Edgar Allan Poe: His Life, Letters, and Opinions — John H. Ingram, 1880, volume I — reading text

and ill-temper these articles aroused will be best gathered from the author’s own subsequent account of the jeu d‘esprit: — “Some years ago there appeared, in the Southern Literary Messenger, an article which attracted very general attention, not less from the nature of its subject, than from the peculiar manner in which it was handled. The editor introduces his readers to a certain Mr. Joseph Miller, who, it is hinted, is not merely a descendant of the illustrious Joe of jest-book notoriety, but is that identical individual in proper person: — “The object of his visit to the editor is to place in his hands the autographs of certain distinguished American literati. To these persons he had written rigmarole letters on various topics, and in all cases had been successful in eliciting a reply. The replies only (which it is scarcely necessary to say are all fictitious) are given in the Magazine with a genuine autograph facsimile appended, and are either burlesques of the supposed writer’s usual style, or rendered otherwise absurd by reference to the nonsensical questions imagined to have been propounded by Mr Miller. With the public this article took amazingly well, and many of our principal papers were at the expense of reprinting it with the woodcut autographs. Even those whose names had been introduced, and whose style had been burlesqued, took the joke, generally speaking, in good part. Some of them were at a loss what to make of the matter. Dr. W. E. Channing of Boston was at some trouble, it is said, in calling to mind whether he had or had not actually written to some Dr. Joseph Miller the letter attributed to him in the article. This letter was nothing more than what follows: — “ ‘BOSTON, ——. “DEAR SIR, — No such person as Philip Philpot has ever been in my employ as a coachman, or otherwise. The name is an odd one, and not likely to be forgotten. The man must have reference to some other Doctor Charming. It would be as well to question him closely. — Respectfully yours, “ ‘W. E. CHANNING. “To JOSEPH M. MILLER, Esq.’ “The precise and brief sententiousness of the divine is here, it will be seen, very truly adopted or I hit off.’ “In one instance only was the jeu d‘esprit taken in serious dudgeon. Colonel Stone and the Messenger had not been upon the best of terms. Some one of the Colonel’s little brochures had been severely treated by that journal, which declared that the work would have been far more properly published among the quack advertisements in a square corner of the Commercial. The Colonel had retaliated by whole sale vituperation of the Messenger. This being the state of affairs, it was not to be wondered at that the following epistle was not quietly received on the part of him to whom it was attributed: — “ ‘NEW York, ——. “ ‘DEAR SIR, — I am exceedingly and excessively sorry that it is out of my power to comply with your rational and reasonable request. The subject you mention is one with which I am utterly unacquainted. Moreover, it is one about which I know very little — Respectfully, “ ‘W. L. STONE. “ ‘JOSEPH V. MILLER, Esq.’ “These tautologies and anti-climates were too much for the Colonel, and we are ashamed to say that he committed himself by publishing in the Commercial an indignant denial of ever having indited such an epistle. “The principal feature of this autograph article, although perhaps the least interesting, was that of the editorial comment upon the supposed MSS., regarding them as indicative of character. In these comments the design was never more than semi-serious. At times, too, the writer was evidently led into error or injustice through the desire of being pungent — not unfrequently sacrificing truth for the sake of a bon mot. In this manner qualities were often attributed to individuals, which were not so much indicated by their handwriting, as suggested by the spleen of the commentator. But that a strong analogy does generally and naturally exist between every man’s chirography and character, will be denied by none but the unreflecting.” Poe’s contributions to the remaining numbers of the Messenger for 1836 included, besides reprints of his poems, the “Pinakidia,” or commonplace book notes, several critiques on contemporary books and authors, the story of “Epimanes” — now styled “Four Beasts in One,” — a “Tale of Jerusalem,” and a masterly analysis of Maelzel’s soi-disant “Automaton Chess-player.” In this last-named paper, the poet demonstrated by clear, concise, and irrefutable arguments, that the machine then being exhibited before the citizens of Richmond must be regulated in its operations by mind — that, in fact, it was no automaton at all, but simply a piece of mechanism guided by human agency. * Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, vol. xlv. p. 561. * Επουδιοτατων και φιλοσοφικοτατον γεος * This is a mistake, as turkeys were unknown in Europe before the discovery of America, whence they were imported. — J. H. I. * Beginning, “Helen, thy beauty is to me.” * E. L. Didier, Life of E. A. Poe, p. 50. * Now my property, — J. H. I. * I.e., The publication of Mr. Locke’s Moan Hoax. * Dr. Thomas Dick, the well-known astronomical writer. — J. H. I. * Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, vol. ii. pp. 68, 69. 1840 edit. * L. A. Wilmer, Our Press Gang, p. 35. John H. Ingram, “Chapter 10,” Edgar Allan Poe: Life, Letters, and Opinions (1880), pp. 136-152 CHAPTER X. MARRIAGE. EARLY in 1836, a gleam of hope broke in upon Poe’s overclouded career. Amongst those of his father’s kindred whom the poet had sought out at Baltimore was his aunt Maria, widow of Mr. William Clemm, a man who, it is stated, had expended his property on behalf of a not over-grateful country. Mrs. Clemm was in greatly reduced circumstances, but she proffered her brother’s son such welcome as was in her power, and a strong mutual affection sprang up between the two relatives. Mrs. Clemm had an only child, her daughter Virginia, described by all parties as an exquisitely lovely and amiable girl. Virginia Clemm, born on the 13th of August 1822, was still a child when her handsome cousin Edgar revisited Baltimore after his escapade at West Point. A more than cousinly affection, which gradually grew in intensity, resulted from their frequent communion, and ultimately, whilst one, at least, of the two cousins was but a child, they were married. In that beautiful allegory of his life — in his unrhymed rhapsody of “Eleonora”* — Poe tells in thrilling words how, ere the knowledge of his love had dawned upon him, he dwelt in a world of his own creative imagination, in the symbolic “Valley of the Many-Coloured Grass,” apart from the outer and, to him, less real world. There they dwelt — he and his cousin and her mother — and there they, he and she, who was but a child, had dwelt for many years before consciousness of love had entered into their hearts, until one evening when their secret was unveiled to them, and so, murmurs the poet, “we spoke no words during the rest of that sweet day, and our words even upon the morrow were tremulous and few. . . . And now we felt enkindled within us the fiery souls of our forefathers. The passions which had for centuries distinguished our race came thronging with the fancies for which they had been equally noted, and together breathed a delirious bliss over the ‘Valley of the Many-Coloured Grass.’ ” And then, in magic words, he tells of the revolution, wrought beneath the wizard spells of Love, of how “a change came o’er the spirit of his dream,” and of how all things beautiful became more beauteous; how “strange, brilliant flowers burst out upon the trees where no flowers had been known before;” how the “tints of the been grass deepened,” and how a myriad things of nature, before unnoted, bloomed and blossomed into being. Then is the delicate loveliness of his child-bride compared by the poet to “that of the Seraphim,” and she was, he reminds himself, “a maiden artless and innocent as the brief life she had led among the flowers. No guile disguised the fervour of love which animated her heart, and she examined with me its inmost recesses as we walked together.” Rarely, if ever before, was poet blessed with so sweet a bride, or with more artless affection than was Poe when he acquired the heart and hand of her of whom he sang — “And this maiden, she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me.” It has been stated, but with palpable incorrectness, that the young cousins were married in Baltimore on the 2nd of September 1835, previous to Poe’s departure for Richmond, but that the youthful pair did not live together for more than a year, and that they were again married in Richmond, where they were to reside, this second marriage ceremony taking place to save comment, as the previous one had been so private. This circumstantial romance must be consigned to the limbo whence so many of the legends accumulated round the poet’s memory have been dismissed. The facts are: — When it was learned that the young littéateur purposed marrying his cousin, who was still under fourteen, her half-sister’s husband — Edgar Poe’s first cousin — Mr. Neilson Poe, to hinder so premature a marriage, offered her mother to receive Virginia into his own family, and provide for her education, with the understanding, that if after a few years the cousins still entertained the same affection for each other, they should be married. When Poe heard of this he indited an earnest, passionate protest against the arrangement to Mrs. Clemm, who, consequently, declined the offer, and the marriage soon afterwards took place. Edgar Poe was married to Virginia Clemm, in Richmond, on the 6th of May 1836, and, says Mrs. Clemm, Judge Stannard and his son Robert, Edgar’s old schoolfellow — were among the first callers. Mrs. Clemm took up her residence with the young couple, both so doubly related to her, and became as it were their guardian and protector. But few weeks, however, had passed over the heads of the wedded pair before darksome troubles began to hover over them “the fair and gentle Eulalie” had indeed become the poet’s “blushing bride,” but it was a “dream too bright to last” to deem the fatality which dogged his footsteps had forsaken him. Some inkling of his troubles may be gleaned from this letter to his friend Kennedy: “RICHMOND, VA., June 7, 1836. “DEAR SIR, — Having got into a little temporary difficulty, I venture to ask you, once more, for aid, rather than apply to any of my new friends in Richmond. “Mr. White, having purchased a new house, at $10,000, made propositions to my aunt to rent it to her, and to board himself and family with her. This plan was highly advantageous to us, and, having accepted it, all arrangements were made, and I obtained credit for some furniture, &c., to the amount of $200, above what little money I had. But upon examination of the premises purchased, it appears that the house will barely be large enough for one family, and the scheme is laid aside — leaving me now in debt (to a small amount) without those means of discharging it upon which I had depended. “In this dilemma I would be greatly indebted to you for the loan of $100 for six months This will enable me to meet a note for $100 due in three months — and allow me three months to return your money. 1 shall have no difficulty in doing this, as, beyond this $100, I owe nothing, and I am now receiving $15 per week, and am to receive $20 after November. All Mr. White’s disposable money has been required to make his first payment. Have you heard anything further in relation to Mrs. Clemm’s estate? “Our Messenger is thriving beyond all expectation, and I myself have every prospect of success. “It is our design to issue, as soon as possible, a number of the Magazine consisting entirely of articles from our most distinguished literati. To this end we have received, and have been promised, a variety of aid from the highest sources — Mrs.