is the actual song of the women on this march.' Lowell, in his reply, wrote, 'I know the story well. I am familiar with Marblehead and its dialect, and as the burthen is intentionally provincial I have taken the liberty to print it in such a way as shall give the peculiar accent, thus: "Cap'n Ireson for his horrd horrt Was torred and feathered and corried in a corrt." That's the way I've always "horrd it "- only it began, "Old Flud Ireson." What a good name Ireson (son of wrath) is for a hero of such a history!' A. D., a Roman 3. Apuleius, born about 125 philosopher, author of a famous romance, Metamorphoses, or, The Golden Ass. 4. Horse of brass. Whittier's memory was undoubtedly at fault when he wrote this line. He had in mind the story in the Arabian Nights, but 'There are three Calendars, and it was not the one with the horse of brass who had his eye switched out by his horse's tail. The one with the black horse was he whom Whittier had in mind.' 6, Al-Borak, 'A legendary animal, white in color, in size between a mule and an ass, with two wings, and of great swiftness, on which Mohammed is said to have made a nocturnal journey to the seventh heaven, conducted by the angel Gabriel.' 35. Chaleur Bay, a part of the Gulf of St. Law. rence, between Quebec and New Brunswick. TELLING THE BEES 274. It was an old New England custom to tell the bees when a death had occurred in the family. If this were not done it was believed that they would desert the place at once. MOUNTAIN PICTURES 275. The Franconia range is a part of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It is in the Franconia Notch, in Profile Lake just below The Great Stone Face, that the Pemigewasset River, one of the two branches of the Merrimac, has its source. Monadnock is an isolated peak in the southwestern part of New Hampshire. Wauchusett is farther south in Massachusetts. Whittier wrote some of his most peaceful studies of Nature and of home life in the midst of the storm of the Civil War. In his poem, The Countess, 1863, he gave the reason: To-day when truth and falsehood speak their words Drops the old bucket in the homestead well, I wait and watch, and let my fancy stray LAUS DEO 277. Whittier wrote this poem in the Friends' Meeting-house, in Amesbury, as the bells and cannon were proclaiming the passage of the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. He wrote to Lucy Larcom that it wrote itself, or rather sang itself, while the bells rang.' The resolution abolishing slavery was passed by Congress, January 31, 1865. Its ratification by the requisite number of states was announced December 18, 1865. SNOW-BOUND 278. This first appeared as a volume in 1866. The recent death of the poet's mother and sister had thrown over his recollections of the old home at Haverhill a golden light which the poem reflects. The owners of the copyright permit only a part of the poem to be published here. 183. Brother, Matthew Franklin Whittier, five years younger than the poet. OLD IRONSIDES 282. The frigate Constitution, historic indeed, but old and unseaworthy, then lying in the navy yard at Charlestown, was condemned by the Navy Department to be destroyed. Holmes read this in a newspaper paragraph, and it stirred him. On a scrap of paper, with a lead pencil, he rapidly shaped the impetuous stanzas of Old Ironsides, and sent them to the Daily Advertiser, of Boston. Fast and far they traveled through the newspaper press of the country; they were even printed in hand-bills and circulated about the streets of Washington. An occurrence, which otherwise would probably have passed unnoticed, now stirred a general indignation. The astonished Secretary made haste to retrace a step which he had taken quite innocently in the way of business. The Constitution's tattered ensign was not torn down.'- Morse's Life of Holmes, i:79. THE LAST LEAF 283. Holmes had in mind Major Thomas Melville, 'the last of the cocked hats,' who often was to be seen on the streets of Boston early in the thirties. THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST TABLE 284. a. 17. When I was interrupted. The interruption referred to in the first sentence of the first of these papers was just a quarter of a century in duration. Two articles entitled "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" will be found in The New England Magazine, formerly published in Boston by J. T. and E. Buckingham. The date of the first of these articles in November, 1831, and that of the second, February, 1832. When The Atlantic Monthly was begun, twenty-five years afterwards, and the author was asked to write for it, the recollection of these crude products of his uncombed literary boyhood suggested the thought that it would be a curious experiment to shake the same bough again, and see if the ripe fruit were better or worse than the early windfalls.'- The Autocrat's Autobiography. 40. Dr. Thomas Reid, 1710-1796, principal founder of the Scotch school of philosophy. 49. Body of scientific young men, etc., the So ciété d'Observation Médicale of Paris, of which M. Louis was president, and MM. Barth, Grisotte, and our own Dr. Bowditch were members. They agreed in admiring their justly honored president, and thought highly of some of their associates, who have since made good their promise of distinction. About the time these papers were published, the Saturday Club was founded, or, rather, found itself in existence, without any organization, almost with out parentage. It was natura! enough that such men as Emerson, Longfellow, Agassiz, Pierce, with Hawthorne, Motley, Sumner, when within reach, and others who would be good company for them, should meet and dine together once in a while, as they did, in point of fact, every month, and as some who are still living, with other and newer members, still meet and dine. If some of them had not admired each other they would have been exceptions in the world of letters and science. The club deserves being remembered for having no constitution or by-laws, for making no speeches, reading no papers, observing no ceremonies, coming and going at will without remark, and acting out, though it did not proclaim, the motto, "Shall I take mine ease i mine inn?' There was and is nothing of the Bohemian element about this club, but it has had many good times, and not a little good talking.'- Holmes's note. 285. a. 8. Shakespeare and Jonson, etc. The group that was wont to gather in the Mermaid Inn. Strictly it was not a society at all, but frequent gatherings of congenial souls. 10. Addison and Steele, etc. For a long time Addison was a kind of literary dictator gathering about him in the coffee-house of his choice a group of kindred spirits. 12. Johnson and Goldsmith, etc. This was the famous Literary Club of which so much is said in Boswell's Life of Johnson. 17. Irvings and Pauldings, etc. The two Irving brothers, Washington and William, together with James K. Paulding, issued in 1807-8 the hilarious magazine Salmagundi. In 1827-30, three other congenial young New Yorkers, Guilian C. Verplanck, Robert C. Sands, and Bryant, edited an annual I called The Talisman. ford, Conn., that I met there the late Mrs. Sigourney. The second meeting recalled the first, and with it the allusion to the Huma, which bird is the subject of a short poem by another New England authoress, which may be found in Mr. Griswold's conection.'-Author's note. b. 16. Babbage's calculating machine. Charles Babbage, born 1792, English mathematician, spent many years and much money perfecting a calculating machine which is the parent of many modern devices. 19. Frankenstein monster, an allusion to Mrs. Shelley's romance Frankenstein. The medical student Frankenstein is represented as having discovered the secret of life and as having succeeded in animating a creature built up out of scraps of the dissecting room,- a monster that fills the rest of his life with terror. 287. a. 30. Phryne, a beautiful Athenian maiden, who, tried on a capital charge, was defended by her lover. When his eloquence could not move the judges, he bade her uncover her bosom and thus secured her acquittal. 32. Non omnis moriar, I shall not wholly die. Horace, Odes III, 30, line 6. 33. I have taken all knowledge, said by Lord Bacon. b. 11. Verbicide, word-slaughter. 17. Prima facie, at first view. 58. Deodand, a thing given to God. In ancient English law, any chattel, like a cart for instance, that had accidentally killed a man, was forfeited to the king to be applied to pious uses. 288. a. 24. Banquet of Saturn. In the Greek mythology Saturn is represented as having been given his father's kingdom on condition that he should bring up no male children. As a result of this agreement he always devoured his sons as soon as they were born. 29. Lords Temporal, the secular nobility as opposed to the church officials, Bishops, etc. 53. New dragon. . . . Cadmus, an allusion to two Greek legends, the sowing of the dragon's teeth by Jason and the reaping of an army of men therefrom, and the invention of letters by Cadmus of Thebes. b. 13. Pons asinorum, bridge of asses, a name sometimes given to the fifth proposition of the book of Euclid, if a triangle has two of its sides equal, the angles opposite to these sides are also equal. This proposition affords a difficulty to the learner, because it is the first one involving any mathematical puzzle.' 18. Napoleon never lived, referring to the Historic Doubts Relative to Napoleon Bonaparte by Richard Whatley. 289. b. 8. Tupper, and Sylvanus Cobb, junior, Martin Farquhar Tupper, author of Proverbial Philosophy, was somewhat of a joke in staid literary circles. Sylvanus Cobb, Jr., 1823-1887, wrote wild and sentimental romances for Bonner's New York Ledger. 17. C'est le Dernier pas qui coute, it is the last stroke that counts. 290. a. 39. Cook's Voyages, James Cook, 1728-1779, the English navigator who explored the Pacific, 1772-1775, and 1776-1779. b. 19. Best passage, etc. The passage referred to is as follows: 'Oh, bloodiest picture in the book of Time, Sarmatia was the ancient name of Poland. 291. a. 10. Smibert, born Edinburgh, 1684. Came to America 1729 and settled in Boston. He was the first portrait painter who came to America from Europe and he painted many of the leading citizens of Boston. a. 11. Copley, American painter, born in Boston, 1737. His American portraits belong, the most of them, to his earlier life. He spent his last years in London. 24. Stuarts, Gilbert Stuart, American portrait painter, 1755-1828. 41. Malbone, American portrait painter, 1777-1807. 50. Hic liber est meus, conventional Latin for This book is mine. 51. Hogarth, English painter and engraver, 16971764. 52. Barrow, Isaac Barrow, 1630-1677. Anglican divine and scholar. His works were edited by Dean Tillotson in 1683-9. 53. Tillotson, John Tillotson, 1630-1694, Archbishop of Canterbury and greatest preacher of his generation. His sermons, edited by Barker, filled fourteen volumes. b. 19. Our dear professor, in later editions didascalos, explained later by Holmes to be Profesor James Russell Lowell. 292. a. 52. Hoosac tunnel, a tunnel through a range of the Green Mountains about a mile from North Adams, Massachusetts. It was begun in 1855 and finished in 1875. It is 534 miles long. 53. Cumming, General William Cumming, Union leader in the nullification struggle. His windy quarrel with George McDuffle was greatly caricatured. 54. Miller, William Miller, founder of the sect of the Adventists, or Millerites. He maintained, according to the Scriptures, the world would end October 24, 25, 1844. - 293. a. 53. Fioriture (usually used in the plural fioritura) in music, flourishes, embellishments, trills, and turnings. 295. a. 1. Goodwood-cup. The Goodwood racecourse, at the seat of Duke of Richmond and Gordon, near Chichester, Sussex, England, was established in 1802. The principal race at the annual meet was run for the Goodwood cup. Eclipse, Plenipotentiary, etc., are names of race horses in ternationally famous in their day. 2. Au contraire on the contrary. 26. Morgan, one of the most famous breeds of trotting-horses America has produced. 37. Godolphin Arabian. One of the three Orieptal sires from which the thoroughbred horse is derived. The Godolphin Barb' was probably foaled about 1729 and brought from Paris in the reign of George II. 296. a. 8. Phlebotomize, to bleea,- to let out blood by opening a vein. 298. a. 21. Noncompotes,- for non compos mentis, not of sound mind, idiots. b. 2. Buffo, comic actor. From the Italian. THE LIVING TEMPLE 301. This closed the seventh paper of The Autocrat series. The Autocrat introduces the poem thus: 'Having read our company so much of the Professor's talk about age and other subjects connected with physical life, I took the next Sunday morning to repeat to them the following poem of his, which I have had by me some time. He calls itI suppose for his professional friends The Anatomist's Hymn, but I shall name it The Living Temple.' THE DEACON'S MASTERPIECE 302. 10. Georgius Secundus, George II, King of Great Britain, 1727-1760. He was born in Hanover, Germany, and was thoroughly German in outlook and sympathies. 12. Lisbon-town, the capital of Spain, was nearly destroyed by an earthquake November 1, 1755; 40,000 people lost their lives. 14. Braddock's army, the defeat of the army sent against the French at Fort Duquesne took place July 9, 1755 THE BOYS 303. Written for the meeting of the class of 1829, January 6, 1859. The member of Congress alluded to was George T. Davis, whom Thackeray declared the most agreeable dinner-companion whom he met in the United States'; the 'Reverend' was James Freeman Clarke; the Judge' was B. R. Curtis of the Supreme Court of the United States; The Justice' was George T. Bigelow, Chief Justice of Massachusetts; the boy with the grave mathematical look' was Benjamin Pierce, the mathematician of Harvard; the youngster of excellent Pith' was Rev. S. F. Smith, the author of America. 'That boy laughing' was Reverend Samuel May, the genial abolitionist. THE BRAHMIN CASTE OF NEW ENGLAND 304. This is Chapter I of The Professor's Story, Atlantic Monthly, January, 1860. It was later republished with the title Elsie Venner. A Brahmin is a member of the sacred or sacerdotal caste of India. From being in the beginning individuals and families distinguished for wis dom, sanctity, and poetic power, they gradually consolidated their influence and became a strictly hereditary class, holding in their hands the ministry of holy things, the custody of the scriptures, and knowledge of their sacred and learned dialect.' LENORE 308. This poem, which perhaps was written as early as 1830, was revised by Poe many times. The best study of the variations and of the republishings is to be found in Campbell's edition of Poe's Poems, at present the definitive edition. The publication of Lenore in Lowell's Pioneer in 1843 brought him prominently before the New England group of writers. Higginson, could pronounce 'Lenore, as published in The Pioneer perhaps the finest piece of lyric measure in our literature.' And again in his Short Studies of American Authors, while complaining of the later form into which Poe turned the poem, declares that Never in American literature, I think, was such a fountain of melody flung into the air as when Lenore first appeared in The Pioneer.' 15. Peccavimus, we have sinned. 309. The poem was inspired by a boyish devotion of Poe's to Mrs. Jane Stith Stanard, of Richmond, of whom he wrote in later days as the first purely ideal love of my soul,' and again still later, as 'the truest, tenderest of this world's most womanly souls, and an angel to my forlorn and darkened nature.' She died in 1824. 2. Nicaean barks. What this means is uncertain. Critics have ventured many explanations, but at best they give but conjectures. See Campbell's edition of Poe, page 201. TO ONE IN PARADISE This first appeared in Poe's story The Visionary' (later entitled 'The Assignation ') in Godey's Lady's Book, January, 1834. The title originally was To Ianthe in Heaven.' To whom it was addressed is unknown. THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER 309. The opening motto from Beranger may be translated, His heart is a suspended lute; as soon as it is touched it resounds.' Undoubtedly these lines had been the inspiration of the poem 'Israfel.' 313 a. 44. Von Weber, Karl Maria, Baron von Weber, 1786-1826, was a German composer, 'famous as the creator of romantic opera.' b. 9. Fuseli, Henry Fuseli, 1741-1825, was a Swiss artist who became professor of painting at the Royal Academy, London. 55. 'The Haunted Palace,' written probably in 1837. It had previously appeared in the Baltimore Museum, April, 1839. In a letter to Griswold in 1841 Poe explained By "The Haunted Palace" I mean to imply a mind haunted by phantoms a disordered brain.' 314. a. 26. Porphyrogene, born to the purple. 51. Red-litten, archaic form for red-lighted. b. 40. Concerning this list of curious books, many of which undoubtedly were merely names to Poe, and some of which do not possess at all characteristics ascribed to them, it is useless to go into detail. One may find the most of them in such a book of reference as the Century Dictionary of Names. To look up carefully, however, each name and allusion would be to defeat the purpose of the writer, which was to give an impression of profound erudition, and so to heighten the effect of mystery and to make still more mov ing the conception the reader was to gain of the deranged hypochondriac at the center of the piece. THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE 318. This story appeared in Graham's Magazine, as the first of a series of analytical stories and was therefore opened with a study of 'The mental features discoursed of as the analytical.' It was this tale that first introduced Poe to the French public. I have given only a part of the story, the analytical part, since it was this feature of the work that has made it the world classic it undoubtedly has become. Every detail of the story may be gathered from the part that is given. Dupin, the original of the modern Sherlock Holmes, has made a careful examination of the rooms where the murder was committed, has completed his analysis and now discloses his findings to his friend, who is the prototype of the Dr. Watson of the Sherlock Holmes tales. 318. b. 43. Je les ménagais, I humored him cautiously. 319. a. 18. Outré, surikingly odd. 321. a. 30. A posteriori, argument based upon that which follows, or is subsequent. Argument from effect to cause. 324. Dupin's conjectures quickly become certainty. The detective has put an advertisement in the papers requesting the owner of an orang-outang to come and claim his property. A sailor appears and, confronted by the evidence given by Dupin, tells the whole story. He had just arrived from the East Indies and he had had with him a pet orang-outang which had been given him on the voyage by a dying companion. On the morning in question the animal had been watching its master while he was shaving, had seized the razor and had made a bolt into the street. The sailor had pursued and the orang-outang had climbed the lightning-rod, leaped into the room occupied by the two women, and had gone through the motions of shaving the elder lady. Made, frantic by the screams and the struggles of the women and by the excited voice of the sailor who had climbed the rod, he had completed the atrocities and had escaped. ELEONORA 324. The quotation from Lully, (1235-1315) who devoted his life to the conversion of Mohammedans to Christianity, may be translated The soul is safe with the preservation of a specific form. ' b. 139. Aggressi sunt, etc. They entered the sea of darkness that they might explore what might be therein.' The Sea of Darkness' means the Atlantic. The Nubian Geographer' was Claudius Ptolemy. 56. Edipus, the well-known story of Edipus and the Sphynx. See Century Dictionary. 326. a. 16. Schiraz, the Persian poet Sadi, 1184 1292. 22. Ephemeron, a insect supposed to live but a day. 44. Elusion, Elysium, the place of blissful abode after death. HAWTHORNE'S TWICE-TOLD TALES 327. The first issue of Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales was in 1838. The 1842 issue was in two volumes. 328. b. 21. De Béranger, French lyric poet, born 1780; died 1857. 30. In medio tutissimus, ibis, literally, 'You go safest in the middle course.' 329. a. 39. Ratiocination, the process of reasoning, of deducting conclusions from premises. b. 9. Blackwood, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, established in 1817. 29. John Neal, (1793-1876) was once ranked by Poe as at all events, second among our men of indisputable genius.' A man of great energy, he wrote many historical novels, and in his own words produced material of all kinds that would amount to a hundred octavo volumes at least.' 44. Clique, French for set, gang, or party. 330. a. 4. The omitted matter consists of brief criticisms of eight of the tales: Wakefield,' 'The Wedding Knell,' 'The Minister's Black Veil,' 'Mr. Higginbotham's Catastrophe,' 'Dr. Heidegger's Experiment,' 'The White Old Maid,' 'The Hollow of the Hills,' 'Howe's Masquerade,' with several illustrative quotations. In Godey's Lady's Book, November, 1847, Poe under the title Tale-Writing,' a review of Haw thorne's Twice-Told Tales and Mosses from an Old Manse, expands his theory of the short story and the short poem. See Harrison's Virginia edition of Poe, Vol. 13, page 141. THE RAVEN Poe's account of the composition of the poem in his Philosophy of Composition' has caused much discussion. That the poem may owe something to an obscure poet named Chivers, and also something to Mrs. Browning and to Coleridge need trouble no lover of Poe. The Raven' is unique and its place is as secure as is that of even "The Ancient Mariner.' 28. Lenore, the name, a favorite one with Poe, introduced here however, to rhyme with 'more and nevermore,' was derived from the well-known ballad by the German poet Burger. 331. 47. Plutonian, devoted to Pluto, ruler of the infernal regions. 94. Aidenn, the Arabic Aden, one of the names of the Mohammedan paradise. ULALUME 332. The best study of the poem with variorum readings, and estimates by various critics is to be found in Campbell's edition of Poe's Poems. 5. Most immemorial year, doubtless 1847. His wife died in January of this year and following her death he was critically ill for several months. 6. Auber ... Weir, names invented by Poe. 14. Scoriac, a word coined by Poe from the name scoria, fragments of lavá. 16. Yaanek, invented by Poe. 37. Astarte's, undoubtedly referring to the moon, though in his poem 'Eulalie' he had used it as referring to the planet Venus. Astarte was the Greek for the goddess Ashtoreth, the female counterpart of Baal. Baal was associated with the sun; Ashtoreth with the moon. She was often represented by a crescent. 39. Diana, in Roman mythology was the goddess of the moon. 333. 95. Griswold omitted this last stanza from the 1850 edition of Poe, and most later editors have followed him. ANNABEL LEE 334. This is generally believed by authorities upon the life of Poe to have been his last poetical composition, written just before he set out on his fateful journey to Baltimore. The view universally held to-day among students of Poe is that "Annabel Lee" was written in memory of Virginia Clemm, the poet's child wife.'-Campbell. TOPSY 335. a. 3. Miss Ophelia is a New England woman the embodiment of Yankee' ideals about the question of slavery, who has gone to live with her cousin, Augustine St. Clare, the owner of a large plantation in the 'black belt' of the South. |