∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
C. Enemies
1. Thomas Dunn English
Thomas Dunn English (1819-1902) was born in Philadelphia, the son of a Quaker of Irish extraction. After attending academies in Philadelphia and in Burlington, New Jersey, he entered the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania. He received the M. D. degree in 1839, but his medical practice at that period was of brief duration. Upon the advice of his father he learned the carpenter's trade; he also read law and was admitted to the bar in 1842. However, as early as 1835 he had begun to write for the Philadelphia journals, and he soon abandoned the law for a literary career.
1844 English was in New York, editing the Aurora, a daily political paper, and in 1845 he conducted the Aristidean, a monthly which expired after the sixth number. For several months he held a position in the New York custom house. He left New York in 1847, in order to avoid involvement in the legal action brought libelous reply to Poe's “Literati” sketch of him. For [page 218:] ten months in 1843 he helped to edit a Philadelphia humorous weekly, the John Donkey. He spent four years (1852-1856) in what is now Logan, West Virginia, where he practiced medicine and law and engaged in political activities.
He returned to New York in 1857 but moved the following year to Bergen County, New Jersey. A “copperhead” during the Civil War, he represented his county in the state legislature during 1863-1864, and for a short time in 1870 he edited the pro-Southern monthly, the Old Guard. In 1878 he moved to Newark, New Jersey, where he made his home until his death. A Democrat, he was elected to Congress in 1890 and served until he was defeated in a bid for a third term in 1894. In his last years he resumed his literary interests.
A prolific writer, English composed with great ease. On one occasion he is said to have written more than three hundred lines of poetry within three hours. His many contributions to the periodicals covered a span of about sixty years. The production that brought him his most enduring recognition, the poem “Ben Bolt,” was written at the suggestion of Willis and appeared in the Mirror for September 2, 1843. It became immediately popular as a song and attracted many musical settings. Another of his early poems, “The Gallows-Goers,” an attack upon capital punishment, was also widely circulated. His volumes of verse include American Ballads (1880), The Boy's Book of Battle Lyrics (1885), and The Select Poems of Dr. Thomas Dunn English (1894), edited by his daughter. His first novel, Walter Woolfe; or The Doom of the Drinker (1843), was followed by 1844; or The Power [page 219:] of the S.F. (1846), Ambrose Fecit; or The Poet and the Painter (1867), and Jacob Schuyler's Millions (1886). Of his more than twenty plays only one, The Mormons; or Life at Salt Lake City (1858), was published.(1)
For many of the facts of the Poe-English relationship one must rely upon the account given by English in his “Reminiscences of Poe,”(2) which he wrote long after the association had ended in a batter quarrel and physical violence. English certainly was not inclined to deal kindly with his former acquaintance, and his report in some respects is manifestly unfair to Poe. But in its general outline his account of the relationship seems accurate.
English was already a contributor to Burton's Gentleman's Magazine when Poe associated himself with the editorial conduct of that periodical in July, 1839. Not long afterward Burton traduced the two in the office of the magazine. English, then only twenty years of age, ten years younger than Poe, was favorably impressed with Poe, and they continued their conversation during a stroll down the street. Topics for discussion were no [page 220:] doubt easily found; both were poets, and English's thesis for his recently completed M. D. degree was a defense of current theories of phrenology, a subject in which Poe had become interested.(3) Of their early association, English wrote that though she felt no great personal attraction toward Poe, he admired his genius and frequently visited his home.(4) He recalled that it was some time before he found anything irregular about Poe's habits but that on one occasion he came upon him lying intoxicated in a gutter and escorted him to his home, only to be accused by Mrs. Clemm of luring Poe into evil courses.(5)
The relationship seems to have alternated more than once between friendship and enmity, and it is certain that disturbing factors were at work before Poe moved to New York. In his unpublished “Memorabilia Fragments” English traced the origin of the ill feeling between him. and Poe to the latter's sensitiveness to criticism:
I remember his notice of a small work on Grammar designed for young people, and without any claims to originality. In this notice he declared that the subjunctive mood of the verb was not an arbitrary form, and that ‘if it be,’ was explained by the fact that ‘could,’ ‘would,’ or ‘should’ was omitted through ellipses. I asked Poe if that were true, where he would place the Auxiliaries in ‘if it were.’ He grew very red in the face, and [page 221:] then with the words ‘You’re an ass,’ flounced out of the room, believe that this was the beginning of Poe's dislike of me ... (6)
English stated that he further aroused Poe's displeasure later by remarking of “The Raven” that “the angels wouldn't make much tinkling on the carpet unless like the old woman who mounted the white horse at Banbury Cross, they had bells on their toes.” The remark, English said, was made in friendly jest, but it made Poe “very angry.”(7)
The degree to which the antagonism had developed by October, 1843, can be judged by a caricature of Poe which appeared in that month in the first installment of English's novel The Doom of the Drinkers; or Revels and Retribution,(8) which was published serially in the Cold Water Magazine. English described one of the guests at a party as —
.... a pale, gentlemanly looking personage, with a quick, piercing, restless eye, and a very broad and peculiarly shaped forehead. He would occasionally under the excitement of the wine utter some brilliant jests, which fell all unheeded on the ears of the majority of the drinkers, for they could appreciate no witticisms that were not coarse and open. This man seemed hardly in his element, and no doubt wished himself away at least a dozen times during the evening. He was an extraordinary being, one of the few who arise among us with a power to steal judiciously. [page 222:] He was a writer of tact, which is of a higher order than ordinary genius. But he was better known as a critic, than as any thing else. His fine analytical powers, together with his bitter and apparently candid style, made him the terror of dunces and the evil spirit of wealthy blockheads, who create books without possessing brains. He made no ceremony though, in appropriating the ideas of others when it suited his turn; and as a man, was very incarnation of treachery and falsehood.(9)
The theory has been advanced that English used his influence with Robert Tyler, the son of the president, against Poe in 1842 and again in 1843, when the latter unsuccessfully sought a government appointment.(10) Had he wished, English perhaps could have exerted such influence with his friend Tyler, but the available evidence fails to show that he actually did. The theory rests chiefly upon two letters written by Poe in which reference is made to his futile efforts to secure the appointment. In the first of these, addressed to Frederick W. Thomas and Jesse E. Dow, Poe apologized for his behavior while intoxicated during a recent visit to Washington to further his interests in the matter of the appointment, and asked to be remembered to “the Don, whose, mustachios I do admire after all.”(11) This has been taken for, and ma be, a reference to English, whom Poe later described as an “animalcula with moustaches for antennae.”(12) Perhaps, then, [page 223:] English was in Washington during Poe's visit there and had been annoyed by some taunting remarks Poe had made. In the second written to Frederick W. Thomas, Poe wrote:
You said to me hurriedly, when we last met on the wharf in Philadelphia, that you believed Robert Tyler really wished to give me the post in the Custom House. This I also really think; and I am confirmed in the opinion that he could not, at all times, do as he wished in such matters, by seeing —— —— at the head of the “Aurora” — a bullet-headed and malicious villain who has brought more odium upon the Administration than any fellow (of equal littleness) in its ranks .... (13)
This letter certainly indicates that English had in some manner offended Poe, but one is not justified in saying that in it “Poe attributed to English his failure to get an appointment.”(14)
Not to be overlooked in a consideration of the Poe — English relationship in 1844 is a satire on Poe's tales of horror which appeared in the Baltimore Republican and Daily Argus on February 1, 1844. The piece, entitled “The Ghost of a Grey Tadpole” and published under Poe's name, appeared as a reprint from the Philadelphia Irish Citizen. The events of the tale were obviously suggested by Poe's “The Black Cat”; the narrator, obsessed by a [page 224:] hatred of tadpoles, discovers one of the creatures in a cask of water in his garden, kills it, and is haunted by an image of his victim which mysteriously appears on the garden wall.(15) The tale has been attributed to both Poe and English; the evidence, while loot-”compelling on either side, appears to favor the argument for English's authorship.(16) Poe had delivered a lecture in Baltimore on January 31, 1844,(17) and the tale appeared in a paper of that city on the next day. It seems impossible to determine whether Poe himself arranged for the publication of the piece, or whether its appearance at this time and place was the result of an effort of an enemy to embarrass him. Certainly it was with some malice that English republished the tale in 1848 in the John Donkey, for by that date Poe and English were irreconcilable enemies. There the story is prefaced with some “Hints to Authors,” in which are given rules for writing in the Germanesque style. The achieving this style, wrote English — [page 225:]
... are few and easy to comprehend. Indeed, judging by the works and mind of its chief and almost only follower on this side of the Atlantic, it is a pure art, almost mechanical — requiring neither genius, taste, wit, nor judgment — and accessible to every impudent and contemptible mountebank, who may choose to slander a lady, and then plead insanity to shelter himself from the vengeance of her relatives.(18)
English intimated that Poe was not the author of the tale by listing that “it has been attributed to Mr. POE. We are not sure that it is from the pen of that very distinguished writer; but if not his, [it] is a palpable imitation of his style.”(19)
Ostensibly at least, the relations of Poe and English were friendly, if not actually cordial, during most of 1845. It is difficult to account for this sudden change of attitude on other than professional grounds; each was editing a magazine and struggling to keep it alive, and perhaps to both welcomed editorial support from whatever quarter. At any rate, Poe in the Broadway Journal wrote favorable reviews of English's Aristidean, and English in turn adopted a friendly tone toward Poe in his columns. Also, each supplied material for the other's magazine.
Poe characterized some of the papers in the April issue of the Aristidean as “exceedingly good — precisely what Magazine papers should be — vigorous, terse, and independent,” and copied into the Journal a poem by English, remarking that “it is many a long day since we have seen anything so truly beautiful — in its [page 226:] own peculiar mode of beauty.” In concluding the review Poe wished the magazine's editor “all the success which his vigorous abilities deserve.”(20) On several occasions later in the year Poe spoke highly of English and his magazine.(21) In October he attacked a Mr. Joseph P. Webster, whom he accused of committing “a most vile fraud upon Mr. English” in setting “Ben Bolt” to music and issuing it under his own name, giving English no recognition.(22)
In the April, 1845, number of the Aristidean appeared Irish's semi-humorous series of sketches of literary figures entitled “Notes about Men of Note.” The first to be presented was Poe:
He never rests. There is a small steam-engine in his brain, which not only sets the cerebral mass in motion, but keeps the owner er in hot water. His face is a fine one, and well gifted with intellectual beauty .... He would have have [sic] made [page 227:] a capital lawyer — not a very good advocate, perhaps, but a famous traveller of all subtleties. He can thread his way through a labyrinth of absurdities, and pick out the sound thread of sense from the tangled skein with which it is connected. He means to be candid, and labours under the strange hallucination that he is so ... His sarcasm is subtle and searching.(23)
In the October issue Poe's Tales was favorably reviewed,(24) and a month later the Aristidean carried a complimentary notice of The Raven, and Other Poems, in which the reviewer found occasion to side with Poe in the controversy that had followed his reading of “Al Aaraaf” in Boston.(25) Two of English's poems appeared in the Broadway Journal,(26) and Poe furnished at least three articles for the Aristidean.(27) [page 228:]
The second and most violent phase of the quarrel between Poe and English began in the late months of 1845, and the renewal of the antagonism was due in part to the business arrangements Poe was forced to make to forestall the demise of the Broadway Journal. In October Poe became sole editor and proprietor of the Journal by purchasing John Bisco's interest for fifty dollars.(28) How Poe obtained part of the money for Bisco's share was revealed by English in a deposition submitted as evidence in Poe's suit against the Mirror. English stated that in October Poe, expressing confidence in the future profits of the paper, offered to transfer to him an interest in the Journal in return for a loan of thirty dollars. According to the deposition, English, upon a written order from Poe, gave Bisco the sum. Poe, said English, “not only never repaid me the money, but never conveyed nor offered to convey to me an interest in said journal.” Also, English stated that Poe had misrepresented the financial prospects of the Journal.(29) Elsewhere English wrote that late in November, when the Journal was declining, Poe came for advice and assistance to 304 Broadway, where English was sharing chambers with Thomas H. Lane, his fellow employee at the custom house. Lane, upon the advice of English, assisted the Journal financially in return for a half interest in its profits. Poe [page 229:] was to edit the periodical, but, said English, drunkenness prevented his from discharging his duties, and Lane was forced to cease publication of the Journal.(30)
Lane, in a letter to English, vouched for English's account of the Journal transactions in which he had participated and gave some interesting details of the Poe-English relationship at this period:
For a long time, and especially during our combined New York experiences, you had the capacity of being a perfect irritant to Mr. Poe, especially when the poet was lost in the inebriate. When entirely himself, and free from the grip of his enemy, such a condition was not apparent, for then he was gentle and respectful to you as to his other acquaintances and friends. How often he has rushed into my room, excitedly exclaiming, “Where is English? I want to kill him.” Fortunately, on these many occasions you were employed in your Custom House duties, and easily escaped assassination; .... His animosity to you was developed by a criticism you had published on something he had written which criticism was decidedly spicy, and he, tho fierce almost to the verge of brutality upon the writings of others, could not patiently endure antagonistic opinions on his own productions. You will probably remember how our warm-haired poetic friend of Philadelphia, Henry B. Hirst, gave Mr. Poe mortal offense by his parody on “Never Seraph shook a Pinion over Fabric half so fair,” by changing it as follows: “Never nigger shook a shinbone in a dance-house half so fair,” etc. Hirst never regained the regard of Poe after this flippant use of one of his poetic gems.(31) [page 230:]
The animosity that was revived by Poe's handling of the affairs of the Journal reached its climax a short time later in the last meeting between English and Poe. Early in 1846 Poe called upon English for assistance in the controversy touched off by his remarks concerning Mrs. Ellet's letters.(32) English, according to his own account of the visit, was in his rooms, chatting with John H. Tyler, a nephew of the former president, when Poe entered. Poe asked for the loan of a pistol with which to defend himself against Mrs. Ellet's brother:
I told him I had none, but he still insisted; and when asked what he wanted with it said that Colonel Lummis had threatened his life, unless he showed him Mrs. Ellet's imprudent letters. I asked him why, if he had such letters, he did not produce them; and he rejoined that he had them, but wouldn't produce them under compulsion. I told him plainly that he had no such letters in his possession, in my belief, and that the best thing he could do would be to acknowledge that he had used the expression in a moment of irritation, and to make retraction and apology. One word led to another, and he rushed toward me in a menacing manner. I threw out my fist to stop him, and the impetus of his rush, rather than any force of mine, made the extension of my arm a blow. He grasped me while falling backward over a lounge, and I on top of him. My blood was up by this time, and I dealt him some smart raps on the face. As I happened to have a heavy seal ring on my little finger, I unintentionally cut him very severely, and broke the stone in the ring, an intaglio cut by Lovatt, which I valued highly. Tyler tried to call me off, but this did not succeed; and finally the racket of the scuffle, which only lasted a few moments, brought Professor Ackerman from the front room, and he separated us. He then led Poe away....
We never met again.(33) [page 231:]
The obviously unfair “Literati” sketch of English was written while the memory of the fight was yet fresh in Poe's mind. As a poet, wrote Poe, English had imitated Barry Cornwall and plagiarized from Henry B. Hirst. “No spectacle can be more pitiable,” he wrote of English's editorship of the Aristidean, “than that of a man without the commonest school education busying himself in attempts to instruct mankind on topics of polite literature.” The implication concerning English's education was false, but, Poe went on to demonstrate, his compositions reveal “deficiencies in English grammar.” But English was still young enough to overcome his handicap, and no one “of any generosity would think the worse of him for getting private instruction.”(34)
English's reply came quickly and forcefully. Hiram Fuller's Mirror for June 23 contained “Mr. English's Reply to Mr. Poe,”(35) in which English, through name-calling and the relation of unsavory incidents, launched a powerful attack upon Poe's moral character. Here the subscribers to the Mirror could read that Poe had once accepted an invitation to read a poem at New York University, but, being unable to compose a piece for the occasion, avoided making an appearance by becoming intoxicated and remaining in that condition for a week. Of the reading of “Al Aaraaf,” English wrote that Poe had committed “an act unworthy of a gentleman” in accepting a fee for “reciting a mass of ridiculous [page 232:] stuff, written by some one, and printed under his name when he was about 18 years of age.” He gave an account of Poe's recent difficulties with Mrs. Ellet, and summarised his character as a man and an author:
He is not alone thoroughly unprincipled, base and depraved, but silly, vain and ignorant — not alone an assassin in morals, but a quack in literature. His frequent quotations from, languages of which he is entirely ignorant, and his consequent blunders expose him to ridicule; while his cool plagiarisms from known or forgotten writers, excite the public amazement.(36)
English's reply also contained charges which provided the grounds for Poe's libel suit against the Mirror:
I know Mr. Poe by a succession of his acts — one of which is rather costly. I hold Mr. Poe's acknowledgment for a sum of money which he obtained of me under false pretences....
Another act of his gave me some knowledge of him. A merchant of this city had accused him of committing forgery. He consulted me on the mode of punishing his accuser, and as he was afraid to challenge him to the field, or chastise him personally, I suggested a legal prosecution as his sole remedy. At his request, I obtained a counsellor who was willing, as a compliment to me, to conduct his suit without the customary retaining fee. But, though so eager at first to commence proceedings, he dropped the matter altogether, when the time came for him to act — thus virtually admitting the truth of the charge.(37)
Poe, of course, could not let such an attack go unnoticed, and by June 27 he had his countercharge ready. He had some difficulty in getting it published, however, and it was not until [page 233:] July 10 that it appeared in the Philadelphia Spirit of the Times.(38) Poe naturally expected his reply to appear in Godey's, especially since it was Godey who had informed him of English's attack and suggested that a reply was in order. (39) But Godey apparently deterred from publishing the article in his own magazine by Poe's severe treatment of English, arranged for its publication elsewhere at a cost of ten dollars, for which he sent Poe a bill.(40)
If Poe had exercised restraint in writing the “Literati” sketch of English, he must have felt now that English's attack has given him a free hand. To English's charge that he was a coward, Poe replied that during the early period of his acquaintance with English “I remained under the impression that his real name was Thomas Done Brown,” and by way of accounting for his error gave details of some of the many thrashings to which he said English had tamely submitted in Philadelphia.(41) English, in his attack, had not been successful in striking the tone of contempt which Poe achieved:
He says, too, that I “seem determined to hunt him down.” ... “Hunt him down!” Is it possible that I shall ever forget the paroxysm of laughter which the phrase occasioned me when I saw it in Mr. English's MS.? “Hunt him down!” What idea [page 234:] can the man attach to the term “down?” Does be really conceive that there exists a deeper depth of either moral or physical degradation than that of the hog-puddles in which he has wallowed from his infancy? “Hunt him down!” By Heaven! I should, in the first place, be under the stern necessity of hunting him up — up from among the dock-loafers and wharf-rats, his cronies. Besides, “hunt” is not precisely the word. “Catch” would do better. We say “hunting a buffalo” — “hunting a lion,” and, in a dearth of words, we might even go so far as to say “hunting a pig” — but we say “catching a frog” — “catching a weasel’ — “catching an English” — and “catching a flea.”(42)
To the charge that he had obtained money from English under false pretenses Poe replied that “in the assertion that he holds my acknowledgment for a sum of money under any pretence obtained, he lies — and ... I defy him to produce such acknowledgment.”(43) After proving that the accusation of forgery was baseless, Poe remarked: “These are the facts which, in a court of justice, I propose to demonstrate ... ”(44) This was no idle threat. Poe wrote to Godey on July 16 that he had begun legal action.(45)
To Poe's second paper upon him English rejoined in the [page 235:] Mirror for July 13.(46) English had largely expended himself in his initial salvo, however, and his second assault contained little that was new. Of Poe's intention to prosecute he wrote: “This is my full desire. Let him institute a suit, if he dare, and I pledge myself to make my charges good by the most ample and satisfactory evidence.”(47) But English was bluffing. “The vagabond, at the period of the suit's coming on, ran off to Washington for fear of being criminally prosecuted,” wrote Poe to Eveleth on March 11, 1847.(48) English's flight delayed the trial, which could not take place until after the court had sent a commission to Washington, D. C., to obtain his deposition. The case of Poe against Hiram Fuller and A. W. C. Clason, Jr., the proprietors of the Mirror, was heard in New York on February 17, 1847.(48) English's charge that Poe had obtained money under false pretenses fell short of proof upon the reading of the deposition, in which English stated that he had “mislaid” Poe's written order for the money English claimed to have given Bisco. The charge of forgery proved to be entirely groundless.(49) Of the origin of this accusation. English declared in his deposition:
The charge of forgery referred to was made against Mr. Poe by a Merchant in Broadstreet [Edward J. Thomas], whose name I forgot. Mr. Poe stated to me that this gentleman was jealous of him and his visits to Mrs. Frances S. Osgood, the writer, the [page 236:] wife of S. S. Osgood, the artist, that this gentleman was desirous of having criminal connection with Mrs. Osgood and that supposing he, Mr. Poe, to be a favored rival, he had cautioned Mrs. Osgood against receiving his, Poe's, visits, alleging to her that he, Poe, had been guilty of forgery upon his, Poe's, uncle.(50)
Thomas had made the accusation against Poe to Mrs. Osgood in 1845, and upon Poe's demand for an explanation, had written:
... I saw the person on Friday evening last, from whom the report originated to which you referred in your call at my office. (The contemptuous silence in respect to the communication sent through Mr. E. will be observed.) He denies it in toto — says he does not know it and never said so — and it undoubtedly arose from the misunderstanding of some word used. It gives me pleasure thus to trace it, and still more to find it destitute of foundation in truth, as I thought would be the case.(51)
At the trial Thomas testified that the charge had proved false and appeared as a character witness for Poe.(52) The verdict was in Poe's favor and the court awarded him $225.00.(53)
While awaiting the outcome of the suit, English had continued to attack his enemy. One of the characters in his novel 1844, or The Power the S.F., published serially in the Mirror in the fall of 1846, is an obvious caricature of Poe. In six episodes which appeared in the Mirror between September 5 and October 31, Poe, as “Marmaduke Hammerhead,” was portrayed as a [page 237:] pedant, an egotistical critic, and a drunkard.(54) At one point a character remarks that Hammerhead “never gets drunk more than five days out of seven; tells the truth sometimes by mistake; has moral courage sufficient to flog his wife ... He has been horsewhipped occasionally, and has had his nose pulled so often as to considerably lengthen that prominent and necessary appendage of the human face.”(55) Later the author described the affects of Hammerhead's intemperance:
The course of drunkenness pursued by Hammerhead had its effect upon his physical and mental constitution. The former began to present evidences of decay and degradation. The bloated face — blood-shotten eyes — trembling figure, and attenuated frame, showed how rapidly he was sinking into a drunkard's grave; and the drivilling smile, and meaningless nonsense, he continually uttered, showed the approaching wreck of his fine abilities. Although constantly watched by his near relatives, he would manage frequently to escape their control, and seeking some acquaintance, from whom he would beg a few shillings, he would soon be staggering through the streets in a filthy state of intoxication.(56)
With his victory in the libel suit Poe ceased to carry on his quarrel with English in public. However, in revising the “Literati” sketch of English for inclusion in the projected “Literary America,” he heightened the picture he had drawn of his enemy as a person of little education and gave further examples of his grammatical inadequacies. In the new sketch Poe referred to English throughout as “Mr. Brown,” asserting that “Thomas Dunn [page 238:] English” was a nom de plume.(57)
Poe, however, was not permitted to escape so easily, for he was a frequent target for the satirical jibes, caricatures, and parodies which appeared in the John Donkey, the humorous weekly which English edited in Philadelphia in 1848. Poe's intemperance continued to provide a convenient point of attack. The first the magazine contained what purported to be an account of recent happenings at the clinic of the New York Academy of Medicine; a patient, “a middle-sized, spare-looking man, with a broad receding forehead, and a face shaped like the ace of hearts,” when asked when his symptoms began, replies, “Well do I remember — (hic.) — it was in the dark De — (hic.) — cember, when each separate, dying ember, cast its — (hic.) — shadow on the — (hic.) floor.” When the doctors disagree on a diagnosis, the problem is resolved as follows:
The Irish porter, connected with the Academy, came forward, and said that the patient was more lively when they first picked him up, and threatened to extinguish everybody by a blowing up in some magazine, but couldn't say whether it was a powder-magazine. The name he gave sounded like “powdther” or “Gowdey” — he couldn't say which.
Dr. SAYRE suggested that the porter had better give his opinion she matter ....
Porter. — ”Faix thin — it's me opinion that its tattherin, tarin dhrunk he is.” [page 239:]
Patient. — “That it is, and nothing more.”(58)
A few weeks later there appeared a truly humorous parody of Poe's recently published “Ulalume”:
Thus I pacified SOPHY, and smacked her
Two lips with my two lips again;
And declared that I’d ne’er be an actor
In scenes which to her would bring pain.
Otherwise, when my race I had ran it,
I would go to the blackest of holes,
Where they roasted the folks of this planet,
“The limbo of lunary souls” —
And help the young imps to crack coals.(59)
A tale in a later number ridiculed Poe's poetic theory. Don Key Haughty, the hero, is thrown into prison, where he meets “a melancholy-looking little man in a rusty suit of black — whose spade-shaped countenance seemed as though soap and razors had been lost to the world.” This person, after identifying himself as “the minstrel of the Raven,” discusses the function of poetry:
The true office of poetry ... is much misunderstood. It has been supposed by many that the office of the minstrel was to rouse up the better feelings and impulses of man's nature ... to denounce vice with sarcasm, and laud virtue in glowing terms — to do battle for the right, and oppose the wrong ....”
Such was my idea,” rejoined the Knight ....
“Yet nothing can be farther from this,” exclaimed the poet, “than the true office of poesy. The poem is the rhythmical creation of beauty, the impersonation of the not-to-be personated — the ideal, in a succession of musical syllables; and whenever it [page 240:] possesses an object or an end — whenever it has anything like sense — or whenever point is not entirely sacrificed to euphony, it can no longer claim the name of poem, or be regarded as a work of art.(60)
In some respects the lapse of years tempered English's malice toward Poe. Writing to the son of Rufus W. Griswold on January 10, 1895, almost half a century after Poe's death, he granted that Poe had “unsurpassed ability in certain lines of literary work.”(61) A year later, in approving the effort to preserve the Poe cottage at Fordham, he stated that Poe's work “contains so much that is truly grand, in the rather narrow line he chose, and his ‘Raven’ and ‘Bells’ are such masterpieces of versification, that they and his name will exist so long as our literature is preserved.”(62) On two points touching the personal character of his former enemy English came to Poe's defense, denying that he was either an opium addict or a habitual drunkard. “Had Poe had the opium habit when I knew him,” he wrote, “I should, both as a physician and a man of observation, have discovered it .... I saw no signs of it, and believe the charge to have been a baseless [page 241:] slander.”(63) Poe drank only at irregular periods, said English, and added that a slight amount of alcohol sufficed to intoxicate him.(64)
Nevertheless, the general tone of English's later writings on the subject places him among the foremost of Poe's maligners. In the Old Guard in 1870 he set forth the view of Poe's moral character which he afterward maintained: “Poe's mind was not well balanced. Certain of the intellectual faculties were in excess, while some of the moral ones appeared to be deficient. I doubt, indeed, whether with all his undoubtedly fine genius, he was not a moral idiot.” To hold Poe responsible for his acts, continued English, would be as unfair as to convict a lunatic of murder.(65) Damaging as this accusation is, it is specific and admits of reply. Certainly the most unfair charge made by English in his later writings was the unanswerable assertion that the most flagrant examples of Poe's moral aberrations had not been and would never be revealed. He wrote that Griswold had “suppressed the worst, and softened what he gave.”(66) He wrote of Poe's removal [page 242:] from Philadelphia in 1844:
Woodberry and others are at a loss to account for his sudden departure. I happen to know why, and there were several others who knew all about it. They are all, I believe, dead. I am the sole possessor of the scandalous secret, and as its recital would do |no good to any one, the whole affair shall be burled with me.(67)
Near the conclusion of his reminiscences English wrote that the attacks made upon him in the recent attempts of Poe's defenders to enhance the reputation of the poet “have forced me to this partial exposition of his life; but I have suppressed much, because I did not consider any more was necessary for my own vindication.”(68) English's treatments of Poe will convince few that he was genuinely reluctant to deal in scandal. There can be little doubt that his attacks gave sharper outline to the conception of Poe as a man shockingly deficient in moral principles.
[The following footnotes appeared at the bottom of page 219:]
1 Carl F. Schreiber's sketch in the Dictionary of American Biography; the Duyckincks’ Cyclopaedia (1880), II, 802-803; Appletons' Cyclopaedia; the National Cyclopaedia, IV, 322-323; the obituary notice in the New York Times, April 2, 1902, p. 9; Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1927, Washington, D. C., 1928, p. 946; and William S. Hunt, “The Story of a Song,” Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, LI, 24-33 (January, 1933).
2 Independent, XLVIII, 1381-1382, 1415-1416, 1448, 1480-1481 (October 15, 22, 29, November 5, 1896).
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 220:]
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 221:]
6 Henry William Graveley and Thomas Ollive Mabbott, “Two Replies to ‘A Minor Poe Mystery,’” Princeton University Library Chronicle, V, 113-114 (April, 1944).
7 Ibid., p. 114.
8 When the novel appeared in book form in 1847 it was retitled Walter Woolfe; or the Doom of the Drinker.
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 222:]
9 Graveley and Mabbott, op. cit., p. 109.
10 Ibid., pp. 106-107, 111-113.
11 Ostrom, op. cit., I, 229.
12 Reprinted in Works, XVII, 240, from the Philadelphia Spirit of the Times, July 10, 1846.
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 223:]
13 Ostrom, op. cit., I, 262. This letter was first published by Woodberry in the Century Magazine, XLVIII, 863 (October,1894); the original is unlocated. It is believed that Woodberry substituted the blanks for the name of English, who was still living in 1894. At any rate, Thomas understood that Poe's reference was English, who had become editor of the Aurora by the date of Poe's letter; replying to Poe on October 10, 1844, Thomas wrote: “As to Dunn English — what you say of him I believed long ago ...” (Graveley and Mabbott, op. cit., p.112).
14 Graveley and Mabbott, op. cit., p. 111.
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 224:]
15 Republican and Daily Argus, February 1, 1844, p. 1.
16 Phillips, op. cit., I, 851-854, states the case for Poe's authorship, citing a letter from Griswold which implies that he regarded Poe as the author. Thomas Ollive Mabbott, “Poe and the Philadelphia Irish Citizen,” Journal of the American Irish Historical Society, XXIX, 123 (1930-1941), writes that the tale is “too silly to be a serious effort of Poe's, and yet it is evidently from the pen of someone who knew the style of the poet well. And perhaps ... it is from one who knew the poet personally. But this fits Thomas Dunn English perfectly, since he was acquainted with Poe, and his connection with the Irish Citizen can be established.”
17 Ostrom, op. cit., I, 241-242.
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 225:]
18 John Donkey, I, 364. (June 3, 1848). The allusion is to the scandal which arose over Mrs. Ellet's letters; see above, pp. 21-24.
19 Ibid.
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 226:]
20 Broadway Journal, I, 285 (May 3, 1845).
21 Ibid., II, 95, 193, 276, 404-405 (August 16, October 4, November 8, 29, 1845; January, 1846).
22 Ibid., II, 198-199 (October 4, 1845). In the light of the Journal's frequent complimentary references to English and the Aristidean, it is difficult to credit Poe's later statement that “in no paper of mine did there ever appear one word about this gentleman [English] — unless of the broadest and most unmistakable irony — that was not printed from the MS. of the gentleman himself (Works, XVII, 248; reprinted from the Philadelphia Spirit of the Times, July 10, 1846). Carl Schreiber, “A Close-Up of Poe.” Saturday Review of Literature, III, 166 (October 9, 1926), states his belief that Poe's praise of English was always ironic, but no irony is apparent to me in many of the Journal's comments on English. It does not seem likely that the Journal references to English were written by English himself.
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 227:]
23 Aristidean, I, 153 (April, 1845). This article is attributed to “T.D.E.” in the index to the volume. In the Broadway Journal Poe remarked that the sketches “are amusing” (I, 285; May 3, 1845).
24 Aristidean, I, 316-319 (October, 1845).
25 I, 399-403 (November, 1845).
26 “The Bread-Snatcher,” II, 176-177 (September 27, 1845), and “Azthene,” II, 406 (January 3, 1846). Both poems were reprints, the former having appeared originally in the Irish Citizen (Alice English. ed., The Select Poems of Dr. Thomas Dunn English, Newark, 1894, p. vii) and the latter in the Aristidean, I, 382 (November, 1845). Hull, op. cit., p. 552, offers the opinion that English may also have written the article (signed “E”) on Henry T. Tuckerman, which appeared in the Journal for February 22, 1845 (I, 119-120).
27 “George Jones’ Ancient America,” I, 9-12 (March, 1845); “Longfellow's Poems,” I, 130-142 (April, 1845); and “American Poetry,” I, 373-382 (November, 1845), are attributed to “E.A.P.” in the index to the Aristidean. Professor Mabbott, in a note accompanying the volume of the Aristidean which he presented to The New York Public Library, expresses the opinion that Poe also wrote “Our-Book Shelves” in the September, 1845, number (I, 234-242), and that he had a hand in writing the review of his own Tales which appeared in October (I, 316-319).
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 228:]
28 The contract of this transaction, dated October 24, 1845, is published in Quinn, Edgar Allan Poe, pp.752-753.
29 Carl Schreiber, “A Close-Up of Poe,” Saturday Review of Literature, III, 165-167 (October 9, 1926).
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 229:]
30 Independent, XLVIII, 1382 (October 15, 1896).
31 Lane to English, July 23, 1896; published by English in the Independent, XLVIII, 1481 (November 5, 1896). Perhaps Poe had resented English's parody (Aristidean, I, 290; October, 1845) entitled “The Mammoth Squash,” which begins:
Green and speckled with spots of golden,
Never since the ages olden
Since the time of CAIN and ABEL,
Never such a vegetable,
So with odors sweetest laden
Thus our halls appearance made in.
Who — oh! who in kindness sent thee
To afford my soul nepenthe?
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 230:]
32 Above, pp. 21-22.
33 Independent, XLVIII, 1448 (October 29, 1896). In a letter to Henry B. Hirst, dated June 27, 1846, Poe claimed the victory in his fight with English: “I gave E. a flogging which he will remember to the day of his death — and, luckily, in the presence of witnesses” (Ostrom, op. cit., II, 322).
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 231:]
[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 232:]
[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 233:]
38 Reprinted in Works, XVII, 239-253.
39 Ibid., XVII, 239.
40 Poe to Godey, July 16, 1846; Ostrom, op. cit., II, 323-324.
41 Works, XVII, 243-247.
[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 234:]
42 Ibid., XVII, 248-249.
43 Ibid., XVII, 250.
44 Ibid., XVII, 252. To Eveleth's objection that he had “come down too nearly on a level with English himself,” (Mabbott, The Letters from George W. Eveleth to Edgar Allan Poe, p.15) Poe replied on January 4, 1848: “I do not well see how I could have otherwise replied to English. You must know him, (English) before you can well estimate my reply. He is so thorough a ‘blatherskite’ that [to] have replied to him with dignity would have been the extreme of the ludicrous. The only true plan — not to have replied to him at all — was precluded on account of the nature some of his accusations — forgery for instance. To such charges, even from the Auto[crat] of all the Asses — a man is compelled to answer” (Ostrom, op. cit., II, 355).
45 Ostrom, op. cit., II, 324.
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 235:]
46 Reprinted in Works, XVII, 253-255.
47 Ibid., XVII, 254.
48 Ostrom, op. cit., II,
49 Carl Schreiber, “A Close-Up of Poe,” Saturday Review of Literature, III, 166 (October 9, 1926).
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 236:]
50 Ibid
51 Thomas to Poe, July 5, 1845; Works, XVII, 251.
52 Tribune, February 18, 1847.
53 Poe to Eveleth, March 11, 1847; Ostrom, op. cit., II, 348-349.
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 237:]
54 Leonard B. Hurley, “A New Note in the War of the Literati,” American Literature, VII, 376-394 (January, 1936).
55 Ibid., p. 383.
56 Ibid., p. 390.
[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 238:]
57 MS in the Huntington Library. The sketch was first published by Griswold in the Literati (1850), and appears in Works, IV, 266-270. Harrison (Works, XV, 266) errs assigning to Griswold the footnote which identifies “Brown's” nom de plume as Thomas Dunn English”; the footnote appears in the MS.
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 239:]
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 240:]
60 Ibid., I, 99-100 (February 12, 1848). Poe is further ridiculed in I 3, 27, 96, 245, 364-365, 389, and II, 83 (January 3, 27. February 5, April 15, June 3, 17, and September 23, 1848). Some of these satiric thrusts are discussed briefly in Carl Schreiber “The Donkey and the Elephant,” Yale University Library Gazette, XIX, 17-19 (July, 1944).
61 English to W. M. Griswold; Works, XVII, 438.
62 Fred M. Hopkins, “Shall We Preserve the Poe Cottage at Fordham,” Review of Reviews, XIII, 460 (April, 1896).
[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 241:]
63 Independent, XLVIII, 1382 (October 15, 1896).
64 Ibid., XLVIII, 1416 (October 22, 1896).
65 “Down Among the Dead Men,” Old Guard, VIII, 466-468 (June, 1870). English reiterated this view in his letter to W. M. Griswold, January 10, 1895 (Works, XVII, 437-438), and in his “Reminiscences of Poe,” Independent, XLVIII, 1480-1481 (November 5, 1896). In each case he supported his argument by referring to Poe's reading of “Al Aaraaf” in Boston (see above, p. 160) and by stating that Poe had once boasted of accepting money from Rufus W. Griswold for writing, instead of the expected puff, a harsh review of The Poets and Poetry of America.
66 Old Guard, VIII, 786 (October, 1870).
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 242:]
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Notes:
None.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
[S:0 - PNYL, 1954] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Bookshelf - Poe and the New York Literati (Reece)