Text: Edgar Allan Poe and Thomas Ollive Mabbott, “Thomas Dunn English” The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Vol. IV: The Literati of New York City (2026), pp. 76-83 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 76:]

THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH.(1)

I have seen one or two brief poems of considerable merit with the signature of Thomas Dunn English appended.  For example —

I must confess, however, that I do not appreciate the “dainty rhythm” of such a word as “Azthene,” and, perhaps, there is a little taint of egotism in the passage about “the magic” of Mr. English's pen. Let us be charitable, however, and set all this down under the head of “pure imagination” or invention — one of the first of poetical requisites. The inexcusable sin of Mr. E.  is imitation — if this be not too mild a term. Barry Cornwall and others of the bizarre school are his especial favorites. He has taken, too, most unwarrantable liberties, in the way of downright plagiarism, from a Philadelphian poet whose high merits have not been properly appreciated — Mr. Henry B. Hirst.(3)

I place Mr. English, however, on my list of New York literati, not on account of his poetry, (which I presume he is not weak enough to estimate very highly,) but on the score of his having edited for several months, “with the aid of numerous collaborators,” a monthly magazine called “The Aristidean.”(4) This work, although professedly a “monthly,” was issued at irregular intervals, and was unfortunate, I fear, in not attaining at any period a very extensive circulation. [page 77:]

I learn that Mr. E.  is not without talent; but the fate of “The Aristidean” should indicate to him the necessity of applying himself to study. No spectacle can be more pitiable than that of a man without the commonest school education busying himself in attempts to instruct mankind on topics of polite literature. The absurdity in such cases does not lie merely in the ignorance displayed by the would-be instructor, but in the transparency of the shifts by which he endeavours to keep this ignorance concealed. The editor of “The Aristidean,” for example, was not laughed at so much on account of writing “lay” for “lie,” etc. etc., and coupling nouns in the plural with verbs in the singular — as where he writes, above,

he was not, I say, laughed at so much for his excusable deficiencies in English grammar (although an editor should certainly be able to write his own name) as that, in the hope of disguising such deficiency, he was perpetually lamenting the “typographical blunders” that “in the most unaccountable manner[[”]] would creep into his work. Nobody was so stupid as to suppose for a moment that there existed in New York a single proof-reader — or even a single printer's devil — who would have permitted such errors to escape. By the excuses offered, therefore, the errors were only the more obviously nailed to the counter as Mr. English's own.(5)

I make these remarks in no spirit of unkindness. Mr. E. is yet young — certainly not more than thirty-five — and might, with his talents, readily improve himself at points where he is most defective. No one of any generosity would think the worse of him for getting private instruction.

I do not personally know Mr. English. He is, I believe, from Philadelphia, where he was formerly a doctor of medicine, and subsequently took up the profession of law; more latterly he joined the Tyler party and devoted his attention to politics.(6) About his personal appearance there is nothing very observable. I cannot say whether he is married or not.(7)

[page 81:]

Griswold version of the article on English:(8)

I HAVE seen one or two scraps of verse with this gentleman's nom de plume* appended, which had considerable merit. For example:

I must confess, however, that I do not appreciate the “dainty rhythm” of such a word as “Azthene,” and, perhaps, there is some taint of egotism in the passage about “the magic” of Mr. Brown's pen. Let us be charitable, however, and set all this down under the head of the pure imagination or invention — the first of poetical requisites. The inexcusable sin of Mr. Brown is imitation — if this be not too mild a term. Barry Cornwall, for example, sings about a “dainty rhythm,”(10) Mr. Brown forthwith, in B flat, hoots about it too. He has taken, however, his most unwarrantable liberties in the way of plagiarism, with [page 79:] Mr. Henry B. Hirst, of Philadelphia — a poet whose merits have not yet been properly estimated.

I place Mr. Brown, to be sure, on my list of literary people not on account of his poetry, (which I presume he himself is not weak enough to estimate very highly,) but on the score of his having edited, for several months, “with the aid of numerous collaborators,” a magazine called “The Aristidean.” This work, although professedly a “monthly,” was issued at irregular intervals, and was unfortunate, I fear, in not attaining at any period more than about fifty subscribers.

Mr. Brown has at least that amount of talent which would enable him to succeed in his father's profession — that of a ferryman on the Schuylkill(11) — but the fate of “The Aristidean” should indicate to him that, to prosper in any higher walk of life, he must apply himself to study. No spectacle can be more ludicrous than that of a man without the commonest school education, busying himself in attempts to instruct mankind on topics of polite literature. The absurdity, in such cases, does not lie merely in the ignorance displayed by the would-be instructor, but in the transparency of the shifts by which he endeavors to keep this ignorance concealed. The “editor of the Aristidean,” for example, was not the public laughing-stock throughout the five months of his magazine's existence,(12) so much on account of writing “lay” for “lie,” “went” for “gone,” “set” for “sit,” etc. etc., or for coupling nouns in the plural with verbs in the singular — as when he writes, above,

he was not, I say, laughed at so much on account of his excusable deficiencies in English grammar (although an editor should undoubtedly be able to write his own name) as on account of the pertinacity with which he exposes his weakness, in lamenting the “typographical blunders” which so unluckily would creep into his work. He should have reflected that there is not in all America a proof-reader so blind as to permit such errors to escape him. The rhyme, for instance, in the matter of the “dreams” that “seems,” would have distinctly shown even the most uneducated printers' devil [page 80:] that he, the devil, had no right to meddle with so obviously an intentional peculiarity.

Were I writing merely for American readers, I should not, of course, have introduced Mr. Brown's name in this book. With us, grotesqueries such as “The Aristidean” and its editor, are not altogether unparalleled, and are sufficiently well understood — but my purpose is to convey to foreigners some idea of a condition of literary affairs among us, which otherwise they might find it difficult to comprehend or to conceive. That Mr. Brown's blunders are really such as I have described them — that I have not distorted their character or exaggerated their grossness in any respect — that there existed in New York, for some months, as conductor of a magazine that called itself the organ of the Tyler party, and was even mentioned, at times, by respectable papers, a man who obviously never went to school, and was so profoundly ignorant as not to know that he could not spell — are serious and positive facts — uncolored in the slightest degree — demonstrable, in a word, upon the spot, by reference to almost any editorial sentence upon any page of the magazine in question. But a single instance will suffice: — Mr. Hirst, in one of his poems, has the lines,

At page 200 of “The Aristidean” for September, 1845, Mr. Brown, commenting on the English of the passage says: — “This lambkin might have used better language than ‘like me’ — unless he intended it for a specimen of choice Choctaw, when it may, for all we know to the contrary, pass muster.” It is needless, I presume, to proceed farther in a search for the most direct proof possible or conceivable, of the ignorance of Mr. Brown — who, in similar cases, invariably writes — “like I.”

In an editorial announcement on page 242 of the same “number,” he says: — “This and the three succeeding numbers brings the work up to January and with the two numbers previously published makes up a volume or half year of numbers.” But enough of this absurdity: — Mr. Brown had, for the motto on his magazine cover, the words of Richelieu,

Here the two monosyllables “an ass” should have been appended. They were no doubt omitted through “one of those d——d typographical blunders” which, through life, have been at once the bane and the antidote of Mr. Brown.

I make these remarks in no spirit of unkindness. Mr. B. is yet young — certainly not more than thirty-eight or nine(15) — and might readily improve himself at points where he is most defective. No one of any generosity would think the worse of him for getting private instruction.

I do not personally know him. About his appearance there is nothing very remarkable — except that he exists in a perpetual state of vacillation between mustachio and goatee.(16) In character, a windbeutel.(17)

[[Footnotes]]

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 78:]

* Thomas Dunn English.

[[Notes]]

[page 81:]

1. Thomas Dunn English, born June 29, 1819, died April 1, 1902, was doctor, lawyer, writer a member of Congress and the last survivor of Poe's Literati. He is remembered as the author of one famous song, “Ben Bolt,” and for his quarrel with Poe. English's poem “Ben Bold” was first printed in the New York New Mirror, September 2, 1843, and soon after published as a song. Poe reprinted it in the Broadway Journal, October 4, 1845 [[page 198]]. See also Graham's for April 1848 [[pp. 236-237]], where it appears with music, dedicated to Charles Benjamin Bolt. No full length biography of English has been published, but materials for one are in the hands of Professor William H. Gravely of the University of Maryland. His Select Poems, edited by his daughter, Alice English, Newark, 1894

Full discussion of the relations of Poe and English are reserved for the annotation of the polemics they hurled at each other after the “Literati” sketch appeared, in this edition given in an Appendix. Suffice it to say the two men were alternately friends and enemies, that the first “Literati” sketch came after they had had a fist fight; the second after a libel suit which Poe won.

2. “Azthene” first appeared in the Aristidean for November 1845, and was reprinted in the Broadway Journal for January 3, 1846, the last number, brought out by English, because of Poe's incapacity to finish it.

3. Hirst charged English with appropriating much of a poem from him in Alexander's Weekly Messsenger, November 4, 1840.

4. The Aristidean came out as of March, April, September, October, November, and December 1845. Poe supervised at least one number when English was ill. That it had a very small [page 82:] circulation is suggested by its present rarity; full files are only at the University of Virginia, and NYPL — the latter once mine. Walt Whitman was a “collaborator” — that is a contributor.

5. For the excuses see Aristidean, September 1845 (I, 242).

6. English had edited the New York Aurora, a Tyler organ in 1844.

7. He was not married in 1846.

8. The second version, far more severe has most of the allusions of the first, and a few more. It was first published by Griswold, III, 101-104, but the MS on which he based it formed part of Poe's notes or draft material “Literary America” which survives at the Henry E. Huntington Library and confirms the Griswold text.

9. Done Brown means taken in; Joseph C. Neal has a character of the name in Charcoal Sketches, Second Series (1848). The use as a nickname for English is not Poe's own; but it was so successful in his hand that Mark Twain though Brown the name of the author of “Ben Bolt.” See Payne's Mark Twain, 1912, III, 1555.

10. Where is “dainty rhythm” in Barry Conwall?

11. English's father did

12. One issue of the Aristidean was a double number.

13. The lines from Hirst are from the “Song of the Sceald Biorne” in Coming of the Mammoth, 1845, page 137.

14. See Bulwer's Richelieu, I, 424.

15. English was actually about ten years younger than Poe hinted.

16. At Washington Poe seems to have wanted to cut off English's moustache — see letter from Poe to F. W. Thomas [page 83:] and J. E. Dow, March 16, 1843.

17. A windbeutel is a bellows, or a wind-bag.