of adulators, especially in the earlier reviews, reproved by the 7/26 Spirit of the Times (of NY) which said: “Mrs. Mowatt is decidedly a clever, pleasing, though not a versatile actress .... We conceive that ... her [friends] are doing her a signal injury, by the very fulsome flattery they are dealing out .... Every one, after reading the tremendous effusions of some critics, expected to find ... an angel ... they were naturally disappointed” (see Odell, 5.156-57).
193/32-37} At the Park appeared the French opera company from New Orleans, led by the singer Julie Calve, starting on 6/16, to 8/14, in a varied repertoire of operas and French “vaudevilles”; the former included the ambitious La Juive of Halévy, 6/16 (see Watson's long rev. on 2.58-59), Rossini's William Tell, Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable, and Donizetti's La Favorite. For the great acclaim see citations in Odell (5.103-106). Opera nights were Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
193/39-41} On 7/21 Rosina Pico sang the “Brindisi” from Lucrezia Borgia and a cavatina from the Prighionere di Edinburgh and thereafter sang every night for awhile. On 8/5 appeared The Veteran Returned, arranged by John Cline and acted by him and others (Odell, 5.160). See Letter 4 (6/4/44) in Doings of Gotham, 47, for Poe's ref. to “Herr Kline's” “curvets upon a rope.”
193/42-46} The Female Horse Thief, at the Chatham, presented Mrs. Jones playing Margaret Catchpole. Notice Poe's sneer at the tastes of the “Everyman” audience.
193/53-54} Tait's Magazine (London), pp. 373-74, reviewing Poems on man in his various aspects under the American Republic by Cornelius Mathews, NY. Here Poe is partial to the poet and novelist, friend of R.H. Horse and sponsor of “Young America” (see many refs. and articles in Index of BJ), but note the marked change in Poe's opinions in Br. (see Index). [page 149:]
194/1-68} Collation shows a few significant variations; all italics are Poe's. These lines are different as shown: (17) principle / social principle; (23) to a young person / to many a young writer; (37) believe the; (39) speaking even of; (48) associated / beyond the association suggested; (57) ragged / rugged; (60) and an American; (64) conclusions / convulsions; (66-67) at sight; (74) will yet be.
195/56-67} The selection and inclusion of this report on an important although now abandoned technological development evidences Poe's intense interest which made him a father of science fiction (cf. “Scheherazade,” “Hans Pfaall,” “Balloon Hoax,” “Mellonta Tauta”). Several cols. in BGM and various items in Doings of Gotham also show this. The source of this excerpt is unverifiable. The “atmospheric railway,” developed between 1840-45 by Joseph Samuda (1813-85) and his brother Jacob (d. 1844) and Samuel Clegg (1814-56), seemed to be a promising use of atmospheric pressure through air pumps for maintaining a partial vacuum for propelling trains. A two-mile installation in Dalkey, Ireland (1843) worked to 1855, but the London-Croydon stretch here described was not long lasting (see En. Brit., 1929, 2.641-42).
195/68-72} Robert Taylor Conrad (1810-58), poet, dramatist, and jurist, issued Conrad, King of Naples in 1832, then Aylmere (1835), which, rewritten, as Jack Cade, the captain of the commons, entered Edwin Forrest's repertoire. For the sake of confusion — this play was published in 1852 as Aylmere, or the Bondman of Kent; and Other Poems. The news of Poe's article seems abortive. Poe lauds Conrad in the 1841 “Autography” (H 15.232-33) and in the uncollected sketch in the 6/44 Graham's that he mentions at the end of Letter 2 of Doings of Gotham, p. 35 (see also 11.223-24). But there is no trace of this drama here mentioned. (Is it Aylmere again?)
196/1-9} The role of Frederick Wm. Thomas (1806-66) in Poe's life and work is considerable, for he was always a true friend who helped him with leads to posts, introductions, contributions for journals, and much sage advice through numerous letters (see 638, 662 — Indices in Letters). He was a magazine-poet, a novelist, a journalist and editor. Poe's “Autography” article, in the 12/41 Graham's (H 15.209-10), is based on a long autobiographical account that Thomas sent him as of 9/3/41 (H 17.95-100; H's date of 8/3 is one month off). Poe refers here to a life of Wirt on pp. 52-54, in this issue, and there [page 150:] will be one on “John Randolph, of Roanoke” in the 8/16 BJ (2.8285) which contains a Shakespeare quotation that he will humorously use in BJ 2.339. Both these sketches derive from “two volumes of sketches of such persons as Wirt, John Randolph,” etc. which dated from 1840-41, as mentioned in the autobiography of 9/3/41 (H 17.98). Clearly Poe was appealing to his friends for material for filling up the pages of the BJ. Hull prints an excerpt from a MS. letter from Thomas to Poe (9/29/45): “I see you have published two of my sketches (Randolph-Wirt) — I observed them kindly noticed. ... ”
The poem from the British Critic is reprinted on 2.52 of the current issue. In 28 lines, 7 stanzas, “Song” by E.H. Burrington is a slight allegory of the spirits of “Hope” and “Doubt.”
196/10-59} This is from “Personal Recollections of Thomas Campbell, Esq. — No. II,” pp. 679-689 of the 1845 vol., specifically, 680. Poe's remark about literary Billingsgate is not a direct quotation, but rather is from a remark of Campbell's made anent an essay by Daniel Maginn entitled “De Arte Billingsgatoriâ“consisting of extracts from the writings of Swift. Collations show these variants: (18) would have sacrificed; (27) seduced by Hazlitt into; (41) henceforward. The book was Conversations with James Northcote (1830).
For Poe's views of Campbell see Index to Br. (and especially Pin 78, M 212) and Index to BJ; likewise for William Hazlitt (especially see 212 [facsimile text]). Obviously, “in” should be “into:’
197/1-20} Poe here has taken up a question that shows great literary perceptiveness and a proper respect for authors' rights to a just voice in the publishers' arrangements. The proposed “literary agency” for German books, to my knowledge, never came about, but the idea was a tenable and valuable one. The “recent fair” must have been the renowned Easter book fair at Leipzig, an earlier holding of which had produced the celebrated translation of a book by Scott which never existed in the first place. The account of how this spurious Scott work, named Walladmor, was then translated “back” from the German by De Quincey is given in the Br., SP 27. Poe also undertook the problem of proper translations from the French in M 176 (anent C.H. Town's hasty, careless translation of Sue's Mysteries of Paris). Poe was always much concerned with the exact shade of difference between an idea expressed in a foreign tongue and in English, even using the resultant misinterpretations as the basis for tales, such as “Why the Little Frenchman ... ,” and for many [page 151:] passages of criticism (e.g., H 10.138). Poe's deduction in the last sentence is entirely in keeping with his adherence to the “Young America” point of view.
197/21-37} This comes from the Foreign Quarterly Review, 7/45, p. 285 (NY ed.), 530 (L. ed.). All substantives are the same save for “fatigued” in line 32. There is meaning in Poe's choosing this derogation of Ludwig Tieck, whom he cites (I believe at second-hand) and to whom he imputes a joke that really comes from Bulwer (see M 78, and note b). Poe was now entering his complete disenchantment with German criticism and the solemnity of German scholarly and academic thought (q.v. under Schlegel in the Br's Index). Hence the appeal to him of this parody of hypocritical idolatry.
197/38-52} There are traces of a non-Poe hand in this short article, perhaps that of Henry C. Watson who did not share in Poe's nationalistic outrage over the derogation of American books by “Christopher North” (see SM 1) and Sydney Smith, notorious for his remark: “In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book?” (in the 1/1820 Edinburgh Review, which he helped to found, 1802; but see neutral refs. on 92, 168). Poe would not quote approvingly this way Carlyle, whom he always disparaged. On the other hand, Poe took the keenest interest in the dance, and especially in the legendary Maria Taglioni (see M 85, FS 27). His use of names and elements from the dance throughout his creative and critical work is manifold (see my “Poe and the Dance,” in SAR 1980, 169-182). Hence the major topic and its decidedly pro-American culture orientation strongly suggest Poe's authorship. In the 6/28 no. (p. 638, 2nd col. top) in a rev. of La Sylphide is the opinion that she is past the age for the role but still graceful and charming. Another item in the 7/26 issue (p. 744) more broadly said that “she should not think of retirement,” but this would have been too late to enter Poe's column.
197/53-57} Ida Marie Luise etc., the countess Hahn-Hahn of Germany (1805-80), a misc. popular writer (fiction, poems, and travel letters, many of them translated into English in the 1840s) wrote this “massacred” title, correctly Zwei Frauen (two women). Obviously the “z” and “e” have been read as “I”, like the capital “H” in her name. Poe's script is usually too clear for this kind of misreading, but on the other hand he was interested in women authors (see 191[i] above) and particularly in George Sand (Mme. Dudevant; q.v. in SM 12 and PD, 81). The information comes [page 152:] from the same issue of the Foreign Quarterly Review as article (a) above. Poe is more likely to be responsible for the epigramatic last sentence than the stylistically dull and wordy Watson.
197/58-63} Early photography was a keen interest of Poe's, and this little note on the Foreign Quarterly Review article of 7/45 (pp. 534-35) would have fascinated Poe, even though this spelled the doom of his beloved anastatic printing (see 24, 83-86, 107, 135-36). Oddly, Poe did not here, as in 215 (g) [facsimile text], insist upon inserting the acute accent over the second “e” (daguerreotype, as in the original article), despite his words on the subject in Alexander's Weekly Messenger of 1/15/40 (reprinted by C.S. Brigham [Worcester, 1943], p. 20), nor did Poe use an acute accent in two articles in “A Chapter on Science and Art” in BGM of 1840, 6.193, 246, both printed under Poe's editorship, but not written by him (as is sometimes stated). Obviously, no one but editor Poe could have selected this topic for attention here in the BJ.
198/1-2} It would be difficult to determine the specific improvement mentioned among the numerous discoveries and theories of Dominique Frangois Jean Arago (1786-53), the leading French physicist of his age. Poe derived a warped view of him from the disparaging, sensational treatment by Louis Lomenie in the French original (which Poe did not directly know) of Robert M. Walsh's translated Sketches of Conspicuous Living Characters of France, reviewed in the 4/41 Graham's by Poe (see his refs. to Arago in H 10.134, 136, 138). Hence he introduced Arago into “Von Kempelen” (see ch. 10 on it in Discoveries in Poe; also TOM 1365, n. 1). This is a prelude of that interest.
198/3-14} In the first para. Poe scarcely conceals the ill-will he bore toward Briggs, the “former associate ed.” and his doubt about being able to extract “Eudocia” from him. It did not appear in the rest of the vol.
The “Correspondence” was printed, as he said, on pp. 23-26, anonymously. It is full of poetic quotations and refs. to classical and contemporary authors (such as Leigh Hunt) plus much flower lore. The ref. to the Boston agents (Redding and Co., according to the weekly advertisement) would indicate the provenance of the article. Clearly the writer has questioned Poe about his forthcoming Raven and Other Poems.
198/15-18} This is an insulting follow-up of the “loss” of the contribution mentioned on p. 186. It had very far-reaching [page 153:] consequences. The author, Richard Henry Stoddard (1825-1903), originally an iron moulder, persisted in self-education, reading and writing poetry, to become a critic and ed. in NYC in the center of literary circles, always second rate but enormously popular and influential. His experience with Poe, which included his calling on him and being evicted with menaces, his later leaving Poe in the rain, without an umbrella — all this was repeatedly and unabashedly written up by Stoddard in magazine and newspaper articles and in the long Recollections (1903), pp. 145-60, as well as in his Preface to Poems of Poe (1875), 78-81, for Stoddard was to take over from his deceased friend Griswold the function of explicator, editor, and tacit assailant of Poe, especially in Works of Poe (NY, 1884, 6 vols.). He matched the Griswold “Ludwig” obituary with a depreciatory article, in 1853, ending with his own Poe poem, “Miserrimus,” best epitomized by this line: “His faults were many, his virtues few.” (For a full account, see ch. 11, “Poe as ‘Miserrimus,“’ Discoveries in Poe, 200204.) Later Stoddard did acknowledge that it was “influenced by Keats but not copied from anyone,” and later still he confessed that having read Major David Richardson's “Ode to a Grecian Flute” he “had to write a companion piece” which went to the BJ. Poe's insight was correct, undoubtedly, about the double plagiarism there admitted (Lippincott's, 1889, 43.107). It must be added that a year after Poe's death Stoddard came across an autograph poem of Poe's (for he inherited papers from many, including Rufus W. Griswold) and wrote a non-derisive, tributary sonnet on the reverse side, which he published, but since he cancelled the subject's name, it did not redress the balance at all. That odd story I hope soon to see in print.
198/19-24} This follows the previous week's announcement of the same book of 3 + 189 pages, but it does not quite accord with the initial para., which asserts that these are Hood's “More earnest writings,” whereas we have had “heretofore his lighter effusions, his puns and quibbles. ... ”The list of works on 190 shows several “punny” ones, such as “Miss Killmansegg” and “Pugsley Papers,” confirmed by the first part of his discussion below.
198/25} The identity of the American editor has remained obscure; the Preface (see p. vii quoted on 191) differs from material in earlier or later American editions.
198/25-76} Poe seems to have thought so well of his material in this rev. that he incorporated it into the entire text of M 291, [page 154:] the last of the series published during his lifetime. I shall try to indicate how he adapted the substance, shorn of the illustrations from Hood and of the long excerpt (pp. 199-200, the major portion) from Poe's sketch of N.P. Willis, pp. 16-17 above. Para. 1 of M 291 uses 198/25-46; para. 2 uses 199/10-39; para. 3, the last, uses 199/42-45 plus 201/2-4 and 7-8 plus 202/6-7. For a collation of the material, see note a of M 291. Important is his dropping the “humor” at the end of the borrowed sentences in favor of stress on “imagination,” which he thinks more justified after quoting his “essay” from the Willis sketch. Poe does not manage to clarify the distinction between “fancy” and “fantasy” nor does he manage to dispose of Hood's “humor” which he began by deprecating and ends by admiring in “Miss Kilmansegg” with its “brilliant points” (203/40), which he fails to explain. Basically Poe enjoyed humor, especially of the “punnage” variety (Poe's coinage), as we see in MM Intro., 87, 235, 253. His rather stilted rejection in this rev. misleads him about the appeal of Hood, while his partiality for the sentimentality of certain serious poems prevents him from seeing the same grotesquerie exhibited there.
Hood, in line 55, is quoting Burns' “John Anderson.” In line 70, after “Sanitaire” is a missing line: “Above all, don't despond about it.” In line 74 Meltonian is a ref. to hunting at Melton Mowbray, in Leicestershire, a traditional scene of skill for the sport.
198/26-27} This questionable statement is from p. viii of the Preface.
199/7-9} The excerpt from Hood is curiously reminiscent of one of Poe's most interesting tales, “The Imp of the Perverse,” concerning our impulse to frustrate our own security and satisfied ambitions in a mad spirit of contradiction that brings us disaster. The date, language, and context (melancholy and mirth) suggest this: “Imp” came out in the 7/45 Graham's, just when he received the book for rev.; a key passage explains that “The most important crisis of our life calls, trumpet tongued, for immediate energy and action.” “We struggle in vain .... The clock strikes, and is the knell of our welfare .... It is the chanticleer-note to the ghost that has so long overawed us” (TOM, 1222). Now it is true that Hamlet offers a closer and more apt source (see my treatment in Etudes Anglaises, 1976, 29.199-202), but multiple stimuli, all converging, explain the creative product, especially from so complex and associative a mind as Poe's. [page 155:]
199/21-39} Poe tries here to sharpen and individualize his language. Characteristic is “niaiseries” meaning nonsense, foolishness, or trifles (see M 291e); “grotesquerie” italicized as a sign of his new coinage. Indeed it is in this sense a word meaning “grotesque objects considered collectively.” (See M 291e and PCW.) The word “ideal” sometimes meant little more than pertaining to the faculty for appreciating beauty. Poe was fond of “abandon” and “abandonment” often considered as French in significance — freedom, unrestraint, lack of rules — (see M 211 anent Shelley). His quotation from Horace, Ars Poetica, 1.385 means “Minerva being unwilling”; hence, without inspiration.
200/72} It is interesting that this entire reprint of almost the whole of the sketch of Willis was included as a footnote to the “Lit.” sketch of Willis in the 5/46 Godey's, but this time numerous changes in the accidentals were introduced and about a half dozen variations in words were made (e.g., well-intentioned / benevolent). Obviously Poe thought well of his initial presentation on “Fancy” and “Fantasy.”
201/1-10} These two poems appear in Part 1, pp. 21-27, and Part 2, pp. 202-205 of Prose and Verse, having been pub. respectively in the Gem, 1829, and Hood's Mag., 5/44. In applying “imaginative” to these poems, Poe must be referring to constructing beauty out of deformities, as he has just explained, since “Eugene Aram” concerns the self-revelation of the notorious scholar-murderer (the subject also of Bulwer's novel) and the second concerns the suicide of the betrayed, pregnant, lower-class girl. The first, incidentally, draws on the language and emotions of “Ancient Mariner” and, in turn, lends a little to Poe's “TellTale Heart” and much to Oscar Wilde's “Ballad of Reading Gaol.” For Poe's fondness for the second poem see notes to text p. 229/13-17 below.
201/11-43} Hood having died on 5/3/45 in a melancholy state, Poe was naturally led to stress the link of “hypochodriasis” to his peculiar or grotesque “fancy” (as stated in M 291 f). Poe implies that this “malady” distorts the shapings of the “released” mind (cf. “abandon”), since, “in its pathological aspect” it was held “a disorder of the nervous system, generally accompanied by indigestion, but chiefly characterized by the patient's unfounded belief that he is suffering from some serious bodily disease” (OED). Roderick Usher is thrice called “hypochondriac” and also Julius Rodman; “hipped” (a colloquialism just coming into use for the idea) is used in “Never Bet the Devil.” [page 156:]
These two stanzas as given by Hood, pp. 188-89, lack one intervening stanza, the penultimate one; also, the last line reads “But has its chord in Melancholy.” It is possible that Poe retained a memory of lines 31-37, when he composed “Ulalume”: “... Sadly this star I mistrust — / / Ah, fly ... for we must. / ... letting sink her / Plumes till they trailed in the dust — / Till they sorrowfully trailed in the dust” (lines 52-60, Poems, 417). The common elements are “sorrow,” angelic wings trailed in vile dust, and three identical rhymes on “-ust.”
201/47-50} Poe's Latin phrase comes from Cicero, who in Pro Publio Sestio, 45.48, wrote “cum dignitate otium” or “a peaceful life with honor.” For Ramsbottom way, in line 50, his ref. is to Dickens' Sketches by Boz: “The tugs at Ramsbottom.”
202/1-13} The poem in the Gem of 1829 (separately published, 1831) exploited the well known story, as did Bulwer in his novel of 1832. Poe misprints line 10, which should start with “And,” and which reminds us of “Four and twenty blackbirds” etc. despite the “serious subject,” as Poe says. The last sentence of M 291 is a variation of part of this: “In a word, his peculiar genius was the result of vivid Fancy impelled by Hypochondriasis.”
202/23-43} Whatever the novel that Poe meant in line 23, he seemed dissatisfied with the rest of the para., for he put a large X over it (inscribed here at the side in deference to legibility) in my facsimile text. Perhaps he felt that the “class helter-skelter” does not represent “the flattest ... prose,” for in the Intro. to “Marginalia” (at note j) referring to his many random marginal notations, he speaks of “their helter-skelter-iness of commentary.”
In reprinting “Fair Ines” from the book (dating from the 1/23 London Magazine), Poe apparently overlooked the poem that most contributed to it: Burns' “Bonnie Lesley,” which begins: “O saw ye bonnie Lesley / As she gaed o‘er the border? / She's gane, like Alexander, / To spread her conquests farther. / To see her is to love her, / And love but her for ever?” In fact, Poe did not care much for Burns and could scarcely be expected to retain much of his poetry in memory. He might also have objected that “Oh, young Lochinvar is come out of the West,” in the Intro. to Marmion, provides too close a model for one line.
203/17-45} It is true that “Miss Killmansegg,” first pub. in the 9/40 New Monthly Mag., is characteristic of Hood's genius, in that the humor has a strain of bitter criticism of a social order [page 157:] that worships gold and perverts all human and moral values to attain it. Of this objective Poe seems oblivious, even though it is not far from his own aim in “Von Kempelen.” Poe does not specify the “brilliant points” (40-41) which are abounding, nor do his extracts clarify his term of “Fantasy.” He has gone to some trouble to select them from various parts of the long poem, even interspersing some of them out of order, as my line indications below will show. In line 36 his French term means “swindler.”
203/46-67 through 205/1-35} A collation of the text here and in Hood's original shows the following substantive changes: 203/47 — a very lively; 204/27 — washing his hands; 29 — besides / nothing but; 35 — cobwebs; 40 — or / and; 45 — is always / always is; 62 — tear her and / tear and; 205/55 — wretched that / wretched who; 56 — God himself / nature herself.
The lines of the excerpts below (and on 204-205) correspond to the lines of the poem as follows (only the first line of each separate excerpt is listed by number): 203/46 — line 22; 204/4 — line 87; 10 — line 114; 15 — line 303; 29 — line 350; 36 — line 499; 41 — line 546; 49 — line 596; 58 — line 673; 205/1 — 1734; 8 — line 1024; 15 — line 1322; 21 — line 1232; 31 — line 1303.
204/47-48} In the Br., FS 15, Poe used these two lines for satire on a phase of women's clothing.
205/37-47} Massimo d‘Azeglio (his correct name, not as Poe has it) was a marquis of great talent and ability, as painter, statesman, and writer, whose two historical novels (this and Niccolò de’ Lapi) were strongly political in his effort to arouse nationalistic feeling. The serious undercurrent in this work, a widely reputed offspring of Manzoni's fiction, seems to have escaped Poe totally (see below). Later he took part in the government of the new monarchy of Italy as prime minister, repeatedly, and was influential directly and through Cavour in basic Italian policies. Charles Edwards Lester (1815-90), our consul (1842-47) at Genoa, was a former Presbyterian clergyman, a liberal journalist, and a mist. author, steeped in Italian culture as his books on art and this translation show (see my Index for numerous refs. to Lester). Poe may have disliked his authoring Chains and Freedom (1839), the sympathetic life of a run-away slave, followed by his expose of exploited British labor (1841 and again, 1842). See 219 c) [facsimile text] concerning his error about the Medici Series' being devoted solely to Romances, probably corrected because of the arrival for rev. of nos. 2 and 3 of the series, Machiavelli's Florentine Histories, tr. by C. Edwards [page 158:] Lester; see 232(b) [facsimile text]; see also 295 [facsimile text] for Poe's rev. of Lester's tr. of Alfieri's autobiography.
206/1-7} The phrase “autorial comment” needs mention both as a concept and also for its Poe coinage; he uses the first word in eight contexts, several of them similar in protesting against the lack of an author's involvement through remarks or commentary. In PS., 1977, 10.15-18, I have discussed the fact that Poe was substituting for the awkward “authorial” this coinage, just before the more regular Latin-derived “auctorial” was separately created. The origin of this somewhat curious idea is Schlegel's discussion of the role of the chorus as an “ideal spectator” in his Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature, and it was also from A.W. Schlegel that Poe drew some of his basic ideas on “intrigue” or complicated plot as being unmeritorious unless redeemed by a unifying plot arrangement and an inevitable drive toward a climax or dénouement. The 18th and early 19th century's frequent intervention of the author's voice seems to us so brash, so interruptive that we wonder at Poe's insistence here; clearly he wished to raise the narrative above the level of straight reportage, especially for a third-person method. It is the presence of the narrator (through the “autorial comment”), to which the modern reader takes exception.
In the five novelists listed by Poe there are certainly many differences in the use of this “comment,” for Scott's novels are rich in forward-moving incidents, although a sense of planning is usually maintained by Sir Walter. Certainly, Poe was convinced about the total “shaping” by Godwin (about whom he learned, probably from Dickens) that the end of Caleb Williams, his major novel, had been planned before the first part — see Discoveries in Poe, ch, 7 on Poe and Godwin). And likewise for Bulwer Lytton and Benjamin D‘Israeli and Charles Brockden Brown — there is often a plethora of author's comments (much of which we now find superfluous and distracting today). In an earlier examination of Poe's charge here against d‘Azeglio's novel in Lester's translation I sought out every “commenting” passage in the 1845 NY ed., finding them to be on pp. 33-34, 76-77, 96, 197, and 273-74, the last being three paras. on the use of history by a novelist (Discoveries in Poe, 267). From Poe's whole critical outlook the objection made sense but not to a critic in the Mirror, whom he had to answer (see “Editorial Miscellany” on p. 224 [facsimile text]).
206/20-23} Pub. in 1845, this 28 p. work reached a 4th ed. in 1860, but NYC has no copy. For excerpt see BJ 2.331, of 12/6. [page 159:]
206/24-26} Joel Tyler Headley (1813-97), author of this work of v-vi + 224 p., managed to produce over 30 biographies, histories and travel books. “Prolific, superficial and popular” (DAB) characterize him well, and perhaps this explains Poe's distaste which flames into acerbic vituperation in the long posthumous rev. in the 10/1850 SLM (H 13.202-209) of The Sacred Mountains, in which he calls him “The Autocrat of ... Quacks” and “a perfect fool.” He had been a Presbyterian clergyman (to 1842-44) and he became a prolific biographist, but Poe calls J. T. Headley “the Rev.” and complains about his suppressed title. At this time Poe's antagonism had not grown so bitter, for he was willing to borrow for the 11/46 “Cask of Amontillado” from the Letters from Italy (the episode of “A Man Built in a Wall,” first appearing in the Columbian Mag. of 8/44, reprinted in the Mirror of 7/5/44 and collected in Letters from Italy (see TOM, 1253-54). The BJ Index has several refs. to Headley; see especially 351 [facsimile text], a sardonic rev. of a travel book.
206/27-64} Poe so well states, initially, the essential nature (and charm) of Headley's writing that he unfairly tasks him later for the slackness that is almost intrinsic to such an approach — likewise for his seeming serendipity. There did chance to be a young sculptor, Giovanni Dupre (1817-82), who worked in Siena, then in Florence and whose first exhibited work created a great stir. It was a model of “Dead Abel,” which had first been refused by the jury as a mere copy and then was approved as artistic and different from “life,” so that it was accepted and widely acclaimed. Later he scored great success with mythological and religious subjects and was commissioned for the statue of Cavour in Turin (1872).
In line 44 by Eustace and Forsyth Poe probably means John Chetwode Eustace (1762-1815) and Joseph Forsyth (1763-1815), authors of important guidebooks for Italy. The first published A classical Tour through Italy in 4 vols., which reached a 6th ed. by 1821 and a 7th in 1841. His Letter from Paris appeared in 1814. Forsyth published Remarks on antiquities, arts, and letters, during an excursion in Italy, in the years 1801 and 1803. There was a 2nd ed. in London in 1816, a 3rd in Geneva in 1824, and a London fourth in 1835.
207/6} Headley must describe well the effects of the avalanches, judging from Poe's witticism here, and from Poe's remark at the head of his two page reprint of the traversal of [page 160:] the Simplon Pass (see BJ of 12/6, 325 ff. [facsimile text].
207/52-62} Freeman Hunt (1804-1858) had been editing this highly successful journal for about 6 years with such success that Poe, with his perpetual ideal of the Stylus, feels vindicated in his goal. Obviously, on the verge of seizing sole control of the BJ, Poe confirms his boldness through Hunt's example of single proprietorship. For a fuller view of Poe's attitude and relationship with Hunt, see Pollin, Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 1974, 16.305-13. See also 89, 146, 242, 303-304 [facsimile text], especially the last which cites Willis' eulogy on Hunt.
207/64-66} The pages of these papers in order are 115-26, 127-38, 139-43, and 143-50.
208/1-26} The pages in the journal of these papers starting with the one on Peabody are: 150-62, 162-65, 165-70, 171-73. The para. about Mr. Peabody is taken almost verbatim from p. 157 (line 7: “.., he built” and through line 16). The information about the North American Review and Carey and Hart is in a footnote of the article.
208/27-31} “Scene on the Schuylkill” was engraved by A.W. Graham from an original picture by J. Hamilton for Godey's American Views. “The Deliverance of St. Peter from Prison,” painted by W. Hilton, R.A., was engraved by A.L. Dick.
The works referred to are: “Dudley Villiers” by Miss Leslie, a fiction about an army officer (39-45); “Error — a Sonnet” by Mrs. E. Oakes Smith (37); Mrs. Hale's name is not listed, but various anonymous works might include hers. Poe's name is mentioned for the “Marginalia,” 117-34.
209/1-15} See 282 and 288-90 [facsimile text] for a rev. of Hewitt's poems, and 328-32 for a rev. of Osgood's. For a considerate letter of 3/15 from Hewitt to Poe see Poe Log of that date; also H 17.272 for her kindness in 1846.
209/16-29} There is a good reason for the very full announcement of an annual due to appear three months from 8/9, namely, the inclusion of Poe's poem “The Lake,” reprinted. Hence we find other announcements on pp. 247, 311, and 323, before a rev. on 344-45 [facsimile text], again telling us about the lovely format and Baxter's new color process. [page 161:]
209/30-34} Poe speaks well of Keese as ed. and also as anthologist of Poets of America (I, 1840; II, 1842: “a fine taste, a sound judgment, and ... a ... thorough acquaintance with our poetical literature” (H 11.150; see also H 12.228, 13.78, 15.254). See refs. in 221, 247 [facsimile text]. Poe had reason to mention the annual, The Opal, which had been edited by N.P. Willis and in which Poe himself had published “Morning on the Wissahiccon” (in the 1843 issue, that is The Opal of 1844). It had been illustrated by the well known artist John Gadsby Chapman, although somewhat inappositely (see Pollin, study of Poe and Chapman in SAR 1984).
209/35-38} Poe had no fondness for Arthur, the indefatigable ed. of dozens of journals in Baltimore, Phila., and NY over the years and prolific author of temperance tracts and moralistic stories (1809-85), mocked in FS 30 (q.v. for an account of Poe's views). Poe again announced the annual, characteristically entitled The Snow-Flake and Gift for Innocence and Beauty (220, 247, etc.).
209/39-43} The specimen sheets that Poe had seen were of his contribution, “The Imp of the Perverse,” which TOM considered “one of Poe's great stories” — supporting Poe's augury that this “souvenir” will be unequalled. Poe reviews a small game-book by Hamilton (243) in addition to the annual (247, 260 [facsimile text]).
210/1-2} Poe's faintly elegiac tone over the suspension of The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for ... , published since the issue of 1836, stems from its hospitality to him for “MS ... in a Bottle,” “William Wilson,” “Eleonora,” “Pit and Pendulum,” and “Purloined Letter.”
210/3-6} Edward Everett (1794-1865), eminent as educator, statesman, orator, and ed. of North American Review, was rarely praised or honored by Poe in half a dozen allusions and short notes (see loci in PD, 33). Everett wished to leave politics when he was ambassador to Great Britain (1841-45) and happily accepted the election (1845) to the Harvard post, which he left in 1849.
210/7-16} This “remarkable” story led to further submissions and a “lead-poem” in the 8/23 BJ signalized in 226 (h).
210/17-48} The editor and publisher mentioned are Briggs [page 162:] and Bisco and finally Poe, who is, of course, being taxed with “severity” once again. The editor of the Democratic Review is John Louis O’Sullivan (35 [facsimile text]) and Henry G. Langley.
Poe's rejoinder seems to mix up two papers, the “Gazette” and the “Courier.” In 255(e) he cites with tacit approval a notice for a new vol. of poems by Cist, stemming from the Gazette, and, 245/8-9, asks Cist to send him the Gazette. Poe cleverly evades the issue by speaking of Watson on the masthead, a name that had been and continued to be there, although it obviously was Briggs who was meant. He ignores the week of a lapsed issue (7/4) when the “flare-up” was being settled, for it was suitable to try to hush up the whole affair. See Quinn, 463; also, App. 9: three contracts for the BJ, of 2/21/45, 7/14/45, and 10/24/45 (751-53). The mild tone and attitude of judicious neutrality make it unlikely that the “Correspondent” could be the “unseated” Briggs, as does the ref. to the “flashy name,” which was specifically chosen by Briggs and elaborately justified in para. 2 of his “Introductory” of 1/4/45, 1.1: “We have chosen it for the sake of individuality, and because it is indigenous, and ... is indicative of [our] ... spirit.”
210/49-52} The plate of John Kearsley Mitchell is the frontispiece for “Our Contributors. — no. XX: Dr. John K. Mitchell” by Joseph C. Neal, pp. 49-51. It was painted by Saunders, engraved by Welch and Walter. Joseph Clay Neal (1807-47) was a Phila. journalist and humorist whose satirical Charcoal Sketches (1838 and, second series, 1848) were popular here and in England. Poe seemed to know Mitchell personally, and included him in the second “Chapter of Autography” in the 12/41 Graham's (H 15.220-21) with a ref. to his “several pretty songs set to music” and his vol. of poems with one of “an old-fashioned polish and vigor.” This is Indecision, a Tale of the Far West and other poems (Phila., 1838c.), containing “Come, come to me, my rover, / Let Araby boast. / Oh! fly to the prairies. / Oh, Home of my childhood. / The Prairie Lea.”
210/54-56} “The Tower-Rock on the Mississippi” seems to be from a sketch of G. Bodmer, engraved by Smillie and Hinshelwood. The “Rock Mountain” northside view repeats the same large subject that was in the June Graham's (see 117/56 [facsimile text]). This is drawn by J. Smillie from a sketch by T. Addison Richards; engraved by Rawdon, Wright, Hatch, and Smillie.
210/56-58} “The Jugglers, a Story of New Orleans” is printed [page 163:] as “By a New Contributor” (pp. 61-71). Much more important is Poe's listing Mrs. Osgood's “Ida Grey,” pp. 82-84, with the brief comment, “a tale of passion.” This is another link in the long chain of exchanges in print between Frances and Edgar, a romance in the Della Cruscan style. She used the pages of the BJ and of Graham's chiefly, Poe the former. The names of “Kate Carol,” “Violet Vane” and, in a sense, “Ida Grey” are some of the pseudonyms. The story is traced well by TOM in Poems, 379-84, 356-58. He indicates (383) that Poe's lately discovered poem, “The Divine Right of Kings,” was probably a reply to a passage in “Ida Grey”: “He bids me tell him that I love him, as proudly as if he had a right ... a divine right to demand my love.” The hero of the tale is a married man much like Poe, who used “Edward S. T. Grey” as a pseudonym (see my account in Ball State Univ. Forum, 1973, 14.44-46). Surely Poe's phrase is significant here.
211/1} The poem of Mrs. R.S. Nichols of Cincinnati is “Farewell of the Soul to the Body” (p. 74). See p. 57 [facsimile text] for the reprint of 5 stanzas of her poetic “Address ... ”and p. 69 for Poe's correction of his own error.
211/2-34} These are the final two stanzas of “Rain in Summer” (p. 71 in Graham's) and the “sick man” above is in the third stanza of the poem. In “To the Evening Wind” (st. 4) Bryant says “The faint old man shall lean his silver head / To feel thee; ... / And they who stand about the sick man's bed, / Shall ... Softly part his curtains to allow / Thy visit, grateful to his burning brow.” Longfellow writes: “The sick man from his chamber looks / At the twisted brooks; / His fevered brain / Grows calm again, / And he breathes a blessing on the rain.” Poe's statement is a canard on Longfellow, obviously. All the italics in the excerpt are Poe's. There are changes in the accidentals, unlisted; the following need note: 12, which / that; 17, underground / under ground; 33, forever more / forevermore.
The phrase “worthy the genius” is typical of Poe, often used.
211/35-50} The poem of James Russell Lowell appears on p. 52, with no variants in substantives from Poe's transcription. Wordsworth's lines in “Song at the feast of Brougham Castle” (last stanza) correctly read as follows: “Armour rusting in his halls / On the blood of Clifford calls; — / ‘Quell the Scot,’ exclaims the Lance — / Bear me to the heart of France, / Is the longing of the Shield — / Tell thy name, thou trembling Field.” Poe's half-remembered lines are almost a re-creation of those of [page 164:] Wordsworth. Poe's challenging phrase “palpable plagiarism” naturally made Lowell — always kind to the editor — indignant, as seen in his letter to his good friend Briggs of 8/21/45: “In the last BJ he has accused me of plagiarism and misquoted Wordsworth to sustain his charge. ‘Armour rustling on the walls, On the blood of Clifford calls,’ he quotes, italicising [sic] rustling as the point of resemblance. The word is really ‘rusting’ — ... My metaphor was drawn from some old Greek or Roman story which was in my mind & which Poe, who makes such a scholar of himself ought to have known .... There was no resemblance between the two passages” (letter cited by Hull from Harvard MSS.).
One minor aspect of Poe's comment is the indication of his bearing yet another poem by Wordsworth in his memory, although inaccurately. Poe's sharp attack on the English poet in the 1831 Prefatory “Letter to B———” (Poems; H 7.xxxix-xliii) for “didacticism” is often taken as his basic and unaltered attitude, but all his later works show frequent refs. to his ideas and works (see PD, 99), markedly different. There is still no good, comprehensive study of Poe's views on and use of Wordsworth.
211/52-56} The magazine, pp. 133-53, prints a “Biographical Sketch of Harman Blennerhassett” (1765-1831), who aided and abetted Aaron Burr and went free with Burr. The article is based on documents from Burr's relative. Poe was very partial to Wallace, q.v. in 168, 251, and, especially, 307 [facsimile text].
211/57-65} A prefatory note explains the double number as stemming from H.G. Langley's ending his publishing control of the magazine, which continued to have John L. O’Sullivan, one of its founders; he had made it a leading literary and miscellaneous journal, with many contributions by Hawthorne, Poe and others (see Mott, 677-84).
Poe is surprisingly gracious to “Education” (40-50) by Henry Norman Hudson (1814-86), well-known lecturer on Shakespeare, about whom he has several unfriendly refs. (see 339 [facsimile text] and MM 146, 151, 165) although not in BJ 299/21 [facsimile text].
Poe is similarly surprisingly gracious about “Harry Franco's” tale — tactfully showing the public their “good” relationships. However, Briggs continued to cherish animosity toward his former associate.
212/1-2} This is a long rev. article (263-78) on four books [page 165:] concerning the Oregon Territory: by Duflot de Mofras (in French), by Robert Greenhow, by Thomas Falconer, and by John Dunn.
212/6} See 107 and 278 [facsimile text] for other Hazlitt revs.
212/3-25} This vol. has xxii + 229 p. Poe limits his discussion solely to Hamlet (70-76) and in his general remarks of para. 1 might be discussing any of the other works of Hazlitt, such as Table Talk. Numerous articles on Hazlitt (see BJ Index) can be consulted, but surely the rather generalized comparisons with Leigh Hunt and Macaulay are verbal filler; Poe is much kinder to the latter than is his custom.
212/26-60} The second para. is a restatement of Hazlitt's second para.: “Are not Hamlet's speeches ‘real?’ They are as real as our own thoughts. Their reality is in the reader's mind.” Later he introduces the idea of identification, which Poe had already discussed for Robinson Crusoe in the 1836 SLM rev. (see Jacobs, 120-21, 384 n.14). Poe derived his emphasis on the idea from the preface to the ed. that he was reviewing (see Pollin, “Poe and Defoe,” Topic, 1976, 30.3-22). Here is Hazlitt's hint: “The poet appears ... to be identified with each character .... Like ... the ventriloquist, he throws his imagination out of himself,” etc. The original idea of Poe, however, is the concept that this leads to the inconsistencies of thought and action which are basic to the character of all men, including the author Shakespeare. Hazlitt says (p. 76) that the ideas and motives of the personae dramatis are like those of real men, and Poe adds — “especially of the writer.”
213/1-5} The Massachusetts proposal is on pp. 449-67. Mrs. Worthington's verses are “Love Sketches,” 478-81. She was praised for the stanzas of “The Child's Grave” on p. 88 [facsimile text].
The “queer” inquiry on the cover must have emanated from Benjamin Blake Minor (1818-1905), the ed. of the SLM from 1843 to 1847. Mott reports a dispute between Minor and Poe over business matters anent the BJ (646), and this may motivate Poe's sarcasm.
213/9-26} John Stuart Skinner (1788-1851), lawyer, public official and agricultural publicist and editor, close friend of Francis Scott Key, founded the American Farmer in 1819, editing [page 166:] it to 1830, and founded and edited the Farmers' Library 1845-48. Poe's data comes from Skinner's article on pp. 25-26. The lectures of Petzholdt (Poe's spelling is an error) were probably those on agricultural chemistry by Alexander Petzholdt (1810-89).
213/27-34} This journal would end this year, after five years of publication. As an expression of the girl operatives it had attracted international attention in social history and even then among Boston literary groups. It was edited by Harriet Jane Hanson. The editorial (180-88) is part of the history of Miss Farley, one of the two publishers: her sad childhood, teaching, and work at the factory.
213/35} See Index for other announcements of this evanescent novel in parts.
213/37} This year saw the “battle of the illustrated bibles,” each coming out in parts before issuance as a ponderous tome. R. Martin of NY used steel engravings for notes and “devotional reflections” by the Rev. Alexander Fletcher; hence, sometimes advertised as the Devotional Family Bible (see 243, 259 [facsimile text]). The Harpers had employed the well-known artist John Gadsby Chapman (1808-89) to do many hundreds of wood engravings for its Illuminated ... Bible, greatly preferred by Poe, who cherished wood engravings for his own dream magazine (see BJ Index for his revs. of this bible). Poe had long known Chapman's work, hanging his “Lake of the Dismal Swamp” on the model-salon wall in “Phil. of Furniture.” Chapman also had illustrated Poe's tale (later termed “The Elk”) in the Opal for 1844 (see Pollin, “Poe and Chapman” in SAR 1983, 245-274). Briggs, in his revs. of the earlier parts of the Harper bible, in BJ, vol. I, condemned the monotony of so many pictures by one illustrator; this probably stimulated Poe into a more laudatory rev. of the designs, title pages, etc. of the successive Harper partissues.
214/7-45} There are several reasons to believe that this is not by Poe: 1. The style is atypical, as in “We know not who is the author” (10-11), “as well female as male” (38), the vague last phrase (44-45); 2. Poe would be unlikely to refer so flatteringly to Margaret Fuller (see 34 [facsimile text]); 3. Poe was not likely to espouse the cause of feminism so vehemently (see his views on “blue stockings” in 34 [facsimile text]) and would not derogate the South this way (lines 30-34 [facsimile text]). On the other hand, the length of the rev. makes it unlikely for him to assign [page 167:] any one else to it, and whom would he find for it?
The books are of 1845, with 164 p. and no preface. Collation of the excerpt (pp. 33-34) aside from accidentals, such as the misspelled “million(s)” and the italics here and there, shows the following: 22 on to the stage; 25 nor in any; 28 power. In Ohio, more than one third of the children attend no school. In Indiana etc.; 32 read and write; 33 her hordes of ignorant. ...
214/46-58} John Abercrombie (1780-1844), a leading physician of Edinburgh, published papers and books on medical pathology. In 1830 he published Inquiries concerning the Intellectual Powers and in 1833 Philosophy of the Moral Feelings, works which were not particularly original but very popular. Poe's statement is taken from the prefatory “advertisement,” although not verbatim.
214/59-65} The vol. had 192 p. Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810-89) had enormous popularity for his Proverbial Philosophy, four series of “truisms cast in irregular rhythmical language” (Cassell's Enc.), a “phenomenon in the history of taste” (Baugh, Lit. History). His novel came out in 1844. The theme stated by Poe (215/1-5) justifies the characterizing phrase “shot through with complacent Whiggery” (Bough), although he himself was genial and humane in his political orientation and “did much to promote good relations with America” (Enc. Brit., 11th ed., 27.411). Willis thought the first part of his Proverbial Philosophy to be a forgotten work of the 17th century. In the second part of this rev. (215/1-10), Poe seems to be impressed by the glibness and reputation of Tupper's works, but in a 3/46 Godey's rev. he drops a somewhat ambiguous remark about his standard “adages” (H 13.112), arising from the title of his major work. See 305-306 [facsimile text] for more on Tupper.
215/11-20} Sir Charles Lyell (knighted in 1848; 1797-1875), first a barrister, became the most eminent geologist of England. Poe alludes to him in the Intro. to the Marginalia (see Br., p. 108, also TOM, 1117 n.10). In 1841-42 he traveled and lectured in North America; his studies of the alluvial matter in deltas led him to the “Great Dismal Swamp” of Virginia, well known to Poe (see “Poe and Chapman” in SAR 1983). Both vols. came out in 1845: I is v-vi + 251 p.; II, 197 p. Poe's remark implies his having heard Lyell in a lecture. He also alludes to the Pref. that gives a list of papers written by Lyell on more strictly scientific topics of geology, which are not for the “general reader.” The book is written as a journal with dated entries. [page 168:]
215/21-24} For other notices of this novel in parts see 191/35-38 nn.
215/25-28} For another ref. to a rev. of this work by Caroline Norton, Sheridan's granddaughter, see 168/29-41 nn. Her Child of the Islands attacked the conditions of the laboring poor.
215/29-34} This consists of 140 p. of double columns. It is a series of travel sketches, probably unread by Poe. Poe uses his High-Ways and By-Ways for MM 114, 203, q.v. for details of the author who served as British consul in Boston, 1839-46. In the disputed rev. of the PPA in the 1/28/43 Saturday Museum (H 11.223) Poe objects to the ranking of T.C. Grattan before Willis and would put him last, but why is he even included among American authors?
215/20-22} For Poe's friend, Frost, see 72 [facsimile text] and for this book see 191/20-22 [facsimile text].
215/38-50} Poe's close association with Robert Sully, nephew to Thomas Sully (1783-1872), America's premier portrait artist after the deaths of Peale and Stuart (1827-28), makes this small item highly significant. See also 233 (f) [facsimile text], below. Robert Sully, a minor painter in Richmond, was the son of actor Matthew, who had acted on the stage with Poe's mother in 1803 (Hervey Allen, Israfel, 1834, 1-vol. ed., 683). They were boyhood friends in Richmond, also in Phila. in 1841, and again in 1849 when Poe visited his “home town” (Mary Phillips, Poe, 188-91, 1458; Allen, 81; Quinn, 85, 274). Susan Archer Talley Weiss relates Robert Sully's intimate views of Poe (Scribner's Monthly, 1878, 15.712, 715) and according to the Richmond Whig of 10/16/49 left an illustration of “Lenore” from Poe's poem (information kindly given by Michael Deas, author of the forthcoming Portraits ... of ... Poe). The picture of Jackson, in a red cloak, is famous. Poe's wonder at the term “original” can be explained, perhaps, in that Sully more than once made a “now” picture from one of his own works, an improved copy, so to speak, perhaps on commission — or a slightly different version. There is a good reason for multiple versions and copies of the late General (and ex-President) Andrew Jackson (1767-June 8, 1845). His recent death must have led to a great demand by government agencies and historical associations for a portrait. We note in The Life and Works of Thomas Sully by Edward Biddle [page 169:] (Phila., 1921) that in the List of Paintings, Nos. 875-888 are portraits of Jackson. Of these No. 880 is a “Bust, in uniform, high military coat, ... with red cape ... finished 8/6/29.” The earliest portrait is that of No. 875, a drawing made 9/1817, but there is none listed for 1824. Yet No. 881 (finished 6/28/45) is inscribed on the back “From a study made in 1824 from Genl. Jackson. TS.” No. 882 is described as “full length, standing in long military cloak ... finished 7/31/45.” There might be an 1824 drawing or painting not in the current register of his works. Whatever the truth of the matter, and whatever the source of the Sun's account, there is an easy explanation of the word “original” from which a new portrait could be made. Clearly Poe was in error also about the “younger Sully,” his good friend Robert.
215/51-60} None of the available books on “Daguerreotypes” (see 197 [d] for a note on the acute accent) lists the name Martiner (is it an error for Martinez?) of Paris, and many in French are not available in this country. No doubt Poe is quoting from one of the local papers. His interest in photography and also in the theatrical panoramas and dioramas was always keen, q.v. in Pin 7 (Br., pp. 14-15), and also 197 (d) above (in [facsimile text]). Richard Rudishill, Mirror Image (1971), pp. 54-55, 71, discusses Poe's interest and also his attempt to retain the French acute accent over the second “e.”
216/1-6} Poe “last” spoke of the drama on 8/2 (p. 193 [facsimile text]). The Bowery theatre burnt down on 4/25 and reopened on 8/4/45. The opening bill was The Sleeping Beauty and J.H. Payne's comedy Charles II. The architect was J.M. Trimble (see Odell, 5.186 for details and for Jackson's statement). For additional information about the fire, see Mary C. Henderson, The City and the Theater (1973).
216/12} It seems obvious that Poe is describing the scene on the drop curtain — the sort of monument-view that was being proposed for the ever a-building Washington Monument that intermittently concerned Poe himself; see my study, “Politics and History in Poe's ‘Mellonta Tauta,“’ Studies in Short Fiction, 1971, 8.627-31. The term “Pittite” was standard in England for one frequenting the theatre, especially sitting in the pit, but it did not have a capital letter. It is doubtful that Poe meant to pun on the other significance, one who espoused the policies of William Pitt, the British statesman.
216/16-26} Poe's advice here contrasts with his principles of [page 170:] private house decoration in “Phil. of Furniture,” reprinted in the 5/3 BJ, opposing “glare” and “glitter” (TOM, 498-500).
217/8-10} Les Huguenots by Meyerbeer was performed on 8/11 with Calvé as Valentine.
217/11-13} Chippindale (properly spelled) and Sefton were in charge of the summer season at Niblo's, as well as acting. Wm. Burton, Poe's “boss” on the magazine in Philadelphia, first appeared on 7/11 in Fright. Henry Placide and Thomas Placide are mentioned, the former being the more prominent, and Miss Taylor is Mary. John Brougham appeared on 8/4 in The Poor Gentleman.
217/16-22} “Palmo's opened as a German theatre on 8/11, with a performance of Roderich, der Sohn des Waldes, oder das Leben ein Traum” (Odell, 136).
217/34} See the Evening Gazette of 8/8/45 (vol. 1, no. 135).
217/41-43} In view of the wordy and savage attacks by Poe in the “Longfellow War” articles and his long palliation below we must see exactly what the 8/45 American Review article on “The American Drama” said about Poe:
“Mr. Poe furnishes the next paper (in the 8/45 American Review), the first of a series upon the American Drama, The Tortesa of Willis, and the Spanish Student of Longfellow, are the subjects of his criticism, and the former is pronounced particularly successful, having received no stinted measure of commendations both on the stage and in the closet, while the latter is set down as totally devoid of any kind of merit, except as a mere poem. Tortesa, in the opinion of Mr. Poe, is superior to most of the Dramas of Sheridan Knowles, is full of fine passages and capital points, while Mr. Longfellow's play is condemned as unworthy of his genius, as utterly deficient in originality, in its plot and in the author's manner of handling it, and as exhibiting a radical want of the adapting or constructive power which the Drama so imperatively demands.
In Mr. Poe's own words, “as for the ‘Spanish Student,’ its thesis is unoriginal; its incidents are antique; its plot is no plot; its characters have no character; in short it is little better than a play upon words to style it ‘A Play’ at all. A somewhat sweeping condemnation, but Mr. Longfellow does not seem to please Mr. Poe in anything that he writes.” [page 171:]
217/52} On 2/28 at the Society Library.
218/16-17} Poe regarded all the works of the distinguished critic H.T. Tuckerman of Boston (1813-71) with distaste (see “Lit.” sketches, H 15.217, 227; Tales, 1101; Poems, 426 n.10). Perhaps Tuckerman's article on Petrarch in the 4/45 American Review led to this allusion to his book Isabel.
218/19-71 & 219/4-20} Poe had passed from disdain for William Gilmore Simms' carelessness of style and plotting in his numerous novels to considerable admiration and friendliness- based on his wonderful variety and prolificity and the coincidence of their cultural and political views, as here (see PD, 84 for loci of numerous reviews and passages). See Index to BJ under “Simms” for numerous allusions showing this and see also “copyright” for a remarkable closeness of views (also MM 74, 113, 173). It is clear also that Simms' praise of the forthcoming Wiley and Putnam “Library” series of American books, including Poe's tales and his poems, motivates the reprint of this essay from Simms' Southern and Western Monthly Magazine and Review, which parallels the BJ in lasting from 1/45 through 12/45, before being merged with the SLM. It too was largely the product of Simms' pen and contained many of his tales and poems.
219/16-20} True to his promise, Simms reviewed Poe's Tales in a good-sized passage of the 12/45 issue, 2.426-27 praising Poe as a mystic and imaginative Prospero, despite his faults, the one specified being the liberties he takes with the Charleston area typography for “Gold-Bug,” this being a natural criticism for the ed. of a Charleston magazine (and the only disparagement of Poe's “realistic detail”). He also complains of the slow diffusion from N.Y. of the American “Library” by contrast with the European series' distribution.
219/21-23} Samuel Colman was familiar to Poe for many publications, perhaps especially for the tr. of Fouque's Undine, a Poe favorite, reviewed in the 9/39 BGM (H 10.30-39). Poe knew Kettell's Specimens well, mocking its status in a 2/42 Graham's rev. (H 11.17) and speaking of its currency in 11/42 (11.149).
[[219/24-25}]] Francis Lieber (1800-72), political scientist, reformer, educator, savant, won distinction after leaving Germany as ed. of the Enc. Americana (1829-33), prof. of History at South Carolina College, etc. Poe rev'd his book on Niebuhr (H 8.162-168) and charmingly includes him in “Autography” (15.170-71). [page 172:]
219/26-31} See 205 nn. for Lester's d‘Azeglio tr. as only the first of the “series” and the Index under Lester for others.
219/40-46} Poe's information is only partially correct; Poe would review the Redfield ed. of Elizabeth Oakes Smith's Poetical Writings (221-22) and poems of Frances Osgood (328 ff.), but not of Alfred B. Smith or of Emerson. The former came out through Clark and Austin (more correctly) and the second came out in 1846 (England) and 1847 (Boston). Tuckerman never published such a volume.
219/48-60} Poe's opinion of mesmerism as a “science” and a therapy for illness had been changing considerably, and he was to use it effectively in several of his tales. In his rev. of Newnham's Human Magnetism he takes up Miss Martineau's advocacy citing the Lancet (more accurately, the March issue), q.v. on pp. 69-70 [facsimile text] (see also 254).
219/61-64} The ref. is to Henry Russell (1812-1900), vocalist and song-composer, who made a great reputation in England, Canada, and US with songs of a domestic character, some written expressly for him. This item comes from the Albany paper's issue of 8/4/45, vol. 16.
220/1-3} The “brief period” was May through August, for the April issue was to be followed by the September. Poe knew about this as a contributing “ed.” and a friend at that time of Mr. English. In “Our Pigeon-Holes” (p. 242) of September, an editorial by English, is a long casuistical excuse for this fourmonths' interruption followed by a ref, to the editor's being “laid up” for over five weeks with arthritis. For Poe's future relations with the author of “Ben Bolt” see Moss, Poe's Major Crisis (1970).
220/4-5} Poe often wrote favorably about Lydia Sigourney (1791-1865), “the American Hemans” of Hartford, who wrote 67 books, mostly about death and its ravages. Gordon Haight's biography does not discuss this illness, nor does the short notice in the NE Mag. (5.15-30).
220/6-9} For Arthur and this annual see 209 [facsimile text]; also 247 [facsimile text].
220/10-19} This was originally part of the third installment of Marginalia articles, printed in Godey's of 8/45 (called “Marginal Notes”) and accidentally attached to the preceding [page 173:] item (now numbered MM 122, 123 in Br.). Poe's explanation of the error springs perhaps from his concern over having antagonized Lowell through the charge of plagiarism in “To the Future” from a Wordsworth poem (see p. 211 [facsimile text]). In M 122 Poe is quoting from his own rev. of Lowell's Conversations on some of the old Poets, of 1844, a rev. originally printed in the Evening Mirror of 1/11/45. The passage rather tortuously criticizes Lowell for seeming to confuse an artist and a man of “some artistic ability” with respect to creating the same or a similar work (see text and note in Br., p. 225-26). The following Marginalia item is a resounding slap at Griswold's “big book,” the Poets and Poetry of America which Poe (and Henry Hirst) had lampooned in 11/42 (H 11.147-60). Jean Baptiste du Val de Grace, Baron von Cloots (1755-94), was an eccentric nobleman of Dutch family, who titled himself “orator of the human race,” assumed the name of “Anarcharsis” from Barthelemy's romance, became a member of the Convention, and was finally guillotined by order of Robespierre.
220/20-25} The first name is possibly that of Thomas Warren Field (1821-81), an author, who edited several valuable historical works, and, much later, An Essay Towards an Indian Bibliography (1873).
The second item, “A New York Ghost,” appeared in the 8/23 BJ, 2.101-102, by “Fidelius Bathos.” It is conspicuously amateurish.
220/29-33} There is no doubt that “A Rare Opportunity” pertains to an investment in the BJ, so desperately short of funds. To clinch this assumption — Poe is using his favorite pseudonym of E.S.T. Grey (q.v. re F. Osgood's “Ida Grey” — the pseudonym treated by Pollin in Ball State Univ. Forum, 1973, 14.44-46).
220/34-55} Although Poe disapproved of Margaret Fuller, the blue-stocking, in many respects (see 34 [facsimile text]) he approved of her criticism of Longfellow, only a bit bolder than his own, as in the New York Daily Tribune of 12/10/45, which Poe partly reprinted in the 2/13 BJ (340-41). In this full page satire on Longfellow, he is pleased by the expose of Longfellow's anti-feminism in the remarks of Victorian, the student, to Preciosa the Gypsy as expressed in The Spanish Student. Margaret Fuller uses a parodic or hoax approach to the question of “male superiority” as stated in the American Whig Review, 7/45, I, article by “Il Secretario,” on “American Letters — Their [page 174:] Character and Advancement.” The relevant pages are 577-78, 580. Pretending to state the man's opinion in the poem she uses five important excerpts from Act I of the play (Cambridge ed., Boston, 1882), p. 28. Poe's footnote comment shows him torn, but nonetheless firmly against Fuller's indignation over expecting women to be solely harem-companions. I see little reason to doubt Fuller's authorship here, since Poe himself docketed as hers a letter from “X”, postmarked 8/9/45, which mentioned the anonymous article. “A Peep Behind the Curtain” (in the 5/24 BJ, 1.324-35) and offered this further “piece of pleasantry.” Mary Phillips, Poe, 1166-67, first presented this item, and Ostrom in AL, 1974, 45.526-27, offers further evidence for its attribution to her. Joel Myerson, Margaret Fuller (1978), p. 147, however, points to the style and method of submission as uncharacteristic.
221/1-2} The vol. is paged 5-8 + 14-204. Many of the poems are repeated from an earlier vol., The Sinless Child and Other Poems (1842), to which Poe alludes below. Mrs. Seba Smith, wife and editorial helper of the prolific journalist, humorist “Jack Downing,” first of Maine and then of NY, was renowned for her numerous mag. contributions, her fiction, essays, and poems-usually strongly didactic or inspirational. Poe's partiality is so great as to indicate close association with the Smiths, and the “Autography” for Seba of 12/41, H 15.239, speaks of the signature as inscribed “in our own bodily presence,” but other signs (e.g., a request to Duyckinck of 4/46, Letters, 316) imply a more casual acquaintance. There should be some explanation, aside from extraordinarily misguided taste, and the powerful literary position of the Smiths, for the lavish praise of this inept, sentimental rubbish. E.O. Smith (1806-93) continued her prolific, misc. writings well into the 1860s.
221/12} Poe appears to be cutting corners in this rev., filling it up with excerpts, as though short of time for thought and planning; yet while still on the Mirror staff, Poe announced in the 2/1/45 issue the pending publication of her work. In the 12/45 Godey's, 31.261 ff. he wrote a much longer “study” of the book, incorporating the same points but omitting the charge of Longfellow's borrowing “Rain in Summer” terms from “Water” (which is omitted as an excerpt). On the other hand, the Godey's rev. includes the final stanzas of “The Summons Answered,” which served Poe as the germ of “Ulalume” (see TOM, Poems, 411). In the second rev. Poe gives information that certainly belonged in the first: 1. that R.W. Griswold edited the vol. and wrote the Preface; 2. that in her former collection of poems John [page 175:] Keese, as ed., had included a biographical account written by her fellow Maine-citizen, John Neal of Portland. In a disparaging way, Poe then puts into service Griswold's “unnecessary” preface by quoting a full, long para., perhaps thereby revealing the sententious sentimentality of her poems: e.g., “the same beautiful vein of philosophy ... that truth and goodness of themselves impart a holy light to the mind which gives it a power far above mere intellectuality” (H 13.79). Oddly, Poe speaks merely of Keese's viewpoint, although this is expressed only in the 1842 vol.; it also leads us to think that the vol. of her poems for which he had thanked Keese in May 1845 (see Letters, p. 289) was the first collection, requested in anticipation of the arrival of the 1845 vol.
221/33} The major excerpts, collated with Mrs. Smith's text, are paged thus: “Sinless Child” (15-90) with “The Stepmother” on 62-63; “Presages” (150); and “The Water” (141-43). Collations show these few changes: 221/39: new,; 222/35: When down it tumbles; 222/46: Released from out.
222/2} In the Godey's rev. Poe states the subject as “the progress of a plant from its germ to its maturity, with the uses and general vicissitudes to which it is subjected.”
222/64} Poe's mention of the August number of the mag. is to show the priority of her poem. While both poems are based on imagistic clich6s of the subject, it is true that Longfellow must have read her poem beforehand. Poe gives little credit to him for shaping it as a whole so much more artistically.
223/1-13} This vol. (part II) had no pref. and 212 p. in all. Poe initially alludes to his former rev. of part I (198-205 [facsimile text]). The articles listed are on these pages, in their respective order: 1-31, 32-56, 57, 73-122, 123-25, 126-37, 138-48, 149-52, 153-66, 167-82, 183-201, 202-205, 206-209, 210-212.
Of the serious poems three are works of social protest rather than simply poems of melancholy, dating from the final period of Hood's life: “Song of the Shirt” was first in Punch, Christmas No. of 1843; “Bridge of Sighs” in Hood's Magazine of 5/44; and “Lay of the Labourer” also in that journal, 11/44; the more purely Gothic poem of “The Haunted House” appearing in the 1/44 issue. Surely they spring not from Hood's “hereditary taint” but rather from his increasing awareness of the plight of the laboring, exploited poor and perhaps his own chronic illness, approaching its fatal conclusion — rheumatic fever and other [page 176:] ailments. Poe, remarkably, seems to miss the social content of these works (even implicit in the last above) and regards the horror and somberness as the “theme” or “thesis.”
223/21-29} This poem, based on a piteous police case of a widow's pawning her exploiting employer's “shirts,” i.e., her “work,” roused the public to the prevalence of starvation wages. Numerous lines hammer home the theme: “It is not linen you‘re wearing out, / But human creatures' lives!” and “But why do I talk of Death?. ... / I hardly fear his terrible shape, / It seems so like my own” and “My labour never flags; / And what are its wages? A bed of straw, / A crust of bread — and rags.” From the viewpoint of carrying a clear “moral” the designation of “pure” poetry might be omitted, but Poe's view of the “grotesquerie” as explaining its popularity is a strange misconception. The term, incidentally, is one he first applied in this way in 1840-41 and continued to use for the whole decade (see PCW, 27).
223/30-35} Apparently Poe was enamored of the dimeter pattern of this poem, quoting it entire (BJ 2.153) and reciting it entire for his “Poetic Principle” lectures (see its pub. form, H 14.284-87). But his praise of it as “imaginative” (217 [facsimile text]), “of the loftiest order,” and of “wild insanity” seems inappropriate. Rather hackneyed is the theme of the enceinte suicide, casting herself from Waterloo Bridge into the Thames (for that bridge won this title from such usage at the time). Its charm for Poe obviously lay in “singular versification,” not pathos.
223/36-55} This is a collection of short stories many of which have surprise endings foreshadowing, as the OCAL avers, O. Henry's tales. Calling this vol. Part III of Loiterings of Travel (pub. in 1840, 3 vols.) is odd, since Loiterings were “Sketches of Travel,” from the 1830s, chiefly in the British Isles, but also scenes of Washington life after Congress ended its session. For Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806-67), see 16-18 [facsimile text] and numerous other articles in the BJ Index.
The book is pages 110-220, with a Preface about its character (travel sketches and romantic fiction) and complaints about the unfair copyright laws that lead to mag. rather than book publication. Poe's statement is as evasive as can be, making one wonder whether he even scanned the contents, and his italics for “truest” and “pretence” remind us of the charges of affectation widely leveled against Willis. Yet he always proved a devoted friend to Poe, and perhaps this was truly meant. [page 177:]
223/56-63} This novel of 95 p. seems to have disappeared from all NYC libraries, existing only elsewhere whence it “does not travel” and for my part will not be traveled to. Poe appears to be in error about the first name, which is “James” and not “I.” Moreover, he was mistaken about his existence, for the cataloguers tell us that he existed, 1818-47. Interested potential readers are referred to the Yale library.
224/1-5} See no. 35 of this bible (213 [facsimile text]) ed. by A. Fletcher, with all woodcuts by J.G. Chapman.
224/9} The series mentioned began only on 9/13, 2.153-54, being the composition of Henry C. Watson, essentially the music rather than art critic. He explains the formation of the National Gallery through a fund contributed to purchase the collection of “the late Lumon Reed.” The Rotunda was a large brick building, built 1817-18 by John Vanderlyn, in City Hall Park as an art gallery, but it reverted to the city and was used for various other purposes until the NY Gallery of Fine Arts was allowed to occupy it. This lasted only until 1848 when it reverted to the city for public offices (and was demolished in 1870); information from Richard J. Koke, Catalogue of the Collection (NY Historical Society, 1982), p. 252, item 445. Subsequently Watson reviews the displayed pictures on 9/20, 2.169-70 and 10-11, 2.213-14. Thereafter Poe takes over the art criticism for several issues, and finally it disappears entirely from the journal (see Intro.).
224/10-40} Poe's ref. is to an item in the New York Weekly Mirror, of 8/23/45, pp. 318-19, obviously badly printed, since it has the wrong accent in “résumé” (the wrong word in any event), a misprint for “comment” (as “commaut”) and for Macaulay's name. The article's allusion is to Poe's rev. of Lester's translation of d‘Azeglio's Ettore Fieramosca (205-206 [facsimile text]); see the note for fuller explanation of Poe's meaning of the criticism. Poe clearly believes Lester responsible for the Mirror contribution; hence, his vituperative conclusion — although in his many later revs. and statements about Lester he is far less harsh (see Index for loci). By this time his friend Willis had left the Mirror and Morris was preparing to leave, while Hiram Fuller was taking over full control. It was early in 1846 that Poe was going to sue Fuller for printing the libellous charge against him made by his former friend Thomas Dunn English (see Moss, Poe's Major Crisis). [page 178:]
225/3} This entire article offers proof positive that Poe did indeed visit Boston during July — in fact, the first week, probably. It concerns a rather obscure episode involving Frances Osgood about whom Hervey Allen writes that during the summer of 1845 she went to Albany to live, with Poe following after her. “She later went to Boston, it is said, to avoid him” (Israfel, 527), but Allen is mistaken in thinking this the occasion of his Lyceum reading, which was in October. (My thanks are owed for the date to Dwight Thomas, author of the forthcoming Poe Log, with D.K. Jackson.)
225/28} The two Boston ed. vols. of Hawthorne's 1842 Twice-Told Tales numbered 331 and 356 p. Poe had reviewed them very favorably in the 4/42 and 5/42 Graham's and would again mention their being “scarcely recognized by the press or the public” in the Intro. to the “Lit.” sketches (H 15.3) as well as in his collective rev. of this work and Mosses ... in the 11/47 Godey's (H 13.142): “a poor man” and “publicly-unappreciated man of genius.” Poe's noble solicitude ties in with his Young American bias, his anti-New England prejudices, and perhaps the initially encouraging sales of his Tales, issued two months earlier by Wiley and Putnam. The poor grammar of “profit ... are” is doubtless a typesetter's oversight.
225/31-45} Jean Paul Richter, Flower, Fruit and Thorn Pieces, tr. by Edward Henry Noel, in 2 vols.: I, xiv + 348 p.; 11, 398, 1845. William and Anna Russell, The young ladies' elocutionary reader, 1845 (rep. ed., 1851). Joseph Buckingham, Devotional Exercises, 1842 and 1845. Poe had offered “Epimanes” to Buckingham on 5/4/33 for the New-England Magazine, without success (Letters, 53).
William D. Ticknor (1810-64) of Boston published the works of his friends, Longfellow, Holmes, Lowell, Emerson, et al. but not these two books to my knowledge. Wiley and Putnam published Lamb's Specimens of English Dramatic poets in 1845. Poe would review Festus, by Philip James Bailey, of 412 p., more accurately pub. by B.B. Mussey of Boston (240-41 [facsimile text]).
225/47-48} This cinerary urn of transparent blue glass, coated with opaque white glass cut in cameo fashion, found in an antique Roman tomb, had been acquired by Sir Wm. Hamilton for 1,000 guineas and then by the Duke of Portland who exhibited it in the British Museum. In a fit of delirium one Wm. Lloyd smashed it utterly, and, by a legal quirk, could be fined [page 179:] only 3 pounds, the value of the case. The restoration made the damages imperceptible.
225/49-53} The original bill was introduced in 1841 after David Salomons was barred from his position as elected alderman of London, but it was lost in the House of Lords; it carried in both houses in 1845 under Sir Robert Peel's government. Poe, friend of Major Noah and depictor of several characters as Hebrew in appearance, might easily choose this “pregnant item,” brought by fast steamship.
225/53-226/4} This item reflects two of Poe's major interests: classical studies and scientific history and biography. For his interest in the extraordinary genius G.W. Leibnitz see MM 38, 67, 161B. For his contacts with Peter the Great see Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1973) 8.150.
226/5-7} This comes, verbatim, from the New York Sun of 8/12/45. It is inaccurate, for Guizot, the Prime Minister, had tried to have the order suppressed and succeeded only in having some of the houses dissolved and scattered. Popular literature, e.g., by Eugene Sue, influenced this move.
226/8-13} There is an ambiguity about this stemming, perhaps, from someone's failure to recognize that the standard French word for “race-course” then was “hippodrome,” in use as early as 1651. Paris had only a rudimentary race-course at the Champ de Mars until 1857, when the French Jockey Club had one built in the Longchamps meadows on land leased from the government.
226/14-17} The source is only partly correct. The actress apparently covertly left for London and then contracted for a St. Petersburg engagement after marrying Auguste Arnould, a minor playwright, of no flaring republican views (see the Paris rev. L‘Art, 1876, vol. IV, 157-59).
226/18-19} This comes verbatim from the Sun of 8/12/45. For many years lighthouses had been erected on this danger point off the south coast of England, but each one was battered down or collapsed. One had just been rebuilt in 1/45. Sir Samuel Brown's proposal this year led to a more permanent plan (see G.B. Gattie, Memorials of the Goodwin Sands, 1890). Poe's interest in lighthouses grew into his unfinished tale, “The Light-House” (see TOM, 1388-92, and Discoveries in Poe, 71, 150-51). [page 180:]
226/23-27} Abbott Lawrence (1792-1855; N.B. his first name corrected), prominent Mass. manufacturer and philanthropist, founder of Lawrence.
226/28-37} Perhaps this is the first item after the Boston visit account to be all or partly from Poe's pen. Poe must have enjoyed much of Shea's company (he was a resident civilian at West Point) while Poe was at the Academy, 1830-32. Born 1802 in Cork, he migrated here in 1827, dying on 8/15 (not 8/17) after newspaper work and verse publication. TOM notes the echoes of “To Helen” in Shea's “The Ocean,” which started out in the Boston Ariel of 5/1/30 (cf. lines 37-38: “The glory of Athens, / The splendor of Rome),” and was reprinted by Shea in vols. of 1831, 1836, and 1843 and newspaper columns (TOM, Poems, 170). Poe's last ref. is to the dimeter of both poems.
226/38-41} The poem is on BJ, 2.96. Poe refers to an ed. comment (210 [facsimile text]).
226/42-48} Poe had exchanged letters with Lewis Jacob Cist (1818-85) concerning Cist's poem, submitted to Poe for the abortive Penn and being printed by Peterson in the Saturday Evening Post (Letters, 150-82). In the 12/41 “Autography” Poe speaks of his popular poems as “disfigured by false metaphor” and “straining after effect.” See 255 [facsimile text] for a follow-up.
226/50-59 + 226[[227]]/1-6} James McHenry (1785-7/21/1845) was known to Poe in Phila. as contributor to the mags. and as victim of the Knickerbocker “cabal” as Poe says in the flattering “Autography” note (H 15.258). The Antediluvians, was the only “tolerable American epic” (pub. in London, 1839; Phila., 1840). This blank verse chronicle of the flood was savagely attacked by “Christopher North” in the 7/39 Blackwood's, as Poe said.
227/7-8} The Sears Observatory on Summer House Hill was finished on 6/23/47 (see Elias Loomis, Recent Progress of Astronomy, 1851, pp. 185-89).
227/9-12} This mammoth paper, like the New World, Brother Jonathan and Boston Notion, in size, lasted from 6/45 to 2/47, achieving five volumes.
227/13-22} Ever since excavations began in 1748, new [page 181:] discoveries continued to be made at the incinerated and buried city of Pompeii at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, only half of which is still revealed. There is, indeed, a cemetery on the outskirts that has been uncovered, but this particular detail, and its source have not been readily discovered. The “duumvir” (more correctly “duovir”) had various functions, depending on the period of use of the term: “Men for building or dedicating a temple,” a Roman board or court of two, officers in the “municipia and colonies, who had charge of the streets of the suburbs of Rome” (Liddell and Scott) and “officers in Pompeii corresponding to the Roman consul” (Library of Entertaining Knowledge). Poe always showed much interest in classical antiquities and especially in the destroyed city (see M 49), often in connection with Bulwer's Last Days of Pompeii (see PD, 139 for over a half dozen passages).
227/25} See article (a) above on 227 [facsimile text] for this observatory. Poe's interest in astronomy was demonstrated as early as in “Hans Pfaall” (1835).
227/30-38} Poe's interest in Egyptian hieroglyphics was always keen, a sideline of his cryptographical involvement and also part of the current Egyptological fad. For his references to hieroglyphics see “Mummy,” “Mellonta Tauta,” and Eureka (TOM, 1129/29, 1298/6, H 16.196). As an ed. and calligrapher himself Poe would naturally find Dubois' achievement fascinating.
227/39-46} The Eisteddfod of 1845 was a major event in the revival of this old convening of Welsh “bards and musicians” (now much more varied with chorus, and other arts, such as drama and literature). The modern revival of the ancient tradition dates from 1792. Henry Brinley Richards (1819-85), pianist and composer, eventually was to compose the Welsh national anthem (1862).
227/47-49} Poe's inordinate interest in Thomas Campbell (1777-1844), poet, biographer, editor, anthologist, would cause him to favor selecting this item (see PD, 17 for 14 loci, and many Br. items, q.v. in Index). Campbell's nephew did not enter the DNB.
227/50-53} Poe's interest in ballooning, as in “Hans Pfaall,” “Balloon-Hoax,” and “Mellonta Tauta” would justify reprinting this item which, clearly, refers to a gliding mechanism. [page 182:]
227/54 + 228/1-7} While this is mere advertising copy, it is very possible that Poe wrote it for the firm of Bagley because of his use of old and new pens for his successively planned Penn and Stylus, the cover picture of the latter (see Discoveries in Poe 223-29), his play on the words for old and new types of pens in M 256, his buried ref. to Byron's “grey-goose quill” (English Bards, line 1), and the editorial tone of the “sales talk” here.
228/11} See 223 [facsimile text].
229/1-4} The essay “Copyright and Copywrong” is on pp. 73122, “Bridge of Sighs,” on 202-205, and “Haunted House” on 12637. Concerning the first — Poe is, of course, firmly supported by Hood and the other pirated English authors in his basic premises.
229/5-9} For Poe's strange reasons for his high praise of this poem see note to 223/21-29 [facsimile text]. Poe was happy to oblige a friend and fill up a page with the quoted poem — BJ, 2.153, on 9/13. His ranking it below the Gothic sensationalistic verses of “The Haunted House” is odd.
229/10-65} Poe plucks out stanzas from the 88 of the text without warning. The excerpts come from the following: “O‘er all” (127); “The coot was swimming” (128); “Howbeit, the door” (130-31); p. 230 [facsimile text] — “The very stains” (132); “Those dreary stairs” (133); “Yet no portentous shape” (134); “Rich hangings” (135); “The death-watch ticked” (136). A collation of Poe and Hood shows no variations in substantives save for 229/45: reedy / weedy.
Here at last Poe gives us the meaning of “phantastic” (line 30): discordant, ill assorted, etc. The quoted stanza, used as a sort of refrain, occurs seven times at various points in the three parts of the poem of 352 lines.
230/1-42} Poe chooses as excerpts stanzas that remind us of some of his own tales in minor details, “Usher” and “Oval Portrait” and (in the ticking death-watch beetle) “Tell-Tale Heart”; yet, this dates from the 1/44 issue of Hood's Magazine. Clearly there was an underlying similitude of mind in some aspects.
230/43-60} This consists of various papers from magazines, The Indicator (1819-21) and Companion (1828) of James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859). Poe always seems unsettled in his opinions of his essays and his poems, which range over a wide [page 183:] field and long period of time (see PD, 47 for many loci). In M 179 Poe coins the word “rigmarolic” for his essay discussing “What is Poetry?” (from the vol. that Poe reviews, 99-101 [facsimile text]), but adapts his answer in part in the Preface to ROP. Poe ignores his early recognition of such poets as Keats, Shelley, and even Tennyson and his political courage. In exalting the satire The Feast of the Poets (1811, with frequent later revisions) over The Story of Rimini or a few charming lyrics, Poe is very partial, but in his stress upon Hunt's mere “taste” and, in the conclusion of the present article, on the “entertainment” value of his essays over original ideas and depth, Poe fairly well epitomizes our present evaluation of Hunt's essays.
231/1-17} The “absurd eulogies” are in the essay, “Of Dreams” (93-103), and the next essay is on 52-57. Poe, in his critical bent, anent the preposition “upon,” did not notice Hunt's error in the name of Pietro Andrea de’ Bassi or da Basso, author of “Canzone della donna cruda.” Poe does not explain why the “ennuyé” is dissatisfied with “entertainment.”
231/18-43} The vol. numbers 5-11 + 25-423 p. Thomas Arnold (1795-1842), Headmaster of Rugby, which he reformed in spirit and curriculum, and Regius Prof. of history at Oxford (1841-42), especially renowned now as the father of the poet Matthew, was hymned in Henry Reed's Pref. which is largely the source for Poe's few comments. This book was announced in 92/5 [facsimile text], the n. to which has data on Henry Reed. By Apostle of Liberty does Poe refer to his advocacy of church reform or reorganization of schooling? Arthur P. Stanley (1815-81), a former Rugby student, absorbed the spirit of Arnold, and exerted a liberal influence through his long and influential career, finally becoming dean of Westminster (1864-81). Both works (final para.) came out in 1845.
231/44-54} Catherine Esther Beecher (1800-78) was daughter of the celebrated preacher Lyman Beecher and sister of Harriet. She too was a reformer and educator. The pages are 5-9, 25-356. Poe's para. is based on the Pref., p. 6.
231/55-63} The mag. is Southern and Western Monthly Mag. and Rev., q.v. in 218/19-71 nn. Despite his adverse criticism of Simms in the SLM Poe and Simms had developed considerable admiration for each others' positions on the literati of America and the neglect of Southerners by NE writers and editors. See [page 184:] the BJ Index for Poe's numerous refs. to Simms. The articles mentioned are seriatim on 87-94, 95-105, 73-85, and 107-118 (by Prof. J.H. Gueneboult).
232/1-4} As we have seen (nn. to 121-27 [facsimile text]), this is a far from accurate account of the numerous revs., some very enthusiastic, of Lord's poems. It is strange to see Poe's French treatment of now Englished words like “mediocre.”
232/5-28} This comes from p. 134 in the mag. Collation shows a few changes, of some significance: 14 — temple / haunting; 17 — “Poe” is inserted between the other two poets by Simms; 18 — at the end of this sentence are five sentences, dropped from Poe's transcription. These start with this: “Now, it so happens, that all of these poets are exquisite artists.” It is curious that having omitted his own name (out of editorial modesty?) he finds it impossible to record the praise by Simms of the others — especially of Longfellow.
232/29-35} Poe's response to good illustrations is always enthusiastic. The Harpers advertised nos. 61-62, which began The Tempest, as having “exquisite designs after Kenny Meadows, Weir, and others ... it combines the best features of the two best London editions, by Charles Knight and Tyas” (2.111, 8/23 BJ).
232/36-53} The typical view of Niccol6 Machiavelli (14691527), derived from the advocacy of immoral expediency in The Prince, was usually that of Poe (see PD, 59, for 8 loci and several in Index of Tales). Here Poe is much more sophisticated and just toward the brilliant, versatile author of the Historie fiorentine, thanks to prefatory material. This is one of the several translations by Lester that Poe apologized for ignoring (219 [facsimile text]).
233/1} See 268 [facsimile text] for a second fuller rev. of the book by Brooks, Poe's friend. The title correctly lacks “an” before Accurate.
233/15} This 1845 vol., also by Nathan Covington Brooks (1809-98), had vi + 234 p.
233/25} See 334-35 [facsimile text].
233/26-31} In the British edition these are respectively: “MacFlecnoe and the Dunciad” (229-56) and pp. 173-84. [page 185:]
233/32-44} For Poe's friendship with Robert Sully, implied here, see nn. to 215 (f). The picture is a frontispiece for “The Rose and the Lily.” Annan's tale is on 86-91, “Sense and Sensibility” by “F.E.F.” on 92-96, and Simms' “Mesmerides in a Stage-Coach; or, Passes en Passant” on 111-119, but there is nothing signed by Mrs. Hale. Poe must have been privately informed. Simms' story has nothing in common with those in the genre by Poe save that he tells it from the first person viewpoint of the mesmerist, who puts a young fellow-traveler, over-loquacious, into a spell, causing him to miss his stop and mistake strangers for his relatives. We note the gratuitous flattery of Godey at the end.
233/45-59} The three revs. are on 1-85, 238-65 (collective rev. of 10 books) and 86-92. For Chambers' Vestiges see nn. to 88, 234.
234/8-14} See 192 (a), also 259 (a).
234/15-23} See n. to 169/41.
234/24-37} The plate is for “The Western Captive,” by James Smillie and Hinshelwood (see also 117, 210). “Paris Fashions” is “from La Follet.” The rest are as follows: “Blanche Neville” by Mrs. Ann S. Stephens (103-106); “The Cherokee Braves of 1760” by Mrs. Caroline H. Butler (107-113); “Born to Wear a Coronet” by Fanny Forrester (114-118); “The New Neighborhood” by Mrs. A.M.F. Annan (125-131); “Foreign Literary News” from Brussels (138-142). The music is “The Appeal,” poetry by Mrs. Ann S. Stephens (136-137); the poetry is “Lines to a Fat-cinating Young Lady” by P[ark] B[enjamin] (113); and “Afternoon in February” by Longfellow (118).
234/42-49} See earlier Poe refs. to Mowatt's Fashion (65-69, 76-78, 234-35).
235/9-13} See also 78/41-45 [facsimile text].
235/29-32} For James E. Murdoch see 235 (c) and other refs. in Index.
235/33-34} See his agency below (e).
235/46-47} “Mazeppa” starred C. La Forest. [page 186:]
236/1-4} Poe could thoroughly agree for once with Griswold, but the book never came out.
236/5-9} James Montgomery (1771-1854), Poetical Works of James Montgomery, “With a memoir of the author,” by Rufus Griswold (Phila.: Louis and Ball, 1845-52), 2 vols.: 1, 7-18 + 392; 11, 468. For Poe's adverse views of this popular poetaster see the several articles in Br. (Index).
236/10-13} John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870), Memoirs of the life of William Wirt (Phila.: Lea and Blanchard, 1849), 2 vols.: 417 and 450 pp.
236/14-15} Poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, illustrated by Daniel Huntington (Phila.: Carey and Hart, 1845), 387 p.; and William Cullen Bryant, Poems, illustrated by E. Leutze, engraved by American artists (Phila.: Carey and Hart, 1847), 378 p.
236/16} Elaborated in Poe's rev. (256).
236/23-26} William Greenough Thayer (1820-94) was graduated from the University of Vermont in 1839 (he entered at fifteen). He was professor of English literature there from 1845 52. It is possible that as a result of this little notice by Poe, he was “elected Poet for their ensuing Anniversary in August” (1846, q.v. in his letters of 4/28/46 and 6/16/46, showing Poe's efforts to place this news in the press, Letters, 316, 321).
236/27-30} For other refs. to this German Telegraph see 169 [facsimile text] and “Von Kempelen” of 1849 where it is a name given to a Presburg paper (TOM, 1360). It is highly unlikely that either here or in 169/47 Poe could manage to read much less translate the newspaper columns for his “editorial miscellany” (q.v. in 169/41-47 n., end of para. 1).
236/31-34} Frederick Wm. Thomas (1806-66), most noted now for his friendship with Poe, was then a prolific, popular novelist, a poet, editor, especially in Ohio and S. Carolina, as Poe favorably reports in his “Autography” (H 15.209-10; see other loci in PD, 90-91 and Letters Index, 662, the last of which is that of 2/14/49). He contributed to Poe's BJ long sketches of Wm. Wirt and John Randolph of Roanoke (2.52-54, 8/2, and 2.81-85, 8/16). Alexander B. Meek (1814-65) was a lawyer, legislator, author, and [page 187:] later public school sponsor. Poe had easily solved his cryptograph sent him by Tomlin in 8/43 (see Letters, 235-36).
236/35} Amos Kendall (1789-1869). His Life of Andrew Jackson, private, military and civil (NY: Harper and Bros., 1843-44) was to have been completed in fifteen parts, but only seven were published.
236/36} This paper, of a Phila. suburb, lasted from 1830 to 1930, and must have been familiar to Poe from his Graham's period.
236/38-43} The masthead on no. 17 (4/26) shows 153 Broadway as the office address, changed in the next issue, of 5/3, to 135 Nassau Street, but changed in the 11/29 issue (2.21) to 304 Broadway, fulfilling Poe's prediction. The centrality of Broadway to the city and the nation — typographically, financially, and culturally — can be seen in the non-Poe article of “Broadway” (1.259-60) by “I. M.” and in the illustrated article “Glimpses of Broadway. No. 1. From Union Square looking down Broadway: The National Academy” (5/10, no. 19).
237/3-4} Poe must have had in mind a specific person for Mr. T ——. Perhaps it was John Tomlin, who was involved in his contretemps with Wilmer (see 82/18). As for the root of “sycophant” — the reason that “fig shower” (the second element being roughly like “discoverer” in an old-fashioned sense) in the Greek usage of the word has come to mean parasite or flatterer today is unknown.
237/5-7} See BJ, 1.35, 5/31. For Robert M. Bird (1806-54), physician, novelist, playwright, whom Poe admired see H 8.63-73, 15.203-204.
237/8-17} It is in the Weekly Mirror of 8/30/45, 2.323. Collation shows the following changes: to the school; and imparts light. Poe was very partial to Catharine Sedgwick, the novelist (see 26/7 n. and PD for 9 loci). In the 9/20 BJ (2,174) the Advertisements begin with a five-line entry on the 9/10 “reopening” of the school.
237/18-22} The sentence quoted is in “Foreign Literary News” in a piece in the September Graham's (p. 141), excerpted from “On the Organization of the Trades and Handicrafts in Germany, during the Middle Ages” by Archivarius (C.L. Stock, [page 188:] Magdeburg, 1845). The para. concerns salutations of the masons, and it may have given Poe the idea of a “grotesque movement” for the greetings or intercourse of masons as interwoven into “Cask of Amontillado,” written the very next year.
237/23-48} Poe indicates the importance to him of para. 2 by the sidelining. He repeated the Paris Charivari in his 12/30/46 letter to Duyckinck (Letters, 336), but in fact that journal was not then being published, as C. Cambiaire has shown in Influence of ... Poe in France (1927). It was in Bentley's Miscellany of 8/40 and the Notion of 9/5/40; for details, see Pollin, “Poe and the ... Notion, in English Language Notes of 9/1970. Both the “abuse” and “laudation” are exaggerated here.
237/50-64} Owen, the son of the prominent British social reformer and mill owner, was himself prominent since settling in America (1801-77) and founding New Harmony in Indiana (also publishing and editing the radical “Free Enquirer”). His efforts in politics made self-exoneration vital. The charge appeared in the 8/5 issue (p. 3) and the rebuttal in the 8/26 issue. Owen continues by expressing his revulsion at literary plagiarism and adds an original song.
238/1-11} Poe always praises the Southern gentleman Legare (1797-1843), for “talent and scholarship” (“Autography,” H 15.215; also, 9.172). The date on the two vols. (1846) must be proleptic; the frontispiece portrait is signed “T. Doney, sc.” The vols. are lxxii + 558; 5-598 p. All of Poe's information is from the subtitle. There is no record of the publication of the Simms' “Selection.”
238/12-14} For F. Bremer, see 191/51-59 n.
238/15-17} See the rev. on 257-58.
238/18-20} TOM (Poems, 509) indicates that this poem, which begins, “O, where shall our waking be?” was tentatively assigned to E. A. Stansbury by Killis Campbell in his Mind of Poe, p. 192.
238/21-23} For America and the American People see 255, 311, and the rev. on 317-19.
238/24-29} John Britton (1771-1857), of humble origin, became eminent for his Beauties of Wiltshire, England and Wales, [page 189:] et al. Poe's ref. is to the 7/7/45 dinner which set up the Britton Club, for collecting 1,000 pounds for publishing his autobiography (1850).
238/30-38} Poe's information, correct as to the plans, proved partly wrong in the facts of the occurrences on 9/2 and on 9/3, Commencement Day, according to issues of the Providence Journal. The oration by Dr. Lambert sponsored by one of the two debating societies, The United Brothers, was not given, nor did Andros, editor of the New Bedford Register, appear for the poem, scheduled for Manning Hall, the chapel. However, Dr. Williams delivered the “oration” on Blaise Pascal in a feeble voice audible only to those near the speaker (data kindly supplied by Martha Mitchell, Brown University Archivist).
238/39-44} Poe is referring to an item of 8/9 on p. 210 [facsimile text]. He seems to have settled for the title “Gazette,” which was there somewhat confused.
238/45-46} See 210/3-6 note.
239/1-3} In the 10/11 BJ is a long description of the organ by Dr. Edward Hodges who is supervising the construction of the instrument. He refers to the contractor Henry Erben and furnishes an unpaged steel engraving of the large organ (the article headed “Musical Department” is on 2.214-15). He furnishes many technicalities, but does not confirm the 30-men figure of Erben.
239/4-5} Nathaniel Jocelyn (1796-1881), portrait painter and engraver, received the “gold palette award” in 1844 for the best portrait exhibited in Connecticut — this being of Gov. Roger Sherman Baldwin.
239/12-15} Poe refers to his treatise “Notes Upon English Verse” in the third and last issue of Lowell's Pioneer of 3/43, in which he says, as in the work based on it, “Rationale of Verse,” “We are without a treatise on our own verse” (H 15.211). The correspondent “A. M. J. of Attleboro“’ must be Abijah M. Ide, Jr., of South Attleboro (see items in Checklist of Letters), four of whose poems were published in the BJ and were ascribed to Poe by Ingram. See TOM, Poems, 509 concerning this young ed. of the Taunton Gazette and writer also for the Columbian Magazine. The BJ poems were dated 9/13, 9/27, 10/25, 12/6. See also 264 (g). It is amusing that Ide's rather obvious imitation of Poe's [page 190:] style (as in “To Isadore” on 2.243) should have caused the modern attribution of his poems to Poe.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Notes:
None.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
[S:0 - BRP4J, 1986] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Editions - The Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe (B. R. Pollin) (August 1845)