Edgar Poe and His Critics — Sarah Helen Whitman, 1860 — reading text

of his style, the fine analytical temper of his intellect, and, above all, by the wierd splendors of his imagination, compelling men to read and to accredit as possible truths his most marvellous conceptions. He often spoke of the imageries and incidents of his inner life as more vivid and veritable than those of his outer experience. We find in some pencilled notes appended to a manuscript copy of one of his later poems the words, " All that I have here expressed was actually present to me. Remember the mental condition which gave rise to 'Ligeia' — recall the passage of which I spoke, and observe the coincidence." With all the fine alchyray of his subtle intellect he sought to analyze the character and conditions of this introverted life. "I regard these visions," he says, " even as they arise, with an awe which in some measure moderates or tranquil- Edgar Poe and his Critics. 71 lizes the ecstacy — I so regard them through a conviction that this ecstacy, in itself, is of a character supernal to the human nature — is a glimpse of the spirifs outer 7vorld." He had that constitutional determination to reverie which, according to De Quincey, alone enables a man to dream magnificently, and which, as we have said, made his dreams realities and his life a dream. His mind was indeed a "Plaunted Palace," echoing to the footfalls of angels and demons. " No man," he says, "has recorded, no man has dared to record, the wonders of his inner life." Ts there, then, no significance in this " supernatural soliciting?" Is there no evidence of a wise purpose, an epochal fitness, in the appearance, at this precise era, of a mind so rarely gifted, and accessible from peculiarities of psychal and physical organization to the subtle vibrations of an ethereal medium conveying but feeble impressions to the senses of ordinary persons ; a mind which, "following darkness like a dream," wandered for ever with insatiate curiosity on the confines of that 72 Edgar Poe and his Critics. — " wild, wierd clime, that lieth sublime Out of Space, out of Time ! By each spot the most unholy, In each nook most melancholy," seeking to solve the problem of that phantasmal Shadow- Land, which, through a class of phenomena unprece- dented in the world's history, was about to attest itself as an actual plane of conscious and progressive life, the mode and measure of whose relations with our own are already recognised as legitimate objects of scientific research by the most candid and competent, thinkers of our time ? We assume that, in the abnormal manifes- tations of a genius so imperative and so controlling, this epochal significance is most strikingly apparent. Jean Paul says truly that " there is more poetic fitness, more method, a more intelligible purpose in the biographies which God Almighty writes than in all the inventions of poets and novelists." The peculiarities of Edgar Poe's organization and temperament doubtless exposed him to peculiar infir- Edgar Poe and his Critics. 73 mities. We need not discuss them here. They have been already too elaborately and painfully illustrated elsewhere to need further comment. How fearfully he expiated them only those who best knew and loved him can ever know. We are told that ideas of right and ■wrong are wholly ignored by him — that " no recognitions of conscience or remorse are to be found on his pages." If not there where, then, shall we look for them ? In William Wilson, in " The Man of the Crowd," and in " The Tell-Tale Heart," the retributions of conscience are portrayed with a terrible fidelity. In yet another of his stories, which we will not name,' the fearful fatality of crime — the dreadful fascination consequent on the indulgence of a perverse will is portrayed with a relentless and awful reality. May none ever read it who do not need the fearful lesson which it brands on the memory in characters of fire ! In the relation of this remarkable story we recognise the power of a genius like that which sustains us in traversing the lowest depths of Dante's "Inferno." The rapid descent 7 74 Edgar Poe and his Critics. in crime which it delineates, and which becomes at last involuntary, reminds us of the subterranean staircase by which Vathek and Nouronihar reached the Hall • of Eblis, where, as they descended, they felt their steps frightfully accelerated till they seemed falling from a precipice. Poe's private letters to his friends offer abundant evidence that he was not insensible to the keenest pangs of remorse. Again and again did he say to the Demon that tracked his path, "Anathema Maranatha," but again and again did it return to torture and subdue. He saw the handwriting on the wall but had no power to avert the impending doom. In relation to this, the fatal temptation of his life, he says, in a letter written within a year of his death, "The agonies which I have lately endured have passed my soul through^ jfire. Henceforth I am strong. This those who love me shall know as well as those who have so relentlessly sought to ruin me. * * * * I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in Edgar Poe and his Critics. 75 ■whicli I sometimes so madly indulge. It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have perilled life and reputation and reason. It has been in the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories — memories of wrong and injustice and imputed dishonor — from a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom." "VVe believe these statements to have been sincerely uttered, and we would record here the testimony of a gentleman who, having for years known him intimately, and having been near him in his states of utter mental desolation and insanity, assured us that he had never heard from his lips a word that would have disgraced his heart or brought reproach upon his honor. Could we believe that any plea we may have urged in extenuation of Edgar Poe's infirmities and errors •would make the fatal path he trod less abhorrent to others, such would never have been profi'ered. No human sympathy, no human charity could avert the penalties of that erring life. One clear glance into its 76 Edgar Poe and his Critics. mournful corridors — its "halls of tragedy and chambers of retribution," would appal the boldest heart. Theodore Parker has nobly said that " every man of genius has to hew out for himself, from the hard marbles of life, the white statue of Tranquillity." Those who have best succeeded in this sublime work will best know how to look with pity and reverent awe upon the melancholy torso which alone remains to us of Edgar Poe's misguided efforts to achieve that beau- tiful and august statue of Peace. Edgar Poe and his Critics. 77 rpHOSE who are curious in tracing the effects of country and hneage in the mental and constitutional peculiarities of men of genius 'tn.a.j be interested in such facts as we have been enabled to gather in relation to the ancestry of the Poet. The awakening interest in genealogical researches will make them acceptable to many readers, and in their possible infiuence on a character so anomalous as that of Edgar Poe they are certainly worthy of note. John Poe, the great-grandfather of Edgar Poe, left Ireland for America about the middle of the last century. He was of the old Norman family of Le Peer, a name conspicuous in Irish annals. Sir Roger le Poex- went to- Ireland, as marshal to Prince John, in the reign of Henry II., and became there the founder of a race connected with some of the most romantic and chival- rous incidents of Irish history. The heroic daring of Arnold le Poer, seneschal of Kilkenny Oastle, who interposed, at the ultimate sacrifice of his liberty anr his life, to save a noble lady from an ecclesiastical trial for witchcraft, the first ever instituted in the kingdom, was chronicled by Geraldus Cambrensis, and has been commemorated by recent historians. 78 Edgar Poe and his Critics. A transcript of the story, as told by Geraldus, may be found in "Ennemoser's Magic" and in "White's History of Sorcery." The bitter feuds and troubled fortunes of the Anglo-Norman set- tlers in Ireland are well illustrated in a recent genealogical history of the Geraldines by the Marquis of Kildare, noticed in the Edinburgh Quarterly for October 1858. The disastrous civil war of 1337, in which all the great barons of the country were involved, was occasioned by a personal feud between Arnold le Poer and Maurice of Desmond, the former having offended the dignity of the Desmond by calling him a rhymer. The characteristics of the le Poers were marked and distinc- tive. They were improvident, adventurous, and recklessly brave. They were deeply involved in the Irish troubles of 1641, and when Cromwell invaded Ireland he pursued them with *a special and relentless animosity. Their families were dispersed, their estates ravaged, and their lands forfeited. Of the three leading branches of the family at the time of Cromwell's invasion, Elilmaedon, Don Isle, and Curraghmore, the last only escaped his - vengeance. The present representative of Curraghmore is the Marquis of Waterford. Cromwell's siege of the sea-girt castle and fortress of Don Isle, which was heroically defended by a female descendant of Nicholas le Poer, Baron of Don Isle, is, as represented by Sir Bernard Burke in his " Romance of the Edgar Poe and his Critics. 79 Aristocracy," full of legendary interest. The beautiful domain of Powerscourt took its name from the le Poers, and was for centuries in the possession of the family. Lady Blessington, through her father, Edmund Power, claimed descent from the same old Norman family. The fact is not mentioned in Mad- den's memoir of the Countess, but is stated in a notice of her death published in the London Illustrated News for June 9th, 1849. The family of the le Poers, like that of the Geraldines and other Anglo-Norman settlers in Ireland, passed from Italy into the north of France, and from France through England and "Wales into Ireland, where, from their isolated position and other causes, they retained for a long period their hereditary traits with far less modification from intermarriage and consociation with other races than did