The Letters of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Volume V The Letters of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Volume V: 1866–1874 [Reprint 2014 ed.] 9780674598744, 9780674598577

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THE LETTERS OF

Henry Wads worth Longfellow

VOLUME V

1866-1874

Longfellow, 1868, photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron

THE LETTERS OF

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow EDITED BY

Andrew Hilen

VOLUME V

1866-1874

'he Belknap Press of Harvard University Pres lambridge, Massachusetts, and London, Englan 1982

Copyright © içSi

by the President and Fellows of Harvard All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

College

(Revised^

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1 8 0 7 - 1 8 8 2 . The letters of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Includes bibliographies. CONTENTS: v. I. 1814-1836.-V. — V. 5. 1866-1874.

2. 1 8 3 7 - 1 8 4 3 . - [etc.]

I. Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1 8 0 7 - 1 8 8 2 — Correspondence. 2. Poets, American — 19th century — Correspondence. L Hilen, Andrew P., 1913ed. II. Title. PS2281.A3H5 8ii'.3[B] ISBN 0-674-52728-3 ISBN 0 - 6 7 4 - 5 2 7 2 9 - 1 (v. 5 and 6)

66-18248 AACRi

Acknowledgments T H E LETTERS IN THESE VOLUMES a r e p u b l i s h e d w i t h t h e p e r m i s s i o n of t h e

officers of the Longfellow Trust Estate, which represented the Longfellow family until December 1973. At that time the Trust was legally dissolved and its assets transferred to the United States Department of the Interior. As the Longfellow National Historic Site, the Longfellow House and its collections are now maintained by the Department through the National Park Service. I have had the full cooperation of the personnel now serving at 105 Brattle Street, Cambridge, especially Miss Kathleen Catalano, curator, and Mr. Frank O. Buda, chief of guide service. Mr. Buda has been associated with the Longfellow House for over forty years and has been my friend for almost as long. I am very grateful to him for many courtesies. T h e University of Washington has supported this project from its inception, not only with assistance through the Graduate School Research Fund, but also, for Volumes V and V I , with a sabbatical leave, secretarial assistance, and the advice and help of its faculty and staff. I would like to acknowledge a special indebtedness to Robert B. Heilman, my colleague and department chairman for many years, whose encouragement did much to sustain my work. Others on the university faculty who helped solve many of the literary, biographical, and foreign language problems of these volumes are Professors Frank Jones, Ernst Behler, John McDiarmid, Paul Pascal, Antonio Pace, Pia Friedrich, George Buck, and Donald Treadgold. And I owe much to the cooperation of the university library staff, among whom Robert Monroe, Kenneth Allen, Bernadette Gualtieri, Takika S. Y . Lee, Sandra Kroupa, and Ruth Kirk deserve particular mention. Edith Baras has read my entire manuscript and improved it with many suggestions and corrections. T h e National Endowment for the Humanities subsidized my research with a grant during 1 9 7 3 - 1 9 7 4 . Without the Endowment's assistance, work on the project would have been much impeded. T h e following institutions and individuals have permitted me to use the manuscript letters in their possession for inclusion in Volumes V and V I : Department of Archives and History, State of Alabama; American Antiquarian Society; Biblioteca Angelica, Rome; Biblioteca Luis-Angel Aranga, Banco de la República, Bogotá; Arizona State University Library; George Arms, Albuquerque, N . M . ; Central Library, Auckland, N e w Zealand; Mrs. W . E. Barkley, Lincoln, Neb.; Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia; Henry W . and Albert A. Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library; Berkshire County Historical Society, Pittsfield, Mass.; Mark Runyon Bittner, Allentown, Pa.; Blackwood Publishing House, Edinburgh; Sue W . Boehnken,

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS St. Louis; Boston Athenaeum; Boston College Library; Boston Public Library; Boston University Library; Bowdoin College Library; British Museum; Brown University Library; Frank O. Buda, Cambridge, Mass.; Buffalo and Erie County Library; Caetani Family Archives, Rome; University of California Library, Berkeley; University of California Library, Los Angeles; Cambridge Public Library; Chicago Historical Society; University of Chicago Library; Cincinnati Historical Society; Colby College Library; Colorado College Library; Columbia University Library; Concord Free Public Library, Concord, Mass.; Library of Congress; Royal Library, Copenhagen; Cornell University Archives; Cornell University Library; Harriot Curtis Estate, Longfellov\' House; Dartmouth College Library; Edward Laurence Doheny Memorial Library, Camarillo, Cal.; Drexel Institute of Technology; Duke University Library; Ralph Waldo Emerson Memorial Association; Emory University Library; Charles E. Feinberg, Detroit; Florida State University Library; Forest Lawn Museum, Glendale, Cal.; Gene G. Freeman, Santa Ana, Cal.; Mrs. John О. Gable, Jr., Grand Junction, Colo.; Mrs. Otto Gaffron, Southampton, N.Y.; Georgetown University Library; Harvard College Library; Harvard University Archives; Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University; Haverford College Library; Haverhill Public Library; Hayes Memorial Library, Fremont, Ohio; Frances Gilmore Hilen, Seattle; Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., New York City; Parkman D. Howe, Boston; Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery; University of Illinois Library; Indiana University Library; University of Iowa Library; T h e Johns Hopkins University Library; University of Kentucky Library; Helen Roelker Kessler, Cambridge, Mass.; John Knox, Oak Park, 111.; Lehigh University Library; P. M. Leighton, Trumbull, Conn.; David McDowell, III, Batesville, Miss.; McGill University Library; Maine Historical Society; University of Maine Library; Maryland Historical Society; Massachusetts Historical Society; Joanna Meader, Edgewood, R.L; Uni\'ersity of Miami Library; University of Michigan Library; Middlebury College Library; Minnesota Historical Society; Pierpont Morgan Library; National Archives, Washington, D.C.; New Britain Public Library; New Hampshire Historical Society; New-York Historical Society; New York Public Library, Manuscript Division; New York State Library; Newark Public Library; Newberry Library; University of North Carolina Library; Northwestern University Library; Ohio Historical Society; Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio; Norman Holmes Pearson Estate, New Haven; Pejepscot Historical Society; Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania State University Library; University of Pennsylvania Library; Museo Imperial, Petrópolis; The Carl H. Pforzheimer Library; Library Company of Philadelphia; Phillips Academy Library, Andover; Hôtel de Ville, Pontarlier, France; Portland Public Library; Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore; Princeton University Library; Randolph-Macon Woman's College Library; David Richardson, Washington, D.C.; University of Rochester Library; Rutgers University Library; St. Lawrence University Library; vi

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College; National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh; Scripps College Library; Michael G . Shanahan, Seattle; Mrs. Turner Slocum, Glen Cove, N.Y.; Smith College Library; Southern Illinois University Library; Catherine Burch Symmes, Littleton, N . H . ; University of Texas Library; Alice Allegra Thorp Estate, Longfellow House; Victoria and Albert Museum; Wadsworth-Longfellow House, Portland; Washington University Library, St. Louis; University of Washington Library; Wellesley College Library; Christopher Williams, Westwood, Mass.; Williams College Library; State Historical Society of Wisconsin; Historical Manuscripts and University Archives, Yale University; Yale University Library; Historical Society of York County, Pa.; Youngstown University Library; and E. N . Zeigler, Florence, S.C. In the preparation of Volumes V and VI, as with the first four volumes of this edition, I have had the assistance of many people — dozens of librarians, curators, and archivists both in the United States and abroad, government officials, academic specialists, manuscript collectors, graduate students, and friends. Dr. Alan Lichter worked on the project to fulfill his dissertation requirement at the University of Washington and is responsible for much of the annotation for the years 1866-1869. I ^m grateful for his interest and help. Although I have continued to use the term "Longfellow Trust Collection" to designate the location of certain manuscripts in these volumes, it is to be understood that since the dissolution of the Longfellow Trust these manuscripts (unless ascribed to the Longfellow House) are now the permanent property of the Harvard College Library. It is a pleasure to express my appreciation to William H. Bond, librarian of the Houghton Library, for his many kindnesses over the years. Miss Carolyn Jakeman of the Houghton Reading Room and her successor, Miss Marte Shaw, helped me with my researches at the library and answered many letters of inquiry. It is impractical to provide here a complete roster of the libraries, historical societies, and other organizations that have provided genealogical and bibliographic information through correspondence. In addition to a number of institutions already cited and to those mentioned in Volume I, pp. vi-vii, and Volume III, p. vii, a list would include: American Congregational Association; American Jewish Historical Society; Appleton Public Library; Archives and Historical Collections, Episcopal Church; Arkansas History Commission; Bangor Public Library; Berkshire Eagle; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Greater Bristol Historical Society; Bryn Mawr College Library; Cattermole Memorial Library, Fort Madison, Iowa; Chicago Public Library; Cleveland Public Library; Coldwater Public Library; Connecticut Historical Society; Detroit Public Library; East Greenwich Free Library; Central Library, Edinburgh; Essex Institute; Evergreen Cemetery Association, N e w Haven; Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain; German Consulate General, Seattle; Gettysburg College Library; Grove Street Cemetery, N e w Haven; Guilford Keeping Society, Guilford, Conn.; Haddonfield Public Library; Humboldt County vii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Historical Association, Humboldt, Iowa; Jackson Homestead, Newton, Mass.; Central Library, T h e Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea; Lafayette College Library; Lasell Alumnae Inc., Auburndale, Mass.; Laurel Hill Cemetery Company, Philadelphia; General Cemetery Company, London; Long Island Historical Society; University of Louisville Library; Milwaukee County Historical Society; Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge; Mount Vernon Ladies Association of the Union; National Geographic Society; N e w York University Library; Onondaga County Public Library, Syracuse; Paterson Free Public Library; Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesbibliothek; Sisters of the Holy Names, Los Gatos, Cal.; Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Tarrytown; Spalding Memorial Library, Athens, Pa.; T u f t s University Library; Union Theological Seminary; Vassar College Library; Waltham Public Library; Wheaton College Library; Woodlawn Cemetery, New York City; and Yankton County Historical Society, Yankton, S.D. I owe a particular debt to a group of librarians and archivists on whom I have called frequently for assistance. William W . Whalen of the Harvard University Archives responded to many queries about Harvard graduates, always with punctuality; and Joyce Ann Tracy of the American Antiquarian Society was most helpful in solving bibliographic problems. Others who served me well in a variety of ways were: F. J. Dallett, University of Pennsylvania Archives; C. Bruce Ferguson, Public Archives, Nova Scotia; Virginia Gronberg, Maine Historical Society; Charles W . Mann, Rare Books and Special Collections, Pennsylvania State University; Edith H . McCauley, Portland Public Library; and Elspeth Simpson, University of Glasgow Archives. Many other individuals played smaller but no less important roles in the accumulation of information for these volumes and I am most grateful for their cooperation. A list would include: Bruce Barnes, Bedford, Mass.; Elizabeth K. Berry, City Archivist, Chester; Jean Biglane, Natchez, Miss.; Robert Brant, City Archivist, Bath; Giuseppe Brunetti, University of Padua; Mrs. Cecil E. Cantrell, Lexington, Ky.; Giuseppe Cardillo, N e w York City; the Bishop of Carlisle, Rose Castle, Carlisle; Frank E. Cofran, Portland; Natalie Derby, Little Falls, N.Y.; Desmond Donaldson, Dumfries, Scotland; Isaac C. Edrehi, Philadelphia; Robert L. Finotti, Port Richey, Fla.; Alberto M . Ghisalberti, Rome; R. A. Greenhill, London; Owen P. Hawley, Marietta College; George W . Hill, Washington, D.C.; Mrs. Florence Hutchinson, Jacksonville, 111.; B. C. Jones, archivist. Counties of Cumberland and Westmorland and the City of Carlisle; Mrs. Sherman Jones, Radnor, Pa.; P. A. Kennedy, County Archivist, Devon; Drs. Lührs and Schwebel, Staatsarchiv Bremen; Hubert McAlexander, University of Georgia; Baron Alexander W . R. Mackay, Blaricum, T h e Netherlands; P. Innocenzo Mariani, Rome; P. W . Martin, Warwick School, England; Chesley Mathews, Santa Barbara; Arthur Monke, Bowdoin College Library; Michi Nakamura, Tsuda College, Tokyo; Anne M . Oakley, Cathedral Archives and Library, Canterbury; Maureen Patch, County Archivist, Dyfed Archives, Carmarthen; John B. Pickard, viii

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

University of Florida; John Pilkington, University of Mississippi; E. H. Sargeant, County Archivist, Worcester; Nicholas B. Scheetz, Georgetown University Library; Giorgio Spini, University of Florence; W . A. Taylor, City Librarian, Birmingham, England; Gail Teas, Pipestone, Minn.; Rev. Francis Turner, Northbourne, Deal, Kent; Nicholas Varga, Loyola College, Baltimore; and the late Harold G. Williams, Seattle. During the twenty-five years that this edition has been in preparation, the members of my family have grown up around me, always tolerant of the fact that the project was made to occupy a place in their lives. I wish especially to thank my wife, Frances Gilmore Hilen, for her willingness to accept my frequent absences from home in the pursuit of knowledge of a different family. T o her, and to my children — Andrew Gilmore Hilen, Ingrid Hilen Savage, and Kristin Hilen Orejuela — my love and appreciation. ANDREW HILEN

University of Washington Seattle

Contents Volume V Chronology

xiii

Introduction

I

Longfellow as Letter-Writer, 1866-1882

i

Principal Correspondents, 1866-1882

7

PART

SEVENTEEN

Three Score Years, 1866-1867

13

Letters No. 2307-2592 PART EIGHTEEN

Europe, 1868-1869

201

Letters No. 2593-2765 PART

NINETEEN

The Virtuous Man, 1 8 7 0 - 1 8 7 1

315

Letters No. 2766-3048 PART T W E N T Y

Embers That Still Burn, 1 8 7 2 - 1 8 7 4

487

Letters No. 3049-3571 Short Titles of Works Cited

819

Index of Recipients

821

XI

ILLUSTRATIONS VOLUME V frontispiece

Photograph of Longfellow taken in 1868 by the English photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. Rare Book Collection, Special Collections Division, University of Washington Libraries. following

page

iç8

PLATE I.

Photograph of Edith, Alice, and Anne Allegra, с. 1874. Courtesy of the National Park Service, Longfellow National Historic Site.

PLATE Π.

T h e summer cottage in Nahant. Drawing by an unknown artist. Courtesy of the National Park Service, Longfellow National Historic Site. Photograph of Longfellow and Trap, 1866. Courtesy of the National Park Service, Longfellow National Historic Site.

PLATE III.

Photograph of Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow, 1868. Courtesy of the National Park Service, Longfellow National Historic Site. Photograph of Harriet Spelman Longfellow (Ernest's w i f e ) , c. 1869. Courtesy of the National Park Service, Longfellow National Historic Site.

PLATE IV.

Photograph of the traveling party to Europe, 1868-69. Rare Book Collection, Special Collections Division, University of Washington Libraries. following

page

317

PLATE v.

Photograph of Charles Appleton Longfellow, 1868. Courtesy of the National Park Service, Longfellow National Historic Site.

PLATE VI.

Photographs of Alice Frere, James T . Fields, and Charles Sumner. Courtesy of the National Park Service, Longfellow National Historic Site.

PLATE VII.

Photograph of George Washington Greene, c. 1870. Courtesy of the National Park Service, Longfellow National Historic Site.

PLATE VIII.

Photograph of Longfellow by Napoleon Sarony, N e w York City, 1868. Courtesy of the National Park Service, Longfellow National Historic Site. xii

CHRONOLOGY 1866

1867

1868

1869

1870 1871

1872

1873 1874

Charles Longfellow sails to England aboard Thomas Gold Appleton's yacht Alice, July-August. Marriage of Charles Sumner, October 17; and its failure the following summer. Publication of Flower-de-Luce (Boston: Ticknor & Fields), November. Longfellow's sixtieth birthday, February 27. Meets Alice Frere, March 27. Publication of The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri (Boston: Ticknor & Fields), April-June. Sells Oxbow Farm, September. Death of Harriot Sumner Appleton, October 9. Charles Dickens in Boston, November. Marriage of Ernest Longfellow and Harriet Spelman, May 21. Longfellow leaves with family for Europe, May 27. Receives honorary LL.D. from Cambridge University, June 16. Publication of The New England Tragedies (Boston: Ticknor & Fields), October. Spends winter in Italy. Receives honorary LL.D. from Oxford University, July 27. Leaves England, August 21; arrives in Cambridge, September i. Death of Charles Dickens, June 9. Publication of revised edition of The Poets and Poetry of Europe (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates); and of The Divine Tragedy (Boston: James R. Osgood & Company), December. Publication of Three Books of Song (Boston : James R. Osgood & Company), May; and of Christus: A Mystery (Boston: James R. Osgood & Company), September. Publication of Aftermath (Boston: James R. Osgood & Company), September. Death of Louis Agassiz, December 14. Sells "The Hanging of the Crane" for $3000 to the New York Ledger, February. Death of Charles Sumner, March 1 1 .

INTRODUCTION

Introduction LONGFELLOW

AS L E Τ T E R - W RI Τ E R

I 8 6 6 - 1 882

PERIOD 1866-1882 became the basis, in large part, of the Longfellow legend that has been created by the twentieth century. That legend portrays the poet, in the phrase of William Dean Howells, as "the white Mr. Longfellow," a kindly and unimpassioned gentleman, fond of children and appealing more to them than to adults, a N e w England aesthete removed from the toughness of the industrial revolution that was transforming America, a bookish laborer in a small but well-tended literary vineyard. It does not project notions of Longfellow as impatient, angry, or frustrated. Like many legends, the Longfellow legend tends to overlook facts and circumstances that are incompatible with it. Thus, if it dwells sympathetically on the poet's heartbreak at the tragic death of Fanny Longfellow, it neglects his subsequent interest in other and younger women; it does not emphasize his prolonged struggles with eyestrain, insomnia, colds, and neuralgia; nor does it describe the exasperation and discipline involved in his being polite to the hordes of "entire strangers" who assaulted him by mail or besieged his door. In its idealization of his relationship with his daughters — "Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra, and Edith with golden hair" — the legend overlooks Longfellow's worry about his adventurous and spendthrift son Charles or his troubles with his nephew Stephen Longfellow, who embarrassed him with alcoholic escapades and marital difficulties, took his subsidies, and repaid him by forging his name to a check. Finally, the legend does not suggest the anxiety that haunted him in his later years as he tried to live up to his reputation as America's first poet and literary personality. During the last sixteen years of his life Longfellow was a public figure with an international fame that survived into the next century. This fame, combined with an ingrained N e w England reticence, made him extremely careful in his public and private utterances; thus he himself contributed to the legend that was to establish him as a conventional man who avoided controversy, a poet of pathetic rather than profound themes. T h e year before Longfellow died, Anthony Trollope made a perceptive comment that applies as much to Longfellow the letter-writer as it does to Longfellow the man : " 'This is the pleasantest man I ever met,' the British stranger is inclined to say, 'He is a

T H E

INTRODUCTION first-class gentleman. But where is Longfellow? Where's the American poet?' And, indeed, he is not at all like his countrymen in this respect, among whom, as in some other countries, the man of letters likes to claim the respect which he believes to be due to him . . . His children, his cigars, the dinner he will give you, — or more probably yourself, — are the subjects which are apt to come up with Longfellow in his conversation with you" (North American Review, C X X X I I [1881], 384). Annie Fields noted the same reserve. "He was inclined to be silent, for there were other and brilliant talkers at the table, one of whom said to him in a pause of the conversation, 'Longfellow, tell us about yourself; you never talk about yourself.' 'No,' said Longfellow gendy, 'I believe I never do.' 'And yet,' continued the first speaker eagerly, 'you confessed to me once' — 'No,' said Longfellow, laughing, Ί think I never did' " (Authors and Friends [Boston and New York, 1896], p. 59). Thus it is not surprising that Longfellow's letters of 1866-1882 are not those of a man who cared to lay bare his soul, but rather of one who felt an obligation, within the limits imposed by modesty and good taste, to do his duty both as a friend and as a national institution. In his last years Longfellow rarely initiated a correspondence; he chiefly responded to the letters of others. His desk seemed always heaped with envelopes, carefully stacked in the order in which they were received, awaiting answer. The daily mail contained an infinite variety of requests for information and appeals for help. His correspondents asked for autographs, photographs, and money; they begged for topical poems for public occasions and memorial verses for dead children and sweethearts; they demanded criticism of enclosed manuscripts, and when it was not forthcoming they sometimes charged him with ingratitude; they wrote seeking advice and comfort in personal matters; they sent him communications filled with effusive praise of his intellect, creative power, "noble soul," and "Beautiful Heart"; and occasionally they sought information about his poetry. Dozens of authors sent their articles and books, always soliciting blessings. Medicasters promoted their nostrums. To each of these letters Longfellow responded patiently and diplomatically, giving up much of his time to accommodate strangers who were often as interested in obtaining his signature as they were in receiving answers to their questions. The result is a body of letters that became, in sheer volume, the principal product of his pen. In letters to his close friends George Washington Greene and Charles Sumner, Longfellow wrote primarily to give advice, warn against impetuosity, or comfort bruised egos. They unmasked themselves to him, the one a malcontent of limited talent, the other an anguished figure of national prominence; he revealed himself to them as a kind of father-confessor, rarely referring to his own problems except tangentially. When writing to his children, to James T . Fields, and to a bevy of young female admirers, he was apt to be less cautious. His initials as signature usually meant a dropping of his epistolary guard. Nevertheless, Longfellow remained a prudent correspondent, reluctant

LONGFELLOW

AS

LETTER-WRITER

to reveal his emotions, careful to avoid a confessional tone, and generally eager to appear proper and correct. Nowhere does he reveal his attitude toward letter-writing more succinctly than in his remark to Fields in Letter No. 2924: "Buffon . . . used to array himself in full dress for writing his Natural History. Why should we not always do it when we write letters? We should no doubt be more courtly and polite, and perhaps say handsome things to each other." Despite his desire to be "courtly and polite," which acted as an inhibiting factor, Longfellow reveals in his letters several aspects of his personality. If he usually sympathized with Sumner's liberal politics, he remained nevertheless a social conservative. He held the typical Brahmin view of the Irish as a servant class, of Democrats as synonymous with ward heelers, of wealth as the basis of an enlightened society. He spoke contemptuously of "vulgar and lowminded people," of mindless bureaucrats in the customs service, of American ministers as "Yahoo [s] sent out to disgrace us." He thought of himself as "an old Washingtonian Federalist" (Letter No. 4608). Although a Unitarian in principle, he was fascinated by the richer symbolism of the Catholic church. Unlike Thoreau, he preferred wine to water. He imported his cigars and shunned the poor man's pipe. He dined elegantly, surrounded by servants. Given these attitudes and habits, it is ironic that his poetry appealed as much to the common people of his day as to the intellectually elite. In time only the young and the less sophisticated remained in his audience; sterner critics turned to an earthier poet, Walt Whitman, who was his philosophical antithesis. The Longfellow legend asserts that the poet was a man of means, usually attributing his wealth to a share of the Appleton estate, inherited from Fanny Longfellow. That the Appleton connection provided him with the comforts of the Craigie House, with some well-invested securities, and with freedom from worry about the financial security of his children, each of whom received a handsome legacy upon reaching twenty-one, is undeniable. Yet the fact remains that Longfellow became the only serious American writer ever to make a good living through poetry. His exceptional popularity and welldeveloped business sense enabled him to drive hard bargains with editors and publishers. In 1874 his fee of $3000 from the publisher of the New York Ledger for "The Hanging of the Crane" set a record that can be envied by twentieth-century poets. In 1875 he entered into a ten-year contract with James R. Osgood & Company that paid him $4000 annually, exclusive of his 10 percent royalty on new books and his fees from magazines. His average yearly income over the last ten years of his life was $16,000 (a figure arrived at from the M S Account Book). His published works provided almost half of this amount. The letters of 1866-1882 reveal that Longfellow gave freely of his money to friends, relatives, and causes. George Washington Greene, the principal beneficiary of his generosity during this period, became a kind of permanent

INTRODUCTION remittance man. Anne Longfellow Pierce received regular gifts of money to ease the difficulties of her long widowhood. Longfellow's vagrant nephew Stephen relieved him of $ 3 1 2 3 . 6 0 over six years. T h e M S Book of Donations reveals that he gave away $16,535.42 from 1874 until he died, including subscriptions for memorials to dead poets and charities to young protégées, to sick or impoverished acquaintances, and to applicants who simply appeared at his door. T h e last entry in his list of donations is a contribution to a Negro church, A man of means, he was also a man of compassion. Longfellow's letters confirm that he was not a man of action in the Emersonian sense, a vigorous participant in the competitions and controversies of his day. As he grew older he became increasingly fond of his home life, preferring his study to the travel that had fascinated him in his youth. After his fourth trip to Europe in 1868-1869, he went no farther from Brattle Street than to the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. This is not to say that he became a recluse, the prisoner of his books and of the ailments of advancing age. As the radius of his movements decreased, he became a familiar figure in the streets of Cambridge and Boston, easily recognizable in his dark frock coat, his hands gloved, his white head topped with a stovepipe hat. T h e Transcript and Advertiser noted his comings and goings between the Craigie House and Nahant, his frequent appearances at the opera, theater, or symphony, his yearly pilgrimages to Pordand. Readers of his letters will discover that he was a willing guest — when his health permitted — in the salons of Boston, that he enjoyed private recitals in his own and other homes, that he even attended an occasional public dinner, provided he was not required to speak. Nevertheless, as the years closed in, he tended to withdraw to the settled routines of the Craigie House where admirers and curiosity seekers visited him in ever-increasing numbers. By means of the titles he mentions and the authors he quotes, one is reminded that Longfellow was an avid reader with eclectic tastes. He continued to buy books, receive them as gifts, and borrow them from the Harvard College library, He read the popular novels, the classic literature of Europe and the ancient world, the poetry of his contemporaries (much of it bad, thrust on him by anxious authors), and various scholarly treatises. An examination of the thirty-one volumes that constitute his anthology Poems of Places will convince the skeptical of the range, if not always the refinement, of his taste in poetry. His own work, both poems and letters, suggests that he deserved the title of "the scholar poet." This sobriquet helps define both the nature of his talent and its limitations. One does not learn much from his letters, however, about the essential nature of his literary philosophy. Reluctant to discuss poetic techniques, he ventured few opinions except to repeat his preference for literalness in translation, for the Italian as opposed to the English sonnet, and for the rhymed couplet as "most agreeable to the English ear." On one occasion he defined poetry in platitudinous terms: "poetry is the flower and perfume of thought,

LONGFELLOW

AS

LETTER-WRITER

and a perpetual delight, clothing the commonplace of life 'with golden exhalations of the dawn' " (Letter No. 4400). He hesitated to suggest improvement of the amateur verses that were sent to him, usually explaining that he had never done so and did not wish to begin. He sometimes praised bad poetry, apparently because he could not bring himself to offend its perpetrators. He occasionally responded privately, but never publicly, to critics of his own work; but it is clear that he was concerned more with the accuracy of his images and historical allusions than he was with defining and defending the limpidity, pathos, and didacticism that came to be considered the essence of his muse. In reality, he disliked criticism, either as its recipient or as its author. He shrugged off the professional literary critic by remarking sarcastically that he lacked "the gift of more fortunate critics who know beforehand what they think of a work, and consequendy are not obliged to read it" (Letter No. 2 3 1 4 ) . In a later letter he confessed that he had no "an[a]lytical power in literature" ( N o . 2 4 1 0 ) . What he did have, as a rule, was a graceful epistolary style. He wrote clear, grammatical sentences in a firm and rounded hand. He made few corrections. When he addressed the "entire stranger," he used conventional language, keeping foremost in his mind a dictum mentioned in Letter No. 3093: "How others may be feeling at any given moment, is one of the first things one ought to think of in the affairs of life." Rarely did he display impatience or anger. Usually he composed letters in a good humor, unruffled by the fact that he was always behind in answering the mail. He wrote to his daughters in a warm and intimate tone and employed the affectionate phrases of a doting father. In letters to friends he sometimes created vivid and amusing metaphors. "Here is a clerical insect," he wrote of a minister of the gospel, "bumping his head against the window-panes, like a blue-bottle fly; making a great buzzing, but not one drop of honey" (Letter No. 3 1 0 9 ) . He spoke of young ladies who were "no sooner . . . transplanted, than they blossom into letters" (Letter No. 4 0 1 7 ) . Stereotype plates, with which he had so much experience, became "the leaden armor of the mind" (Letter No. 3789). W h e n referring to his insomnia he asked, " W h y will the busy brain go on all night, swinging its arms about like a wind-mill, when it has nothing to grind but itself?" (Letter No. 4 3 7 7 ) . His delight in aphorisms occasionally found its way into a letter. "The house leaks," he wrote in Letter No. 3 1 9 1 , "like a friend to whom you have confided an important secret." Greene, whose inherent gloom Longfellow tried constantly to dispel, was the usual benefactor of his colorful statements. "So go to your rest under the Mansar[d]e roof of the future," he wrote in Letter No. 2776, "and do not start up in the middle of the night and say; I do not wish to alarm you, but I smell smoke." Such felicitous phraseology provides revealing glimpses of the man behind the pen. Although in moments of exasperation he described letter-writing as "insane and profitless," and even attributed his ill health to his having to write to "all kinds of people on all kinds of subjects," Longfellow nevertheless con-

INTRODUCTION tinued in his later years to devote hours to it and forced himself each day to face the mounting pile of envelopes on his desk. He wrote to his family and friends out of a sense of love and loyalty; but he considered his correspondence with strangers a penance for his fame. As a literary celebrity, he felt obliged to answer all but the most outrageous demands on his good nature. He rarely refused a plea for consolation or a demand for an autograph. When at last, during his final illness, he found it impossible to stem the rising tide of incoming letters, he resorted to a printed form as the only way to relieve his conscience. The result of this compulsion to answer the mail is statistically impressive. During the period 1866-1882 he wrote 9428 known letters, of which 2686, or more than survived the first fifty-nine years of his life, have been recovered for this edition. The latter figure does not include excerpts of less than fifty words from letters listed in dealers' catalogues, surviving replies to 917 requests for autographs from unknown admirers (with two exceptions, which are printed to illustrate the genre), and letters in another hand to which he was one of several signatories (again with two exceptions, to illustrate his public involvement in the copyright controversy and his personal interest in a neighbor's family problem). Despite Longfellow's complaints about the incursions on his time by correspondents and visitors, he continued to be professionally productive, working around interruptions, family obligations, and the pain of neuralgic attacks. He produced ten separate volumes of poetry during these years, finished the Divine Comedy translation, supervised an expanded edition of the Poets and Poetry of Europe, and turned out his multivolume collection of the Poems of Places. In 1872 he published what he hoped would be a magnum opus, Christus: A Mystery, which was a union of three religious dramas: The Golden Legend, The Divine Tragedy, and The New England Tragedies. The critical failure of this work may have given him intimations of the instability of his fame. An approving general public continued to accept him as the greatest poet of the day, moved not only by the unaffectedness of his verse but also by his image as scholar, devoted father, and man of property, and by the polysyllabic appropriateness of his name; but intellectual critics had already begun the process that would eventually reduce his stature to that of a schoolroom poet. In a letter of February 26, 1880, Edwin P. Whipple, an admirer who was not without critical acumen, alluded to this undercurrent of disparagement. "Indeed, in reading over your whole collection within the last month, I have been surprised at the number of poems which pass far beyond the limitations which critics affix to your genius, and have felt that the depth of your poetic feeling and the range of your poetic faculty have been strangely underrated." More than half a century after he had written to his father in Letter No. 56 that his "every earthly thought" centered on future "eminence in literature," Longfellow came to the end of his life with his youthful goal achieved. If, a hundred years after his death, he is not the subject of graduate seminars,

PRINCIPAL

CORRESPONDENTS

he does remain a name in the American consciousness. Many of his Hnes and tides have passed into common usage, visitors by the hundreds still arrive at the Craigie House to see at first hand the mementos of his life and career, and a majority of his countrymen continue to associate his name with the word "poet." T w o days before his seventy-fifth birthday and a scant month before his death, Longfellow received a letter from a literary colleague that may serve as a fitting memorial to his accomplishment as a man and as a poet. "I would not add to the overwhelming burden of congratulation and grateful appreciation which thy birth-day must bring: but I cannot let the occasion pass without expressing my gratitude for the happy hours I have spent over thy writings, and the pride which I share with all Americans, in view of thy success as an author and thy character as a man. It is permitted to but few in this world to reach a position so honorable as that which thee occupy or to enjoy so widely the love of their fellow men. / With our dear friends Emerson and Holmes, we are nearing the inevitable end of earth, and all must soon leave to younger writers the places we hold. But it is a matter for thankfulness that we shall also leave them the example of the brotherly kindness and sympathy which have marked our intercourse with one another. May God continue to bless thee dear friend, and bless us all here and hereafter! Ever truly thine / John G Whittier." PRINCIPAL

CORRESPONDENTS

1 8 6 6 - 1 8 8 2 As the recipient of 590 known letters, 520 of which have been recovered, George Washington Greene was Longfellow's principal correspondent during this final period of his life. It is difficult to understand Longfellow's continued devotion to this friend of his youth, for Greene emerges from his own letters as neither interesting nor likable. Possessed of an envious nature and a conviction that the world was conspiring against him, Greene met the challenges of his life by complaining and retreating into real and imaginary illnesses. He took shameless advantage of Longfellow's good nature by using him as an intermediary with publishers, as a promoter of schemes to obtain employment, and as a procurer of invitations to academic and social events. Longfellow supported him with a steady supply of encouragement and money. He helped subsidize Greene's biography of General Nathanael Greene, bought a house for him in Greenwich, R.I., enlarged and improved it, persuaded his daughters to share their bequests from Charles Sumner with Greene's children, provided him with checks to rescue him from debt, and, beginning in 1874, put him on a regular monthly allowance of $50. In his will he left $1000 to each of Greene's children. Greene, who was not himself a beneficiary, sold his letters from Longfellow to the poet's children for an unspecified amount. Longfellow was, of course, quite aware of Greene's idiosyncrasies, endured

INTRODUCTION his procrastinations, and showed no surprise at his failures. "Nothing remains for him," he wrote in Letter N o . 3 1 8 3 , "but to be struck by lightning." Annie Fields provides a re\'ealing comment on their relationship. " [ W h e n ] Greene comes to me," she quotes Longfellow as saying, "he always takes his money to come and go, just like my own sons and without so much as a thank you. But I like to have Greene come because he enjoys it so much and it is so strange. He amuses me" (^Memories of a Hostess [Boston, 1922], p. 1 2 6 ) . Longfellow's attraction to Greene had more complex causes than this, however. Their shared experience in Italy in 1828 and their common love for the Italian language and literature helped to unite them. One suspects also that Longfellow was drawn to Greene as men of eminence are sometimes drawn to those of lesser status. Greene was a failed Longfellow, an aesthete whose talents did not match his ambitions, a poor man with a poor wife and children who would not enjoy inheritances. If Longfellow thought of him subconsciously as an alter ego, as what he himself might have been had fortune been less kind, his sympathy for his quixotic friend becomes understandable. T w o other friends, Charles Sumner and James T . Fields, continued as favorite correspondents of Longfellow until their deaths in 1874 and 1 8 8 1 . Sumner, like Greene, dwelt mosriy in his letters on the difficulties of his life, but his stage was larger and his failures and successes grander. Longfellow admired him for his histrionic talent and political bravery, sympathized with him in his public battles, and worried with him about his declining health, Sumner recognized in Longfellow the embodiment of his own dreams of a quiet intellectual life. T h u s they complemented one another, the one a bookish man of the study, the other an activist in the strident world of national politics. Sumner named the poet an executor of his will, presumably in the expectation that Longfellow would protect his reputation as a writer. Longfellow performed his duty conscientiously, arranging for a biographer to memorialize the senator and spending many hours proofreading the collected edition of his works. During the eight years of Sumner's life covered in Volume V , Longfellow wrote 1 2 1 letters to his friend, 98 of which have been recovered. James T . Fields was a different kind of correspondent, untouched by the lugubriousness that tormented Greene and Sumner and made them dependent on Longfellow for encouragement. Prominent as publisher and lecturer, and pleased with his own indifferent attempts at poetry, he had no need to turn to Longfellow for advice or consolation. Their friendship, based solidly on a long and successful business relationship, now throve on their enjoyment of good food and wine, the theater, music, and literary conversation. Fields had helped make Longfellow a household name; Longfellow had contributed to Fields's comfortable life-style. T h e two grew old together in a satisfying world of books and social pleasures. W h e n Fields died, Longfellow was deeply affected, for he had felt sustained for years by his friend's energy, resourcefulness, and good humor. Unfortunately, their correspondence does 8

PRINCIPAL

CORRESPONDENTS

not adequately convey their intimacy. Their letters tend to be brief and are often merely the afterthoughts of conversations enjoyed in the Craigie House or in Fields's home on Charles Street, Boston. From 1866 until he died in 1881, Fields received 178 verified letters from Longfellow, 134 of which are printed in these volumes. Taken as a group, the poet's family received at least 382 letters from Longfellow, more than any of his principal correspondents except George Washington Greene. Although he continued to write to Anne Longfellow Pierce and Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow — the record shows that they exchanged some eighty-two letters, half of which have been recovered — his brief notes to them deal with minor matters, and he came to depend on his yearly visits to Portland to take the place of lengthy written communications. To his brother Samuel he wrote rarely and to his sister Mary Longfellow Greenleaf hardly at all, primarily because the one was frequently in Cambridge and the other lived only a few steps away on Brattle Street. The most interesting of his surviving family letters are to his own children, and in them we see Longfellow as a devoted father, playing his role of single parent with love, good humor, and tact. There is no evidence that he wrote a harsh word to any of his sons and daughters, although he permitted himself some admonitory paragraphs to Charles Longfellow, whose casual attitude toward money offended his father's inherent prudence. There are more extant letters to Edith Longfellow than to any of his other children, but one should not conclude from this that she was a favorite child. Longfellow exchanged, finally, at least seventy letters with Thomas Gold Appleton, a jovial brother-in-law who, despite his frequent absences abroad, became a member of the poet's inner circle. Unfortunately, only nine of these letters have survived to document the intimacy of their friendship. No list of Longfellow's principal correspondents of 1866-1882 would be complete without mention of a number of people who, if they did not call him to his desk as often as Greene, Sumner, and Fields, nevertheless drew letters from him with some regularity: Luigi Monti, the "young Sicilian" of Tales of a Wayside Inn, with whom he shared a taste for music, Marsala, and other things Italian; Charles Eliot Norton, James Russell Lowell, and Louis Agassiz, Cambridge neighbors, fellow scholars, and late supper companions; William Dean Howells, editor of the Atlantic Monthly during most of these years; and James R. Osgood, his publisher after the retirement of Fields. Nor did Longfellow lose sight of "Uncle Sam" Ward, although most of his letters to that vivacious and irrepressible companion of earlier days have been lost. In all, in sixteen years, he wrote more than 300 letters to these friends and associates, indication enough of their importance in his life. Other roles, of a more private nature, were played by a miscellany of correspondents whose appeal to Longfellow was based on his susceptibility to young women of talent, personality, and beauty. Alice Frere, a stylish and cultivated Englishwoman, moved him to adopt an uncharacteristically personal

INTRODUCTION tone in a series of letters in 1874, and for a moment one is allowed to see him with his epistolary defenses down. A n d there were others in whom he took a special interest, motivated by a mixture of unconscious vanity, loneliness, and repressed desire: Frances Rowena Miller, an aspiring opera singer who fancied herself his protégée; Sara Jewett, an actress popular as an ingénue; Cornelia Lucretia Boardman, a medical student whose sex barred her from the Harvard Medical School; and Mrs. Katharine McDowell (Sherwood Bonner), a woman whose Southern charm and physical splendor complemented her reputation as a writer. Longfellow's fondness for Mrs. McDowell is especially intriguing because he wrote 59 letters to her between 1873 and 1881, some of them purportedly in French and only two of them recovered. Another dimension of his relationship with these young women is revealed by the fact that he helped each of them, except Alice Frere, with various amounts of money. As correspondents they seem to have brought pleasure to his final years in a mildly titillating way. In all, he wrote over 150 letters to his five admirers, a third of which have survived. Finally, of the letters printed in Volumes V and V I , a great number were written to correspondents with whom he was unacquainted. T h e recipients were his admirers, young and old, educated and uneducated, who wrote from every corner of the country and from abroad, each one desirous of making contact with a celebrity at long distance. W h e n Longfellow complained, as he often did, about the snowdrift of letters that covered his desk, he had these people in mind. But the "entire stranger," that thorn in his flesh who stole his hours and his peace of mind, was the inevitable by-product of his fame. Each letter from this insistent correspondent was an implied tribute to Longfellow's accomplishment; each answer by the poet, however perfunctory, is a footnote to his good nature.

EDITORIAL

PLAN

AND

ANNOTATION

T h e principles followed in editing and annotating the letters are fully explained in Volume I. Here, as throughout the edition, I have retained Longfellow's spelling except for obvious slips of the pen, adhered to his punctuation, and followed his own corrections. Words and phrases that have been lost through mutilation of the manuscript are restored conjecturally within vertical bars; or, if the missing matter is too long to be restored, I have indicated it by suspension points ||. . . .|| T o facilitate cross reference I have employed a numbering system for letters and notes: thus 2398.1 refers to Letter N o . 2398, note i.

PART

SEVENTEEN

T H R E E S C O R E YEARS 1866-1867

THREE SCORE

YEARS

1866-1867

A

s H E REACHED HIS S I X T I E T H BIRTHDAY, 0П February 27, 1867, Longfellow found himself established in the routines that with a few departures would carry him through the final fifteen years of his life. For two years he moved no farther from the comforts of the Craigie House than personal affairs, familial duty, or summer holidays demanded. He made his way regularly to Boston on missions of business and pleasure, paid his annual respects to his brother and sister in Portland, and relaxed during the summer months on his cool verandah at Nahant. It was for the most part a tranquil period, punctuated by the inevitable statistics of happiness and sorrow: the marriage of Charles Sumner on October 17, 1866, and its failure by the following summer; the engagement of Ernest Longfellow to Harriet Spelman on March 10, 1867; and the death of Harriot Sumner Appleton on October 9, 1867. On July 1 1 , 1 8 6 6 , Charles Longfellow left Nahant on a voyage to England in Tom Appleton's fifty-four-foot sloop Alice, returning a year later after indulging in a winter tour of Russia. The trip confirmed Charles in a habit of peregrination that was subsequently to cause his father sporadic fits of anxiety. In September 1867 Longfellow sold his Oxbow Farm at Stockbridge, thus ending the dream of a country manor that he had cherished for many years. And on November 19 his old friend Dickens arrived in Boston to begin a lecture tour of America, and for a few weeks a round of entertainment increased the tempo of his social life. Longfellow's major literary project during this period was the translation of the Divina Commedia. The Wednesday night meetings of his Dante Club, held irregularly until May i, 1867, sharpened his feeling for Italian in the congenial company of Lowell and Norton, Fields and Holmes, and other invited guests. Reluctantly he saw the work come to an end, and on May 6, 1867, he closed the chapter in his journal: ' T h e Dante work is now all done; the last word and the final corrections all in the Printer's hands." That autumn, on November 6, James T . Fields celebrated the achievement with a banquet at the Union Club to which were invited, Longfellow noted, "R. H. Dana senior, of the Old Guard of Literature; — Dr. [Isaac Israel] Hayes [ 1 8 3 2 - 1 8 8 1 ] the Arctic Explorer; [John Russell] Lord Amberley [18421876]; Agassiz, Greene, Lowell, Norton, T.G.A., Charley, Erny, Uncle Sam [Longfellow]." Although, to Longfellow's relief, no speeches were called for, the dinner was interrupted when "a lovely wreath of choise flowers" was I3

THREE

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presented to the translator on behalf of three admirers in absentia — Annie Fields, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Lady Amberley. If the Divina Commedia filled his mind during most of this period, his brief relationship with a young woman in the spring of 1867 turned his thoughts in a different direction and, for a moment at least, made him forget his translation, the emptiness of his life without Fanny, and his age. The occasion was the appearance in Boston of William Edward Frere ( 1 8 1 1 1880), an Englishman of Bitton, Somerset, who was returning to England from India, where he had served as judge of the High Court of Bombay. Accompanying him was his daughter, Alice Mary Frere ( 1 8 4 2 - 1 9 2 6 ) , a lovely, intelligent young woman with an inclination for poets and poetry. Longfellow called on them at the Tremont House on March 27 and appears to have been immediately attracted to Miss Frere, whose physical charms are obvious in a photograph she sent him within a week of their parting. On March 28 he entertained the Freres at lunch at the Craigie House, and on the twenty-ninth he wrote in his journal that he had "had the pleasure of handing Miss Frere down to dinner" at the home of William Gray ( 1 7 7 6 . 1 ) . If he saw her on March 30 and 31, there is no documentation of the fact, but on April I he was with her for the last time at a poetry reading with music and supper at the home of Robert Charles Winthrop. Although it is impossible to reconstruct the events of that evening, it is clear from the postscripts of Letter No. 2479 that Longfellow confided some secret, "the cry of my soul," to Miss Frere and that she, too, if not equally candid, revealed some inner thoughts to him. What exactly passed between the sixty-year-old poet and the twenty-fiveyear-old Englishwoman can never be known. If Longfellow permitted himself the luxury of a romantic interlude, he knew it would be limited by the brevity of Miss Frere's visit to Boston. She, on the other hand, quite clearly surrendered to an infatuation with Longfellow as celebrity, as her first letter from New York on April 3 suggests: "My father left his kind regards to you. I don't think I need — tho' it is such a pleasure that there's no resisting it — tell you, how we enjoyed seeing you — and making friends w. you — (so it shall be — shal[l] it not?) nor how much I thank you for only animating my Ideal — instead of crushing my Image under foot — or worse still — obliging me to do so myself. I look forward to seeing you again in England very much." When Longfellow responded on April 7, his letter (No. 2478) reveals that Alice Frere fascinated him even in her absence. With reference to her "lovely photograph" he wrote : "I will not tell you how much I like it, nor how often I look at it." And with an openness that was not typical of him in correspondence, he confessed, "I will say once or twice more what a gladness it has been to me to see you and to know you, even for this short while." In the meantime, Alice Frere had written two letters, both dated April 6 from the Clarendon Hotel, New York. In the first she thanked Longfellow for a stereoscopic view of his study: "How very good and kind you are! That I4

THREE

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YEARS

photograph of you in yr. study is charming — you need not doubt but that I shall often look at it — and recall the pleasant day we spent w. you, whenever I do so — not that such memories ever require to be recalled for they are like the roses wh. the traveller in the desert meets with here and there in his weary journey." In the second, she revealed at last her secret, the fact of her three-year engagement to Major Godfrey Clerk of the Rifle Brigade. In Letter No. 2479 Longfellow replied to this announcement with a courtesy and kindness, tinged perhaps with a small feeling of regret, that indicate his acceptance of the reality of the situation : "It would be difficult for me to tell you, how much this Romance of your life has interested and touched me. I cannot write to you about it now. Perhaps some time I will tell you." This sentiment elicited an effusive reply written "between Tuesday night and Wed[nesda]y morn[in]g" [April 9 - 1 0 , 1867] : How can I thank you eno' for all yr. kindness! Words will not be sufficient and my thoughts will not reach you. Cd. they do so, you shd soon learn how very much I feel it — but alas! when the heart is fullest, the lips are weakest — and as I can only write as I wd talk — the pen follows the lips — and here I sit and think 'how can I say what I wish' and come to the conclusion that the only way is to trust my feelings to you — in the certainty that they will be duly appreciated and understood . . . It wd have been a very great pleasure seeing you again — but not in a crowd. I wd much rather retain the recollection of Monday evening as a farewell, than such a conventional one as, had you come here — must have been ours — and I do indeed hope at some future day (not very far o f f ) that we may meet again — and now this is really good bye dear Mr. Longfellow. You will I know believe all that I would say if I could and that I am — and shall always be your sincere and affectionate friend Alice M Frere. Of course I shall write as soon as possible from England. Gott segnen Dich always. It would be unwise to make more of this brief and apparently intense relationship than the exchange of a few letters justifies. Longfellow was obviously attracted to a young and comely woman who made no secret of her admiration for him as a public figure, who made him forget that he was more than twice her age, and who discreetly withheld from him the news that she was engaged to be married. Certainly her sympathy, her attractiveness, and her provocative candor stirred his imagination as it had not been stirred since he had taken a fancy to the auburn-haired Cornelia Fitch in 1864. Alice Frere, for her part, enjoyed her good fortune in being able to share a moment of intimacy with a literary lion and tactfully retreated when she realized that he might have misunderstood her show of affection. After her marriage she followed her husband to Egypt and to India where, in 1874, she sent Longfellow a reminder of their friendly exchange seven years before: "Amongst I 5

THREE

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quite the sweetest memories are those which recall our meeting, brief intercourse, and parting — and you may imagine that all which can make me believe that you sometimes think of those days, bears its full value to my mind." Always, of course, both before and after Longfellow met Alice Frere, there were the demands of his correspondence during 1866-1867, a correspondence that anchored him in his study for hours at a time. Of the 688 letters he is known to have written during this period, 286 have been recovered for publication. With a few exceptions they are the letters of a man who did not expose his emotions and who practiced the epistolary art as a means of providing topical information, encouraging friends, and exchanging civilized courtesies.

2307.

To William Augustus Saunders^

Cambridge Jan 4 1866. My Dear Sir, In looking over more carefully the Income account of the first half of last year, in order to form an estimate of the probable amount I shall have for investment this Spring, I am afraid I shall not be able to do all I wish so early as May. Perhaps not before July. W e will come to a more definite understanding when I next have the pleasure of seeing you; and in the meantime I write this in order to avoid any misunderstanding in regard to time. I remain with much regard Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

I. Saunders ( i 8 1 8 - 1 8 9 9 ) , Cambridge businessman, was Longfellow's agent in the purchase of 50 shares of stock in the Union Railroad Company, of which he was a director. His letters of July 8, 27, and 30 [1866] reveal that Longfellow took delivery of the stock, for which he paid $4700, in July.

2308.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Jan 7 1866 My Dear Greene, I sent you the History some days ago, but not the fenders.^ When I looked at them, I saw all your darlings tumbling over them into the fire, and determined to have nothing to do with such a Slaughter of the Innocents.^ Altogether too low and unsafe. You can do better in the ]udenstrasse when you come. Meanwhile I will tell the little man here® to be on the look-out. Let me 16

CAMBRIDGE,

1866

advise you also to take an arm-chair instead of the lounge, which is an ugly and inconvenient piece of furniture. The little girls are highly delighted with your contribution to the "Secret"; and a special, extra No. of that popular journal is to be devoted to it. Not every contributor is treated with such distinguished regard. The poem also amused them highly. I return it with thanks.·* No wonder you shrink from copying the Dante letters. It is not necessary. You can quite as well make the corrections in proof, and spare your eyes, besides giving me the pleasure of a visit.® Erny's address is Munroe & Cie, 5 Rue de la Paix. I am glad you have written to Circourt.® Dante moves slowly but surely. Next Wednesday we have Canto IX, and perhaps X. I have just got of Norton, Covino's "Descriz. Geographica dell' Italia, ad illustr. della Div. Com,'"' which is very useful. It is difficult to navigate Dante's rivers and harbors without some such pilot. It is bitter cold weather. I hope it is warmer with you, and that you are well. Ever truly H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1 . Greene wrote on January 2: "Please send me the Warren. It comes from the Nation with a request for a notice. I must ask you to send me the fenders — as I shall not be able to make any other purchases now." A notice of Frothingham's Life and Times of Joseph Warren ( 2 3 0 5 . 3 ) appeared unsigned in the Nation, II, No. 31 (February i , 1866), 1 4 9 - 1 5 0 . 2. A n allusion to Herod's massacre of the male children of Bethlehem (Matt. 2 : 1 6 ) . 3. James Kernan, a furniture dealer of Cambridge. 4. Greene's contribution to the M S "Secret," No. 7 (January 1 8 6 6 ) , 3 - 1 6 , was entitled " H o w Crawford came to make my bust — a short story with a long introduction" (Longfellow House). T h e poem, enclosed in Greene's letter of January 3, is unrecovered. 5. See 2285.3. Greene wrote on January 3: " I shrink from the labor of copying the letters and propose, rather, when they are put in type to come down and revise them with you." 6. Adolphe-Marie-Pierre de Circourt ( 1 8 0 1 - 1 8 7 9 ) , French count, diplomat, and writer. 7. Andrea Covino, Descrizione geografica dell'Italia ad illustrazione della Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri, accompagnata da una carta speciale (Asti, 1 8 6 5 ) .

2309.

To James Russell Lowell [Cambridge] All' Illustrissimo Signor Professore Lowello, Prescrizione Nuova per il mal di gola. I7

13 Gennaro. I866^

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

"Benedetto Quel claretto Che si spilla in Avignone," Dice Redi, Se non, vedi La famosa sua Canzone.^ Questo vino L'Aretino» Loda certo con ragione, Ma sta fresco Ser Francesco Se il migliore lo suppone. Con qualunque Vino dunque Tinto che dall' uva cola. Mescolato Ed acquato, Gargarizza ben la gola. E ti giuro, (Son sicuro, Uomo son di mia parola,) Il dolore. Professore, Tutto subito s'invola. Riposta del Signor Professore Ho provato Queir acquato Vino tinto della Francia, E s'invola Dalla gola Il dolore nella pancia. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. TRANSLATION:

[Cambridge] T o the Most Illustrious Professor Lowell N e w Prescription for a Sore Throat.

January 1 3 . 1 8 6 6 1

C A M B R I D G E ,

1866

"Benedight That claret light Which is tapped in Avignone;" Redi said it; Who don't credit, Let him read the famed Canzone.2 This same wine T h e Aretine^ Justly praises as he drinks it; And yet but poor His taste, I'm sure, If the best of wines he thinks it. Take this or another (Make no bother), Any red wine in your bottle, Mixed with water Of any sort or Kind; then gargle well your throttle. I assure you It will cure you ( M e a man of my word you'll own); Your distress or Pain, Professor, All of a sudden will have flown. Answer of the Professor Quite deHghted, Quick I tried it, — Your red wine of Avignon; When like a bullet, Out of my gullet Into my paunch the pain has flown! I. Because of a sore throat, Lowell missed the Dante Club meeting of January i о and had to decline having dinner with Longfellow, Joseph Cogswell, and Tom Appleton on January 12. He sent his regrets with the following poem on a claret gargle which Longfellow had recommended: "Elmwood: г 2th Jany. 1866. Dr Longfellow's N e w Prescription Commended to himself. Make you a gargle of claret, (Medoc'll do) and don't spare it; If some should slip through. You needn't look blue, — You'll soon be able to bear it, I 9

THREE

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Doctor Anacreon tried it, And only milksops deride it; Just put it to vote Of palate and throat, They'll swear the knaves belied it. 'Twould make the heart of King Og well; Pray try it on Doctor Cogswell; As the gust on't slips To his heart from's lips, 'Twill oil his pinions and cogs well. As for your salt and your vinegar, Such puckery, rasp-your-skinny gar-gles are not fit For people of wit, — Hardly, I vow, for a freenigar! No one should laugh but the winner, And I don't, as I'm a sinner, For my throat's so bad, I'm not to be had, Though Horace ask me to dinner. J.R.L." Longfellow responded with the verse-letter in Italian, including Lowell's pretended answer. See Life, III, 442-443, which provides the translation. 2. Francesco Redi, "Bacco in Toscana," 11. 3 1 - 3 3 . 3. Longfellow means Redi, who was born in Arretium, now Arezzo, in Tuscany.

2310.

To George Washington Greene

Camb. Jan. 15. 1866. My Dear Greene, As Kernan has no good arm-chair, nor any prospect of one, I told him this morning to send you the green lounge, that you may lie down and meditate on the fenders, of which he is in as hot pursuit as the weather permits. For the lounge you are to pay nothing but the freight, which I forgot, and which it is now I fear too late to think of. We miss you at the Dante Club, which goes singing on its way, though diminished in numbers. Last Wednesday only Chs. Norton and myself were present, Lowell being kept at home by sore throat. Whereupon I sent him the enclosed prescription, (and his supposed answer) in Italian. The subject is not very inspiring, but the lines will amuse you, if you like nonsense verses. Fields has just returned from New York, where he has been for a week or two, and asks for your ms. of the Dante letters. Erny writes that he shall be delighted to have a letter from you and promises to reply by return of steamer. 2 о

CAMBRIDGE,

1866

The little girls send their love and thank you again for the valuable contribution to the "Secret." Good night, and ever Yours H.W.L. P.S. The Can Grande Letter has come safe.^ Thanks. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. See 2198.7. In his notes to Paradiso Longfellow wrote: " T o Can Grande he dedicated some cantos of the Paradiso, and presented them with that long Latin letter so difficult to associate with the name of Dante" (Works, XI, 2 9 2 ) . Greene planned to include the letter in his projected translation of the Dante letters.

23ir.

To Ernest Wadsworth

Longfellow

Camb. Jan. 17. 1866 My Dear Ernest In Dante's Par[a]diso, Canto X. near the end [11. 1 3 6 - 1 3 8 ] a French Professor is spoken of thus; "This is the light eternal of Sigier, Who reading lectures in the Street of Straw Did syllogize invidious verities." The Street of Straw is the Rue du Fouarre, near the Place Mauhert, and got its name from the fact that the students used to sit on bundles of straw at their lectures, or because it was a hay-market, or probably from both. I want you and Uncle Sam to hunt up this old street, and tell me how it looks now. I want something to make a Note of.^ Look up also the hôtel Carnavalet in the Rue Culture-Sainte-Catherine. That is where Mme. de Sévigné lived and wrote her famous letters. In fine I advise you to buy a book called Les Rues de Paris, by Louis Lurine, pubd. by Kugelmann, 25 Rue Jacob.^ You will find a good deal of curious matter and curious illustration in it. Charley got back to-day from Montreal where he has been passing ten days, with Willie Fay. He has brought back blanket coats, and muffs and moccasins enough to furnish a small shop. What a time the moths will have next Summer, in this old house! It would be rather difficult to say what books I should like, not having a peep at the book-stalls. But I will name two authors; Quérard; — all his bibliographical works; and Vapereau, who publishes every year a review of the literature of the preceding years.·'' These you may get at all events. As soon as the first flower blooms and the first bird sings, if not sooner, you will no doubt break up your Winter quarters, and move southward to meet 2

I

THREE

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YEARS

the Spring. T h a t will be very pleasant and make up for the dull weather of Paris. I hope you are not over-doing the artistic business. T h a t is of no importance in comparison with your health. All day long at work in the atelier is too much. T w o or three hours are enough I should think. I thought you took the ad[d]ress of M . Jean, Charlie's French teacher. It is rather late to send it now; but here it is. " N o 4 Rue de Bussy" somewhere in your neighborhood Charley thinks.^ It is pretty hard work after all to get a good hold of a foreign language. It comes gradually, but surely, if you keep at it. Jan 22nd. I have kept this page for Cambridge and Boston news, and none comes to hand. N o w that you have gone away nothing happens; and I have not been much in the way, if it did. I therefore send you now and then a newspaper; — by to-day's mail the Advertiser, with an Article by "Tom Brown" ( M r . Hughes) on American affairs, which will interest you, as he makes honorable mention of Charley.® I have just stopped to do a deed of charity for you, namely to give a pair of your old shoes to a handsome Italian boy, who came here barefoot! in the ice and snow. He says he has had no shoes all winter. Mr. Greene says he has written to you and sent you a letter of introduction to Circourt. If you want to call on our friend Duvergier de Hauranne his address is 5 Rue de Tivoli. His papers in the Revue des Deux Mondes are very friendly, I believe.® All send much love to you and Uncle Sam. Ever affect [ionatel] y H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. For Longfellow's note, see Works, X L 2 2 8 - 2 3 0 . 2. Les Rues de Paris; Paris ancien et moderne; origines, histoire, monuments, costumes, moeurs, chroniques et traditions (Paris, 1 8 4 4 ) , 2 vols. 3. Joseph Marie Quérard Ç 1 7 9 7 - 1 8 6 5 ) , bibliographer, and Louis Gustave Vapereau C 1 8 1 9 - 1 9 0 6 ) , compiler of Dictionnaire Universel des Contemporains (1858). 4. See 2299.6. j. The Advertiser article (unidentified) was presumably an excerpt from Thomas Hughes's "Peace on Earth," Macmillan s Magazine, XIII (January 1 8 6 6 ) , 1 9 5 - 2 0 1 . "Longfellow's young son (Charlie, as I hear all men call him) has managed to fight a campaign, and got badly hit in Louisiana [Virginia], at an age when our boys are thinking of their freshman's term at Oxford" (p. 200). 6. Louis-Prosper-Ernest Duvergier de Hauranne ( 1 8 4 3 — 1 8 7 7 ) , journalist and politician, wrote a dozen long articles under the heading "Huit mois en Amérique, 1 8 6 4 1 8 6 5 " in the Revue des Deux Mondes between August 15, 1865, and April i, 1866 ( L V I I , 8 5 2 - 8 9 9 ; L I X , 8 7 - 1 4 1 , 4 2 3 - 4 6 8 , 8 8 1 - 9 2 4 ; L X , 1 8 8 - 2 3 4 , 6 2 7 - 6 7 0 , 898-946; LXI, 1 0 5 - 1 5 0 , 4 5 9 - 5 0 3 , 5 8 5 - 6 2 2 , 8 1 7 - 8 5 5 ; LXII, 6 1 2 - 6 5 2 ) .

2 2

CAMBRIDGE, 2312.

T o Charles

1866

Sumner

Cambridge Jan 17. 1866 M y Dear Sumner, I hardly know w h i c h is the most revolting, the article sent you in a box, or that served up for you on the dirty "Round T a b l e . " ' Each shows about the same amount of barbarism, and each is equally harmless to yourself, and discreditable to the author. So let them pass away among the things forgotten. M e a n w h i l e it grows more and more evident, that w e shall have no peace in the country, till your doctrines prevail. A l l accounts from the South betray a deplorable state of feeling toward the negro; and a general wrong-headedness in regard to matters social and political. I have nothing n e w to write you, not having been in town since the day of the "Tattered Flags," w h i c h was a most impressive occasion, a month ago or more.^ Dante marches on slowly and with decorum. In printing, or rather stereotyping, I have now reached the T e n t h [Canto] of Paradiso. A little C l u b meets here every Wednesday evening — Lowell, Norton and myself — with some times an outsider or two. W e go over a Canto critically, and then have a supper. I wish we could have you with us. T a k e down your Dante and read the beginning of Paradiso XI. Yours ever H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. T h e "article sent you in a box" is unidentified. Sumner was called an egotist, among other things, and his scholarship described as charlatanism in the N e w York Round Table, III, N o . 19 (January 13, 1866), 24. 2. O n December 22, 1865, the colors of the Massachusetts volunteer regiments were delivered in a formal ceremony to the State authorities in Boston.

2313.

T o George Washington

Greene C a m b . Jan 18 1866

M y Dear Greene, In Paradiso XI. line third does in basso imply motion downward, or simply motion below? Is it to be rendered downward heat your wings, or heat your wings below? T h i s is one of the points w e discussed last night. Another was, adopting the reading ricerna, not discerna in line 22, whether he sifted it fine or coarse? A third was per dritto segno in line 120, whether it refer to the stars he steered by, or simply means straight upon its course, or in the right course? A n d fourthly and finally in line 138 shall one read il Coreggier minican, or il correger the reproof?

the Do-

THREE

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YEARS

D o not give yourself the trouble to hunt these matters through various editions; but if one rendering strikes you as more simple and natural than another, please answer as follows, without giving any reasons, or even filling out the sentences; — 1. Downv/ard 2. Sift fine 3. Right course 4. Reproof; or the reverse, as the case may be. T h i s is criticism made easy.^ In a paper I send you to-day you will find some of your own views pretty vigorously stated, on the subject of reprints of English articles. T h e abuse of Sumner is simply atrocious; it must come from a very vulgar mind. Burn it.^ Yours ever H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Greene answered on January 20: "I should say i . Downward — / 2. Sift coarse — so as to be easily seen — 3. T h e stars— / 4 . Corregier — the Dominican." In his translation, Longfellow chose downward, resift, proper hearings, and rebuke. 2. T h e reference is to the N e w York Round Table article.

2314.

To Sarah Hammond

Palfrey

Cambridge Jan 19. 1866 Dear Miss Palfrey, I had the pleasure yesterday of receiving your two n e w volumes^ and [I] thank you both for the gift and the kind remembrance. Y o u may be sure that I shall read the books with much interest and sympathy; but not having the gift of more fortunate critics w h o know beforehand what they think of a work, and consequently are not obliged to read it, I shall omit the rather useless ceremony of expressing any opinion of its merits till a later date. K n o w i n g something of what goes to the making of a book — how much of the brain and how much of the heart — I welcome this new-comer most cordially, and promise myself pleasant and profitable hours with him. W i t h best wishes Yours truly H e n r y W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House). I. Herman,

or, Young

Knighthood.

By E. Foxton [pseud.] (Boston, 1866), 2 vols.

24

CAMBRIDGE, 2315.

1866

To Cornelia Ann Wilmot Mühurn^

Cambridge Jan 20 1866 My Dear Sir^ I have had the pleasure of receiving your letter, but the volume of Poems has not yet arrived. It will doubtless come in good season. Meanwhile let me thank you for it and for your kind remembrance. You may be sure that I shall read it with interest and sympathy. I am sorry to hear of your affliction. It must be almost too heavy to be borne. When a child dies, a part of ourselves dies with it. It is like having the heart taken out of one's body. I can feel what you must be suffering; for I remember very well your daughter, when she was a little girl, and her evening visit here with you.® These are terrible experiences; but as a friend once said to me, "In God's photography, or light-pictures, this life is only the negative, and the next life the positive, and what looks dark here will look light hereafter." Wishing you all success in your new book, I remain with much sympathy and regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library. 1. Mrs. Milburn, w i f e of R e v . W i l l i a m H e n r y Milburn ( 1 4 9 8 . 5 ) , had recently published Poems of Faith and Affection

( N e w York and Boston, 1 8 6 6 ) .

2. " S i r " deleted and " M r s M i l b u r n " entered in another hand. Longfellow was under the impression that he was writing to R e v . Milburn. 3. In a letter of January 1 8 , 1 8 6 6 , Mrs. M i l b u m wrote that she had lost her "last and oldest" daughter w h o had visited Longfellow with her parents on January 8,

1856

( M S Journal). T h e daughter was Fannie Emory Milburn ( b . 1 8 4 7 ) .

2316.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Jan 22 1866 My Dear Fields, I am glad you like the Sonnets.i The only title they need is "On Translating the Divina Commedia," II. III. and perhaps some reference to there having already been one on the subject before. The Dante meeting is postponed this week from Wednesday to Friday, that we may have the pleasure of Curtis at Supper, as he is hovering about in these regions in a vague way, and can only be had on that night. I hope you will be able to come. I have now all Greene's ms. of the "Letters of Dante," but not yet the Introduction. Do you wish to see them before they go to the printer? or shall 25

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

I put them into Mr. Bigelow's hands? I am afraid there is too much for one number. How many pages are you wilHng to spare?® Yours ever H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House). 1. Fields had written on this same day as follows: "Your two sonnets have made my day beautiful. They are exquisite, and I must print them in the Atlantic. Will you give me the heading to each, and let me put them into an early number. I know of nothing more perfect. Dante himself will rejoice over them in Paradise." The sonnets were printed in the Atlantic Monthly, XVIII (July 1866), 1 1 , and (September 1866), 273. 2. For Fields's response on January 24, see James C. Austin, Fields of the Monthly (San Marino, Cal., 1 9 5 3 ) , p. 93.

2317.

Atlantic

To James Russell Lowell

Camb. Jan 22 1866 My Dear Lowell, Norton writes me that Curtis will be here on Friday, and that if I could put off the Dante Club till that evening it would be pleasant to him to join us. Will it suit you as well? If so, come on Friday eve[nin]g instead of Wednesday. In fact, I have taken it for granted it would make no difference to you, and have said to Norton that we would wait till Friday for the pleasure of having Curtis with us. Yours ever H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

2318.

To Charles Eliot Norton [Cambridge]

Jan 22. 1866.

My Dear Charles Friday it shall be. Yours truly H.W.L. MANJSCRIPT: Harvard College Library, P O S T M A R K : CAMBRIDGE MASS J A N

2319.

ADDRESS: Charles E. Norton Esq / Cambridge 22

To Charles Sumner

Cambridge Jan 30 1866 My Dear Sumner, I lay the last straw on your back by transmitting the accompanying documents, which will explain themselves. 26

CAMBRIDGE,

1866

Dr. Greenleaf is a son of Patrick, and grandson of the Professor. He is an uncommonly nice fellow, and full of talent and promise. I hope to enlist your sympathies in his favor. ^ Thanks for Mr. Hale's Speech.^ As far as I dared to read the small type, I thought it very forcible and effective. It seems to go straight to the mark. Charley has just left us for New York, on his way to Cuba with young [John Clinton] Gray his fellow law-student,'^ whom you presented to me some time ago, though he did not present his letter till late in the Autumn. We find him very agreeable and intelligent. So is Capt. [George Harris] Norris, whom we have seen frequently and like extremely. He is one of the men of the future. I send you an English paper with an American article by Mr. Stewart, (Tory) who was here last Summer.^ He came to see me at Nahant; a lively, manly, and energetic young man, with a good deal of sentiment. In my Dante Notes I quote from your "Alexandreis"; but I still think the shield of Achilles the source of all the mediaeval bas-reliefs.® Ever yours H.W.L. MANUSCBIPT: Longfellow T r u s t Collection. 1. Greenleaf ( 2 2 8 3 . 1 ) , a brevet captain, was apparently seeking a regular commission in the U . S . A r m y . H e w a s advanced to the permanent rank of captain and assistant surgeon on J u l y 28, 1 8 6 6 , and eventually rose to the rank of colonel. 2. Possibly a speech by Robert Safford H a l e ( 1 8 2 2 - 1 8 8 1 ) , Republican congressman from N e w York. 3 . Charles had entered the Harvard L a w School on December

18,

1 8 6 5 , but left

without a degree in 1 8 6 6 . G r a y ( 2 3 0 6 . 5 ) took his degree in 1 8 6 6 . 4 . M a r k John Stewart ( 1 8 3 4 - 1 9 2 3 ) of Dumfries, an Oxford graduate of 1 8 5 8 and member of Parliament, 1 8 7 4 - 1 8 8 0 . 5. See 2 3 0 6 . 6 and Longfellow's note for Purgatorio, X, 3 3 (Works,

2320.

X, 2 2 6 - 2 3 1 ) .

To Richard Henry Dana, ]r.

[Cambridge] Wednesday evening [January 3 1 , 1 8 6 6 ] ^ My Dear Dana, I[f] you can come over for an hour this evening — say at ten — and sup with me and Norton, it will be very pleasant to us both, and will not much interrupt your International Law. Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Massachusetts Historical Society. I. T h e date is established from Longfellow's M S Journal, February i , 1 8 6 6 :

"Last

night at the Dante C l u b had only Norton. L o w e l l with sore throat again. Sent over for D a n a to join us at supper." D a n a lectured on international law in the Harvard L a w School, 1 8 6 6 - 1 8 6 8 . 2.7

THREE 2321.

T o George Washington

SCORE

YEARS

Greene C a m b . Feb 9. 1866

M y Dear Greene, T h i s is a lovely W i n t e r morning. I cannot tire looking out of the window at the brown branches against the colorless gray sky. T h e air is windless and the snow falling gently; the nearest glimpse w e can have of creation, the beautiful something that comes from nothing, the crystallization of air! Please read this as a Sonnet, and pass on. I wish all things would go on smoothly in this world. N o w here is our good Fields frightened at the length of the Dante Letters; but at the last Dante C l u b , Lowell and Norton, as well as myself, were so positive that they ought to go into the Magazine, that he seemed to take heart. I confess that it is a quality of food not adapted to the great mass of Magazine readers, and offering it to them is like saying "Don't you want some?" to a dead man. But I trust the "Atlantic" has some judicious readers, w h o like to have some timber in the building, and not all clapboards. T h e introductions are all that is needed for an article. In book form, they might be extended to advantage, with as much of Dante's exile and wanderings as can be found. It will make an important volume in the Dante Library, or Complete Works. Norton has translated the Vita N u o v a , and is translating the Convito.' T h a n k s for Circourt.^ I hope Erny will see him, though I do not want him to be any annoyance to the Hermit of Celle. Yours ever H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. See 1727.1. Norton's translation of the Convito remained unpublished. 2. Greene wrote on January 20: "I have written Erny and enclosed a line to [Adolphe de] Circourt." Circourt С^ЗоЗ-б) was living in retirement at L a Celle St. Cloud, not far from Paris.

2322.

T o Charles

Sumner

C a m b . Feb 14 1866. M y Dear Sumner, W h y have you not sent me your Speech in some shape or other? Here is O w e n w h o has seen it, and read it; and stops me in the street and says "Admirable! admirable!" to w h i c h I assent, and feel a presentiment of something great. I agree with you entirely in opposing the so-called Amendment, which is no Amendment but a detriment to the Constitution; and I have no doubt 28

CAMBRIDGE,

1866

you have treated the whole subject thoroughly, and in a way not to be answered.^ I send you a Valentine from a Portland Paper.^ I do not know w h o the Editor is. H o w e writes me thus; "You see that the President threatens something dreadful unless Charles 'gets out of the way.' T h i s is not quite so bad as the 'crushing out' process of Caleb Cushing, but it is ominous."^ W h a t does he mean? I have not seen any threat of the President. But as I live mostly "in the upper story," there are a great many things which I do not see. I have no news to send you. I have not yet heard from Charley in C u b a . Erny seems to enjoy Paris; but starts soon for Italy. Vive l'Italie à Vage de vingt ans! Good bye. Yours ever H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. O n February 5 and 6 Sumner delivered a five-hour oration in the Senate entitled " T h e Equal Rights of A l l " in w h i c h he opposed the Fourteenth Amendment despite the fact that he had previously supported a plan that was remarkably similar to it. If the speech was well received by John O w e n and Longfellow, it was regarded by Sumner's congressional colleagues as inconsistent, impracticable, and outrageous. See Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man, pp. 245-248. 2. Unrecovered, but presumably an editorial favoring Sumner's position on the Fourteenth Amendment. 3. Howe's letter is dated February 1 1 . Cushing had opposed Sumner's election to the Senate in 1851.

2323.

T o George Washington

Greene

Cambridge Feb 18 1866 M y Dear Greene, T h e "airy tongues that syllable men's names"^ begin again to cry with constant iteration. " W h e n is M r . Greene coming?" I am then reminded that you promised to be here on my birth-day. Moreover, H o w e has just asked me^ to dine with him on the convenient "some day" to be appointed by the guest, CVinum non haheo," he says, "but a warm welcome"). W h e r e u p o n I make answer and say; "I am expecting Greene; wait a little, and w e will come together." T h i s pleases him, and he writes you the enclosed.® T h e n there is the Dante meeting on Wednesday evening, and the Saturday C l u b dinner close upon us; and putting all these things together now is the time to come, proofsheets or no proofsheets. 29

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

I want you also to sign a petition for an International Copyright which is lying on my desk, and which I will keep as long as possible. And finally I want to prove to you that you must not feel hurt nor in any way aggrieved if Fields should finally make up his mind not to print the Dante Letters in the Atlantic. It is wholly impersonal; only his judgment of what is fit for his Magazine. Have you read Sumner's speech? I have not, except in part, from newspapers. I do not know about the details; but I am sure of his fidelity. With my benediction on your household Ever Yours H.W.L. P.S. Start tomorrow, without stopping to think about it. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Milton, Comus, 1. 207. 2. In a letter dated February 11. 3. Unrecovered.

2324.

To Henry Masson^

Cambridge Feb 19 1866 My Dear Sir, At the beginning of the new year I had the pleasure of receiving your kind remembrance and good wishes, and I am ashamed to find how much time has slipped away before I have sent you mine in return. This has been owing entirely to many occupations and many interruptions, which have forced me unwillingly to neglect my correspondence. I am very glad that you and your daughter retain so pleasant a souvenir of Cambridge, and of your visit to my house, which was so agreeable to me. The sunny weather and your sunny temperament made the day a bright one. May you ever retain this inner sunshine, which makes one so independent of the outer. I beg you to present my kind remembrances and good wishes to your daughter and to believe me always With much regard Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow Henry Masson Esqre. MANUSCBIPT:

Frank O. Buda, Cambridge, Mass.

I. Longfellow wrote in his journal on September 2 1 , 1865: "A lovely day. Mr. Masson, a Frenchman of the old school, who used to live in the Place Royal, No 6, at Paris, where Victor Hugo also lived, came with his daughter and a letter from Chief Justice [Salmon Portland] Chase. Showed them the College Library, and kept them to dinner." See Life, III, 61. 3 о

CAMBRIDGE, 2325.

1866

To John Christian Schaad Cambridge

Feb 19 1866

My Dear Sir, Several weeks ago, when I received the first copy of your drama, I wrote to acknowledge its safe arrival and to thank you for it. I am very sorry to learn by your last letter, that mine has never reached you, as this lays me under a suspicion of neglect, which is unmerited.^ Since then I have read the poem with much interest and pleasure. Perhaps the versification is open to the criticisms, which the writer in the Intelligencer makes.^ I think it is. But still, writing in a language which is not your mother tongue, I wonder you should do it so well. I do not go into any detailed expression of opinion, because I am not a critic, nor have I time for it. Hoping that the success of your book will meet your own hopes and wishes, and that you will not be discouraged if in a first venture you should fall somewhat short of this, I remain Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow John C. S[c]haad Esqre MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from photocopy. University of Washington Library. 1. Schaad ( 1 7 4 7 . 3 ) had sent Longfellow a copy of his Nicholas of the Flue. The Saviour of the Swiss Republic. A Dramatic Poem, in Five Acts (Washington, D.C., 1866) and wrote on February 10 to inquire if it had been received. 2. A review of Nicholas of the Flue appeared in the Washington Daily National Intelligencer, LXVI, No. 16,677 (February i, 1866).

2326.

To Robert Ferguson

Cambridge Feb 27 1866. My Dear Mr. Ferguson, I thank you very much for your two letters, and for your subscription to the Shaw Statue. Your expression of sympathy will be most grateful to the family, as it has been to me; and when I see the young hero on his bronze horse in front of the State House, it will be pleasant to associate you with him in my thought.^ We are all well at the Craigie, and the litrie girls are delighted with your "Song of the Sea," which occupies the place of honor in the forth-coming number of the "Secret." You evidently "learned in suffering what you teach in song."^ But the suffering is past and the song remains. I wish I could send you some good political news; but I cannot. We are all moaning and groaning over a very disreputable speech made by President Johnson from the Portico of the White House; in which he accuses Sumner of plotting his assassination! as if that article did not always come from the 3I

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

South. A n d this bad speech the weak or wicked Seward sustains and applauds. D a r k days are these. W e are in sackcloth and ashes. But w e do not "bate one jot of heart or Ьоре."··® A f t e r your departure I f o u n d on the table some of your Reports of the Prison Discipline Society.^ Shall I forward them to you, or have you enough of that dismal material on hand? Dismal also, in certain respects, are Conway's Article in the Fortnightly R e v i e w and Bancroft's view of "Lincoln in History."® Miss Davie sends kind remembrances and the children much love. Edie will write soon, and says " I am ashamed I have not answered M r Ferguson's letter yet." Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Ferguson's two letters were dated January 13 and January 30, 1866; in the latter he asked Longfellow to forward his contribution to the proposed statue of Robert Gould Shaw (549.2). The work, by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, was not actually commissioned until 1884; it was unveiled in 1897. 2. Cf. Shelley, "Julian and Maddalo," 1. 546. Ferguson's contribution, entitled "Lines Addressed to the Editor of the 'Secret' by the English Correspondent lying in his berth in a gale on New Year's eve," appeared in the MS "Secret," No. 7 (January 1866), 1 - 2 (Longfellow House). 3. Cf. Milton, "To Mr. Cyriack Skinner upon his Blindness," 11. 7-8. 4. Louis Dwight ( 1 7 9 3 - 1 8 5 4 ) founded the Prison Discipline Society of Boston in 1825. Its annual reports were a repository of information about the prison system. 5. Moncure D. Conway had recently published two articles in the Fortnightly Review, one of which is referred to here: "America, France, and England," III, No. 16 (January I, 1866), 442-459, and "The American 'Radicals' and their English Censors," III, No. 18 (February i, 1866), 705—720. George Bancroft delivered his Memorial Address on the Life and Character of Abraham Lincoln (Washington, D.C., 1866) before both houses of Congress on February 12, 1866.

2327.

T o Phoebe

Dayton

Gardiner

Horsford^ C a m b . Feb. 27. 1866.

M r . L o n g f e l l o w regrets that he cannot have the pleasure of accepting Mrs. Horsford's polite invitation for T h u r s d a y evening. MANUSCRIPT:

Frank O. Buda, Cambridge, Mass.

ADDRESS:

Mrs. Horsford. / Craigie St.

I. Mrs. Horsford (1826-1900) was the second wife of Eben Norton Horsford (2267.1), whom she had married in 1857.

32

CAMBRIDGE, 2328.

T o ]ean

1866

Ingelow^ [Cambridge, February, 1866]

I have not yet seen the illustrated edition of your "Songs of Seven," which your Boston publishers have just issued;^ and ||. . .||·' Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUscBiPT; Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. 1. English poet and novelist ( 1 8 2 0 - 1 8 9 7 ) . 2. SoMgs of Seven (Boston, 1 8 6 6 ) was published by Roberts Brothers. 3. A n undetermined number of words are missing from this fragment. The complimentary closing and signature are on the verso.

2329.

T o John Williamson

Palmer [Cambridge, February, i866]'

I have still a pleasant remembrance of the old dramatic days; and have always hoped you would go on in that career, in which you made so good and promising a beginning. I remain, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. I. This fragment is presumably in response to Palmer's letter of February 20, 1866, in which he repeated a request made on January 30 for Longfellow's approval of a plan to publish a prose account of Evangeline.

2330.

T o Roherts

Brothers

Cambridge March 5 1866 Gentlemen, I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your beautiful edition of Miss Ingelow's "Songs of Seven," and also of the "Stories told to a Child,"^ which I shall read I am sure with great pleasure. I remain Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCBIPT: unrecovered; text from photocopy. University of Washington Library. I . London, 1865.

33

THREE SCORE 2331.

To Hans Christian

YEARS

Andersen

Cambridge near Boston March 10. 1866. My Dear Sir May I so far trust in the magnetism of Hterary sympathy as to present the bearer, Mr. Charles G. Falls/ a student in our University, who is obliged to leave his studies for a while, on account of his health. I should not like to have him pass through Copenhagen without calling to pay his respects to you. He brings you my last volume of Poems,^ which I beg you accept as a mark of sincere regard and admiration. I remain, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow Hans Christian Andersen Esq MANUSCRIPT: Royal Library, Copenhagen. 1. Charles Gershom Fall ( 1 8 4 5 - 1 9 3 2 ) , who used the surname Falls during his college years, graduated from Harvard in 1 8 6 8 and subsequently practiced law in Boston until his retirement in 1894. 2. Household Poems (Boston, 1 8 6 5 ) .

2332.

To Edward Atkinson^

Cambridge March 10 1866 My Dear Sir, I have received from Mr. Robert Ferguson of Morton near Carlisle, England, the enclosed contribution to the Shaw Statue. He writes; "I wish I had known before exchanging my superfluous greenbacks at Boston, of the contemplated statue to Col. Shaw. I have since read the Prospectus and having a strong sympathy with the object, will ask you, seeing your name on the Committee, to be so kind as to take charge of the enclosed and hand it to the proper quarter."^ Be so good as to let me know if this reaches you safely, and oblige Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow Edward Atkinson Esq. MANUSCRIPT: Massachusetts Historical Society. 1. Atkinson ( 1 8 2 7 - 1 9 0 5 ) , Boston businessman, was a prolific writer on economic subjects and inventor of the "Aladdin Oven," an improved cooking stove. 2. See 2 3 2 6 . 1 .

34

CAMBRIDGE, 2333.

To ]0rgen

1866

B0Üing C a m b r i d g e near Boston

M a r c h 10. 1866

D e a r M r . Bölling, A l l o w me to recall myself to your recollection b y presenting the bearer M r . C h a r l e s G . Falls of our C o l l e g e . H e w i l l pass a f e w days in your city, and I am anxious that he should see your grand Library, and yourself, w h o I presume are still connected w i t h it. Besides, I venture to hope that some remembrance of me and of the old, old days will not be unpleasant to y o u . I remain, m y D e a r M r Bölling, Y o u r s truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Royal Library, Copenhagen, Copenhagen.

ADDRESS : Mr. Bölling / Royal Library /

ANNOTATION ON ADDRESS COVER

( i n another

hand'):

Afleveret

d. го April 1866 ved Mr. Charles Falls.1 PUBLISHED: A. W . Porterfield, "Eight Unpublished Letters of Longfellow," Scandinavian Studies and Notes, V ( 1 9 1 8 1919), 178. 1. The calling card of "Charles G. Falls, / Harvard University, / Cambridge, / Massachusetts. / U.S. of America," accompanies the manuscript.

2334.

T o Ernest Wadsworth

Longfellow C a m b . M a r c h 10 1866

M y D e a r Boy, W e are h a v i n g here the most terrible M a r c h weather imaginable; day after day a cold north west w i n d w h i s t l i n g and howling; the w h i t e sunshine glaring, and clouds of dust s w e e p i n g d o w n the street, till everybody is blind and crazy. I hope you have something better; something like Spring; and are well and in full e n j o y m e n t of A r t and N a t u r e . I suppose b y this time you are on your w a y to Italy, and I hope to-day to get a letter from you, w h i c h I can answer at the end of this. M e a n w h i l e let me tell you of home affairs. C h a r l e y has not yet come back from C u b a . H i s companion M r . G r a y has returned, and gives pleasant accounts of the expedition. C h a r l e y was so delighted w i t h the Tropics, and felt so w e l l there, he stayed behind, m e a n i n g to go to M e x i c o , or at least to N e w Orleans. Since then w e have not heard of him. M r . G r e e n e has been here for a f e w days. H e hopes you saw Circourt, and takes in general great interest in your doings. A l i c e has of course written you about her Private Theatricals. T h e y have been repeated here in the Library by the little ones, and very charmingly; Edie as Sir L a u n c e l o t G u f f i n , and A n n i e as the H o n . Robert D a r n i n g b o w ! A very decided success. Prologue by the undersigned.^ 3 5

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

Dante goes on as usual. Every Wednesday evening a Reading and a supper, with Lowell, and Norton, and Mr. Fields and Mr. Furness,^ and sometimes Uncle Tom. Trap also attends the meetings and snores under the big chair. He leads a life of self-indulgence, and even sleeps in a champagne basket. T h a n k Uncle Sam for his description of the Rue du Fouarre, which will make a nice note for me.® Beg him to have an eye open for all Dantesque localities, as for instance the Convent of the Corvo, on one of the headlands of the gulf of Spezzia. While you are at Florence I advise you to make an excursion up the Val d'Arno, following the winding river up as far as Bibbiena and Prato Vecchio. Before going read Purgatory, canto X I V . Also Forsyth's description in his Italy* if you can get it. And how flourishes Art? I did not mean to discourage you by what I said, but only to remind you that health is better than Art and a "picture of health," the best picture one can see or paint. I am glad you are so interested and successful in your studies, and hope you will go on rejoicing. T h e "political horizon" looks rather dark just now. President Johnson has made an ignoble and infamous stump speech from the portico of the White House, which disgusts all his friends, and is vehemently applauded by Democrats and Copperheads. He accuses Sumner of wanting to assassinate him! So low has our President fallen. Meanwhile Sumner stands firm as a rock; though all kinds of squibs are flying about his ears. I send you two, one poetical and one pictorial.® All send much love to you and Uncle Sam; and I am ever most affectionately H.W.L. P.S. Shall we direct in future to the Barings or to Monroe? You should let both know your whereabout[s]. unrecovered; text from photostat, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

MANUSCRIPT;

1. Longfellow's prologue CMS, University of Washington Library) is as follows: Life is itself a mimic show, W e all are actors here below, And so our Comedy to day Will be a play within a play, The prettiest one you ever saw The author calls it Margery Daw; We represent it on this scene For the Benefit of Mr. Greene. 2. William Henry Furness, the artist С 1087.7). 3. See 2 3 1 1 . 1 . 4. Joseph Forsyth, RemarL· on Antiquities, Arts, and Letters, during an Excursion Italy, in the Years 1802 and 1803 (London, 1 8 1 3 ) . 5. Unrecovered.

36

in

CAMBRIDGE, 2335.

To George Washington

1866

Greene Cambridge

March 14 1866

My Dear Greene, I send you enclosed a draft on the Merch. Nat. Bank of Boston for the sum of $2500, which I trust will be satisfactory to Q. Horatius Flaccus Tillinghast.' I have no time to write more this morning. Your fears about Sparks are realized. He died this morning at about ten o'clock. I know no more than this. I was at the door a few minutes before he died, but saw no one but the servant. Ever yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. T h e sum was in full payment for the house in East Greenwich, R.I., subsequently known as "Windmill Cottage," which became the Greene family home. T h e title record reveals that Longfellow bought the property in his own name (the deed being signed on March 1 8 ) but transferred it on March 31 to Mrs. Greene with the provision that it go to her children after her death. Horace Tillinghast (d. 1866, aged sixty-eight), a farmer of East Greenwich, was the owner of record at the time of the sale.

2336.

To George Gordon de Luna Byron^

Cambridge March 17 1866 Dear Sir, I am much obliged to you for your letter, though it puzzles me not a little. I have not the slightest recollection of having ever held any correspondence with a clergyman, or with his sister, in Falmouth. If I could see the letters you speak of, I should be able to clear up the mystery; and when you recover them, I trust you will be so good as to forward them to me.^ Meanwhile I remain. Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

N e w York Public Library (Myers Collection).

1. Byron (d. 1 8 8 2 ) claimed to have been born in 1 8 1 0 , the son of Lord Byron and a Countess de Luna of Cadiz. He made a career of this imposture, of forging Byron's letters as well as those of Keats and Shelley, and of passing as an officer in both the British and Union armies. 2. In a letter from N e w York of March 16 Byron described a collection of letters and manuscripts which he had discovered in Falmouth, Va., where he had been quartered shordy before the battle of Chancellorsville: "One bundle of these, particularly, attracted my attention — consisting of letters addressed by you to a clergyman, evidently a former fellow student of yours, and his sister. T h e latter, at the outset, seems to have feared you as an ogre-abolitionist, whatever change subsequently came over the spirit of her dream. T h e naiveté of the young lady appeared to me very charming. T h e clergyman you were in the habit of addressing by a monosyllable — an endearing nickname — Vio, dear Vio, or Vico — or some such name. I confess to the failure of my memory. What puzzled me most was the change of your signature — sometimes you signed 'Longfellow,' and again

37

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

occasionally another name (which I do not remember) was substituted, which left me in doubt whether there might not have been a change in your surname." Byron rei'ealed that he did not have the letters but that he hoped to recover them from the army quartermaster to whom they had been entrusted. He did not subsequently write to Longfellow, and the letters, if indeed they existed, are unrecovered.

2337.

To George Washington

Greene Cambridge

March 18 1866

My Dear Greene, I did not hear of the day and hour of Sparks's funeral in season to inform you of arrangement.^ On the whole, I am not sorry. I do not want your only association with Cambridge to be a funeral. I cannot go out of the door without meeting one, and even now as I lift the window shade to let in more light, one is going by. Besides, the day was bleak and cheerless, and a cold Northwest wind blowing right into the Chapel doors, which were of necessity a great deal open. The exposure would have been too much for you. It was sad and depressing. You may rest satisfied with your good intention. I send you to-day a Baltimore paper^ from Sumner, showing the \'ulgar outrages he is subject to from the Chivalry. Keep it as a curiosity. I return also Ernie's letter.·'® He is now in Rome probably; at all events in Italy, and I hope he will have a more cheering account to give of himself, when he next writes. They were going by way of Lyons, Marseilles and Genoa. When you think what that means, all headache and heartache must disappear. The "Bard of Venusia" (as [Henry Francis] Gary would say) made a mistake in not taking the Seven Thirties. By not doing so he lost fifteen or sixteen dollars which went into the pocket of the undersigned. Not a great sum, but a pleasing commentary on the shrewdness of practical men.^ Yours ever H.W.L. MANUSCBIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Jared Sparks was buried on March 1 7 from the Appleton Chapel, Harvard College. 2. Unrecovered. 3. To Greene, unrecovered. 4. T h e "Bard of Venusia" is an appellation applied jocularly by Longfellow to Horace Tillinghast (see Letter No. 2 3 3 5 ) , who apparently refused some U . S . Treasury notes (Seven Thirties) in partial payment for the house in East Greenwich.

2338.

To Robert Dodge

Cambridge March 20 1866 My Dear Sir, I have had the pleasure of receiving your letter and kind invitation;^ but even if I were not from long habit "a home-keeping youth" (with what fol-

38

CAMBRIDGE,

1866

lows)- I am now so much occupied that it would be quite impossible for me to accept your hospitable summons. In answer to your inquiry about my Translation of Dante, I am happy to say, that nearly all the text and more than half the Notes are stereotyped. It will not however be published before the Autumn. I write in great haste, and remain Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library, ADDRESS: Robert Dodge Esq / Heart's Content / Tenafly / N . J . POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS MAR 21 1. In a letter of March 1 9 Dodge ( 1 8 9 0 . 2 ) had asked Longfellow to join Whittier in a visit to N e w Jersey. 2. "Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits" (The

Two

Gentlemen

of

Verona,

I, i, 2 ) .

2339.

To George

Washington

Gree:··"

Camb. March 20 1866 M y Dear Greene You will certainly think, and with some reason, that this is the land of funerals! W e have just buried our old and dear friend Sparks, and now another friend whom I saw at Sparks's funeral, full of life and strength, is dead. Vespatian died standing; Dr. Beck died on horseback. Yesterday afternoon as he was riding with a party of friends, he reeled in his saddle. He was caught by someone of the party, carried home, and died in the course of the evening, without any consciousness, after the first attack. It was apoplexy. Fortunately his daughter^ was with him; so that she was spared that greatest shock of all, the having someone brought home dead! He is a great loss to us; a man of convictions, and who had the courage of his convictions, and always acted up to them; a most excellent, sincere, just, charitable good man; and a thoroughly loyal man in every sense of the word, who in the Rebellion, wished to serve as a foot-soldier (to his honor be it remembered) and was only refused on account of his age. Cambridge will soon be stripped of all the Old Guard. When Sumner returns he will find it more of "a shell" than ever—a flattering phrase which he sometimes uses when speaking to me. Ever Yours truly H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Anna Louisa Beck (b. 1 8 3 3 ) .

39

THREE 2340.

SCORE

YEARS

To Henry Ingersoll Bowditch^ [Cambridge]

March 23, 1866.

. . . The poem you speak of was not a record of any one event which came to my knowledge, but of many which came to my imagination. It is an attempt to express something of the inexpressible sympathy which I feel for the death of the young men in the war, which makes my heart bleed whenever I think of it. How much I have felt for you I cannot tell you, particularly on that cold December night when I came back with my son, and saw you at the station and knew that yours would come back to you no more.^ Pardon me for touching that wound; it is only that I may tell you how deep the impression is. It was from such impressions that the poem came to my mind. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from Life, III, 7 3 - 7 4 . 1. Bowditch ( 9 6 9 . 1 ) had written on March 1 8 to inquire if Longfellow's "Killed at the Ford" had been suggested by the death of his son Nathaniel (b. 1 8 3 9 ) at Kelly's Ford, Va., in March 1 8 6 3 . 2. A reference presumably to the night of December 9, 1 8 6 3 , when Longfellow arrived in Boston with the two wounded officers, his son Charles and Capt. Henry Pickering Bowditch ( 1 0 7 8 . 2 ) . Henry Ingersoll Bowditch was apparently at the station to welcome his nephew. See "Charley Longfellow Goes to W a r , " pp. 2 9 9 - 3 0 0 .

2341.

To Rosa Fanny Hill

Cambridge March 26 1866 Dear Mrs. Hill, I hope you will pardon my long delay in sending the photograph you desired. My reason was that I had none on hand, and something always prevented my going for more. Even now I am not quite sure that I am sending what you want. But I think I am. At all events this is the last taken, and in some respects the best. I believe, also, that this is the same as that sent to Mrs. [Samuel Carter] Hall. If not, please set me right, and I will see that you have one like hers. My second son is now in Italy with a younger brother of mine. They will probably be in London sometime in the Autumn. May I take the liberty of asking them to call at your door, and bring me some tidings of you? With kind regards I remain Yours very truly Henry W. Longfellow. University of Washington Library, A D D R E S S : Mrs. Rosa F. Hill / 25 H y d e Park Square / London W . P O S T M A R K S : C A M B R I D G E | | M A S S | | Mar 2 6 / B O S T O N M A R [remainder indecipherable] / L O N D O N - W P A I D A I О A P 9 66

MANUSCBIPT:

40

CAMBRIDGE, 2342.

To George Washington

1866

Greene Camb. March 28 1866

M y Dear Greene, I have not invited Mr. William Greene' this week, because I am so ill with a cold that I am not sure of being able to attend the [Saturday] Club dinner. I must postpone it till April, when I hope you will both be able to come. I have been twice this morning to see the Notary and sign the Deed,^ but both times he was out. So I cannot send it back to-day, but will see that it is executed without delay. I wish you could be here to night, for the dear old Tuscan's sake, as well as mine.® We have just received a letter from Charlie, who turns up in New Orleans, and is coming up the river — homeward. He will probably be here in a week or two. He has sent home some cigars from Havana. Cost there $157.00 gold; duties and expenses $172.00 also gold. The New York Custom House must be a den of thieves. In haste Ever Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. William Greene ( 1 7 9 7 - 1 8 8 3 ) of Warwick, R.I., was a cousin of George Washington Greene. A lawyer, he served as lieutenant-governor of Rhode Island, 1 8 6 6 - 1 8 6 7 . 2. That is, the deed transferring the East Greenwich house to Mrs. Greene. 3. Longfellow wrote in his journal on this date: "Dante Club. Paradiso X X I I . Norton, Lowell, Fields, [Benjamin Paul] Akers, and Mr. Howells, formerly Consul at Venice, poet and prose-writer; a very clever and cultivated young man. A very pleasant evening."

2343.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. A p r i l i 1866 My Dear Greene This is Easter Sunday morn with all its "Dolce color d'oriental zaffiro,"^ and I send you this salutation and benediction of the day. In worldly matters, I send you Deeds not Words — or better to speak good deeds and good words intermingled. On account of the weather I could not go to the Notary Public (in this case the Recording Angela of Rhode Island as you will see by his signature) until yesterday, when the whole matter was settled, signed, sealed and delivered. And if you have as much pleasure in having it done as I have in doing it, this will be a pleasant Easter. I must go 4I

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

out and breathe the beautiful air, and "expatiate" like Milton's bees and Dante's lark.» Yours ever H.W.L. P.S. As soon as you feel like it, and think the weather pleasant enough, you must come on with Anna,^ to whose visit the litde girls are looking forward with delight. Already the question begins to be heard; "When is Mr. Greene coming?" Always make it a point to arrive on Wednesday, so as to secure the evening; and put as many Wednesdays as possible into your visit. Where shall I find the best account of Monte Cassino? MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1 . Purgatorio, I, 1 3 ; "Sweet color of the oriental sapphire." 2. George Thorndike Angeli ( 1 8 2 3 - 1 9 0 9 ) , lawyer and notary public at 46 Washington Street, Boston, and founder, in 1868, of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 3. See Paradise Lost, I, 774. T h e reference to "Dante's lark" is unlocated. Greene responded to this paragraph on April 3 : "Your Easter benediction has just reached me . . . the first thought in the morning and the last at night and the accompanying thought of every look from the window and every passing of the threshold is — 'We have a home for our children to grow up in, and remember in their mature years as the home they lived in with their father and mother.' That your name should be connected with it as the giver makes it dearer to us now and will make it still dearer to them when they shall have become old enough to feel the moral value of the gift." 4. Greene's daughter Anna Maria ( 1 8 5 4 - 1 9 0 6 ) .

2344.

To ]ames Thomas Fields

Camb. April2 1866 My Dear Fields, Will you be kind enough to look these pieces over, and see if they meet your approval. If not please return them to me with a note of such a nature that I can send it to the young authoress.^ Do not forget Wednesday evening. Yours truly H.W.L. P.S. I hope Mr. [John Spencer] Clark had no great trouble with the box. I hope nobody will send me anything more till all Custom Houses are abolished. I hope the duties will be "light upon me" as the turf in poetic elegies.^ MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Unidentified. Fields may have been referring to her when he wrote on May 24: " I have as much poetry as I can stagger under for the A . M . and so I send back all the pieces you are kind enough to send me from yr. Washington bard, with thanks" ( M S , Henry E. Huntington Library). 2. A reference possibly to Pope's "Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady," I. 64: "And the green turf lie lightly on thy breast."

42

CAMBRIDGE, 2345.

1866

To Charles Sumner

Camb. April 4 1866 My Dear Senator, I suppose the reason why I do not write to you is the reason why you do not write to me — want of time. I am overwhelmed with letters on everybody's business but my own. I have a pile like a dirty snowdrift now on my desk, and if postage were one dollar, paid in advance, it would be a relief, for it would put a stop to this insane and profitless writing, the principal excuse and apology for which seems to be that the writer is an "entire stranger," and therefore &c. &c. &c. Still more insane and profitless are the sayings and doings of President Johnson. But he will find to his cost, that the Nation goes with its Congress, and is a part of its Congress, and is not in a mood to put up with his antics. Greene, who takes everything au sérieux, sends me the enclosed.' I forward it to show you what ignoble publishers there are in New York. I have just had a visit from an Englishman, to whom I said very quietly; "I suppose your aristocracy goes with the Fenian movement?"^ "Oh no — certainly not. What makes you think so?" "Why, they went with the Southern Rebellion." "That was different!!!" &C.&C.&C.

You know that your last Speech® is always the best. This time it really is; at all events one of the best. It goes straight to the mark, and hits it in the centre. Ever yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Unrecovered. 2. T h e Fenian Brotherhood was secretly founded in N e w York about 1857 to support the overthrow of English rule in Ireland. 3. On March 26 Sumner had delivered a speech entitled " A Senator Cannot Vote for Himself" (Sumner Works, X, 3 9 1 - 4 0 5 ) in which he argued against the seating of John Potter Stockton ( 1 8 2 6 - 1 9 0 0 ) , a N e w Jersey Democrat whose election to the Senate was being contested on the grounds of irregularity. Stockton was unseated but subsequently won election again in 1869.

2346.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. April 5 1866 My Dear Sumner, All thanks to you for defeating the B[l]aine Amendment, so called. To that bane you were the antidote. That would have been a deliberate blot on our escutcheon, if Republics have escutcheons. If not, on our good name and fame.' 43

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

As to Mr. Cadart, it is in vain for your friend the French Colonel, whose name I cannot make out either in his own handwriting nor in yours, to say that he is not a marchand [tradesman]; and for you to say that he "visits Boston in the interest of Art." The simple prose is he visits Boston in the interest of the house of "Cadart et Luquet" to get subscribers for the publications of the "French Etching Club."^ Does it not remind you of Molière? "Lui, marchand? C'est pure médisance; il ne Га jamais été. Tout ce qu'il faisoit, c'est qu'il étoit fort obligeant, fort officieux; et comme il se connoissoit fort bien en étofFes, il en alloit choisir de tous les côtés, les faisoit apporter chez lui, et en donnoit à ses amis pour de l'argent.''^ Не may be a very nice fellow and gentleman, for all that. Do you know that our friend Greene is elected member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives? At all events he is a candidate.^ Yours ever H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Sumner's opposition to the Fourteenth Amendment, as sponsored by Representative James Gillespie Blaine ( 1 8 3 0 - 1 8 9 3 ) and others (see 2 3 2 2 . 1 ) , contributed to its defeat in the Senate on March 9; but when it was recast by a joint committee of Congress, Sumner withdrew his opposition and it was adopted on June 8. 2. Sumner had written on March 30 and again on March 31 regarding the visit to Boston of Alphonse Cadart (d. 1 8 7 5 ) , Parisian editor and publisher. The name of the French colonel remains indecipherable. 3. Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, IV, ν: "He, a tradesman? That's mere scandal; he never was one. All that he did was that he was very obliging, very officious; and as he was a great connoisseur of materials, he used to pick them up on all sides, have them taken to his house, and gave them to his friends for money." 4. Greene, a Radical Republican, was nominated in a state convention on April 2 and elected on April 5.

2347.

To Mary Eliot Dwight Parkman

Cambridge April 6 1866 Dear Mrs. Parkman, I am very much obliged to you for your kind offer, for my little girls, of a place in your Kindergarten, but am forced to decline it because I have already one of my own in full bloom, under the care of Miss Davie. It is an excellent plan; much better, I think, for little girls than the Schools — or than the sad Solitary System. From all I have heard of Miss Foote,' you will have great satisfaction in her teaching; and to have such a school in one's house is as pleasant as having a cage of Canary birds. You can just hear the pleasant sound of voices through 44

CAMBRIDGE,

1866

open doors; and you feel that the house is inhabited and not haunted; and altogether it is very agreeable and not in any way annoying. With many thanks I remain Yours very truly Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Presumably M a r y Bradford Foote ( 1 8 2 7 - 1 9 1 2 ) , a teacher w h o subsequently kept a school for young ladies in Boston that she continued in various locations until her retirement in 1 8 8 5 . Longfellow knew about her from Sarah Perkins Cleveland ( 4 9 4 . 1 ) , with whom she had resided abroad for several years.

2348.

To John James Piatt Cambridge, April 6, 1866.

. . . Among these [the poems] is one which makes me feel a little — no, not a little remorseful. It is "The Sunshine of Shadows," which you were kind enough to send me — how long ago I do not wish to remember — and for which I never thanked you by letter, though I did often in my heart.^ Pardon the neglect in one who has a great deal of writing to do, and a great many interruptions to prevent him from doing it. Accept my thanks now; no less sincere because tardy. MANUSCRIPT; unrecovered; text from J . J . Piatt, A Return pp. I 5 9 - 1 6 0 .

to Paradise

(London,

1891),

I. " T h e Sunshine of Shadows. O n a Photograph of T h r e e C h i l d r e n " appeared in Piatt's Poems in Sunshine and Firelight (Cincinnati, 1 8 6 6 ) and was reprinted in A Return to Paradise, p. 1 5 8 .

2349.

To Bernard Rölker

Camb.AprilS 1866 My Dear Kölker Both your letter and the case of Dom De Chaney have arrived safely.^ May you have many such cases in your practice; for if not very profitable they are at least very pleasant, and if I "practiced at the bar," I should like to be engaged in just such practice. Long live Dom De Chaney! I have opened one bottle solely to drink your health and happiness, both of which I ardently desire. Your letter is not so gay as the wine. It is a little sad which it ought not to be; for your shadow hardly begins to lengthen yet. It is still under your feet. It is still noon with you; and I have no doubt that the happiest part of your life is still before you; and when "the not impossible she"^ makes her appearance you will acknowledge the truth of what I say. 45

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

W i t h some of us it is certainly late in the afternoon, and we are looking for the sunset; but then every sunset is also a sunrise somewhere. But this is like preaching over one's wine. Perhaps the name of Dom D e Chaney suggested sombre thoughts — N o it was your letter. Charley got home this morning at breakfast time. T h a t will cheer up the old house, and brighten the snow-storm of to-day, for the ground and the trees are all white again. Have you read Mozart's letters, just published?·'^ All the household joins in kind remembrances, and I am Yours very truly H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT;

Mrs. Turner Slocum, Glen Cove, N.Y.

1. Rölker's letter was dated from New York, April 5. The vineyards of the old Domdechanei (deanery) of Hochheim yielded a famous hock. 2. Richard Crashaw, "Wishes to his Supposed Mistresse," 1. 2. See 1605.1. In his letter, Kölker had written: "I feel every day that I am by nature inclined to be romantic, and hence the coarse, rough world jars me, and often makes me gloomy." 3. Mozarts Briefe, nach den Originalen herausgegeben von L. Nohl (Salzburg, 1865}. An English translation by Lady Wallace appeared in London at the same time.

2350.

T o John Gorham

Palfrey Camb. April i о 1866.

M y Dear Palfrey, Pardon the delay,^ and believe me Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Massachusetts Historical Society.

I. A reference, possibly, to a contribution of some kind.

2351.

To Albert

Lee^

Cambridge April 1 3 1866. M y Dear Sir, In reply to your letter, which I received last evening, I have not the slightest hesitation in advising, and if necessary in urging you to abandon your cherished design. It could lead to nothing but disappointment and disaster. Even Thoreau, whose example you cite, found the position untenable. H e should be a warning rather than an encouragement. I give you frankly my opinion, and remain with best wishes, Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow. 46

CAMBRIDGE, MANUSCRIPT:

1866

unrecovered; text from photocopy, University of Washington Library.

I. The identification of Lee ( 1 8 4 1 - 1 9 1 8 ) as Longfellow's correspondent is conjectural. A student in the Harvard Divinity School, he apparently contemplated a life in the woods, but reconsidered in time to take his degree in 1870 from the Auburn Theological Seminary, New York. His letter to Longfellow is unrecovered.

2352.

To James Thomas Fields

[Cambridge] Apr. 15. [i866]i Dear Fields, Please lend me again Atalanta in Calydon. I want to make a Note from it on Meleager.^ H.W.L. MANUSCBIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. The date is conjectural. Fields published Swinburne's Atalanta 1866. 2. For Longfellow's note in Purgatorio see Works, X, 3 1 2 - 3 1 4 .

2353.

in Calydon

in

To Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz

Camb. April 17 1866. My Dear Agassiz, It is very pleasant to think of communing with you so far, far away on the great river; and I should have done it long ago but for the perpetual recurrence of all kinds of interruptions, which "devastate the day." If my thoughts were arrows, or if I could shoot my quills at you, I should before now have stuck you so full of them, that the Brazilians would not have known you from St. Sebastian.^ But you have found time to write to me, for which I truly thank you; and hasten to prove it by sending you this, and the photographs by the first steamer direct from N.Y.^ We have had rather a sombre Winter and Spring here. The death of Sparks and Beck makes a great gap in town, and one seems to hear in the air the order; "Serrez vos rangs! [Close ranks]." All the rest of your friends of the vieille garde, qui meurt et ne se rend pas,^ are well and hearty. Emerson bas just begun a Saturday course of Lectures, at noon; and casts the same glamour over his audience that he did twenty five years ago.^ The Club goes on; but not so well as when you are here. By way of consolation I have established one of my own, which meets here every Wednesday evening to discuss and criticize my translation of the Divina Commedia, which is now stereotyped as far as Canto X X V of the Paradiso, and so is drawing to an end. I have seen Mr. Burkhard'' several times, and heard all about you and 47

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

your works and your ways. He has brought me a roll of BraziHan tobacco, which looks hke the tail of some wild animal. And this reminds me to ask you to bring me home 2000 (two thousand) Bahia cigars, first quality. T h e y are excellent, as I know from a few which Mr. [James Cooley] Fletcher brought. Mind, this is a business commission; and if it will not in any way incommode you, I shall be greatly obliged. Give, I beg you my kindest remembrances and regards to Mrs. Agassiz. W e read her Picknic on the Amazon,® with great ||. . feeling. I hope she has many more of these sketches, if not written out, at least thought out; enough to make a Brazilian Sketch Book. Our politics are not in a pleasant condition. President Johnson is a failure. He has already done immense mischief in letting down the tone of things. He has made us blush crimson; and proved that the "poor whites" of the South "ne sont pas du hois dont on fait les bons Présidents [are not the sort who make good presidents]." This is a terrible old man of the sea to have on our shoulders for three years. There is a general jail delivery of every scoundrel in the country.® Still we stand firm, and are carrying the day in spite of him and his. Only it is a great drawback and disappointment. [complimentary

closing and signature cut out]

MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library, PUBLISHED: David James, " O Imperador do Brasil e os seus Amigos da Nova Inglaterra," Anuario do Museu Imperial, XIII (1952), 108-109. 1. St. Sebastian, bound to a tree and shot at with arrows, became the patron saint of archers. See 2 2 4 1 . 3 . 2. Agassiz's letter to Longfellow from Pará of March 8, 1 8 6 6 , contained a request from the Emperor of Brazil for "a few of your photographic cards for friends to whom he had promised them, when he now finds he is unwilling to part with those which he possesses." 3. C f . " L a Garde meurt, mais ne se rend pas ( T h e Guards die, but do not surrend e r ) , " a statement attributed to but denied by Count Pierre Jacques Etienne de Cambronne ( 1 7 7 0 - 1 8 4 2 ) , French general who commanded a division of the Imperial Guard at Waterloo. 4. Emerson delivered six lectures on "Philosophy for the People," April 1 4 - M a y 19, at Chickering's Rooms, Boston. See Letters of Emerson, V , 4 6 1 n. 5. Jacob Burkhardt ( 1 8 0 8 - 1 8 6 7 ) , Swiss-born artist, draftsman, and close associate of Agassiz, who had first known him as a fellow student in M u n i c h . 6. " A n Amazonian Picnic," Atlantic Monthly, X V I I ( M a r c h 1 8 6 6 ) , 3 1 3 - 3 2 3 . 7. About six to eight words are missing from mutilation. 8. A reference to President Johnson's liberal granting of amnesty to Confederates who took an oath of allegiance.

48

CAMBRIDGE, 2354.

1866

To Albert Lee

Camb. Apr. 19 1866. My Dear Sir, I am so very busy this morning, that I have only time to say in answer to your note that I certainly meant the invitation in good faith; and shall be very happy to see you whenever you feel disposed to call.^ I am generally at home every evening; only on Wednesdays I am engaged and cannot see any one. I remain. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT; unrecovered; text from photocopy, University of Washington Library. ADDRESS : M r . Albert Lee / Harvard College / Cambridge POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE M A S S OCT 2 0

I. In a letter of April 1 4 Lee had written an abject apology for his "unwarranted in-

2355.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Apr 22 1866. My Dear Greene I hope you have made your arrangements to come this week, and we shall look for you and Anna at dinner on Wednesday [April 25].^ I have written to Mr. Wm. Greene to dine with the Club on Saturday, and pass the Sunday here. If we only had some old continental uniforms, you two might represent General Washington and General Greene, and I by turning my collar up, or by cutting it off, might enact Benjamin Franklin. What do you think of the poor, demented President? He is like the crow in the fable. Flattered by the Southern fox, he perches and perorates on every stump, till every crumb of cheese has fallen from his beak. Poor old crow. On Wednesday evening. Paradiso XXVI. Yours truly H.W.L. P.S. Giovanni Thompson was here yesterday. Do you remember him? I congratulate you heartily on your political prospects.^ But more on that point when we meet. It is one of the best things that could have happened. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1 . Greene responded on April 24 that he was unable to come. 2. T h a t is, on his activity as a representative in the Rhode Island legislature. See 2346.4.

49

THREE 2356.

T o William

SCORE

YEARS

Greene Cambridge

A p r 22 1866.

M y Dear Sir, I have been very negligent in not answering you sooner for the several articles on Free Trade, w h i c h you have been kind enough to send me, and w h i c h I have read with much pleasure and instruction.' T h o u g h I have sometimes wished there were no such things as Custom Houses, this certainly is not the moment for us to set about destroying them. I have preserved your articles, and if you have other copies, should like to keep them. Otherwise I will return them to you. I expect George to come to our C l u b dinner on Saturday next, and it would give me great pleasure if you would come also. I will meet you at Ticknor and Fields at a quarter past two, or at the C l u b at half past, as best suits your convenience, and after dinner shall hope to bring you to Cambridge to pass the Sunday. I remain. Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Helen Roelker Kessler, Cambridge, Mass. I. Greene, a protectionist, published two articles on the tariff question in the Providence Daily Journal, X X X V I I , N o . 50 (February 27, 1866) and N o . 70 ( M a r c h 22, 1866).

2357.

T o George Washington

Greene Camb. Apr. 30 1866

M y Dear Greene, I have had a charming visit from M r . W m . Greene, w h o is now waiting with one foot in the stirrup while I write this. Your plan seems very pretty; but pray do not leap in the dark. Let us talk the whole matter over together, so as to begin right.^ I shall look for you on Wednesday. T h e n I will tell you exactly how much I can do; and there will be no hindrance or stop of any kind. Yours ever H.W.L. MANUSCBJPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. In a letter of April 25 Greene sent Longfellow a floor plan of his new house with an architect's suggestions for remodeling. Details of the actual alterations are not clear, but on June 3 Greene revealed that Longfellow had sent $1500 to cover the expense and that " T h e carpenters are at work and every thing looks promising."

50

CAMBRIDGE, 2358.

1866

To Amy Fay^ [Cambridge, May 4, 1866] 2

We the undersigned, citizens of Cambridge, County of Middlesex in the State of Massachusetts, humbly petition that Miss Fay will give us a Holiday on Saturday May 5th, it being the Anniversary of Napoleon's death! Gertrude M С Hubbard·' Alice M. Longfellow Cora Spelman Edie Longfellow MANUSCRIPT; unrecovered; text from photocopy, University of Washington Library. 1. Miss Fay, christened Amelia Mullet Fay ( 1 8 4 4 - 1 9 2 8 ) , became a nationally known pianist. A family friend, she apparently gave music lessons at this time to the Longfellow girls. 2. T h e date is approximate. T h e letter, except for the signatures, is in Longfellow's hand. 3. Gertrude McCurdy Hubbard ( 1 8 4 9 - 1 8 8 6 ) was the daughter of Gardiner Greene Hubbard of 146 Brattle Street, Cambridge. Hubbard ( 1 8 2 2 - 1 8 9 7 ) later became associated with Alexander Graham Bell in the development of the telephone system and was founder and first president of the National Geographic Society, 1 8 8 8 - 1 8 9 7 .

2359.

To Lucia Gray Swett Alexander^

Cambridge May 10 1866. Dear Mrs Alexander, I am ashamed to think how many months have gone by since I had the pleasure of receiving your friendly and interesting letter; and I wish I were this very moment at Bello Sguardo to make my apologies. Dante is to blame; and you may get Mr. Alexander, if you can, the next time he goes to town to throw a stone at the new statue, or enter a complaint with the Podestà [Mayor]. Of the Statue I can hardly judge from a photograph. It seems grand and imposing; and looks uncommonly like the Revd. John Pierpont.^ The heads from the Bargello are very interesting. I had before only Dante's without Giotto's and the others that are fading into air in the back ground. Many thanks for this kind remembrance.® The Printer has nearly finished his work on my translation of the Divina Commedia (if you care to hear about it) but it will not be out before the end of the year; as I have still all the Notes of the Paradiso to write. I beg you to give my best regards to Mr. Alexander and Miss Fanny. I often think of you on your sunny hillside, and think how wise you have been in going there, and how much you have enjoyed and are enjoying, and 51

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

wonder whether I shall ever see it again. Please say to Miss Fanny, that last evening I saw her friend Lily Cleveland, who spoke most affectionately of her. I send enclosed a copy of "The Two Angels" as you desire, and with great regard remain Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow. P.S. I remember the photograph^ just in season. MANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

1. Mrs. Alexander ( 1 8 1 4 - 1 9 1 6 ) was the wife of the painter Francis Alexander ( 6 6 3 . 1 ) . In 1853 they had moved to Italy with their daughter Esther Frances (Francesca) Alexander ( 1 8 3 7 - 1 9 1 7 ) and were now living in the Villa Brichieri, at Bellosguardo, near Florence. 2. Pierpont ( 1 7 8 5 - 1 8 6 6 ) , Unitarian clergyman and poet and grandfather of John Pierpont Morgan. 3. With her letter of June 29, 1865, Mrs. Alexander had sent Longfellow photographs of the recently inaugurated statue of Dante by Enrico Pazzi in the Piazza di Santa Croce, Florence, and of the famous portrait of Dante by Giotto in the Bargello (Palazzo del Podestà). For Charles Eliot Norton's description of the portrait, see Longfellow's "Illustrations" for the Inferno (Works, IX, 3 5 7 - 3 6 0 ) . 4. That is, a photograph of himself.

2360.

To Samuel Eliot

Cambridge May 16 1866 My Dear Eliot, I have just had the pleasure of receiving your friendly invitation, and am truly sorry that I cannot accept it, having already an engagement to dine with Mr. Fields on Thursday [May 17]. You must pardon me for not having been to see you at your new house.' Are we doomed to meet only at Nahant? I trust not, and shall prove it by invading you in Chestnut Street before long. With kind regards to Mrs. Eliot,^ Ever with the old affection Yours Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Boston Athenaeum.

1. Eliot (386.6) had recently moved to No. 30 Chestnut Street, Boston. His invitation was dated "Tuesday, 15th." 2. Emily Marshall Otis ( 1 8 3 2 - 1 9 0 6 ) , daughter of William Foster Otis ( 4 3 . 6 ) . Eliot married her in 1853.

52

CAMBRIDGE, 2361.

1866

To Harrtet Melusina Fay Peirce^

Camb. M a y i 8 1866 Dear Mrs. Pierce Please let Rosa^ come to tea this evening, we beseech you. Edie Longfellow Annie Longfellow Anna M Greene Josie N. Ames. Trudie Horsford. Mamie Horsford Mamie К Longfellow. Geòrgie Eaton.® MANUSCRIPT:

Frank O. Buda, Cambridge, Mass.

1. Mrs. Peirce ( 1 8 3 6 - 1 9 2 3 ) , sister of Amy Fay ( 2 3 5 8 . 1 ) , was the wife of Charles Santiago Sanders Peirce ( 1 8 3 9 - 1 9 1 4 ) , philosopher, logician, and founder of pragmatism. This letter is in Longfellow's hand, except for the signatures. 2. Rose Emily Fay ( 1 8 5 2 - 1 9 2 9 ) presumably lived with her sister Mrs. Peirce at this time. In 1890 she married the symphony conductor Theodore Thomas ( 1 8 3 5 - 1 9 0 5 ) . 3. Signatories not previously identified are Mary Gardiner Horsford ( 1 8 5 5 - 1 8 9 3 ) , daughter of Professor Horsford ( 2 2 6 7 . 1 ) , and Georgiana Goddard Eaton (d. 1 9 1 1 , aged fifty-four) of 1 7 Louisburg Square, Boston.

2362.

To Horatio Woodman

Camb. May 23 1866. M y Dear Mr Woodman I hardly know what to say or think of the letter you have sent me, and which I herewith return. I shall be glad to hear what can be said on Saturday. ^ Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCMPT:

Massachusetts Historical Society.

I. T h e letter referred to is unrecovered. It might have concerned a member-designate of the Saturday Club, of which Woodman ( 1 3 7 0 . 4 ) was a prominent member.

2363.

To Emily Marshall Otis Eliot

Cambridge May 24 1866. Mr. Longfellow regrets that he cannot have the pleasure of accepting Mrs. Eliot's kind invitation for Friday evening [May 25], on account of a previous engagement. MANUSCRIPT:

Boston Athenaeum. 53

THREE 2363a.

SCORE

YEARS

To Emma Forbes Cary^

Cambridge May 30 1866 Dear Miss Gary, I am very much obliged to you for your kindness in sending me the photographs of the Château and Church of Cayla; and hope you will pardon me for not having thanked you sooner. I have been prevented by a thousand and one interruptions, — just the number of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, but not half so entertaining. The photographs are very quaint and curious, and very suggestive of the recluse life of the lady of Cayla.^ The Château looks like a Nunnery; and the seven poplars in the church-yard are seven golden candlesticks. In Autumn the similitude must be striking. With many thanks I remain Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

University

of

Washington Library.

1. Miss Gary ( 1 8 3 3 - 1 9 1 8 ) was the sister of Elizabeth Cabot Gary Agassiz ( 1 0 9 0 . 1 1 ) . 2. Zoé Talon, comtesse du Cayla ( 1 7 8 5 - 1 8 5 2 ) , was a favorite of Louis X V I I L

2364.

To Henry Warren Torrey

Cambridge May 30 1866 My Dear Mr. Torrey, I am very much obliged to you for taking the trouble to write me about the "Rue du Fouarre," and hope you will pardon my long delay in thanking you. With the nice litde extracts you send me, and what I had before, I shall be able to make a very respectable note about the old college street.^ I remain, with many thanks for your kindness Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: I.

See 231

2365.

Bowdoin College Library. I.I.

To Ernest Wadsworth

Longfellow

Cambridge June 3.1866. My Dear Emy, Your nice letter — Florence May i3th.^ reached us safely, and we were glad to hear of your movements, and that you had enjoyed Sor[r]ento so much and also Rome. It is a great secret to know how to enjoy! I hope by this 54

C A M B R I D G E ,

1866

time our letters have reached you; that you may know that the box arrived in due time from Paris, but was detained two weeks in the customhouse; and that the paintings gave us great pleasure. The old man's head is thought to look like me; and Alice, though slightly dusky, is a good likeness and a good painting. I propose to varnish it, and bring out its hidden tints. The Darleys are here, and sail for Europe on Wednesday [June 6]. They will stay in England a month or two; and I dare say you will meet them in France or Switzerland. I am afraid the war^ will interfere with your movements; particularly in the direction of Venice, which would be a great pity, as that is one of the wonderful cities. In Switzerland you will be exposed to great heat at times. Look out for your head; and dont overdo things. And now I am going to tell you a secret, which must not be mentioned out of the family nor in any of your letters. Uncle Tom's new yacht, the Alice, is launched, and getting ready for sea. When ready she is to sail for England with Arthur Clark^ as Captain and Charley as passenger. This will be about the first of July; so that when you reach England in September you will probably find them still in some one of the southern harbors. What do you think of crossing the Atlantic in a vessel of only fifty tons? Arthur and Charley are all eagerness and excitement about it. Uncle Tom is also going to England this Summer, but I do not believe he will go in his yacht. So we shall have a dull time of it at Nahant, where we have been enlarging the house, by an attic with French roof, and an addition to Uncle Tom's quarters of two rooms, making six more bedrooms in all, — and nearly all to be vacant during the Summer! Among other warnings, I have forgotten to remind you of taking care of your teeth! When you get to Paris or Berlin have them examined by an American dentist. The Fenians have been making a movement on Canada, but not successfully. They have been driven back, or taken prisoners.^ Mr. Greene has been elected member of the Legislature of R.I. and appointed chairman of the Committee on Education. And this is about all the news I have to send you this time. Give our love to Uncle Sam; and tell him that the old edition of the "Biographie Universelle" will be good enough for me; particularly as the new one is not yet finished. Ever affectionately H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from photostat, Longfellow Trust Collection fellow House).

(Long-

1. Unrecovered. 2. On April 8, 1866, Prussia concluded an alliance with Italy against Austria and her German allies, and the Seven Weeks' W a r d u n e r5-August 2 3 ) became inevitable. Although hostilities had not yet begun, mobilization of the armies was now underway for the battles to be fought in Italy and the German states. T h e Prussian victory contributed to the establishment of the German Empire in 1 8 7 1 . 5 5

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

3. Arthur Hamilton Clark ( 1 8 4 1 - 1 9 2 2 ) , master mariner and historian, was the brother of Eudora Clark (2045.5). For his account of the voyage, see "The 'Alice' Goes Abroad," Yachting, L X I V (November 1938), 27-29, 1 0 1 - 1 0 2 . Appleton had named his yacht, built in Portsmouth, N.H., for his niece. 4. Anxious to reahze a victory against England, a small army of Fenians (see 2345.2) crossed the Niagara River on June i, 1866, and captured Fort Erie but were subsequently routed by Canadian militiamen.

2366.

To George Washington

Greene Camb. June 5. 1866.

M y Dear Greene, T h a n k s for your two letters/ to which this is a shabby answer "on the half shell." T h e last Dante club is on the 13th, a week from tomorrow. W e shall be delighted to see you and both the girls;^ and by that time I hope the rain will be over. Dignities rain down upon you. "All hail, Macbeth, that shall be Governor hereafter!"3 Before you come, read over the last Canto of the Paradiso, so as to be armed at all points, and to speak oracularly from the green arm-chair. B y the way, do not forget the N o . of the "Anthology" which Folsom lent you. H e came to see you just after you left, and was sorry to miss you. Ever yours H.W.L. P.S. Come as soon as suits your convenience. Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Dated May 26 and June 3, 1866. 2. That is, Anna Maria (2343.4) and Catherine Porter Greene ( 1 8 5 7 - 1 8 9 2 ) . 3. C f . Macbeth, I, iii, 50. Greene had written on June 3: "I must confess to you that my vanity was not a little touched at finding myself placed at the head of the committee on education and of another important committee for the examination of the history of the adoption by the state of the federal constitution." MANUSCRIPT:

2367.

T o George Washington

Greene Camb. June 6

1866

M y Dear Greene Have you Hildrith's Hist, from the Coll. Library?^ If so, please bring it with you when you come. T h e books are called in on the 20th. the annual Ranz des

Vaches.

MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. Richard Hildrith, The History of the United States of America ( N e w York, 1 8 4 9 1 8 5 2 ) , 6 vols.

56

CAMBRIDGE, 2368.

To George Washington

1866

Greene

Camb. J u n e p 1866 My Dear Greene, Pray don't think of changing the Programme.' The little girls are not going to Portland before the 20th certainly. So there is ample time; and there will be great disappointment in these regions if Anna and Katie do not come. In haste H.W.L. p.s I have a letter from Sumner this morning. He is better; but the "medical man"^ forbids his speaking, and advises him to take a vacation. He may be here any hour. The sooner you come, therefore the better; for "When shall we three meet again?"® M A N U S C R I P T : L o n g f e l l o w T r u s t Collection. 1 . G r e e n e had written on J u n e 9 that he w o u l d not bring his two girls to C a m b r i d g e because they had heard that the L o n g f e l l o w sisters w e r e going to Portland. 2. Charles E d w a r d Brown-Séquard

3. Macbeth, Li, i. 2369.

(1675.2).

To James Thomas Fields

Cambridge June 12 1866 M y Dear Fields, I should enjoy a day or two with you in the mountains extremely, but it is not possible.^ I am expecting every moment to hear the boots of Greene "grate on the gravel" and to see his form in the sunshine at the door. He is coming expressly to hear the last canto of Paradiso, tomorrow night, and will stay the rest of the week. I really hoped you would be here; but as you say nothing about it, I begin to tremble. Perhaps, however, you are only making-believe, and will take us by surprise. So I shall keep your place for you. This is not to be the end of all things. I mean to begin again in September with the dubious and difficult passages, and if you are not in too much of a hurry to publish, there is still a long vista of pleasant evenings stretching out before us. We can pull them out like a spy-glass. I am shutting up now, to recommence the operation.^ Here comes the Signor Greene. So good bye; and with many kind regards to Mrs. Fields, Yours truly H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Henry E . Huntington Library. I. I n a letter of J u n e 9 Fields had invited L o n g f e l l o w to spend a f e w days w i t h him at C a m p t o n V i l l a g e , N . H .

57

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

2. T h e Dante Club met on June 13 with Lowell, Greene, Holmes, Howells, William Henry Fuiness (1087.7), and Forceythe Willson (1837-1867), a young poet then living in Cambridge, in attendance. See Longfellow's journal entry in Life, III, 75-76. The club did not convene again until December 19 QLife, III, 80).

2370.

T o Charles Eliot Norton

Camb. June 22 1866 M y Dear Charles, You were not the first to tell me the good news, but I was very glad to hear from you that both mother and daughter are well.^ I congratulate you most sincerely. You were reading a Canto of Paradise we little dreamed of, when we missed you at our last meeting of the Dante Club. To-day is Class Day; a beautiful June day, with a great wind rushing through the trees like a spirit. I am preparing to go to Portland tomorrow for a day or two, and then we shall go to Nahant, where I hope to go over the Commedia again, and sketch the Notes of the Paradiso. I desire much to close the first volume with your Lecture on Dante, or such part of it as you are willing to allow me; — the second volume with one of Lowell's on the same; and the last with Dante's Letter to Can Grande, a translation of which I have. These three things seem needful to complete the work.^ Please familiarize your mind with this idea, against the autumn. I wish there were any chance of seeing you at Nahant this summer. Perhaps you and [George William] Curtis may take a fancy to some change of air. If so, remember that I have rooms for you both, having just added eight new ones to the cottage; and Uncle Tom and Charlie are both going to Europe, and Erny is away; so that we shall have to go into the streets and compel people to come in. With kindest regards to all Affectionately Yours H.W.L. P.S. I saw Lowell yesterday. Mrs. L. has been ill, but is better. MANUSCRIPT; Harvard College Library. 1. In a letter from Ashfield on June 15 Norton had announced the birth of his second daughter, Elizabeth Gasiceli Norton (d. 1958). 2. This idea did not materialize, although Longfellow printed Norton's "Portraits of Dante" and Lowell's "The Posthumous Dante" as illustrations for the Inferno. See Works, IX, 356-364 and 368-373.

58

CAMBRIDGE, 2371.

To Edith

1866

Longfellow

Camb. J u n e 2 6 1866. M y Darling Edie, After a very hot journey I reached homei just before nine o'clock, and found Alice, Miss Davie and Trap sitting on the front door steps, trying to get a breath of cool air, and enjoying the beautiful moonlight. I had some tea and then went down to see Aunt Mary, whom I found sitting with Mrs. Sanger,^ trying to keep cool. Everybody was saying "This is the hottest day of the year;" and I thought you and Annie were well off in Portland, in your great bed! Charley and Arthur [Clark] were at Nahant. This morning Harry Stanfield came, and then Charley; and now they have gone to town again, Charley to Miss Fay's wedding;^ and Harry to see Uncle Tom about another sail in the yacht this afternoon; for the expedition on Saturday was so splendid, that Alice, Hattie [Spelman], Cora [Spelman] and Dora Clark are all eager to try it once more, and pass the night on board. To-day is as hot as yesterday, which means very hot, and makes us think of Nahant. But I am afraid the house will not be ready for us before the middle of next week. You do not know what a difference there is between the air here and in Portland. W e are expecting Hattie and Cora to dinner to-day at 2 o'clock; so as to be ready to go in at 3 for the yacht. All send much love to you; and here is a kiss, if you can find it, and another for Panzie. Tell Aunt Anne that I had a very pleasant visit in Portland. Ever affectionately Papa. P.S. I send Erny's last letter to Panzie, and one to you from Rhoda.·* MANUSCRIPT: Massachusetts Historical Society. 1. From Portland, where he had taken Edith and Anne Allegra for a visit with Anne Longfellow Pierce. 2. Possibly Elizabeth Sherburne Thompson Sanger (d. 1 8 8 7 ) , wife of George Partridge Sanger ( 5 8 8 . 1 ) , of Cambridge. 3. Katherine Pickman Fay Cd. 1 9 1 3 , aged seventy-five), sister of Charles Longfellow's friend William Pickman Fay ( 1 8 0 6 . i ) , married Henry Sidney Everett ( 1 8 3 4 - 1 8 9 8 ) , son of Edward Everett, on June 26 in Trinity Church, Boston (Boston Advertiser, C V I I , No. 1 5 2 [June 27, 1 8 6 6 ] ) . 4. A n unidentified friend of the Longfellow girls.

59

THREE 2372.

To Anne Allegra

SCORE

YEARS

Longfellow

Camb. June 28. 1866. My Darling Pansie, I hope Edie received the letter I sent her yesterday; and that you will get this to-night or tomorrow morning. I miss you very much; but am glad you are in Portland, for the weather has been so hot in Cambridge that you would have suffered very much. On Tuesday afternoon, Alice, Hattie, Cora and Josie [Ames] went off in the yacht v-iith Dora Clark, Arthur, Charlie, Harry Stanfield and Uncle Tom, and have not yet got back. Perhaps they are in Portland, before this time. Last evening we had a heavy thunder storm, and it is still raining. We think the yachters must have had a pretty wet night, and have been shut up in their cabin. The house at Nahant is not yet ready, so that we shall not go down till Thursday July 5, a week from to-day; and I suppose on Friday or Saturday somebody will come down for you. Do you think you shall be ready to come back so soon as that? You do not know how silent the house is, now that you are all away. Trap does not know what to make of it. He bears the heat pretty well, and sleeps most of the time in the breeze at the front door. Even he is silent. He is too lazy to bark. But the birds sing; that is one comfort; and we are beginning today to pack our books for Nahant. Give my love to Aunt Anne and Edie and all the cousins, and enjoy yourself very much and be as happy as the day is long; and write soon to Your affectionate Papa. MANUSCRIPT: Alice Allegra Thorp Estate (on deposit, Longfellow House).

2373.

To Alexander Wadsworth

Longfellow

Camb. June 29 1866 My Dear Alex. I sent you this morning by Express, paid, a box of Claret, instead of the Catalan, we were speaking of; thinking you might prefer it, as I thought I heard you say you were out of Claret. In great haste Yours truly H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow

Esq. / Portland / M e .

Trust

Collection,

ADDRESS:

Alexander

POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS J U N

60

29

W.

Longfellow

CAMBRIDGE, 2374.

To George Washington

1866

Greene

Camb. July i. 1866 M y Dear Greene, Your letter! reached me yesterday; and I am glad to hear you are surrounded by the pleasant sounds of building a home. Nest-building; ship-building; — house-building; bridge-building; — all pleasant though sometimes noisy! I have left the little girls in Portland, where I passed a day or two with them; and among other things, had a sail down Casco Bay through the wooded islands, and wished you were there. We go to Nahant on the fifth; and if you find the hammering about your ears too loud you must take your carpet bag in hand and run down to see us. The Nahant steamer leaves the foot of India Wharf at 9.30; 2.30; and 6.30. Bring Fields with you. Sumner has gone back to Washington; and is now simmering in the dust and heat of that incipient city. I wish he were free; and I should not be suφrized if now, having a competency, he should give himself up to his favorite pursuits.^ This relapse is a warning that he can no longer work day and night. Let us marry him and send him to Europe. That is the highest prize; and he has fairly won it. Yours ever H.W.L. P.S. You say in your letter "Tell Whitney and Brackett that I will take those chairs." Which do you mean, the oak, or the mahogany?® MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Dated June 29. 2. Sumner's mother, Relief Jacob Sumner, died on June 15, 1866, aged eighty-one, leaving Sumner and his sister Julia a legacy of $65,000. To Sumner alone she gave her house at No. 20 Hancock Street, Boston, appraised at $10,500. See Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man, p. 272. 3. In his reply of July 5 Greene specified mahogany. Augustus A. Whitney and James Brackett were furniture dealers in Brattle Square, Cambridge.

2375.

To Brantz Mayer

Cambridge July 3 1866. My Dear Sir, I have postponed answering your letter a very long time, in the hope from day to day of being able to send you the autograph of Allston which you desire.i On receiving your letter I made application to Mr. Dana and got a halfpromise of compliance with my request. But as yet no autograph has appeared. 61

THREE

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YEARS

I write now to apologize for my long delay, and to say that I will forward whatever Mr. Dana may send me as soon as I receive it. I remain, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT; Historical Society of Pennsylvania, more / Md.

POSTMARK:

CAMBRIDGE

ADDRESS: Brantz Mayer Esq / Balti-

MASS J U L

4

I. In a letter of May 26, 1866, and on behalf of Col. Frank Marx Etting ( 1 8 3 3 1 8 9 0 ) of Philadelphia, "possessor of a large collection of autographs," Mayer had asked Longfellow to intercede with Richard Henry Dana for an autograph of Washington Allston.

2376.

To Charles Sumner

Cambridge July 4 1866 My Dear Sumner, In obedience to your orders I went to town on Monday and called at the Tremont House to see Brown-Séquard. I did not see him because he was not there.^ Tomorrow we go to Nahant and the sea air will soon set me up again. Do not be troubled. I am better now, and sleep like a top. Scuppernong, in its best estate, (for there is great difference in quality) is the best of our American wines. I prefer it to Catawba or California. Please ask Mr. King^ what his price is per gallon; and if reasonable contrive to send me a three-gallon demijon, care of Johnsons Nahant Express, Court Square, Boston. I will keep a glass for you, when you come in August. Since the morning fusillade, the day has grown as quiet here in Cambridge as a Sunday. A fresh breeze is blowing, and Charley has gone with some friends to try the speed of Tom's new yacht "The Alice" in a boat-race. Tom himself is just sailing in the Steamer for England with Dana and his wife, and I am trying to write you a letter in this tropical heat — thermometer, in doors, eighty. I should like much to discuss with you the future, and what you are to do in it. The preliminary step for you is to get well and strong again.·^ When will Congress rise? Can you hold out till then? Do as little work as possible. Ever truly Thine H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1 . In a letter of June 24 Sumner had asked Longfellow to see Dr. Brown-Séquard about his health. 2. Presumably a wine dealer of Washington, D.C.

62

NAHANT,

1866

3. Sumner had written: "I longed, before I left, — for a long talk with you about myself; but the moment was not propitious. W h e n w e meet again, I may have something to tell you; and certainly I shall have much on which to seek your communion. I have come to an epoch in life. M y mother is dead. I have a moderate competency. W h a t next?" Sumner alludes obliquely in these sentences to his interest in Mrs. Alice Mason Hooper C 1 8 3 8 - 1 9 1 3 ) , widowed daughter-in-law of Samuel Hooper ( 2 0 1 6 . 1 ) , w h o m he was to marry on October 17, 1866.

2377.

T o Matthew Hale Carpenter^

Nahant July 19 1866. M y Dear Sir, I am sorry that I must take sides with Mr. Murdock against you, but, nevertheless, he interprets the passage correctly, as I think you will see on further consideration. T h e third and fourth lines of the Stanza are the reasons why we are not to call Life a dream. If we are only dreaming we are asleep, and sleep is a kind of death. Appearances are deceitful. W h a t appears to be a dream is a reality. I remain, Dear Sir Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. I. Carpenter ( 1 8 2 4 - 1 8 8 1 ) , a Milwaukee lawyer and subsequently U . S . Senator from Wisconsin, 1 8 6 9 - 1 8 7 5 , wrote to Longfellow on June 29 regarding an interpretation of the first stanza of " A Psalm of L i f e . " H e had heard the poem read in public by James Edward Murdoch ( 1 8 1 1 - 1 8 9 3 ) , actor and elocutionist, and disagreed with his emphasis: " O n the contrary I understand you to say 'Tell me not life is but an empty dream; tell me not the soul is dead that slumbers; because it is not true that life is an empty dream, it is not true that the soul is dead that slumbers.' "

2378.

T o Ernest Wadsworth

Longfellow

Nahant July 22. 1866. M y Dear Emy, I feel this morning as if I ought to be writing to you. So I obey the impulse, and thank you for your interesting letter from Geneva. It is a rainy Sunday, and everything is dreary and dripping. Since the sailing of the Alice, ten days ago, we have been rather lonely here; but guests will be coming soon to enliven us. T h e great Portland fire was a sad event. Edie and Annie were there; and I have been down since to see the desolation. I send you Harper's Weekly, by this mail, which will give you some idea of it.^ In the Old Home, Aunt Anne has an Architect's office (Willie's,^ who has gone down to help rebuild) and a Milliner's shop. 63

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

23rd. A rainy Monday; but the Evening Transcript enlivened us by the following bit of news; "Spoken Lat. 44. Long. 23, the Yacht Alice for Isle of Wight." N o w this longitude, Boston being 71, is more than half across. Unluckily no date is given; but if the figures are correct, a steamer could not have gone faster. W h e n you are in London I want you to call on Freiligrath, the Poet, at the Bank of Switzerland; and upon Mr. Laugel, 6 Pembroke Villas, Richmond, and thank him for the copy of his book on the United States,^ which I am reading with great interest. 27th. You see I cannot even finish a short letter without many breaks and interruptions. There is a story here that you and Fred. Crowninshield have been overtaken by a snow storm on one of the mountains, and were in great danger; and that "the Guide cried."^ Alice went to Portland yesterday and we are quite deserted. Moreover the new roof leaks, and the pump will not draw. You will like the up stair rooms. They are charming. I hope you mean to come back with Uncle Sam in the Autumn. You cannot do anything easily and satisfactorily with the war going on all about you.® Evidently things will be much worse before they are much better. With much love from all to you and Uncle Sam Ever most affect. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from photostat, Longfellow Trust Collection fellow H o u s e ) .

(Long-

1. O n July 4 a fire broke out in Portland that in sixteen hours destroyed a large part of the city, including many public buildings. See Harper's Weekly, X (July 21, 1866), 451. A longer account appears in X (July 28, 1866), 465-466. 2. William Pitt Preble Longfellow. 3. The United States during the War (London, 1866). 4. T h e story seems to have been exaggerated. See Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow, Random Memories (Boston and N e w York, 1 9 2 2 ) , p. 144. 5. See 2365.2.

2379.

T o James

Cowan^

Nahant July 23 1866 Dear Sir, You are quite right in supposing, that the old house you mention in Pittsfield is the scene of "The Old Clock on the Stairs." But the clock itself is no longer there, having been removed by Mr. Appleton of Boston. I remain, Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow 64

NAHANT,

1866

MANUSCRIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library. I. Cowan, a newsdealer of Pittsfield, Mass., had written on July 1 8 to inquire if " T h e Old Clock on the Stairs" referred to the clock in the house of Thomas Fitzpatrick Plunkett C 1 3 0 8 . 2 ) at No. 8 East Street, Pittsfield.

2380.

To James Thomas Fields

Nahant July 23 1866 My Dear Fields, Yes, with the understanding, that "Flower de Luce" is to go in to the new Edition of Poems Complete. That may interfere with your Ten Thousand; but it will be necessary nevertheless, as it will be a long while before I write another volume.^ As to Dante it will be utterly impossible to get it ready this Summer. I had rather wait a whole year longer than to hurry it; but you may rely on my doing my uttermost, which is not much at Nahant, owing to interruptions, and no gas at night; so that I have to give up my evenings. The "Alice" has been spoken Lat 44. Long. 23. This is a tremendous speed. She sailed on the i ith and was then more than halfway across. Yours ever H.W.L. P.S. If you wrote to me yesterday, your letter will be long in coming; as I just hear that "the Nahant letter-bag has gone to Bangor." I should be better pleased if there were to be no engravings in "Flower de Luce." I fear and tremble. Bad Pictures are so bad. Can you not possibly do without?^ MANUSCRIPT: Henry E . Huntington Library. 1. Although letters by Fields on this subject are missing, it is clear that Longfellow intended that his new volume, Flower-de-Luce (Boston, 1 8 6 7 ) , be included in the new revised trade edition of his Poetical Works QBAL 1 2 1 4 1 ) then being prepared. 2. Floiver-de-Luce contains a frontispiece and four plates. See BAL 1 2 1 4 4 .

2381.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant July 23 1866 My Dear Greene, The Yacht Alice sailed for the Isle of Wight on the iith. and in last evening's paper we saw she had been spoken in Lat 44. Long. 23. That is truly wonderful; for Long. 23 is more than half way across, Boston being 70. They must have been running at a prodigious rate, if our longitude is reckoned from 65

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

Greenwich. Perhaps we reckon from East Greenwich, which would make a difference! It is rather dreary and doleful at Nahant this year; and I hope you will soon show yourself here. The sooner you come, the better. I do not get much work out of myself, and enjoy talking on the windy verandas, more than writing. I have been in Portland since the fire. Desolation — desolation — desolation! It reminded me of Pompei[i]; but has not so many walls left standing, as that "sepult city." The old family house was not burned, the track of the fire passing just below it; and my sister writes me that she has converted it into an Architect's office and a Milliner's shop. In haste H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection.

2382.

To William Winter

Nahant July 23. 1866. My Dear Mr. Winter, Accept my thanks for the copy of Arnold's Poems, which you were so kind as to send me, and which I have read with great interest and pleasure. He was a true poet; and I do not think that you have over stated his merits in your Introductory Sketch, which is a graceful tribute to your friend.^ I am glad to learn from your note, that you are coming in this direction, and I hope you will find time to run down to Nahant, where you will be very welcome. Last summer you did not come, though you half-promised me to do so. Pray do not fail this year, as it is a long while since I had the pleasure of seeing you. With great regard Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, Port / Mass.

ADDRESS: Mr. W . Winter / Cambridge

POSTMARK: N||AHANT J U L 11 2 3

ANNOTATIONS ( W different

hands') :

No answer required / Forwarded with others / Longfellow PUBLISHED: William Winter, Old Friends: Being Literary Recollections of Other Days (New York, 1 9 1 4 ) , P· 3 5 0 ·

I. In a letter of July 20 Winter wrote that he had sent Longfellow a copy of his edition of Drift: A Sea-Shore Idyl and Other Poems (Boston, 1866) by George Arnold ( 1 8 3 4 - 1 8 6 5 ) , a member of the New York "Bohemian" group of writers.

66

NAHANT, 2383.

To Alice Mary

1866

Longfellow

Nahant July 28 1866 M y Darling, I hope you arrived safely [in Portland], and enjoyed your moonlight drive. Since you left us, the weather has been very unruly and dissatisfied at your going. Yesterday we had a thunderstorm, and have another to-day. W e are all shut up like chickens in a coop. Here is a letter reed, this morning from Erny,^ which you see I have opened, as we were all curious to read it. He has been a little imprudent I think; dont you? Tell Aunt Anne we were very sorry not to see her at Nahant. Perhaps she will come back with you, after your visit in Portland. The boat is not yet mended nor are the running moorings ready. The faithless Perkins^ promises, but that is all we can get out of him. I have this morning a letter from Uncle Tom in Liverpool. He had good weather and a swift passage; only ten days; and says he shall eagerly expect the "Alice," concerning which craft we have no further news. Give love f xm all to Aunt Anne, and the Highfielders.® Ever affectionately Papa. P.S. The morning papers say that Harvard was victorious in the boat-race at Worcester. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow T r u s t Collection. 1.

Unrecovered.

2. Possibly George W . Perkins, aged thirty-four, a carpenter of N a h a n t . 3. T h a t is, the family of Alexander W a d s w o r t h Longfellow.

2384.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant July 29 1866 My Dear Greene, I wish it were possible for you to come now, because there are no guests here and you will be more comfortable. After the middle of August Alice is expecting four of her school-girl friends, and we shall be crowded. The best way to come from Boston is by steamer which leaves the end of India Wharf at 9.30, at 2.30 and at 6.30. It is a pleasant sail down the harbor. If you prefer it you can come by the Lynn train. The Nahant omnibus meets the trains of 10.30 — 2.30 and 5.30. But you will never come by land if you can by water. W e dine at our usual hour 2.30. Therefore make sure of your dinner in Boston, unless you come early. Should the day of your coming be a hot day, the evening boat will be by far the pleasantest way. 67

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

B r i n g some n e w chapters of the Biography; and w e will have a quiet and delightful interchange of thought, on this a n d m a n y other matters; and I will do m y best to m a k e you like N a h a n t ; a n d as C h a u c e r says; " A n d , ded a n d quicke, be ever yours. Late, erly a n d at alle hours,"^ H.W.L P.S. M y house is only five minutes w a l k from the steamboat landing, and on the same southern shore. A n o t h e r reason for c o m i n g soon — is the moon! T h e nights are divine. H a v e you "Scipio's D r e a m " in English?^ If so, b r i n g it. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. "Chaucer's Dream" ("Isle of Ladies"), 11. 1 2 3 7 - 1 2 3 8 (Chaucer Apocrypha). 2. For an English translation of Somnium Scipionis, a surviving portion of the lost sixth book of Cicero's De República, see Works, IX, 4 0 9 - 4 1 7 .

2385.

T o Charles

Appleton

Longfellow [ N a h a n t , A u g u s t 3, i 8 6 6 ] i

I must slip this into U n c l e T o m ' s letter to say w e are all w e l l , and w o n d e r i n g w h e t h e r y o u have yet arrived at the Isle of W i g h t , and w h e t h e r you have got e n o u g h of it. For the first w e e k you must have had fine weather and a fine run; b u t the main-boom has been b a n g i n g about a good deal in m y brain! I hope, m y dear boy, y o u are all safe n o w ; and that H a r r y [Stanfield] and "the y o u t h f u l C a p t a i n " [Arthur C l a r k ] as the papers call him, have been in no w a y disappointed. A l i c e wrote to you b y the last steamer; she is n o w in Portland, so that w e are rather short of hands, and rather dull. B u t S u m n e r and 11. . .| W e h a v e ||heard from E r n y who||® has been clambering u p Swiss M o u n tains with Fred. C r o w n i n s h i e l d . O n the Dent

du Midi

they were overtaken

by a Snow-storm, and in a good deal of peril; but came safe out of it. T h e y are n o w probably on their w a y d o w n the R h i n e to meet you in E n g l a n d . N a h a n t furnishes no news; so you must take this letter on the half

shell.

Otis^ has sent me n o bills or papers; b u t he told m e yesterday that "the tonnage is all right w i t h the N e w Y o r k Boat C l u b . " W h a t that means I do not k n o w ; perhaps you do. W i t h m u c h love E v e r affectionately H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, ANNOTATION {in Charles Longfellow's hand) : Answered / Aug 20th I. This letter was included in Longfellow's letter to Thomas Gold Appleton of August 3, 1866 ( M S Letter Calendar), which is unrecovered. See also Letter No. 2401.

68

NAHANT,

1866

2. T h e manuscript is mutilated. A n undetermined number of words are missing at this point. 3. T h e restored reading is conjectural. 4. William Church Otis ( 1 8 3 1 - 1 8 8 9 ) , grandson of Harrison Gray Otis ( 8 9 . 8 ) , was fleet captain of the N e w York Yacht C l u b in 1866.

2386.

T o William

Gullen

Bryant Nahant

August 4 1866

I have heard with great pain of the calamity w h i c h has fallen upon you, none the less overwhelming because long dreaded and expected.^ I know that I cannot console nor comfort you in any way, yet I cannot refrain from writing these f e w lines to say that I am thinking of you, and sympathizing with you and your daughters. W h e n I think of Mrs. Bryant as I knew her since so many years ago, and recall her sweetness and truthfulness and nobleness of character, and all her excellence, I feel deeply what your loss must be. I will not attempt to say anything more, except that, with kindest remembrances to Fanny and Julia, I am always, very sincerely, yours. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from Parke Godwin, A Biography Bryant ( N e w York, 1883), II, 248.

of William

Gullen

I. Mrs. Bryant (898.4) had died on July 27.

2387.

T o Alice Mary

Longfellow L y n n Mass [August 4, 1866]^

T h e Alice arrived thirtieth July. N e w s by Atlantic Cable. H e n r y W . Longfellow MANUSCBIPT; Longfellow Trust Collection,

ADDBESS: Alice M . Longfellow / 283 Con-

gress St. / Next-door to Preble House [Portland] I. T h i s telegram, in another hand, is on a form of the American Telegraph Company. T h e address is on both the form and the accompanying envelope.

2388.

T o Charles Appleton

Longfellow

[Nahant] Saturday A u g . 4. 1866 M y Dear Charley, O n receiving your Telegram by the Atlantic cable this afternoon, I drove at once to L y n n to send a message to Mrs. Clark and M r . Stanfield.^ O n the way stopped at W . Otis's. Found him swinging in his hammock smoking, and announced the news of your arrival in nineteen days. H e was greatly de69

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

lighted; and sprang into the house "to pen a Telegram," to somebody McVickar, Commodore of the N.Y. Yacht Squadron,^ which I forwarded to New York. Nahant is in a great state of excitement, though the bells did not ring till nine o'clock at night. This is the first Telegram from England to Nahant, by Cable! W e shall look for letters by next Steamer, with particulars of your voyage. You got on very well no doubt, unless you had a heavy sea; and those west winds reported by the Cable-Layers, must have given you one. I should like to see your log.® It ought to be published by the Yacht-club. Alice is still in Portland. I sent her also a Telegram of the good news, I am very thankful that you are all safe. With kind regards to Harry and the Captain, Ever affectionately H.W.L. MANUSCBIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, Answered / Sept. 3rd

ENDORSEMENT Çhy Charles Longfellow}

:

1. Mary Preston Clark (d. 1867, aged sixty-eight), mother of Captain Clark, and Mark Merrill Stanfield ( 1 8 8 7 . 1 ) . 2. William H . McVickar (d. 1896, aged seventy-eight). Wall Street financier and yachtsman. 3. N o w in the Longfellow Trust Collection.

2389.

To Thomas Sergeant Perry^

Nahant Aug 4 1866 My Dear Sir, In reply to your note,^ which has just reached me, I beg leave to inform you that Mr. Edward Bangs,^ Court St. Boston, is Mr. Appleton's agent for the sale of the yacht "Princess." Whether he would let her for the summer, I do not know, nor can I give you any information in regard to the price. I remain Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Colby College Library. 1 . Perry ( 1 8 4 5 - 1 9 2 8 ) was the grandson of Oliver Hazard Perry and a recent graduate ( 1 8 6 6 ) of Harvard College. He later taught at Harvard and served as editor of the North American Review, 1 8 7 2 - 1 8 7 4 . 2. Unrecovered. 3. Bangs ( 1 8 2 5 - 1 8 9 4 ) , Harvard 1846, was a Boston lawyer.

70

NAHANT, 2390.

To Alice Mary

1866

Longfellow

Nahant Aug 6 1866 M y Darling Alice, I am glad you have enjoyed your visit to Portland so much, but begin to feel it is time for you to come back to Nahant. I think you had better take the first good opportunity which offers of returning. The news I sent you on Saturday [August 4] was very good news. W e shall soon have letters with the particulars of the passage. There is company here this afternoon, and I have only time to thank you for your letter reed, this morning. Ever affectionately Papa. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection.

2391.

To William Pitt Preble

Longfellow

Nahant Aug 9. 1866 My Dear William, I am sorry to say that Mr. Lewis has not yet been down to repair his leaky roof; nor has the painter finished his work. Please stir them up a little. I shall pay no more bills till the work is complete.i Yours truly H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. T h e leaky roof belonged to the Nahant cottage. (See Letter No. 2378.) Longfellow had apparently asked his nephew to supervise the repairs and a remodeling of some of the rooms. T h e uncooperative Mr. Lewis is not more closely identified.

2392.

To Ernest Wadsworth

Longfellow

Nahant Aug 16 1866 M y Dear Erny, I have just received your long and interesting letter from Interlachen,i and am truly sorry that our letters do not reach you more promptly and regularly. You are slightly sarcastic on that topic. But I wrote you on the 27th of July,^ and Alice has written since. All your letters are answered with speed. I am afraid you are overdoing the mountain business with Crowninshield. Why expose yourself to so many perils? You do not belong to the Alpine Club; and if you go on at this rate, I shall be only too happy to have you out of Switzerland, and out of harm's way, as you probably will be when this reaches you. Such over-fatigue cannot be good for your head. 71

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

T h e Nahant home is quite ahve and merry this week. Sumner, Kölker and Greene have been here; and now Alice has the four upper rooms full of her friends. She has Katy Howe, and Arria Dixwell and Alice Jones® and is expecting Cora [Spelman] tomorrow. W e have also Josie Ames and Henrietta Dana;^ and if that is not a house-full of young life, I am mistaken. To-day is windy and cold; and puts a damper on the hilarity; but no doubt it will break forth tomorrow in grand style. T h e "Alice" reached England in nineteen days. W e have had one Telegram by Atlantic Cable and one letter from Charlie giving part of his Journal. He is in high spirits. You will see him so soon, that it is not worth while to go into details. I do not think he was in half so much danger as you have been among the mountains. Interlachen is charming; and I hope you and Uncle Sam enjoyed it, and had good weather. It seems to me the most delightful resting-place in all Switzerland. It is bitter cold here at Nahant, and more like Autumn than Summer. I am quite ready to go back to Cambridge. I hope you are; and that you will feel inclined to celebrate your twenty first birth-day at home. You will not see the famous Dresden Gallery, at least not in Dresden. T h e papers say it has gone to England.® What a pity! Uncle Sam will lament. I am now going over to Lynnmere® to read Charlie's letter to Willie Fay, who has been laid up all Summer with a lame knee. So farewell, and take better care of yourself in future. W e all send much love to you and to U . S . and if I do not write to him it is because I write to you, and have such я multitude of letters to write. Ever most affectionately H.W.L. unrecovered; text from photostat, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

MANUSCRIPT:

1. Unrecovered. 2. Longfellow meant July 22. See Letter No. 2378. 3. Katherine Coolidge Howe (b. 1 8 5 1 ) , niece of Estes Howe ( 1 5 9 0 . i ) ; Arria Sargent Dixwell ( 1 8 5 2 - 1 9 4 0 ) , daughter of Epes Sargent Dixwell ( 1 2 1 4 . 2 ) ; and Alice Mary Jones ( 1 8 5 0 - 1 9 0 9 ) , a Cambridge neighbor. 4. Angela Henrietta Channing Dana ( 1 8 5 7 - 1 9 2 8 ) , daughter of Richard Henry Dana, Jr. 5. T h e Dresden Gallery, essentially the creation of Augustus III ( i 7 3 3 - 1 7 6 3 ) , contains among its many treasures Raphael's Sistine Madonna. Only a small part of the collection could have been sent on loan to England. 6. An estate near Lynn established by Richard Sullivan Fay ( 1 6 0 2 . 1 2 ) , father of William Pickman Fay ( i 8 0 6 . 1 ) .

72

NAHANT, 2393.

1866

To ]ohn Owen

Nahant Aug 16 1866 My Dear Owen, Your letter, just received, seems to threaten something so formidable, that I can not think of encountering it here by the sea-side, for fear I might be tempted to drown myself in despair. I must wait till I get back to Cambridge, when you may open your batteries upon me, while I take shelter behind my books. 1 Meanwhile I am very thankful to you for giving yourself so much trouble. I did not mean to impose so heavy a burden upon you; but to have you read just as much and just as little as you found pleasant. I suppose we shall stay here till the middle of September, that being the usual time, though I find it rather dreary. Charlie has gone to England in the Yacht "Alice" — and made the passage in nineteen days. Ernest is in Switzerland climbing mountains; and Mr. Appleton is also absent, which makes a great difference in a windy house by the sea. With many thanks Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. P.S. Mr. Wyeth of Cambridge^ wants me to increase my subscription for Portland. Please put me down for another hundred dollars. MANUSCRIPT: University of Washington Library. 1. In a letter of August 14 Owen had implied that he had found so many errors in the "Notes and Illustrations" for the Divine Comedy translation that Longfellow and "all other critical eyes before me" ought to be placed in the tenth circle of the Inferno. "I have saved you from so severe and deserved a fate but I must keep you in the useful state of Purgatory awhile before you can be admitted to the heavenly light of my galaxy of corrections." 2. Presumably Benjamin Francis Wyeth ( 1 8 1 2 - 1 8 9 0 ) , sexton and undertaker. First Church and Shepard Congregational Society, and Overseer of the Poor, Cambridge.

2394.

To James Thomas Fields

Nahant Aug 19 1866 M y Dear Fields The more I think of it, the more unwilling I am to let Parsons or any one else see the Dante, before the final corrections are made. Pray keep it close. N o good can come from showing it to anyone. I was sorry not to see you on Wednesday, when I was in town, but was too much in haste to wait for you. Welch and Bigelow have not sent me any proofs of [the] Dante Index for the last three weeks. Judge from this when the work will be finished. I am sorry they have changed the order of the poems in "Flower-de-Luce" 73

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

and cannot see the need thereof. How many Illustrations do you intend to have? I suppose that wherever there is a blank space you will hang up a picture.^ Yours ever H.W.L. P.S. Will you be kind enough to get these two books for me, and send by Johnson's Express? Grindon; Life, its Nature, Varieties and Phenomena. Phenomena of Plant life. (Lippincott & Co)^ MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

1. Fields responded on August 20: "I dont know precisely how many engravings there will be in your lovely book, but in a few days shall be able to tell you" ( M S , Henry E. Huntington Library). See 2380.2. 2. Leopold Hartley Grindon, Life: Its Nature, Varieties, and Phenomena (Philadelphia: Lippincott & Company, 1866) and Phenomena of Plant Life (Boston: Nichols & Noyes, 1866).

2395.

To Mark Merrill Stanfield

Nahant Aug 22 1866. M y Dear Mr. Stanfield, I am extremely obliged to you for your kind remembrance in sending me Harry's Journal, which I have read with great pleasure and interest. It is very clever and very amusing, and very much like Harry. You almost think you hear him talking, as you read. I will keep the Journal with care, and return it safely to you, either by mail or by private hand. But first, if you have no objection, I should like to show it to the Clarks. I hope you cut from the papers any notices you see of the "Alice." They are a part of her history and ought to be preserved. With much regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

2396.

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

To William Dean Howells

Nahant Aug 25 1866 My Dear Mr. Howells, I am very much obliged to you for your kind remembrance and for the great pleasure you have given me in your new book.^ I have read it with true delight, and not without some pangs of regret, for it makes me feel how 74

NAHANT,

1866

much I missed seeing in Venice, and how little I really saw of what I did see, by being there at a wrong season. Clearly I must do it all over again. Your book is full of light and color, and that insight into life, without which a book is not a book, but a volume only. I heartily congratulate you on your success. It is curious that the two most poetical books about Venice should have been written by persons bearing the same name; I mean yours and the "Signorie of Venice" by another Howells,! some two centuries ago, a curious work and well worth reading.^ Surely my memory cannot be playing me false, though it is many years, say thirty, since I saw it. With kind regards to Mrs. Howells,® I remain Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

1. Venetian Life ( N e w York, 1 8 6 6 ) . 2. James Howell ( i 5 9 4 ? - ! 6 6 6 ) , English author and friend of Ben Jensen, wrote S.P.Q.V., A Survey of the Seignorie of Venice, of her admired policy, and method of government, &c (London, 1651]). 3. Howells had married Elinor Gertrude Mead ( 1 8 3 7 - 1 9 1 0 ) of Brattleboro, Vt., in J 862.

2397.

To Luigi Monti

Nahant Aug 30 1866. My Dear Mr. Monti, At length the Segestano Wine has arrived, and has been sent to me here at the sea-side! Yesterday I opened the first bottle. It is delicate and delicious, and has not suffered from the voyage across the Atlantic, as some Italian wines do. It is alike beautiful in color and in taste. I forget whether Redi mentions it; but I will, if I ever write a "Bacco in Sicilia," and dethrone Montepulciano. That King is dead. Long live King Segestano!^ I am greatly obliged to you for your kind remembrance, and particularly grateful that you expressed it in such a juice as this. And so much do I like the wine, that I much desire not as a gift, but in the way of business, a whole cask of it, say some thirty or forty gallons. Can this be brought about? If so, be kind enough to send it, and I will pay to your order.® Charley has at last realized the dream of his youth, and gone with a couple of friends to England in a yacht of some fifty tons! A little thing to cross the sea in; but she accomplished the task in nineteen days — "the happiest nineteen days of his life," says Charley. They are now enjoying themselves among the yachtsmen at the Isle of Wight. It is possible they may try the Mediterranean this Winter; but I doubt it, as Mr. Appleton, who owns the "Alice," thinks her too small for comfort in rough seas, and your sea can do a good deal in that way, when it sets about it. So I do not think they will venture. 75

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Our political sky looks dark and dreary. President Johnson is pardoning and "reconstructing" all the greatest rebels and greatest rascals of the South. The New Orleans' massacre is the result;^ and they already threaten, that if the Autumn elections go against the President's policy, (as they most undoubtedly will) they will have another civil war. They are incurably insane. I am very sorry that our party is so situated, that no member of it can say a good word for you with any chance of being listened to!^ With renewed thanks and kind regards to Mrs. Monti Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. See 485.4. In his response of December 6, 1866, Monti wrote: "I am sure that Redi does not mention it, for it was not in existence then, and is not in the market now . . . This 'Segestano' was a caprice, as they call it, of a private gentleman." 2. Monti answered that he had been unable to execute the commission because the agent had left Palermo to escape the cholera. On December 25, 1866, he wrote to say that he had shipped an octave of the wine aboard the bark Edwin. In an unrecovered letter of May 29, 1867, Longfellow reported its safe arrival. 3. On July 30, 1866, a state convention assembled in N e w Orleans to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment. When officials attempted to suppress the convention on the grounds that it had fallen into the hands of political agitators, a riot developed in which about 40 men were killed and 160 wounded. 4. Monti, who owed his consulship in Palermo to Sumner (see 1 8 5 6 . 1 ) , felt that his position was precarious under the Johnson administration. In his letter of December 6 he wrote: "As to myself I can only say that I have faithfully served the Govt, of the U.S. and will continue to do so. But if they see fit to remove me merely on political grounds I have nothing to complain of, though it would be very hard for me just now."

2398.

To Charles Appleton

Longfellow

[Nahant, August, i866]i C.A.L. in account with Baring Bros. Baring Bros' Account up to Aug 8th as sent to me is £70. I shall pay this when I get home. It will leave you something over $5000. in Bank. You have now to your credit $5711.22. Tell Uncle Tom I have his letter and will write soon. If you meet in London a Poet by the name of [Alfred Bate] Richards, remember me to him. He has been in the Mediterranean with his yacht, and can advise you. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. This note is possibly part of the second "regular" letter to Charles Longfellow, unrecovered, that is mentioned in Letter No. 2401.

76

NAHANT, 2399.

T o Ernest Wadsworth

1866

Longfellow

Nahant Sept 2 1866 M y Dear Erny, I am really grieved that our letters do not reach you more regularly. I answer everyone of yours; and so does Alice; and we cannot account for delay and non-arrival. Both of your letters, T h u n Aug 8, and Hôtel du Glacier du Rhone July 24. came safely.^ Your account of the ascent of Monte Rosa is very interesting and exciting. But why will you climb every mountain you see? Is not one enough? I hope it is all over now; for I think you have been in greater peril this Summer than Charley, who is now among the English yachts at the Isle of Wight. I thought you might join him there; and wonder you do not. It will be very pleasant, visiting the various English and French ports in this easy fashion. Mr. Zerdahelyi was here two days ago. He asked after you and Uncle Sam, and speaking of Charley's trip to England said, "It must have hurt his spine, rowing so far; though I suppose they must have sailed part of the way!" Uncle Tom does not mean that they shall come back in the Alice; at all events not this Autumn. T h e greatest sensation here just now is Mr. Sumner's engagement to a beautiful young widow of Boston, Mrs. Alice Hooper, sister of Mrs. Chs. Appleton.2 This is a very nice thing for the Senator, and equally so for the lady. That is all the news I can send you; unless I tell you that Hatty Spelman is here, and Dora and Mary Clark,® making Alice a visit. T h e addition to the house is a great improvement, and we have so many bedrooms we hardly know what to do with them. Trap is pining away. I am afraid he is "going to hook it," as an Englishman said to me the other day about his wife; — "By George, I thought she was going to hook it." [Charles Taylor] Lovering has been in the Adirondacks. Since his return he has been laid up with boils on his neck, poor fellow. Bathing, boating and croquet, about as usual. Our politics look very dark and threatening. Mr. Johnson grows worse and worse, and if he is not checked by an overwhelming majority in the Fall elections, will perhaps try something in the old Cromwell style, and we shall have another Civil War, which God avert. I fear he is capable of any iniquity. Boasting of his obs[c]ure origin in one of his stump speeches the other day, he said " T h e Lord of the Universe was a Tailor, and made clothes for Adam and Eve." Such is the report.^ I hope he did not say it, for it shows a vulgarity of mind and want of reverence greatly to be dreaded. As to your coming home this Autumn with Uncle Sam, I shall leave you to decide what you think best for yourself. I should like to have you here on your twenty first birthday; but it would hardly be worth while to come only for that, unless you would stay over the Winter. Let me know in your

77

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next how far you still cherish the artistic project, and somewhat more definitely about your plans in general. Among other items of property coming to you when you are of age, will be some ten or twelve thousand dollars in cash, which I must reinvest for you. I think I had better put most of it into the Cambridge Horse R.R. unless something better offers when the time comes. If you do not come home in the Autumn, send me by U.S. a Power of Attorney to act for you, signed by yourself and witnessed by him; like this "I hereby authorize H.W.L. to act as my Attorney, with power of transfer, in receipt of all dividends due me, and in their investment." That will be enough. As usual, all send you and Uncle Sam much love. Ever affectionately H.W.L. Alice writes you also by this steamer. unrecovered; text from photostat, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

MANUSCRIPT;

1. These letters are unrecovered. 2. See 2376.3. Mrs. Hooper's sister, Isabella Mason ( 1 8 3 5 - 1 8 6 9 ) , was the wife of Charles Hook Appleton ( 1 8 3 3 - 1 8 7 4 ) , son of William Appleton ( 5 1 3 . 2 ) . 3. Mary Preston Clark ( 1 8 3 0 - 1 9 2 0 ) . 4. President Johnson's remark, reported variously by the newspapers, was made to members of the Journeymen Tailors' Protective Union in Philadelphia on August 29. See the Boston Advertiser, C V I I I , No. 51 (August 30, 1 8 6 6 ) .

2400.

To Sophia Peabody

Hawthorne

Nahant Sept 8 1866 My Dear Mrs. Hawthorne, I have received from Mr. Fields the Journal of Twenty Days, and have read it with deep interest. It is very simple and sweet; and brings out the tenderness of Hawthorne's character, that some day or other it must be published, to round out and complete any description of him. The only question is as to when and how it had best appear. In the Life of Hawthorne which must and will be written, it would make an admirable chapter by itself. If it is not thought adviseable to use it in this way, then it should come in to the last volume of his works. It would close the whole like a strain of tender music. Or if the works as now printed are in c[h]ronological order, this might find its place in the appropriate volume. I am very fond of following the order of time, in publishing a complete collection of an author's works. This consideration may be of some weight with Mr. Fields also.^ With many thanks, I remain Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow 78

NAHANT,

1866

MANUSCRIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library. I. Fields had sent Hawthorne's "Journal of Twenty Days" to Longfellow on September 4 with Mrs. Hawthorne's request for a judgment of its merits. Perhaps as a result of this letter, the journal was never published. It was finally printed privately in N e w York in 1904 (together with a facsimile of Longfellow's letter) under the title Twenty Days with ]uUan and Little Bunny. See BAL 7646.

2401.

To Charles Appleton

Longfellow

Nahant Sept 10 1866. M y Dear Charley Thanks for your letter of Aug. 20. "off the Hampshire coast," with a view of the Cowes' Parade and the Photograph of Sir John Franklin.^ I am sorry to learn from it, however, that you have received from me only the little note enclosed in Uncle Tom's, as I had previously written you two regular letters, hoping you would find one of them waiting for you on your arrival. You are mistaken in thinking I have written any discouraging letters to Uncle Tom. I have only said to him what I said to you, that I did not think it safe to come [home] in the "Alice." To the Mediterranean I have no particular objections; unless those who have been there in yachts dissuade you, as it is a rough and disagreeable winter sea.^ Nathan has been here this morning. He takes the French steamer for Havre on the 6th. October, and wants you to meet him there, and go with him to St. Petersburg in November.® Rather an odd season for going North; but I suppose he knows best. He says he shall write to you on the subject, so I will say no more. We have had great pleasure in reading Harry's Journal and Arthur's Log, in addition to your own. You have no doubt had a delightful time. The Telegram by Atlantic Cable produced a sensation at Nahant. But I wrote you about that before. This is my third letter, besides the note in Uncle Tom's. I am afraid that letters from Nahant miscarry. Emy complains bitterly that he gets none. It is not our fault. The only news I have to send you is that of Mr. Sumner's engagement to Mrs. Hooper, a young and beautiful widow, and sister of Mrs. Chs. Appleton. They are to be married in October. Sumner's friends are rejoiced, and his enemies furious. We leave Nahant this week; and I shall not be sorry to be in Cambridge. Poor Trap has been pining away all Summer. At one time I thought he was on his last legs; but Fay took him to Lynnmere for a few days; and his "native air" set him up again. Besides his illness he has been almost devoured by the "industrious fleas."^ I am going to turn all my 7.30s in[to] 5.20s; and then into 10.40s, by which 79

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S C O R E

Y E A R S

I shall m a k e a c o n s i d e r a b l e g a i n a n d a m o r e p e r m a n e n t i n v e s t m e n t . ® S h a l l I do the same w i t h yours? L o v e to all of y o u f r o m all of us, a n d t h i n k of m e a l w a y s as Affectionately Yours H.W.L. P.S. T e l l A r t h u r that his sisters M a r y a n d D o r a are h e r e w i t h us, a n d w e are a v e r y p l e a s a n t p a r t y . MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collecrion. Answered / Oct 14th 1866 / H . W . L .

ENDORSEMENT (hy Charles

Longfellow):

1. Charles's stationery was decorated with a view entitled "West Cowes Parade. Isle of Wight." Sir John Franklin ( 1 7 8 6 - 1 8 4 7 ) , arctic explorer, died while searching for the Northwest Passage. 2. Charles had written; " N o w my dear Governor you mustn't write discouraging letters to Uncle T . telling him not to let us come home in the boat or go up the Mediterranean this winter because the little 'Alice' can go anywhere where there is seven feet of water." On October 14 he wrote again from London: "Your making Uncle T . promise not to let me come home in the 'Alice' was too scrubly for words to express and I shant tell you how I feel [about] it until I get home.' 3. Nathan Appleton ( 1 5 4 4 . 5 ) sailed from N e w York on the Ville de Paris and met Charles in Paris on October 21, 1866. See Appleton's account of their subsequent adventures together in Russian Life and Society (Boston, 1904). 4. Trap's devotion to Charles became a family legend. Several hours after the Alice sailed for England he was discovered aboard and had to be sent back to Nahant on a coaster. See Charles Longfellow's M S Log, July 1 1 , 1 8 6 6 . 5. That is, he was going to convert his 7.30% U . S . Treasury notes, which were apparently about to mature, into 6% U.S. bonds issued during the Civil War (redeemable in five years and payable in twenty) and then into 5% U . S . bonds issued in 1864 (redeemable in ten years and payable in forty). How he was to make "a considerable gain" by this maneuver is not entirely clear, but it at least assured him an investment at 5% until 1874.

2402.

T o Ernest

Wadsworth

Longfellow Nahant

Sept 1 2

1866

M y Dear E m y , I h a v e just r e c e i v e d y o u r letter of A u g u s t 30. f r o m M u n i c k , * a n d a m a good deal distressed b y it. Y o u are e v i d e n t l y not w e l l ; a n d w i t h y o u r headaches, it w o u l d b e f o l l y to t h i n k of s t u d y i n g a n d w o r k i n g in Italy this w i n t e r . Y o u m u s t c o m e h o m e , a n d p u t yourself u n d e r some r e g u l a r course of treatm e n t . S o c o m e at once w i t h U n c l e S a m , a n d w e w i l l see w h a t can b e d o n e f o r y o u here. A s to its b e i n g y o u r d u t y to go to R o m e , that is all in y o u r i m a g i n a t i o n . Y o u r first d u t y is to get w e l l . A n d the best w a y to do that is to c o m e h o m e , since f o r e i g n travel has d o n e little or n o t h i n g f o r y o u in that w a y . I c o n f e s s I t h o u g h t the v o y a g e w o u l d c u r e y o u ; a n d I h a v e b e e n v e r y sorry to find it w a s not so. N o r has t r a v e l l i n g b e e n a n y better f o r y o u , a p p a r e n t l y .

NAHANT,

1866

Therefore the only thing that remains is to come back and take a fresh start. Please consider this as an order to return.^ I shall send this to Barings Bros. Alice also writes you to-day, and will send to Munroe & Co. so that you may get one or the other letter in season to come with Uncle Sam. B y the last steamer I sent you Silvain's Bill,^ which he says you forgot on leaving Paris. If the letter should not reach you do not forget to call and pay his bill. At the last accounts Charley with Uncle T o m were at Cherbourg with the yacht "Alice." T h e y have enjoyed themselves very much at the various ports in the British Channel, and now are mad enough to want to come back in the "Alice," which at this season would be extremely unpleasant, not to say dangerous. W e have had Charley's Journal, and Harry Stanfield's, and Arthur Clarke's all of which are different in style, and all very interesting. To-day is Wednesday, and on Friday we go back to Cambridge. Miss Dora and Mary Clarke are still with us; and Hattie [Spelman], and Henrietta Dana. T h e house is full of young people; but the Summer has been rather wet and windy, and I for one shall not be sorry to get home. Nathan has just got back from Newport, where he was thrown from his horse in a race on the beach. N o damage done. H e leaves in the French Steamer of the 8th Oct. on his way to Paris and St. Petersburg. He hopes to meet Charley and take him on the journey. W h a t does he expect to do in Russia in Winter? Trap is in declining health. He seems extremely old, and is evidently on his last legs. He is also extremely unhappy with fleas; and generally miserable. I fear he will not survive the Summer. Give much love to Uncle Sam. W e shall all be very glad to see you back again, and will celebrate your birth-day in grand style. And that reminds me, that it will be well for you to be here for the satisfactory arrangement of business matters, about which I wrote to you in my last. T o be sure, this would not be enough of itself to bring you back, but I think it would be better to have you here, when you come of age. After that you will be your own master, and can do as you please. W e shall look for you in the last week of October; and I suppose the French steamers are as good as the English. October is a pleasant month to cross the Atlantic and we shall all be so glad to see you that you will not regret coming. I wrote you about Mr. Sumner's engagement [to] Mrs. Hooper, a young widow, sister of Mrs. Chs. Appleton; but as you get only one letter out of two, I repeat the news. Ever affectionately H.W.L. P.S. I am glad you have done climbing mountains. That is enough to make anybody's head ache. 8 I

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MANUSCRIPT; unrecoveied; text from photostat, Longfellow Trust Collection fellow H o u s e ) .

(Long-

1. Unrecovered. 2. T h e exact date of Ernest's return to Cambridge is uncertain, but he was home on his birthday, November 23. 3. Unidentified.

2403.

T o George Washington

Greene Cambridge

Sept 13 1866

M y Dear Greene, I do not undertake to write you a letter, but only to say that w e returned home this afternoon. About the same time arrived the enclosed,^ which you see I forward without delay. W h a t do you think of Sumner's engagement?^ D o you remember our talk about [it], as w e paced to and fro on the N a h a n t Piazza? H o w strange it seems to me. I can hardly believe it yet. I see in the papers the death of Professor Porter. T h i s must be your brotherin-law, and I grieve for your wife's sake and yours.® I hope soon to hear from you and to know that you are all well. Ever Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. T h e proof sheets of Flower-de-Luce. Greene wanted them so that he could write a notice of the volume. 2. Greene replied on September 25: "I am glad of Sumner's engagement tho' I see all the risk. It seems to me much in his favor that she is a widow for a woman w h o has been once married knows beforehand that she must expect to find her husband's habits formed and that both his and her chances of happiness depend upon her trying to adapt herself to them." 3. John Addison Porter ( 2 1 9 6 . 3 ) had died in N e w Haven on August 25.

2404.

To Charlotte

Fiske Bates^

Cambridge Sept 26 1866 IIDear Miss Bates,||2 I have been so very busy since receiving your letter, that I have not found a leisure moment to answer it till now. W h a t I said in regard to publishing was based on general principles only, and had no particular reference to the nature of the poems. I merely meant to say, that what is once published can never be unpublished, and therefore that it is better to wait and weigh the matter well. I cannot say that I like your n e w title much better than the old one. It is 82

CAMBRIDGE,

1866

always a difficult task to name a book; but I am sure something will occur to you preferable to either. As to the Dedication, it will give me much pleasure to accept it.^ With my best wishes I remain Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCKIPT:

Gene G. Freeman, Santa Ana, Cal.

1. Miss Bates ( 1 8 3 8 - 1 9 1 6 ) , a schoolteacher and aspiring poet of Cambridge, wrote twenty-seven recovered letters to Longfellow between 1866 and 1882. On September 16 she addressed him on the subject of a volume of poems that she wished to publish: "I remember, sir, that you said 'if once out, there is no withdrawal.' May I ask whether it occurred to you that I might regret the publication of some of the pieces on account of the sentiment or rather the too open display of it? I have thought of changing the name to 'Moods.' Do you think that appropriate? One question more. If I conclude to publish them would you accept the dedication to yourself?" 2. T h e salutation has been expunged. 3. Miss Bates's volume seems not to have been published. Under her married name of Rogé she published Risk, and Other Poems (Boston, 1 8 7 9 ) , but it is not dedicated to Longfellow.

2405.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Sept 28. 1866. My Dear Greene, For the first time in my life I was this morning stung by a wasp. He alighted on my fore finger, and without provocation whipped out his rapier, and gave me such a thrust, that it has almost paralyzed my hand. The pain went to my elbow, and I had a taste of galvanism on the tip of my tongue. This being a new experience and a new sensation, I record it here, and proceed. Your entanglement in the thickets of 1778,^ is not unlike mine at this moment in the Tenth Canto of Paradiso, among the innumerable Saints. My Notes upon that Canto will amaze you. They are almost as voluminous as the writings of Albertus Magnus; namely, twenty one volumes folio. However, I have got through it, or nearly so; but have found it pretty hard work to compress Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis and the rest into their several nutshells.^ Sumner is busy at work on a Lecture, which he is to deliver on Tuesday next,'' and on Tuesday last had only begun. What confidence Sumner has in Sumner. I would not trust H.W.L. to that amount, nor would you G.W.G. Erny will be back in November, for his twenty-first birthday. I hope you will be able to combine that with Ristori.^ Let me close with a blossom from St. Bonaventura: "The best perfection 83

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of a religious man is to do common things in a perfect manner. A constant fidelity in small things is a great and heroic virtue."® With kind regards to your mother, and wife and children Ever Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Greene had written on September 25 that he had reached the year 1778, "the hardest part of the whole work," in his biography of Gen. Nathanael Greene. 2. Longfellow's notes for Canto X constitute over seventeen pages of the Standard Library Edition of Paradiso. See Works, XI, 2 1 3 - 2 3 1 . 3. Sumner delivered an address entitled ' T h e One Man Power vs. Congress" at the Music Hall, Boston, on October 2. See Sumner Works, XI, 1 - 3 9 . 4. Adelaide Ristori ( 1 8 2 2 - 1 9 0 6 ) , Italian tragedienne, gave ten dramatic presentations at the Boston Theatre between October 29 and November 10. 5. Giovanni di Fidanza, Saint Bonaventura ( 1 2 2 1 - 1 2 7 4 ) , Itahan scholastic philosopher, appears in the Paradiso, XII, 1 2 7 - 1 2 9 . See Longfellow's note. Works, X I , 2 4 5 247, in which he quotes this passage.

2406.

To Epes Sargent

Cambridge Sept 29 1866. My Dear Sir, I should be happy to aid in this work if I could; but it will not be convenient for me to do so. I must therefore return the list without my signature.^ I remain Your Obt. Sert. Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCKIPT:

University of Washington Library.

I. Sargent had vnritten on September 10: "Do me the favor to put your name down on the enclosed for 4 copies, and I will see they are paid for in advance. / I told the young lady I thought I could get your autograph for her list." T h e exact nature of the list is not known.

2407.

To Josiah Pierce

Cambridge Oct 4. 1866. My Dear Mr. Pierce, Allow me the pleasure of introducing to you my young friend and brotherin-law, Mr. Nathan Appleton of Boston, who proposes to pass a week or two in St. Petersburg. Anything you may have it in your power to do to render his stay agreeable, will be gratefully acknowledged by him and by me.^ 84

CAMBRIDGE,

1866

I hope that Mrs. Pierce^ has reached you safely, and that you are all well and happy. I remain, with greatest regard Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCBIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, ADDRESS: Josiah Pierce Esq / St. Petersburg. / Presenting Mr. Appleton. ENDOBSEMENT: Prof. Longfellow. / Reed Dec 1 7 . 1866. 1. After his term as U . S . Secretary of Legation in St. Petersburg (see 1 5 1 7 . 3 ) , Pierce remained in Russia as an associate of the American railroad engineering firm of Harrison, Winans, & Eastwick. 2. Martha Lander Pierce (d. 1 8 7 3 ) .

2408.

To Thomas Amory Deblois

Cambridge Oct 13 1866 Dear Mr. Deblois, A day or two ago I had the pleasure of forwarding to you by my nephew [William Pitt Preble Longfellow] a presentation copy of Mr. Ferguson's "America during and after the War,"i which I hope has reached you safely and found favor in your sight. He will be much gratified to have a line from you in return; and for fear that you may have forgotten his address, here it is. "Robert Ferguson Esq, Morton near Carlisle, Cumberland, England." I remain, Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow T. A. Deblois Esqre. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from photocopy. University of Washington Library. I. See 2 1 7 7 . 1 .

2409.

To George Washington Greene Camb. Oct. 15. 1866.

My Dear Greene Who wrote a poem with this passage in it; "Deep beneath the graves of men Lie graves of cities."^ I ought to know, but cannot remember. In great haste Ever Yours H.W.L.2 85

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YEARS

P.S. How are you all at East Greenwich? How goes on the work? I believe Sumner is to be married this week, but do not know the day.·"^ I suppose the wedding will be very quiet. I am now in Paradiso XVI. with my Notes; — among the dead old Florentines — the West End and Fifth Avenue of the Past. To-day I have to write letters and cannot bring my mind to it. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Longfellow apparently wished to use this quotation in a note to Paradiso, X V I , 7 3 - 7 8 . In his response of October 1 7 Greene wrote that he did not know "where the verses you ask about are to be found." 2. T h e instruction "Over." follows the signature. 3. October 1 7 . See 2з"7б.з.

2410.

To Edwin Percy

Whipple

Cambridge. Oct 15. 1866. My Dear Whipple, Many thanks for your beautiful book,^ which I have read in part, and in part am still reading, with great pleasure and satisfaction. The an[a]lytical power in literature has always been the wonder of my life. Having none of it myself, I am always amazed how you and St Beuve and others — not many others however — can do it so easily and gracefully. I congratulate you on this power, and on the illustration of it in your book. Of the two successes, which appertain to books — the internal and the external — you have secured one. I hope the other will not lag behind, but be swift and lasting. In this belief, and nothing doubting, I remain Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library. I. Character and Characteristic Men (Boston, 1 8 6 6 ) .

2411.

To Charles Sumner

Cambridge Oct 18 1866 My Dear Sumner, As we sat at dinner yesterday and just as the clock struck three the postman brought the photograph of the Beautiful Lady. The little girls were delighted; and each in turn as she looked at it exclaimed; "Perfectly lovely!" This I thought a good augury. So was the bright day, the golden sunshine, and the autumnal trees, with their blazing torches, lighting your way to Newport. 86

CAMBRIDGE,

1866

Give my kindest regards to your Alice. Mine ardently desires another photograph for her own special use; and I have volunteered to make known her wish. You have your Paradiso. For me nothing remains but to make notes on mine. To that I turn; and begin to-day with canto XVII. the prophecy of Dante's banishment, with the pane altrui and the altrui scale} Ever truly H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I . Paradiso, X V I I , 59-60 : "bread of others" and "another's stairs."

2412.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Oct 19 1866 My Dear Fields Whom am I to thank for the beautiful engraving of Lincoln? Is it a present from anybody, or did I subscribe for it? A day or two ago, a stranger called here and asked if Shakespeare lived in this neighborhood. I told him I knew no such person.^ Do you? Ever Yours truly H.W.L. P.S. I shall send the sheets of "Flower de Luce" to Routledge by next steamer. Read the enclosed. I am rather glad you have been forestalled. The "Landscape Illustrations of Dante" is fresher and finer, than these ghosts, which everybody has seen.^ P.S. I return the two Sketch Books, which have been much admired and given great pleasure. MANUSCRIPT: Henry E. Huntington Library. 1 . See Longfellow's journal, October 17, 1866 ( L i f e , III, 79). 2. T h e "enclosed" refers to a notice from an unidentified newspaper, pasted to the top of the sheet: "FINE-ART GOSSIP. / N o publication of the season will surpass in artistic interest of the highest order that by Messrs. Bell & Daldy of the entire series of Flaxman's noble designs to the Divine Poem of Dante, the three sections of which comprise not fewer than 108 compositions in outline. T h e original plates, untouched, are used for this purpose. T h e comparatively small number of impressions that were in the first instance taken from these plates, no less than the severe and broad manner of their execution, admit of little question as to the perfect state of the re-issue." T h e publication of Illustrations of the Divine Poem of Dante Alighieri by }. Flaxman. With descriptions from the translation of the Rev. H . F. Сагу (London; Bell & Daldy, 1 8 6 7 ) frustrated a plan by Fields to issue a book to be entitled Landscape Illustrations of Dante with explanatory descriptions from Longfellow's translation. Fields seems later to have considered an edition of the Divine Comedy to be called the Landscape Edition.

87

THREE 2413.

To George Washington

SCORE

YEARS

Greene

Camb. Oct 19. 1866. M y Dear Greene, T h e most important works for you to consult on the American Quartermaster's Department are Byerlink's Theatrum Mundi and Muratori's Scrip. Rer. Ital.^ in the Harvard College Library. Moreover next week is the Club dinner, and you can see practically how that Department is managed in Boston. Next week, also, I expect Erny; and it would be very pleasant to have you here, when he arrives. Thanks for your note and its enclosure.^ T h e other day a stranger came to see Washington's Head Quarters. Among other things he asked me "if a person named Shakespeare had a residence near here." I told him I knew no one of that name in the neighborhood! Sumner is in Newport. He was married on Wednesday last; but I was not at the Wedding. N o one was invited except the family. Ever Yours H.W.L. P.S. I hurry this note, because the morning is so lovely, that I long to be out of doors, and take my walk under the trees on the old familiar road town ward. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Laurentius Beyerlinck, Magnum Theatrum Vitee Humanse ( L u g d u n i , 1 6 7 8 ) , 8 vols., and Lodovico Antonio Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scríptores (Mediolani, 1 7 2 3 1 7 5 1 ) , 25 vols. 2. T h e note was dated October 17; the enclosure is unidentified.

2414.

To с harles Sumner

Camb. Oct 21 1866 Dear Lover and Senator, Yesterday I overheard a conversation, which gave me great pleasure, though not intended for my ears. I was in the Library consulting some book. At the other end of the room by the window were Edie and Annie, looking with delight at the photograph of your wife. Edie said with great emphasis, " O Mr. Sumner, how I envy you!" T o which Annie replied "So do I, immensely!" If I am fond and foolish enough to report this to you, it all comes from what you said of my little girls while you paced down my steps for the last time as a bachelor. Meanwhile, intoxicated with the "eau-de-Dantzig" of this lovely October weather, and its floating golden leaves, you are dreaming the dream of dreams, or rather seeing the vision of visions.

88

CAMBRIDGE,

1866

Greene came last night; and we have had a great deal to say about you. His mind is much disturbed by [George] Bancroft's last volume, in which he says there are some very injurious and unjust strictures upon General Greened Alice is much gratified and delighted with the photograph. W h a t a beautiful thing is the enthusiasm of woman for women. I have never seen it touched upon in fiction, that I remember, though I dare say it has been. Farewell. Greene joins me in kindest remembrance to you and yours. Ever truly H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. See History of the United States, From the Discovery of the American Continent to the Present Time (Boston and London, 1866), Vol. IX. Greene's anger at the "very injurious and unjust strictures" upon his grandfather provoked him into publishing a pamphlet entitled An Examination of Some Statements concerning Major-General Greene, in the Ninth Volume of Bancroft's History of the United States (Boston, 1866), to which Bancroft responded with a letter to the editors of the North American Review printed in C I V (April 1867), 662-674. Greene's rebuttal in a letter dated May 9, 1867, appeared in the Review, C V (July 1867), 332-351. A summary of the controversy is contained in Justin Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America . (Boston and New York, 1884-1889), VIII, 478η.

2415.

To Romeo

Cantagalli

(Answer) ^ Cambridge Oct 23 1866 Dear Sir I have had the honor of receiving your letter of the i8th inst. with the Diploma and Cross of the Order of S.S. Maurizio and Lazzaro. If as an American citizen, a Protestant and Republican I could consistently accept an Order of Knighthood, there is no one from whom I would more willingly receive it, than from the Restorer of the Unity of Italy,^ a sacred cause, which has, and has always had, my most sincere and fervent sympathy. I trust, therefore, that you will not regard it as the slightest disrespect either to your Sovereign or to yourself, if, under these circumstances, I feel myself constrained to decline the honor proposed. With expressions of great regard and consideration, I remain Your Obt. Sert. H.W.L Signor Romeo Cantagalli. Incavicato d'Affari, etc. etc. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection,

PUBLISHED: Life, III, 81.

1. This word suggests that the following letter is a copy of the one actually sent. T h e M S Letter Calendar gives the date as October 24. 2. Victor Emmanuel II (1820-1878). 89

THREE 2416.

SCORE

YEARS

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Oct25 1866 My Dear Fields, I have just reed, the enclosed from its builder, who desires to know if it be sea-worthy and fit to sail the "Atlantic." I pass it on to the chief authorities to determine.! Thanks for the beautiful edition of Poems.^ The type looks now just large enough. As usual you were right. Yours ever H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: University of Washington Library. 1. T h e enclosure is unidentified. 2. Possibly the Blue and Gold Edition ( B A L 1 2 4 8 7 ) .

2417.

To Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Cambridge Oct 26 1866 My Dear Mr. Aldrich, How beautiful your little book is; — first the story itself, then the style in which it is printed. One can almost forgive the printers for cutting down the great willow at the corner, when one looks at this book. It makes me wish, also, that the same penalty, which still protects Père Antoine's Date Palm, had protected Père Brackett's Willow.^ With kind regards to Mrs. Aldrich,^ Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. 1. On October 18 Aldrich had sent Longfellow a copy of his privately printed Père Antoine's Date Palm (Cambridge, 1866). T h e penalty that protected the palm was loss of the lot on which it grew if it were cut down (p. 6). Welch, Bigelow & Company were the printers who removed the willow tree owned by Père Braclcett (possibly Joseph Brackett, sexton of the First Parish Church, Cambridge). 2. Aldrich had married Lilian Woodman ( 1 8 4 1 - 1 9 2 7 ) on November 28, 1865.

2418.

To George Routledge

Cambridge Oct 30 1866 My Dear Sir, By last week's steamer I sent you the advance sheets of a small volume of Poems now in press.^ You may send me what you please in return; and if it should take the shape of a complete set of Bohn's Library,^ I should not be displeased. 90

CAMBRIDGE,

1866

The Dante will hardly appear this year. It has grown to three large octavo volumes, the Notes being ample; and it will take time to print it carefully. Probably it will not be published till a year From this date. As soon' as printed you shall have the advance sheets; and as Mr. Fields says he shall print in Spring, you will have ample time for your edition. As to terms, I will take the one hundred fifty pounds per volume; that is, four hundred fifty for the whole; unless in the meanwhile we can get copyright, in which case some other arrangement might be better for both parties. I hope the "Flower de Luce" will reach you in season for your new "red line" edition, if on account of its small number of pages you should not care to publish it by itself.® I remain Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

1. flower-de-Luce. 2. A series of over 600 volumes published by Henry George Bohn ( 1 7 9 6 - 1 8 8 4 ) , English bookseller and publisher. T h e complete set is in the Longfellow House. 3. For the Red Line edition of Longfellow's poems, see B A L 12499. Routledge published the work separately, however ( B A L 1 2 1 4 3 ) .

2419.

To John

Ned

Cambridge Nov 2 1866 My Dear Neal, I have just had the pleasure of receiving your note, and shall be most happy to cooperate with you in forming the [Pordand] Public Library by sending books and by inducing others to do the same.^ Wishing you complete success. Always Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT;

Sherwood Picking Estate (on deposit. Harvard College Library).

I. Neal's note was dated November i . T h e Portland fire of July 4, 1866, had destroyed the libraries of the Portland Athenaeum, the Portland Society of Natural History, and the Young Men's Christian Association.

9 I

THREE 2420.

To George Washington

SCORE

YEARS

Greene

[Cambridge] From a Romance soon to be issued by Ticknor & Fields.

Nov. 3. 1866.

Chap I. The Cavaliere di San Lazzaro^ sat alone in the banquet hall of Castle Craigie. His children had all gone to the neighboring village to witness the performances of an Ausonian actress named Ristori.^ The repast was one that Brillât Savarin or Lucullus'' might have envied, had they lived at that epoch. The first dish was of scallops, sent from the Island of Rhodes by the Knight of the Green Mande,^ who religiously kept the shells to show that he had been in the land of Outre-Mer. Heroic self-ostracism, uncommon in these days! "O dolce frutta del Mar!" exclaimed the Cavalier, who when under excitement always endeavored to recall the half-forgotten accents of his native tongue; "O pescator dell' onda! Vien pescar in qua! Colla bella sua barca, colla bella se ne va."® When he had rather chanted, than said these words, he drank a goblet of the delicious wine of Trinacria [Sicily], from the vineyards of Colle,® and silently proceeded with his solitary repast, confiding only to the fair handmaiden who waited at the board, his firm belief, that, as far as his memory could be trusted, he had never in his life tasted a more savory dish. A humble saussage, a glass of Claret, from whose parent stock Montaigne, Sire d'Eyquem, or Huon de Bordeaux·^ may have eaten grapes, — a plate of fritters and a pear, completed the repast. Then rising like a giant refreshed the Cavalier withdrew to his donjonkeep® to smoke a cigar from Brazil, brought from that fabulous land by a great Helvetian Philosopher.® MANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

1 . Longfellow. T h e significance of the sobriquet is obscure. 2. Adelaide Ristori ( 2 4 0 5 . 4 ) . 3. Anthelme Brillat-Savarin ( 1 7 5 5 - 1 8 2 6 ) , French politician and gastronomist, and Lucius Licinius Lucullus (c. 1 1 0 - 5 6 B.c.), Roman general and epicure. 4. Greene. 5. " O sweet fruit of the sea . . . О fisherman of the wave! Come do your fishing in here! But with his beautiful boat, with his beauty he goes away." C f . Letter N o . 546. In his M S Journal for April i , 1869, Longfellow calls this the "well-known barcarola of 'Pescator dell' onda.' " 6. Possibly Collesano. 7. Michel Eyquem de Montaigne ( 1 5 3 3 - 1 5 9 2 ) , the French essayist, and Huon de Bordeaux, medieval legendary hero. 8. That is, to his study. 9. Louis Agassiz (see Letter No. 2 3 5 3 ) .

92

C A M B R I D G E ,

2421.

1866

To James Thomas Fields

Cambridge Nov 8 1866. My Dear Fields, I am much obliged to you for the kind offer of the Ristori ticket, but I think I had better not go. I am afraid to trust myself with too much tragedy.^ Tbanks also for the specimens of "Manilla poetry."^ You tell me to keep them in a moist place. Will the human mouth answer the purpose? or shall I throw them into the well? Yours truly H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

1. Ristori presented "Elizabeth, Queen of England" as her farewell performance at a matinee on November 10. See 2405.4. 2. A reference to Manila cigars.

2422.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. NOVIO 1866 My Dear Fields, I am afraid you did not get my note yesterday; and am sorry; for you have been keeping the ticket for me, which so many people want, and which I cannot use. Many thanks; but I am sure I had better not go. Always Yours H.W.L. P.S. I dare say Appleton would be too glad to take the ticket. MANUSCRIPT:

2423.

Longfellow Trust Collection.

To George Washington Greene

Camb. Nov 12 1866. My Dear Greene, Sumner has fixed upon Thursday next [November 15] as the day when he will dine with me; and the hour is 5 o'clock. I hope you will be able to come; as this is the last we shall see of him for a long while. I, knowing how hard it is to go away from home, feel that it is asking a great deal of a man to come so far for a dinner; but then remember the occasion, and the pleasure it will give us both to have you here. In haste Ever Yours H.W.L. P.S. I should have given you longer notice, but Sumner did not let me know till to-day. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 93

THREE 2424.

To George Washington

SCORE

YEARS

Greene

Camb. N 0 V 1 3 1866 My Dear Greene I wrote to you last evening, bidding you to the Sumner feast on Thursday at 5 o'clock; and this morning comes your letter^ saying that I may expect you on Friday. You have only to make it one day earlier, and all will be right. Take the morning train so as to be sure of being here. It would be very disagreeable to have a vacant chair at table. How lucky it is, that you can come just at this time. I shall keep you till Emy's birth day, which comes next week. Ever Yours H.W.L. P.S. Remind me to show you an Article on Sismondi by Ste. Beuve, in his last lundis.^ MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Dated November 12. 2. Nouveaux Lundis (Paris, 1866), V I , 2 4 - 8 1 . T h e article had originally been published in the Constitutionnel on September 14, 1863.

2425.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Nov. 16 i866. M y Dear Sumner, I forgot to say last night that it will give me great pleasure to be with you on Monday [November 19] at six. I trust you reached home safely, and thât you are quite well again to-day, so that I shall see you tomorrow at Agassiz'. I have not yet received Mr. Hooper's pamphlet.^ I shall be most happy if he makes out his case beyond all peradventure; and from what he told me I am inclined to think he does. With kindest regards to your beautiful wife, Ever most truly H.W.L. 17th. Greene is extremely sorry that he cannot join the party. He is obliged to go back on Monday morning, on particular business engagements. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Samuel Hooper, A Defence of the Merchants of Boston against Aspersions of the Hon. ]. Z. Goodrich, ex-Collector of Customs (Boston, 1866). T h e pamphlet was in response to a polemic by John Z. Goodrich (b. 1 8 0 1 ) entitled Exposition of the ]. D. & M . Williams fraud, and of its settlement; the Chenery & co. fraud, and removal of Timothy B. Dix, and Hon. Samuel Hooper's extraordinary report thereon; and other matters at the Boston custom house. By J. Z. Goodrich, who submits the whole as an answer to all specific charges against him, and a vindication of his general conduct and policy as collector (Boston, 1866).

94

CAMBRIDGE, 2426.

1866

To Elizabeth Cary Agassiz

Cambridge Nov. 18. 1866. Dear Mrs. Agassiz, Be kind enough to accept this little volume as a souvenir of our delightful dinner yesterday, and oblige Yours very truly Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

2427.

Harvard College Library.

To Johann Georg Kohl

Cambridge Nov 18 1866 My Dear Dr. Kohl, I have had great pleasure in seeing Miss Traub,^ and thank you very much for giving her a line of introduction to me. It was a pleasure even to see once more your familiar handwriting, and it called up many memories of the past, pleasant in part, painful in part, from the great vicissitudes that have taken place since you were here. I send by Miss Traub a copy of "Evangeline," and also a copy of "Flower de Luce," a new volume of poems just published. Be kind enough to accept them as marks of my friendly remembrance. I enclose, also, a photograph of myself — the last taken, — and beg one of yours in return. It is a long, long time since I heard from you; and I have been prevented from writing by the ever-increasing rubbish of life, the interruptions and engagements, and profitless nothings, that so impede and embarrass one in this world. "Wir allesammt haben etwas vom guten Aschenbrödel!"^ Notwithstanding, I have in these last years finished a translation of the Divina Commedia, and am now just completing the Notes. The work is in the hands of the printer and will be published in three octavo vols, next year. I have done this work, when I could do nothing else, and it has been a great comfort to me. With best wishes, and hopes that you are well and happy, I remain, dear Dr. Kohl, Ever Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Boston Public Library. I. Fanny Traub ( 1 8 2 4 - 1 9 0 9 ) , an unpublished poet of 44 Georgstrasse, Bremen. T h e Longfellow Trust Collection contains eight letters from her, 1 8 6 6 - 1 8 7 7 . z. " W e all have something of the good Cinderella in us!"

95

THREE 2428.

SCORE

YEARS

T o Fanny Trauh

Cambridge Nov 18 1866 Dear Miss Traub, Remembering that when I last had the pleasure of seeing you, you expressed a wish to hear some of the Lectures of Agassiz, I have the pleasure of enclosing some tickets for yourself and for Mr. and Mrs. Bayley.^ I do not know what you will say if I ask you to take charge of still another small parcel for Dr. Kohl, but I shall venture to do so. Begging you to present my compliments to Mr. and Mrs. Bayley I remain Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. P.S. I return, with many thanks, the two volumes you were kind enough to lend me. Dr. Kohl's "Am Wege"^ is very interesting, very thoughtful, and full of that delicate perception, which characterizes all his writings. If you have an opportunity after your return to Bremen, I beg you to thank Dr. Laun for his beautiful translations, which have given me great pleasure.'^ unrecovered; text from photostat, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

MANUSCRIPT;

1. A reference, possibly, to Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin F. Bayley. Bayley (d. 1885, aged seventy) was a commission merchant of 43 Commercial, Boston. 2. Am Wege. Blicke in Gemiith und Welt in Aphorismen (Bremen, 1866). 3. Adolf Laun (1807-1881), German translator and literary historian, published Longfellow's ältere und neuere Gedichte in Auswald (Oldenburg, 1879). T h e translations here referred to were in manuscript.

2429.

T o George Washington

Greene

Camb. Dec. 6. 1866 M y Dear Greene, I have this morning received your letter, and have been at the Printer's. I found him busy with your Pamphlet; and consulted with him about the place to insert the Advertisement of the other books.^ At the end of the Pamphlet, there will be a blank leaf, making pages 87. 88. W e both think that page 87, fronting the last sentence of the book, is the place and not the cover. However it shall be as you direct. I do not like the idea of inserting any extracts from Notices. I should not do it in my own case, and therefore cannot advise it in yours. It seems to me, that it will drag the Pamphlet down to the level of "Ayer's Almanac," in which the astronomical calculations are made subservient to the taking of his pills. As you intend rather to distribute the book freely, than to publish it in the ordinary way, it certainly will look like blowing your own trumpet. I have therefore given the Printer the list^ as enclosed; and will keep the Notices safe till I hear from you again. 96

CAMBRIDGE,

1866

I hope M r . Richard's attack was not serious, and that he has got over it; and moreover that the sadness you found at home is all passed and gone.^ Yours ever H.W.L. P.S. I beg you to thank M r . William for his excellent and cogent article on Duties.^ MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. In a letter of December 4 Greene had asked Longfellow to approve an "extensive puff" of his Historical View of the American Revolution ( 1 9 8 1 . 2 ) that he wished to insert at the end of the pamphlet on Bancroft's History ( 2 4 1 4 . 1 ) ; or, if Longfellow decided against it, to "direct a simple advertisement of the book to be printed on the cover in the usual way." 2. A list, that is, of Greene's works to be included in the simple advertisement. 3. On December 3 Greene had written that his father's first cousin, Richard Ward Greene ( 1 7 9 2 - 1 8 7 5 ) , had suffered an attack of "neuralgia of the heart." The "sadness" refers to the death of the Greene family's dog. 4. "Ad Valorem and Specific Duties," Providence Daily Journal, X X X V I I , No. 289 (November 28, 1866).

2430.

To Robert Charles

Winthrop Cambridge

Dec 7

1866.

M y Dear Sir, It gives me great pleasure to accept your polite invitation for Monday [December 1 0 ] , to meet "the County Paris and the County Palatine," at 6 o'clock. 1 Yours truly H e n r y W , Longfellow. Hon Robert C . Winthrop. MANUSCRIPT: Boston Public Library. I. In a note dated December 7 Winthrop had written: " T w o young French Counts, — [Henri-Pierre Raoul de] Lubersac [ 1 8 4 2 - 1 8 9 0 ] and [Marie-Henri-Guillaume de] Chabrol [ 1 8 4 0 - 1 9 2 1 ] , — of the best character and connections, bring me letters from Prescott's friend and mine. Count de Circourt. Will you let them meet you at dinner at my table on Monday at 6."

2431.

T o George Washington

Greene Cambridge

D e c 10

1866

M y Dear Greene, N o matter; I have saved you from doing something, upon which you could not have looked back with pleasure.^ T h e last sheet goes to press to-day. T h e n a day or two will be needed for

97

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

drying and pressing, then a day or two for binding. On Friday the book will be ready at the binders for you to direct and write "From the Author." I have left word to have two hundred copies done up in wrappers. If you can spare the time, you had better come down, and attend to this matter personally. You may save two or three days by so doing. I return the ardent letter of the lady whose name begins with an aspirate, and ends with five hundred.^ She is a true friend; and as good as "an army with banners."® A very interesting glimpse she gives behind the curtain. Ah, if that curtain would only rise! It will some day. And so farewell till I see you. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1 . In a letter of December 7 Greene had yielded on the subject of the "extensive p u f f " (Letter No. 2429). 2. Mrs. Apphia Horner Howard ( 2 1 1 0 . i ) . Her letter is unrecovered. 3. A friendly twist of the Biblical phrase "terrible as an army with banners" (Song of Sol. 6 : 1 0 ) .

2432.

To Charles Appleton

Longfellow

Cambridge Dec. 13. 1866. My Dear Charley, In my last letter I sent you two or three cards of introduction for St. Petersburg, and added one more in Alice's letter last week. We hear from Mrs. A. that you and Nathan have already left, or were just leaving Paris, and I hope your journey will be pleasant and profitable. Try to make the expenses come within your income; for you have only $1,599.43 now in Bank; as at the beginning of Nov. I paid out to Baring Bros $4,000, making £556.18.7. This I wrote you in my last, but I repeat it here to remind you. In the course of this month and in January something more will be coming in. I cannot say how much, but will keep you advised. If your income next year should be as good as this, you will easily be able to do all you wish in the way of travelling. I suppose you have seen something in some paper about a yacht-race to England. I enclose you a paragraph about it.^ Pretty cold work, I should say. You had better not send home any more boxes, but keep everything till you come. The duties and expenses on your three glass photos, were $23. and some odd cents! More than the original cost, I should say. Dec. 17. Bayard Taylor was here at dinner yesterday, and sends you the enclosed card of introduction to Prince Galizin,^ who speaks English, and is a most agreeable man, as he says. I wish I could send you more. 98

CAMBRIDGE,

1866

W e have to-day our first snow, and after an uncommonly warm A u t u m n , W i n t e r has at last begun in earnest. T h e other day I met W m . Fay at Ticknor's. H e is hobbling about with canes; and is now troubled with bad eyes, w h i c h he wants me to tell you is the reason of his not writing to you. Erny is flourishing in his way, sometimes up, sometimes down; and annoyed by being asked if he is the one w h o went out in the yacht. W e are all as well as w e can be; and hope that you and N a t h a n will enjoy your Russian campaign. A t all events, it is better than a W i n t e r campaign in Virginia. A l l send much love to you and N a t h a n the W i s e . Ever most affectionately, H.W.L. P.S. Lovett® started the other day to row to Portland, alone. H e was swamped on Che[l]sea beach, and nearly drowned. H e came back by land. MANUSCRIPT; Longfellow Trust Collection, 1867 / St. Petersburg

ENDORSEMENT:

Answered/Jan

1. Presumably from the Boston Transcript, X X X I X , N o . 11,238 (December T h i s memorable race, from Sandy Hook to the Needles, Isle of W i g h t , for stakes of $90,000, was won by James Gordon Bennett, Jr. ( 1 8 4 1 - 1 9 1 8 ) , son Gordon Bennett ( 4 4 6 . 1 8 ) . Bennett's Henrietta made the crossing in 13 days, and 55 minutes against two competing yachts.

7, a of 21

i8th/ 1866). sweepJames hours,

2. Prince George Nicolaivitch Galitzin ( 1 8 2 3 - 1 8 7 2 ) , Russian amateur composer and conductor. Taylor had known him in St. Petersburg w h e n he was U . S . Secretary of Legation, 1862-1863. 3. Charles W a l l e y Lovett ( 1 8 3 7 - 1 8 9 0 ) , Harvard law graduate of 1867 and friend of Charles Longfellow.

2433.

T o George Washington

Greene Cambridge

D e c 14 1866

M y Dear Greene, I am expecting you to-day or to-night. If you do not come to dinner, I shall look for you at supper; — cold tongue, cold turkey, and a salad. I suppose the Pamphlets are waiting at the binder's to receive your autograph. A t all events, such was the arrangement; and it seems to me the best possible for convenience and expedition.^ MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. W h e n Greene did not arrive for dinner or supper, Longfellow continued this letter with a new heading and salutation. See Letter N o . 2434.

99

THREE 2434.

SCORE

YEARS

To George Washington Greene

Cambridge Dec 15. 1866. My Dear Greene, I shall keep no more suppers waiting for you; when you really arrive, you will find only a biscuit and a nibble of cheese. I have sent you this morning a couple of copies of your Pamphlet in sheets. The other nine hundred and ninety eight are still in the hands of the binder, but are to be here to night. He was ordered to keep them till called for, as I thought it would save trouble to direct and distribute them from there. They go back to the Printing Office, where you will have a table on which to operate at your ease. I have taken upon myself to have five hundred copies done up in wrappers, which will not be too many, if you mean to supply all Congress. There are two nice young Frenchmen here with letters from Circourt; — the Comte de Lubersac, and the Vicomte de Chabrol. You would like them very much. I have promised Winthrop a Pamphlet; also Lowell, who says he will have a Notice in the N.A.i Yours truly H.W.L. P.S. Meeting of the Dante Club on Wednesday eve[nin]g next. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. N o notice of Greene's pamphlet appeared in the North American Review, although a footnote reference to it may be found in the review of Bancroft's History in C I V (January 1 8 6 7 ) , 232. See 2 4 1 4 . 1 .

2435.

To Martin Brimmer^

Cambridge Dec 18. 1866 My Dear Mr. Brimmer, I am very sorry that I cannot accept your kind invitation for tomorrow evening; but unluckily I have some guests of my own, which renders it impossible. Please accept my thanks and my regrets, and believe me Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCBIPT: The Carl H . Pforzheimer Library, N e w York. I. Brimmer ( 1 8 2 9 - 1 8 9 6 ) , Boston philanthropist, became in 1870 the first president of the Museum of Fine Arts, serving in that capacity until his death. In a note of December 18 he had invited Longfellow to dinner in his home at 48 Beacon Street. I оо

CAMBRIDGE, 2436.

T o George Washington

1866

Greene

Camb. Dec. 18 1866 M y Dear Greene, As might have been expected there has been delay on the part of the Binder; the usual and inevitable "Lunga promessa, con l'attender corto."^ But I have left an order with Mr. Welch to send you by Express one hundred copies, as soon as they come; and when I get your list of names, will try to find some one to direct and post the Pamphlets. It is a great pity, however, that they should go out without your autograph on the wrapper. That would be more complimentary to the receiver. I am very sorry to hear that you are so ill;^ and shall miss you tomorrow evening not a litde. I am going to write to Sumner to-day on the subject of International Copyright. I want him to introduce a Bill to the effect that any Copyright taken out in England, or any of her colonies, shall be valid in the United States, provided a similar law be passed in England, to protect us. This seems to cover the whole ground, and is simple, and practicable, and would save authors an immense deal of trouble. If Sumner does not want to add this leaf of laurel to his crown of olive, I shall try to get someone else. Ever Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. inferno, X X V I I , 11 о : ' T h e promise long with the fulfillment short." 2. Greene wrote in a letter of December i 6 : "Your letter [No. 2434] finds me but little better and tho' I go down stairs I dare not show my face at the door. I fear that my prospects for the winter are not good." H e had been unwell for some days.

2437.

T o Charles Sumner

Camb Dec 18. 1866. M y Dear Sumner, This is a business letter. I want you to take up the Copyright question; and to introduce a Bill in the Senate, providing "That any Copyright hereafter taken out in England or in any of her Colonies, shall be valid in the United States, on condition that England will pass a similar law in reference to Copyrights taken out in the United States." This seems to me to cover the whole ground, and to be simple and practicable and convenient. I wish you would consult Sir Frederic Brucei on the subject; and if you are too busy, or have no inclination to move in the matter, can you tell me of anyone who will. I о I

THREE

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If I were a Senator there is no measure with which I should be more eager to associate my name. Think upon it and reply. As to limitation of time, when any Copyright expired in the country where it was taken out, it should expire also in the other. This is the best plan I can think of, and I hope you will be interested in it, unless you can suggest a better.^ Give my kindest regards to your wife, and believe me ever Yours H.W. L P.S. I beg you also to thank your wife for her letter.·'' I am very glad the photograph is so successful and gives her so much pleasure. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Sir Frederick William Adolphus Bruce ( 1 8 1 4 - 1 8 6 7 ) , diplomat, became British envoy to Washington in 1865. 2. Sumner acknowledged this letter on December 22: "This morning came your letter with its valuable suggestions. T h e subject of Copyright is before my Com[mi]ttee. I hope to do something for it." He promoted an international copyright agreement in almost every session of Congress. See Sumner Memoir and Letters, I V , 293-294. 3. This letter, undated, is in the Longfellow Trust Collection.

2438.

To Gertrude Bloede^

Cambridge Dec 21 1866 Dear Miss Bloede, Before receiving your second letter, I was already feeling much ashamed of myself for not having answered the first. Now I feel doubly so. The neglect has been owing solely to a multitude of interruptions and occupations, and I assure you was in no way intentional. The Poems I like very much. They are simple and direct expressions of feeling, without waste of words; which is a great merit. I should have sent them to the Editors of "Northern Lights," if some of them had not been already published, and you did not point out which these were. I have no connection with this new Magazine, but I know Mrs. Howe very well, and will use such influence as I may have with her in your behalf. Meanwhile I would suggest to you to send her the two pieces called "Shall it never be" and "Think not, О love," if they have not already been printed elsewhere, or any other poems you may prefer, and I am sure they will be kindly received and considered. With best wishes, I remain Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow I о 2

CAMBRIDGE,

1866

MANUSCRIPT: BufFalo and Erie C o u n t y Library. I. Miss Bloede ( 1 8 4 5 - 1 9 0 5 ) , a German-bom poet of Brooklyn, N . Y . , wrote nineteen letters to Longfellow between 1866 and 1880. O n November 29 she had sent him some of her poems with the request that he tell her if she "might be admitted as a contributor" to Northern Lights, a new journal being edited by Julia W a r d H o w e .

2439.

T o George Washington

Greene Camb.Dec22

1866

M y Dear Greene, It is as well perhaps that you did not come this week, for the weather has been very severe, and you would have suffered by the exposure. T h e hundred copies were duly forwarded to you, and I hope came safely to hand. Y o u sent me no list of names, but I have given away ten copies, as follows, two to Fields, and one each to Lowell, Norton, Torrey, [Francis James] Child, [Robert Charles] W i n t h r o p , Baron Mackay of Holland,^ Library of Harvard and Library of Leyden. Folsom has a copy from the Printers; so have W h i p p l e and [Charles] Amory, in fine, all whose names you sent. But you should either come yourself or send a regular list of names, so as to have the thing done systematically. I met W i n t h r o p at dinner the other day, and he said that the paper you read before the Historical Society was one of the best he had ever heard.^ I hope he will like the Pamphlet equally well. If you come on Tuesday, Christmas day, do not come till evening, as w e are all going to dine in town, and there will be no one here to welcome you but T r a p . In haste, not to lose the post, Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Baron Donald James Mackay ( 1 8 3 9 - 1 9 2 1 ) , w h o m Longfellow described as "an intelligent and agreeable young man from Holland, but of Scotch ancestry" ( M S Journal, December 19, 1866), became a naturalized British citizen in 1877 w h e n he inherited the title of Lord Reay. During his visit in Cambridge he was the guest of Charles Eliot Norton. 2. Greene's paper, read on March 8, 1866, was on Gen. Greene's role during the siege of Boston. See Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, ι866-ι86γ (Boston, 1 8 6 7 ) , p. 82.

2440.

T o Francis

Lieber

Cambridge Dec 23 1866 M y Dear Lieber, A f e w evenings ago, taking down a volume of Wordsworth's Poems from its shelf, the enclosed letter fell from between the leaves. I have hesitated a I 03

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little whether to send it to you or not; doubting whether it were intentionally withheld or only forgotten. As it was sealed, and I know not the contents, 1 cannot determine this point; but it seems to be more yours than mine. Therefore I send it. With kindest remembrances to Mrs. Lieber, and regrets that I did not see you when you were last here, and best wishes to both of you for Christmas and the New Year, I remain Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, hand):

ANNOTATION Qon first page,

in

another

Fanny's letter which was found by Longfellow / was dated Sept 2 5 . 1 8 4 9 I

I. This letter is in the Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

2441.

To James Thomas

Fields

Camb.Dec25 1866 My Dear Fields, I am going to beg a few more copies of "Flower de Luce," which is not unpopular, — when given away. Do not fail on Wednesday evening;^ — nor at any other time. At all events, have a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year, and then let the Deluge come. I mean of course a deluge of new orders for Longfellow's Complete Works, and of new subscribers to the Adantic. I consider the last number of the periodical as wholly illusory in its character; "And the most difficult of tasks to keep Heights that it has been competent to gain."^ I am going to town; and will leave this, in passing, at your door. Yours truly H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Henry E . Huntington Library. 1. T h e Dante Club met with Longfellow on December 26 with Lowell, Norton, Howells, and Fields in attendance. 2. C f . Wordsworth, The Excursion, I V , 1 3 8 - 1 3 9 .

2442.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Dec 25 1866. My Dear Greene, Instead of yourself comes your letter,^ saying you can not come. W e are all very sorry; but perhaps in this changeful weather you are safer where you 104

CAMBRIDGE,

1866

are. Take care of your throat, and get quite well again, as soon as possible. That is the main thing, as you well know. Mr. Story,2 book-keeper at the Printing Office says he will forward any Pamphlets for you, with great pleasure. Fields thinks that some fifty or a hundred copies should be sent to Trübner in London, to distribute to various English and Continental libraries, as occasion offers. Trübner can easily do it; and Fields will send the copies out in one of his boxes. Each of the Boston Papers should have one; and each of the Libraries; the Athenasum, the Historic, the Public and the Mercantile. Five hundred still remain in the Binder's hands. Will you have all done up in wrappers? If I were in your place I think I should. Send me definite instructions. I should like ten copies more, to give to foreign travellers who if they have no interest in historic matters themselves will serve as carrier pigeons. I have a new work for you to do when you have finished the General's Biography. It is Sketches of the Foreign Officers in our Revolution. It would make a most interesting and valuable work, full of Romance as well as History. It suggested itself to me while reading the Life of the Marquise de Montagu, sister of Mme. de Lafayette.^ Yours ever H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. Dated December 23. г. Francis W . Story ( 1 8 1 7 - 1 8 9 2 ) is listed in the Cambridge Directory for 1 8 6 6 1867 as "University Press Bookkeeper." 3. A. Callet, Anne-Paule-Dominique de Noailles, marquise de Montagu (Paris, 1864). The marquise ( : 7 6 6 - i 8 3 9 ) was the sister of Anastasia Adrienne de Noailles ( 1 7 5 9 - 1 8 0 7 ) , wife of Lafayette.

2443.

T o William Wehl· Foïlett Synge

Cambridge Dec 25. 1866. M y Dear Synge, Your letter^ came last night, with the benedictions of Christmas Eve, and was doubly welcome on that account. I have already written your name in a copy of "Flower de Luce," and it ought to reach you before the holidays are over. I am extremely sorry to hear of your ill health, and that you find Cuba so uncomfortable. The books all make it out to be a kind of Paradise, with inferior hotels, and certain insects that suggest the Inferno; in short the Divina Commedia of the tropics. But if you have been so ill all the time, you can have had only the first and second divisions of the Poem. I sincerely hope that the German baths will restore you, and that coming or going your road will lie this way.^ 105

THREE

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YEARS

You will find me still here in the old study. The boys are grown up; both past twenty one. This last Summer Charley went over to England in the Yacht Alice, and was two or three months in the Channel, enjoying himself in the highest degree, his tastes being aquatic. He is now in St. Petersburg; and goes back to Paris in the Spring. Ernest, the second, has just returned from a year in Europe, and is now with me; and the three girls are growing and blooming in perfect health. I have just completed a r[h]ythmical version of Dante's Comedy; and voluminous notes thereto, which will be published in the course of the coming year. In this version I have endeavored to say exactly what Dante says, no more and no less. This kind of work I could do, when I could do nothing else. I trust that your wife and children have not suffered, as well as yourself, from the Cuban climate. Give my kindest regards, and assure them that they are still affectionately remembered under this roof. With all good wishes to them and to you. Ever truly Yours Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

1 . Dated December 15. 2. Synge had written: " I arrived here [Havana] last February, having been app[ointe]d H . M . Consul general in Cuba. I much prefer Honolulu [see 1 9 9 5 . 1 ] . Ever since my arrival here I have been ill, frequently bed-ridden, generally in great pain, and always weak and decrepit. T h e Doctors order me to go to Europe to the German Baths . . . I shall leave for England in April. I wish I could go via Boston, but fear I cannot manage it . . . How I envy you and everyone who is not obliged to live in Cuba!" Synge retired from the consular service on October 3 1 , 1868, and lived thereafter in England.

2444.

To James Thomas Fields

C a m b . D e c 2 7 1866 My Dear Fields, I intended to hand thisi to you last evening. But being "under the harrow,"^ I forgot it. This showing up of defects and deficiencies is certainly not the most agreeable kind of entertainment for the person operated upon. The only possible compensation is in the result. But the supper made amends. Your imitation of the Bishop® is too comical; I laughed at it aloud in the night, in connection with Howell [s]'s specimen of his pulpit eloquence, and Lowell's account of the effect of his preaching on one of his hearers, who came away "with his head full of base drums, and his body full of watermellon." H.W.L.

CAMBRIDGE,

1866

MANUSCRIPT: H e n r y E . Huntington Library. 1. Unidentified. 2. T h a t is, "under the harrow" of criticism by his Dante C l u b guests of the previous evening. 3 . Presumably Mantón Eastburn C 1 8 0 1 - 1 8 7 2 ) , Protestant Episcopal bishop of Massachusetts,

1843-1872.

Richard H e n r y Dana, Jr., described him in uncomplimentary

terms in 1 8 5 2 : " T h e B. is a shallow man. A man of little brain, little heart, but conceited, dogmatical, self willed & self indulgent. N o reliance can be placed on his honor or generosity" (The

Journal

of Richard

Henry

Dana,

Jr.,

ed. Robert F . L u c i d

[Cam-

bridge, Mass., 1 9 6 8 ] , II, 4 8 3 ) .

2445.

To William Sumner Apple ton

Camb. Dec 30 1866 My Dear William, Sumner sends ше this letter and Pamphlet.^ Are they of any value to you? Yours truly H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library, ton / 3 9 Beacon St

ADDRESS: M r . W . S . Apple-

ENDORSEMENT: U n c l e H e n r y

I. Both are unrecovered.

2446.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Dec 30 1866 My Dear Greene, I have attended to all your desires and directions; and one hundred copies of the Pamphlet have gone to Fields to be forwarded to Trübner by next steamer. The five hundred still at the binder's are to be done up in wrappers and sent to you. I have also sent twenty copies to the Mass. Hist. See. for members who might not otherwise receive them. A copy was sent to [Charles] Deane among the first. I have likewise given one to Professor Tacchella of Milan, who has been, and will be again, editor of the Eco d'Italia, not in New York, but in the Ambrosian city.^ I wish you had been at the club yesterday. Woodman spoke very warmly of the Pamphlet. He thinks it a master-piece; and particularly lauded its gentleman-like tone, and your rising above all personalities. I said; "I wish you would write down what you have just been saying, and send it to Greene." He replied; "I will do something better. I will print it in the Transcript."^ I did not forget to give a copy to Mr. [Francis W.] Story, with your compliments, and thanks, which pleased him. I also gave him a copy of "Flower de Luce" for his daughter, as make-weight. 1 07

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

When you have occasion to write to Welch & Bigelow pay them the same comphment of a presentation copy. So ends the year 1866. With best wishes to you and yours for 1867, H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Angelo Tacchella, Italian polemicist and convert to Protestantism, had assumed the title of Professor after teaching in Edinburgh, where he once lived in exile. During its short life — December 13, 1863, to 1 8 6 5 — h e managed the bi-weekly democratic journal L'Eco d'Italia in Milan. At the present time he was teaching languages at 1 2 1 Court Street, Boston. 2. See the Boston Transcript, X X X I X , No. 1 1 , 2 5 7 (December 3 1 , 1866).

2447.

To Charles Sumner

Cambridge Jan i. 1867 My Dear Sumner, I enclose a letter to your wife, expressing my regrets, that I cannot accept your joint invitation to visit you this Winteг.^ Agassiz has just left me. He goes to Washington next week or the week after; but I must stay here and finish my work. I hope that Greene has sent you his Pamphlet; and that you have had time to read it with care. I send you a notice by Woodman, from the Evening Transcript. Pray do not let the matter of International Copyright fade out of sight. Now is the time. A week hence may be too late. I hope it may take the shape of a Treaty. That seems best; and probably in that shape it would pass more readily than in any other. With all good wishes and thanks for your bit of a letter, Yours ever H.W.L. P.S. I have just received a letter from Tennyson,^ in which he says; "We English and Americans should all be brothers as none others among the nations can be, and some of us, come what may, will always be so, I trust." MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. T h e invitation was dated December 22, 1866. Longfellow's letter to Mrs. Sumner is unrecovered. 2. Unrecovered.

I

08

CAMBRIDGE, 2448.

To George Washington

1867

Greene

Camb. Jan 4 1867. My Dear Greene, There came an order this forenoon from S. Rider, Providence,^ for twenty copies of your Pamphlet. I told Mr. Bigelow, that you had probably authorized it, and that he had better send them. Five hundred were sent you from the Bindery, which I hope came safe. You have about two hundred and forty or fifty at the Printing Office. Of the one hundred sent to Fields, he forwarded fifty to Trübner; and distributed fifty, ten of which went to the Boston Hist, and Genealogical Soc. Fields says there has been a great demand for them. Yours ever H.W.L. P.S. A very Happy New Year to you and yours. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. Sidney Smith Rider ( 1 8 3 3 - 1 9 1 7 ) , bookseller and publisher of 1 7 Westminster Street, Providence.

2449.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Jan 4 1867. My Dear Sumner, Please read the enclosed letter from my nephew, and the accompanying Recommendation from his Captain; and then be kind enough to forward the latter to Assi[s]t. Sec. Hartley,^ if he be the right person to attend to it. I should like to have Fessenden see the letters; and perhaps he may be disposed to aid the application in some way.^ In great haste, but with kindest regards to your wife, H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. John Fairfield Hartley ( 1 8 0 9 - 1 8 9 7 ) , a Bowdoin graduate of 1829, joined the Treasury Department in 1838 and served as Assistant Secretary, 1 8 6 5 - 1 8 7 ; . 2. Stephen Longfellow was requesting the temporary command of the customs station at Machias, Me. (see 2 1 8 9 . 1 ) , during his captain's absence. T h e various letters mentioned here are unrecovered.

2450.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Jan 12. 1867. My Dear Greene, I have just received your letter, and the paragraph from the Tribune. ^ It is clear enough in whose interest it is written. Nothing disrespectful has been 109

THREE

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said of General Greene; therefore there is no occasion to make any reply. Is that the ground w h i c h is to be taken? I suppose so. I was sorry to see no Review of the Pamphlet in the North American. Norton says it was impossible to have one, as the number was all made up before the Pamphlet reached him. But his little note at the end of the Review of Bancroft is to the point.^ It was only yesterday that I remembered to send a copy to Palfrey, after speaking with him on the subject. H e said he should read it with interest, but he thought "that anyone w h o should undertake to disparage General Greene would have rather up-hill work." I am sorry that Sumner has not written to you. Y o u must remember that nothing sublunary makes an impression on a newly married man.® I wish we could put George Sumner's volume into Putnam's hands. T h a t would be decidedly the best thing to do, and I do not think Fields would object. T w o days ago I was speaking with him about the book, and he told me that Charles had the ms. I wish you would write to Putnam on the subject.^ I am sorry to hear that you do not get well faster; and hope the session will rouse you up, and cure you. W e miss you on Wednesday evenings. Yours ever H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, 1. In a letter of lanuary i i Greene had sent Longfellow a brief review of his pamphlet from the N e w York Tribune, X X V I , N o . 8027 (December 29, 1866), 6, which asserted that Greene's argument was not very convincing. 2. See 2434.1. 3. In his letter Greene had written: "Sumner has never sent me a line, altho' I sent him the first copy! Considering all the circumstances I feel hurt." 4. See 2098.3, 2110.3, and 2134.4.

2451.

To Sarah Perkins

Cleveland Cambridge

Jan 14. 1867.

M y Dear Mrs. Cleveland, I am much obliged to you for your kind invitation to me and Ernest and Alice to be present at your house-warming on Thursday, though I am afraid w e shall not be able to accept it.^ Ernest has gone to Connecticut on a visit to a friend, and it is so many years since I was at an evening party, that I have forgotten how to do it. I I

о

CAMBRIDGE,

1867

Please say to Lilly that I have kept her D a n t e a long while, but have kept it very safely. I am only waiting for a good opportunity to return it. W i s h i n g you all a H a p p y N e w Year, Yours ever truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library. I. Mrs. Cleveland's new house, Nutwood, was at the corner of Chestnut and Perkins Streets, Jamaica Plain.

2452.

T o Charles Appleton

Longfellow Cambridge

Jan. 17. 1867.

M y Dear Charlie, M a n y thanks for your letters. W e are all glad w h e n one comes, and tells us of your Russian Campaign, and how much you have enjoyed it.' I have ordered Wilkes' Spirit to be sent to Baring Bros, for you; though while you are on the continent Munroe would be better, both for letters and papers. Y o u would save much in postage; but as you have not so ordered, I make no change in the old arrangement. Lovett was here a day or two ago, and said he should write to you. H e has been collecting various accounts of the Yacht Race for you. But you will find everything in Wilkes. In this week's N o . he gives the Logs, and an interesting account by a passenger on board the Henrietta; also several extracts from English papers.^ Last night w e had a grand old-fashioned snowstorm, and to-day are all blocked up. Erny has been trying your snow-shoes; and the rest of us have kept snug in the house. I have no news of any kind to send you; and write only to wish you a H a p p y N e w [Year], and that you may know w e are thinking of you. I believe I have already told you that I paid $40.00 for you, and $40.00 for Harry Stanfield, to the N . Y . Yacht C l u b . I suppose you will soon be with him again in Paris. W r i t e to us as soon as you arrive there. T h e Report of your Financial agent is as follows: "Jan. 17. 1867. In Bank $3055.89." T o this add the five dividends of January; say $500. or $600. and you will find yourself pretty well in funds. All join in much love to you, and with kind remembrances to N a t y and Harry, Affectionately Yours H.W.L. p.s.^ W e have had two very pleasant young Frenchmen here this Winter, w h o will be back in Paris in Spring, and w h o m I should like to have you I I I

THREE

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YEARS

know. One is M. le Comte de Lubersac, and the other M. le Vicomte de Chabrol. They both speak English perfectly, and are very different characters from D u Vergier de Hauranne. Lubersac's address I do not know; but Chabrol's is au Cercle Agricole; and he can tell you where to find the other. Another visitor we have had is the Baron Mackay of the Hague. Should you go there see him by all means. He is a very nice fellow, and you have only to present your card to be well received. He also speaks English perfectly; so that you will be quite at home with him. I do not know his address, but the Hague is not a very large place and you will easily find him. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, Answered / Mar 3rd / 1867

ENDORSEMENT (by Charles

Longfellow):

1. Charles had written from St. Petersburg on December 19, 1866. 2. See Wilkes' Spirit of the Times, X V (January 19, 1 8 6 7 ) , 326. 3. T h i s postscript, undated and on a separate sheet, is placed here on the basis of internal evidence.

2453.

To Charles P. Foot^

Cambridge Jan [iS]^ 1867 My Dear Charlie, I have been so long in answering your letter, that no doubt you begin to think that I am not going to answer it at all. But you see I am; and my letter will be longer than yours. It comes very naturally to me to begin with "My Dear Charlie," because I have a boy named Charlie. He was in the war; and was shot through the body; but has got well again, and is now in St. Petersburg; and whenever I write to him I begin my letters with "My Dear Charlie," just as I do this. 1 suppose you have a sled; and I wonder of what color it is, and what its name is. I used to have one named the "Vanguard"; but that was a good while ago, and I do not know what has become of it. And what do you think of this great snow? You may live to be an old man without seeing the like again. It will be good fun for you to make snow houses and forts. I hope you have a wooden shovel, for I really don't know what a boy can do without a wooden shovel in Winter. And now, my Dear Charlie, good bye; and remember that all Charlies must be good boys. That will make everything pleasant and comfortable. Your friend Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House), ADDRESS: Master Charles Foote / Cambridge / Vermont

POSTMARK:

C A M B R I D G E MASS J A N

22

1. Y o u n g Foot, aged twelve, was the son of Charlotte S. Foot, forty-eight, a widow of Cambridge, Vt. 2. T h e date is from the M S Letter Calendar. I I 2

CAMBRIDGE, 2454.

1867

To Sarah Watson Dana

Cambridge Jan 31 1867 Dear Mrs. Dana, It will give me great pleasure to accept your kind invitation for this evening. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Yale University Library.

2455.

To George Washington

Greene

Cambridge Feb i. 1867 My Dear Greene, The tea-merchant is Wm. Banks, 17 Central Wharf. Boston, and the Tea, English Breakfast, designated "Surprise"; wholesale price 80 cents per pd. The boxes contain about 40 pounds net; which is $32 per box. If you wish for a box you had better give an order to the Providence Express with written specifications, and let him pay for it and bring you the bill and the tea. That will be the most expeditious way. But are you certain that your wife will like it? It is after all so much a matter of taste, that I think she ought first to try it; and I herewith send a sample. In order to satisfy you and Sumner, I yesterday had a consultation with Brown Sequard. He says I am perfectly sound from attic to underpinning; only my bell-wires a little jangled and out of order. Brain in good working condition; head perfect in every pulsation, and lungs equally so in every respiration. Nothing in the world the matter, but nerves. This agrees perfectly with Dr. Longfellow's opinion; though Dr. Sumner thought the brain was overworked, and Dr. Greene that there was trouble in the heart! But the remedy is severe. "Positively no smoking allowed here!" Only think of it! In haste Yours ever H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection.

I I3

THREE 2456.

To Charles

SCORE

YEARS

Sumner Cambridge

Feb 3 1867.

M y Dear Sumner, In order to satisfy you, Greene and myself, I have had a consultation with Brown Séquard; and he pronounces all your apprehensions to be groundless. H e declares me to be sound and seaworthy, from my main-truck, down to my keel. O n l y my rigging is a little out of repair, and no wonder. For that he has given me a little remedy; and already the cordage begins to tighten. Meanwhile he has stopped the tobacco of the crew; but not their grog! T h a t is a very courageous speech of yours on the President; and straight to the point, frank and out-spoken and true; and about as "moderate in language" as Burke on W a r r e n Hastings.^ I do not think, that either you or Fessenden read very carefully the letters I sent you about my nephew. N o promotion was asked for; and yet Fessenden says he has "established the rule of promotion by seniority."^ W h a t the young man wants, and what his captain asks for him, is to be left in command of the station during the captain's absence. O f course, if any superior officer wants the post my nephew cannot have it. T h e First Lieutenant of the ship here, had, I understand, never seen service of any kind. Give my kindest remembrances to your wife, and tell her once more how sorry I am not to visit you this winter. Ever Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Sumner delivered three speeches in the Senate, January 15, 17, and 18, on an amendment to the tenure of office bill, designed to weaken the president's power of appointment. See "Protection Against the President," Sumner Works, XI, 5 9 - 8 1 . Edmund Burke gave a number of forceful orations against Warren Hastings ( 1 7 3 2 - 1 8 1 8 ) during his prolonged trial, 1 7 8 8 - 1 7 9 5 , for corruption and misconduct as governorgeneral of India. 2. See 2449.2. Sumner had reported Fessenden's remark in a letter of January 7.

2457.

To Horatio

Woodman

Cambridge Feb 8 1867 M y Dear Mr. W o o d m a n , A l l o w me to introduce the bearer, Mr. Frost, a farmer of Maine,i w h o wishes to consult you about getting a pension. I am sure you will be glad to do anything in your power for so fine a specimen of our Maine men. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow I I 4

CAMBRIDGE,

1867

MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. I. Isaac Frost (d. 1868, aged seventy-four) of Berry's Mill, Carthage, Me.

2458.

To Charles Sumner

Cambridge Feb. 10 1867. My Dear Sumner, Mrs. Ames is hoping to get an order for her bust of Lincoln to be placed in the State House in Boston;^ and Gov. Bullock^ tells her, that if you will write him a letter on the subject, it will do more than anything else towards the success of the plan. I suppose that a few words of approval is all that would be needed. How wears away the winter with you? The weather and the walking have been terrible here for a month past. Now a great rain has washed us clean again. To-day is just such a cold, bright, windy day, with a rush of streams, as I remember on the slope of the Pyrenees going into Spain in March. I have no news to send you. Charley when last heard from was in Moscow; and Erny is here at home, still troubled with head-aches. Greene writes me that he has been making a speech on the [Fourteenth] Amendment, and that it has passed in R.I.® With kindest regards to your wife, and kindest remembrances from all my household, Yours ever H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. See 1976.1. 2. Alexander Hamilton Bullock ( i 8 i 6 - i 8 8 a ) , Worcester lawyer and politician, served as governor of Massachusetts, 1 8 6 6 - 1 8 6 8 . 3. Greene's speech to the Rhode Island House of Representatives in favor of the amendment is printed in the Providence Daily Journal, X X X V I I I , No. 35 (February 9, 1867).

2459.

To George Washington

Greene

Cambridge Feb. 1 1 . 1867 M y Dear Greene, Let me know whether your copy of the Translation of the Divina Commedia by the undersigned is gilt at top, or plain. The Paradiso is now ready and waits your coming. I am sorry you could not come last week, but as I never expect you till you fairly arrive, I was not much disappointed. There are so many things that prevent a married man from doing, what a bachelor can do so easily! I I5

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

It is impossible for me to give you any opinion about Mr. Rider's proposition, till I know it more definitely and also what manner of man he is.^ As a general thing, I am opposed, as you know, to bringing out a work in separate volumes. But the unexpected circumstances of your position as biographer, having to write the General's Life and fight his battles over again for him, somewhat modify my views. Now seems the favorable moment; and it would be a pity to lose the tide. I met Deane in the street two days ago. He was warm in his praise of your pamphlet, and called it "admirable," and thought it covered the whole ground completely. He commended also the tone of it, and said "but that closing paragraph bites very keenly."^ Yours ever H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. In a letter of February 3 Greene had written : "Rider, an active and enterprising publisher of Providence [see 2448.1] is disposed to publish my first vol. for me at once. What do you think of it? Will not the interest exerted by Bancroft's attack be a great help at starting? / What terms ought I to ask? I shall get his proposals in a day or two . . ." 2. Greene had ended his pamphlet (p. 86) with an implied criticism of George Bancroft's historical method: "Illustrious deeds are the legacy of the past, and the seed of the future. From them spring generous emulations, earnest thoughts, noble desires, the self-denial that purifies, and the aspirations that exalt. Woe to the people who, either in the cares or in the pleasures of the present, forget what they owe to the past! Woe to the nation that has no rebuke for the rash hand or the irreverent tongue!"

2460.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Feb 13 1867. My Dear Greene Appleton's address is "Thomas G. Appleton, 10 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston." I am sorry I forgot to send it sooner; but it makes no difference, as he is in New York, and I know not at what hotel. Perhaps Mr. Richard [Ward Greene] had better write at once; and then Appleton will be sure to find the letter on his return.^ I am glad you are coming on Friday. That is better than Wednesday, because you can stay longer, and we can discuss other matters, besides Dante, who usurps Wednesday entirely. Yours ever H.W.L P.S. I am glad to hear of the success of your Speech; and am impatient to see it.2 I I 6

CAMBRIDGE,

1867

MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. In a letter of February 9 Greene had asked for Appleton's address so that his cousin could write to him "about the standing of H . K. Brown as a sculptor." Henry Kirke Brown ( 1 8 1 4 - 1 8 8 6 ) executed the two statues of Gen. Nathanael Greene in Washington, D . C . : in the National Statuary Hall of the Capitol ( 1 8 6 7 ) and in Stanton Square ( 1 8 7 7 ) . 2. See 2458.3.

2461.

To JamesThomas

Fields

Cambridge

Feb 19 1867

M y Dear Fields, A mysterious box made its appearance here this evening, and on inspection was found marked with the word "Rüdesheimer" and the initials "J.T.F." A thousand thanks for each bottle. T h e oysters of Wednesday night will not be without their appropriate fluid; and the [Dante] Club shall bless "This friend of mine, W h o sends me wine From Rüdesheim upon the Rhine." Do not fail to come and receive the crown of vine leaves that waits to be placed upon your brow. Thanks also for the "Tent on the Beach."i There are some sweet and delicious things in it. "Abraham Davenport" is a grand poem. I wish it were possible for you to persuade the author to come to one of our Wednesday evenings. Think how soon they will be over, and how much we all admire and love Whittier. Good night. I must to bed. Yours truly H.W.L. P.S. Rejoice, and triumph over me! A new bill from Canada arrives, $26.00 which added to the original $16.00 makes, how much? Try to economize in future!^ MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Ticknor & Fields had just published Whittier's The Tent on the Beach, and Poems. 2. T h e allusion here is inexplicable.

I I

7

Other

THREE 2462.

SCORE

YEARS

To Horatio Woodman

Cambridge Feb 22 1867. My Dear Woodman, Thank you for your reminder. I intend to be at the Club Dinner to-morrow and shall be happy to make the acquaintance of Mr. Locke. I have long been familiar with his work "On the Human Understanding," or "On the Inhuman Misunderstanding," which is it?i Enclosed is the long-promised autograph,^ and I remain Yours till tomorrow Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCBiPT: Massachusetts Historical Society. 1. In a letter of February 21 Woodman reminded Longfellow that the humorist David Ross Locke ( 1 8 3 3 - 1 8 8 8 ) , better known as Petroleum V . Nasby, would be the guest of the Saturday Club on February 2 3 . 2. For Timothy Bigelow Lawrence ( 2 2 1 7 . 3 ) .

2463.

To William Hepworth Dixon^

Cambridge Feb 23 1867. My Dear Mr. Dixon, I was very glad to get your letter, and to know of your safe arrival in England after so much land and sea travel. Your book I am impatient to see; and think that if left with Routledge or Trübner, directed to the care of Ticknor and Fields, it would come speedily and safely. But the title-page came in your letter. A strange fancy of yours, certainly; but one must be "spoiling for a fight" to see any cause of offense in it.^ Your message to Emerson I have not been able to deliver, because I have not seen him.® He is away in the West lecturing. It must be very pleasant to you to walk again the familiar streets of London, after the prairies and the Salt Lake City, — and Brigham Young, disporting himself like Solomon, or Sardanapalus, "Mostrando ciò che'n camera si puote."^ I do not believe that I shall knock at your door, this present year; but as "nothing is certain but the unforeseen," it may be. Thanking you for your friendly notice of "Flower de Luce,"® I remain Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow

I I8

CAMBRIDGE, MANUSCRIPT:

1867

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1 . Dixon ( 1 8 2 1 - 1 8 7 9 ) , English historian and traveler, had visited Longfellow on October 28, 1866 (Life, III, 79), and had recently published New America (London, 1 8 6 7 ) , 2 vols. 2. In his letter from London of January lo, 1867, Dixon enclosed a printer's proof of an illustration entitled "The Four Races" that appeared in his book. "These four great types might be represented to the eye by four of my friends; H . W . Longfellow, poet, Boston; Eli Brown, waiter, Richmond; Spotted Dog, savage. Rocky Mountains; and Loo Sing, laundry boy, Nevada" ( N e w America, II, 1 9 ) . 3. Dixon wished Longfellow to inform Emerson that he had received his letter "when we were a hundred miles at sea!" See Letters of Emerson, V, 482. 4. C f . Paradiso, X V , 108: "Showing what in a chamber can be done." 5. Dixon was editor of the Athenaeum, 1 8 5 3 - 1 8 6 9 , where a notice of Flower-deLuce appeared in No. 2038 (November 17, 1866), 637-638.

2464.

To Annie Adams Fields

[Cambridge] February 28, 1867. I am very much obliged to you for your kind remembrance yesterday, and for sending such messengers to tell it to me. Their "voiceless lips" delivered the message of good-will, and sang it to the eye all supper-time, as your husband will bear witness.^ Many thanks — say sixty — for these lovely flowers. MANUSCRIPT:

unrecovered; text from Life, III, 85-86.

I. Longfellow entertained the Dante Club — Lowell, Greene, Holmes, and Fields — on his sixtieth birthday ( M S Journal, February 27, 1 8 6 7 ) .

2465.

To an Unidentified

Correspondent^

Camb. March 2 1867 My Dear Sir, The sheets sent up this morning were not complete. Please let me have the rest this evening if possible. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Frank O. Buda, Cambridge, Mass.

I. An employee of Ticknor & Fields.

2466.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. March 4 1867 My Dear Fields, I knew there was something I wished to speak about when I saw you. It is this. I want to suggest, (and not for gain, for it shall be a gift) whether it would not be well to publish in the Atlantic for May, two or three cantos I I

9

THREE

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YEARS

of the Purgatorio; say the Xth. Xlth. and Xllth. Read them over, and tell me on Wednesday evening what you think. I will give you my reasons for it, and you shall give me yours against it.i Do not forget to tell Holmes, that I expect him on Wednesday. Say to him how pleasant a thing it is to go to a house where he is not only welcome, but desired, and if that be not enough, tell him that I have a Roquefort cheese — "a high-toned gentleman," as the Southern papers would say, — which will remind him of some of the cafés of Paris.^ So much for my propos de l'escalier [gossip of the staircase]. If I had remembered to say this, I should not now have the pleasure of saying that I аш — (an Italian beggar at the door interrupts me) Yours truly H.W.L. MANUSCBIPT: Boston.

Henry

E.

Huntington

Library,

ADDRESS:

James T .

Fields Esqre. /

1. These cantos were not published in the Atlantic. 2. Holmes did not attend the Dante Club supper of Wednesday, March 6, which included Fields, Lowell, Norton, Agassiz, and Ephraim Whitman Gurney С 1 8 2 9 i 8 8 6 ) , Harvard professor of Latin and first dean of the faculty, 1 8 7 0 - 1 8 8 6 .

2467.

To George Routledge & Sons^

Cambridge March 4 1867. Gentlemen, By Wednesday's steamer of this week from Boston I shall send to Mr. Routledge in London the sheets of the first volume of the Divina Commedia. I send you also a duplicate copy to be forwarded by [the] next steamer from New York, for greater security. I remain, Gentlemen, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. I. T h e M S Letter Calendar makes it clear that Longfellow is writing to the N e w York office of the firm.

2468.

To William

Greene

Cambridge March 7 1867. My Dear Sir, I hope you will pardon me for not having thanked you sooner for your exceedingly able Speech on the "Constitutional Amendment,"^ which I have read with great pleasure and profit; though I have been very busy with some I

2

о

CAMBRIDGE,

1867

aíFairs of my own, which are rather pressing, that I have neglected to tell you so. I have not for a long while read a closer or keener argument. There seems no escape from it, in any direction; and if you had any antagonists in the debate, they must have found it hard to answer; and probably answered something else, as that is the usual way of evading an argument which is unanswerable. I think that George thrives under his parliamentary work. I have not for years seen him looking so well as when he was here last. With great regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Helen Roelker Kessler, Cambridge, Mass. I. This speech, delivered on January 30 and 3 1 , 1867, is printed in the Providence Daily Journal, X X X V I I I , No. 38 (February 1 3 , 1 8 6 7 ) .

2469.

T o George Washington

Greene

Camb. March 1 3 . 1867. Caro Signor Giorgio, I return the specimen proof-sheets of your new volume. It looks very well; something in the style of Milman's Histories;^ and perhaps more appropriate to a Biography than the historic octavo. I have made in pencil various suggestions. Regard them as such; and nothing more. Except only the erasure on p. 763. That I rather urge and insist on for your sake. Mifflin going off in a miff, is quite enough for your purpose.^ I cannot write on all the points I have marked, but hope you will not be obliged to go to press before I see you. Come as soon as you can. Nothing will be left for you but the Paradiso. "Sauvez le rôti, les entremets sont perdus."^ T h e Inferno went to London by last week's steamer. T h e Purgatorio follows soon; though I will try to keep it back till you come. And now a bit of news. Somebody is engaged. W h o do you think it is? Somebody in this house, whose name is Ernest, is engaged to the lovely Hattie Spelman! It makes me feel very old. Perhaps I am; or perhaps they are very young. That must be it; mere Babes in the Wood. I have a nice letter from the Lieut. Governor.·^ He is fascinated with your Biography of the General. Yours ever H.W.L.

I

2

I

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. See 1893.3. 2. Thomas Mifflin ( 1 7 4 4 - 1 8 0 0 ) , Gen. Nathanael Greene's predecessor as quartermaster-general of the Revolutionary army, became a controversial figure as a result of his supposed participation in a cabal against Washington. Greene replied to Longfellow's suggestion on March 14: "As to Mifflin I would gladly spare him if I could. But unfortunately his conduct was such — especially towards Gen. Greene, as to make it impossible to tell the truth without speaking very plainly. His 'neglect of his duty as Q . M . General' was one of the chief causes of the sore straits the army was reduced to in •77-8." 3. "Spare the roast, the sweets are gone." 4. William Greene ( 2 3 4 2 . 1 ) .

2470.

To George Washington

Greene C a m b . M a r c h 17

1867.

M y D e a r Greene, I received your letter yesterday, freighted w i t h congratulations and good wishes for Erny, w h o felt sure beforehand of the interest you would take in this matter, w h i c h touches him so nearly, and was m u c h gratified at receiving your note. I must answer both his and mine; as I do not believe he will find time to do it, besides hoping to see you so soon. T r y to be here by W e d n e s d a y if you can, and by all means bring A n n a with you. Edie and A n n i e are both delighted at the prospect of a visit from her. T a k e care that you do not get caught in the Mifflin trap. D o not give any one a chance to say, " W h y , here is G r e e n e doing the same sort of thing he blamed Bancroft for doing." I should like to go over that ground w i t h you. If absolutely necessary to say some disagreeable things w h y , then, there is no help for it. But in this case I do not see the necessity. I hear nothing from Sumner. O n l y n o w and then a newspaper, or Publisher's catalogue comes along. A s for all hopes of a copyright, alas! and a-lack-a-day!i Yours ever H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Greene had written on March i : "I enclose you a slip relative to copy right. W h a t does this mean? If C . S. fails to support such a law what can we expect from others'?"

2471.

T o Charles

Sumner C a m b . M a r c h 18 1867

M y D e a r Sumner, I have some n e w s to tell you w h i c h will interest you and please you; and if I were M a d a m e de Sévigné and you were M a d a m e de Grignon^ [sic].

CAMBRIDGE,

1867

I would make you guess at it through four pages or more. But as I am not, and you are not, I will tell you, and tell you at once, that it is Erny's engagement to Miss Hattie Spelman, whom you must have seen many a time with Alice. We are all very much pleased with it, and no one more than I, who am most interested of all, except the parties immediately concerned. It makes me feel rather older than I wish to feel; — somewhere about "Soixante et mille ans," as Mme. du Deffand^ used to say she was, — the playful old lady! I have not seen Mary Felton since her return from Washington, but I hear that she enjoyed her visit extremely. It was very kind and thoughtful of you and your wife to ask her. I dined with Agassiz to-day, and heard of this from Miss [Emma Forbes] Carey. Thanks for your Resolutions, which seem to me good and strong.® But I live in darkness about political matters, never being able to find out what is done, either by the Senate or the House! With kindest regards to your wife. Ever Yours H.W.L Charley is in Paris. He had a stupendous time in Russia; and returned thro' Poland and Germany. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Marguerite-Françoise, comtesse de Grignan ( 1 6 4 6 - 1 7 0 5 ) , daughter and correspondent of Madame de Sévigné. 2. Marie de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise du Deffand ( 1 6 9 7 - 1 7 8 0 ) , famous for her salon and correspondence. 3. For these "Resolutions declaring certain further guarantees required in the Reconstruction of the Rebel States" see Sumner Works, XI, 1 2 4 - 1 3 6 .

2472.

To Maria Weston Chapman

Cambridge March 26 1867. My Dear Mrs Chapman, I am afraid it will not be in my power to accept your kind invitation for Saturday evening, but I shall be very happy to make the acquaintance of Mr Frere and his daughter, and if they would do me the favor to come out with you to lunch on Thursday [March 28] at two o'clock, I should be much obliged.^ Hoping that you will be able to make this arrangement, I remain Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT;

Harvard College Library.

I. Longfellow did not wait until Thursday to meet the Freres but went to Boston the next day and called on them at the Tremont House. On the following day Mrs. Chap123

THREE

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YEARS

man brought them to Cambridge for lunch, after which Longfellow wrote in his journal; "Very charming people they are. There is something very spiritual about her brow and clear brown eyes. Her voice is musical and low."

2473.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. April 3. 1867. My Dear Greene I have time only to tell you that I have received your two letters/ and that the Prospectus is good and the Dedication excellent. I have only here and there a suggestion to make; and all that I leave till you come. It is so much better to talk than to write. I hope this bright day will bring you, and that this will cross you on the way. Ever Yours H.W.L. P.S. Your "hospital bulletin" relieved my mind greatly.^ MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Dated March 29 and March 3 1 , 1867. 2. In his second letter Greene reported that his "children are getting better and I hope to be down in the course of the week if the weather is good."

2474.

To George Routledge

Camb. Apr. 3 1867. My Dear Sir, I hope to send you by this steamer the sheets of Purgatorio, but am not quite sure, that they will be ready. Will you be kind enough to add to your list of persons, to whom I wish to have copies of all three parts sent, the names on the opposite page and greatly oblige, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. P.S. I trust that the sheets of the Inferno reached you safely, and that your edition will be in octavo and as handsome as that of Fields & Ticknor. Miss A. M. Frere, care of W . E. Frere Esq. Bitton n. Bristol. John Ruskin Esqre. Alfred Tennison Esqre. W . Follet Synge Esqre. [This copy will be called for] M. le Chevalier de Chatelain, Castelnan Lodge, Warwick Crescent, Westbourne Terrace Road. London W . And to the Chevalier a copy of "Flower de Luce" also. 124

CAMBRIDGE,

1867

All this will greatly oblige me. Expenses paid and charged to me. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Longfellow's brackets.

2475.

To Alice Mary Frere

Cambridge April 5 1867. M y Dear Miss Frere, Yesterday we were both thinking the same thought and doing the same thing, and at the same hour. Our letters crossed each other, like friendly swords. Yours came to me safely at nine o'clock this morning, and I hope [mine] found you at the breakfast table, at about the same time.^ I thank you more than I can say for your letter, and particularly for the kind remembrance of the P.S.^ T h e photographs are most welcome. Your father's is very good, though as you say "judicial"; — your own, excellent in parts, but too sad. T h e brow and eyes are beautiful, and also the hair; but I miss the "angelico riso,"^ which to be sure can never be given in a photograph. You see therefore the absolute necessity of sending me another from England. I understand and sympathize with the homeward beating of your heart. I wish I were going with you. I can only do so in thought. But the good friendship and sweet memories shall endure. W h a t I was trying to say yesterday has been better said in German by Novalis. Do you remember the poem? ' W a s passt, dass muss sich ründen. Was sich versteht, sich finden, Was gut ist, sich verbinden. Was liebt, zusammen sein; Was hindert, muss entweichen. Was krumm ist, muss sich gleichen. Was fern ist, sich erreichen. Was keimt, dass muss gedeihn."^ Thanks to your father for the "Fables,"® which I like very much; and once more good bye; and do not forget to write me a line as soon as you reach England, that I may know you are safe and well. Think of me ever as your sincere and affectionate friend. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. I. Miss Frere's letter is dated April 3, 1867, but Longfellow's letter to her, dated April 3, is unrecovered. 125

THREE

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YEARS

2. In which she wrote: " I have just opened my 'Heder ohne Worte' [Mendelssohn] and find it quite perfumed w. the spray of orange-blossom you brought me on Monday even[in]g — the fragrance will remain for me and always carry my thots back to that night — even when the spray itself shall be dry and withered — the memory will remain as fresh and sweet as when you gave it to me." 3. Petrarch, Ште Sparse, C C X C I I , 6 : "angelic laughter." 4. Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis), "An Adolph Selmnitz," 11. 1 - 8 : "What's proper will develop, What's logical will transpire. What's good will unite. Whatever loves will join; W h a t hinders will disappear. What's bent will be adjusted. What's distant will be gained. W h a t buds will thrive." 5. John Hookham Frere, Fables for Five-Years Old (London, t 8 2 o ) . Frere ( 1 7 6 9 1 8 4 6 ) , English diplomat and author, was the great-uncle of Alice Frere.

2476.

To Henry Hart Milman^

Cambridge, Mass. April 5. 1867. My Dear Sir, In preparing some Notes to a Translation I have made of the Divina Commedia, I have constantly found your excellent History of Latin Christianity the best commentary. I have taken the liberty of making numerous extracts from your work, but I hope not to an extent which you will think unwarranted. The Translation will be published in London by Mr. Routledge — in April May and June; and I have directed him to send a copy to you. Be kind enough to accept it as [a] mark of my great regard, and believe me, my Dear Sir, Yours very truly Henry W. Longfellow Rt. Rev. H. H. Milman Dean of St. Paul's. MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia, ADDRESS: TO the / Rt. Revd. H . H . Milman / Dean of St. Paul's / London POSTMARKS: CAMBRIDGE MASS APR 5 / BOSTON AM APR 3 [ s i c ] PAID / LONDON H PAID A 1 7 AP 6 7

I. Milman ( 1 7 9 1 - 1 8 6 8 ) , English clergyman and poet, was dean of St. Paul's, 1 8 4 9 1868. See 1 8 9 3 . 3 .

126

CAMBRIDGE, 2477.

1867

To james Thomas Fields

Camb. Apr. 7. 1867 My Dear Fields, I called to see you on Friday evening, but you had not got quite home. Please send this — the proofsheets of Purgatorio — to New York, and greatly oblige me. Do not forget Wednesday evening. Yours ever H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library.

2478.

To Alice Mary Frere

Cambridge April 7 1867. My Dear Miss Frere, You will be seriously alarmed when you see this great parcel brought in, and I can hear you say to your father; "It is really quite impossible to get anything more into these trunks." Be patient and listen. Since writing you last, (this shows I have already written twice) I have received from London a proof sheet of Dante, and am sorry to see that the edition is not a handsome one, but rather of the cheap kind, which is a great pity. Now it is absolutely necessary to my peace of mind, that you should have the most beautiful. Therefore I lay this burden upon you. This edition is not complete; it has not received the last corrections[;] it is without Notes; and is, and always will be unpublished, as only ten copies were printed. I should be so happy to know that you like to have one of the ten!^ Now will you not take back the words you have just said to your father, and find room somewhere for the volumes? Pray do. On Friday I dined where you should have dined. What a difference it made! To be sure I sat between two ladies; and if you wish to know my exact situation, see the Divine Comedy, canto IV. line 3. of Paradiso!^ I wrote you on Wednesday last, enclosing a stereoscopic view of my room; and on Thursday, thanking you for your charming note.^ I hope both letters reached you, as they were duly directed to the Clarendon [Hotel, New York]; but sometimes the people at hotels are very careless, and many letters, like their writers, go to the Dead Letter Office. For fear that such may be the fate of mine, (not liking to think of my letters to you being dragged out of the river of Time, and exposed in the Morgue) I send this in the parcel. Find time, I beg of you, to write a few words before sailing to say that all has 127

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come safe, though I know you must be very busy, and with not a moment to spare. Please remember me to your father, and thank him again for the Fables, which are very clever, and have all the finesse of the author. I am quite serious in all I said about the Poems. There certainly should be a complete edition. It is the best monument that could be raised to the memory of Hookham Frere. And let me thank you again and again for the lovely photograph. I will not tell you how much I like it, nor how often I look at it. I will not say good bye any more. It is not pleasant to say, nor to think of. But I will say once or twice more what a gladness it has been to me to see you and to know you, even for this short while. It is near midnight. All the household are asleep. I and the Sphinx (Ego et Rex meus') sit here alone face to face, in the desert and the starlight, and the riddle still unsolved.·^ Now I will write your name in the Dante, and then say Good Night. Gratefully and affectionately H.W.L. P.S. Keble's interpretation of the enigma does not satisfy me.® Here is something better from Whittier. "Ah, well! for all some sweet thought lies Deeply buried from human eyes. In the Hereafter, angels may Roll the stone from its grave away!"® P.S. Good wishes — kind regards — sweet memories — the blessing of "whatsoever things are pure and whatsoever things are lovely"^ — and the hope that some when and some where we shall meet again before a great while — all these go with you! MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

1. See BAL 1 2 1 3 9 . 2. Longfellow has no journal entry for Friday, April 5, but Paradiso, scribes his experience:

IV, 1 - 6 , de-

Between two viands, equally removed And tempting, a free man would die of hunger Ere either he could bring unto his teeth. So would a lamb between the ravenings Of two fierce wolves stand fearing both alike; And so would stand a dog between two does. 3. See 2475.1. The letter written "on Thursday" is presumably No. 2475. 4. A reference to a water color of the Sphinx owned by Longfellow and apparently the subject of a conversation between him and Miss Frere.

128

CAMBRIDGE,

1867

5. In her letter of April 6 from New York, Alice Frere wrote that "the solution to the riddle you suggest" might be found in stanza 4 of "Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Trinity" by the English poet John Keble ( 1 7 9 2 - 1 8 6 6 ) : For if one heart in perfect sympathy Beat with another, answering love for love, W e a k mortals all entranc'd on Earth would lie Nor listen for those purer strains above. 6. C f . "Maud Muller," 11. 1 0 7 - 1 1 0 . 7. Phil. 4 : 8 .

2479.

To Alice Mary Frere

Cambridge Apr 8 1867. My Dear Miss Frere, It would be difficult for me to tell you, how much this Romance of your life has interested and touched me. I cannot write to you about it now. Perhaps some time I will tell you. Only believe this, — (as I know you will,) — that I rejoice in your happiness as if it were my own; and I do not know what greater proof of my affection I could give you.^ I now comprehend fully the expression of the photograph, and the look which I often saw in your eyes. Do you wish to know what it is? Read the first fifteen lines of Paradiso, canto ΧΧΙΠ. and you will there find a description of it.^ (You will smile at my quoting Dante again, as if there were no other poet. At present he is most in my mind. Therefore I quote him.) I sent you this morning by Express a copy of the Boston edition of the Divine Comedy.^ Will you accept it as a Wedding present? I may not be able to send you any other; and certainly, certainly, I should not wish to be shut out on that occasion. Mr. Fields goes back to New York tomorrow. He urges me to go with him; but an instinct tells me not to go. I do not wish to take leave of you on board a steamer, in a crowd. It is better as it is. If I had received your last letter a day sooner, I should have written in the book, "To my dear daughter Alice in England." As I did not have a chance to do this, I used the common phrase, which you will truly interpret by what you know. Ever Yours H.W.L. P.S. I keep very sacred and precious the memory of Monday evening. It was the revelation of a beautiful soul; — a Song without Words, whose music I shall hear through the rest of my life. P.S. The secret I told you I know is safe in your keeping. I could not help 129

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telling it to you. It was the cry of my soul. And yet I would not have told it, had I known yours.^ Of that I beg you to tell me more. It interests me very deeply. Speak to me as frankly as I have spoken to you. MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

1 . In a letter of April 6 Miss Frere had written: "Since you desire it I will speak frankly to you — i.e. as far as I can — but there are some things I can't speak or write of — and can only feel — so you will understand will you not if what I tell you seems curt or hard. M y fiancé is Maj: Godfrey Clerk of the Rifle Brigade and we have been engaged for more than three years. He is Sir George Clerk's second son — and was my Uncles military secretary in Bombay. Unfortunately we have both of us been accustomed all our lives to a far more expensive style of living than we are ever likely to be able to indulge in when we join hands and take our path thro' the world together — and as he was afflicted with impecuniosity — (that curse of younger sons! —} and I much the same — we cd not marry — even had my Father not been much averse to it. He was naturally rather disappointed that I shd refuse many what I suppose the world wd call 'brilliant' offers — but at the same time has far too much admiration and respect for Maj: Clerk, and affection for me to wish to put more difficulties in the way than those we were ourselves well aware of. So we wait — or rather have waited all this time in the full assurance that if it is right for us we shall in the end reach our goal." Major Clerk ( 1 8 3 5 - 1 9 0 8 ) , son of Sir George Russell Clerk ( 1 8 0 0 - 1 8 8 9 ) , had entered the army in 1 8 5 1 and served in India as secretary to Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere ( 1 8 1 5 1884), governor of Bombay, 1 8 6 2 - 1 8 6 7 . 2. In these lines Dante compares Beatrice to a bird waiting expectantly for the dawn. T h e last three lines of the passage are suggestive of Longfellow's attitude : "So that beholding her suspense and wistful, Such I became as he is who desiring For something yearns, and hoping is appeased." 3. See B A L 1 2 1 4 6 . 4. See 2475.2. T h e nature of Longfellow's "secret" is conjectural. His journal entry for Monday, April i, reads as follows: "Went to say good bye to the Freres. Found they were going to the Winthrops in the evening. Offered to call for them; which I accordingly did. Found Miss Frere alone, her father having gone out to dine, and so we went together to Pemberton Square. / T h e party was a Poetic Reading, with some music. Then supper. / Took the Freres home to their hotel, and said good bye, on the dark, wet door-step. They go to N e w York tomorrow."

2480.

To William Dean Howells

Cambridge Apr 1 1 . 1867 My Dear Mr. Howells I was very sorry that you could not come last evening. I wanted to thank you very much for your beautiful paper in the North American,^ which I should feel more at liberty to praise, if you had not praised me so much. Looking at it quite impersonally, that is to say, if it had been written about someone else, I should call it a charming literary sketch. But I cannot look 130

CAMBRIDGE,

1867

at it only in that light, nor principally in that light, and thank you most sincerely for the sympathy and friendliness which you have expressed. Fioping to see you on Saturday evening at Norton's, Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. I. Howells had reviewed the revised trade edition of Longfellow's poetry and prose in seven volumes ( B A L 1 2 1 4 1 ) . See the North American Review, C I V (April 1 8 6 7 ) , 531-540.

2481.

To Mary Tyler Peahody Mann

Cambridge Ap. 13 1867. My Dear Mrs Mann, It is not necessary for me to read this work for Señor Sarmiento, for the purpose you mention, as I know him personally, and am already acquainted with some of his writings. I have great regard for him, and should like to have him receive the compliment of a Degree from the College.^ If you could see President Hill upon the subject, it would do more to further the matter than anything else. With much regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCBIPT: Massachusetts Historical Society. I. In an impassioned letter, undated, Mrs. Mann had urged Longfellow to read Sarmiento's Comentarios de la Constitución de la Confederación Argentina, con numerosos documentos ilustrativos del texto (Santiago de Chile, 1 8 5 3 ) in order that he might "testify to his ability and to his claims" for an honorary degree from Harvard. T h e degree was never conferred.

2482.

To Charles Frederick Bradford^

Cambridge Apr 15 1867. My Dear Mr. Bradford, I am very sorry that I should have neglected your request, so flattering to me. I hasten to repair my negligence with what grace I may. I beg you to come and see me with your son,^ on any day and at any hour which may suit your convenience. If you will be kind enough to say at the door who it is, I shall be most happy to see you. With great regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. I

3

I

THREE

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YEARS

MANUSCRIPT: Wellesley College Library. 1 . Bradford ( 1 8 0 6 - 1 8 7 7 )

was a Boston merchant and Hispanist. See Letter

No.

1 2 8 7 , where he is incorrectly identified as Charles Lafayette Bradford. 2. E d w a r d Hickling Bradford ( 1 8 4 8 - 1 9 2 6 )

graduated from Harvard in 1 8 6 9

and

became a noted orthopedic surgeon.

2483.

To Charles Eliot Norton

Camb. Apr. 16 1867 My Dear Norton, I forget what my subscription to the Garrison fund was, but think the enclosed is right. ^ If not, we will make it so on Wednesday evening. Yours truly H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Clifton W a l l e r Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. I. The M S

Letter Calendar reveals that Longfellow contributed $ 5 0 to a national

testimonial f u n d for W i l l i a m L l o y d Garrison, the goal of which was $ 5 0 , 0 0 0 . In M a r c h 1 8 6 8 , after a two-year campaign, the sum of $ 3 1 , 0 0 0 was delivered to Garrison.

2484.

To ]ames Thomas Fields

Camb. Apr 18. 1867. My Dear Fields, That poor, forlorn woman at Parker's would like to see you this morning, and I hope you will be able to go. She suspects Greene; and says he is employed by a Rail Road company to injure her.^ Do persuade her to depart in peace and oblige Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E.

Huntington

Library,

ADDRESS:

James T .

Fields E s q / 1 4 8

Charles S t / Boston I. Details concerning this incident are not known.

2485.

To Charles Sumner

Cambridge Apr 30 1867 M y Dear Sumner, Thanks for all your letter;^ (_All is a Euphuism) and if I have been negligent in answering them, it is only because I have been very much interrupted of late, and very busy with Printers and last corrections of Dante. The first volume is now published, both here and in England. How shall I send you a copy? or rather where shall I send it? To Boston or to Washington? I think to Boston, as you will probably be there in a day or two. Let me know, and your wishes shall be obeyed. 132

CAMBRIDGE,

1867

Do you know that we are to have a new Quarterly Review here in Boston, to advance the cause of "the True and the Beautiful," to be edited by George Lunt? Such I understand to be the fact.^ Me ne rallegro con voi [I rejoice with you], in advance of the nice notices you and I are likely to get in its pages. I do not say, as you do, at the end of three sentences, "this is the longest letter I have written for a twelve-month," but leave you to infer the fact, which is undeniable. When are you coming? With kindest regards to your wife, Ever Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. A brief note dated April 2 1 . 2. This review, however, did not materialize.

2486.

To ]ean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz

Camb. May 3. 1867. Many thanks, my Dear Agassiz, for the Presentation Copy of this new Swiss poem in six Cantos.^ As a gentleman is sitting with me,^ I must postpone thanking you more fully till tomorrow morning. I was at your door this afternoon, and was sorry not to see you. I left a Divine Comedy for you — new wine which I have just decanted from an old Italian bottle! Ever Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT;

Harvard College Library.

1. "Agassiz sends six bottles of Swiss Wine" ( M S Journal, May 3, 1 8 6 7 ) . 2. Presumably Professor Georg J. Adler ( 1 0 1 7 . 2 ) , who visited Longfellow on May 3 ( M S Journal).

2487.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. M a y ó 1867 My Dear Fields, Emerson's Poems have not arrived.^ I send you the Roudedge and the Warne editions.^ I believe you have my copy of "Flaxman's Dante."® Please tell me if it be so; for I cannot find it, and must have lent it, and may as well begin with you as any other friend. Notwithstanding what you say, the Sonnet is poor and feeble. It stands well enough on its feet, but it has no legs, no body and no soul."* Poor A[dler]!® You must try to get some people to take tickets, whether they go to the Lectures or not. This is a real tragedy and a real charity. H.W.L. I 33

THREE

SCORE

MANUSCRIPT: Henry E. Huntington Library, Charles

St. / Boston

POSTMARKS:

BOSTON

YEARS ADDRESS: Mr James T . Fields. / 148 MASS

MAY

8

8

P M / BOSTON

MASS

CARRIER M A Y 8 9 P M

1. Ticknor & Fields had published Emerson's May-Day and Other Pieces on April 29. 2. A reference possibly to two English editions of Longfellow's poetical works published in 1867. See BAL 1 2 1 4 5 and 12498. 3. Compositions by ]ohn Flaxman, Sculptor, R.A., from the Divine Poem of Dante Alighieri, Containing Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. With Quotations from the Italian, and Translations from the Version of the Reverend H. Boyd, to each Plate (London, 1 8 0 7 ) . Copy in the Longfellow House. 4. Fields responded in an undated note as follows: " I have your Flaxman's Dante and wish to keep it till Saturday if you are willing. I don't agree with you about the sonnet. It has body, soul, and legs in abundance" ( M S , Henry E. Huntington Library). Longfellow had composed the fourth of the Divina Commedia sonnets (Works, X, 1 0 ) during the evening of May 5. See journal entry in Life, ΙΠ, 87. 5. T h e name, except for the initial, has been expunged. Appletons Cyclopaedia of American Biography remarks that Adler "was insane, with occasional lucid intervals, for the last eight years of his life, and died in Bloomingdale asylum" ( L 3 3 ) .

2488.

To Robert Ferguson

[Cambridge] May 8, 1867. It was only yesterday that I had the pleasure of receiving your charming birthday present, the Delia Crusca edition of the Commedia.^ It is a cara gioia, a precious jewel of a book, which I value very highly, for its own sake and for yours. You could not have thought of a more acceptable gift; and I am very much obliged to you for it, and for the kind remembrance. I suppose that before this time you have received a copy of my translation of the Inferno. The second volume will be out this month, and the third in June. They will be duly sent you, with copies for Miss F[anny Farrer] and Mr. Dayman,^ which I took the liberty of having directed to your care. The only merit my book has is that it is exactly what Dante says, and not what the translator imagines he might have said if he had been an Englishman. In other words, while making it rhythmic, I have endeavored to make it also as literal as a prose translation. We are all well at the Craigie House, and are beginning to think what we shall do this summer. The great point is, shall it be Nahant or England? How it will be setried I do not know; perhaps, by accident or fate, — certainly, by Providence. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from Life, ΙΠ, 88. 1. La Divina Commedia Ridotta a Miglior Lezione dagli Accademici della Crusca (Firenze, 1 5 9 5 ) . This work, in the Longfellow House, contains the inscription: " T o H W Longfellow on his birthday, Feb 27, 1867, from Robert Ferguson, Carlisle." 2. John Dayman ( 1 8 0 2 - 1 8 7 1 ) , rector of Skelton, Cumberland, 1 8 3 1 - 1 8 7 1 , had translated the Divina Commedia into terza rima (London, 1 8 6 5 ) .

I 34

CAMBRIDGE, 2489.

To George Washington

1867

Greene

C a m b . M a y S 1867. My Dear Greene, This is Wednesday evening, and I miss the Dante reading and the supper. It is solitary; and one might really be sentimental. But I will resist the temptation. ^ I enclose you the Program of a Lecture on Dante in New York.^ I have also just received a pamphlet by Welcher, Prof, of Anatomy in Halle, "On the Skull of Dante."·'' It seems that the people who had Dante's skull in their hands, did not take an exact measurement of it; for it does not correspond exactly with the mask taken after death. Welcher says "Either the mask is not genuine, at least it is not the death mask of Dante, or the measures of the Report are not the measures of Dante's skull."^ He thinks the mask genuine, and the measurements erroneous, or not correctly reported. It is a curious discussion. I hope you and Anna reached home safely and found all well.® W e have had to-day a terribly wet day. I have had a pleasant letter from Milman, though he had not reed, the Dante. He says "The more extracts you make, the more flattering to me."® Good night. Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. T h e May i meeting of the Dante Club had been the last of the season. See Life, III, 87. 2. Unrecovered. 3. Hermann Welcker ( 1 8 2 2 - 1 8 9 9 ) had apparently sent Longfellow an offprint of his article "On the Skull of Dante," Anthropological Review, V (January 1 8 6 7 ) , 5 6 - 7 1 . 4. P. 58. 5. Greene and his daughter had been Longfellow's guests in late April, although the date of their arrival in Cambridge is not known. They returned home on May 3 ( M S Journal). 6. For Henry Hart Milman's letter, dated April 18, 1867, see Life, III, 86.

2490.

To Brantz Mayer

Cambridge May 8 1867. My Dear Sir, I yesterday had the pleasure of receiving the copy of your "Memoir of Jared Sparks," you so kindly sent me, and I have read it with great interest and satisfaction.^ I fully agree with you in your estimate of his character and of his literary labors; and thank you for saying so strong a word now, when I think there is rather a tendency to undervalue both him and his work. I 35

THREE

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YEARS

If you have another copy of your pamphlet to spare, I wish you would send it to Mr. Geo. W . Greene of East Greenwich R.I. who will sympathize with your views and value your gift. A few days ago I made a new attempt to procure for you an autograph of Allston. The Dana's told me they could find none among his papers. The truth is he wrote very few notes or letters; and none of them seem to have come back to the family.^ I remain, my Dear Sir, with great regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Maryland Historical Society. 1. See Memoir of Jared Sparks, LL.D. By Brantz Mayer, President of the Maryland Historical Society; Prepared at the Request of the Society, and Read before its Annual Meeting, on Thursday Evening, February 7, 1 8 6 7 (Baltimore, 1 8 6 7 ) . 2. See Letter No. 2 3 7 5 . Mayer reported in a letter of May 9 that Frank Marx Etting had procured an Allston autograph.

2491.

To ]ohn Herbert Aloysius Bone^ сАмвшосЕ, M a y 14, 1867.

M Y DEAR SIR,

I have had the pleasure of receiving the Cleveland Herald containing your most friendly and sympathetic notice of my translation of the Divine Comedy, and I hasten to thank you for your great kindness.^ The notice is excellent, bringing forward just the points I should wish to have touched upon. It is positive and not negative; and will not fail to do the work much good. It is difficult to thank one for praise; so let me thank you rather for telling your readers what I have tried to do, and how far, in your opinion, I have succeeded. Our pleasant Wednesday evenings are now ended, for the present at least; but I hope in the autumn, on some pretext or other, we shall begin again; and that we may once more have the pleasure of seeing you among us. Lowell is well; and we are urging him to take up the Canzoni, which I really hope he will do.® With great regard Yours truly H E N R Y W. LONGFELLOW J . H . A . BONE, E s q . MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from George Lowell Austin, Henry Wadsworth fellow: His Life, His Works, His Friendships (Boston, 1 8 8 8 ) , p. 3 6 1 .

Long-

I. Bone ( 1 8 3 0 - 1 9 0 6 ) , English-born editorial writer for the Cleveland Herald and friend of Lowell, had attended a Dante Club meeting in January. His description of the evening is printed in Austin's Longfellow, pp. 3 5 2 - 3 6 1 .

136

CAMBRIDGE,

1867

2. See the Cleveland Herald, XXX (May 4, 1867), 2. 3. Lowell, however, did not translate Dante's Canzoni.

2492.

To Alice Mary Frere

Cambridge May 18. 1867. My Dear Miss Frere, I had this morning the great delight of receiving your charming letter, which has perfumed the day for me. It is just what I wanted; and I beg you to remember always to write to me about yourself, and what you are doing, as the most interesting subject you can select. And now the day is ended, the children are asleep, the house is still. If you will look at the picture of my study, you will see a chair, which seems to be vacant. That is your chair, the first you sat in when you were here. It will always stand where it is, and always be yours. You are sitting in it now, and I am talking with you. I followed you in thought across the sea, and imagined you arriving on Easter Sunday, which was not much out of the way. Your description of your reaching home is like a chapter in a Romance. I wish I could have been there and heard those bells of Bitton. They received you royally, as they should. ' And now where is Clayes Street? That is the first question. I want to see it on the Plan of London, and know exactly where you are. I have read the name wrong; it is Clarges St. leading from Curzon to Piccadilly and the Green Park. It is next to Half Moon St. where Mrs. Mackintosh lives, unless she has already moved to her new house. No 38. Elvarston Place, South Kensington. You will not forget to find her out. She will be delighted to see you, and the [Hensleigh] Wedgwoods will tell you where she is. A very sweet and beautiful nature. But she has suffered much, and been most of her life an invalid. Why did I forget to show you her portrait as she was in her youth? Now I have found you on the Plan, and shall see you walking sometimes in the Green Park, which is very pleasant to think of! I am very sorry to hear that Routledge has not sent the Dante. It should have been at Bitton when you arrived. Two volumes are now published and the third will come next month. You shall have them all, either from here or there. I do not like to have you read an incorrect copy, got up in haste for the Dante Festival. On this side of the water nothing very wonderful has happened since you left us. Perhaps the most important event is a new volume of poems by Emerson,^ which is full of sweet and noble thoughts. Here is a pretty little bit called "Letters"

I 37

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YEARS

"Every day brings a ship, Every ship brings a word; Well for those who have no fear, Looking seaward well assured That the word the vessel brings Is the word they wish to hear." 1 am glad that your father does not find the Villa-Señor among his books, as it gives me the pleasure of sending him my copy, and so adding my slight contribution to his library.® If I am not too late I will send it by this steamer; at all events very soon. I beg you to give him my kindest remembrances and regards. I have still to thank you for your last words from New York, written so late at night and when you were so weary, and yet so kind and thoughtful!^ And again for this first letter from England, which you have found time to write amid all the whirl and excitement of London. It is very, very good of you. I look forward with great pleasure to the coming of the new photograph. Will it be a full-length or a vignette? Whichever it turns out to be it will be most welcome. Always most affectionately H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. 1. In her letter of May i from 42 Clarges Street, London, Miss Frere had written: "You can understand what joy it was to me seeing once more the lovely green fields — banks covered w. wild flowers — groups of trees — looking as if they had been placed where they were, simply to please the eye of artists and other admirers of nature — the picturesque old farms and tumbledown cottages the like of wh one sees «owhere but in Engd — and last, as a climax — the arrival at 'home' real home — the dear old church, w. its beautiful Norman tower, whence issued such a merry peal (we are particularly proud of our bells and ringers) to greet us — and then the 'old familiar faces' so unchanged — so loving — that the last 4 y[ear]s seemed really a dream." 2. See 2487.1. 3. José Antonio de Villa-Señor y Sanchez, Theatro Americano, descripción general de los Reynos y Provincias de la Nueva-España y sus jurisdicciones (México, 1 7 4 6 - 1 7 4 8 ) , 2 vols. 4. This letter was written "between Tuesday night and Wed[nesda]y morn[in]g" (April 9 - 1 0 , 1 8 6 7 ) .

2493.

To James Ripley Osgood

Cambridge May 20 1867. My Dear Mr Osgood, I am greatly obliged to you for your kind remembrance, and for the sparkling Moselle, which is very delicate and delicious. 138

CAMBRIDGE,

1867

Also for the note from Victor Hugo, which is a curiosity in its way, and a valuable autograph.^ Congratulating you on your pleasant visit abroad, and your safe return, I remain. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow Mr. J . R. Osgood MANUSCRIPT; Pierpont Morgan Library. I. T h e letter from Victor Hugo to Longfellow is dated April 22, 1867. See III, 87.

2494.

To Alfred

Life,

Tennyson [Cambridge, May 21, iSóyJi

M Y DEAR M R T E N N Y S O N ,

I have requested my publishers in London, Messrs Routledge, to send you a copy of a translation of the Divina Commedia, which I have had the temerity to make, and which they are now publishing.^ In the notes I have taken the liberty to quote your beautiful song of Fortune (from "Enid"), and also part of "Ulysses," at which, I hope, you will not be displeased, as you are in very good company. Many thanks for your kind letter acknowledging the (Red Indian) red stone pipe of peace. To a civilized human being I fancy it can never be of any practical use. But it is pretty, and has a certain value as coming from those far-away Western mountains. Always with great regard yours truly, HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.

unrecovered; text from Hallam Lord Tennyson, Alfred A Memoir ( N e w York, 1899), L 444-

MANUSCRIPT:

Lord

Tennyson:

1. Date provided by M S Letter Calendar. 2. Tennyson responded in a letter of June 12, 1867: " I shall be charmed to receive your translation, though in my heart I believe that translations of Poets are all but impossible, and that to transfer the Commedia successfully into English is beyond the power of the greatest poet living."

2495.

To Charles S. Francis^

Cambridge May 24 1867. My Dear Sir, I have taken a day or two to think of the subject of your letter, and have come to the conclusion that the "Poets and Poetry of Europe" had better be reprinted as it is, with only the correction of a few verbal errors, of which I will send you a list in a few days. To attempt to change and remodel it I 39

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

would be a tiresome work, not to say impossible. Stereotype plates are pretty stubborn facts. Meanwhile please forward to me, care of Sawin's Express, Boston, the plates of p.p 177. 178. 516 as I wish on these to make so many corrections, that I can do it better here under my own eye, than by letter. All the corrections I have to make come upon some ten or twelve pages. Perhaps you would prefer to send these pages, and have no farther trouble about it. I think myself, that would be best. These pages are; P.p. vii (Contents.) 62. 177. 178. 404. 511. 513-514 516. 599. 623. 672. 704. 705 I remain. Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. I. In a letter of M a y 15 Francis ( 1 8 0 5 - 1 8 8 7 ) , bookdealer and publisher of N e w York and Boston (see Letter N o . 1 3 9 7 ) , announced that he was considering a new edition of the Poets and Poetry of Europe and asked Longfellow if he cared to add to or amend it in any way.

2496.

To Ferdinand Freiligrath

Cambridge, May 24, 1867. M y Dear Freiligrath, You must have thought me very ungrateful never to have thanked you for your kind reception of my boy [Ernest] in London, so long ago, and for the charming photographs of your family, which you sent me on his return. My only excuse is, that of late years I have almost given up writing letters; and when one gets out of the habit of doing a thing, it becomes difficult. From time to time, as I have published a book in London, I have never failed to tell Roudedge to send a copy to you. I hope he has always done so; and that you have received the Wayside Inn, the Flower de Luce, and lastly, the translation of the Divina Commedia, of which two volumes have been published, and the third will appear in June. I hope, my dear Freiligrath, that we shall some day meet again; and I wish that it could be on the Rhine. I always remember our last evening at St. Goar, when we paced to and fro on the banks of the river till near midnight; and all that we said. I have always loved you, and never for a moment has my feeling abated or changed. I beg you to write to me about yourself, about your dear wife, about your dear children. I have only just heard of some disasters to your bank, and I venture to come to your aid with the enclosed.^ Ï 4 о

CAMBRIDGE,

1867

Of what I have been through, during the last six years, I dare not venture to write even to you; it is almost too much for any man to bear and live. I have taken refuge in this translation of the Divine Comedy, and this may give it perhaps an added interest in your sight. With kindest remembrances to your wife and family. Ever affectionately yours, Henry W. Longfellow. unrecovered; pp. 1 2 8 9 - 1 2 9 0 .

MANUSCRIPT:

text

from

"Longfellow-Freiligrath

Correspondence,"

I. Freiligrath had lost his position with the Swiss Bank of London, which had recently been dissolved, and was in serious financial difficulties. According to the M S Letter Calendar, Longfellow enclosed $ 1 0 0 with this letter. On the same day he drew on his English publisher George Routledge for £ i o o to be paid to Freiligrath's order (see Letter No. 2497), and on May 25 he sent another check for $ 1 0 0 as a contribution to a fund being raised by Freiligrath's friends in America (see Frederick Gerhard to Longfellow, May 29, 1 8 6 7 ) .

2497.

To George

Routledge

Cambridge May 24 1867. M y Dear Sir, I was very sorry, on coming home yesterday, to find that I had lost a visit from you; and as you did not leave your address in Boston, I thought it useless to attempt to find you. You probably left town immediately for New York. I hope to be more fortunate on your return; and if you will be so kind as to let me know beforehand, I will be sure to be at home.^ I send you to-day some sheets of the Paradiso, which may turn out to be duplicates, but I am not quite sure. All the rest have been sent; in part through your house in New York last week, and in part by the China on Wednesday from here. I sent as fast as I could get the sheets from the printer; but no complete copy at once, not having any to send, and being anxious to lose no time. May I take the liberty of drawing on you in London for One hundred pounds sterling, to be paid to order of my friend Ferdinand Freiligrath? The rest may wait your convenience. Hoping that you are well and that I shall not miss seeing you. Very truly yours Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

I. Routledge had left Liverpool on May 1 1 on a business tour of the United States and Canada (letter of May 1 5 from George Roudedge & Sons, N e w York). I

4

I

THREE 2498.

SCORE

YEARS

To ]ames Thomas Fields

Camb. May. 25. 1867. My Dear Fields, Have the goodness to see that this parcel goes out in your next box to England, and charge any expenses to me. Contents, two vols of American Spanish History.^ Yours ever H.W.L. P.S. Professor Tacchella the Italian says, that if you give him a copy of the Div. Com. he will write a review thereof in the Eco d'Italia, as soon as he returns home.^ I have not a copy to spare. MANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

1 . See 2492.3. 2. See 2446.1.

2499.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. May 25 1867 M y Dear Greene, I return this rather scurrilous document;^ with the inscription "Non tali auxilio, пес defensoribus istis [Tempus eget] The other I thank you for, and keep.® I am glad for your own sake that you have finished the controversy, and come back to your normal state.^ Norton has gone to his country place in Ashfield for the summer. The Prodigal Son of a called Trap, has been recovered through the intervention of a dog-dealer in Boston. He found him in Chelsea; and I went into Boston and brought him home. He looked degraded, demoralized and low. I put a new collar upon him, and had him fed; whereupon he ran away, and was stolen again on the same day. I have recovered him again, and he is now asleep under the great chair. He has had hair dye put all about his eyes to disguise him; and is quite abject and forlorn. He evidently thinks Cambridge a dull place. At the dog-dealer's they gave him rats to kill. That is the charm, which he cannot resist. He has been trying to sneak away this afternoon; and will be stolen again tomorrow no doubt. Probably the "woman in black," whom he follows down cross-streets, has rats in her hair. Rider did not make his appearance last week. Perhaps he will come this week. Ever truly H.W.L. 142

CAMBRIDGE, MANUSCRIPT:

1867

Longfellow Trast Collection.

1 . In a letter of May 24 Greene describes this document as a clipping (unidentified) from the N e w York Tribune. 2. Aeneid, II, 521 : " T h e time does not need such aid as that or such defenders." 3. A reference to a review of the Dante translation in the Tribune, X X V I I , No. 8 1 3 8 ( M a y 9, 1 8 6 7 ) , 6. 4. Greene had written that he had finished his letter to the North American Review challenging Bancroft on the subject of Gen. Greene. See 2 4 1 4 . 1 .

2500.

To Caroline Wells Healey Dall

Cambridge May 30 1867. My Dear Mrs. Dall, I beg you to accept my best thanks for the copy of "The College, the Market, and the Court,"^ which you have sent me, and still more for the kind motive and remembrance which the gift implies. I shall read your volume with great interest, and I am sure with great profit. The subject is one of vast importance, and I am ashamed to confess my ignorance of it. Is there anywhere to be had an abstract of the Laws of Massachusetts relative to women? I should like to know how the whole matter stands on the Statute Books.^ With best wishes Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Massachusetts Historical Society.

1. The College, the Market, and the Court; or. Woman's Relation to Education, Labor, and Law (Boston, 1 8 6 7 ) . 2. Mrs. Dall responded on "Thursday eve[nin]g": " I should have great pleasure in your note, if it had only come after your reading of my book. As it comes before, I feel as if you might think that safest for us both! / You can very little imagine the difficulty there is, in tracing out the laws on any one subject from the statute book . . . You will find the best synopsis of the law, in the book I sent you. I send with this a report which may make some matters plainer. It was handed in to a meeting called by me — though Mrs [Paulina Kellogg Wright] Davis [ 1 8 1 3 - 1 8 7 6 ] presided at some of the sessions, a more attractive object to most people, with her golden curls and azure velvet dress."

2501.

To EUhu Burritt

Cambridge June 3 1867. My Dear Mr. Burritt, If I had not great confidence in your friendly and forgiving spirit, I should not dare to write to you, after neglecting it so long. There is something a little false in apologies, generally speaking, if not always, so I will not fall into that snare, but speak the truth, and shame myself and that other fellow. I I 43

THREE

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have been working pretty hard for the last year or two, and when not working have felt disinclined to write even a letter; and by yielding to this feeling I have been guilty of the crime of not thanking you for your "Walk from London to Land's End," a book which pleased me even more than its predecessor.^ I read it with very, very great satisfaction, delighting in its bits of scenery, and in its humane and beautiful spirit. I thank you truly for the refreshment it was to me. T h e work I have been engaged upon is a translation of the Divina Commedia, of which two volumes are now published and the third will be out this month. As soon as it is complete, I will request the London Publisher, Mr. Routledge to send you a copy. I was much pleased with Mr. Middlemore,^ and thank you for giving him a letter to me. Always with great regard. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. 1. Burritt, w h o was living at this time in Birmingham, England, had sent Longfellow a copy of his A Walk from London to Land's End and Back, with Notes by the Way (London, 1865). Its "predecessor" was A Walk from John O'Groat's to Land's End (London, 1864). 2. Samuel George C h e t w y n d Middlemore ( 1 8 4 8 - 1 8 9 1 ) , a young Englishman, became subsequently an author, lecturer, and translator of Jakob Burckhardt's The Civili zation of the Renaissance in Italy.

2502.

T o Charles S. Francis

Cambridge June 4 1867. M y Dear Sir, I send the few Errata in "Poets and Poetry of Europe."^ These, with what you already have, are all I have noticed. T h e correction can be made just as well in N e w York as here. I do not think it worth while to attempt any changes or additions. T h e y would be of litde value unless numerous enough to bring the history down to date. T h e book may as well end with the close of the last century, as it virtually does now, and leave the present century for some one else of the next generation. Should you publish a new edition I should expect the same copyright as heretofore, but whether it be adviseable to publish again, you can judge better than I can. For my own part I am not at all anxious or eager for it.^ I remain, my Dear Sir, with much regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. 144

CAMBRIDGE, MANUSCRIPT:

1867

Bowdoin College Library.

I. These errata, on a separate sheet, are as follows: "Poets and Poetry of Europe, Page 62. col I. line 15. For 'thirty four' read 'thirty five' 117. 2. for 'Sjögren' read 'Sjöberg' passim. 118 I d[itt]o d[itt]o d[itt]o d[itt]o 404 2 line 27 For 'westward' read 'eastward.' " 28 'Francesco' " 'Francesca.' 5 " Note 1. 3 'the seven' " 'the first seven.' 514 line 3 'nine' " 'ten.' 5i6 last line 'dramatic' " 'didactic.' 599 line 26 'present examples' " 'say a few words.' 623 Note 1. 'de Guido' " 'di Guido.' 672 2 line 2 from bottom, for 'Second' " 'Fourth' 704 " 'the Muses.' 1 " 18 " 'six Muses' 705 " hillock " 26 " fountain 164 " fifteenth 2 " 7 f bottom " thirteenth 410 These corrections have all been made in last ed." [Pages 117 and 118 have been corrected to 177 and 178 and the three bracketed lines have been added, in another hand.] 2. After a long delay, Francis informed Longfellow in a letter of February 21, 1870, that he was unable to publish a new edition of the Poets and Poetry of Europe: "I have not the means to get out an edition myself and have failed to induce any other publisher to do it, for the reason that your claim for copyright and its payment in advance, makes the investment required larger than the prospect of sale would warrant, so that I am debarred from deriving any benefit from the use of the plates, which cost me a large sum, and which I need very much."

2503.

To George William

Childs CAMBRIDGE,

June 6, 1867.

MR. GEO. W. CHILDS MY DEAR SIR :

With many thanks for this token of your regard,^ and best wishes for your success, I remain, yours truly H E N R Y W. L O N G F E L L O W . unrecovered; text from The Public Ledger Building, Philadelphia: With an Account of the Proceedings Connected with its Opening June 20, ι86γ (Philadelphia, 1868).

MANUSCRIPT:

I. Presumably a souvenir of Childs's new Public Ledger Building in Philadelphia.

I 45

THREE 2504.

To Robert Charles

SCORE

YEARS

Winthrop

Cambridge June 6 1867 My Dear Mr. Winthrop, I am much obhged to you for your kind note and offer of friendly services beyond the sea, but I have not presence of mind enough to think of anything to trouble you with, unless it be remembrances to any friends of mine you may chance to meet. In London I hope you will find time to see Mrs. Mackintosh. It enlivens her always to see familiar faces. You will find her at 38 Elvarston Place South Kensington. I really came very near going out this summer; near enough to think of it. But somebody was not old enough. That can hardly be myself; it must be one of the children. I will not say good bye, for I mean if possible to drive over to see you before you go. If I fail to do so, it will not be for want of good will, but from some unlooked-for hindrance. With kind regards to Mrs. and Miss Winthrop,' Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow. Hon. R. C. Winthrop. MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

I. Winthrop had married Adele Granger Thayer ( 1 8 1 9 - 1 8 9 2 ) , his third wife, on November 15, 1865. His daughter, Elizabeth Cabot Winthrop ( 1 8 3 8 - 1 9 2 1 ) , was by his first wife, Eliza Cabot Blanchard ( 1 8 0 9 - 1 8 4 2 ) .

2505.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. June 7. 1867. My Dear Sumner, I will come with great pleasure.' Two copies of your "great work" on Russian America, — I beg your pardon — Alaska, have just reached me.^ I shall read them both, and ha\'e already begun with the last page. Now I will go back to the first. Ten minutes later. I Ьал'е begun at the beginning. It is \'ery interesting; so I will read and not write. Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. In a note dated "Thursday eve [June 6, 1 8 6 7 ] " Sumner had invited Longfellow to dinner on Sunday, June 9: "Mr [Samuel] Hooper will be here; nobody else." 2. On April 9 Sumner had delivered a speech in the Senate favoring the annexation of Alaska. See " T h e Cession of Russian America to the United States," Sumner Works, XL 181-349. I

4 6

CAMBRIDGE, 2506.

To Joseph Liddell

1867

Blaviire^

Cambridge June 10 1867 M y Dear Sir, Messrs Ticknor and Fields have forwarded to you vols I and II of the octavo edition of the Divine Comedy, and vol III. is to go in a week or two. With this last I shall send a reprint of Purgatorio p. 350. which please substitute for the page as it now stands. This is in order to make the correction in Note 32. canto X X X . which I sent to you in my last, hoping to be in season for your edition,- though I fear I was not. I have not had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Routledge yet, but trust I shall not miss him on his return from Canada. With much regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. 1. Blamire, English-born bookseller of 4 1 6 Broome Street, N e w York, was the American representative of Routledge & Sons. 2. See B A L 1 2 4 9 3 .

2507.

T o William Dean

Howells

Camb. June 10 1867 iMy Dear Mr. Howells, Here is another poem, with request that I will send it to the "Atlantic." Please read it with as friendly an eye as you can. It comes from J. B. Everhart. West Chester, Penna.^ Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. I. James Bowen Everhart ( 1 8 2 1 - 1 8 8 8 ) , a Princeton graduate of 1 8 4 2 , had written to Longfellow on J u n e 6: " Y o u will be surprised, but I hope not offended on the receipt of the enclosed verses I send you. I rely on the charity of your genius merely to hand them to the Atlantic Monthly with the statement that you have so much knowledge of the author as results from having received, three or four years ago, a volume of 'Miscellanies' [West Chester, 1 8 6 2 ] . " His verses do not appear in the Atlantic.

2508.

T o Charles Appleton

Longfellow

Camb. June 10. 1867^ M y Dear Charley, Nice books for you to be reading in French would be "Ste. Beuve (SainteBeuve) Causeries du Lundi." and "Nouveaux Lundis"; — charmingly written 147

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essays on various subjects historical, literary and artistic. There are a great many volumes, but you ought to have a set for future use. He is the best of the French critics. I dined yesterday with Sumner and his beautiful wife. Your birthday was not forgotten. We drank your health. Give my love to Harry [Stanfield]. His father was here two days ago, very well and happy. Do not forget to buy me a bouquet of artificial flowers for the dinner table. Ever most affectionately H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. T h e following clipping from the Boston Daily Advertiser, CIX, No. 16,462 ( J u n e 6, 1 8 6 7 ) , is pasted to the manuscript, opposite the date: " — T h e president of the L i f e Saving R a f t Company which built the monitor raft on which three men persist in starting to cross the ocean, announces that the company washes its hands of the matter. H e has done all he could to prevent the foolhardy act, but says he believes the raft will cross in safety notwithstanding." T h e life raft Nonpareil, after collecting fees from curious visitors, sailed from the Battery for L e Havre on J u n e 4 but apparently never cleared N e w York harbor.

2509.

To Abigail Wheaton Little

Cambridge June 1 1 1867. My Dear Mrs. Little, I shall be most happy to see you and Dr. Dixi on Thursday between eleven and twelve o'clock. If any other hour would be more convenient for you, be kind enough to let me know it, and I will be at home. Yours very truly. Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Pierpont Morgan Library. I. R e v . Morgan D i x ( 1 8 2 7 - 1 9 0 8 ) , Church, N e w York, 1 8 6 2 - 1 9 0 8 .

2510.

Episcopal

clergyman

and

rector of

Trinity

To James Ripley Osgood

Cambridge June 12 1867. M y Dear Mr. Osgood, The Harpers desire to print in their "Weekly," with an illustration made expressly for the purpose, "Paul Revere's Ride." I have no objection; rather the reverse; — and have told them they might do so, unless you objected, which I trust you will not.^ Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow I 48

CAMBRIDGE,

1867

MANUSCRIPT: Cincinnati Historical Society. I. T h e illustration by Charles Green Bush ( 1 8 4 2 - 1 9 0 9 ) , artist and caricaturist, appeared in Harper's Weekly, X I (June 29, 1 8 6 7 ) , 409. Longfellow's poem was printed on p. 4 1 0 .

2511.

To George William Curtis

[Cambridge] June 13, 1867. It was very pleasant to see your handwriting last evening; the next best thing to seeing yourself. At T[om Appleton]'s^ dinner we missed you very much; the only skeleton there was your vacant chair. Kensett I found quite unchanged after so many years that I have not met him;^ just as sweet and sound as ever; and his voice murmuring on in its old pleasant undertone, like a hidden brook. Perhaps you will infer from this last elaborate sentence that my letter is meant for an autograph, and that I have Mrs. [Elizabeth Lord Cogswell Dixon] in my eye. Not in the least. I have this morning made my peace with her, or hope I have, by writing to her in answer to a note received some time ago, and by me neglected. Therefore you need not send this.® W e are all well here, and begin to think of Nahant. I wish there were any chance of seeing you there this summer. Could we persuade you to come, if we tried? MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from Life, III, 92-93. 1. T h e identification is coniectural. 2. Longfellow had apparently not seen lohn Frederick Kensett since the summer of 1855. See Letter No. 1445. 3. In a letter of June 8 Curtis had asked for "a few lines" for "Mrs. Senator Dixon of Hartford," who had asked him for one of his own Longfellow letters. Longfellow's letter to Mrs. Dixon is unrecovered.

2512.

To Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Cambridge June 18 1867. My Dear Mr. Aldrich, Allow me the pleasure of presenting Mr. Budd, a lawyer of Philadelphia, who is passing a few days in Boston.' If you can find time to go with him to the Public Library, or the Athenaeum, you will greatly oblige me. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: University of Chicago Library. I. George Davis Budd ( 1 8 4 3 - 1 8 7 4 ) , a University of Pennsylvania graduate of 1862, had called on Longfellow on June 1 7 with a letter of introduction from Samuel Austin Allibone ( M S lournal).

149

THREE

2513.

SCORE

YEARS

To Edwin Percy Whipple Cambridge

June 18

1867.

M y Dear Whipple, A l l o w me to present the bearer, M r . B u d d of Philadelphia, a lawyer, and cousin of M r . Allibone. Being an admirer of your books, he does not wish to leave Boston without seeing you. H e relied upon our friend Fields to introduce him to you, but the fallacious Fields has eluded us, and so I take the liberty, for which I am sure you will thank me. Yours truly H e n r y W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University oF Virginia.

2514.

To George Washington Greene Cambridge

June 19

1867.

M y D e a r Greene, I have ordered your wine " Q u e l claretto Benedetto, C h e si spilla in Avignone"^ but you will have to wait a day or two, as it is not yet bottled. I shall ha\'e the four dozen packed in a cask, instead of four boxes, as you will thereby get it at $ 4 . 7 5 per doz. instead of $5.00 and moreover save half the freight. You will like this quite as well, shall you not? I had got thus far when Senator S u m n e r came to dinner, in the quiet old way; and after dinner we went to see Palfrey, and then loitered througli the College grounds, and looked at old, familiar windows, painted with sunset and memories of youth, and the Senator moralized thereupon and sighed.J u n e 20. T h e Gubernatorial wine from Cincinnati,'' is announced, but not yet arrived. C o m e for a day or two and taste it, — next week say. You need not lose much time by the movement; and w e will discuss a good many things besides the Rhenish. I am reading Walpole's letters;^ the clever wag; how pleasantly he writes, though rather self-conscious in style. Hoping you and yours are well, Always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. See Letter N o . 2309. 2. T h e Senator's sigh was perhaps occasioned more by the fact that his marriage to I

5

о

CAMBRIDGE,

1867

Alice Hooper had now failed. After entertaining Longfellow at dinner on J u n e 9 (see Letter N o . 2 5 0 8 ) , Mrs. Sumner left her husband and they never spoke to one another again. See Charles Sumner and the Rigkts of Man, pp. 2 8 9 - 2 9 5 . 3. A reference possibly to a catawba wine from the winery of Nicholas Longworth ( 5 2 8 . 2 ) , pioneer grape horticulturist whose vineyards were located near Cincinnati' T h e wine was presumably a gift from Lt. Gov. William Greene, who had practiced law in Cincinnati until as recently as 1 8 6 2 . 4. Presumably The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Oxford, ed. Peter Cunningham (London, 1 8 5 7 - 1 8 5 9 ) , 8 vols.

2515.

To Mary Ann Hammond

Palfrey Cambridge

June 21 1867.

My Dear Mrs Palfrey, It will give me great pleasure to bring my little girls to take tea with you tomorrow (Saturday) evening. Yours very truly Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library.

2516.

To ]ean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz

Camb. June 24 1867. My Dear Agassiz Considering the heat of the day, it will be wiser and better for me to spare myself the walk to your door, and quietly to take the cars at mine, at half past five. Yours always in heat or cold H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT; Harvard College Library.

2517.

To Benjamin Paul Akers

Cambridge June 25 1867. My Dear Mr. Akers, I have a box of books for your public library in Portland, which I shall send in the course of a day or two. Among them are Prescott's Works, 15 vols 8 [v]o and Sparks's American Biography, 25 vols i2mo. T o these I have added some others of a miscellaneous character.! I have also some forty vols, of the Congressional Globe, (half-russia leather 4to,) covering the whole period of the late war, and its beginnings, which is at your service, unless some Senator or Representative has already given "it" to vou. I 5I

THREE

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I shall send the box to the care of J. Neal, to whom I beg you to remember me cordially. With much regard Yours truly. Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Portland Public Library. I. See Letter No. 2419. Akers had asked Longfellow for a contribution of books in a letter dated June 17. T h e set of Prescott's Works was published by Routledge, Warne, and Routledge (London, 1 8 6 1 ) ; Jared Sparks's Library of American Biography was originally published in Boston, 1 8 3 4 - 1 8 4 8 , and enjoyed several editions. Longfellow had bought books for the Portland library on June 5 ( M S Journal).

2518.

To Harriot Afpleton

Curtis

Cambridge June 25 1867 My Dear Harriot, I am sorry to find that Mary's imagination is so much at work about our going to England, and that she is giving herself so much useless anxiety about it. I ought to have written to her as soon as I fully made up my mind not to go. To be sure, I never told her we were going, though I may have said we were thinking of it. I will try to write by next steamer, and put her mind to rest. Thank you for her letter and its enclosure, both of which I return.^ What an astonishing hand writing for a person of eighty-five! Did you hang out a flag, and wave your handkerchief for A.J. on his triumphal march through Beacon St yesterday?^ I found Mr. Seward very aimiable and a great talker. I dined with him both at Mr. Hooper's and at Sumner's, and at both places he did a large share of the talking. We have fixed upon the third of July for going to Nahant. Ever afFectionatelv H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT; University of Washington Library, Henry

ENDORSEMENT (Ш pencil^:

Uncle

1. Neither the letter from Mary Appleton Mackintosh nor its enclosure has been recovered. 2. President Johnson had arrived in Boston on June 22 on his "Swing Around the Circle" through the northern and western states to seek support for himself and his policies. He left for Hartford on June 26.

I

5 2

CAMBRIDGE, 2519.

1867

To George Ticknor

Cambridge June 29 1867. My Dear Mr. Ticknor, I have the pleasure of sending you this morning the third volume of my translation of the Divine Comedy, which I hope you will like as well as the others. Many thanks for your kind letter. What you say of the mere English reader, is undoubtedly true.i The danger is of making a translation cling so close to the original, as, like a shirt of Nessus, to take all life out of it. This I have tried to avoid; and I think have gained as much in some passages, as I have lost in others. At all events, I have the satisfaction of feeling that I have told the truth, and faithfully reported what Dante says, without adding a word of my own. Thanking you once more for the good words you say of my work, I remain, with great regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow George Ticknor Esqre. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard Street / Boston

College

Library,

ADDRESS:

George

Ticknor

Esqre / Park

I . In his letter of J u n e i , 1 8 6 7 , Ticknor wrote: " T h e r e can be, I think, no doubt that you have done something astonishing. I should not have thought it possible beforehand and do not altogether comprehend now how you have accomplished it. I was led on canto by canto, wondering all the time whether you would give out or stumble, but you never did, so far as I could observe, and I meant to be watchful. T h e movement of your verse, — its cadence and rhythm I mean — explains perhaps a good deal of your power, or rather conceals it, although I confess that I do not, after some consideration, understand how you make us feel a sort of presence of the terza rima, in a measure so different. But you do. A t least to me you do. Still, whether you have not encumbered >Ourself with heavier and more embarrassing conditions than permit the free poetical movement that an absolutely English reader covets, is a question that must be settled by the popular voice as separate from that of scholarlike lovers of Dante. O n that bench of judges, I can never be competent to sit. I shall always read your translation with the original ringing in my ears. / I know nothing like it — nil simile aut secundum." For a full version of the letter, see Life, III, 9 0 - 9 1 .

2520.

To an Unidentified

Correspondent

Cambridge July 2 1867. Dear Sir, Please send my Evening Transcript to Nahant by Johnson's Express till the loth of September, and oblige Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from photocopy, University of Washington Library. I 5 3

THREE 2521.

T o ]ames Thomas

SCORE

YEARS

Fields

Nahant July 9 1867 M y Dear Fields, Please send me the N . A . Review, by bearer, and oblige Yours truly. I have no time to write this morning. Where are you and how are you?' H.W.L. MANUSCBiPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Fields replied on J u l y 1 3 that " I have been away for a long time and am only now just returned from C a n a d a . "

2522.

T o George Washington

Greene

Cambridge July 10 1867. M y Dear Greene, I am really at Nahant, but from old habit my pen dates from Cambridge. It has played truant, and gone back to its old haunts. I am troubled at not hearing from you, and fear that I was wrong and you were right about the pain in your chest. Write and tell me it is not so. Everything is pleasant and comfortable here except the ink I am trying to write with. That seems to be half oil, and like an intermittent pulse omits every other stroke. I should be pleased to throw the inkstand at the Devil's head, as Martin Luther did, but he is not here present, so I cannot. I give it up. It is really too painful. Let us try another bottle. This is no better. I stop in despair. If my Summer correspondence is to be carried on under such circumstances, povero vie! All the above has been elaborately mended. Here is the real thing. Ever Yours HWL. P.S. T h e children send much love and hope you are all well. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection.

2523.

T o an Unidentified

Correspondent

Nahant July 10 1867. M y Dear Sir, I am very sorry that I cannot accept your flattering invitation to read before the Franklin Lyceum of your city. But as I never appear in public as Lecturer or Reader I am forced to decline what would otherwise be so pleasant to me. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Massachusetts Historical Societv·. I 5 4

Ν AH A N T , 2524.

T o Charles Eliot

1867

Norton

Nahant July 16 1867. M y Dear Charles, AFter some delay I have got the North American and have read with great satisfaction your most friendly and excellent article on Dante.' For the gooti words you say of me I thank you most heartily, without any show of false modestv, or make-belie\'e of any kind, except making believe that I deserve itali. Apart from all this, and in spite of all this, I say the article is excellent; a lucid and fair statement of this subject of poetic translation. I am only sorry that Rossetti was brought into the discussion.'·' On that point I disagree with you and Lowell and Greene. I cannot see the good of comparisons, though I dare say you are right and I am wrong. I wish there were any chance of seeing you here for a day or an hour even. Perhaps you will be in Cambridge this week to hear Emerson. That will be on Thursday [July 18].'' Well, then I beg you to come down with Lowell and dine on Friday; and hoping to persuade you, I will direct this to Cambridge to intercept you. If this can be, it will give us great pleasure. Come. With much lo^'e to all the family, and to Curtis, if he has already escaped from Albany and is with you.^ Always afFect[ionatel]y yours Henry W . Longfellow. P.S. T h e Nahant steamer leaves the end of India wharf at 9:30. It is a pleasant sail down the harbor. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. 1. North American Review, C V ( J u l y 1 8 6 7 ) , 1 2 4 - 1 4 8 . 2. William Michael Rossetti's version of the Inferno ( 2 2 4 2 . 2 ) is compared unfavorably with Longfellow's on pp. 1 3 7 - 1 4 1 . 3. T h e annual meeting of the Harvard Phi Beta Kappa society was held on this day. Lowell was elected president and Emerson delivered the oration entitled "Progress of C u l t u r e " ( T b e Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. E d w a r d W a l d o Emerson [Boston and N e w York, 1 9 0 3 - 1 9 0 4 ] , V I I I , 2 0 5 - 2 3 4 ) . 4. Curtis had been chosen a delegate-at-large to the convention for revising the constitution of N e w York State and spent a large part of the summer in Albany.

2525.

T o George Washington

Greene

Nahant July 17. 1867 M y Dear Greene, On the day I last wrote, I had a very pleasant visit from the Governor and Dr. Rölker,^ whose acquaintance I was glad to make at last, having known him so many years by hearsay. T h e Governor was very bright and cheery, as usual, and I had some talk I 5 5

THREE

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with him about the Biography, and other matters akin to it. He is fully alive to the importance of your labors, and I tried to enforce the equal importance of some immediate action in regard to publication. He hopes to win back the recalcitrant members of the family, by gentle means; M'ell-knowing that any other would only make a quarrel, which certainly is to be avoided.^ I have written to Putnam; but not in detail, mentioning only the plan of three vols. 8vo. I thought it best only to open the subject, and to leave the rest to you. I am not sure that it would not have been better for you to have written; but I do not think I have done any harm.® Ever Yours H.W.L. P.S. I hope your children are quite well again. And pray do not take it into your head that you have any disease of the heart. I do not believe it.^ MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Frederick Christian Roelker ( 1 8 0 9 - 1 8 8 1 ) , brother of Bernard Kölker ( 4 2 7 . 7 ) , had married Catherine Ray Greene ( 1 8 2 4 - 1 8 6 4 ) , daughter of William Greene. 2. For reasons that are not clear, Richard Ward Greene ( 2 4 2 9 . 3 ) and his family had withdrawn from an agreement to help subsidize the biography of Gen. Greene. In a letter of June i о George Washington Greene had written : " I see no chance of Richard's coming to his senses and I am likely to be left with all my burdens upon me — controversies included, and you will see what cold spirits I am in." 3. On July I I Greene wrote that Sidney Rider (see 2 4 5 9 . 1 ) "rehnquishes the contract and I am free to do my best elsewhere. / Will you write to Putnam? T h e first vol. is ready to go to press at any moment. T h e second will be finished by the middle of next week." 4. In his letter Greene had complained that " I did not get over my oppression of the chest till a week after my return [from Cambridge on July 1]. I fear it is the heart."

2526.

T o Alice Mary

Frere

Nahant July 18. 1867. M y Dear Miss Frere, This morning I felt quite sure that I should have [a] letter from you, and it has come, and brought me also yourself whom I delight to look upon. A-Iany, many thanks. Of these new photographs I prefer the full length. T h e expression of the face is very pleasant, and that is a great point. And yet I cling to "the sweet, sad face" I had before.^ Together they are a Romance in miniature. Somebody absent, and Somebody present; all which is very complimentary to Major Clerk, who alone is responsible for the difference of expression. And before this reaches you you will be married!^ I wish I had some new form of felicitation or benediction to send you, something from which the original "image and superscription"·'' had not been worn off by long usage. "Qtie Dieu vous ait en sa sainte garde [Let God have you in his holy keep156

NAHANT,

1867

ing]!" is the royal salutation. But is that any better than our simple English "God bless you"; with the heart behind it? And so I send it to you, with all good wishes for your happiness, from this little seaside place, between which and the mouth of the Severn nothing intervenes but the sea. And then you go to Egypt to see the Sphinx, of which I have that striking water-color, that gives me riddles to guess. I hope it will give you none, but your whole life be clear and intelligible, with no more of the Sand of the Desert, than will fill an hour-glass. I beg you to present my kind regards to your father, and thank him for his letter, which reached me last week. I am glad the books^ pleased him, for it was a real pleasure for me to send them, and I like to think of them on his shelves at Bitton. I am also very glad to learn from his letter, that the writings of Mr. Hookham Frere are to be published with a Life. It will be a most interesting and valuable work.® I thank you heartily for your kind words about the translation of the Divine Comedy.® I value very much your good opinion, and only wonder that you should have found time to look into the volumes at all, amid the stir and clamor of London. Perhaps the best thing that can be said of them is that they will be a help to the study of the original. Yes, I have finally given up all idea of going to England this summer. I could not think of going without my three daughters, and it is rather too soon for them yet — or so it seems to me. I begin to doubt very much whether 1 shall ever go again, but if I do, I shall hope to find you somewhere, — either in England or Egypt, and will travel a good many miles to see you. With best regards to your father, and good wishes a thousand times repeated, always affectionately and sincerely Yours, H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

1. See Letter No. 2475. 2. Miss Frere and Major Clerk were married on July 30, 1867. 3. Matt. 22:20. 4. A reference to the Dante translation and to Villa-Señor's Theatro Americano. Letter No. 2492.

See

5. See The Works of John Hookham Frere in verse and prose, now first collected with a prefatory memoir by his nephews W . E. and Sir Bartle Frere (London, 1 8 7 2 ) , 2 vols. 6. In her letter from London of July 2 Miss Frere had written that she was impressed by "the marvellous research and knowledge displayed in the translation. It seems as if it ought to be a grand work for a lifetime. I mean that such a work would immortalize a man's name even if he had never written an original line — nor made any other translations — but when it comes only to swell as it were, an already world-wide reputation — I confess it fills me with wonder and admiration almost approaching awe for such an intellect." I 57

THREE 2527.

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YEARS

To James Larimer Graham, Jr.

Nahant July 20 1867. M y Dear Sir, I have had the pleasure of receiving your note, and the two volumes you were so kind as to send me, one from Mr. Munch and one from Mr. Strodtmann;^ and should you have occasion to write to either of these gentlemen, may I beg you to present my best acknowledgments for this mark of their consideration. I remain, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Í lenry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Bowdoin College Library. I. Andreas M u n c h ( 1 8 1 1 - 1 8 8 4 ) , Norwegian b r i e poet and dramatist whose presentation copy of Sorg og Tr0st. Nogle Digte (Christiania, i 8 6 0 ) is in the Longfellow Trust Collection ( L o n g f e l l o w H o u s e ) ; and Adolf Strodtmann ( 1 8 2 9 - 1 8 7 9 ) , German editor and translator of Liederund Balladenbuch amerikanischer und englischer Dichter der Gegenwart ( H a m b u r g , 1 8 6 2 ) .

2528.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant July 20 1867. M y Dear Greene, In the last "Nation," July i8.' there are three separate allusions to you, evidently by three different hands, being in different parts of the paper. The first is on ρ 43. "The latter [Mr. B.]- is by this time at his post, but he is pursued by the inexorable Greene, 'the grandson,' whom the historian vainly flattered himself he had squelched." The next is in the Literary Notes, p. 44. where a fair notice is given of your Letter in the last N . A . R . which it calls "forcible and clever," ending thus; " W c think it right to say that our confidence in Mr. Bancroft's \'eracity, or at any rate his accuracy, is very much shaken." The third [p. 48] is in the notice of the N . A . R . "Master Swinburne gets a very neat feruling; and at the end of the re\'iews Professor Greene pays his attentions to Mr. Bancroft in a way that makes Swinburne's correction seem a succession of love-pats." All this ought to show to your friends in East G. the importance of what you are doing for the name and fame of the family. Yours ever II.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Vol. V , N o . 1 0 7 . 2. George Bancroft, who had recently been appointed U . S . minister to Berlin. T h e brackets are Longfellow's.

158

N/\HANT, 2529.

To Charles Eliot

1867

Norton

N a h a n t July 21 1867 My Dear Charles, 1 wrote you a hasty note last week, hoping to intercept you at Cambridge and translate you to Nahant for a day and a dinner. But it was a failure. As you did not come 1 comforted myself by reading over again your article on Translation. Leaving myself quite out of the question, and looking at it objectively, it is an admirable paper, clearly and ably discussing and developing the whole matter. It will help a good many people to understand the difference between translation and paraphrase. T h e passage from Littré' is new to me, and is very good. I thank you heartily for this aid and sympathy. W e have to-day a violent north-wester, with rain, and are thoroughly uncomfortable. I remember Curtis once arriving in just such a storm; and wish you were both here now to make merry with us, looking out on the gray rocks, gray sea, gray sky. T h e Yacht Alice has arrived; thirty five days from Cowes. Luckily she got in before the storm. With kindest remembrances to all at Ashfield, Ever Yours affect[ionatel]y H.W.L. P.S. Dr. Badow- has sent me five pamphlets of his on passages in the Div. Com. "II Gran Rifiuto." ' T h e Young King and Bertrand de Born." "Francesca da Rimini." "Il Conte Ugolino." "On the Reading of verse 114. of Paradise VII."^ Are you in a hurry to see them? or can you wait till we all get back to Cambridge?* I le proposes also "under favorable circumstances" to publish "A Text of the Div. Com." [Codice Brittanico, Brit. Mus.]5 "A Tr. of the Vita N u o v a . " "A T r . of the Convito." "A N e w Tr. in Prose of the Div. Com. with Life of Dante." T h i s is dated 1859.® MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library, Mass.

ADDRESS: Charles E. Norton Esq / Ashfield. /

POSTMARK: NAHANT MASS J U L

22

I. Maximilien Paul Emile Littré C 1 8 0 1 - 1 8 8 1 ) , French lexicographer. T h e passage referred to, on change of tastes in translation, appears on pp. 1 3 1 - 1 3 2 of Norton's review of the Dante translation ( 2 5 2 4 . 1 ) .

I 59

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2. Henry Clark Barlow ( 1 8 0 6 - 1 8 7 6 ) , English physician and Dante scholar. 3. и Gran Rifinito, what it was, who made it, and how fatal ta Dante Alighieri. A dissertation on verses fifty-eight to sixty-three of the third Canto of the Inferno (London, 1 8 6 2 ) ; The Young King and Bertrand de Born (London, 1 8 6 2 ) ; Francesca da Rimini, her lament and vindication; with a brief notice of the Malatesti, etc. (London, 1 8 5 9 ) ; II Conte Ugolino e l'arcivescovo Ruggieri; a sketch from the Pisan chronicles (London, 1 8 6 2 ) ; Letteratura Dantesca. Remarks on the Reading of the 114th verse of the Vllth canto of the Paradise of the Divina Commedia (London, 1 8 5 7 ) . 4. Norton responded on July 23: "Mr. Barlow was good enough to send me his pamphlets some time ago. I did not find much of worth in them. He is rather a dull student, and does not know the diflFerence between gold ore and iron pyrites." 5. Longfellow's brackets. A reference possibly to Barlow's Testi di tre canti della Divina Commedia, tratti da codici conservati nella Biblioteca del Museo Britannico (London, 1 8 7 0 ) . 6. Barlow published none of the translations listed.

2530.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant July. 22 1867. My Dear Greene, Putnam's answer did not reach me till this morning. Still the Everlasting No! But he is so good a man, that I do not want you to give him up. Would it not be well for you to ask him on what terms he would act as agent, if you printed the work; or whether he would publish, if guaranteed from loss, say a year after publication. These suggestions come suddenly to me; and I note them down for your consideration, without having considered them myself.^ Meanwhile I would have the first volume thoroughly ready from Title page to Finis; Table of Contents, Preface, Notes; everything, down to semicolon and comma; and by all means the contents of each chapter clearly written at the head of it; — so as to avoid those extra corrections the Printers are so fond of, and which increase so much the cost of books. With Putnam's letter came yours of Friday. Your note to your cousin is very spirited, just what it should be. I hope it will put an end to a discussion, which would not be pleasant to read hereafter in connection with [the] Life of the grand old Patriot who gave the Patent of Nobility to the family.^ Ever Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Greene replied on July 24 that he had written to Putnam as directed. 2. In a letter of July 19 (unrecovered) Greene had sent Longfellow a copy of his letter to Richard Ward Greene concerning the subsidization of the Gen. Greene biography (see 2 5 2 5 . 2 ) . On July 28 he reported the result: "It was not till yesterday afternoon that I succeeded in getting a decisive answer from R. W . Greene. I say R . W . for I 6 о

ΝΛΗΑΝΤ,

1867

I consider Sam[uel W a r d Greene ( 1 7 9 4 - 1 8 7 2 ) ! as merely an instrument in his brother's hands. T h e y are utterly dissatisfied with my first chapters, which they say misrepresent the family: G e n . Greene's reputation is secure — his father and ancestors are not made to occupy tlie elevated position which belongs to them: the Greenes were the great men of the colony and (if I understand t h e m ) it was the family that made the General and not the General the family. / Of course there was a positive rupture and I am left to my own resources . . . / Seriously as this embarrasses me and deeply as it wounds my feelings my strongest feeling is one of mortification. It humiliates me to think that such a spirit s'annida [nestles] in members of my own family and that with all our historical honor at stake, such miserable, grovelling vanity should gain such absolute control over men of good natural powers and long experience of life. / T h e Governor holds his ground — but is alone."

2531.

To William

Greene

Nahant July 26. 1867. My Dear Sir, I have this morning had the pleasure of receiving your letter of yesterday; and shall be delighted to join you in helping George through his difficulties. But I think we ought to limit our promise, at present, to one volume, hoping and believing, that the other two will not need any help. So far I will go heart and hand with you. Nor must we deceive ourselves about the cost. The printing will be $900.00 the binding not less than 300.00. Portrait and Plans. $300.00. The whole cost will not be less than $ i 500.00 per volume of 1000 copies. I have written to Mr. Geo. P. Putnam of New York, a friend of mine and George's, to ask him if he will issue the first volume if guaranteed from pecuniary loss. I am very decidedly of opinion that our "aid and comfort" had better take the form, as you suggest, of a guarantee. I think it would be easier for us and probably more agreeable to George. As soon as I hear from Mr. Putnam I will write to you again. Meanwhile, with kind regards to Dr. Kölker, I remain, my Dear Sir, Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Helen Roelker Kessler, Cambridge, Mass.

2532.

To ]ames Thomas Fields

Nahant July 27 1867. My Dear Fields, This is foolish stuff you send me; evidently written in the interest of the Publisher of Gary. I hope you do not mind it. I do not in the least.' i6r

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H o w are you and w h e n am I to have the pleasure of seeing you at N a h a n t ? W e are having all kinds of weather here. Pray come before it is all gone. W i t h kindest regards to Mrs. Fields; E v e r Yours H.W.L P.S. Pray do not take the slightest notice of that Philadelphia article, nor even answer the letter. MANUSCRIPT: Henry E . Huntington Library. I. Fields had sent Longfellow a disparaging review (unrecovered) of the translation from a Philadelphia newspaper.

-533·

Dante

George Washington Greene

N a h a n t J u l y 2 7 1867. M y D e a r Greene, I am sorry to say, that I think this estimate very high. I think you could get the work done in Cambridge for the sum mentioned; and much better done. I would get the Cambridge estimate also before deciding, or you may find you have made a mistake.' At this rate your book will cost $ 1 5 0 0 . 0 0 per volume, counting one thousand copies; and allowing $300.00 for binding and as much for engravings. A n d as everything goes beyond the estimate, perhaps a hundred or two more. You must think of this before taking the leap. M a n y thanks for your paper in the Atlantic. Y o u r part of it is so good I wish there were more; and the extracts left out to make room for it. I still regret and deplore the comparison of passages; as I do in the N . A . R . where the same mistake has been made, though not to the same extent.^ Nevertheless I thank you cordially for what you have written. I am sure it will do its work, and help greatly in my ten years siege of the citadel of Unbelief. Hoping that you are all well, E v e r truly H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1 . In a letter of J u l y 24 Greene had sent an estimate (unrecovered) by a Providence printer of the cost of manufacturing the first volume of the G e n . Greene biography. H e subsequently accepted the bid of W e l c h , Bigelow & Company, University Press, Cambridge. 2. In his review of the Dante translation in the Atlantic Monthly, X X (August 1 8 6 7 ) , 1 8 8 - 1 9 8 , Greene had argued the superiority of Longfellow's version to that of H e n r y Francis Gary ( 9 9 6 . 3 ) by printing lengthy extracts from both, which he compared with the Italian original.

162

NAHANT, 2534.

To George Washington

1867

Greene

N a h a n t Aug 1 . 1 8 6 7 . M y Dear Greene, I have not for a long time written a letter with so m u c h pleasure as I do this. After my last letter to you I wrote again to Putnam, and enclose his answer.^ T h e matter is settled. For I will advance half the sum he mentions, and I am sure the Governor will be responsible for the other half. You have only now to put your ms. into the good Putnam's hands. But pray have it all ready, and all proper names and names of places written with perfect distinctness. Very few people are careful about this; and I dare say you are not; and yet it is of the greatest importance. I write in great haste and am always Yours as ever H.W.L. P.S. 1 shall write at once to P u t n a m , to say that I guarantee half the sum. I am much pleased with the tone of Putnam's letter; as I think you will be. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Unrecovered. Greene responded on August 4: " Y o u r letter could not have come at a better time, for it found me just on the brink of an attack of dysentery . . . But your good news has quite braced me up again and I hope to shake it off. / I am delighted to have Putnam for a publisher . . . I feel as if I should get started at last — thanks to you, as usual, for where should I have been without you?"

2535.

T o William

Greene

N a h a n t Aug i 1867. My Dear Sir, Enclosed I send you, and with the greatest pleasure, my cheque for $200.00. I ha\'e effected an arrangement with P u t n a m for George's first vol. on condition that we will advance $750.00. For half this amount I will send him my cheque, if you will assume the other half; and the thing is done. 1 send George by this post Putnam's letter, and request him to show it to you. You will sec that he takes the same view that I did in my last letter. If \\'c get the first \4)lume published, the others will take care of themselves. W i t h great regard Yours truly I lenry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Helen Roelker Kessler, Cambridge, Mass.

"63

THREE 2536.

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YEARS

To ]ames Thomas Fields

Nahant Aug 2. 1867. My Dear Fields, If you and Mrs. Fields and Mr. White^ enjoyed your visit to Nahant yesterday half as much as I did, all the trouble you took to come so far "will not have been in vain," as modest writers say at the end of Prefaces. This is my Preface; and Chap. i. begins with the remark that the papers which Mrs. Fields thought she brought with her, are not to be found in this house. Perhaps she left them in the Omnibus; perhaps you have already found them lying on your table at Manchester; or peradventure some other perhaps. This is a gray day. The sky is gray — the sea is gray — the rocks are gray, and the undersigned is gray. I have a letter from John Neal beginning; "I have just been reading that very clever and satisfactory notice of your Dante in the Atlantic."^ That will please the writer of the notice, and not displease the editor of the Magazine. Yours ever H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

1. On August I Fields and his wife had brought Andrew Dickson White ( 1 8 3 2 1 9 1 8 ) , first president of Cornell University, to dine with Longfellow at Nahant. 2. Neal's letter is dated July 29, 1867.

2537.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant Augt. 2 1867. My Dear Historian, You are probably right, and I am wrong no doubt.^ I have just reed, a letter from John Neal beginning "I have just been reading that very clever and satisfactory notice of your Dante in the Atlantic." But I have not time to think of this now. Yesterday I sent you Putnam's last letter; and I think the arrangement will seem as excellent to you as it does to me. There need not now be a moment's delay. You have only to go right on, and the rest of the Summer will be as pleasant as possible to you. He will give you the best advice about the Portrait and Plans. Though I am not sure I said anything about them in my letters to him, he would naturally expect to have something of the kind in such a work. It will be a great relief and comfort to you to get the first volume out before Christmas. Hoping that all things are going on well under your roof, Ever Yours H.W.L I64

NAHANT,

1867

P.S. I wrote to the Governor on this subject yesterday. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. In a letter of August i Greene had defended his use in the Atlantic article on Dante of parallel passages from the translations of Longfellow and Gary ( 2 5 3 3 . 2 ) .

2538.

To Sir John Frederick

William

Herschel·

N a h a n t n. Boston A u g 2. 1867. M y Dear Sir, I have had the great pleasure of receiving, through Miss Karth,^ your version of the "Iliad," and hasten to thank you for this mark of your kindness and consideration. I have long thought and maintained through good report and through evil report, that the only possible translation of Homer, worthy to be called a translation, must be and would be in hexameters. A n d at length the work is done, and to you belongs the honor, if not of being the first to think of it, at all events of being the first to do it. Here by the seaside, where I am passing the Summer, and which is the best place to read Homer, I shall read your translation with great interest and sympathy, and, I am sure, also with great delight. I am not quite in favor of the Nessus-shirt style of translation, which clings so close to the original as to take all life out of it, but I fear I go a little farther than you do in that direction. At all events I feel sorry to lose any of the Homeric epithets, how often soever they may occur. Accept, my Dear Sir, my warmest thanks for your kindness, and believe me, with great regard, Very truly Yours H e n r y W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Boston Public Library. 1 . Herschel ( 1 7 9 2 - 1 8 7 1 ) , English astronomer, had recently published The Iliad of Homer, translated into English accentuated hexameters ( L o n d o n and Cambridge, 1866). 2. A n Englishwoman who had forwarded Sir John's translation with a letter from Staten Island dated J u l y 1 7 , 1 8 6 7 .

2539.

To John

Neal

[ N a h a n t ] August 2, i86y. I had the pleasure of receiving your letter yesterday, and am very happy to get your hearty approval of my attempt to tell the exact truth of Dante.^ A great many people think that a translation ought not to be too faithful; that the writer should put himself into it as well as his original; that it should be Homer and Co., or Dante and Co.; and that what the foreign author really 165

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says should be falsified or modified, if thereby the smoothness of the verse can be improved. On the contrary I maintain — and am delighted that you agree with me — that a translator, like a witness on the stand, should hold up his right hand and swear to "tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." You, who all your life long have been fighting for the truth in all things, without fear or favor, could not, I am sure, think otherwise. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from Life,

III, 9 4 - 9 5 .

I. In his letter of July 29 Neal had written: " I am both astounded and delighted at the faithfulness and beauty and strength of your translation. T h e very knots and gnarls and twisted fibres of the original, you have rendered, inch by inch, along with the branches and leaves and overshadowing vastness of the enormous oak — and therefore do I congratulate you."

2540.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant Aug 9 1867. My Dear Greene, T o avoid delay, would it not be well to postpone your war-maps to the end of the work, and put them into a cartoon or portfolio, as you once thought of doing? If you want the General to look like a German — like De Kalb for instance, or [Baron Friedrich Adolph] Riedesel, — have him engraved in Germany.^ If not, let Mr. Putnam get it done for you in N . Y . I suppose you understand that this will be a separate expense. Putnam so understands it. He assumes only the printing and binding, as you will see by the enclosed," which please return to me with his former letter. Appleton has gone in his yacht to Mt. Desert in Maine with Ernest and Alice. I am quite alone. If you could run down here for a day; say Saturday or Monday — we could settle a good many points, which it is tedious to write about. You will be better satisfied, I think, to have your printing done by Welch and Bigelow. Ever Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1 . Greene had written on August 4 to inquire about the feasibility of having engravings for his first volume done in Germany. J o h a n n Kalb ( 1 7 2 1 - 1 7 8 0 ) , Bavarianborn major-general in the American revolutionary army, died in a battle near Camden, S . C . 2. A letter dated August 6, 1 8 6 7 , in which Putnam wrote: " I have a note from Prof. Greene, in which he speaks of the publishing arrangement as concluded, and proposes to have a portrait engraved in line and some elaborate maps etc. T h e s e will of course add materially to the cost — but M r Greene apparently purposes to order these himself as a separate expense."

166

NAHANT, 2541.

To Denis Florence

1867

MacCarthy^

N a h a n t n . Boston Aug 10. 1867 My Dear Sir, Before leaving Cambridge to come down here to the seaside, I had the pleasure of receiving your precious volume of "Mysteries of Corpus Christi";^ and should have thanked you sooner for your kindness in sending it to me, had I not been very busy at the time in getting out my last volume of Dante. I at once read your work, with eagerness and delight — that peculiar and strange delight which Calderón gives his admirers, as peculiar and distinct as the flavor of an olive from that of all other fruits. You are doing this work admirably, and seem to gain strength and sweetness as you go on. It seems as if Calderón himself were behind you whispering and suggesting. And what better work could you do in your bright hours, or in your dark hours, than just this, which seems to have been put providentially into your hands! T h e extracts from the Sacred Parnassus, in the "Chronicle,"^ which reached me yesterday are also excellent. For this and all, many and many thanks. Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow D. F. MacCarthy Esqre. Yale University Library, A D D R E S S : D . F . MacCarthy Esqre. / 74 Upper Gardiner St. / Dublin. Ireland, P O S T M A R K S : C A M B R I D G E M A S S A U G I I / B O S T O N IPII 12 A U G 19 P A I D / D U B L I N 13 A U 2 5 67

MANUSCRIPT:

1. MacCarthy ( 1 8 1 7 - 1 8 8 2 ) , Irish poet and translator of the Spanish dramatist Calderón. 2. Mysteries of Corpus Christi. From the Spanish by D. F. MacCarthy (Dublin, 1867). 3. See the London Chronicle, I (July 20, 1867), 395-397. The "Sacred Parnassus" is one of the dramas in Calderón's Autos Sacramentales.

2542.

To Charles

Sumner

Nahant. Aug. 11. 1867. My Dear Sumner, You do not come, though the steamer comes and goes, through all the steaming days. From this I infer that you have gone to Lenox. If not, you cannot do a wiser nor better thing than to come down to me for a day or two. 1 am now all alone and lonely. Uncle Tom, Alice and Ernest have gone in the Yacht to Mount Desert in Maine, and will not be back before the end of the week. I offer you six beds, and the great ocean for your morning bath. Come. If I were a poet I would put the invitation into verse, to make it more attractive. 167

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You will be glad to hear that the first volume of Greene's Life of Gen. Greene, is to be published this autumn by Putnam. Have you seen Sir John Hers[c]hers translation of the Iliad? He has sent me a copy, which I shall be glad to show you. Is not A.J. steering straight on to impeachment? It seems so to me. What a mauvais coucheur [awkward customer] he is.^ Ever Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. President Johnson's troubles with Congress were constantly being reported in the press. Longfellow's statement here originated presumably in his reading in the Boston Advertiser, C X , No. 35 (August 10, 1 8 6 7 ) , that the N e w York Evening Post had called for impeachment.

2543.

To Ferdinand

Freiligrath

Nahantn. Boston Aug. 12. 1867 My Dear Freiligrath, I have received and read with great eagerness and pleasure your three letters,^ in which you give me exactly the kind of information I wanted, about yourself and your family; so that I feel now as if I really knew your children as well as you and your wife. I have read also with the deepest interest the several accounts in paper and pamphlet, you were so kind as to send, of the honors done you in your native country. The whole movement seems to be a National One, and I am delighted to see the German heart thus warm towards you. I can well imagine that some indiscreet individual may do or say something now and then, which will not be exactly pleasant; but the whole movement is so honorable to you and to all concerned in it, and so spontaneous and universal, that you ought to accept it with joy. You are called back to your country as Dante wished to be to his — by acclamation. (Par XXV. i - i o ) It is your coronation. How well you deserve it, it is not needful for me to say.^ Do as you think best with what I sent.^ Your warning about the American Committee came too late. My name was already on their list. I should feel very unhappy not to have it there; and very much ashamed of myself if it be not among the earliest, to show my good will and hearty cooperation. Many thanks for the various papers you have sent me from time to time. Mr. [Charles Timothy] Brooks faithfully delivered his parcel. Miss Kate's translation of your Westphalian Harvest Song is excellent, and the poem itself very beautiful.Very curious and interesting also is your discussion of that favorite metre of Burn[s]'s; and your conclusion is doubtless perfectly correct. It came into Scodand with French claret, and both became equally popular.® 168

NAHANT,

1867

Very amusing and cleverly done are those lines on cleaning your study.® I sympathize with you, as I suppose every bookish man must. But not everyone gets his sorrows so well sung. N o doubt, after a while, you will gravitate back to the continent; but will it be to town or country? I confess I should find it hard to decide; but you may have certain local attachments which will make the decision easy when the time comes. I do not wholly despair of meeting you again on the Rhine, though I confess the chances at present are somewhat against it. I have at home a case of photograp[h]s of the family put away for you, waiting a chance to send. You shall have it soon. With kindest regards to your wife and family Always affectionately H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. These letters are unrecovered. 2. Longfellow refers in this paragraph to a movement begun in Germany in April, 1867, to collect a fund that would enable Freiligrath to return to his native land from his English exile. W i t h help from American friends of the poet, a sum of 58,000 talers was raised and Freiligrath moved in 1868 to Stuttgart. 3. T h a t is, the money he had sent privately to Freiligrath. See 2496.1. 4. Käthe ( K a t e ) Freiligrath ( 1 8 4 5 - 1 9 0 4 ) was the eldest daughter of the poet. Her translation "Westphalian Summer Song" appeared in her edition of Poems from the German of Ferdinand Freiligrath, Tauchnitz Collection of German Authors, Vol. 13 (Leipzig, 1867), pp. 236-237. 5. T h e six-line, tail-rhyme stanza is the most common in Burns's poetry; it has been traced back to the trouvères. 6. Unidentified.

2544.

To Grace Ashburner^

Nahant A u g 13 1867. Dear Miss Ashburner, Your letter to Mrs. Mackintosh was duly received and forwarded to London; bearing to her its sorrowful tidings of another true friend departed. She will feel it deeply; for she was most sincerely attached to Miss Sedgwick.^ Begging you to give my best regards and sympathy to your Sister and to Miss Sara [Price Ashburner Sedgwick], in which the little girls join me. Very truly Yours Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Boston Public Library. 1. Miss Ashburner ( 1 8 1 2 - 1 8 9 3 ) and her sister A n n e ( 1 8 0 7 - 1 8 9 4 ) , the sisters-inlaw of Theodore Sedgwick, became the guardians of his children after his death in 1859. See 2088.1. 2. Catherine Maria Sedgwick had died on July 31, 1867. I

69

THREE 2545.

To George Washington

SCORE

YEARS

Greene

Nahant, Aug 13. 1867. My Dear Greene, Your letter of Saturday [August 10], with its good news, has but just reached me. I congratulate you heartily; and quote to you the first sentence of the first chapter of the "Vicar of Wakefield!"^ I am very glad to hear that your wife is so well. But be careful. After all, it is like running in a fog along a lee-shore; and one cannot be too much on his guard. Ever most truly H.W.L. P.S. I wrote to you on Saturday,^ begging you to come to Nahant for a day. But I see you cannot now, and later will be too late, for I shall have Ernest and Alice back with their young friends at the end of the week, and the golden moment will be passed. You will escape the severe hospitalities of Nahant; the inclement welcome of the sea; the cold shoulder of the East Wind; and the chill of the rheumatic verandahs; and I shall miss seeing you, and talking with you about the detail [s] of our arrangements with Putnam, which is a pity. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow T r u s t Collection. 1. " I was ever of opinion that the honest man w h o married, and brought up a large family, did more service than he w h o continued single, and only talked of population." In his letter of A u g u s t 1 0 Greene had announced the birth of his son George W a s h i n g ton Greene. 2 . T h i s letter is unrecovered.

2546.

To William

Greene

Nahant Aug. 13 1867 My Dear Sir, I have forwarded my cheque for $375.00 to Mr. Putnam, and have notified him that he may expect yours on the 19th inst. With great regard Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow. P.S. Since I last wrote to you I have seen Mr. A. D. White, President of the new Cornell University in New York, and have urged upon him the claims and qualifications of George for a professorship. Have you any interest in that quarter; any one to whom you could speak a good word? MANUSCBIPT: Helen Roelker Kessler, Cambridge, Mass. I

7 0

NAHANT, 2547.

1867

To Kate Freiligrath

Nahant August 15 1867. Dear Miss Kate, I think your plan of collecting and publishing a volume of English translations of your father's Poems, an excellent one, and I am quite sure that it could not be in better hands.i Your version of the Westphalian Harvest Song is beautiful. It could not be more skilfully rendered. Whether I shall be able to assist you in the way you suggest, I do not know. I cannot promise; for though I have repeatedly tried to translate some of your father's Poems, I have failed to satisfy myself. They are so full of color, that they baffle me. I should think it quite as difficult to render them into English as to put Tennyson into German; and your father will tell you that the task is not an easy one.^ I have seen Mr. Brooks only once, and then only for a few minutes since his return. He will be a valuable coadjutor.·'' With best wishes for your success. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. P.S. I shall be most happy to send you Alice's photograph as soon as I return to Cambridge. She is at present gone down to the coast of Maine in the yacht which bears her name. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. See 2 5 4 3 . 4 . 2. In a letter of J u n e 20, 1 8 6 7 , Kate Freiligrath had asked Longfellow to contribute a translation for her volume. N o n e appears there. 3. Charles T i m o t h y Brooks provided four translations for the volume.

2548.

To Francis James Child

Nahant Aug 16 1867. My Dear Professor, I should not be willing to part with the Stockbridge place for the sum mentioned in your letter. It has cost me more than that; having paid pretty dear for some parts of it. I have twice refused a similar offer; which proves Mr. Butler's estimate to be too low.' I remain Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow.

I

7

I

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. I. In

a letter of A u g u s t

15

Child

reported that Charles

Ferdinand

Southmayd

( 1 8 2 4 - 1 9 1 1 ) of the N e w York law firm of Evarts, Southmayd & Choate had asked him to offer Longfellow $ 1 0 , 0 0 0 for the O x b o w Farm at Stockbridge ( 1 1 5 5 . 2 ) . B y w a y of making the proposal attractive, C h i l d wrote that " M r Butler, the next owner, says he does not think you can get more than 7 0 0 0 or 8000 from another person." Charles Edwards Butler ( 1 8 1 8 - 1 8 9 7 ) , a partner in Southmayd's firm, was the owner of " L i n wood," a farm adjacent to the O x b o w .

2549.

To Ezra Stiles Gannett^

Nahant Aug 19 1867. M y Dear Sir, It would give me great pleasure to comply with your request, both from regard to yourself personally, and from affectionate reverence to the memory of Dr. Channing; but I am afraid that it will not be in my power. I have tried in vain to bring myself into the mood for such a composition, and find that I cannot. I should satisfy no one; and had better give it up, and not stand in the way of some one else. With great regret that it is so, I remain, my Dear Sir, Yours very truly Henry W. Longfellow. Rev. E. S. Gannett. MANUSCRIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library. I. Gannett ( 1 8 0 1 - 1 8 7 1 ) ,

Unitarian minister of the Federal Street C h u r c h in Bos-

ton, had asked Longfellow in a letter of August 1 6 to "write an ode, or h y m n , which may be s u n g " at a commemorative service in the church on the twenty-fifth anniversary of W i l l i a m Ellery C h a n n i n g ' s death.

2550.

To Thomas Davidson^

Nahant Aug 21 1867. My Dear Sir, I have this morning had the pleasure of receiving your letter, and your paper on Kleanthês, which I have read with great interest.^ It is excellent; and the poetical version very musical and flowing, though given in what Dante would call "il dolce stil nuovo,instead of an unrhymed classic metre. I shall be very happy to see you at Nahant; and would fix a day, if I could fix the weather. Come as soon, as you can; the sooner the better; for these bright, warm days may not last. I

7 2

NAHANT,

1867

I have just written to Mr. Norton, Ed. North Am. Rev. about you, so that he may be ready to receive your article on Alfred de Musset, as soon as it may suit your convenience to send it."* He is now at Ashfield Mass. With great regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow Professor Davidson. MANUSCRIPT: Yale University Library. 1. Davidson ( 1 8 4 0 - 1 9 0 0 ) , Scottish-born philosopher and itinerant scholar, had recently come to the United States after spending a year at the London Collegiate Institute in London, Ontario. 2. See The Radical: A Monthly Magazine, Devoted to Religion, II (August 1 8 6 7 ) , 726-731. 3. Purgatorio, X X I V , 57: "the sweet new style." 4. T h e article does not appear in the North American Review.

2551.

To Charles Eliot Norton

Nahant Aug 21 1867. My Dear Charles, The passage you quote from the Purgatorio is, I confess, rather a crooked stick, and I have been trying all the morning to make it lie straight. But without success. The truth is, it is equally crooked in the original.^ The only change for the better which I can suggest, is to substitute in the first line which for that, and read "which already now." Would it help it to say, in the second line, "Had been so long a time"? Perhaps that would make it clearer; but it would also make it more prosaic, if possible. I am rejoiced to hear of your new happiness and of your wife's well-being and the boy's. But are you not treating him rather cavalierly to call him Rupert?^ It is a good name, however; and goes well with Norton, which must always be taken into account. I am glad to hear that you are so far advanced with your Notes to the Vita Nuova.^ And the Convito? And the Canzoniere? Ever affectionately H.W.L. P.S. Professor Davidson of London Univ. (Canada West) whom I know personally and like very much, writes me that he wishes to offer you an article for the N.A.R. on Alfred de Musset. He is a good scholar, in the classical sense, and has lived long in Germany; and seems full of vigor and work. I think you would like him personally, and hope his article may find favor in your eyes. I have not seen it. 173

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

What a superb ghost story is " T h e Haunted House at Watertown" in the present Harper! Do tell me, who is the bold man that writes it?^ There is a clever paper by Mr. Davidson on Kleanthes in the Radical for August. MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia; postscript in Harvard College Library. 1. See Purgatorio, X X X , 3 4 - 3 5 . 2. Rupert Norton (d. 1 9 1 4 ) was born on July 2 1 . Longfellow's pun was intended to call to mind Prince Rupert, Count Palatine of the Rhine and Duke of Bavaria ( 1 6 1 9 1 6 8 2 ) , known as "the Mad Cavalier." 3. Norton's translation. The New Life of Dante Alighieri, was published in Boston in 1867. 4. See Harper's New Monthly Magazine, X X X V (September 1 8 6 7 ) , 443-450. T h e author was James Roberts Gilmore ( 1 8 2 2 - 1 9 0 3 ) , businessman and author who wrote under the pseudonym of Edmund Kirke.

2552.

T o Sarah Watson

Dana

Nahant Aug 23 1867. M y P e a r Mrs. Dana, I shall be delighted to bring the little girls to Manchester and leave them with you for a few days next week. T h e yacht Alice arrived this morning; and we propose to come down in her on Monday, wind and weather permitting; and to give you all a sail, if you like. Uncle Tom desires me to say that he has reed. Mr. Dana's letter; and expects to take him on board at Manchester. I am thankful they are not out in this storm. T h e y have had enough of wind and rain; but have enjoyed the trip to Mt. Desert greatly. Edith and Annie are in a high state of exultation at the prospect of the visit to you.^ With kind regards Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow

chester / M a s s

Trust

Collection,

ADDRESS:

Mrs.

R.

H.

Dana / Man-

POSTMARK: NAHANT MASS AUG 2 4

I. Longfellow wrote in his M S Journal on Monday, August 26: " A lovely morning. Sail down to Manchester in the 'Alice' with all the family to visit the Danas. Pace the sands with the old Poet. Stay to dinner, and leave Edith and Annie behind to make a visit to Henrietta."

I 74

NAHANT, 2553.

To Edith

1867

Longfellow

Nahant Aug 27 1867. My Darling Edie, We had a very pleasant sail homeward, but as the wind was dead ahead, we did not reach Nahant till ten o'clock, when you and Annie we [re] both sound asleep. To-day I find it rather lonely without you; but I know you are enjoying yourselves very much at Manchester, and so I do not feel sorry to have you there. But if the weather is pleasant on Friday I shall come down for you in the afternoon. So I want you to be ready to start from Mr. Dana's at four or half past four, on that day. I would put it off till Saturday, if I could; but on Saturday I am obliged to go to Boston,^ and cannot come for you. Mr. Peterson^ is here to-day, and has gone out in the yacht with Uncle Tom and the rest; and I am going to drive to Lynn to see Grandmama [Harriot Sumner Appleton]. With a great deal of love and a great many kisses to both of you, Your affectionate Papa. MANUSCRIPT:

Massachusetts Historical Society.

1. T o attend the dinner meeting of the Saturday Club. 2. Johan Erik Christian Petersen ( 1 8 3 9 - 1 8 7 4 ) , Danish-born marine artist whose studio was in Boston.

2554.

To James Thomas Fields

Nahant Aug 28 1867. My Dear Fields, If the weather is not very bad on Friday [August 30], I shall come to see you in Manchester, by the train that leaves Boston at 10.30. I am going to Dana's after my little girls, who are there for a day or two this week. But in the village of Manchester how shall I find you? Suppose you leave a line for me with the Ticket Master at the station, as a clue to guide me through the labyrinth of streets in that great town. That will be the shortest and surest way. According to my calculation I shall be able to stay three hours with you, from noon till three o'clock. Then you might run down with me to Dana's, and we will come back in the five o'clock train. With kindest regards to Mrs. Fields Ever Yours H.W.L. I 75

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

P.S. W e are all going up to the C l u b Dinner on Saturday. Agassiz has invited Stanton. 1 M a k e it a point to be there, if possible. MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library,

chester. / Mass.

POSTMARK:

NAHANT

ADDRESS:

MASS

AUG

James T . Fields Esqre. / Man-

28

I. Presumably Edwin McMasters Stanton ( 1 7 3 3 . 8 ) , although according to Longfellow's journal neither he nor Fields attended the dinner: " A t dinner, only Gov. Andrew, Woodman, Brimmer, [John Sullivan] Dwight, Prof. [Benjamin] Pierce [Peirce] and w e three [Agassiz, Thomas Gold Appleton, and Longfellow] from N a h a n t "

(MS

Journal, August 31, 1 8 6 7 ) .

2555.

T o George Washington

Greene

N a h a n t A u g 28 1867. M y Dear Greene, I am grieved to hear of the strange illness of your boy, and the great sorrow impending over you. D o not despair. It may pass away, and leave you unharmed.^ N o illness touches a man's heart so, or so completely unnerves him, as that of a child! I do not wonder you are disheartened; but I hope the blow will not fall upon you. Perhaps already the danger is passed. I need not say, that you have my tenderest sympathy. Ever Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. In a letter of August 24 Greene wrote that he feared he would lose his new son, w h o was ill with lockjaw.

2556.

T o George Washington

Greene

N a h a n t Sept 4 1867. M y Dear Greene, I have this morning received your letter, w h i c h says so much in so f e w words.1 It is very sad. K n o w i n g what that sorrow is, I deeply sympathize with you and your wife. N o one w h o has not undergone such a bereavement can have any idea of the keenness of the affliction that has fallen upon you. I cannot console you. I can only feel for you and with you. Such ploughshares c o not go over us for nought. T h e y turn up the deepest parts of our natures, and make us more akin to all w h o have suffered. I hope you will all have strength to bear it. But it is very hard to bear. W i t h kindest sympathy to your wife. Ever faithfully H.W.L. 176

NAHANT, MANUSCRIPT:

1867

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. Greene had written on September i ; "This morning between twelve and one our little baby died."

2557.

To Francis James Child

Nahant Sept 10 1867. My Dear Professor, As you seem doomed to pass these documents to and fro, I make no apology for sending the enclosed.^ As soon as I return to Cambridge, I will have the new Deed made out. I believe that the tenant has the right to remain till May next. Mr. Galpin will know — (or Mr. [Thomas] Wells the present agent) from what date the annual rent runs. The land has never been leased, but let from year to year — I think, from May to May. Of course it will be understood, that the tenant is not to be summarily ejected. He will need time to get his crops in, if he have any, and to look for a new farm. So vanishes my Paradiso — longed for and lost. But one must not be sentimental in business matters, and I escape the fascinating peril of building and keeping up a country place! Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

I. Negotiations for the sale of the Oxbow Farm continued after Longfellow's rejection of Southmayd's offer of $10,000 (see Letter No. 2548). On August 21 Child wrote: "At Butler's request I now write to ask what your ultimatum, cash down, would be — the question being on Southmayd's behalf." In a letter of August 24 (unrecovered) Longfellow replied that he would accept $12,500. On September 6 Child wrote that Southmayd agreed to the terms and enclosed a contract for Longfellow to sign.

2558.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant Sept 10 1867. My Dear Greene, Your letter of two days ago has just reached me; and I should not have waited for it before writing again, but every day last week I have been either busy with company here, or have been obliged to go to town on business. And in the evening I dare not write; owing to the insufficient lights we have here by the sea-side, where gas is unknown. What a sad sailing that was of yours; yet how striking a scene it presents to the imagination taking in all its meaning and its pathos!* I am afraid all this has been too great a strain on your nerves. Be careful. You must now take care of yourself a little, since that other care is now all I

77

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

over. If you can, be even a little hard-hearted and forgetful for awhile, till you can better bear the painful memory. With kindest regards and sympathies to your wife, and a kiss to the little girls. Ever Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow T r u s t Collection. I . In a letter of September 8 Greene described how he took his son's body to N e w port "in a sailboat with nobody but the boatman — and buried him in the little lot where his grandfather lies."

2559.

To Edith and Anne Allegra

Longfellow

Nahant Sept 19 1867 My Darlings, I thought of you last night, and said "Now they are in Saco — now in Scarborough — now in Portland. And how tired they are — particularly little Panzie." Well — it is all over now; and you got up this bright morning very happy to see the old house again, and Mamie and Bessy and Waddy. I dare say before this time you have had a walk to see the new town, and will be ready to show me all the wonders as soon as I come down. Uncle Tom and the rest have gone out in the Alice to have a last sail. Everything is packed up, and I have a leisure moment to write to you as I promised. I have just pulled up the hoops on the Croquet ground, and taken the bridle off the Red Horse on the Eastern Piazza. Do you know what that means? 1 am sure Annie will remember the Crosswells's Red Horse!' Tomorrow you will think of us, all scampering home; — some by rail, some by steamer — some by the Alice. So good bye till I get to Cambridge, when I shall write again. With much love to Aunt Anne, Your loving Papa MANUSCRIPT: Massachusetts Historical Society. I . Possibly an allusion to the family of R e v . A n d r e w Croswell ( 1 8 2 2 - 1 8 7 9 ) , rector of the Free C h u r c h of St. James, Cambridge,

1865-1871,

and husband of Caroline

Augusta Greenleaf Croswell ( 1 5 7 2 . i ) .

2560.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Sept 22 1867. My Dear Greene, W e came home on Friday last [September 20]. My first visit on Saturday was to the Printing Office, to see how your book was getting on. 1 saw the 178

CAMBRIDGE,

1867

first sheet. It is all that one could desire. You will have the satisfaction of seeing your thoughts in a very handsome dress. A beautiful book is "a joy forever."' On Tuesday I shall go down to Portland for Edie and Annie, who are there on a visit; and mean to be back again on Thursday.^ When may I look for you? Sumner has sold his house; and sits there gloomily like Marius on the ruins of Carthage.^ He — Sumner, not Marius — is writing a Lecture on our Nationality: — "Are we a Nation?"·* It is a grand subject; and he will treat it grandly. It is to be delivered in the West; some twenty or thirty times. I hope you will be able to come soon. Next Saturday is our Club dinner. Have you any heart for that? W e must try to dine together with Sumner once in the old house, before he leaves it. Ever Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Keats, Endymion, I, i. 2. Longfellow went to Portland on Tuesday, September 24, but returned on Friday, September 27 ( M S lournal). 3. See 2374.2. When ordered to leave Africa, where he had fled in 88 B.c. to escape his old enemy Sulla, Marius, celebrated Roman general and consul, is said to have replied: "Tell the praetor that you have seen Gaius Marius, a fugitive, sitting on the ruins of Carthage." 4. Sumner Works, ΧΠ, 1 8 7 - 2 4 9 .

2561.

To Anne Allegra

Longfellow

Cambridge Sept 22 1867 M y Darling Panzie, I wrote to you both in one letter last week, just before starting for home. N o w here we are safe and sound and I write you my first letter from Cambridge. Alice is writing to Edie, to tell her about our sail up the harbor; so I need not say it over again. T h e old house looks very pleasant, and the mosquitoes are very troublesome. Enclosed is a letter for Edie; and some monograms for you. I have just been up in the schoolroom. It looks very bright and charming, but very solitary. Trap came up with the luggage, and had a fit on the way. Yesterday he had three or four, and staggered about like a tipsy fly. To-day he seems to be better. Charlie' has gone to pass Sunday with Nathan [Appleton] at Lynn and Ernie and Miss Davie have gone to town. So you see how empty the house is without you and Edie!

I 79

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

But Somebody will come for you on Tuesday or Wednesday. A thousand kisses, my darling, and a thousand more to Edie, from your most devoted Papa. MANUSCRIPT:

Alice Allegra Thorp Estate (on deposit, Longfellow House).

I. Charles Longfellow had arrived home on September 1 3 ( M S Journal) after a year in England, France, Russia, and Germany.

2562.

To Charles Sumner

[Cambridge] Oct. 4. 1867. My Dear Sumner Here is something I have just found on the Flag. Is it worth consideration?" God speed you. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. Sumner's oration "Are W e a Nation?" contains a passage on the flag as a symbol

of nationality QSumner Works, ΧΠ, 226-229).

2563.

To Thomas Wells

Cambridge Oct 4 1867. M y Dear Sir, I write to inform you that I have sold the Stockbridge Farm to Mr. Charles F. Southmayd of New York. Please give notice of this to the tenant, so that he may make his arrangements accordingly, and be ready to leave in the Spring. Any rent accruing after the first of October is to be paid to Mr. Southmayd to whom the place now belongs. If you have not yet begun to build the new fence, you need not do it, as I have no longer any authority in the premises. Be kind enough to acknowledge the receipt of this and oblige Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow P.S. The injunction not to build on the portion of land purchased of you has been duly inserted in the Deed. Thos. Wells Esq. unrecovered; text from photostat, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

MANUSCMPT:

180

CAMBRIDGE, 2564.

To George Washington

1867

Greene

Cambridge Oct 5 1867 M y Dear Greene, Having myself been sorely tried by the delays of printers I can sympathize with you in your present trials. A week ago, on receiving your first letter on the subject,' I went to Mr. Bigelow and urged upon him the absolute necessity of greater speed. He brought forth straightway his usual Ъоис émissaire, or scapegoat, the North American Review, which I had frequently seen before on such occasions, but promised to amend. He says he can certainly get the book printed by November; and if you were here and saw him daily, no doubt he could and would. I am the more sorry that you cannot be here. I will speak to him again, and do the best I can. He ought to give you a proof daily. Of Sumner and his trouble I cannot write. I will tell you when we meet. He is in great sorrow; and has already started for the West to fulfill his Lecture engagement, of which I wrote you.^ I enclose a few lines I had from him to-day.® Please return them. I am grieved to hear of the Governor's continued illness. What is the matter? Yours ever H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow T r u s t Collection. 1. Dated September 2 6 , 1 8 6 7 . Greene wrote again on September 3 0 and asked Longfellow to urge "upon [Marshall T r a i n ] Bigelow the necessity of haste." 2. Greene had written on October 4 : " A shocking story has just reached me about Sumner's

relations

to his wife.

It must be gossip — mere

idle gossip.

Good — true

hearted — noble Sumner, cannot have been treated so. I will not believe it. It is too horrible. I long to be with you to know the truth." Sumner had written

to Longfellow on October 4, describing his emotions on

leaving his house in Boston to begin his lecture tour: " M y eyes moistened as I shook hands with the good domestic, and I went a w a y alone and humbler. T h e journey [to A l b a n y ] was sad, m y eyes often filled with tears, as I thought of the unhappy waif that I am and must b e . "

2565.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Oct 7 1867 My Dear Greene, Since writing to you on Saturday, I have seen Welch and Bigelow, and urged greater speed. They say that if you were here they could give you a proof a day, or nearly that. If it were only three or four a week it would help you on amazingly. This, and the lovely weather would seem, then, to make the present time the best time for your visit. Still I do not want to hurry you. Only do not I 8I

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

put it oÉF till the cold, bleak November days, when you would be uncomfortable away from your own fireside.^ Trap is growing old and bald, but bald at the wrong end. He looks like a baboon. It is quite disreputable to walk with him. The rest of us are well, and Charley and Erny have gone to town to see "Sheridan's Ride" through Beacon Street.^ Yours ever H.W.L. MANUSCHIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Greene arrived in Cambridge on October 8, returned to East Greenwich on October 16, was back with Longfellow again on October 26, and remained as his guest until December 3 ( M S Journal). 2. A public reception was given in Boston on this day to honor Gen. Philip Henry Sheridan ( 1 8 3 1 - 1 8 8 8 ) , whose victory at Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864, had been celebrated by Thomas Buchanan Read in "Sheridan's Ride."

2566.

To William Leete Stone

Cambridge Oct 20 1867 My Dear Sir, In Mr. Lossing's "Field Book of the Revolution," I. 557 you will find a view of the Riedesel house, and on the next page the autograph of the Baroness, from a window-pane. I believe that a photograph of the house has already been taken. If I can find one, it will give me great pleasure to send it to you.' I remain, Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT;

Maine Historical Society.

I. Friederike Charlotte Luise Riedesel ( 1 7 4 6 - 1 8 0 8 ) ( i 1 3 8 . 3 ) . Stone had recently published his translation lating to the War of the American Revolution and the at Saratoga (Albany, 1 8 6 7 ) and in a letter of October tain a photograph of the Riedesel House in Cambridge of the work.

2567.

was the wife of Baron Riedesel of her Letters and Journals ReCapture of the German Troops 18 had asked Longfellow to obfor his privately illustrated copy

To Colin Grant Mackenzie^

Cambridge Oct 28 1867. My Dear Sir, I have to-day had the pleasure of receiving the "Random Rhymes" you were so good as to send me, and I hasten to thank you for this mark of your remembrance and regard. 182

CAMBRIDGE,

1867

I have already read a considerable portion of the volume and like very much its manly simplicity of feeling and expression. I have thought all the while, what a blessing it must be to you, as it is to any one, to possess this gift of song, so as to set toil to music, and to turn the routine of daily life into verse. I congratulate you on your success, and thanking you again for your kind remembrance, remain. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Mackenzie ( 1 8 2 5 - 1 8 7 6 ) , a Harvard graduate of 1847 and a Cambridge printer, had sent Longfellow a copy of his privately printed Random Rhymes of Leisure Hours (Cambridge, Mass., 1 8 6 7 ) .

2568.

To Thomas Davidson

Cambridge. Oct 29 1867. My Dear Sir, I am very sorry to have missed two visits from you, the first from being out of town, the second from being in town! I hope you will not be discouraged, but will come again soon, as I can much better talk with you about the subject of your last letter, than write about it.^ On Sunday you would be sure to find me; and if you can come next Sunday [November 3] and dine with me at one o'clock, I shall be very happy to see you. With great regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia, ADDRESS: T h . Davidson Esqre./ Upham's Corner. / Dorchester. Mass. POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE M A S S OCT

29

I. In a letter of September 13, 1867, Davidson had enclosed an experimental translation of some of Homer's lines on Bellerophon (Iliad, Book V I ) and had asked Longfellow's advice about his idea of translating the Odyssey into English hexameters.

2569.

To John Nichol

Cambridge Oct 29 1867. My Dear Professor, I have had the pleasure of receiving this evening your letter, presenting your friend Mr. McClelland; but he himself has entirely escaped me, and sends this back from Halifax, on his way home to Glasgow and happiness.^ I am sorry to have missed him. But the letter is safe, and that is something.

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

W h e n you last wrote you had just gone through a disagreeable experience, and a friend had been cruelly perverse in opposing you in your wishes. I know not what to say of his letter, of which you sent me a copy. It is all over now, and perhaps you are glad that you did not succeed in that instance.I am pleased to know that you do not dislike the Dante. It has been very successful on this side of the water; but less so on yours, I believe. President Johnson, who has done a great deal of mischief, is for the moment quiet. Never did man throw away golden opportunities of being great, as he has done. W i t h kind regards to your wife and to M r Bell,® I remain as ever Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Pierpont Morgan Library. 1. In a note to Longfellow from Halifax dated October 24, Andrew Simpson McClelland (d. 1909, aged seventy-two), a Glasgow accountant who married Nichol's sister-in-law on February 12, 1868, had enclosed a letter of introduction from Nichol dated August 22, 1867. 2. In a letter of November 19, 1866, Nichol had written: "I had considerable support for the Moral Philosophy chair, but lost it by the vote of an elector who was bullied by my inveterate enemies the Free Church clergy. I enclose you a literal copy of his note, as a theological curiosity. Please burn it. I am so badgered by those men that I often regret [not going to] Bombay." 3. Henry Glassford Bell ( 1 8 0 3 - 1 8 7 4 ) , sheriff-principal of Lanarkshire, 1 8 6 7 - 1 8 7 4 , was the father of Jane Stewart Bell ( 1 8 3 3 - 1 8 9 4 ) , whom Nichol had married in 1 8 6 1 .

2570.

T o Catherine

]ane

Norton Camb. O c t 3 i

1867.

M y Dear Jane, I am sorry — very sorry — that I must be so uncivil to night as not to come to the Tea-Party. But I have an obstinate cold, and the night air makes it worse; and after long debate I have made up my mind that it will be more prudent to stay at home.^ You must let me help in some other way, and believe me Yours truly H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

I. In a note dated "Tuesday eve." [October 29], Jane Norton had asked Longfellow to attend on October 31 "a Social Tea [to be] given by the Ladies of our Freedman's Aid Society for the purpose of raising a part of the thousand dollars which is required to make out the sum to which we bound ourselves for the year."

I

84

CAMBRIDGE, 2571.

To Oliver Wendell

1867

Holmes

Cambridge Nov 5 1867. My Dear Holmes, I shall be delighted to accept your "amiable invitation" for Friday [November 8] at six o'clock. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

2572.

Library

of

Congress.

To Charles Sumner Cambridge

Nov 7. 1867.

My Dear Sumner, Yours of the 31. Oct. has but just reached me. So I can only write you a word of welcome, to meet you at the Parker House. I wish you could come out at once to me. But Greene is here, and Charley has a friend staying with him; so that I have not a room to offer you. I beg you to come out to dinner on Sunday. The reason why I have not written to you is that you never told me where a letter would find you. As you were always in motion, and I did not have any list of your towns, it was in vain to send out letters into the dark. Not one notice of your Lecture have you sent, which was very wrong of you! I am suffering with a heavy cold, which makes me almost ill. And the worst of it is, I cannot get rid of it. I have just life enough left to be glad to see you back. Ever affectionately H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

2573.

Longfellow Trust Collection.

To Oliver Wendell

Holmes

Cambridge Nov 8 1867. My Dear Holmes, I am extremely sorry to break my engagement, and to lose the pleasure of dining with you to-day, upon which I had counted, but I am confined to the house by a violent cold, which makes me so ill, that I should be an unfit guest for any good man's table. If it were an ordinary cold I should not mind, but this is one of the bad

185

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

kind, which makes you feel as weak in the knees as one of Homer's heroes when hit with a spear. Compatite e perdonate. Yours always Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

2574.

Library

of

Congress.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Nov 12 1867. My Dear Sumner, This is really too atrocious! I did not think that even American vulgarity could stoop so low. I blush for my country, when I read such paragraphs, and remember that the editor of one of the papers in which they appear is a member of the House of Representatives of the U.S.Ii Non ragioniam di lor? I was very sorry not to find you to-day when I called. Pray come out on Sunday if possible. We shall be quite alone. Greene also was at your door this morning, but was not more successful than I was. I have just read to him the newspaper paragraphs you sent me, and though of Quaker descent, he has uttered certain exclamations that sound uncommonly like imprecations. I am astonished to find you so strong and well, after so much travelling and lecturing, and such an accident.^ You must have a charmed life! Ever Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. James Brooks (308.4), Congressman from New York, 1 8 4 9 - 1 8 5 3 and 1 8 6 5 1873, and publisher of the N e w York Express, 1 8 3 6 - 1 8 7 3 , had printed a lurid account of Sumner's marital difficulties in his paper (reprinted in the N e w York World, V I I , No. 2289 [October 22, 1 8 6 7 ] ) . See Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man, p. 3 1 3 . T h e Express article was widely reprinted and Sumner had sent Longfellow paragraphs from both the Express and a St. Louis paper ( M S Journal, November 1 2 ) . 2. Inferno, III, 51 : "Let us not speak of them." 3. Sumner had fallen from a moving train at Elkhart, Indiana, and seriously bruised his face. Sumner Memoir and Letters, IV, 334.

2575.

To Julia Ward Howe

Cambridge, Nov. 14, 1867. My Dear Julia, I am very sorry that I cannot accept your kind invitation for tomorrow, but I have a guest' of my own which prevents my coming. I hope, however, soon 186

CAMBRIDGE,

1867

to see you and welcome you back from your wanderings,- which I should have clone long ago but for an influenza that has made me very uncomfortable for the last ten days. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from typewritten excerpt, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House). 1 . George Washington Greene. 2. Mrs. H o w e had accompanied her husband on a trip to Greece, leaving Boston on March 1 3 , 1 8 6 7 , and returning on October 25.

2576.

T o James Thomas

Fields

Camb. Nov. 16. 1867 M y Dear Fields, Allow me to present to you the bearer Mr. Clement, who is in the house of Messrs. Gossler & Co. and who wishes to speak with you about an Article by his father, v\'hom I ha\'e known for many years as a distinguished Scholar in 1 lamburg.^ If this Article, which is on a scientific subject, should prove such as would suit the "Atlantic" I should be very glad. At all events be good enough to examine it, and advise Mr. Clement what is best to be done, in case you should not want it.^ Yours ever truly I lenry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Colby College Library. 1 . K n u t Jong Bohn Clement ( 1 8 0 3 - 1 8 7 3 ) , Danish-born linguist and historian and former professor at the University of Kiel, spent the last years of his life in Hamburg. H e died in Jersey City, N . J . , while visiting Boy Christian Alfred Clement ( b . 1 8 4 4 ) , the son mentioned here. 2. T h e article does not appear in the Atlantic

2577.

To )ames Thomas

Monthly.

Fields

Camb. N o v 18 1867. M y Dear Fields, Thinking that Dickens would not arrive before Wednesday [November 20], or Thursday I have engaged myself to dine out on Wednesday. Our supper must be then on Thursday, which I believe is the day we originally fixed on. Say nine o'clock, and I will be ready: but I hope to see you and Dickens before that.^ What a lively tune you had at your door this morning! You must be glad it is over.^ Ever Yours H.W.L. 187

THREE MANUSCRIPT:

SCORE

YEARS

Harvard College Library.

1. Dickens arrived in Boston from Liverpool on November 19 to begin his second tour of American cities. On Wednesday, Longfellow called on him at the Parker House before his engagement for dinner with Oliver Wendell Holmes. Fields's dinner for Dickens on Thursday, November 2 1 , included Longfellow, Emerson, Agassiz, Holmes, Norton, Greene, and Judge Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar ( 1 8 1 6 - 1 8 9 5 ) of the Massachusetts Supreme Court ( M S Journal). 2. " A great crowd at Fields', to buy tickets for his [Dickens's] Readings" ( M S Journal, November 18, 1 8 6 7 ) .

2578.

To Felix Octavius Can Darley Camb. Nov. 21, 1867.

My dear Darley, The day is to-morrow (Friday), the hour is nine o'clock in the evening and the man C.D.^ Yours truly, H.W.L. unrecovered; text from Item 567, Chamberlain Sale Catalogue (February 16 and 17, 1909).

MANUSCRIPT:

I. "Evening Dickens came out to a little Supper. Had to meet him Darley, Lowell, Fields, Howells, U[ncle] S[am Longfellow], E . W . L . , and Greene. It was very pleasant and satisfactory" ( M S Journal, November 22, 1 8 6 7 ) .

2579.

To John Forster

Cambridge Nov 23 1867.1 My Dear Forster, Dickens was here last night and brought me your two beautiful volumes, and your kind, good letter so full of pleasant memories, that it touched and delighted me.^ The Biography of Sir John Eliot I shall read straightway, sure to find in it the charm of your previous Biographies, though perhaps not all the glamour of the Life of Goldsmith.^ It is a great pleasure to see Dickens again after so many years, with the same sweetness and flavor as of old, and only greater ripeness. The enthusiasm for him and for his Readings is immense. One can hardly take in the whole truth about it, and feel the universality of his fame. The Readings will be as triumphant a success here as in England. Every ticket is sold for the whole course, and the public clamorous for more. I only wish you had come over with him to see it with your own eyes and hear it with your own ears. Preposterous thought. I well know that to shake hands with you I must come to London. Stranger things have happened. Ever with affectionate regards Henry W. Longfellow 188

CAMBRIDGE,

1867

MANUSCRIPT: Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Gate

House / Kensington.

W . / London,

ADDRESS: John Forster / Palace

POSTMARKS:

CAMBRIDGE

25 / LONDON PAID 67 [remainder illegible] / [one postmark

MASS

NOV

indecipherable]

1. T h e following clipping from an unidentified newspaper is pasted to the manuscript, opposite the date: "—Out of 1900 volumes of the Dickens novels in the Mercantile Library, N e w York, only two remained on its shelves on Tuesday." 2. In his letter of November 7 Forster had written: "Long as it is since we have met — or even written to each other — no pleasanter time lives in my memory than that in which we first met; and I have grasped no hand, since, that I should more like to feel the friendly grasp of again." 3. Sir John Eliot: A Biography (^London, 1864), 2 vols; The Life and Adventures of Oliver Goldsmith (London, 1848).

2580.

To George Bancroft

Cambridge Dec. 3 1867 M y Dear Mr. Bancroft It gives me great pleasure to comply with your request; only I am a little embarrassed what to write. I suppose it is of no great consequence, however, and I write the first stanza that comes to mind. When you present it to the Princess Royal, I beg you to say how honored I feel by her wish to have it.^ You must greatly enjoy your life in Berlin. All the old German memories must gather round you like songs out of the Past, and you can say as Göthe does "Ihr bringt mit euch die Bilder froher Tage Und manche liebe Schatten steigen auf."^ I hope Mrs. Bancroft enjoys it equally. To her it will have the charm of novelty; but that also is charm. Should you meet the Baronesse Hohenhausen — she writes that she had the pleasure of seeing you — will you be kind enough to say that I have received her letter, and shall answer it by this post or the next.® With best regards to Mrs. Bancroft, I remain. Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Society.

unrecovered;

text

from handwritten

copy,

Massachusetts

Historical

I. In a letter from Berlin of September 2 1 , 1867, Bancroft had written: "Yesterday I passed a half hour with the Princess Royal of Prussia . . . She told me that she had long been very desirous of obtaining your autograph . . . Pray have the goodness to enclose to me something of your own with your signature, that I may give it to one of the sincerest of your admirers." T h e Princess Royal was Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise ( 1 8 4 0 - 1 9 0 1 ) , eldest daughter of Queen Victoria, who had married Frederick William ( 1 8 3 1 - 1 8 8 8 ) , the Prince Royal of Prussia (afterward Frederick I I I ) , in 1858. Longfellow enclosed with this letter the last stanza of " T h e Day is Done." I

89

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

2. Faust, Dedication, 11. 9-10: "You bring with you visions of happy days,/ And many beloved shadows arise." 3. The letter from the Baroness Hohenhausen (1651.5) is dated October 27, 1867.

2580a.

T o Elise Felicitas Friederike,

Baroness

Hohenhausen

Cambridge, Mass. Dec 3. 1867. T o the Baronesse von Hohenhausen, Dear Madam, I have had very great pleasure in receiving your kind letter and still kinder invitation to visit you at your house in Berlin, and hasten to thank you for your friendly remembrance, and for your most hospitable offer. Soon after the death of your dear mother,^ I wrote you to say how much I sympathized with you in your affliction; but as the letter was directed to Frankfort on the Oder, I fear it never reached you. M a n y years have passed since then, and it is pleasant to know that you have not forgotten me during all this time, [remainder missing] MANUSCRIPT:

Stadt und Landesbibliothek, Dortmund.

I. See 1651.5.

2581.

To Henry Arthur

Bright

Cambridge Deer 5 1867. M y Dear M r . Bright, On receiving your letter, I made enquiry of M r . Fields touching the subject of it, and he informed me that Mrs. Hawthorne has a small fortune of thirty thousand dollars left by her husband, and also an annual income from his books.^ In these days of heavy taxes and famine prices she may have fallen behind hand. I do not think, however, that matters can have reached such a point as to justify the sending across the sea for help. Hawthorne's memory is so cherished by his friends here, that you may be sure they would be swift to fly to the rescue in case of any emergency. Norton is very busy and very conscientious with his North American, and has raised it to [a] valuable Periodical. I am not sure he is not overworking himself a little. I le has also lately published a charming translation of Dante's Vita Nuovaß Dickens is ha^•ing a great success v\'ith his Readings in Boston and NewYork. I le is as vivacious and genial as on his former visit in 1842. You ask " W h e n will you come to England?" and Echo answers " W h e n ? " &c. Yours ever truly Henry W . Longfellow. I 9о

CAMBRIDGE,

1867

MANUSCRIPT: Estate of Norman Holmes Pearson, N e w Haven. 1. In a letter of November 5 Bright had asked if a rumor were true that Mrs. Hawthorne was "in some pecuniary embarrassment" and if he should send £10 to help alleviate her situation. 2. See 2551.3.

2582.

T o Charles

Sumner Camb. D e c 8

1867.

M y Dear Sumner, For the last two weeks Boston has been, not Galvanized but Dickinized into great activity, very pleasant to behold. T h e Readings, or rather Actings, have been immensely successful, according to our standard of success; but Boston audiences are proverbially cold. T h e G u l f Stream itself would hardly raise their temperature a degree. T h e paper you send me is every way contemptible. I did not imagine that even a Democrat could stoop so low.^ I think you are wise to stick to your comfortable and convenient lodgings. W h y go into an empty, haunted house? Y o u would only feel your loneliness the more.2 D o not forget nor neglect the Copyright.'' Remember the forty thousand pounds I have lost; and enlist somebody in the good cause. Sure immortality is waiting for somebody — the somebody w h o shall carry this matter through Congress. Palfrey has returned; and is feeling poorly. H e was knocked down by a cab in London, and had an Influenza — both bad for gentlemen of seventy.^ Greene has gone home. His first volume is in the Binder's hands. I hope he will not have so hard a tug with the second. W i t h frozen fingers Ever thine H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. T h e paper containing the attack on Sumner is unidentified. 2. N o t long after his marriage Sumner contracted to buy a house then being built on the corner of H Street and Vermont A v e n u e in Washington, D . C . In a letter to Longfellow of December 2 he wrote: " M y house is now ready, and before me is still the question — shall I furnish and occupy it? Shall I furnish a few rooms? Or shall I go on where I now am in my suite of 4 rooms? . . . I took this house for another. I have no heart about it or anything else. I am afflicted and unhappy. W h a t can I do? W o u l d that I were in some far-off land!" 3. See Letter N o . 2437. 4. John Gorham Palfrey had represented the United States at an anti-slavery congress in Paris in the autumn of 1867. I

9

I

THREE 2583.

T o George Washington

SCORE

YEARS

Greene C a m b . D e c 13 1867.

M y Dear Greene, I have just been looking over a little volume sent me from T u r i n by the author Luca Savarese, and entitled " G . Washington. Ottave." O f General Greene he makes honorable mention, devoting two stanzas to him. After speaking of the Battle of Cowpens, ( w h i c h he Italianizes Copewso) he goes on; "Si di Copenso al vincitor con rabbia Corre dietro Corn valli." " M a ai molti sforzi suoi, tu Grine irridi T u , che il diviso esercito fuggente Prima rannodi &c" "E, a Guilford vinto e vincitor, tu vedi Fuggirsene Cornvalli intiшorito."^ I do not copy the stanzas entire, but you shall have them when you come in January. It is lucky you are not here now; for the weather is so cold, that with fire and furnace I cannot get the temperature of my room u p to sixty, except in rare moments! I am glad you find the Governor so happy. D o not forget to give him my cordial congratulations and good wishes.^ Ever Yours H.W.L. P.S. D i d you see Mr. Cook's description of Dickens's first Reading? It is very clever.^ MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Luca Savarese, G . Washington. Ottave (Torino, 1866), p. 79; "So Cornwallis angrily runs after the victor of Cowpens. / But you, Greene, laugh at his efforts, you w h o are earlier reuniting the divided and fleeing army &c / A n d you watch Cornwallis, losing and winning, fleeing in fear to Guilford." 2. William Greene had married as his second wife Mrs. Caroline Mathewson ( 1 8 2 7 1897), a widow of Providence, on November 17, 1867. 3. T h i s account, by Clarence Chatham Cook ( 1 8 2 8 - 1 9 0 0 ) , Boston correspondent of the N e w York Tribune, contained graphic descriptions of the literati in Dickens's audience, including Longfellow and Greene: "There sat Longfellow looking like the very spirit of Christmas with his ruddy cheeks and bright soft eyes looking out from the vest of snow white hair and snow white beard . . . and George Green [e], w h o recently crossed blades with Bancroft." See the Tribune, X X V I I , N o . 8345 (December 3, 1867).

192

CAMBRIDGE, 2584.

1867

To Frances Maria Winthrop^

Cambridge Dec 13 1867. Dear Mrs. Winthrop, It gives me very great pleasure to comply with your request, and I have written for you the first stanza that came into my mind. I send also an autograph of Dr. Holmes, and one of Dana, author of "Two Years before the Mast." We have had a bitter cold December thus far, which makes me envy you the climate of the Isle of Wight. With furnace and fire in full blast I cannot make the mercury climb its little ladder higher than the sixtieth round, and then it goes down discouraged. That is not a good temperature to write in. Charles will be very happy to hear of your kind remembrance of him. He speaks often of your son's^ hospitality, and enjoyed his visit to Cowes exceedingly. He has now gone with Nathan Appleton and some other young friends to Edisto, among the Sea-Islands, where Appleton has a Plantation. Hoping that the autographs will be acceptable to the young Prince, I remain With great regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT;

University

of

Washington Library.

1. Mrs. Winthrop (d. 1878, aged seventy), widow of Grenville Temple Winthrop ( 1 8 0 7 - 1 8 5 2 ) and sister-in-law of Robert Charles Winthrop C920.3), lived at East Cowes, Isle of Wight. In a letter of November 25 she asked Longfellow for an autograph on behalf of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany ( 1 8 5 3 - 1 8 8 4 ) , who was forming a collection of autographs. 2. Thomas Lindall Winthrop III (b. 1 8 3 4 ) .

2585.

To Mrs. Edmund Fletcher^

Cambridge Dec 16 1867 Dear Madam, In answer to your note I have the pleasure of sending you a few autographs of literary men, regretting they are so few. Unluckily nearly all I had to spare have already been given away. Hoping that what I send will not be unacceptable, and wishing you much success with your Fair, I have the honor to be Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow Mrs. E. Fletcher

193

THREE

SCORE

MANUSCRIPT: University of Washington Library, 63 Maiden St. / Chelsea, Mass.

YEARS ADDRESS: Mrs Edmund Fletcher /

I. Mrs. Fletcher, whose note to Longfellow is unrecovered, was the wife of an insurance agent whose office address was 89 Washington Street, Boston.

2586.

To James Thomas Fields

C a m b . D e c i S 1867. My Dear Fields, I have just received a letter from a gentleman in New Hampshire,' asking for an explanation of the poem of "Excelsior." Here is one sentence. "If it is not asking too much, may we learn from yourself whether the poem is intended to convey the idea, that the Youth succeeded in his undertaking, or not; did he gain the summit or get through the pass of the mountains, or perish in the attempt." "Should you feel disposed to notice, you would oblige many." I hope you enjoyed yourself in New York; and left Dickens well and hearty. The demand for tickets here seems to be greater than ever. Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Henry E. Huntington Library. I. Unidentified.

2587.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Dec2o 1867 My Dear Fields, Please keep the Dante till Christmas Day, and then present it to Mrs. F. with a little Speech. Yours ever H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Frank O. Buda, Cambridge, Mass.

2588.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Dec 20 1867. My Dear Greene, What a coward you are in some things.^ I dare say in similar circumstances I should be [a] greater one! Thermometer in my study, 52°! Like Raleigh, "if I tremble, it is from cold not fear!"^ I have just written to the Governor; and have opened the subject to him 194

CAMBRIDGE,

1867

gently, rather asking his advice than giving my own. I forgot to mark the letter "private"; but that is no matter, as there is nothing in it, which even a newspaper correspondent might not see. I have sent you several paragraphs about Sumner. The attacks upon him in Democratic papers are base and vulgar — incredibly so. It disgusts one with the very name of Democrat. Burn the papers. Thermometer 53°. I sent you, also, two days ago, the Transcript, with Notice of your book.® Lowell asked me yesterday when it would be published. I suppose it is already published; though I have not yet seen the advertisement. Thermometer 54°! Yours ever. H.W.L. P.S. Read in the Jan. Atlantic, an excellent notice of Prest. Wayland by your friend Prof. Diman.^ MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Greene had written on December 17 that he found it difficult to speak with William Greene about the subsidization of the remaining volumes of his biography of Gen. Greene because he always found him in the company of his wife. "Indeed I do not know how to begin, for tho' I feel that I really ought to be enabled to finish this work — that national as well as family honor is concerned in it, yet when it comes to the saying this, I find my personal interest so mixed up with it that I cannot utter a word." He then asked Longfellow to write a "private" letter on his behalf. 2. T h e remark is usually attributed to Charles I of England when he donned two shirts on the morning of his execution, January 30, 1649. 3. X L , No. 1 1 , 5 5 4 (December 16, 1 8 6 7 ) . 4. " T h e Late President Wayland," Atlantic Monthly, X X I (January 1868), 68-73. Jeremiah Lewis Diman ( 1 8 3 1 - 1 8 8 1 ) , Congregational clergyman, served as professor of history and political economy at Brown University, 1 8 6 4 - 1 8 8 1 .

2589.

To William

Greene

Cambridge Dec 20 1867 My Dear Sir, I write you this morning both on a matter of pleasure and a matter of business. As a Troubadour I put pleasure before business, and beg leave to congratulate you on the good news of your marriage, and to offer my compliments and congratulations to your wife. On the subject of marriage I have always agreed with the good Vicar of Wakefield, whose opinion is so ably set forth in the first sentence of the first chapter of his history.' Or to keep within my character of Troubadour, life seems to me like French poetry in which feminine rhymes must be mingled or alternated with the masculine, or the verse is imperfect. I most cordially wish you both much happiness! I 9 5

THREE

SCORE

YEARS

T h e matter of business relates to George, who is greatly troubled and perplexed about the future. W h a t can be done for him? Perhaps there are some of the name, who would be willing and glad to take places of those who have failed us. Will you be kind enough to turn this over in your mind, and see what is the best course to follow. With great regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Helen Roelker Kessler, Cambridge, Mass.

I. See 2545.1.

2590.

T o Charles

Sumner

Camb. Dec 20 1867. M y Dear Senator, If Quintus Curio Hooper has persuaded Julius Cassar Sumner to pass the Rubicon, as you say he has, it is a declaration of peace and not of war.^ I will not oppose the step, nor pass any judgment upon it, but quote Lucan; "Haste, then, thy towering eagles on their way; W h e n fair occasion calls 'tis fatal to delay."^ I am only afraid that the eagles and half-eagles will go too fast. It is perhaps more dignified to have a house of your own; it certainly will be more expensive. But of course you have well weighed all that, and I am most willing to think that your decision is a wise one. It would be a great pleasure to me to pass a few days with you. If I were a free man, I would start the first fair day. But having to be both father and mother to my girls, I find it very hard to get away, as you know. Did I write you about Dickens? He is in great force; and his Readings, or rather Recitations, are wonderful. I hope you will hear one of them, but I doubt if he gets so far as Washington.^ Ever thine H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

I. Sumner wrote on December 18: "At last I pass the Rubicon. For some days I have been hunting carpets and furniture, and Sat night I expect to sleep in my own house. / I have come to this conclusion tardily, and, in deference to Mr [Samuel] Hooper, who seemed to have set his heart upon it. He insisted always, that if I were once in my own house, I should never be content out of it. But I think his solicitude was on other grounds, and for the sake of appearances . . . Hooper always finished his persuasions with me by saying, 'you will have a room where you can invite Longfellow to stay.' When will you come? Think of me in my solitude — better far than my terrible lot of last year — and come to me." I

9 6

CAMBRIDGE,

1867

2. Nicholas Rowe trans., De Bello Civili, Вк. 1,11. 2 8 0 - 2 8 1 . 3. Dickens gave several readings in Washington, D.C., however, and dined there with Sumner. See Edgar Johnson, Charles Dickens: His Tragedy and Triumph ( N e w York, 1952.), И, 1086.

2591.

To Alice Mary Frere Clerk

Cambridge Dec 22 1867. My Dear Mrs. Clerk, I was delighted to get your charming and most interesting letter, giving me so much news of yourself, and also the photograph of your husband, which I am very glad to have for its own sake, and as a mark of your friendship and remembrance. It seems strange, and is quite bewildering to think of you so far away, near the sands of the desert and the borders of the Red Sea! And the house that is coming to you, and that magical garden that is to be! Seen from this distance it all seems like a mirage or Fata Morgana; something beautiful and ethereal, and moveable, like an Arab tent.^ But the main thing is to know that you are very happy and well in your new surroundings. I wish I could send you some pleasant tidings of your friends in Boston; but I am such a recluse, that I have seen none of them for a long while. In my own household all is well. Your vacant chair holds its old place; and you are always affectionately remembered. The present excitement in Boston is Dickens, with his wonderful Readings, or Recitations. I suppose you heard him in London, and therefore it is not needful to say more. For my own part I am meditating, not a poem, but a flight to Europe in the Spring. "As usual," you will say. Yes, as usual, but this time, — however, I have no great confidence in my good resolutions, so I will not boast. But if I do go, I shall not only see the Valley of the Wye, but seek the shelter of the Peacock Inn.^ Many and many a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you! Ever with affectionate regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCBIPT: Harvard College Library. 1. In her letter from Suez of September 22, Mrs. Clerk wrote: "By Xmas I hope our house will have arrived f. England and then I shall soon hope to have a garden — tho' row our plot of ground w[hic]h is about a mile f. this [place], is desert as desert can be." 2. Mrs. Clerk had spent her honeymoon at the Peacock Inn in Rowsley, Derbyshire, at the confluence of the W y e and the Derwent, and in her letter urged Longfellow to take his daughters there when he came to England.

197

THREE 2592.

To jean Louts Rodolphe

SCORE

YEARS

Agassiz

Camb. D e c 2 6 1867. M y Dear Agassiz, A thousand thanks for your Christmas present, your beautiful new book!' I am reading it this morning with the greatest interest and pleasure. T h e idea of mingling the two Diaries together is very felicitous. It is like the intermingling of masculine and feminine rhymes in a French poem. In fact the whole expedition is highly poetical and honorable to all concerned. There is nothing like it since Hipparchus sent his fifty-oared galley to bring Anacreon to Athens. With all the good wishes of Christmas and N e w Year to you and Mrs. Agassiz, Always Yours Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

I. A ]ourney in Brazil, by Professor and Mrs. Louis Agassiz (Boston, 1868).

198

Left to right: Edith, Alice, Anne Allegra Longfellow, c. 1874

;X7

" T h e summer cottage in Nahant

Longfellow and Trap, 1866

Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow 1868

Harriet Spelman Longfellow (Ernest's wife), c. 1869

Traveling party to Europe, 1868-1869. Standing, left to right: Samuel Longfellow, Alice Longfellow, Thomas Gold Appleton, Ernest Longfellow, Harriet Spelman Longfellow, Seated, left to right: Mary Longfellow Greenleaf, Edith Longfellow, H W L , Anne Allegra Longfellow, Anne Longfellow Pierce

PART E I G H T E E N

EUROPE 1868-1869

EUROPE 1868-1869

Г о н FORTY YEARS Europe had been a poetic catalyst for Longfellow, but he had not crossed the Atlantic since 1842. During the eighteen years of his marriage to Fanny Appleton, academic duties, literary projects, and a growing family encouraged him to remain within a narrow radius of Cambridge. On the one occasion, in 1856, when he determined to break loose and book passage on a steamer, an injury to his knee easily persuaded him to cancel his plans (see 1 5 3 1 . 1 ) . After his wife's sudden death he lost interest in the prospect of travel and nursed his emotional wound in the comforts of the Craigie House and the Nahant cottage. Late in 1867, however, the old desire to visit the scenes of his youth took hold of him again. Perhaps Dickens, at a dozen dinner tables during his second tour of America, urged him to return to England to become reacquainted with his friends and to meet a new and admiring public; apparently his sisters, who had never been abroad and who were eager to accompany him, pressed him to go; and certainly his daughters, the youngest of whom was now thirteen and old enough for travel, enthusiastically approved the idea. Finally, Ernest Longfellow and Harriet Spelman were to be married in May 1868, and the presence of the honeymooners would lend a festive air to the traveling party. Thus, after serious thought, Longfellow wrote to Alice Frere (now Mrs. Clerk) on December 22, 1867, that he was "meditating, not a poem, but a flight to Europe in the Spring." Nevertheless, doubts soon attacked him when he thought of wrenching himself from his routines. "The idea of going to Europe torments me like a nightmare," he wrote to Greene on January 31, 1868. "I wish I had never spoken of it or thought of it." Before he could change his mind, however, he found himself committed to his sisters, brother, children, and Thomas Gold Appleton, and the travel plans proceeded inexorably. As the weeks passed, his doubts diminished and he became preoccupied with other matters: the Dickens readings in Boston with their attendant festivities; the chore of rescuing George Washington Greene from debt and chronic self-pity; sittings for a bust by Henry Dexter; and preparations for the marriage of his son. During the month of February, moreover, he worked with disciplined concentration on the New England Tragedies and was able to send his manuscript to the printer in March. When James T . Fields gave a party for him on 2 о I

EUROPE May 23, complete with a farewell poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes (Life, 111, 1 0 8 - 1 0 9 ) , his fourth and final trip to Europe was underway. T h e traveling party that left N e w York on May 27 aboard the Russia consisted of twelve people: Longfellow, his three daughters, Ernest Longfellow and his bride, Charles Longfellow, Anne Longfellow Pierce, Mary Longfellow Greenleaf, Samuel Longfellow, Thomas Gold Appleton, and the governess and family friend Hannah E. Davie. After a voyage of eleven days the Russia arrived in Liverpool on June 6. Charles Longfellow quickly disappeared for a summer of yachting followed by departure in the autumn for adventure in India, and Miss Davie left to join her family in Lyme Regis, Dorset. For the next fifteen months the nucleus of the group traveled in six countries, with extended sojourns in London, Paris, Florence, Rome, Naples, and Sorrento. (Longfellow was always accompanied by his daughters and sisters, while the others left and rejoined the party at various times.) T h e itinerary kept changing as conditions changed but can be reconstructed from Longfellow's letters, from his fragmentary journal, and from the records kept by other members of the party. June 6-26, ¡868: Arrival, Liverpool. En route London via Lake District ( J u n e 8 - 1 0 ) , Carlisle (June 1 1 - 1 4 ) , Cambridge (to receive honorary degree on June 1 6 ) , York ( J u n e 1 9 ) , Rowsley ( J u n e 2 0 - 2 1 ) , Malvern ( J u n e 2 2 - 2 3 ) . June 26-c. July 13: London. c. July 1 4 - 2 3 : Isle of Wight (Freshwater, Bonchurch, Shanklin). July 22-August 4: En route Switzerland via Dover, Calais, Belgian towns, Rhine River, Heidelberg (c. August 1 - 4 ) . August 5-c. September 8: Switzerland and Northern Italy. Basel, Berne, T h u n , Interlaken (August 1 0 - 1 4 ) , Lucerne (August 1 6 - 1 8 ) , St. Gothard Pass, Lugano (August 2 3 - 2 5 ) , Cadenabbia (August 2 6 - 3 1 ) , Luino, Baveno, Simplón Pass, Vevey (September 4 - 6 ) . En route Paris via Geneva, Chamonix. c. September ç-November i: Paris (excursion to Amiens, October 8; business trip to London, October 9 - 1 1 ) . November 2 - 2 7 : En route Florence via Lyon, Aries, Nice, Monaco, Mentone, Oneglia, Savona, Genoa (November 19-c. November 2 5 ) , Piacenza, Parma, Bologna. November 28-c. December 19: Florence. c. December 20-c. February 27, i86g: Rome. c. February 28-March 24: Monte Cassino, Naples (March 2-е. 24). March zs-April 12: Sorrento (excursion to Capri, March 3 1 ) . April 13-?: En route Florence. April ?-c. May 14: Florence. c. May ΐζ-c. July i: En route Paris via Cadenabbia ( M a y 1 7 - 2 4 ) , Milan, Venice ( M a y 30), Verona ( J u n e 1 6 - 1 7 ) , Innsbruck, Nuremberg, Dresden. c. July 2-16: Paris. July ιγ-August 2 1 : En route Liverpool via Amiens (July 1 8 ) , Boulogne,

EUROPE London (July 22-26), Oxford (to receive honorary degree on July 27), Edinburgh. August 2 1 - 3 1 : En route N e w York aboard China. September i, i86ç: Arrival, Cambridge. T h e tour began triumphantly. Ten days after his arrival in England, Longfellow received an honorary L L . D . from Cambridge University in a ceremony of scarlet robes, Latin encomiums, and undergraduate cheers. In London he was overwhelmed with hospitality as bishops, lords, dukes and duchesses, poets, novelists, painters, scientists, and ordinary admirers engulfed him in invitations. Like a minister plenipotentiary, he called on the Queen at Windsor and on the Prince of Wales. On July 20, from the rural sanctuary of the Isle of Wight where he had gone to catch his breath and visit Tennyson, he described for John Forster his impression of the previous fortnight: "I have in my brain a confused memory of London, ratde and roar of streets; and 'dreams of fair women' in drawing-rooms; and breakfasts and luncheons and dinners in hopeless entanglement; and an endless procession of people, headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury!" After this impressive reception in England, Longfellow spent the next twelve months on the continent more as tourist than literary lion. He was frequently a homesick traveler as his party moved from hotel to hotel, museum to museum, and ruin to ruin. T h e memories evoked in Heidelberg, Interlaken, Paris, Genoa, Florence, and Rome alternately excited and depressed him. In Interlaken, where he had first met Fanny Appleton in 1836, he found litde solace in the grandeur of the Alps; in Paris he recaptured momentarily the exuberance of his youth in the bookstalls along the Seine and at the performances of Molière at the Théâtre Français; but in Rome, where he had fallen in love in 1828, he found Julia Persiani's brother "shrunken and old" and the city itself "living on old shoes," incredibly behind the times. Summer heat and winter rain easily discouraged him. By spring he found himself following rather than leading his litde party of tourists, and he wrote to Charles Longfellow in India on May 30, 1869, "I am heartily tired of travelling, and long to be home again." Summer found the party in England again, mo\'ing anticlimactically toward Liverpool and the steamship China. On July 27 there was a last hurrah at Oxford, where Longfellow recei\'ed an honorary degree to match the one from Cambridge, but other public notices of his presence were restrained. He allowed his companions a final excursion through Devonshire to Edinburgh and the Scottish lakes and then, aboard his ship on August 2 1 , saw England fade from sight for the last time. Upon his arrival in Cambridge, Longfellow picked up the threads of his old life immediately by inviting George Washington Greene to visit him and by receiving calls from Lowell, Sumner, Julia Ward Howe and her husband, and other friends. T w o weeks later, on September 13, he announced obliquely 203

EUROPE in his journal that the excitement of travel was behind him : "Paid my Taxes, which gives me a home feeling." T h e r e were other reminders, of course, that Europe was behind and routine ahead — the accumulating letters on his writing desk. For fifteen months he had been relieved of the day-to-day chore of answering the mail. D u r i n g his first weeks in England he had been deluged with invitations and notes of welcome to which he had dutifully responded, but on the continent he had enjoyed the luxury, for the most part, of writing only when he wished to. In all, he is known to have written some 357 letters during 1868-1869, 88 of them while he was abroad. O f these, 173 have been recovered to document his life immediately before, during, and after his fourth trip to Europe.

2593.

T o Charles

Sumner Camb. J a n i 2

1868.

M y D e a r Sumner, W h a t a beautiful thing is silence! A n d yet one may carry it a great deal too far. For instance, I have not yet answered your Christmas greeting, and it is past T w e l f t h Night! I will not wish you a Happy N e w Year, only a happier one. T h a t I am sure is possible; and from the depth of my heart I wish it may be yours. I am seriously meditating a flight to Europe in the Spring or early Summer. First to England, then to the continent. I think I can accomplish it; and it would do me great good, mentally and bodily. Greene is here, and sends his love and good wishes. His first volume is out; and is doing well, I believe; tho' I have not yet seen many notices of it. H e is still very hot against G[eorge] B[ancroft] and shouts Voltaire's war-cry of "Ecrasez I'infavie!"^ Dickens has been and is still triumphant. His Readings, or Recitations rather, are wonderful to see and hear. Sergeant Buzfuz's argument to the Jury in Bardell v. Pickwick would delight you.^ In what raptures our dear Felton would be were he now alive. Good bye for to-day. Ever thine H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Letter to Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, November 28, 1762: "Crush the infamous thing." 2. Pickwick Papers, Chap. X X X I V .

204

CAMBRIDGE, 2594.

1868

To Harriot Appleton Curtis

Camb. Jan 15. 1868. My Dear Hattie I paid only four dollars for your two tickets, so that you are entitled to the enclosed. "My Lord and Jury, I will not deceive you," said Mrs. Cluppins. "You had better not!" replied the Judge.^ I agree with you in thinking the fun better than the pathos. I do not care to go so far for a tragedy. Nevertheless I think it all a wonderful performance. Ever affectionately H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Harriot Curtis Estate (on deposit, Longfellow House), Harriot JAN

Curtis. / 2 6

Mt.

Vernon

St. / Boston,

POSTMARK:

ADDRESS: Mrs.

CAMBRIDGE

MASS

15

I. Mrs. Cluppins was a witness in "The Trial of Bardel! Against Pickwick" (Chap. XXXIV).

2595.

To William

Greene

Cambridge Jan 16 1868. My Dear Sir, I enclose a scrap from a Boston paper, which I think will please you.^ George left me yesterday for Newport.^ He seems very much depressed and discouraged; and I think is deeply wounded that so many of the family desert him, at this critical moment and just as he thought he saw his way clear to the completion of the Biography of the General. I have thought over what you suggested in your last letter.'' Last Summer I made an effort to get him a Professorship in the Cornel [1] University of New York, — the new institution under the charge of President White, whom 1 saw personally, and also addressed by letter.'' But as I hear nothing further on the subject, I am very much afraid that nothing will come of it. As to an editorship, the state of his eyes puts that quite out of the question. He could not possibly do the work, even if such a place could be found, which is not easy. Hoping that you and Mrs. Greene are well, and that something can in some way be done to help George on with his book. Yours with great regard Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Helen Roelker Kessler, Cambridge, Mass. I. Accompanying the manuscript is a clipping from the Boston Transcript, XLI, No. 1 1 . 5 7 8 (January 14, 1868), regarding the meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society on January 9. It contains the following paragraph: "Prof. George W . Greene of Rhode Island, who was present, was invited to join in the eulogy on his late fellow-

205

EUROPE citizen, the H o n . Albert G . Greene, and though called upon unexpectedly, he rose and delivered an eloquent, discriminating and beautiful tribute to the high

Uterary

attainments, the social virtues, and eminent moral worth of one whose loss will be so deeply felt by all w h o had the privilege of his acquaintance. Prof. Greene expressed the hope that the literary executors of the deceased would now give to the public some of those productions of his pen, of rare merit, w h i c h have hitherto been reserved for the private inspection of his friends." Albert Gorton Greene ( 1 8 0 2 - 1 8 6 8 ) , lawyer and minor poet, was president of the Rhode Island Historical Society from 1 8 5 4 until his death. 2. Greene and his daughter A n n a had been visiting the Longfellows for a f e w days. 3.

Unrecovered.

4 . See Letter N o . 2 5 4 6 . Longfellow's letter to W h i t e , dated A u g u s t 1 1 , 1 8 6 7

(MS

Letter Calendar), is unrecovered.

2596.

To Frances

Farrer

[Cambridge] January 24, 1868. Your letters about the Dante were altogether the pleasantest that have come to me from England on the subject.^ I am indeed very glad that you liked the translation. I hold that the primary object of all translation is to tell us exactly what a foreign author says; while many others think that a translator may take all kinds of liberties with his original. . . . Our winter here has been rather cold and solitary, and quite uneventful, save in the advent of Mr. Dickens. His readings have enlivened us; and are, as you know, wonderful in their way, and very interesting. I presume you have heard him, and it is not necessary to enlarge upon that topic. When the weather is dull and cold, we talk of going to Europe in the spring. When it grows milder, we are content to stay at home and avoid the troubles of travelling, repeating the German proverb, — "Osten und Westen, Zu Haus am besten." A fortnight on board an Atlantic steamer is not an exhilarating subject of contemplation. In speaking of Dickens, I ought to have added that in all the cities where he has read, he has been received with great enthusiasm; and the popularity of his works was never greater in America than now. This puts to flight the fears and surmises of those who thought there was still some lurking grudge against him here, on account of his American Notes and Martin Chuzzlewit. T h e result of his coming here is a great triumph. When I listen to Dickens, 1 always think how Felton would have enjoyed these readings; for he was one of the most constant and ardent admirers of the great novelist; and his wide sympathies made it possible for him to appreciate and enjoy all varieties of character. W e still mourn for Felton. 206

CAMBRIDGE,

1868

I hope you have no brother nor friend in the Abyssinian expedition. From this distance it looks like a forlorn piece of work, which one would like to see well ended.^ MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from Life, III, 1 0 1 - 1 0 2 . 1 . One of these letters, dated January 9, 1868, is recovered. In it Mrs. Farrer wrote: " I have just been reading over the first of Divina Commedia. I Ике it so very much. I am sure this book will not be a 'sepulchre of thought.' Oh no! the thoughts have had much beautiful, loving, loving hard-bodies given them. They will be welcome guests at the quietest firesides or in the gayest gatherings. Thank you again very very much, dear Sir, for your great kindness in sending me this book." 2. Gen. Robert Cornelis Napier ( 1 8 1 0 - 1 8 9 0 ) , afterwards ist Baron Napier of Magdala, commanded the Abyssinian expedition of 1868 against the Emperor Theodore, who had imprisoned the British consul and various European traders and missionaries. In the Battle of Arogee on April 10, 1868, Theodore was defeated and committed suicide.

2597.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Jan 24 1868. My Dear Greene, The week is almost gone and the Governor has not come. I looked for him yesterday and to-day, and hope he will make his appearance tomorrow in season for the [Saturday] club dinner." When he comes I trust we shall be able to put the matter of the History on a sure foundation; for I feel pained that the ghost of the old General should go about begging his life like Belisarius.^ It ought not to be. Nothing remarkable has happened here since you left us. People come and go as usual; and I get no nearer a solution of the problem of foreign travel. My fancy now is for a sailing vessel. That would be more like old times; and quite as pleasant. I am only afraid there will be too much of it. But then one might go direct to the South of Europe, which has its charms. I hope you found your family all well and happy; and that you liked [Richard] Frothingham's notice in the Advertiser,® which I sent some days ago. Always Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Greene had written on January 20 that William Greene would arrive in Cambridge within the week to discuss the subsidy of the remaining volumes of the Gen. Greene biography. 2. According to tradition, Belisarius С505?-5б5), general of the Emperor Justinian, was forced in his last years to beg alms in Constantinople. 3. Boston Advertiser, C X I , No. 1 7 (January 20, 1868).

207

EUROPE 2598.

To Charles Henry

Mifflin

Cambridge January 29 1868. My Dear Dr. Mifflin, I am afraid after all, that I shall not be able to come to you to-night, as I had promised myself the pleasure of doing.* A kind of influenza has laid its grip upon me, and unless I feel better in the evening, I shall be obliged to keep in doors. Always with great regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

I. Mifflin had invited Longfellow to attend a Wednesday Club dinner.

2599.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Jan 31. 1868. My Dear Fields, There seems to be one man in the country, who has not yet found out that Dickens is here, has not heard of his arrival. A writer in the Nation of this week says; "It is our opinion that Mr. Dickens, if he were to visit us now, would be received with all due civility and kindness."! In the same No. is a very friendly review of Greene's book, which I wish you could induce the Transcript to copy.^ Yours ever H.W.L P.S. Alice was delighted with the concert.® Influenza only so-so. MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

1. The Nation, V I (January 30, 1868), 88. 2. Ibid., p. 92. If Fields tried, he did not succeed in getting the review reprinted in the Boston Transcript. 3. Presumably the "Sixth Symphony Concert" by the Harvard Musical Association in the Boston Music Hall, January 30.

2600.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Jan 31 1868. My Dear Greene, Very good letters are these you send me;* very good and true and friendly. So is the Notice of your book in the "Nation" of yesterday, which I hope you have seen, and which I hope all who bear the name of Greene will read and ponder. 208

CAMBRIDGE,

1868

The idea of going to Europe torments me like a nightmare. I wish I had never spoken of it or thought of it. Perhaps when the weather is warmer, and I get over an influenza which has imprisoned me for two days, it will present itself in a more alluring aspect. Sitting on the verandah at Nahant, I could do it easily; sitting here in my study I do not want to do it at all. I send you a note from Woodman, which please read and burn. The visit of Mrs. A. had no reference to Sumner. She came only to bring a Scotch lady to see me. I met her at dinner a few days afterward, but no allusion was made to Sumner.^ Do not trouble yourself about the notice of Dante in Putnam. The writer's own attempts to translate the Divina Commedia into octosyllabic verse are a sufficient answer to it.® Yours ever H.W.L M A N U S C R I P T : L o n g f e l l o w T r u s t Collection. 1 . A p p a r e n t l y congratulatory letters to G r e e n e on the first v o l u m e of his biography. 2 . W o o d m a n ' s note m i g h t h a v e referred to S u m n e r ' s marital difficulties. O n J a n u a r y 1 6 L o n g f e l l o w met M r s . C h a r l e s H o o k A p p l e t o n at a dinner given b y T h o m a s

Gold

A p p l e t o n , b u t no mention is m a d e in his journal of her earlier visit w i t h the S c o t c h lady. 3 . G e o r g e H e n r y C a l v e r t ( 7 0 3 . 2 ) w a s critical of L o n g f e l l o w ' s translation in " D a n t e a n d his Latest T r a n s l a t o r s , " Putnam's

Monthly,

N . S . , I (February 1 8 6 8 ) , 1 5 5 - 1 6 7 .

ended his review w i t h his o w n translation in u n r h y m e d octosyllabic verse of

He

Inferno,

XXXIII, 46-76.

2601.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Feb. 7. 1868. My Dear Greene, I fear you must decide the matter for yourself.^ No one can decide it for you; for "each heart knoweth its own bitterness."^ For myself, I think [I] should not send the letter. Forbearance brings a certain comfort with it. Anything like vengeance brings dissatisfaction. You have been harshly treated. Your cousin is in the wrong; and I think he feels it; and begins to be ashamed and penitent. Wait! Can you, and will you without delay, tell me what the portraits of the General in your Book cost per. thousand, and who made them. Are they photographs simply, or photo-lithographs? A friend of mine wants to have his father's portrait done in the same style for a book.® I have been working very hard this last week, and have almost rewritten the "New England Tragedy" in verse. Only two or three scenes remain. It is greatly improved, though it is not yet what I mean it shall be. This has absorbed me day and night, and put me into better spirits. Happy the man who has something to do — and does it! Is it not so? 209

EUROPE Your book has been most successful in the judgments of all readers and critics. Be comforted by that. In great haste Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Parkman D. Howe, Boston. 1. In a letter of February 4 Greene had enclosed a communication from Samuel Ward Greene Cunrecovered) relating to the Greene family dispute (see 2 5 3 0 . 2 ) and a draft of his reply. He then asked: "Ought I to answer it at all? M y wife says yes — and the Governor [William Greene] says he never was so perplexed about a question in all his Hfe." 2. C f . Prov. 1 4 : 1 0 . 3. Greene's memorandum relating to this request was enclosed in a letter of February 19 but is unrecovered.

2602.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Feb 12. 1868 My Dear Fields, I have changed my mind. We will have no outsiders. Only the elect.^ The tableaux were fine; Mabel Lowell, as "a portrait by Copley," the best of all I thought, however, that the tableau I saw in Charles St. on my way, more beautiful than any. No more at present from Yours truly H.W.L P.S. Bring Upham, not the Man, but the book.^ Do not forget to remind Howells. MANuscBiPT: Henry E. Huntington Library. 1 . "Evening, a Dante Club supper; Lowell, Norton, Fields, Holmes, Howells, Dana, Akers, and S[amuel] L[ongfellow]" ( M S Journal, February 1 2 ) . 2. Longfellow had seen the tableaux at an evening entertainment on February 1 1 at Thomas Gold Appleton's. 3. Charles Wentworth Upham ( 1 8 0 2 - 1 8 7 5 ) , Unitarian clergyman, historian, and brother-in-law of Oliver Wendell Holmes, was the author of Salem Witchcraft (Boston, 1 8 6 7 ) , 2 vols. Longfellow was reading works on witchcraft in preparation for his Giles Corey of the Salem Farms (Christus: A Mystery, Part I I I ) .

2603.

To Bernard Roïker

Cambridge Feb 12 1868 My Dear Kölker I was delighted to see once more your familiar hand-writing, moving along the page with its usual vigor. I had heard of your going to Europe last June;

CAMBRIDGE,

1868

but not of your return. It must have been a sad pleasure to you to see once more the old, familiar places, and no more the old familiar faces; and I fancy it is very satisfactory to get back again to the routine of life, and a busy profession, which leaves one little time to be sad.^ I wish you would tell me more about the Southampton steamers. I believe that both the Bremen and the Hamburg lines stop there; and I should like to know about the accommodations as I have half a mind to go out in the Spring or early Summer with my three girls; and wish to find out the best way. If I go it will be on their account for as far as I am concerned I had rather stay at home. Still it does one good to see the old W o r l d once in a while. I am glad you liked the Dante. If not "the whole truth," it is at least "the truth, and nothing but the truth." Last Summer at N a h a n t , I had the pleasure of seeing your brother the Doctor, w h o came down with his two boys — and nice boys they are — and his father-in-law Mr. [William] Greene; w h o has since married the widow Mattison, w h i c h will prove some detriment I fear to the fortunes of the two boys.^ I wish there were some chance of seeing you. Couldn't you possibly come on and freeze with us for a f e w days? I have a capital room for the purpose; but will warm you with welcome. A l l the children join in affectionate remembrance. A l w a y s yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House). 1. Kölker had left N e w York for Germany on June 29, 1867, "to recruit my energies and to see once more my native places and my friends there." H e returned on September 28. 2. See Letter N o . 2525. Dr. Roelker had three boys: William Greene Roelker ( 1 8 5 4 1 9 1 1 ) , Fritz Greene Roelker ( 1 8 5 7 - 1 9 0 1 ) , and Henry Greene Roelker ( 1 8 5 8 - 1 9 0 8 ) .

2604.

T o Angelo

Messedaglia^

Cambridge, February 15, 1868 M y Dear Sir, W h e n I look at the date of your last very friendly letter I am very sorry to have left it so long without an answer.^ M y only excuse is the thought that I was so occupied and interrupted that my correspondence fell into irreparable confusion. I thank you sincerely for the letter and still more for the small volume "Alcune Poesie"^ w h i c h arrived together. T h e good opinion w h i c h I see manifest in the preface is pleasing to me beyond words; and I have read the translations with great pleasure, marvelling that in a language so different 2 I I

EUROPE you have been able to carry them out with such exactness and so much vigor without losing any essential idea or any salient point. I congratulate you on your success and thank you cordially for the honor accorded me. I am also very happy that you think so favorably of my version of the Divine Comedy and I shall be happy to know that it is well received in Italy. That work was for me entirely a labor of love and I strove, to use the legal term to tell "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth." I think at least that it will encourage and facilitate the study of Dante in America and in England. As for the offer of Professor Coppino^ to include my name in an Order of Chivalry as I am Protestant and Republican I do not know how I can accept it. With great esteem, believe me always, my dear sir, yours Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow T r u s t Collection

(Longfellow

House),

ADDRESS:

al Parlamento / Firenze Italia

Professore Angelo

PUBLISHED (in

Messedaglia / Deputato

Italian') : Luigi Messedaglia,

Versioni Poetiche di Angelo Messedaglia," Nuova

Antologia,

Sesta Serie,

"Le

CCVI

(June i6, 1 9 2 0 } , 340. 1 . Messedaglia ( 1 8 2 0 - 1 9 0 1 ) , Italian economist, was a member of the Chamber of Deputies, 1 8 6 6 - 1 8 8 3 . 2. Messedagha's letter was dated from Florence, J u l y 7, 1 8 6 7 . 3. Alcune

Poesie

di

Enrico

W.

Longfellow,

traduzione

dall'

Inglese

di

Angelo

Messedaglia ( P a d u a , 1 8 6 6 ) . 4. Michele Coppino ( 1 8 2 2 - 1 9 0 1 ) , professor of Italian literature at the University of Turin

and minister of instruction in the cabinet of Urbano Rattazzi

(1808-1873),

April l o - O c t o b e r 2 1 , 1 8 6 7 .

2605.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. F e b i 8 1868. My Dear Greene, I must write you a line, before going to bed; for you will naturally want to know about my interview with our dear Governor. He wrote me a letter before coming, asking me to meet him at Fields'; which letter I did not receive, and consequently did not go to town. But he came out in season for dinner,^ which was better; though at dinner we could not speak of what we were both thinking of. After dinner we did; but we had only ten minutes, as the Governor would not stay over night, but must hurry back to his placens uxor;^ naturally enough. At first he seemed a little discouraged. But when I told him that it was really too bad to let the Old General lie on the field with the wounds, that 2 I2

CAMBRIDGE,

1868

had been dealt him, he flashed up as if I had touched him with a coal of fire; and said that this matter must be carried through, at all events. W e had no time for details; but he went away with that idea strongly impressed upon him. A month ago I felt as if I should never write another line. And lo! since then I have written one Tragedy; and am half way through with another.® That is the reason I have not written to you before. Good night; good night. Yours to my utmost H.W.L. P.S. I have written two whole scenes to-day. One of them the most important of all. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. On Saturday, February 1 5 . 2. Horace, Odes, II, xiv, 21 : "pleasing wife." 3. A reference to The New England Tragedies: John Endicott and Giles Corey of the Salem Farms.

2606.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Feb. 19. 1868 M y Dear Fields, I am delighted with Mrs Fields's kind remembrance and invitation for the 27th. and if I have not accepted it sooner, attribute it only to one thing; namely, that since I saw you, I have been possessed by an Angel or a Demon, to write another tragedy, which has absorbed me for a time, and is now half finished. So I shall have two to show you, instead of one; an awful consideration! Tom Appleton has been here to-day; and tells me that you are expecting Dickens this evening. Is it so? Please do not say a word to anybody about the Tragedies. I want that kept a secret for the present. I shall be delighted to sup with you, as I always am. T o have a Dickens Reading and a Supper too, will make a great holiday.' Always Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Henry E . Huntington Library,

ADDRESS: James T . Fields Esq / Boston

I. T h e holiday, of course, was Longfellow's sixty-first birthday. On February 2 7 he wrote in his journal: "Evening Dickens reads 'The [Christmas] Carol' and 'Boots at the Holly Tree Inn.' Then a Supper at Fields' in honor of the day! Emerson, Holmes, Norton, Howells, Akers, Uncle Tom and brother Sam. / Dickens had too bad a cold to go: but he wrote me a nice letter on the occasion." For Dickens's letter, see Life, 104-105.

2

I

3

III,

EUROPE 2607.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb.Feb. 20 1868 My Dear Greene, I am delighted to hear by your letter just received, that your wife will come on Monday [February 24] and hear Dickens. I will be at the Providence station a little before one; and bring her out safely and comfortably to dinner. I have a ticket for her all ready; and the Reading on Monday night is to be a good one — one of the best I think — "Dr Marigold" and the "Trial from Pickwick." I shall try to keep her here, instead of having her go over to Brookline.' Yours in great haste, H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow T r u s t Collection. I. According to his journal entry for February 2 7 , Longfellow took Mrs. Greene to Jamaica Plain, where she was to stay with a cousin.

2608.

To Charles Colcock Jones,

Cambridge Feb. 25 i My Dear Sir, I had yesterday the pleasure of receiving your volume on the "Monumental Remains of Georgia," and hasten to thank you for this mark of your kind consideration. As yet I have not had a moment to devote to its perusal, being just now both very busy, and very much interrupted. I therefore write only to thank you, not to praise you. Hoping soon to have leisure to read the book at ease and without haste, I remain, with many thanks. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: D u k e University Library. I . Jones

(1831-1893),

Savannah-born

lawyer, historian, and

officer, had sent Longfellow a copy of his Monumental 1 8 6 1 ) with a letter from N e w York dated February 22,

2609.

To an Unidentified

Remains

former

Confederate

of Georgia

(Savannah,

1868.

Correspondent

Cambridge Feb 25 1868 My Dear Sir, I am much obliged to Mr. Urbino' for his kind offer; and will so far avail myself of it as to ask him to bring from Italy for me the Italian translation of "The Golden Legend" by Signora Ada Corbellini-Martini;^ and "Hiawatha" 2

I 4

CAMBRIDGE,

1868

by the Abbate Bazzani;^ or any other translation of my poems he may chance to meet with. I remain, with thanks, Your Obt Sert Henry W . Longfellow unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

MANUSCRIPT:

1. Possibly S. R. Urbino, a bookseller and publisher of Boston, who was in Rome at this time. See Mrs. S. R. Urbino (Lavina Buoncuore), An American Woman in Europe (Boston, 1869), pp. 216-229. 2. La Leggenda d'Oro, tradotta da Ada Corbellini Martini (Parma, 1867). 3. No such translation seems to exist. Alessandro Bazzani (b. 1807), a professor of literature at the University of Padua, subsequently published a translation of The Spanish Student: Lo Studente Spagnuolo (Milano, 1 8 7 1 ) .

2610.

To Elias Î'. 5. Inferno, X I X , 1 7 : " M y beautiful St. John." 6. Giacomo Antonelli ( 1 8 0 6 - 1 8 7 6 ) , Italian prelate and statesman, created cardinal in 1847. 7. "If the Pope were to give me the Capitol, / And were to say to me, 'Let this daughter go,' (America) / That one whom I loved before, that one is the one I want." 8. In a letter of August 15, 1868, Greene had written that Sumner had discouraged him in his hope that he might obtain a ministerial appointment to Italy from the Grant administration. See Letter No. 2650. 9. Michelangelo Caetani di Sermoneta ( 1 8 0 4 - 1 8 8 3 ) , Italian artist, designer, and author of works on Dante. 10. See 2412.2. 1 1 . "Towards dusk I went into the Athenaeum and there among the readers, bending over a folio manuscript, which had the look of an old register of names, sat the excellent Folsom. His eye was heavy and there was a general air of lassitude about him which it was painful to see. His hearing too, has failed him much and you have to speak with great distinctness to make yourself heard. He enquired particularly about you, longing greatly to see you home again. I asked him how our friend Pickering was? He gave me a kind of bewildered look, as if trying painfully to make out what I had said. How is Mr. Pickering — I repeated, Mr. Octavius Pickering. Pickering — he replied — repeating the name in a low, hollow voice — he is dead! There was a ghastly stare in his look and his voice seemed to come from the darkness of his own grave. Voice and look haunt me still. I have seldom been so moved" (Letter dated December 27, 1868). Octavius Pickering (b. 1 7 9 1 ) , lawyer, brother of John Pickering ( 2 1 8 . 2 ) , and a founder of the Boston Society of Natural History, had died on October 29, 1868. 12. In his letter of December 27 Greene had written: " T h e failure of my book in a world where nothing but success justifies life has struck very deep."

2705.

To Catherine Porter Greene

Rome Jan 30. 1869 My Dear Katy, I am not quite sure, but I think the English edition of Hiawatha must be right. I like laughing better than thundering, and when I come home I will [see] that the cataract does the right thing, whatever that may be.^ 275

EUROPE Both you and A n n a will be glad to know that my little girls are all well. T h e y have not had one hour's illness since they landed in England, six months ago and more. T h e y enjoy themselves very much everywhere, but the place that has most of all delighted them is the little town of Cadenabbia on the Lake of Como. T h e y like it better than Paris, and better than Rome; though it is such a quiet place, without even a carriage road leading to it. T h a t shows that they are not spoiled by living in great cities. W i t h a kiss all round always affectionately H.W.L. Edie and A n n i e send their love and Alice also. MANUSCRIPT: Joanna Meader, Edgewood, Rhode Island. I. Miss Greene's query is unrecovered, but the reference is presumably to The Song of Hiawatha, X , 6 7 - 6 8 : " T i l l he heard the cataract's laughter, / Heard the Falls of Minnehaha."

2706.

To George Washington

Greene Rome

Feb. 7. 1869.

M y Dear Greene, T h i s is the first truly agreeable and satisfactory day I have had in Rome. I share it with you. It is Sunday, and the air full of sunshine and the sound of church bells, and I have had a wonderful walk. A f t e r breakfast I started with Alice. W e took with us U n c l e T o m as philosopher and friend; not the novel, but the living uncle. W e crossed the Piazza del Tritone; and went up the Quattro Fontane to Santa Maria Maggiore; w e n t through the beautiful church; then along the Merulana, between the garden walls, to San Giovanni in Laterano; w e n t into the church and out again into the square; enjoyed the grand view over the old city walls by the gate; — then down the Laterano to the Colisseum; where w e lingered long; then to the Piazza di Venezia by way of the Forum, and along the Corso to the Sciarra; thence to the Fontana di Trevi; and home again by the Tritone! T r u l y a grand walk! If you had been with us it would have been perfect. Ever since I have reached Rome I have searched for the Persianis* in vain. O n l y this morning I have got Signor Fabio's address. It was in this wise. Being the other evening introduced to a Roman gentleman, I asked him if he happened to know a Signor Fabio Persiani. H e said, "Yes; a man with a large nose?" " T h e same." " W e l l , I met him yesterday in the Piazza Barberini. You shall have his address tomorrow." To-day I received it. A n d where do you suppose it is? W h y close by here in the Piazza Barberini. I have passed it every day since I have been here. I w e n t straightway this morning in pursuit. N o 276

ROME,

1869

178 Via delle Quattro Fontane. C o m e r house. Over the door, "Drogheria." Shop closed; so I must postpone the meeting till tomorrow, unless I run down again this afternoon. Signor Fabio is carrying on the old business of his father. I am very curious to see him and his sisters. T h e Carnival has begun; and is pretty heavy kind of fun; quite fallen ' away from its pristine glory. I am longing to get off to Naples. Enclosed is a paragraph^ from the "Patrie" of Paris. T h e r e is not one word of truth in it; but it will amuse you. Y o u do not say whether you reed, my letter from Paris, with the photograph of Thiers. I wrote you also from London and Interlachen.® Feb. 9. 1869. Yesterday I dined with the Dominican friars at their convent of San Clemente. ArchBishop Manning^ was there, and the C h i e f of the Sant' Ofizio, whose name I do not remember.® W e had a jovial dinner, and good wine, and every dish Italian, not to say Italianissimo. After dinner w e went into a small coffee-room, where the Inquisitor tried to light a fire, with small success. Some one cried out " A h Padre! the days have gone by when fires can be lighted by Inquisitors," and there was a great roar of laughter, in w h i c h the Padre aforesaid joined heartily. Feb. 10. I have seen Fabio in his little "Drogheria." H e is shrunken and old; and looks very much as his father did when w e were here of old. Virginia is in Paris. Louisa is now the "Vedova D e Gregoris." I have called, and she has called; but we have not met. A t the hotels, the wine I am sorry to say is nefarious and detestable. I only find it good at private houses. Ever aifect[ionatel]y H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. See 125.1. 2. Unrecovered. 3. T h e letters from Interlaken and Paris are unrecovered. T h e letter from London may instead be the one from Shanklin, Isle of W i g h t ( N o . 1 6 7 8 ) . 4. Henry Edward Manning ( 1 8 0 8 - 1 8 9 2 ) , Roman Catholic archbishop of Westminster from 1865 to 1875, when he became a cardinal. 5. Cardinal Costantino Patrizi ( 1 7 9 8 - 1 8 7 6 ) . T h e "Sant' Uffizio" was officially called in 1869 the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Roman and Universal Inquisition.

2707.

To Louisa Ward

Terry

Rome Feb 10. 1869. M y Dear Mrs. Terry, As Friar f l v a c i n t h of the Index so pleasantly says; "Nihil obstat."^ In other words, it will give me very great pleasure to dine with you on Sunday [February 14] next at 6.30. 277

EUROPE T h e two uncles are out, and I cannot answer for them; but Alice and one of the aunts will be most happy to come in the evening. Yours always truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: University Palazzo Odescalchi

of Washington

Library,

ADDRESS:

Mrs. L .

W.

Terry/

I . Charles Loyson, known as Père Hyacinthe ( 1 8 2 7 — 1 9 1 2 ) , Carmelite monk and controversial French preacher, was excommunicated for heterodoxy in 1869. Longfellow alludes to his liberalism by associating him with the imprimatur Nihil obstat (Nothing hinders), placed on books officially sanctioned by the Congregation of the Index of the Catholic Church.

2708.

T o James Thomas

Fields

Rome Feb. 15. 1869. M y Dear Fields, I begin this letter with what comes first into my thoughts, something so evanescent, that if I postpone it, I shall certainly forget it. Go, then at once to Williams the wine-dealer^ and buy all he has left of that excellent Château Iquem, with the blue, metal[l]ic seal. At all events buy for me five dozen, if it can be had for the old price of $22 per doz. or there about. This wine is better than any I have tasted of the kind in Europe. Therefore secure it. I shall not be able to send home anything so good. N o w let me thank you for two letters, one received in Paris, the other here.^ It is so pleasant to be in your debt, that I can hardly make up my mind to disturb the pleasing relation by trying to balance accounts. Next in order comes the new edition of Dante. I wish it could be put off till my return in Aug. or Sept. In case this should be impossible or not advisable, I send a few Errata.^ Please have the same corrections made in the Plates of the large edition. As to copyright, nothing was said about that. T o your proposition of ten per cent I reply in the words of a distinguished Divine of our own day; " T o this extraordinary and, under the circumstances, wholly inadmissible request, Lazarus returned a decided negative!" W e will arrange that matter when I return; or when you come out in the Spring. But, after all, will you come? For my own part, I begin to long for my village, and my old friends, and my early dinner! From here we go in a few days to Naples; then to Palermo, then back to Sorrento in April; then to Venice, Milan and the ever lovely Lake of Como, and the never-to-be forgotten village of Cadenabbia. Then to Verona, over the Brenner to Innspruch; to Nuremburg, Prag, Dresden, Weimar and so to Paris. 278

NAPLES,

1869

Something else very important I wanted to say, but I have forgotten it! and the post is closing. Addio. Love to your wife from all of us. Ever Yours H.W.L. P.S. I remember the important item just in time. It is this. I am much disappointed by M r Russel's decision about the duties on my books. I hold that they are professional books as much as a physician's would be. If you meet him pray state this matter to him again. It comes too heavy, this paying for books in gold, and then paying twenty five per cent duties. I have a great mind to sell out at auction, on my return to Paris.·* MANUSCRIPT: H e n r y E . H u n t i n g t o n L i b r a r y ,

ENDORSEMENT: a / M c h 6

1. See 2230.2. 2. Dated October 31 and November 19, 1868. 3. Unrecovered. 4. In his letter of November 19 Fields had written: " T h e black box, of which you wrote to me on the eighteenth of October [Letter No. 2694], from the Hotel Windsor in Paris, came safely all the way from the Langham Hotel to 124 Tremont Street. T h e rascals made us pay about six dollars duty and other expenses, nearly sixteen dollars. I have not been able to see Collector Russell, but hope to hear from him a favorable report touching your French books." Thomas Russell ( 1 8 2 5 - 1 8 8 7 ) , Boston jurist, had been appointed collector of customs in 1867. In 1874 he became U.S. minister to Venezuela.

2709.

To Luigi

Monti

Hôtel de Russie. Naples March 3. 1869 M y Dear Mr. Monti W e reached Naples last night, and this morning Mr. Mathews^ brought me your welcome and friendly letter. If the weather permits, we shall come very soon to Palermo. W e wish to come this week if possible. I will let you know by telegraph more definitely before we start, and ask you to get us the best rooms you can at the Trinacria. Our party is pretty large; eight in all; including the sottoscritto, his three daughters, his two sisters, his brother, and his brother-in-law, Mr. Appleton. W e shall want a salon and six bed-rooms, two of them double-bedded. I hope and trust that nothing will occur to prevent our coming. I want very much to see you, and your lovely city, and shall be greatly disappointed if the weather or anything else prevents me. I deeply sympathize with you and Mrs. Monti in your great affliction.^ It is very sad; one cannot say how sad; but only feel with those who suffer. With kindest regards from my girls. Ever Yours Henry W . Longfellow. 279

EUROPE MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. An art dealer of Naples. 2. The Montis had recently lost a daughter, aged six.

2710.

To Luigi Monti

Hôtel de Russie Naples. March 6 1869 My Dear Mr. Monti, We shall not be able to leave Naples this week. The weather is too unfavorable, and this great city cannot be disposed of in a day. I will give you due notice of our coming, but do not dare to name any day, for fear of disappointment.' In great haste Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Longfellow's postponement of the trip to Palermo finally became permanent. Instead, Monti visited him in Naples.

2711.

To Hermann Heinrich Adami^

Naples March 11 1869 My Dear Mr. Adami Yesterday I had the pleasure of receiving your most friendly letter, and hasten to thank you for your kind remembrance and most hospitable invitation. It would give me great pleasure to visit Bremen, and to renew my acquaintance with you, so long interrupted by time and distance. Whether this will be possible I cannot now say with any certainty, but I fear it will not be, as our party is large, and consequently, our tastes and desires somewhat various. With many thanks, and best regards. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Bowdoin College Library, Allemagna.

[eme postmark

POSTMARKS :

NAPOLI

ADDRESS: Dr. Hermann Adami / Bremen /

I I

MAR

69

2

S / HÔTEL

DE R U S S I E

NAPLES /

indecipherable]

I. Adami C1824-1908), a jurist of Bremen, had met Longfellow in Cambridge in 1851. See Life, II, 206.

28.

SORRENTO, 2712.

1869

ToEliza^

Naples, March 21 1869 Dear Eliza, Many thanks for your letter, which gave us all much pleasure. We are glad to hear that Ellen [Girard] has got through the Winter so well; and that all things at the Craigie House are safe and comfortable. Enclosed I send you a cheque on the Charles River Bank for $100. Half of this is for you, and half for Ellen, to buy her such little comforts as she needs. Please let me know if it reached you safely, directing your letter to the care of Baring Bros. London, as before. The children are all well, and send their love to you all. They are enjoying themselves very much, and are very good travellers. We do not expect to return home before the end of August; but about this I will write again later. We will give you due notice of our time of sailing, and all the particulars necessary. Meanwhile I thank you very much for your care of the house and all things in it. With kind remembrances to Ellen, Louis and the children.^ Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

MANUSCRIPT:

1. Eliza, surname unknown, had been left in charge of the Craigie House during Longfellow's absence abroad. 2. T h e Girards ( 2 0 2 8 . 1 ) were the parents of Ernest, aged thirteen, and Bertha, aged nine. They apparently shared the responsibility of managing the Craigie House with Eliza.

2713.

To James Thomas and Annie Adams Fields

Villa Nardi. Sorrento April 2. 1869. My Dear Fields or Mrs. Fields, I do not know whether I am writing to you or to your wife or your husband, so intermingled was your last letter,' and so like one of those Italian words, that have a masculine singular and a feminine plural. No matter. Whatever there is of business in my answer goes by right to Mr. F. and all the rest to Mrs. F. and the whole to each and both. It is something to have such a place to date from as the Villa Nardi, Sorrento. Incessant oranges and lemons, and also incessant rain; like an endless shower of lemonade, ready iced by the snow of the Appenines. As you have already been in Sorrento, and as I am sixty two and not sixteen, I will spare you all description of scenery. Having one pleasant day this week, we went to Capri, and saw the Grotta 281

EUROPE Azzura, and the ruins of the Palace of Tiberius; — the "Salto di Timherio," as the Capriots call it, instead of Tiberio. On the way home six lusty oarsmen sang at the top of their voices "O Pescator dell'onda"; but they sang it "O Pescator di Londra!" as if invoking the ancient guild of the Fishmongers!In Naples I saw the banished Partner of the vanished house of Ticknor & Fields. Banishment does not seem to disagree with him; and he no doubt owes this to receiving regularly "The Atlantic Monthly."^ I have signed the document you sent me, and will hand it to you when we meet.^ You see there is no lost letter after all. Alas! For the lost Château Iquem!® Never mind. I will send home some Capri almost as good. I am very glad you are coming so soon.® Do join us in the North of Italy in May; and postpone the Tourraine till September. I enclose a list of hotels, as you desire. Always Yours afFect[ionatel]y H.W.L To J.T.F. P.S. I wish it were possible for you to join us in Germany, and then make your tour in France. You might intercept us at Innsbruck. But that will be too soon for you, I fear. You will want to enjoy London a little longer. Let me know your permanent London address. Is it Baring, Bros? That is ours. They will always know our whereabout; and anything sent to them will be sure to reach us. MANUSCRIPT: (excluding postscript^: Henry E. Huntington Library, ADDRESS: James T . Fields ||Esq|| / Messrs Fields Osgood & Co / Boston, Mass. / U . S . America. POSTMARKS: SORRENTO 2 APR / NAPOLI 3 APR 6 9 / MILANO STA2. 5 APR 6 9

NEW YORK PAID [remainder

illegible]

10.S /

POSTSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Dated March 5-6, 1869 ( M S , Henry E. Huntington Library). 2. See Longfellow's journal entry for March 31 (Life, III, 1 3 0 ) and 2420.5. 3. In September 1868 Howard Malcolm Ticknor ( 2 2 2 7 . 1 ) had been forced out of Ticknor & Fields and the company reorganized as Fields, Osgood & Company. See W . S. Tryon, Parnassus Corner: A Life of James T. Fields, Publisher to the Victorians (Boston, 1 9 6 3 ) , pp.

329-332.

4. Presumably the copyright agreement mentioned in Letter No. 2708. 5. S e e Letter N o . 2 7 0 8 .

6. T h e Fieldses had announced in their letter that they would leave for England on April 28, accompanied by Mabel Lowell.

2714.

To Luigi Monti

Hôtel de l'Arno [Florence] May 2. 1869. My Dear Mr Monti, I had just read in a Boston paper Mr. Fletcher's nomination, when your letter came. I do not understand it any better than you do; but I hope it 282

FLORENCE,

1869

means that you shall have a better place. Sumner, I am sure, will do all he can to protect your interests; and I am also sure that [Thomas William] Parsons will not be idle.^ Meanwhile I have written to Sumner,^ and we must hope for the best. W e are still lingering in Florence, and think of staying a week longer; making perhaps an excursion to Siena. But the weather is growing warm, and our time is growing short. I seldom apologize for pen and ink. But this time I must. I seem to be writing with mud of the Arno; romantic mud of the Middle Ages, but still, mud, making this note illegible. Tomorrow there is to be a grand celebration here in honor of the "Quarto Centenario" of Machiavelli. Florence is eager to remember her great men. With kind remembrances from all our party to Mrs. Monti and yourself Yours truly H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Frank O. Buda, Cambridge, Mass. PUBLISHED: John van Schaick, Jr., Characters in "Tales of a Wayside Inn" (Boston, 1 9 3 9 ) , p. 164. 1. In a letter from Rome of May i, Monti had written with alarm that James Cooley Fletcher ( 1 6 1 4 . 8 ) had been appointed U . S . consul at Palermo. T h e appointment was subsequently withdrawn through the influence of Sumner and Lowell, and Monti retained his post through 1873. Fletcher served as consul at Oporto, Portugal, 1 8 6 9 1873· 2. This letter is unrecovered.

2715.

To M. G.

Sperry^

Hôtel de l'Arno [Florence] May 2. 1869 M y Dear Sir, I think, upon the whole, that we shall not take the paintings. W e like them very well, but not quite well enough to buy. Looking forward with pleasure to your visit tomorrow at one. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House). I. In a note of May 2, Sperry, an art dealer of Florence, had listed the prices of three paintings that Longfellow was interested in buying: a Holy Family by Francesco Granacci ( 1 4 7 7 - 1 5 4 3 ) , 1200 francs; a landscape by Pandolfo Reschi ( 1 6 4 3 - 1 6 9 9 ) , 120 francs; and an old copy by an artist named Sapo Ferrato of a painting by Antonio Allegri da Correggio, 500 francs.

2»3

EUROPE 2716.

To Annie

Adams

Fields C a d e n a b b i a . 20 M a y 1869

D e a r Mrs. Fields, I was delighted yesterday to receive your bit of a note^ and to k n o w that y o u are all safe in L o n d o n : b u t w h y you give the preference to Edwards' Hotel over the L a n g h a m , w h i c h w e f o u n d so comfortable last S u m m e r , I cannot imagine. W e find it hard to get out of Italy, or any other country. T h e r e never was a f a m i l y that dragged along like this. E v e r y town seems a quicksand, in w h i c h w e sink to the knees. O n Saturday, or M o n d a y next, or some other day of next w e e k or next month w e are g o i n g to V e n i c e , there to stick in the m u d for an u n k n o w n length of time. T h e n to V e r o n a , Innsbruck, N u r e m b u r g , Dresden, Paris. A n d there w e shall hope to meet you, as it may not be any sooner. I am very glad that M a b e l [Lowell] is w i t h you. G i v e her our love. O f course you never got my last letter.^ A l w a y s most truly H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Henry E. Huntington Library.

1. Dated May 15, 1869. 2. Presumably Letter No. 2713.

2717.

T o Charles Appleton

Longfellow Venice

M a y 30 1869.

M y Dear Charlie, T h o u g h the worst of correspondents, I will not let this chance slip of sendi n g you m y love and m y thanks for your letters.^ I need not say w i t h h o w m u c h interest w e have followed you on your w a y ; and h o w as you go East and w e go W e s t , w e hope soon to belt the earth about and meet once more in C a m b r i d g e . For m y o w n part, I a m heartily tired of travelling, and long to be at home again. W e mean to sail somewhere b e t w e e n the 20th and 30th of A u g u s t , from Liverpool. I should be content to go a month sooner from H a v r e ; b u t the others do not like this idea; and w e hope to find a steamer direct to Boston from Liverpool, w h i c h w o u l d be a comfort to all of us. H o w l u c k y it is for you, that y o u have not m y dislike of travelling! B u t I think that even you will get e n o u g h of it this time. W i l l i a m [Sumner] A p p l e t o n has been somewhere near y o u in India, b u t could not find you. I hope you may h a v e met before this. N a t h a n keeps quiet in Paris; except a trip in the w i n t e r to Algiers. 284

PARIS,

1869

June I. W e are going this morning across the Lagoon to the Armenian Convent. So I write no more; only charging you to take good care of yourself. God bless you, Dear Charlie, and good bye. Always affectionately H.W.L P.S. I do not know how heavy your expenses may have been; but Mr. [Ebenezer] Snow, in his last account, said that your income up to January last was large, and he had a good round sum on hand; which I suppose he disposed of according to your order. MANUSCRIPT; Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Charles's latest letter was dated "In camp 50 miles N . W . of Meerut," February 21, 1869. For his earlier letters, see 2701.1.

2718.

To )ohn

Nichol

Hôtel du Jardin 206 Rue de Rivoli. Paris. July 10. 1869 M y Dear Professor, In reply to your kind letter,^ I wish I could say precisely when I shall be able to reach Glasgow. But I cannot, as I have to adapt my movements to those of the rest of the party. W e have taken passage for home in the China, Aug. 21. and we have still so much to see in England and Scotland, that it will be impossible to stop anywhere. So much for getting behind-hand, waiting for the orange trees to blossom at Sorrento, and lingering and loitering generally. I beg you not to change in the slightest degree any plans you have for travelling this Summer. I should be greatly troubled if I thought you were doing so. W e expect to be in England as early as the 20th of this month; and I will write you a line from London. M y address is still Baring Bros. With kind regards to Mrs. Nichol, Yours always ' H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Pierpont Morgan Library. I. In a letter of June i , Nichol had asked w h e n Longfellow would be in Scotland so that he could plan to receive him before going abroad for the winter.

285

EUROPE

2719.

To an Unidentified

Correspondent

Hotel du Jardin Paris. July 10. 69 My Dear Sir, I am very sorry, that in reply to your kind letter, 1 cannot say exactly when I shall be in Oxford; and greatly fear it may not be till after the 20th when you will be away. This I should regret extremely; but шу movements depend upon others, as my daughters are with me, and I cannot leave them easily. Nevertheless I shall hope to have the good fortune of meeting you somewhere, if not at Oxford and in this hope remain Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library.

2720.

To Elihu Benjamin

Washburne^

Hôtel du Jardin, [Paris] July 17. 1869. My Dear Sir, I take the liberty of presenting to you the bearer of this note, Mr. Charles Brunei of Paris, who wishes to procure the place of Conservateur de la Bibliothèque Américaine at the Préfecture de la Seine. If it is in your power to help him in any way to the accomplishment of his wishes you will greatly oblige me. Mr. Brunei is a gentleman of talent and literary culture; and has made a beautiful translation of Evangeline in French,^ which of course wins my good will. Hoping that you have found the German baths as comfortable and salutary as you anticipated, I remain, my Dear Sir, with great respect Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Massachusetts

Historical

Society,

ADDRESS:

TO

his

Excellency/

I. WashburnS / Minister of the U . S . A . / Paris 1. W a s h b u r n e ( 1 8 1 6 - 1 8 8 7 ) ,

Maine-born W h i g and Republican congressman from

Illinois, 1 8 5 3 - 1 8 6 9 , served as U . S . minister to France, 1 8 6 9 - 1 8 7 7 . 2. See 2 6 9 4 . 7 . 3 . Longfellow inadvertently addressed his letter to Israel W a s h b u r n ( 2 0 8 5 . 1 ) , w h o despite his curtailed surname was Washburne's brother.

286

AMIENS, 2721.

To James Thomas

1869

Fields

Amiens. July 18 1869. M y Dear Fields, W e have stopped here, on our way to London, to see the lovely cathedral. Tomorrow noon we start for Boulogne, and hope to be at the Langham before midnight. If returning late from Fishmonger's Dinner or other civic feast, you chance to pass that way, pause and consider that I am waiting for you. In Paris we saw your sister-in-law,^ looking well and happy. W e agreed, that we would recommend to you the Hôtel du Jardin 206 Rue de Rivoli, as a charming hotel, and our appartment as the very one for you. It is very hot here to-day. I have just energy enough to trace these feeble lines from a bottle of hotel ink marked "Encre Bleue Fixe." Let us hope they will not fade quite away before they reach you. With much love to Mrs. Fields and to Mabel Yours Always H W.L P.S. Thank Mrs. Fields for her letter from Low-wood Inn, on the banks of the little Lake.^ MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

1. Sarah Holland Adams (2690.7). 2. Mrs. Fields's letter from the Low Wood Hotel, Lake Windermere, is dated June 28, 1869.

2722.

To Charles Eliot

Norton

Amiens. July 18 1869. M y Dear Charles, W e are passing a very hot Sunday at this quiet little town and my thoughts revert instinctively to you and Ruskin, and the October day, when we paced up and down the railway station together. Straightway I seize this sheet from Annie's portfolio^ to let you know where we are, and to thank you for your most welcome letter from Vevey.^ At Verona we passed one delightful day with Ruskin.'^ I shall never forget a glimpse I had of him mounted on a ladder, copying some details of the tomb of Can Grande. He was very pleasant, in every way, but, I thought, very sad; suffering too keenly from what is inevitable and beyond remedy, and making to himself "A second nature, to exist in pain As in his own allotted element."^ 287

EUROPE W e are now homeward bound, and all sails set. Tomorrow we go to London; then to Scotland, then to America in the China, Aug. 21. I am so glad that you have found a cool and pleasant place for the Summer, after your last year's illness. That, I trust, has left no trace of itself. With much love to all of you from all of us, always affectionately Yours H.W.L. MANUSCBIPT: Harvard College Library, ADDRESS: Charles E. Norton Esq. / Care of Baring Bros. / Bishopsgate St. / London, POSTMARKS: LONDON-W HI J Y 21 6 9 / LONDON-EC J Y 2 1

69

1. The sheet bears the monogram of Anne Allegra Longfellow. 2. Dated June 17, 1869. 3. The day was June 3, 1869. See Joan Evans and John Howard Whitehouse, eds., The Diaries of John Ruskin (Oxford, 1958), II, 669. 4. Ruskin's melancholy was caused by the failure of his morbid love affair with Rose La Touche ( 1 8 4 8 - 1 8 7 5 ) , whom he had first met in 1858.

2723.

To Xavier Marmier

Langham Hotel, London July 22 1869 Dear Mr. Marmier Accept in memory of our hours of pleasant intercourse the translation of the Divina Commedia made by your friend, the undersigned. The three volumes will be left at your door in the course of a day or two. Meanwhile once more the sad word "Farewell." With cordial greetings from all our party, in haste Affectionately yours fienry W. Longfellow. P.S. Please put the following leaf into Vol I To Xavier Marmier with kindest regards Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

2724.

To Peleg Whitman

Chandler^

Edinburgh Aug 8 1869. My Dear Mr Chandler, In reply to your letter I beg you to put me down on the subscription for Mr. Packard for any reasonable sum you may think fit; not higher than the others, but as high as anyone. 288

CAMBRIDGE,

1869

I am much obliged to you for writing to me; as I should not like to be left out of such a subscription. I remain, in great haste, and with great regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow P.S. I send you no order for the amount of the subscription, as I expect to be at home early in September; and will hand it to you on my arrival. MANUSCRIPT:

Bowdoin College Library.

I. In an unrecovered letter Chandler ( 1 8 1 6 - 1 8 8 9 ) , Bowdoin graduate of 1834 and prominent Boston lawyer, had asked Longfellow for a contribution to a testimonial for Professor Alpheus Spring Packard (66.3) in honor of the fiftieth year of his service to Bowdoin College.

2725.

To William Blake Atkinson

Liverpool Aug. 19 1869. My Dear Sir, I have had the pleasure of receiving both your letters,^ the first after long delay, as I was constandy changing place, and my letters waiting for me here. Many thanks for the honor you propose doing me in dedicating to me your new volume." I accept the Dedication as a mark of your good will, not of my merits; and wishing you all success and prosperity, I remain, my Dear Sir, with great regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow P.S. I write in great haste, as we sail on Saturday [August 21], and there are many things to do. Gene G. Freeman, Santa Ana, Cal. Esqre / Stone Hall / Wallingford P O S T M A R K S :

MANUSCRIPT:

W A L L I N G F O R D В AU 2 0

ADDRESS: G

30

W.

LIVERPOOL

Blake Atkinson A U 19 69 /

69

1. Unrecovered. 2. See Songs of the Heart: Poems on Various Subjects (London, 1 8 7 1 ) .

2726.

To George Washington

Greene

Craigie House. Sept i 1869. My Dear Greene, Here I am once more at my desk under the evening lamp, but there is not a drop of ink in my ink-stand, and no bottle can be found. Still I must write you one word to say that we are all safe at home again. How strange and how familiar it all seems! and how thankful I am, to 289

EUROPE have brought my little flock back to the fold. The young voices and little feet are musical over-head, and the Year of Travel floats away and dissolves like a Fata Morgana! Do come as soon as you can; before I grow vapid by being too long uncorked. I have seen no one, and want to see you among the first. Jump into the first train, and speed hitherward. Moreover I have brought across the sea a famous game-pie, to make merry with you and Sumner, and it will not keep. Write and say when you will come; or still better, come without writing. W e reached home to-day at sunset; and found Cambridge in all its beauty; not a leaf faded. I hope and trust that you and yours are all well. Give much love to all your household and to the noble and dear Governor. How glad I am to be at home! The quiet and rest are welcome after the surly sea; but there is a tinge of sadness in it also. Good night and God bless you. Ever Yours, and more than ever, H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

2727.

Longfellow Trust Collection.

To Edwin Percy

Whipple

Cambridge Sept 7 1869 My Dear Whipple, Many thanks for your book.^ Among my many welcomes home, this is one of the pleasantest. It is almost as good as seeing and hearing you, which I hope I shall soon have the satisfaction of doing. In Florence I had the pleasure of seeing Ball's statue of Governor Andrew.^ It is very successful, and Hfe-like, and I think it will please and satisfy all who are most interested, and that is saying a good deal. I am glad to hear that you also are engaged upon a statue of the noble Governor, though in a different style of material.^ May all success attend your labors. This is the hearty wish and firm belief of Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. P.S. Greene is with me, and sends his best regards. unrecovered; text from facsimile in Lilian Whiting, Boston Days (Boston, 1 9 0 5 ) , facing p. 202.

MANUSCRIPT:

1. The Literature of the Age of Elizabeth (Boston, 1869). 2. Thomas Ball ( 1 8 1 9 - 1 9 1 1 ) , sculptor, is best known for his equestrian statue of Washington in the Boston Public Garden. His statue of John Albion Andrew is in the Doric Hall of the State House, Boston. 3. See the chapter on Governor Andrew in Whipple's Success and Its Conditions (Boston, 1 8 7 1 ) .

290

CAMBRIDGE, 2728.

To Edith and Anne Allegra

1869

Longfellow

[Cambridge] Sunday Sept 12 1869 My Darlings, I have just reed, a note^ from Mr. Greene saying; "Thursday or Friday, I shall bring Anna." So you need not hurry Aunt Mary, about returning, as you will no doubt be back in season.'' I am so sorry you did not take Wad his stupendous knife; and the Velocipede to Dick. But they are both safe. Thank Uncle Alex, for the "red box," which came unharmed. I have something to send him in return, as soon as I find time to open the boxes, from Naples. I hope you are enjoying yourselves very much. It is rather lonely here without you, but perhaps we can survive it for a week. You will be glad to know that Alice's trunk has come at last, so that all your labors with Mme. Barre^ are not entirely in vain. Mr. Sumner was here at dinner to-day, and after dinner Dr. Garth Wilkinson^ called. He left special regards for you both. With much love to all, always most affectionately Papa. MANUSCRIPT:

Massachusetts Historical Society.

1. Dated September 12. 2. Edith and Anne Allegra had left on September 1 1 with their aunt Mary Longfellow Greenleaf for a visit to Portland. They returned to Cambridge on September 1 7 ( M S Journal). 3. Unidentified. 4. James John Garth Wilkinson ( 1 8 1 2 - 1 8 9 9 ) , English homeopathic physician and Swedenborgian leader.

2729.

To William

Greene

Cambridge Sept 13 1869. My Dear Sir, I am very glad to hear that we are to have the pleasure of your company tomorrow at the Humboldt Celebration; and Agassiz begs you to accept the enclosed ticket, which secures you a place on the platform.' Please meet the Committee of Arrangements in the Anteroom of the Music 1 lall at 3 o'clock. I look forward with great pleasure to seeing you again, and on so marked an occasion as the centennial Anni\'ersary of the birth-day of Humboldt! I enclose also a ticket for the evening reception at Horticultural Hall, in case you should like to attend it. 29

I

EUROPE Hoping that this will reach you safely and in season, I remain, my Dear Sir, with great regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Helen Roelker Kessler, Cambridge, Mass. I. O n September 1 4 Louis Agassiz delivered an address in the Boston Music Hall before the Natural History Society in honor of the centennial anniversary of the birth of Alexander von Humboldt. Greene had written on September 10 requesting that Longfellow obtain a ticket for W i l l i a m Greene.

2730.

To George Washington

Greene

Cambridge Sept 14.' 1869. My Dear Greene, Where was the Governor to-day? I looked for him in vain; though the ticket was sent as you requested.^ It was a Complimentary ticket, signed by Agassiz himself; but I could not find the Governor among the invited guests, in the anteroom, nor did I catch sight of him in the hall. I fear the letter miscarried, or was overlooked by the house of Fields & Osgood, though I marked it in clear characters "important." Here is a beautiful figure from Agassiz, speaking of the influence of Humboldt on the present generation. "Often the world knows nothing of the sources of its power; as the fountain of a river may be hidden by the very fertility it produces"; or words to that effect.^ Agassiz seemed rather depressed and his voice was feeble. To me it was sad; and when he ended the German musicians increased the sadness by singing those touching lines of Göthe, "Warte nur, balde Ruhest du auch."* W e look for you at tea on Thursday or Friday; on one of which days the girls are coming back from Pordand. Ever thine H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Longfellow inadvertently wrote "Sept 13." 2. In a letter of October 4, W i l l i a m Greene wrote that he had been unable to attend the Humboldt celebration because of ill health. 3. See Louis Agassiz, Address Delivered on the Centennial Anniversary of the Birth of Alexander von Humboldt (Boston, 1869), pp. 5 - 6 : "The fertilizing power of a great mind is truly wonderful; but as w e travel farther from the source, it is hidden from us by the very abundance and productiveness it has caused." 4. "Wandrers Nachtlied," 11. 7 - 8 .

292

CAMBRIDGE, 2731.

1869

To George William Curtis

Cambridge Sept 19 1869. My Dear Curtis, I thank you most heartily for your pleasant words of welcome horned As we steamed up the beautiful harbor and passed your green island,^ I tried to catch a glimpse of your roof and chimneys, but saw only those of a neighbor of yours, who stood at my side on deck and pointed them out to me in triumph. I warmed towards him, when he said he knew you; and sent you a message by him as he departed in the tug of the Port physician. And so, here we are again safe and sound in the Craigie which had begun to grow vapory and hazy in the splendors of great towns across the sea. It is pleasant to get back to it, and yet sad; and I do not know whether to laugh or cry. The girls are all perfectly well, and send their love to you. They enjoyed every hour abroad, and yet seem glad to return. With my kindest regards to your wife Ever affectionately H.W.L P.S. Tom came back with us; but is rather restless, I think. P.S. When you come in November, I pray you stay with me. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. 1. In a letter from Ashfield, Mass., of September 3. 2. Stateri Island.

2732.

To Ralph Waldo Emerson

Cambridge Sept 26 1869. My Dear Emerson, I send you herewith a letter and a pamphlet, which I received from the hands of Captain Brown — ("Captain or Colonel or Knight in arms,")^ — promising to deliver the same to you, safely and in good order, which accordingly I now do. The Captain is an ardent admirer of your writings, and longs for a little sympathy and recognition. I hope you will find time to write him a few lines. Trusting that I shall have the pleasure of meeting you at the Club, if not before, Always Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow P.S. In case Captain Brown has forgotten to give you his address, which is not likely, but possible, it is Lyme Regis, Dorset, England. 293

EUROPE MANUSCRIPT:

Ralph W a l d o Emerson Memorial Association.

I . Brown was possibly Capt. W i l l i a m Samuel Brown ( 1 8 3 1 - 1 8 9 1 ) , Royal Navy. Emerson called him Admiral Brown (Life, III, 1 3 8 ) , and that there was some confusion about his title is reflected in Longfellow's quotation from Milton, " W h e n the Assault was Intended to the City," 1. i . Brown later changed his name to Grieve and became a rear-admiral in 1884.

2733.

To Samuel Turner Dana^

Cambridge Oct 7 1869. My Dear Sir, It will give me great pleasure to dine with you on Saturday, if I can remove an obstacle that stands in the way. Lieut. Gov. Greene of Rhode Island has promised to dine with me one day this week. If he comes tomorrow, it will be all right; but if he comes on Saturday, I must forego the pleasure of being with you. As soon as I hear from him I will write to you again.^ Meanwhile I remain, with great regard. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT;

Clifton W a l l e r Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

1. Dana ( 1 8 1 0 - 1 8 7 7 ) , Boston merchant, had invited Longfellow in a letter of October 6 to join him at dinner on October 9 with Sumner and Samuel Hooper. 2. In a letter of October 8 (unrecovered) Longfellow had to decline Dana's invitation. T h e M S Journal reveals that he dined at home with W i l l i a m Greene on October 9.

2734.

To William

Greene

Cambridge Oct 8 1869. My Dear Sir, I shall be most happy to see you on Saturday, though I am sorry to say we cannot have Sumner. In his place I will try to get Agassiz, whom I have been to see to-day, but did not find him in, and am therefore not quite sure. Looking forward to the pleasure of seeing you again after so long an interval, I remain with great regard, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Helen Roelker Kessler, Cambridge, Mass.

294

CAMBRIDGE, 2735.

To George Washington

1869

Greene

Cambridge Oct 9 1869. My Dear Greene, This is a lovely day; a golden day; a crystalline day. The atmosphere is like wine; the trees like Bohemian glasses. This by way of Prelude to the dinner. It is now noon, and I am looking forward with much pleasure to hear the tread of the Governor's feet on the gravel. Agassiz is coming to meet him; so is his old friend Anthony.^ "Come, Anthony, and young Octavius, come."^ I only wish that you also were coming. Who knows? Perhaps you may now be on the road. The girls are going to the Theatre this afternoon; so we shall be a party of four only; — and if the dinner does not turn out a pleasant one to the Governor, you may be sure it will not be the fault of that gentleman, who has so vast a correspondence, and signs himself "Yours truly." MANUSCRIPT: L o n g f e l l o w Trust Collection. 1 . John Gould Anthony ( 1 8 0 4 - 1 8 7 7 ) , naturalist and associate of Agassiz, was in charge of the conchological department of the M u s e u m of Comparative Zoology at Harvard from 1 8 6 3 until his death. 2. Julius Caesar, I V , iii, 93.

2736.

To Robert Ferguson

[Cambridge] October 15, 1869. It is high time that I gave you tidings of Craigie House and its inhabitants. I should have done so sooner but for all kinds of interruptions and occupations. Apenas llego, cuando llego a penas [Hardly do I come back when I come back to hardships], says some forlorn punster in some Spanish play; and it is pretty true of every one who has been away from home for a year and a day, as we have. Alas for the Lagrima [Cristi]! When Scala' botded it, he cast an Evil Eye upon it, because I did not buy it of him. Owing to this and to bad corks, it came to grief and is as sour as the Saturday Review.^ I have also three paintings soaked in bilge-water; but, to make amends, my books have thus far come safe and dry. The beautiful and valuable ones which you gave me adorn my study table, and are a constant reminder of you and all your kindness. My girls are well and happy. I think they miss now and then the excitement of travel; and who does not? Even the undersigned pleads guilty to an occasional sigh for the far away. 295

EUROPE MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered;

text

from

Life, III, 1 3 8 - 1 3 9 .

1. A wine dealer of Naples. 2. Despite his popularity in England, Longfellow was usually the victim of condescending reviews in the London Saturday Review. See Merle Mowbray Bevington, The Saturday Review, 1 8 5 5 - 1 8 6 8 : Representative Educated Opinion in Victorian England (New York, 1 9 4 1 ) , pp. 2 7 0 - 2 7 1 .

2737.

To Alexander Wadsworth

Longfellow

Cambridge Oct 16. 1869. My Dear Alex. I should have written to you sooner but for an infinity of little matters that have been ever present and a perpetual hindrance to any thing like letterwriting. But I have heard of you often; and am most glad to hear that Wadd\· is getting through his fever so well. But do take care, particularly just now. A relapse is often worse than the original malady. Thanks for the mysterious Red Box.^ How such an "Infernal Machine" escaped the vigilance of the Police, I know not. But it is safe enough now, though as yet unopened. As soon as I get time to attend to it, I shall send you some Italian wines, which have arrived in excellent condition. I hope Lizzie is well, though I fear she is well nigh worn out with anxiety and watching. My little girls enjoyed their visit to Highfield extremely; and yours seem to be very happy here. I was sorry that I could not come to see you also; but it was impossible. Tell Waddy not to try to get well too fast. Almost every boy has to have a fever; and it is pretty hard work; particularly about dinner time, when you are getting well. With love to all. Ever Yours H.W.L MANUSCMPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. The contents of which remain a mystery. See Letter No. 2728.

2738.

To Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow,

]r.

Cambridge Oct 18 My Dear Waddy, I am very sorry to hear that you have had a fever; but I am very glad to hear that you are getting over it so well. Only remember that it takes a long time to get quite yourself again; and do not be impatient. To help you cut yourself out, I send you a great knife, which I bought expressly for you in the old Cathedral-town of Salisbury, in England, think296

CAMBRIDGE,

1869

ing it might be something of a curiosity to you, but little thinking it would find you on your back. T h e large blade opens easily; but you can shut it only by pressing the spring at the back. That is the only mystery about the knife that I have discovered. Perhaps you may find out something else; for instance some secret drawer in the handle, containing the last Will of one of your ancestors, leaving you sole heir to his vast estates in England! You will be glad to know that Charley is safe and well. His last letter was from the Vale of Cashmire.^ He is enjoying his travels very much. With much love from all, Your affectionate Uncle H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Dated August 16, 1869.

2739.

T o John

Neal

Cambridge Oct 26 1869. M y Dear Neal, I have just had the pleasure of receiving the copy of your "Wandering Recollections,"^ which you are kind enough to send me, and hasten to thank you for your friendly remembrance of me. Not however without having read the volume. That I had done before. It was the first, if not the only book I have read since my return home. When I tell you that I read it through at a sitting, and that it kept me from my bed till long after midnight, I need not say that I read it with great eagerness and interest. It seems to me that you held up your hand and — affirmed, that you would tell "La vérité, toute la vérité, rien que la vérité [the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth]." M y only regret is that you did not follow the usual chronological way; notwithstanding the reasons you give for taking another course.^ I like the book, because it is like you; frank and fearless, and full of vigor. With best regards to your wife and family. Always truly Yours Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. 1. Wandering Recollections of a Somewhat Busy Life: An Autobiography (Boston, 1869). 2. Neal had written: "Shall I proceed as hitherto, beginning with my earliest recollections, and going on, from year to year, crossing my own path continually, at the risk of many repetitions, only that I may keep together my doings within a certain field? Or shall I take up, one after another, such developments of character as we all undergo in our progress through the world, from youth to old age, beginning with the earliest I re-

297

EUROPE member, and following them out, year after year, to the present day. Much may be said on both sides, according to Oliver Goldsmith; but, on the whole, I think the latter not only the wiser, but the pleasanter course" (pp. 9 - 1 0 ) .

2740.

To Peleg Whitman

Chandler

Cambridge Oct 28 1869. My Dear Mr. Chandler, Will you be so kind as to let me know how much you paid for me on the Packard memorial fund, that I may repay you, without further delay?^ I ought to have attended to this sooner, but owing to many interruptions and many occupations, I have never thought of it at the right moment. Begging you to remember me most kindly to Mrs. Chandler,^ I remain Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Bowdoin College Library.

1. Chandler answered on October 29: "In reply to your note of yesterday I beg to say, that, as your letter to me from Scotland [No. 2724] was not received until after the presentation had actually been made to Prof Packard, I thought it proper to do nothing more than to read your letter to him, and to wait until your return . . . Something like eleven hundred dollars were received, and it is hardly possible to describe the feelings of the good professor at this manifestation of gratitude on the part of his old pupils . . . Whatever you may desire to add can be sent to me or directly to the professor, as you may think best." 2. Chandler had married Martha Ann Cleaveland ( 1 6 3 . 2 ) in 1837.

2741.

To George Washington

Greene

Cambridge Oct 30 1869. My Dear Greene, I should have written to you sooner, if I had had any good news to send you; but alas! I have none. Osgood decides against us, as you will see by his letter enclosed.^ I have been waiting to see Fields, before writing. I have seen him only once, but did not fail to introduce the subject. I am afraid he will take Osgood's view; but mean to have one more talk with him before giving the matter up. I have also seen Putnam, who was here a few days ago. f i e seemed most friendly, but pleaded want of capital to go on with the work. He says it is too true, that the new revolution overshadows the old; and told me of the failure of a certain work, which will greatly surprize you; — a failure so complete, that of the whole edition put into the hands of colporteurs, not twenty copies could be sold. This is not good news, and I do not like to write it. These figures are terrible things. 298

CAMBRIDGE,

1869

I am sorry you have had so much illness in your household; but trust you are now all right again. In a day or two we hope to have Erny and his wife with us. They are due in New York on Tuesday.^ Ever Yours H.W.L. P.S. Please return Osgood's letter. What shall I say to poor Miss Wheaton?·^ MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. In his letter of October 1 1 , James R. Osgood declined the opportunity to publish the second volume of the biography of Gen. Greene; " I learned that the number printed of Volume I was 990 copies. Of these, 300 copies were sold and 40 given away. T h e Expenditure was $1509.60. T h e receipts for 300 [were] 540.00. Leaving a deficit of $969.60 . . . T h e Rhode Island Legislature took 60 copies . . . On the whole I cannot see that the prospects of a second volume are any better than the sale of the first. / I should be much gratified if we could meet your wishes in the matter, but as a business operation we fear the balance on the side of probable loss is too great to warrant our entering upon the undertaking." 2. "Ernest and Hattie reached home at half past ten at night, both well and happy. They stay with us through the Winter" ( M S Journal, November 3, 1869). 3. Martha Wheaton, aged forty-nine, was the sister-in-law of Charles Coffin Little ( 1 7 3 3 . 1 6 ) . When Little died on August 9, 1869, he left only a fraction of his estate in trust to his wife and nothing to Martha Wheaton, who had apparently made her home with him. T h e bulk of his property went to his children by his first marriage (Probate Records, Middlesex County Courthouse, Cambridge).

2742.

To Peleg Whitman

Chandler

Cambridge Nov 2 1869. Dear Mr Chandler, I enclose you a cheque for $50. being my subscription to the Packard Memorial Fund. I am sorry to trouble you with it, but think it had better go through your hands, than directly from me. With great regard Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow P.S. The cheque is payable at any of the Boston Banks. MANUSCRIPT:

Bowdoin College Library.

299

EUROPE 2743.

To Horace Elisha Scudder^

Cambridge Nov 4 1869 My Dear Sir, I am very much obliged to you for the copy of the "Improvisatore," and also for your own volume, which you were kind enough to send me. I have been so very busy and so much interrupted, that I have not yet found time to read the "Stories," as I wished to do before thanking you, so I must thank you before reading them, or you will think me neglectful of your kindness. When the time comes you may be sure of a "friendly reader" at least, and one who will rejoice in your literary success. I remain, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow P.S. When you write to Mr. Anderson, I beg you to make my best acknowledgments for his kind remembrance of me, and say to him, that I shall write to thank him as soon as I get a moment of leisure. MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

I. Scudder ( 1 8 3 8 - 1 9 0 2 ) , author and editor for Hurd & Houghton (subsequently Houghton Mifflin & Co.), edited the Atlantic Monthly, 1 8 9 0 - 1 8 9 8 , and wrote the biographical introduction for the standard Cambridge edition of Longfellow's poems. He had sent Longfellow Mary Howitt's translation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Improvisatore ( N e w York, 1 8 6 9 ) and his own Stories from My Attic ( N e w York, 1869).

2744.

To Alpheus Spring Packard

Cambridge Nov 8 1869. My Dear Mr Packard, I shall send tomorrow to the Library of Bowdoin College, a case of books, and not knowing who is now Librarian, I take the liberty of asking you to present them in my name. In the same case is a volume for you which I beg you accept in memory of past days. The volumes for the Library are a collection of early Italian Poets, Dante, Petrarca, Ariosto, Tasso &c. the beautiful Pisa edition, in folio, and in Roman binding. I think you will be pleased with them; perhaps the more so that I bought them in Florence and took them to Rome to have them bound expressly for the College.^ With regards and good wishes Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow. 300

CAMBRIDGE,

1869

P.S. All expenses on the case will be paid here; and I shall send it by Express. You will therefore [have] no trouble but to look after its arrival, tomorrow or next day. MANUSCRIPT:

Bowdoin College Library.

I. These volumes, all bound alike in quarter leather, are in the Special Collections division of the Bowdoin College Library. Four works bear the imprint "Dalla tipografia della Società letteraria": Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia (Pisa, 1 8 0 4 - 1 8 0 9 ) , 4 vols.; Francesco Petrarca, Rime (Pisa, 1805), 2 vols.; Lodovico Ariosto, L'Orlando Furioso (Pisa, 1809), j vols.; Torquato Tasso, La Gerusalemme Liberata (Pisa, 1807), 2 vols. T w o works, published by the Presso Molini, are bound together: Tasso, Aminta Favola Boschereccia (Firenze, 1804), and Angelo Poliziano, Le Stanze di Angelo Poliziano (Firenze, 1805). See Letter No. 2700.

2745.

To Thomas

Russell Cambridge

Nov 17

1869.

M y Dear Sir, If you have not sent the papers to Washington, please do not send them.^ I think w e can get at the same result without a Protest, by simply asking M r . Boutwell's opinion on the subject in general.^ T h i s is Sumner's advice, and I assent to it. I remain, my Dear Sir Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Arizona State University Library.

1. Russell had informed Longfellow on November 6 that the books he had imported from Europe were not considered by the customs appraisers as "coming within the theory that such books are 'tools of the trade' "; that he could protest their decision to Washington, D.C.; but that there was little chance of a remission of duties. 2. Boutwell ( 1 2 2 7 . 2 ) served as Secretary of the Treasury, 1 8 6 9 - 1 8 7 3 .

2746.

T o Jean Louis Rodolphe

Agassiz Camb. N 0 V 1 8

1869.

M y Dear Agassiz I shall be delighted. I will order the carriage and call for you at a quarter past four. Impress it well on your mind; 4.15.^ Yours truly and always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

I. Neither the M S Journal nor the letters of Agassiz to Longfellow throw light on the subject of this note. 30

I

EUROPE 2747.

To Thomas Russell

Cambridge Nov 18 1869 My Dear Sir, The date of my arrival is September i. of this year. As the papers are already in the hands of the Department, we will not recall them, but wait the result. ' Meanwhile, I remain with great regard, Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow Hon Thos. Russell. MANUSCRIPT: Arizona State University Library. I. Russell's letter of December 4, 1869, makes it clear that Longfellow's protest failed and that he did not succeed in obtaining a refund of the duties levied on his imported books.

2748.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Nov. 24 1869. My Dear Fields, In the name of the Prophet — Tea! When shall we go together to China or India (wharf) in pursuit of the fragrant herb? and where was it we made our last purchase thereof? I shall be in town on Saturday [November 27]. Will that day suit you? I see by the morning paper that "Georgia has a patent churn, which allows the lady who operates it, to nurse her baby, read Godey, and bring the butter in eight minutes."! I wish any lady in this part of the country would bring me butter in eight minutes, or even in ten. I would allow her to read not only her Godey, but Rees' Cyclopedia and the bank numbers of the North American Review. For the last ten days I have been shut out of my Study by painters (Not Ernest) and carpenters, and plasterers and upholsterers, who form a Gold Ring worse than Wall Street.^ Like Don Quixotte I go groping about to find the door, which has been walled up.^ Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. 1. Boston Advertiser, C X I V , No. 124 (November 24, 1869). 2. An allusion to the attempt by Jay Gould ( 1 8 3 6 - 1 8 9 2 ) and James Fisk ( 1 8 3 4 1 8 7 2 ) to corner the gold market, resulting in the panic of Black Friday, September 24, 1869. 3. Don Quixote, Part I, Chap. VII.

302

CAMBRIDGE, 2749.

1869

To Thomas Bailey Aldrtch

Cambridge Nov 30 1869. My Dear Mr. Aldrich, I hasten to thank you for your "Story of a Bad Boy,"' which I received yesterday, and have read with very great pleasure. Having been cut off for a year and more from my usual allowance of "Young F o l k s , l i k e an Ogre forced to live awhile on grown up people, I have devoured this tender book with all the greater relish. I heartily congratulate you on your success, and with best wishes for you and yours, remain Very truly your debtor Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

1. Published by Fields, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1870. 2. That is, the journal Our Young Folks. See 2184.1

2750.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Nov. 30 1869. My Dear Fields, Have the goodness to look over this poem for the sake of the lady who wrote it. Like it if possible, and keep it. If impossible, send it back to me by Sawin, and I will do the best I can to console her. Hoping that you have accepted Miss Bates's lines' I remain Yours truly (otherwise quite the reverse) H.W.L P.S. I enclose a note for Aldrich. What a clever Story he has written. MANuscBiPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library,

& Co. / Boston

POSTMARK:

ADDRESS:

C A M B R I D G E M A S S NOV

James T . Fields / J . R . Osgood 30

I. "Risk" by Charlotte Fiske Bates ( 2 4 0 4 . 1 ) appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, X X V (February 1 8 7 0 ) , 198. Of the poem mentioned in the first paragraph, Fields wrote on December i : "I am very sorry I cannot use [it] in any way, and so return."

2751.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Nov 30 1869. My Dear Greene, A few days ago I had a letter from Mrs Howard, enclosing what I here enclose, at her request. She says she has "developed into that terrible creature, a newspaper correspondent," for which I am heartily sorry. She adds however; "I have not yet reached the unscrupulous stage, and am very careful not 303

EUROPE to take liberties with the names and homes of celebrities"; for w h i c h I am heartily glad.' I am sorry to hear that the illness in your family still continues. Is your mother with you, or at Greensdale? I hope that you at least have recovered from your influenza, so as to be in good condition for your lectures. I wish you could come to Cambridge for a f e w days before going to Baltimore. Ernest and his wife have, to be sure, taken possession of your room; but then you can have his or Charlie's, which perhaps you would be willing to put up with. Y o u are not the only person w h o has been turned out of his room in this house lately. For the last fortnight my study has been in the hands of painters, carpenters and paper-hangers. But at last the agony is over; and I am reinstalled. Ever Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT; L o n g f e l l o w T r u s t C o l l e c t i o n . 1. M r s . H o w a r d ' s letter w a s dated N o v e m b e r 22. I n it she h a d enclosed one of her n e w s p a p e r articles C u n r e c o v e r e d ) .

2752.

To Apphia Horner

Howard Cambridge

N o v 30 1869.

Dear Mrs Howard, T h e three friends mentioned in the lines " T o the River Charles," and whose names you desire to know, are Charles Sumner, Charles Folsom and Charles Amory. T h e arrangement of the rooms in the Craigie House is as you suppose, with this exception, that w h a t is now my Study was the D i n i n g Room in W a s h ington's day. I sincerely hope you will write the proposed East Greenwich letter. It would be of very great advantage, I think, to our friend Greene. M a n y thanks for your letter and kind remembrance. W h e n you next come to Boston I should be much gratified if you could find half an hour to give to Cambridge. I should be very happy to see you, and you would get a clearer idea of Washington's Head Quarters than I can give you in a letter. I remain, with great regard Yours truly H e n r y W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: H a v e r h i l l P u b l i c L i b r a r y , t o w n / Mass.

ADDRESS: M r s . A . W . H . H o w a r d / George-

POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS NOV 30

304

CAMBRIDGE, 2753.

1869

T o Isaac Markens^

Cambridge Dec 4 1869. Dear Sir, Mr. Buchanan Read's address in Rome is Via Babuino, corner of the Piazza di Spagna. T h e No. I have forgotten. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow T r u s t Collection. I . Markens ( 1 8 4 6 - 1 9 2 8 ) , a N e w York businessman, later pursued careers as a journalist and cotton broker and became the author of several works on Abraham Lincoln.

2754.

To Richard King

Longfellow

Cambridge Dec 9 1869. M y Dear Dick, I thank you very much for your letter.^ It is such a good letter. And the eagle's feather is beautiful; but I do not write my answer with it. I do not mean to cut it up for a pen, but to keep it just as it is, to remember you by. Nor shall I wear it in my hat. If I did, all the boys would run after me in the street, and think I was crazy. I hope you have good skating at Highfield. W e have not a bit here. It is all covered up with snow. I saw your Mama yesterday, and she showed me your photograph, which I liked very much. W h e n you get any more, you must send me one. Edith and Annie are very well. T h e y go to school every day, except Saturday; and are very fond of you. Next Summer you must ask your Papa to bring you to see us. It is rather too cold now; but we hope soon to see Mamy and Waddy. Everybody sends love to everybody. Your affectionate uncle Henry. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow

fellow/Care

Trust

of Alexr. W .

Collection,

ADDRESS:

Longfellow / Portland

Master Me.

Richard

POSTMARK:

K.

Long-

CAMBRIDGE

MASS DEC 1 0 I.

2755.

Unrecovered.

T o Robert

Bigsby

Cambridge Dec 10 1869 M y Dear Dr Bigsby, I had this morning the pleasure of receiving your letter, and hasten to thank you for your kind remembrance. It was one of my great disappointments and regrets that I should have missed seeing both you and Dr. Bosworth. How it 305

EUROPE happened that I missed you in London, I do not know. Whether it was that I mislaid your address or never had it, I no longer remember. You know what a vortex London is in the season, and the boundless hospitality I met with; and will not wonder if I missed many people whom I wished to see. I hoped too on my return from the continent to make a longer and quieter visit. But that proved an illusion, and I only passed through on my way to Scodand. And so, after all, I have come back without seeing you, and must postpone that pleasure till I go to England again, or till you come here. I enclose a photograph for Mr. Keene,^ and beg a thousand pardons for having delayed so long. Please forward it to him with many thanks for those he sent me from Derby, which I keep safe and precious. Many thanks for all the kind words of your letter. It is pleasant to be so remembered, after so many years of silence and sorrow. I am sorry you are not quite so well as usual. I trust it is only a passing cloud. I write this in great haste, and remain always, as of old. Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection,

ADDRESS: Robert Bigsby Esqre / No

i.

E l m Villas, E l m G r o v e / P e c k h a m , L o n d o n / S . E . POSTMARKS: CAMBRIDGE MASS DEC 1 3 / LONDON S||E!| AM DE 2 7 69 / [one postmark indecipherable]

I. Richard Keene (d. 1894, aged sixty-nine), bookbinder and printer of Derby, had met Longfellow during his visit to Rowsley in June 1868 (Letter of Robert Bigsby, November 14, 1869).

2756.

To Robert Carter

Camb. Dec 13 1869 My Dear Mr Carter, I think your sketch of the Craigie House very good.' So are the two views, without and within. I wish I could say as much for the portrait. What a fatality there is about such things. If Mr. Appleton^ had applied to me, I could have furnished his engraver with a much better photograph. I am much obliged to you for contradicting the story about my little girl's arms.··' Lowell said he heard a lady telling this tale to some others, and took the liberty of setting her right. Whereupon she replied; "I beg your pardon; I have it from the best authority." My study was Washington's dining room. The three Charleses are Sumner, Folsom, and Amory. My son was first a private in the Artillery; then lieutenant of Cavalry. These are the only things I find to be corrected in the text. With many thanks, I remain. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. 306

CAMBRIDGE,

1869

MANUSCRIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library. 1. " T h e Home of Longfellow," Appleton's Journal, II (December 25, 1869), 5 7 7 581. 2. W i l l i a m Henry Appleton ( 1 8 1 4 - 1 8 9 9 ) , senior partner in the firm of Daniel Appleton & Company, publishers of Appleton's Journal. 3. " T h e three daughters of Mr. Longfellow, while yet in their childhood, were some years ago photographed in a group w h i c h has been published, and extensively circulated through the print-shops. Something in the arrangement of the figures in this group has given rise to a strange and absurd notion that one of the sisters is destitute of arms — a notion totally without foundation, and which w e allude to only because w e have found it widely diffused among all classes of people in all parts of the country" (p. 5 8 1 ) .

2757.

T o Charles

Sumner

C a m b . D e c i 7 1869. M y Dear Sumner, I am greatly pleased, as everyone is, with your remarks on Fessenden.' T h e y are good and noble, as I expected from you. A t the Receipt of Customs to-day, where I was paying duties on some Burgundy, destined to enliven you and other friends hereafter, an Inspector said with a good deal of warmth; " W h a t a glorious speech that was of Senator Sumner on Fessenden. I should remember and honor him for that, if for nothing else." A n d such seems to be the general impression. It was a good occasion for you to be both just and generous. T h e winter wears on, and I do not settle down to any profitable work. I wonder if I ever shall. Y o u meanwhile are in full activity; the best condition of man. T h i s is your compensation for all the bitterness in your goblet of life. I suppose Greene is now in Baltimore,^ or perhaps with you. If he is, comfort him and encourage him about his book. H e meets with obstacles at every step, and is often discouraged, and no wonder. Read Lowell's Poem in the January Atlantic, called " T h e Cathedral."·' It is very beautiful, and will make a great mark. W e are all well; and the girls are enjoying themselves. Good bye. Ever affect [ionatel] y H.W.L MANUSCBIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. gave XIII, 2. 3.

Senator W i l l i a m Pitt Fessenden had died on September 8, 1869, and Sumner a brief memorial address in the Senate on December 14. See Sumner Works, 189-194. O n a lecture tour. Atlantic Monthly, X X V (January 1870), 1 - 1 5 .

307

EUROPE 2758.

To Karl Knortz^

Cambridge Dec 18 1869. My Dear Sir, It is only to-day that I have recovered your lost letter,^ and I hasten to thank you, and to apologize for my long delay in answering you. The letter was mislaid in clearing out my Study for repairs. I am greatly indebted to you for undertaking this new translation of "Hiawatha," and only fear that the Germans will have too much of it, having already Freiligrath's and Böttiger's versions. Of this I must leave you to judge. For my own part, I can only be thankful, that the poem still retains sufficient hold on the public to authorize such an undertaking. Thanking you very sincerely for this mark of your consideration, and wishing you all success, I remain, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow P.S. As far as I can judge from the specimen you were kind enough to send me, your translation is true and good. I only doubt about the change of orthography in the proper names.® MANUSCRIPT: Boston Public Library. 1. Knortz ( 1 8 4 1 - 1 9 1 8 ) had emigrated From Germany in 1863 and was at this time employed as a teacher in Oshkosh, Wis. As author and translator in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and N e w York, he subsequently did much to publicize American literature in his native country. 2. In a letter of September i6, 1869, Knortz had sent Longfellow a selection from his translation of Hiawatha, which, he wrote, "is at present in print in Germany." See Der Sang von Hiawatha, übersetzt, eingeleitet und erklärt von Karl Knortz (Jena, 1872). 3. In his letter Knortz had written: " T h e Indian words are written according to the continental pronunciation and several have been substituted by others."

2759.

To Isabella Batchelder James

Craigie House. Dec 22 1869. My Dear Mrs. James I am much obligated for your kind invitation,^ and regret that it will not be possible to accept it, as we have an engagement at home. With many good wishes for Xmas, and many thanks for your remembrance, Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Library Company of Philadelphia. I. "As an old friend and neighbor," Mrs. James had invited Longfellow and his children, in a note dated December 2 1 , to join her family reunion on Christmas Eve.

308

CAMBRIDGE, 2760.

1869

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Dec 24 1869 A Merry Xmas to the house of Fields! I mean the house in Charles St. to which I have just sent a case of Capri, white and red. As to the other house I believe they are always merry there, revelling all day long in the third story, without a care, without a thought of tomorrow. An old Italian woman came here to-day, and brought me a Christmas Tree as a present — a Christmas Tree full of little wax birds, red, green and white. She said it was made by her son, who had a great talent for music. I asked her if he played on any instrument. "Oh yes," she said; "he goes round with a hand-organ and a little monkey." What dusky splendors of song there are in King Alfred's new volume.^ It is always a delight to get anything new from him. His "Holy Grail" and Lowell's "Cathedral" are enough for a holiday, and make this notable. With such "good works" you can go forward to meet the New Year, with a conscience void of reproach. Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

I. Fields, Osgood & Company had just published Tennyson's The Holy Grail, Other Poems (Boston, 1 8 7 0 ) .

2761.

To George Washington

and

Greene

Camb. Dec 24 1869. My Dear Greene, I have just been packing some wine for you, wishing all the while, that someone would introduce into the Common Schools a Treatise for Irishmen, "On the Importance of keeping the Covers of Boxes." I spent hours in hunting for something of the kind. All my cases were like the tombs in the Tenth Canto of the Inferno, all the covers being not only lifted but lost. Nevertheless two of them should reach you tonight or tomorrow morning in season for your Christmas dinner, if indeed you have got back from Baltimore. One contains ten botdes of Capri, white and red. The other a demijohn of Port, half a dozen Asmannshaiiser, one bottle of Nebiolo, and one sweet Sicilian, without label. I have received your note from Washington, and am sorry you are feeling so poorly.^ Get back as soon as you can, and come to me. I received from your brother at Newport this morning two magnificent turkeys, worthy of the Island they came from. I wish you were here to help us eat them. Yours always H.W.L 309

EUROPE P.S. A Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to you and yours! I am g l a d to think that if neither you nor I can be very merry or very happy some of our household can.

MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I . In his note of December i 6 , 1869, Greene wrote: " I am too deeply depressed to enjoy a life so full of movement and hope. I never felt so utterly cast down before. M y hand trembles so that I can hardly write."

2762.

To Charles Lanman^

Cambridge. Xmas 1869 My Dear Sir, I have had the pleasure of receiving your letter, and your "Dictionary of Congress," and hasten to thank you for this mark of your remembrance and regard. The volume is very valuable and very interesting, notwithstanding the modest disclaimer in your letter.^ The proverb says "No Bishop should speak evil of his reliques." Certainly you should not of yours. I am sure to find here information, which I could find nowhere else. I remember perfectly well receiving your former volume, many, many years ago.® I remember equally well writing to you at the time in acknowledgment of your kindness; and am very sorry to learn that my letter never reached you. We must set it down to one of those mishaps which sometimes thwart the best concerted schemes, and the most punctilious correspondents. We shall never know how much mischief has been done in the world by the miscarriage of letters. Thanking you once more and wishing you all the good wishes of the season, I remain, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library, PUBLISHED: Charles Lanman, Haphazard Personalities; Chiefly of Noted Americans (Boston and N e w York, 1886), pp. 2B-29. 1. Lanman ( 1 8 1 9 - 1 8 9 5 ) , artist and writer, had sent Longfellow a copy of his Dictionary of the United States Congress, and the General Government, 6th ed. (Hartford, 1869). 2. " T h e work which accompanies this letter, and which I beg you to receive with my highest regards, is a dreadfully dull affair" (letter of December 1 5 , 1869). 3. Essays for Summer Hours (Boston, 1 8 4 2 ) .

3 Iо

CAMBRIDGE, 2763.

T o Charles Appleton

1869

Longfellow Camb. Xmas. 1869

M y Dear Charley, I am a very bad correspondent; but then Alice is such a good one that it covers up my deficiency. Christmas, however, shall not go by without a word of love to you, who are in a land where there is no Christmas, or none native to the soil. It seems to us that you are staying there a long time, and we all want you back again, and hope you are on your way. You will have heard of our safe arrival at the Craigie. W e are fast returning to our old ways, after the dissipation of travel. One nuisance presents itself at the outset. T h e Brighton Meadows opposite are in danger of being filled with the intollerable slaughter-houses which render that town uninhabitable. T o counteract this we are getting up a subscription to buy some seventy acres along the bank of the river, and give them to the College for gardens and walks, to be kept open forever. This is of great importance, and we have all subscribed. Shall I put you down for five hundred dollars, which is what Ernest gives, and each of the girls? I have succeeded in getting control of the land, and if I can fill up the subscription all will be right.^ Your guns are so safely locked up, that we cannot get at them. T h e y look in good condition, and I will have an eye on them.- A scimetar has arrived, with a silver hilt, and a green velvet scabbard. Also a box containing various little matters, horns, flags, and some beautiful photographs. I opened the box to make sure that the contents were not damaged. Do you remember a Monsieur Armentier, who taught you and Nathan French at St. Petersburg?® He has come to N e w York, and I am afraid to grief also. He writes to you and Nathan from N e w York. Shall I help him? Trap, I am very sorry to say, is no longer among the living. He died in one of his summer fits a year ago. I miss him constantly. W e all send you any amount of Merry Christmases and Happy Years, not being able to send anything else.

New

Always most affectionately H.W.L P.S. Thanks for all your letters, which are very good and entertaining.^ MANUSCBIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, C a r e of B a r i n g , Bros / L o n d o n ,

ADDRESS: Mr. Charles A. Longfellow/

POSTMABK; CAMBRIDGE

||MASS|| DEC 2 6

1. A deed dated December 24, 1869, in the Longfellow Trust Collection reveals that Longfellow negotiated the purchase of the Brighton Meadows for $12,000. Interest on two mortgages and other costs eventually brought the total to $12,297.87. In a reply from Paris of April 4, 1870, Charles wrote: "What a capital idea that is of buying the meadows. Put me down for $500 by all means." 2. In a letter of August 16, 1869, from Manasa Bui, Vale of Cashmere, Charles had written: "Please ask Erny to take a look at my guns at home and see if the[y] have any

3 I I

EUROPE rust on them, if they have, send them to Reed the gunmaker [Wilham Reed & Sons, 1 3 Faneuil Hall Square, Boston] to be put in order and wiped over with mercurial ointment." 3. Nothing is known of this man. 4. In his letter from Manasa Bui, Charles had described his adventures in India at great length.

2764.

To William Sumner

Appleton

Camb.Dec28 1869 My Dear William, We will come with great pleasure on Saturday [January i]; four of us; Ernest and his wife, Alice and myself. The others have already an engagement for that day. If five o'clock is agreeable to you, we will come at that hour.^ Yours truly H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library.

I. " W e dine in town at 39 Beacon St. with the N e w York cousins; a family party" ( M S Journal, January i, 1 8 7 0 ) .

2765.

To George Henry Preble

Cambridge Deer. 29 1869. My Dear Sir, Accept my best thanks for your kind and acceptable present of Mexican cigars. The poet George Herbert says; "the actions of the just Smell sweet and flourish in the dust.''^ Each of these cigars is an action of this kind, and is fragrant and flourishing in its ashes. With all the good wishes of the Season, Yours very truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Brown University Library.

I. Longfellow's attribution of this quotation to Herbert is incorrect. See James Shirley, The Contentions of Ajax and Ulysses for the Armour of Achilles, Act I, Scene iii.

3 I 2

PART

NINETEEN

THE VIRTUOUS 1870-1871

MAN

THE VIRTUOUS

MAN

1870-1871

wrote Longfellow in his journal on July 20, 1871, "who answers all letters as soon as he receives them! If I can only keep up this good habit, it will save me much annoyance." The fact that he wrote more than 870 letters during 1870-1871, of which 283 have been recovered for publication, suggests that he conformed to his notion of virtue; but that he saved himself "much annoyance" by his epistolary punctuality is open to question. That "dreadful correspondent, the 'entire Stranger,' " continued to bombard him with "endless letters," with the result that he spent more energy answering them than they generally deserved. The doorbell also rang incessantly, and callers, both foreign and domestic, ate up the time he yearned to spend in his study. By now, however, he was a public man as well as a virtuous man, and he reacted courteously because he took the responsibilities of his fame seriously.

B E H O L D THE VIRTUOUS M A N , "

Despite the "cares and vexations of daily life, its letters and manifold interruptions" ( M S Journal, December 22, 1870), Longfellow found time for what he enjoyed most — reading and the writing of poetry. He supervised a new edition of the Poets and Poetry of Europe, finished the Divine Tragedy, and brought together, in Three Books of Song (published in May 1872), the Second Day of Tales of a Wayside Inn, judas Maccahaeus, and eleven new translations. The books he mentions in his journal during these two years give evidence of the diversity of his intellectual interests: Louis Dépret, En Autriche; Henry Crabb Robinson, Diary; F. M. von Grimm, Correspondance littéraire, philosophique et critique; Victor Hugo's dramas Hernani, Ruy Blas, Marion de Lome, and Le Roi s'amuse; H. С. Andersen, Wonder Stories and O.T.; Susan Horner, The Tuscan Poet Giuseppe Giusti and His Times; Goethe, Hermann and Dorothea (Ellen Frothingham translation) and Wilhelm Meister; Bonnell Thornton and Richard Warner, trans.. Comedies of Plautus; R. C. Prior, Ancient Danish Ballads; Gesta Romanorum; Frederick Pursh, Journal of a Botanical Excursion in the Northeastern Parts of the States of Pennsylvania and New York, During the Year ι8ογ; George Eliot, Legend of Jubal, and Other Poems; Tom Taylor, trans.. Ballads and Songs of Brittany; Benjamin Disraeli, Lothair; Hawthorne, Passages from the English Notebooks and Mosses from an Old Manse; Frédéric Mistral, Mirèio; Charles Reade, Put Yourself in His Place and A Terrible Temptation; G. W . 3 I 5

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Curtis, Nile Notes of a Howadji; Arabian Nights; Dino Compagni, Cronaca delle cose occorrenti ne' tempi suoi; W. E. H. Lecky, A History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne; Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi; James Puckle, The Club; Marie Schwartz's Swedish novel Den Rätta; W. F. Rae, Westward by Rail: The New Route to the East; Milton, Paradise Regained; Browning, The Ring and the Book; Jules Michelet, The Life of Martin Luther and Histoire de la révolution française; Gilbert White, Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne; R. G. White, Words and their Uses, Past and Present; Lowell, Among My Books; Chaucer, "The Nun's Priest's Tale"; Shelley, "Epipsychidion"; W . A. Gibbs, Seven Years' Writing for Seven Days' Reading; Franklin, Autobiography; Turgenev, Eliza; Johnson, Life of Dryden; Dryden, The Hind and the Panther, Religio Laici, Songs, and Elegies; Katherine Valerio, Ina; Edward Jenkins, Ginx's Baby; F. H. Hedge, The Prose Writers of Germany; Scott, Rokeby; Plutarch, Moralia; John Tyndal], Hours of Exercise in the Alps; H. W . Weber, Metrical Romances of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Centuries; Adolf Strodtmann, Heinrich Heines Leben und Werke; Paul Scarron, Roman comique; John Forster, Life of Dickens; and Aleardo Aleardi, In Morte di Donna Bianca Rebizzo. When Longfellow left the Craigie House, it was usually to go to Boston to attend a play, a lecture, or a concert, to visit an art gallery, to dine at the Parker House or the Revere House, to call on James T . Fields and other friends, or to attend to matters of business. In the winter he waited for summer and the relaxations of Nahant; in the summer he became bored by the inactivity of Nahant and longed for his study in Cambridge. He made his dutiful trips to Portland or sent his daughters in his stead. He wandered as far south as Plymouth. It was a pleasant, comfortable, unexciting existence. This is not to say that nothing disturbed the equanimity of Longfellow's life during these two years. In a letter to George Washington Greene of September 2, 1870, he wrote that he was aghast at the "horrible massacre" of the Franco-Prussian war, although it is possible that he was more worried about the fate of his Parisian friends than about the sufferings of the French populace as a whole. The unexpected death of Dickens at fifty-eight on June 9, 1870, shocked him deeply, for Dickens was his closest literary friend in England. The poor state of Sumner's health and the bitterness of his intraparty quarrels caused him continual anxiety. On one occasion, on May 25, 1870, he had an emotional experience quite out of the ordinary. On that day he wrote in his journal: "This has been to me a day of indescribable mental suffering. I have given great pain to others; but I could not do otherwise, and be true to myself. God grant it may be for the best." The facts behind this confession are not known, although they might have concerned one or both of his wayward nephews. In any event, he recovered quickly from the experience and did not mention it again. 316

CAMBRIDGE,

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Of his correspondents, George Washington Greene continued to enjoy the leading role, and the letters in which he reiterated his illnesses, financial problems, self-doubts, and professional jealousies always met with quick and kindly responses, frequently augmented by a check. After protracted bickering with several publishers, Greene finally saw his biography of General Nathanael Greene in print, an event that could not have occurred had it not been for Longfellow's assistance as literary midwife and financial angel. But if Longfellow thought that Greene, having completed his chef-d'oeuvre, would now make fewer demands on his friendship, he was mistaken. T h e death of Fanny Longfellow was now ten years behind him, and although each anniversary of engagement, marriage, and fatal fire brought her painfully to his mind, he had learned to accommodate himself to his role as the single parent of his children. That role, of course, was gradually diminishing. Early in 1871 Ernest Longfellow and his wife left the shelter of the Craigie House for the independence of their own house nearby. After 1870 Charles Longfellow was rarely in Cambridge, spending only brief intervals there between yachting cruises and long residences abroad. Only the three girls remained and they were now young women, a dozen years older than the "blue-eyed banditti" of " T h e Children's Hour." On September 22, 1 8 7 1 , Longfellow, as guardian, made over to Alice Longfellow her share of her mother's estate, a portfolio of investments worth $ 1 3 1 , 7 5 5 . 4 5 ( M S Ledger). T h u s only two children remained legally in his care as he began, in 1872, the sixty-fifth vear of his life.

2766.

To Charlotte Farnham Oxnard'^

Cambridge Jan 5 1870. M r Longfellow regrets that he cannot have the pleasure of accepting Mrs. Oxnard's kind invitation for Jan 6th. MANUSCRIPT:

Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library.

I. Mrs. Oxnard C 1 7 9 3 - 1 8 7 3 ) , widow of Henry Oxnard (802.7), lived at 4 Mount Vernon Street, Boston.

2767.

T o James Russell

Lowell

Camb. Jan 6 1870 M y Dear Lowell, I send you a few bottles of Capri, White and Red, and will be with you at 5 o'clock.^ Yours truly H.W.L. 3 I7

Charles Appleton Longfellow, 1868

Alice Frere

James T. Fields

Charles Sumner

яр

George Washington Greene, с. 1870

-ли.·· . ·, »'·,

Longfellow, 1868

THE MANUSCRIPT:

VIRTUOUS

MAN

Harvard College Library.

I. "Dine with Lowell to meet Professor Craft[s] of the Cornel[l] University. T h e other guests Prof. Gurney, editor of the North American and his w i f e " ( M S Journal, January 6, 1 8 7 0 ) . James Mason Crafts ( 1 8 3 9 - 1 9 1 7 ) , professor of chemistry at Cornell, later served as president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1 8 9 8 - 1 9 0 0 .

2768.

To David Paul Brown^

Cambridge Jan 10 1870 My Dear Sir, I have had the honor of receiving the copy of your "Eulogium on Joseph Reed Ingersoll" which you were kind enough to send me, and beg you to accept my best thanks for your kind remembrance, and for counting me among those who would read it with interest and sympathy. A most amiable and excellent man, whose loss must be deeply felt and deplored in your community.^ A difficult task was yours to speak on such a theme. I congratulate you on the signal success with which you ha\'e accomplished it. I remain, my Dear Sir, with great regard. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

1. Brown ( 1 7 9 5 - 1 8 7 2 ) , Philadelphia lawyer and orator, had sent Longfellow a copy of his Eulogium on the Life and Character of the late Hon. Joseph Reed Ingersoll, President of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Delivered Sept. 28, 1869. At the Hall of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1869). 2. Ingersoll ( 5 7 5 . 1 ) had died on February 20, 1868.

2769.

To George Edward Ellis

Cambridge Jan 13 1870 My Dear Sir, Many thanks for your letter, and for calling my attention to Judge Parker's Lecture, which owing to my absence, I had not heard of before. I have not the volume, but will ask for it at the Historical Society's Rooms, as soon as I can find time to go to town for that purpose.^ Meanwhile accept my best acknowledgments for what you say of my "Tragedy," and believe me Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Massachusetts Historical Society.

I. Joel Parker's lecture on " T h e First Charter and the Early Religious Education of Massachusetts" appeared in Lectures Delivered in a Course before the Lowell Institute,

318

CAMBRIDGE,

1870

in Boston, by Members of the Massachusetts Historical Society, on Subjects Relating to the Early History of Massachusetts (Boston, 1 8 6 9 ) . On p. 79 Parker criticized Longfellow for taking certain liberties with historical fact in The N e w England Tragedies.

2770.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Jan 23. 1870. My Dear Greene, This last week I have been troubled with rheumatism in my hands, which has made it painful to write, and must be my excuse for not having sent you a speedier reply to your last letter. Last night I felt almost certain you would come, as you threw out some hint to that effect, without fixing any time. I am very glad that you have had a satisfactory conversation on your affairs with the Governor. Did you mention to him the new plan, and what did he think of it? The more I reflect upon it, the more I like it. It seems to me like a door opening in the adamantine wall of the Future.^ Thanks for the Providence Journal. I was glad to read what Anthony and Sumner said of you in their speeches; words, not many, but well placed and to the purpose, and which no man can say are not just and true.^ As to coming to East Greenwich at this season of the year, I hesitate, unless it be absolutely essential to the success of your plans. The rheumatism in my right hand has, as you see, got into my handwriting; but not into my affection for you. fl.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. T h e nature of the "new plan" is not clear. In his letter of January 16 Greene had written: "There are things in the character of a literary man which he [William Greene] does not fully comprehend. There are things in my character which seem strange to him. And yet his truly noble nature leads him to sympathize even when he does not comprehend. / With me this is a turning point." He then asked Longfellow to come to East Greenwich to plead his cause with Governor Greene. 2. On January 20 Senator Anthony of Rhode Island ( 1 2 4 0 . 4 ) had announced the gift to the national Capitol of a statue of Gen. Nathanael Greene. His remarks on the occasion, as well as Sumner's, were reported in the Providence Journal, X L I , No. 174 (January 2 1 , 1 8 7 0 ) . See also Sumner Works, XIII, 299-302.

2771.

To Louis Pierre Frédéric Dépret^

Cambridge, Mass. Jan 24. 1870 My Dear Mr. Dépret, A thousand thanks for your two letters,- one received at the "Adelphi" in Liverpool, and the other here, only a day or two ago. A thousand thanks also 3 I 9

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

for your new volume "En Autriche" which I have read with great pleasure.® It is very lively and interesting, and reading it seemed very much like talking and walking with you in the streets of Paris. I often think of you in your pleasant entresol of the Rue St. Honoré, and when you pass through the Rue de Rivoli I hope you sometimes look up at the balcony of the Hôtel du Jardin, and remember me. Ah, those were pleasant days. Would they might return once more. I wish you had said a word in your last letter about Parisian affairs. The political sky seems overcast.* I look with great interest for the events impending. I know you do not busy yourself much with politics; but you cannot remain an indiff[er]ent spectator of what is going on around you. We had a short visit here from Père Hyacinthe, who bore himself quiedy and modestly, and did not seek notoriety in any way. He did not even wear his Carmehte dress, which made him so distinguished a figure in Paris.® After all the excitement of European travel, I find it hard to setde down into my old, studious ways. I hope, however, that I shall one day get to work again. Praying you to write to me once more, when you have an idle moment, I remain, always with great regard Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCBIPT: University of Washington Library. 1. Dépret ( 1 8 3 7 - 1 9 0 1 ) , French author, wrote ten letters to Longfellow, 1 8 6 7 - 1 8 8 0 , now in the Longfellow Trust Collection. 2. Unrecovered. 3. En Autriche (Paris, 1 8 7 0 ) is a collection of essays. 4. A reference to the increasing opposition in France, marked by an epidemic of strikes, to the government of Napoleon III. 5. According to his journal, Longfellow had dined with Père Hyacinthe ( 2 7 0 7 . 1 ) on November 20 and 22, 1869 (Life, III, 140).

2772.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Jan 25 1870 My Dear Sumner, Before receiving your letter, I had already pondered in my own mind and discussed with J[ohn] 0[wen] its several questions and suggestions.^ My opinion very decidedly is, that the passage from Leibnitz^ should stand on the tide-page. It is dignified and appropriate. For the other motto there seems to be no place, and therefore I should omit it. Page 3 will be occupied by the half-tide; and moreover I would not have too many mottoes, even if there were room for them.·"^ I have just been looking over the Table of Contents in the three volumes of your first edition;* each title a round in the ladder by which you mounted, 320

CAMBRIDGE,

1870

and reaching from 1845 to 1855. What a noble decade and what a noble record! I say the rounds of a ladder; let me rather say steps hewn in the rock, one after the other, as you toiled upward. This is a dark, rainy day; and to-night Uncle Tom gives Alice a ball at Papanti's. I shall go; but you can imagine with what heart. The waters of Lethe are a fable. There is no Nepenthe. H.W.L. P.S. Agassiz is seriously ill; though he has had no new attack for a week or ten days. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. In a letter of January 22 ( M S , Historical Society of Pennsylvania) Sumner had asked Longfellow's advice on mottoes for the forthcoming edition of his collected works being published by Lee & Shepard, Boston. 2. Baron Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz ( 1 6 4 6 - 1 7 1 6 ) , German philosopher and mathematician. His statement "Veniet fortasse aliud tempus, dignius nostro, quo, debellatis odiis, Veritas triumphabit. Hoc mecum opta, lector, et vale" stands on the title page of each volume of Sumner Works. ("There will perhaps come another time, more worthy than ours, in which, hatreds fought down, the truth will triumph. Wish for this with me, reader, and farewell.") 3. Sumner had asked: "What say you to the words of Whittier on page 3 as a Preface?" Despite Longfellow's advice, he quoted on p. iii of Vol. I a six-line stanza by Whittier that he had found, not in the poet's works, but in a commonplace book. See Samuel Thomas Pickard, Life and Letters of ]ohn Greenleaf Whittier (Boston and N e w York, 1894), II, 562. 4. Orations and Speeches (Boston, 1 8 5 0 ) , 2 vols.; Recent Speeches and Addresses (Cambridge, 1 8 5 6 ) .

2773.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Jan 27 1870. My Dear Greene, Agassiz has for some time past been very seriously ill, and does not see anyone. This is the reason your letter has not been answered by him. I shall be delighted to see you tomorrow. Can you possibly get here by five o'clock, the dinner hour? If not, then supper will be waiting your arrival later. Ever Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

321

THE 2774.

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MAN

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Jan 27 1870 My Dear Sumner, Never having dealt with any other figures than figures of speech; Never having known the difference between a bank-note and a greenback; Never having suspected that there was any difference between them; You can imagine with what a dark-lantern I have read your Speech on the "Refunding and Consolidation of the National Debt."' I am as capable of forming a just idea of it, as a gentleman was the other day of estimating a lovely little Albani's "Europa," which I showed him, when he said, "A cromo-lith. I presume."^ However I have Faith in you; and Faith is "the substance of things unseen";® though I think, that before having it, one must have seen something or other, which inspires it. This is just my case. Having known you so wise and far-seeing in other matters, I believe you to be in this. And I am confirmed in my belief by Mr. Stanton Blake, a Boston Merchant,^ who was here a few days ago, and desired me to say to you how much he admired this speech, and how entirely he agreed with it. Ever affect [ionatel] y H.W.L MANUSCHIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Sumner gave a series of speeches in the Senate on "Financial Reconstruction and Specie Payments," one of them on January 26. See Sumner Works, XIII, 234-298, especially 2 5 3 - 2 6 5 . 2. Longfellow refers to the horrors of chronolithography, much discussed at this time. Francesco Albani ( 1 5 7 8 - 1 6 6 0 ) , Italian painter of the Eclectic school, was known for his representations of a mythological "Europa." 3. C f . Heb. i i : i . 4. Blake ( 1 8 3 7 - 1 8 8 9 ) , a Harvard graduate of 1857, had called on Longfellow on January 19 ( M S Journal).

2775.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Jan 29 1870 My Dear Fields, I cannot persuade Greene to dine at the Club, so I must dine with him at home. I received this morning a poem, with the usual request to give "my real opinion" of it. I give you one stanza. The subject is "The Taking of Ticonderoga."

322

CAMBRIDGE,

1870

"In dreams of bliss from Morpheus' couch The garrison are now aroused; Their commander at the door appears, Saying, 'Of this uproar I am not advised.' " In his letter the author says; "I did so much better on Poetry than I thought I could as a beginner, that I really have felt a little proud of my Poems. He also sends me his photograph "at 65 years of age," and asks for mine "and a poem" in return. I had much rather send him these than my "real opinion," which I shall never make known to any man, except on compulsion, and under the seal of secrecy. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

I. T h e letter and poem are unrecovered.

2776.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. J a n g i 1870 My Dear Greene, Whatever the almanach may say to the contrary, this is the longest day in the year. It is now seven o'clock in the evening; and it seems to me about a week since we breakfasted together this morning; and then trudged down through the snow to famous Harvard Square. You will be incredulous and indignant, when I tell you, that the turkey over whose dead body our remarks yesterday were anything but eulogistic, was nevertheless a Rhode Islander! The butcher takes his oath to that effect. It must have been one of the Judge's turkeys, and never got his fair allowance of grasshoppers!^ Long ere this you have reached your own fireside. You have seen your wife; you have seen your children. I contrast you with two of your friends;^ one of whom has a wife and no children; the other, children and no wife. With all your cares and anxieties, are you not after all the happiest of the three? So go to your rest under the Mansa[r]de roof of the future; and do not start up in the middle of the night and say; "I do not wish to allarm you; but I smell smoke." Good night and God bless you and yours. H.W.L, MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. A reference to the parsimony of Richard Ward Greene (2429.3), Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, 1 8 4 8 - 1 8 5 4 , who had backed out of his agreement to subsidize the Gen. Greene biography. See 2525.2. 2. Sumner and Longfellow.

323

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VIRTUOUS

MAN

To Robert Charles Winthrop

Cambridge Feb 4 1870 My Dear Winthrop, I will come with the greatest pleasure, and bring with me the President and the Poet, if they are to be found within my jurisdiction on the day mentioned.^ Till then I keep your secret safely, to avoid complications. [E.L.] Pierce has gone to Washington; and Lowell, I fear, may be in Baltimore, as he has some lectures to read there. So do not count upon him. You will be glad to hear that Agassiz is no worse; if anything, rather better. Still his case is pretty critical, I fear. I was there this morning; but saw only Mrs. Agassiz, who is full of courage and hope. I sympathize with you about the Eulogy;^ perhaps, because I exaggerate the difficulties, thinking how hard it would be for me to do it. But as you can do it easier and better than anyone, I do not pity you very much. With kindest regards to Mrs and Miss Winthrop Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Massachusetts Historical Society.

1. In a letter of February 3 Winthrop had asked Longfellow to bring President Eliot of Harvard and James Russell Lowell to a luncheon at his residence in Brookline on February 9. Among the other guests was to be Prince Arthur William Patrick Albert, Duke of Connaught ( 1 8 5 0 - 1 9 4 2 ) , who was arriving in Boston on February 6 from his military station in Montreal. In a note of February 5 Winthrop revealed that the prince would be unable to attend. 2. George Peabody ( 1 3 7 7 . 3 ) had died in London on November 4, 1869. After services in Westminster Abbey on November 12, his body was transferred to Peabody, Mass., where Winthrop delivered the eulogy at his burial on February 8.

2778.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Feb 5 1870 My Dear Greene, I received your letter this morning, and this afternoon I had a call from "H. Vincent Butler Esq. of Providence R. L Special and General Agent for New York and Boston Publishing Houses."^ He came to get my subscription for Sumner's Works; and I spoke to him of yours. He said he would think of it. I want you to see him at once. Monday morning would be a good time, as he probably goes home on Sundays, or ought so to do. His address in Providence is No. 96 Weybosset St. If Mr. Butler will take the agency of your book, I think Putnam would see things in a new light, and be willing to go on with the second volume. The time and tide, that wait for no man, must not be neglected. I am sorry you found your household ill on your return; but trust that all is right again.^ 324

CAMBRIDGE,

1870

Since my last letter I have had another Rhode Islander at table. He vindicated the honor of his native state. His predecessor was undoubtedly an impostor notwithstanding the assertions of the perjured butcher. Alwavs Yours H. W . L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Hebron Vincent Butler ( 1 8 3 4 - 1 8 9 1 ) , a former accountant, engaged in the book trade in Providence, 1 8 6 8 - 1 8 7 2 . 2. Greene had written on February 4: " I found my w i f e sick and M a r y nearly so. N i g h t before last A n n a was taken down with Dip[h]theria."

2779.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Feb 11 1870 My Dear Greene, I have just got your letter, and hope you will follow it in the course of the day, without waiting for my answer, and get here before five o'clock, so as to dine with Cogswell, and Mr. Stevens,^ the book collector, and purchaser of American books for the British Museum. Mr. Butler's Postscript seems to invite an interview, though his letter is so positive. At all events it can do no harm to see him, and may do good.^ I am glad to hear that Anna is better, and hope it will soon be all right again with "The General,"^ so that you may feel no anxiety in running away for a day or two. In case you find it impossible to get away I will see Mr. Butler again, though it is vastly more important that you should see him, and have a regular talk with him yourself. Alwavs Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1 . H e n r y Stevens ( 1 8 1 9 - 1 8 8 6 ) , bibliographer and collector of rare Americana, lived in London from 1 8 4 5 until his death. 2. Greene had written on February 1 0 enclosing a letter from Butler that was "not very encouraging as you will see. But if you think it worth while I will come to Boston and go to see him with y o u . " 3. Greene's son Nathanael ( 2 2 8 9 . 2 ) .

2780.

To Edward G. Asay'^

Cambridge Feb 19 1870 My Dear Sir, I am greatly obliged to you for the high compliment you have paid me in having the three copies of my translation of Dante printed upon India paper; 325

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and am sorry that I cannot comply with your request to send you some pages of the original manuscript for insertion in your volumes. I have already had the manuscript bound for preservation, and am unwilling to mutilate it. I have done therefore the next best thing, and have copied a page for each of your sets. These I will forthwith send to Mr. Fields to be forwarded to you.^ With great regard Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow MANUsCBiPT: Pierpont Morgan Library. 1 . Asay ( 1 8 2 5 - 1 8 9 8 ) , Chicago criminal lawyer and bibliophile, had written to Longfellow on January 28 about his privately printed edition of the Dante translation. 2. T h e Asay copy of the Inferno is in the Pierpont Morgan Library.

2781.

To Hebron Vincent Butler

Cambridge Feb. 19 1870. My Dear Sir, I send you a few names of persons likely to wish for Sumner's Works. Mr. John Owen, who is reading the proofs and is deeply interested in the success of the undertaking, promises a longer list. He is a good person to consult upon this subject. I hope you have thought favorably of Mr. Greene's "Life of General Greene," which I am very anxious to have you undertake. I mean soon to call and see you about it. Perhaps when you are next in Cambridge you will do me the favor to call. I remain Yours faithfully Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

2782.

Brown University Library.

To George Washington

Greene

Cambridge Feb 26 1870 My Dear Greene, I saw Mr. Larned^ this morning and showed him Putnam's letter. He is decidedly of the opinion, and so am I, that it will be best to accept the proposition, which I have underscored in the letter, herewith returned to you for safe-keeping; namely the offer to stereotype and print the Second volume on payment of two hundred dollars, and security for four hundred more.^ I requested Mr. Larned to write you on the subject and he promised to do so. I hope the Governor may feel disposed so far to modify his proposal as to 326

C A M B R I D G E ,

1870

c o m e into this n e w p l a n ; f o r if the S e c o n d v o l u m e has to w a i t f o r t h e T h i r d t h e r e w i l l be great loss of time, a n d the g o l d e n o p p o r t u n i t y m a y slip t h r o u g h your hands. T h e f a t a l error, w h i c h p l a y s the m i s c h i e f w i t h e v e r y t h i n g , w a s y o u r not finishing

t h e T h i r d v o l u m e last year!·''

H o w e v e r , let us h o p e f o r the best. W h a t I can do at present is v e r y little, on a c c o u n t of the B r i g h t o n

M e a d o w s . Y o u r e m e m b e r the w i t n e s s in

the

E n g l i s h C o u r t s w h o said that in his o p i n i o n " t h e T e n t e r d e n S t e e p l e w a s the c a u s e of the G o [ o ] d w i n s a n d s . T h a t is m y v i e w of t h i n g s j u s t n o w . Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Edwin Channing Lamed ( 1 8 2 0 - 1 8 8 4 ) , Brown graduate of 1840, Chicago lawyer, and a kinsman of Greene, was living in Cambridge at this time, while his son Walter Cranston Lamed ( 1 8 5 0 - 1 9 1 4 ) attended Harvard. In a letter of December 12, 1869, he had informed Longfellow that he would subscribe $200 toward the publication of the second volume of the Gen. Greene biography if he had some assurance that the book would in fact be published. 2. Putnam's letter to Greene, which the latter had sent to Longfellow on February 25, is unrecovered. 3. Wilham Greene had offered $ 1 0 0 0 as a subsidy for Vols. II and III of the Gen. Greene biography, but withdrew his offer when he learned that Greene had not finished the work. In a letter to Greene of February 1 1 , 1870, he wrote that " I took for granted, as I had a right to do, that these volumes had been completed and ready for the Press as long ago as the i. May '69, according to the arrangement by which Mr. Longfellow and myself had made you monthly advances of $ 1 0 0 . each month for the 1 2 months ending at that date . . . I can make no further advances until the remaining volumes shall be completely written out and ready for the press. I will then, if I be living, undertake the publication of these volumes either with or without the aid of any other of your friends, relying upon the first sales of the work for reimbursement to me of the necessary advances." Shortly after, on February 17, he sent Longfellow a copy of his letter to Greene with an explanatory comment: "Altho' I have been much pained by George's dilatoriness, my strong attachment to him and desire for his ultimate success in his great enterprise, have determined me to treat rather as an infirmity what, upon business principles might be regarded as a very serious fault, and therefore, overlooking it, determined to put the matter upon such a footing with him in the future, as that no doubt on his part, about the ultimate publication of the work, should be an excuse with him for not completing it." 4. According to legend, the Goodwin Sands, a series of dangerous sandbanks off the Kentish coast, were formed during a storm in the twelfth century because funds intended to maintain a seawall for the protection of the island of Lomea were used instead to build the tower of Tenterden Church. Longfellow quotes directly from Hugh Latimer's "Last Sermon Preached before King Edward the Sixth" (Sermons of Hugh Latimer, ed. for the Parker Society [Cambridge, 1 8 4 4 - 1 8 4 5 ] , I, 2 5 1 ) . For the negotiations to acquire Brighton Meadows, see Letter No. 2763.

327

THE 2783.

V I R T U O U S

T o George Washington

MAN

Greene [Cambridge]

Feb. 27. 1870^

T h i s was forgotten yesterday.^ It should have gone back to you with Putnam's [letter], H.W.L T h a n k s for your Speech on the fisheries.^ I have read it with great interest; very neat and compact. All the fishes would "fight it out on that line."^ MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. This note, through the initials, is written above Longfellow's sketch of a tombstone marked " 6 3 " under a cloud bearing the date "Feb. 27. 1870" (his birthday). The postscript is on the other side of the sheet. 2. The enclosure is unidentified. 3. On February 24 Greene had spoken in the Rhode Island House of Representatives in favor of a bill to regulate the state fishery. Longfellow presuambly read the speech in the Providence Journal, XLI, No. 204 (February 25, 1870). 4. Ulysses S. Grant, Dispatch from "Head-Quarters in the Field," May 1 1 , 1864.

2784.

T o James Russell

Lowell [Cambridge]

C e Lundi, 28 F w r i e r , 1870.

N'oubliez pas demain, A une heure et demie. Je vous en prie; Huîtres et vin du Rhin, Salade de homard, Volnay et venaison, Don, Don, N'arrivez pas trop tard!^ MANUSCRIPT:

Frank O. Buda, Cambridge, Mass.

TRANSLATION:

Don't forget tomorrow, At half past one, I beg of you; Oysters and Rhine wine, Lobster salad, Volnay and Л'еп150п, Sir, Sir, Don't be too lateli I. Longfellow wrote in his journal Fields, Lowell and Henry James [Sr.] amiable and natural; and has a good ( 1 8 2 4 - 1 8 7 9 ) , German-born actor of two-week engagement as Hamlet at the

on March i : "Fechter comes to lunch at 1.30. the other guests. A pleasant time. Fechter is very deal to say for himself." Charles Albert Fechter French and English tragedy, was concluding a Boston Theatre.

328

CAMBRIDGE, 2785.

1870

To Henry Leland Chapman^

Cambridge March 3 1870 My Dear Sir My brother's address is "S.L. care of Mrs M . L Greenleaf, Cambridge, Mass." I cannot send you this information by telegraph, as you request, because we have no wires in Cambridge. Your telegram was sent out by special messenger, and left during my absence; otherwise I would have sent you an immediate reply through him. Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow. P.S. Unluckily my brother has gone to Boston to-day so that I cannot communicate with him before to-night or tomorrow morning. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow

Brunswick. / M e .

Trust

Collection,

ADDRESS;

Mr

Henry

L

Chapman,/

POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS MAR 3

I. Chapman С 1 8 4 5 - 1 9 1 3 ) graduated from Bowdoin in 1866 and from Bangor Theological Seminary in 1869. H e had recently embarked, as a tutor at Bowdoin, on a long academic career in Brunswick.

2786.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. March 6 1870 My Dear Greene, Mr. Lamed has not yet shown me your letter, so that I am rather in the dark as to the turn matters have taken with the "Life."^ I wrote to the Governor, and have his answer. He is unwilling to change or modify his proposal, and I suppose you will accept it pure and simple, as he makes it. This seems to be the only course left; and perhaps, all things considered, is the wisest and best, as leading to the speediest termination of the work. The Governor says; "As regards the final publication of the work, my word assures it, when the whole work shall be completed." And when he says that, it would not be judicious to urge him to change his views. He is full of affection for you, and anxious to help you in the best and most effectual way.^ Fechter the Tragedian was here the other day. I have seen him in "Hamlet." He is an agreeable man and a fine actor.® Yours ever H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Greene had written on March 4: " I write Larned by this mail and ask him to show you my letter." 2. William Greene's letter of March 2, 1870, in response to Longfellow's of February 26 (unrecovered), was mote frank than Longfellow's paraphrase of it: " M y read-

329

THE

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ing of his [Greene's] case is, that a sort of hallucination or paralysis has possessed him; and looking at his whole bearing in that light, I overlook the idea of culpability which would otherwise certainly belong to it. I have a warm regard for his person and a high estimate of his talents and learning; and my bearing towards him — always kind and cordial — will never be changed. In the decided stand I take, however, in his present trouble, I am quite convinced I am working for his good." 3. Longfellow wrote in his journal on March 3: "Saw Fechter's Hamlet. Very natural, easy, unconventional. Hamlet in a flaxen wig. It is pleasant to see anything so like nature on the stage; not the everlasting mouthing and ranting."

2787.

To Edward Everett Hale^

Cambridge March 9 1870 My Dear Sir, Can you tell me anything about the subscription for Mr. Giles,^ and to whom it should be paid? A Mr. Nichols^ writes me from Philadelphia, and says that he is the man. But this seems a very round about way to the pocket of Mr. Giles. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Longfellow's correspondent is identified from the M S Letter Calendar. 2. Henry Giles ( 1 8 0 9 - 1 8 8 2 ) , Irish-born convert to Unitarianism, had emigrated in 1840 to the United States, where he supported himself by writing and lecturing. He had recenriy fallen on hard times and had agreed to become an object of his friends' charity. 3. According to a printed subscription letter dated Boston, June 15, 1869, Francis J. Nicholls had been authorized "to invite subscriptions for an annual payment to be made in his [Giles's] behalf. T h e sale of Mr. Giles's books has been the last resource of his family." On February 26 Nicholls asked Longfellow to return his subscription for 1869 and 1870 "or 1870 only — just as you prefer." It is not known if Longfellow acceded.

2788.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. March 12 1870. My Dear Sumner, We live in nests and not in houses. The Penny-a-liner, the Diable Boiteux [Devil on two sticks] of the Press, has unroofed all our habitations.^ Shall Fechter dine with Longfellow on Tuesday, and shall it be a secret in Chicago on Wednesday? No, by all the Gods of Olympus! Let it be proclaimed by telegraph, "And let the kettle to the trumpet speak, The trumpet to the cannoneer without. The cannon to the heavens, the heavens to earth. Now the King drinks to Hamlet."^ 330

CAMBRIDGE,

1870

J.О. [John Owen] was here all yesterday forenoon, and we thoroughly searched the five great folios of the "Florentine Musœum," searching among the "Antique Gems"·' for something fit to adorn the cover of your Works, and finding nothing quite satisfactory. The nearest was not a Gem, but an initial letter; a female figure holding an olive-branch. There is another with a torch. Which do you prefer? I prefer the torch. J.O. has more time to spare, than anybody I ever knew. His day has twenty six hours in it, as some alphabets have twenty six letters. How are you in body and mind? Well, I hope; working hard, I know. Agassiz is no better, though he goes out. He sees no one. Ever Yours H.W.L P.S. I enclose the two figures. Choose between them, and send back the one you prefer. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. A reference to an unidentified newspaper clipping, "FECHTER dined with Longfellow Tuesday," pasted at the top of the first sheet. 2. Hamlet, V , ii, 2 7 5 - 2 7 8 . 3. Antonio Francesco Gori, Museum Florentinum, Exhibens Insigniora Vetustatis Monumenta quae Florentiae sunt (Florentiae, 1 7 3 1 - 1 7 6 2 ) , 10 vols. Vols. I - I I are subtitled Gemmae Antiquae ex Thesauro Mediceo et Privatorum Dactyliothecis Florentiae.

2789.

To George Evans Patten^

Cambridge March 15 1870 My Dear Sir, I have no objection to your making such extracts from my books as you may find useful for your purpose. But has not your plan been anticipated? In 1856 there was published in Boston, a collection of poems of the kind you propose, under the title of "The Rural Poetry of the English Language, illustrating the Seasons and Months of the Year," &c &c edited by Joseph William Jenks.^ Would another work of the kind be likely to succeed? Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Patten (d. 1 9 0 3 ) , of Washington, D.C., was planning an anthology of poetry, never published. 2. Jenks ( 1 8 0 8 - 1 8 8 4 ) , writer, educator, and orientalist, was a graduate of Amherst College, 1829.

3 3 I

THE 2790.

VIRTUOUS

MAN

To James Freeman Clarke

Camb. March 16 1870. My Dear Sir, Only two days ago I read in the papers the death of the Duca di Sermoneta, the only Dantophilist I knew in Rome.^ He was an enthusiast upon this subject, and would have entered warmly into your sister's project of landscape illustrations of Dante.^ I remember discussing the point with him; and we both were of the opinion, that all other illustrations are of little or no value. I am extremely sorry that I am thus deprived of rendering your sister the aid she desires. Unless I am mistaken Ampère limits himself to describing the places Dante is known to have visited.® There are others, which he mentions in the "Commedia," and which he undoubtedly visited, though there is no historic record of the fact. Of some of these I subjoin a list;^ which I think worth considering. When you write to your sister, I beg you to give her my kind remembrances and regrets. Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard

Jamaica Plain

College

Library,

ADDRESS;

Rev. James

POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS, MAR

Freeman

Clarke/

17

1. Longfellow's information was premature. T h e Duca di Sermoneta (2704.9) did not die until 1883. 2. Sarah Anne Clarke ( 1 8 0 8 - 1 8 9 6 ) , landscape painter, was in Italy at this time doing a series of drawings of the scenes of Dante's exile. 3. In his "Voyage Dantesque," Revue des Deux Mondes, O.S., X X ( 1 8 3 9 ) , 5 3 4 - 5 7 2 and 7 3 7 - 7 7 2 . See also 2 1 9 9 . i . 4. Unrecovered.

2791.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. March 17. 1870 My Dear Greene, Mr. Lamed has been here this evening and has read to me his draft of an Agreement between you and Putnam for the Second volume. He will forward it to you by tomorrow's post. Putnam's letter is not very clear to either of us. Still we have taken a meaning from it, and acted upon it. Whichever of his two propositions you accept, it would seem that you will have finally to pay for the stereotype plates; and therefore they ought to be yours. And so he has put it in the Agreement.^ If it is not all clear to you, you had better come on and talk it over with 332·

CAMBRIDGE,

1870

him. You can come on Saturday [March 19], notwithstanding wind and weather, which I dare say are as had in Rhode Island as here. Your speech on the Soldiers' Monument is excellent.^ Very scholarly and complete; as if taken out of one of the old Greek or Roman historians. We are all well at the Craigie. As usual I am wasting my time in writing endless letters to that dreadful correspondent, the "entire Stranger." Yours Ever H.W.L P.S. I enclose a picture for the "Young General." MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. T h e details of the "Agreement" are not known. 2. Greene delivered his speech in the Rhode Island House of Representatives on March I I . It is fully reported in the Providence Journal, X L I , No. 208 (March 1 2 , 1870).

2792.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. March 17 1870. My Dear Sumner, I do not hear from you, but I hear of you. One returning traveller reports, that you are the leader of the Senate, and have more influence than any man there. Another reports that you have the best cook in Washington. The view becomes stereoscopic, being taken from two points of sight, and so rounding and completing the portrait. A pretty dull winter this has been in Cambridge. I see no one, or hardly anyone but my own household. Agassiz is no better. For nearly three months now he is disabled. Receives no visits; cannot read or write a letter. I greatly fear he will never be himself again; though he may recover to a certain degree. But never the old strength, and the old power of work. Folsom is paralyzed; — Cogswell seldom goes out of the house; Palfrey is far away;i Lowell busy with his own affairs. Not a very lively picture. But it is incredible how much one can do without in this world. Have you seen Bryant's Homer? or Emerson's new book? or Lowell's? All good reading.^ Farewell. Ever thine H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. In Europe. 2. Bryant's The Iliad of Homer Translated into English Blank Verse, Emerson's Society and Solitude, and Lowell's Among My Books had all been recently published in Boston.

333

THE 2793.

VIRTUOUS

MAN

To Charles Sumner

Camb. March 19 1870. My Dear Sumner, "Io dico seguitando," that is continuing my letter of yesterday, that Winter has come back upon us like Napoleon from Elba; but I hope not for a Hundred Days. We are beleaguered by snow storms, and shut up in our casries. You remember what Cambridge is in such weather. Writing from America De Tocqueville says in one of his letters; "On jouit ici du plus pâle bonheur qu'on puisse imaginer."^ I bave been trying to-day to heighten the color of my pâle bonheur by reading Michelet's "Précis de l'Histoire de France"; a compendium of his larger work, and as dry as the pressed meats put up for the French army. One sentence made me think of you. "Les Romains virent avec honte et douleur des sénateurs gaulois siégeant entre Cicéron et Brutus."^ For gaulois read illinois, and I fancy you have sometimes felt as the Romans did! I have also been trying to follow Dante in his exile, a hopeless task. One gets easily as far as Arezzo: then all is confusion as to dates. You will be glad to know that there is now a fair chance of Greene's second volume seeing the light. The Statue of the General, and what has been said about it by you and others have helped matters forward amazingly.® H.W.L. MANuscBiPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. "One has here the palest happiness that one can imagine." T h e letter is unidentified. 2. Précis de l'Histoire de France jusqu'à la Révolution Française (Paris, 1 8 5 5 ) , p. 10: "With shame and sorrow the Romans saw Gaulish senators seated between Cicero and Brutus." 3. See 2770.2.

2794.

To Theseus Apoleon Cheney^

Camb. March 28 1870 My Dear Sir, I hope you will pardon me for leaving your letter so long unanswered. It is the old, old excuse I offer; the want of time. But your request is not forgotten; and I enclose a photograph and an autograph, which I hope will give you satisfaction. I think it one of the best photographs ever taken of me, perhaps I may say, the best. I remain, my Dear Sir, with best wishes Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow 334

CAMBRIDGE,

1870

MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from photostat, Longfellow Trust Collection

(Long-

fellow House). I. C h e n e y ( 1 8 3 0 - 1 8 7 8 ) , historian of southern N e w York, had asked Longfellow in a letter of October 23, 1869, to contribute a photograph and a holograph for a "Souvenir" he was assembling for the library of the Geòrgie Society of Watkins, N . Y . , of which he was founder.

2795.

T o George Washington

Greene C a m b . March 29 1870.

M y Dear Greene Matters seem to be brought to a dead-lock again. O n receiving your letter' this morning, I went immediately to Mr. Bigelow. H e says the stereotyping of the volume, say 600 pages, will cost from $800 to $1000.00. N o w at that rate the sale of an edition of 1000 copies would not more than half pay for the outlay. For 15 per cent at $3.00 per copy, would give you only $450.00 on a 1000. and you cannot count upon such a sale, off-hand. N o r does the contract, as amended by him, help matters much; since he stipulates, that you shall make up any deficiency "by payment in cash within one year from the date thereof," which about equalizes the two propositions. As soon as M r . Larned comes from town this afternoon, I will consult with him. H e may see some w a y out of this labyrinth. T h a n k s for your Speech. It is capital. T h e argument brought from the use of the torture is unanswerable. T h a t was a felicitous thought.^ H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Dated March 29. Greene wrote; "I enclose you Putnam's letter, just received. W h a t shall I do? I am losing the best opportunity I ever had. / Y o u and Larned must decide." 2. O n March 24, in the Rhode Island House of Representatives, Greene had spoken with understandable fervor in favor of a measure to illegalize imprisonment for debt. See the Providence journal, X L I , N o . 249 ( M a r c h 25, 1870). In his remarks he alluded to Tratto dei Delitti e delle Pene ( 1 7 6 4 ) , a work by Cesare Bonesana Beccaria ( 1 7 3 8 1 7 9 4 ) that condemned confiscation, capital punishment, and torture.

2796.

T o George Washington

Greene Camb. March 30 1870

M y Dear Greene, I went to see Mr. Larned this afternoon, as I promised in my morning's letter; and found he had gone to N e w York, and would not be back till Saturday night [April 2]. A n d so everything comes to a stand-still. In any case, Putnam will not move in the matter till he is fully secured. T h a t seems very evident. It also seems evident that there must be a loss — 33 5

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

temporary or final — of some eight hundred dollars or more on each volume. A n d that is a terrible sinker on anybody's line. C a n anything be devised to ward off this blow? T h a t is the question. M a r c h 31. Your letter has just come, and I do not believe you can do anything better than come yourself, and hold a Council of W a r , with Mr. Larned and me.^ If you could get here Friday night, all the better. W e would then begin by going to see "She Stoops to Conquer" on Saturday afternoon.^ If you cannot get here on Friday, I might meet you in town on the arrival of the train at noon. Rende[z]vous at Fields'. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. In his letter of March 30 Greene wrote: " W e [the Rhode Island House of Representatives] have just decided to adjourn tomorrow and I shall be free to come and discuss the matter with you if there is any need of it." 2. Goldsmith's play, at the Boston Museum, was being advertised as the "most magnificent comedy production ever known to the American stage" (Boston Daily Advertiser, C X V , N o . 78 [April I, 1870]).

2797.

To James Thomas

Fields

C a m b . March 31 1870 M y Dear Fields, Sat. A p . 9 will suit me exactly. I will see you tomorrow, and write at once to Mrs. Waterston.i Yours truly H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Smith College Library. I. Longfellow was trying to arrange a small party in honor of Adelaide Phillips ( 1 8 3 3 - 1 8 8 2 ) , English-born opera and concert singer, who was the guest of Mrs. Robert C . Waterston ( 5 5 4 . 7 ) .

2797a.

T o an Unidentified

Correspondent

Cambridge March 31 1870. M y Dear Sir, I am very much gratified by your remembrance of my birth-day and by the beautiful verses in w h i c h you have commemorated it. Accept, I beg you, my cordial and sincere thanks for this mark of your consideration and regard. Emerson says in one of his poems; " N o r knowest thou what argument T h y life to thy neighbor's creed has lent";^ 336

CAMBRIDGE,

1870

a n d I never hear that any word of mine has stirred the heart of anyone, w i t h o u t feeling m y o w n beat a little faster. T h a n k i n g you again for your beautiful Poem, I remain Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

University of Washington Library.

I. "Each and All," 11. 9-10.

2798.

To George Washington

Greene Camb. A p r i .

1870

M y Dear Greene, I shall look for you tonight. B u t if y o u do not come, I have still time to ask you to bring w i t h you, w h e n y o u do come, the letter of P u t n a m , in w h i c h he makes y o u two distinct propositions. T h e first, w h i c h you had put into legal form, and accepted, was, that he should stereotype the Second volume, under certain conditions. N o w , he seems to me to decline this, and fall back upon the second, namely that you should stereotype the work. T h i s , I confess, rather bewilders me; and certainly throws all the burden upon your shoulders, w h i c h I do not like. W h e n you come, bring w i t h y o u all the papers relative to the second volume, so that w e can see exactly w h a t he will do, and w h a t he will not. If y o u have not written to P u t n a m , perhaps it w o u l d be as well not to write, till you have consulted with L a m e d . It is too bad, to have you so thwarted and v e x e d . ' Always H.W.L MANUSCBiPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. That Greene felt "thwarted and vexed" was not, of course, unusual. In a letter of March 31 he had written : "Poor General Greene — a life of personal sacrifice — an early death — no record of his grave and obstacles at every step in the effort to give him his true place in history! / I want to live till fall, for nobody knows this subject as I do or can do this work as I can."

2799.

T o Giuse-ppa

Fahbrini^ Cambridge

2 April

1870

C a r a Signora G i u s e p p a , H o ricevuto con molto piacere la vostra amabilissima lettera, e vi ringrazio sinceramente della memoria che tenete di me. N o n essere dimenticato è sempre grato e caro! 337

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

Grato pure mi sarà il Dante, illustrato da Doré che avete avuto la bontà di mettere da parte per me. Non è ancora arrivato. Venendo da Livorno á Boston, non per vapore, ma per bastimento á vela, ci vorrà almeno due mesi per arrivare. Gradite, vi prego, i miei ringraziamenti anticipati, per questo segno d'amicizia. Molto mi rincresce la morte di vostra figlia. Era tanto carina e graziosa. Povera Giulia! Così giovane, e soffrire tanto!^ Grazie á Dio, le mie ragazze stanno bene; e sempre parliamo d'Italia con molto affetto. Io penso sovente á Firenze la Bella; al Lung'Arno; al Ponte Vecchio; alla Piazzetta del Pesce; ed alla Cotolevia.® Vedo la Padrona affaccendata; e Giovanni, lavorando ali finestra. Oimè! che tutto lo potesse riveder davvero! Addio, cara Signora Giuseppa; e con sinceri saluti al marito, credetemi sempre vostro amico Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Boston College Library.

TRANSLATION:

Cambridge 2 Aprii 1870 Dear Signora Giuseppa, I received with great pleasure your cbarming letter and I thank you sincerely for remembering me. It is always pleasant to me not to be forgotten. I am also grateful for the Dante with illustrations by Doré that you had the goodness to save for me. It has not yet arrived; coming from Leghorn to Boston, not by steamship but by sail, it will take at least two months for arrival. I beg you to accept my thanks in advance for this sign of your friendship. I am very sorry about the death of your daughter. She was so charming and gracious. Poor Julia! So young, and to sufFer so much.2 Thank God my girls are fine and we always speak of Italy with great afFection. I often think of Florence the beautiful, of the Lung'Arno, of Ponte Vecchio, of the fish market, and of the Cotolevia.·' I see the mistress of the house very busy, and John working at the window. Alas! How I wish I could see all this in reality. Goodbye, dear Signora Giuseppa, and with sincere greetings to your husband, believe me always your friend Longfellow. 1. W i f e of Alessandro Fabbrini, bookbinder of Via Maffia 26-27, Florence. 2. In her letter of March 2, 1870, Signora Fabbrini had described the long illness and death two months earlier of her daughter Giulia. 3. Unidentified. Possibly a family of this name.

2800.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Apr 3 1870 My Dear Greene, Mr. Larned was here last evening, and we discussed the propositions of Putnam in all their bearings for two hours and more. Neither of us can see any way out of this selva selvaggia} but the old one of a subscription for the 338

CAMBRIDGE,

1870

Second Volume, as for the first. And where is that to be found, now that the good Governor retires into his tent? Turning the matter in every possible way, we could not make any better show of figures than I sent you in my last. So I will say no more about it till you come, and we can go over the various calculations together. In the Comedies of Plautus there is always somebody wanting sixty minse, just the sum wanted here. But where is the slave Chrysalus, to shake "The upper lintel of the Scasan gate,"^ and get the money out of Nicobulus or anybody else? Mr. Larned is indigna[n]t at the conduct of certain persons, whom I need not name. He is warmly interested and will do what he can. Ever Yours H.W.L P.S. I look for you on Thursday [April 7], before dinner. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Inferno, I, 5 : "forest savage." 2. Bacchides; or, The Twin Sisters, IV, ix, 955.

2801.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Ap. 4 1870 My Dear Fields, I learn from Mrs. Waterston that Miss Phillipps will not be here till the 13th. and consequently our litde concert and supper are postponed till further notice; to the end of next week, instead of this, as I hoped and intended. I forgot to tell you that Fec[h]ter promises to send me an order for some night this week. I hope it will be a Ruy Blas night, and that you will join us in the box.^ The "ruler of the inverted year"^ (whatever that may mean) has, you perceive, returned again, like a Bourbon from banishment, and is having it all his own way; and it is not a pleasant way. Very well. One can sit by the fire and read, and hear the wind roar in the chimney, and write to one's friends, and sign one's-self "Yours faithfully," or as in the present instance Yours always H.W.L MANUSCBiPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

1 . Fechter, in a return engagement at the Boston Theatre (see 2 7 8 4 . 1 ) , appeared in Victor Hugo's Ruy Blas on April 6, but it is not known if Longfellow attended the performance. 2. Cf. WiUiam Cowper, The Task, IV, 1 2 0 : "O Winter, ruler of th' inverted year."

339

THE 2802.

VIRTUOUS

To Elizabeth Bates Chapman

MAN

Langel

Camb. A p 5 1870 Dear Mrs Laugel Allow me to have the pleasure of introducing to you my friends Mr. and Mrs. Monti, who visit England for the purpose of placing their daughter at school, somewhere near London. Mr. Monti is our Consul at Palermo; Mrs Monti, like yourself a Bostonian. If you can do anything to facilitate their plans, you will greatly oblige me. Is there not some good school in your lovely Richmond where a young lady might enjoy, for a season, such fole bonheur [pale happiness] as a Boarding School may offer? Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

2803.

Library

of

Congress.

To Luigi Monti

Camb. Ap. 5 1870 My Dear Mr. Monti, Your letter reached me yesterday, just twenty days from the day it left your hands; proving your calculation right, and justifying you in choosing a school in England for your dear little girl.^ But alas! you appeal for information on this subject to one as ignorant of such things as anyone can be! However I enclose one or two letters of introduction, which may be of service to you. I should think you would prefer the south of England; and in particular Devonshire. Exeter seemed to me a pleasant place. So is Wells; so is Salisbury. All are old cathedral towns. But if you wish to be nearer London, I should say that Hampstead or Richmond would please you. Mrs Mackintosh, you remember, is my sister-in-law. Mrs. Laugel, was Miss Chapman of Boston. Probably Mrs Monti knows her already. Mrs. Fellows, is a daughter of Sir Rowland Hill, who introduced the Penny Postage system in England.^ Thanks for the portrait of Nelly. It is charming, and very like. My girls send their love to her. Wishing you all success, Yours truly H.W.L

340

CAMBRIDGE, MANUSCRIPT: Frank о . Buda, Cambridge, Mass. of a Wayside Inn," pp. 1 6 4 - 1 6 5 .

1870 PUBLISHED: Characters

in

"Tales

1. Monti had written on March 15, informing Longfellow of his decision to put his daughter Ellen in an English school and asking for advice and letters of introduction. 2. See 1324.2. Louisa Mary Hill Fellows (d. 1906, aged sixty-seven) lived in Wolverhampton.

2804.

T o James Thomas

Fields

Camb. Ap. 10 1870 M y Dear Fields, Among your cast-off books there is one I wish I had taken. It is Rodenberg's Poems, from the German, published in Chicago I think." Will you keep it for me? W e looked for you at dinner-time to-day, but you did not come; by which we lost the light of your countenance, and you the light of the Johannisberger. W e will be at your door tomorrow evening at seven, or thereabout, and then to the play.^ Till then farewell. Yours ever H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Henry E. Huntington Library. 1. The Poems of Julius Rodenberg, translated into English verse and the original metres, with the German text on the opposite page, by W . Vocke (Chicago, 1869). 2. Presumably the French comedy Don César de Bazan by Philippe François Pinel Dumanoir ( 1 8 0 6 - 1 8 6 5 ) and Adolphe Philippe d'Ennery ( 1 8 1 1 - 1 8 9 9 ) . Fechter played the title role at the Boston Theatre on April 1 1 .

2805.

T o Porter & Coates^

Cambridge A p 1 1 1870 Gentlemen, I am very glad to hear there is to be a new edition of the "Poets and Poetry of Europe" and will willingly make the necessary additions without any charge to you, beyond what you will have to pay the Printer. As you suppose, there is no great accumulation of new material. A few pages of Appendix is all that is wanting; and if you will authorize me to have these made here by the printers who stereotyped the work I will attend to it at once; and you will have no trouble about the matter. Meanwhile please send me a copy of the last edition (by Mr. Francis), as I wish to be sure that certain errata have been corrected. In advertising I would not say anything about the book being "brought down to date," as such announcements always give rise to carping and criticism. 341

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Will not the addition of ten or twelve pages enable you to take out a new copy-right? I remain, Gentlemen, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCBIPT:

University

of

Miami Library.

I. In a letter of April 7 this Philadelphia publishing firm revealed that it had purchased the stereotype plates of the Poets and Poetry of Europe from Charles S. Francis (2495.1 ) and was planning a "new edition on fine paper" for the fall. See BAL 1 2 1 5 5 .

2806. To William Lambert Whitney^ Camb. Ap. 12 1870. My Dear Sir, I beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of yesterday, enclosing your cheque for Five Hundred Dollars, the same being your subscription toward the purchase of the Brighton Meadows for the College. Thanking you cordially for your cheerful cooperation in this purchase, I remain, my Dear Sir, Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: N e w York Public Library ( D e Coursey Fales Collection), ADDRESS: William L. Whitney Esqre / Mount Auburn St / Cambridge POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS APR

12

I. Whitney ( 1 8 1 1 - 1 9 0 0 ) was treasurer of the Cambridge Savings Bank.

2807.

To Sarah Warner Brooks^

Camb. A p i 3 1870 Dear Mrs Brooks I return the Note with the necessary endorsement, and remain Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: University of Washington Library. I. Mrs. Brooks ( 1 8 2 2 - 1 9 0 7 ) , a Cambridge neighbor, had borrowed money from the Charles River Bank to help pay for the medical education of her son Frederick, and Longfellow had endorsed her note, now due on April 15. In a letter of April 13 she had asked him to renew his endorsement. Frederick failed in his attempt to become a doctor, went to Mississippi, and died in 1 8 8 1 , aged thirty-two.

342

CAMBRIDGE, 2808.

1870

To Annie Adams Fields

Camb. Αρ. 13 iSyo Dear Mrs Fields, It will give both Mr. Greene and myself great pleasure to dine with you on Thursday [April 14] at six, as you so kindly propose. What a portentous plateful of poetry you have handed me! I shall not want to be helped again for some time.^ At Appleton's, the other day, the eccentric [Samuel Worcester] Rowse asked what was the most indigestible dish on the table, and being told, he helped himself copiously, saying, that as he was to dine late, he wanted something that would stand by him! I believe you told me this story; so I tell it back. Do you think the poetry you have sent me is of this tenacious nature? Notwithstanding the rain, our evening at the Theatre was most agreeable. I hope you easily found your carriage, and took no cold. Yours most truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

T h e Carl H . Pforzheimer Library.

I. In a note dated "Tuesday [April 1 2 ] " Mrs. Fields wrote: " I send you a small!! installment of poems by William Morris. I believe we have not the full set" ( M S , Henry E. Huntington Library).

2809.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Ap. 16 1870 My Dear Sumner, Greene has been here for a few days, and we have talked a good deal about you, and the affairs of the nation. You see from the paragraph above^ what "Christian Statesmen" come to at last; — two lines of dogg[e]rel verse! Be on your guard. Greene's book is a case of difficult parturition. It seems impossible to get the second child born at all. What you and Anthony said in the Senate comforted and encouraged him.^ I consoled him in my way. We went to see "She Stoops to Conquer", we went to see Fechter; we dined at home, and "drank the blood red wine";® and I tried to cheer his despondency, as you did when he was in Washington. If you want to read a sharp bit of criticism, read Lowell's Article in the North American for April on "[W. Carew] Hazlitt's Library of Old Authors."^ I return you Emerson's letter,® and am sorry he could not go to you. We are both of us "home-keeping youths,"® and cannot easily be moved.

343

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

I have no good news to send you; only a good night. Tomorrow is Easter Sunday, a season I delight in. Ever aíFect[ionatel]y H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. An unidentified newspaper clipping is pasted at the top of the sheet: "And from this world the Christian Statesman fled. When JAMES K. POLK was number'd with the dead." г. 3. 4. 5. 6.

See 2770.2. Cf. "Sir Patrick Spens," 1. 2. North American Review, C X (April 1870), 444-463. Unrecovered. The Two Gentlemen of Verona, I, i, 2.

2810.

T o Porter & Coates

Camb. Ap. 19 1870. Gentlemen, T w o days ago I had the pleasure of receiving your letter, and to-night came the volume. For both I am much obliged.^ T h e beginning of the "Supplement" is already in the hands of the printers, and there will be no delay but what is incident to a work of this kind. I have no doubt, that it will be ready at the time you mention. On looking over my notes and papers I find a great amount of valuable material, which will add to the interest and completeness of the work. Would it not be adviseable to issue this new edition in two volumes, without changing the pages of the second? T h e y would be a little over four hundred pages each; the Northern Languages in one; the Southern in the other. Please think of this.^ Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Haverford College Library.

1. In a letter of April 16 Porter & Coates had written : " W e wish you to add as many pages as you think necessary to render the work [Poets and Poetry of Europe] complete . . . Please attend to this matter at your earliest convenience as we wish to go to press the latter part of June or the first of July." 2. In their answer of April 30 the publishers wrote that they had intended to issue the book in one volume at $5, but would consider two volumes at $ 1 0 . The original plan prevailed.

344

CAMBRIDGE, 2811.

1870

To ]ames Thomas Fields Camb. Ap. 20 1870

My Dear Fields, Some English poet has said or sung; "At the close of the day, when the Hamlet is still, And mortals the sweets of forgetfulness prove";' I wish Hamlet would be still. I wish I could prove the sweets of forgetfulness. I wish Fechter would depart into infinite space, and "leave me, me, leave me to repose."- When will this disturbing star disappear and suffer the domestic planetary system to move on in its ordinary course, and keep time to the old clock in the comer? I return the volume you sent,'^ with many thanks for your kindness. I found in it what I wanted. I never thought that I should come back to this kind of work.^ It transports me to my happiest years, and the contrast is too painful to think of. If you have any volumes of poetical translations, or if any felicitous Poem from any modern tongue, translated into English comes to your mind, do not fail to give notice to Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: H e n r y E . H u n t i n g t o n Library. 1. 2. 3. 4.

J a m e s Beattie, " T h e H e r m i t , " 11. 1 - 2 . T h o m a s Gray, " T h e Descent of O d i n , " 1. 50. Possibly a reference to the poems of W i l l i a m Morris. S e e 2808.1. T h a t is, editorial work on the Poets and Poetry of Europe.

2812.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Ap 20 1870. My Dear Greene, The same day brought me a letter from you, and one from Mr. Earned. He accedes to the proposition made him; and I shall at once write to him, and say that he has done the best thing possible. I suppose he has written to you, and therefore do not send his letter. But you can act upon his assurance.' Things shape themselves strangely, and not quite as we could wish. I should have preferred to have had the Second volume put to press at once. But as that cannot be, the next best thing is to complete the Third. Perhaps, after all, this may tum out the best course of all. Who knows? Let us have faith that it is so, as we cannot order it otherwise. The Prospectus is good. I retum it with one or two red marks only. I return also Putnam's letter, as it is not necessary to send it to Mr. 345

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

L a m e d . If you think otherwise, you can forward it to Goodwin, L a m e d & T o w l e , Chicago, w h i c h is his address. Buona notte, caro Giorgio, H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT; Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Larned's letter (unrecovered) dealt with his agreement to participate in the subsidy of the Gen. Greene biography. Greene wrote in his letter of April 17: "Here is Putnam's letter which is very nearly what I expected it to be. T h e stress which he lays upon the finishing of the 3d vol. is all a pretext: for he knows very well that not one historian in a hundred goes to the press with his work complete . . . Nothing, that I can see is left me to do but to finish the 3d. volume and publish the 2d. in the winter and the 3d. in the spring."

2813.

T o George Washington

Greene

C a m b . Ap. 22 1870 M y Dear Greene, I think you misinterpret Mr. Larned's doubt} His meaning is only that he had rather his contribution should go to bringing out the Second volume at once. I do not imagine he meant anything more, or other than this. I have no time to write this morning, and scribble these two words only to take that splinter out of your mind. Ever Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Greene had written on April 17: " L a m e d writes me that he has sent you a copy of his letter to me, in w h i c h he declares his readiness to accede to my proposition relative to the use of the sum to be contributed by him, altho' he doubts the wisdom of doing so. T h i s doubt is to me very annoying and I cannot but wish that he had not uttered it. But whichever way I turn something annoying and humiliating is sure to meet me."

2814.

T o James Thomas

Fields C a m b . Ap. 25 1870

M y Dear Fields, D o you remember an Article by M . Taine, the French critic, on T e n n y s o n and Musset? I have forgotten where I saw it, and now that I want it, cannot find it.i Please ask Aldrich, or anyone likely to know. C o u l d it have been in the Living Age? or in some English Review? Yours always H.W.L 346

CAMBRIDGE,

1870

MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. This essay by Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (1828-1893), French philosopher and critic, appeared originally in the Journal des Débats (April 3, 1861). Taine reprinted it in his Histoire de la Littérature Anglaise (Paris, 1863), Book V, Chap. VI. Longfellow quotes from the latter source in his sketch of Louis Charles Alfred de Musset (1810-1857), French poet, in Poets and Poetry of Europe, pp. 849-850.

2815.

T o Bayard

Taylor C a m b . A p . 28 1870

M y Dear Taylor, I wrote you last w e e k and directed my letter to N e w York, not k n o w i n g that you were at Ithaca;^ a fact w h i c h I have just learned b y accident. I have in press a n e w edition of the "Poets and Poetry of Europe" and in a S u p p l e m e n t , w h i c h is to be appended, I wish very m u c h to insert the D e a t h scene of Faust from your translation. Is it far e n o u g h advanced to enable me to do so; and are you willing? I w a n t the scene b e g i n n i n g " M i d n i g h t . Faust on the Balcony," and e n d i n g with Mephisto's words about the "Eternal V o i d " just before the "Burial."^ If you can grant me this favor, I shall be greatly obliged. B u t as the publishers are in haste, and the printers have already reached this point, I cannot wait very long. Yours f a i t h f u l l y H e n r y W . LongfelloM' MANUSCKIPT: Henry E. Huntington Library. 1. This letter is unrecovered. 2. See Poets and Poetry of Europe, pp. 819-822, for the excerpts from Taylor's Faust, Part Two, V, iv, 91-96; v; and vi, 1-98.

2816.

To George Washington

Greene C a m b . A p . 30 1870

M y Dear Greene, I did not dine w i t h the C l u b to-day, so here I am, ready to answer your letter w i t h o u t a moment's delay, and send y o u M r . Larned's first payment, w h i c h he has forgotten to do, or neglected in the hurry of C h i c a g o life.^ I am w o r k i n g a w a y at the "Poets," and find m u c h more to do than I thought I should. I h a v e made several translations of my o w n , not finding any readymade of some authors, and am altogether more entangled than I meant to be.T h i s will account for the admirable brevity of this letter, w h i c h otherwise I should not have been able to make so short. Yours ever H.W.L 347

THE MANUSCRIPT:

VIRTUOUS

MAN

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1 . In a letter of April 29 Greene wrote: "These vexatious delays have reduced me so low that I must ask you the favor to advance me the whole or a part of Larned's first check which I suppose he will send when he reaches home." 2. Longfellow translated six poems in 1870 for the Supplement to the Poets and Poetry of Europe: Goethe, "Wanderer's Night-Songs" (p. 8 2 2 ) ; August von Platen, "Remorse" (p. 828); François de Malherbe, "Consolation" and " T o Cardinal Richelieu" (p· 8 3 7 ) ; Jean Reboul, " T h e Angel and the Child" Cp· 843); and Santa Teresa de Avila, "Santa Teresa's Book-Mark" (p. 886).

2817.

To James Sheridan Muspratt^

Cambridge Mass. May i. 1870. My Dear Sir, It gives me great pleasure to comply with your request, and I have put my name on the photograph you took the trouble to send, together with the date of the year when it was made. I was extremely sorry to pass through Liverpool on my way home without having the pleasure of seeing you, as I had hoped. It was my misfortune, not my fault. I hope another time — if any other time there be — I shall have a better fortune. I heard with great regret of Miss Cushman's illness; but trust she is now quite well again.^ I am, my Dear Sir Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

1 . Muspratt C 1 8 2 1 - 1 8 7 1 ) , founder and principal of the Liverpool College of Chemistry, was the brother-in-law of the American actress Charlotte Cushman ( 1 0 8 7 . 6 ) , having married her sister, Susan Webb Cushman ( 1 8 2 2 - 1 8 5 9 ) , in 1848. 2. Charlotte Cushman had undergone surgery in Edinburgh in August 1869 for the removal of a malignant tumor. In his letter of February 4, 1870, Muspratt had vinritten that the "operation was a great shock to her whole system; it is doubtful whether she will ever entirely recover [from] it."

2818.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. М а у 4 1870 My Dear Historian, Put up your golden pen, and put into your pocket some sheets of manuscript, and take the morning train on Saturday [May 7], and come up, or down, which ever you please, and pass the Sunday with me. This is a programme for the close of the week, which cannot be improved. Seen from Washington's Head Quarters, the whole historic field will be clear, and the doubts, that perplex you, vanish away.

348

CAMBRIDGE,

1870

I write this between two paragraphs of a sketch of old D u Bartas, for the new edition of the "Poets and Poetry of E u r o p e , a n d having written it, lay aside my pen, and resume my pencil. Alwavs Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Central Library, Auckland, N e w Zealand.

I. See pp. 837-839.

2819.

To Bayard

Taylor Camb. М а у 4

1870.

M y Dear Taylor, I am very much obliged to you for so readily acceding to my wishes, and only regret giving you the trouble of copying the scene I wish for, and which 1 hoped was already in type. It begins, in the original; "Mitternacht Vier graue Weiber treten auf. Erste. Ich heisse der Mangel"; and ends, "Ich liebte mir dafür das Ewig-Leere." Please send also the six preceding lines; "Faust (_auf den Balcon~) Die Sterne bergen &c" as these seem needful by way of introduction.^ Lowell goes to Ithaca this week,^ and will not return till the end of the month. June will be the time then for your visit; and we shall be delighted to see you and hear you. Please send me the exact title of your book, if you have fixed upon it, so that I may quote it correctly. With kind regards to Mrs Taylor Yours faithfully H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

1. See 2815.2. 2. T o lecture at Cornell University.

2820.

To Caroline Crane

Marsh

Cambridge May 8 1870 M y Dear Mrs. Marsh, I take the liberty of presenting to your friendly welcome in Florence the bearers of this letter, Mrs. [Abigail Wheaton] Little and her sister Miss [Martha] Wheaton. 349

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

W h e n I tell you that they are the daughters of the late Henry W h e a t o n , our former Minister at Berlin, no farther introduction, I am sure, will be necessary; and it is to tell you this that I trouble you with these f e w words. Hoping that they will find you and Mr. Marsh both well and happy "Sopra il bel fiume d'Arno alla gran villa, I am with great regard Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCBIPT: Clifton W a l l e r Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. I. Inferno, XXIII, 95 : "In the great town on the fair river of Arno."

2821.

To George Washington

Greene Camb

M a y 16 1870

M y Dear Greene, I did not get your letter till this evening; and am greatly troubled with your trouble.^ I only hope that the last twenty four hours have brought a favorable change to the poor little sufferer, and that the fever has abated. I deeply feel for you, and with you. N o one can know these agonies but those w h o have passed through them. I have not myself much comfort in these days. A very dear friend of all my Cambridge life, Mrs. [Nathan] Appleton, is slowly passing away. I was there yesterday. She was in a deep sleep, from w h i c h she could not be roused, and from w h i c h I suppose she will never awaken. I am glad you have been able to go on in any degree with your work. D o not lose heart nor hope. Your dear w i f e must be suffering even more than you are; and you must strengthen and encourage her. D o not forget the Franklin letter.^ T h e r e is consolation in that. T h o u g h such consolation I trust you will not need. Ever affectionately H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Greene had written on M a y 15 that he had had "an anxious w e e k " because of the high fever of his daughter A n n a Maria. 2. O n M a y 31, 1870, Greene wrote that the Franklin letter was in Vol. V I I of The Works of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Jared Sparks (Boston, 1838), but it is otherwise unidentified.

350

CAMBRIDGE, 2822.

1870

To William Dean Howells

Camb. May 16 1870 M y Dear Mr Howells, Thanks for "St. Ambrogio."! у^ц jj,^]! j^g^g ^ proof as soon as I do, or sooner, if you happen to be at the Printing Office, and will ask for it. If the Printer says, that the "Quarterly Review," containing the Article on Leopardi^ is not there, it is an error of the University Press. It is there. I sent it as part of copy for the Italian portion of "Supplement." Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCBiPT;

Clifton Wallet Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

1. By the Italian poet Giuseppe Giusti ( 1 8 0 9 - 1 8 5 0 ) , translated by Howells for the Poets and Poetry of Europe, pp. 876-877. 2. Quarterly Review, L X X X V I (March 1 8 5 0 ) , 2 9 5 - 3 3 6 . For Longfellow's use of the article, see Poets and Poetry of Europe, p. 870.

2823.

To George Washington

Greene Camb. May 25. 1870.

My Dear Greene What you write me is very distressing; but you must be thankful it is no worse. What a strange accident! And how those painful things take us by surprise, and unprepared! I hope the danger is passed, and that the little fellow is not suffering much.^ Larned called yesterday, but I was out, and did not see him. He left on my table his cheque for fifty dollars. I enclose it to you, or rather its equivalent, as he had made the cheque payable to bearer; and consequently there would be some risk in sending it. It will not come to you amiss just now; and I had rather send it to you than keep it. Mrs. Appleton, so long ill, has departed and lies buried at Mt. Auburn. On the day of the funeral we heard from England of the death of young Ronny Mackintosh, about Charley's age. So it has been a sad week with us also. Ever thine H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. Greene wrote of his most recent calamity in a letter of May 22; "Yesterday towards night Nat fell from a hay mow on which he was playing and was taken up insensible. On taking off his clothes and examining him we found a wound on the right side and on enquiring learnt that a pitch fork had fallen on him penetrating to the lungs with one of its prongs." On May 25 he wrote that his son was out of danger. 3 5 I

THE 2824.

To an Unidentified

VIRTUOUS

MAN

Correspondent

Camb. М а у з о 1870. M y Dear Sir, I am so ill to-day with a severe cold and cough, and there is so little chance of my being better tomorrow, that I must, though with great reluctance, forego the pleasure of dining with you. Begging you to accept my excuse and my regrets, I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

2825.

Harvard College Library.

To james Thomas Fields

Camb. June 6 1870. My Dear Fields, Syringa is the name of the shrub, whose flower I gave you this morning, and not Hydrangea. Why did I say Hydrangea? Mirèio^ is charming. But as the translation is prose, though printed like verse, I could hardly have made any use of it, if I had had it earlier. I hope Mrs. Fields got safely back from her excursion, and was not wet in that pouring rain. Yours truly H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

I. Pastoral poem by Frédéric Mistral ( 1 8 3 0 - 1 9 1 4 ) , laureate, 1904.

2826.

To George Washington

Provençal poet and Nobel

Greene

Camb. June 7 1870 My Dear Greene, Ernest and his wife and Alice have gone to Niagara and I am left almost alone at the Craigie. Now if it were possible for you, without detriment to your History, to come to me for a few days, it would be very charming. Before going to Nahant I must hear more of those pages. What you read to me when you were last here, I consider fine historic writing; and hardly know where you would look for better. I hope Nat is quite well again. You should have heard the shout of rejoicing that went up at the dinner table the other day, when I opened your letter, and announced that you considered him out of danger. Ever Yours H.W.L 352

CAMBRIDGE,

1870

P.S. You must really contrive to come this week, or next. Your visit will be doubly welcome in my solitary condition. I told Mr. Lamed the other day what I thought of your third volume, and his eyes brightened with pleasure. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow T r u s t Collection.

2827.

T o John

Forster

Cambridge June 12. 1870. M y Dear Forster, T h e terrible news from England fills us all with inexpressible grief.' Dickens was so full of life, that it did not seem possible he could die, and yet he has gone before us, and we are the mourners. I know what this loss will be to you, and cannot speak of it. I will not try to speak of it. I hope his book is finished. It is certainly one of his most beautiful works, if not the most beautiful of all. It would be too sad, to think the pen had fallen from his hand, and left it incomplete.^ I never knew an author's death [to] cause such general mourning. It is no exaggeration to say that this whole country is stricken with grief. You can judge what it is, from what you see and hear around you in England. I enclose a note, which I beg you to forward to Miss Hogarth,® as I fear the address may not be exact enough. God bless you, my Dear Forster. Always aflFectionately Henry W . Longfellow. P.S. I must not forget to thank you for your letter, received so long ago, and for the L i f e of Landor,^ which I have read with the greatest interest and pleasure. It was a difficult life to write and you have done it admirably. I beg you to give my kindest regards and remembrances to Mrs. Forster. It was not my fault, that I did not see you on my passage through London, for you were both out of town. I was at your door, and was much disappointed not to find you.® I had the same fate with Carlyle. MANUSCRIPT; Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 1. Charles Dickens had died at Gad's Hill on J u n e 9. 2. S i x of the projected twelve parts of The

Mystery

of Edwin

Drood were published

in monthly installments, April-September, 1 8 7 0 . 3 . Georgina Hogarth ( 1 8 2 7 - 1 9 1 7 ) ,

Dickens's sister-in-law and the manager of his

household after his separation from his w i f e . 4. Walter

Savage Landor: A Biography

5. In his letter of October 1 3 ,

( L o n d o n , 1 8 6 9 ) , 2 vols.

1 8 6 9 , Forster had written:

" I will not too bitterly

reproach you for running a w a y without letting me see you — because I fancy you must have had some good reasons for w h a t you had not originally contemplated."

3 53

THE 2828.

To Georgina

VIRTUOUS

MAN

Hogarth Cambridge

June 13 1870

M y Dear Miss Hogarth, T h e melancholy news from Gad's Hill has reached us, and filled all our hearts with the deepest sorrow. In truth I may say it is a universal grief. T h e whole country is filled with it. T h i s will not console you for your loss; and yet I think w e gain a little strength from the sympathy of others. A n d surely no author was ever so widely beloved and lamented as Dickens. All in this household gratefully remember the pleasant days w e passed with you at Gad's Hill; and w e shall remember them n o w with more tenderness than ever, for his sake, w h o is gone. I cannot try to comfort you; — "Vouloir ce que D i e u veut est la seule science Q u i nous met en repos;" —^ but I beg you to express to Mrs. Dickens and to all the family our sincerest sorrow and sympathy. I am, Dear Miss Hogarth, with great regard Yours truly H e n r y W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library. I. François de Malherbe, "Consolation à Monsieur du Périer, sur la Mort de sa Fille," 11. 83-84. Longfellow's translation: " T o will what God doth will, that is the only science, / That gives us any rest" CPoets and Poetry of Europe, p. 837).

2829.

To Charles

Sumner

C a m b . June 15 1870 M y Dear Sumner, T h a n k s for your Barmecide feast of foreign wines, the list of which perfumed your last letter, and showed me that you are not without compensations and consolations in this long, long session. W h e n will it end? T h e r e is a good deal of clamor here about the Income T a x . T h e renewal of it — after the promise that it should cease in 1870. — will be a very unpopular measure; of which the Democrats will make good use.^ Dickens's death has saddened us extremely. H e was so full of life, it seemed impossible he should die so soon. H e is to be buried in Westminster Abbey, it would seem by general acclaim. Greene has been here for a f e w days. If there should be a vacancy in any Italian Consulate, I beg of you and Senator Anthony to secure it for him. 354

CAMBRIDGE,

1870

Ernest has gone with his wife and Alice to Niagara, by way of the Hudson and Trenton Falls. Charley is in Paris; and is coming home in July. When shall you be here? Ever thine H.W.L Agassiz is better. He has gone to Bethlehem in N.H. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. Sumner had already spoken against the reestablishraent of the income tax, imposed during the Civil War, on April 7, 1870 (Sumner Works, XIII, 3 7 0 - 3 7 4 ) . Congress allowed the tax to expire.

2830.

To Benjamin White Whitney^

Camb. June 16 1870. My Dear Sir, I enclose Mr. Saunders' letter in reference to the Wetherell mortgage, which is such an impediment in our way,^ and remain Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT;

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Longfellow had retained Whitney C 1 8 1 5 - 1 8 7 9 ) , a Cambridge lawyer, to handle the legal aspects of the Brighton Meadows purchase and gift to Harvard College. See 2763.1. 2. Horace Flagg Saunders ( 1 8 3 0 - 1 9 0 2 ) , Cambridge real estate dealer, handled the Brighton Meadows sale. A problem involved in the transaction was the reluctance of a Mr. Wetherell (or Witherell), an employee of the Grover & Baker Sewing Machine Company of Boston, to surrender before its maturity his mortgage on a parcel of the property.

2831.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. June 19 1870. My Dear Greene, It was too bad to leave you as I did at the Railway station; but the rain was coming on vigorously, and as it was, I did not escape it. I was very damp, not to say wet, when I got home, and caught the worst of all the isms, the one that begins with an R. and ever since, I have borne that ugly initial stamped upon my breast. I hope you came off unharmed, and reached lovely Newport in good condition. Here is something odd from a French newspaper of New Orleans — La Tribune. The writer was evidently thinking of Cooper. What a comment on Literary Fame! 3 55

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"Charles Dickens, le grand romancier américain, est mort hier d'apoplexie. Il était le Walter Scott de l'Amérique."i Yesterday I sent you a box of claret. Of the Catalan, I find only a few bottles left, and therefore sent you Bordeaux instead. I have just been reading an able and eloquent discourse on Montalembert by M. Cochin.2 Do not forget the books of the College Library. If you do, Sibley^ will never forgive you. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. "Charles Dickens, the great American novehst, died yesterday of apoplexy. He was the Walter Scott of America." Longfellow pasted this clipping from La Tribune de la Nouvelle-Orleans below his journal entry for June 1 7 . T h e issue of the newspaper in which it appeared is not available. 2. Augustin Cochin, Le Comte de Montalembert. Discours prononcé le i®'' avril 1870, à h Société générale d'Education (Paris, 1 8 7 0 ) . 3. John Langdon Sibley ( 1 8 0 4 - 1 8 8 5 ) , Librarian of Harvard College, 1 8 5 6 - 1 8 7 7 , and author of Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University (Boston, 1 8 7 3 - 1 8 8 5 ) , 3 vols.

2832.

To Alexander Wadsworth

Longfellow

Camb. June 19. 1870 My Dear Alex. Thanks for your letter.^ In reply I am happy to say that the Durham tobacco has arrived. By Express, tomorrow morning, I send you a box containing eight pounds of it, out of fifteen, which is all that Mr. Lunt^ sent. The box contains also various Italian wines, and one bottle of English Punch, such as Mr. Pickwick drank of, and was made tipsy thereby.^ Dickens is seldom out of my thoughts. He is a great loss to the world. La Tribune de la Nouvelle Orléans, says of him, with almost incredible ignorance, "Charles Dickens, le grand romancier américain, est mort hier d'apoplexie. Il était le Walter Scott de l'Amérique." The writer evidently confounds him with Cooper! I am afraid the box of wine will have to pass the night in Portland. It is an innocent looking box, but when you move it, there are rumblings inside, as in the wooden horse of Troy. I hope, however, that the guardians of the public, will not be more suspicious than the Trojans were. With love to all Yours aff [ectionatel]y H.W.L 356

CAMBRIDGE,

1870

MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Unrecovered. 2. Henry Lunt ( 1 8 4 2 - 1 8 8 7 ) , a lawyer of 68 Cornhill, Boston. His letter regarding the tobacco is dated June 1 1 . 3. See The Pickwick Papers, C h a p . X I X .

2833.

T o Fields, Osgood &

Company C a m b . June 22 1870.

Gentlemen, I have this morning had the pleasure of receiving yours of yesterday with your cheque for $ 1 5 0 . — a most generous honorarium for my poem in the Atlantic;^ for which please accept my thanks. In regard to the plates of "Poets and Poetry of Europe," I fear it may be too late to do anything now, or else too early. As Porter and Coates have just bought them, they may wish to try one edition at least before parting with them. U n d e r these circumstance [s] I hesitate a little about writing to them on the subject; but will speak with you about it w h e n I come to town.^ Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Pierpont Morgan Library. 1. " T h e Alarm-Bell of Atri," Atlantic Monthly, X X V I (July 1870), 1 - 3 . 2. In a letter of June 21 Fields, Osgood & Company had written: " T o u c h i n g the purchase of the plates of your work ' T h e Poets and Poetry of Europe' w e are of [the] opinion that Messrs Porter and Coates would sell their interest in them to you more willingly, and on more favorable terms than to us. / If you are in communication with them, may w e ask you to inquire, as of your own motion, the terms on w h i c h they would sell the plates to you. / If the plates are in good order, and w e could get them at a fair price w e should be glad to have them." Nothing came of this maneuver.

2834.

T o Charles Wiley

Spooner^

Cambridge June 25 1870 M y Dear Sir, It is difficult, not to say impossible, to give any advice about foreign travel without knowing more in detail your plans and desires. I can therefore answer your letter only in a very general way. Certainly the best method of learning a foreign language is to go at once into a family. M r . Agassiz recommends a friend of his in Paris, Professor Olivier,^ w h o received students in that way. Y o u can find his address in Galignani. In Germany I think I should recommend Dresden; for in addition to the language you will have there the Picture Gallery and fine music, w h i c h are in themselves an education, and a great comfort to a solitary student. 3 57

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These hints perhaps will not be without use and I could not say much more if I were to write a long letter. Hoping that you will have a pleasant tour abroad, I am Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Northwestern University Library, PUBLISHED: Harvey L. Johnson, "Longfellow Advises a Student about Learning Foreign Languages," Modern Language Journal, X X X V I I ( M a y 1 9 5 3 ) , 250. 1. Spooner (d. 1 9 1 1 ) , a Harvard law graduate of 1868, had written to Longfellow from Cincinnati on May 20, requesting information about language study in France and Germany. 2. Juste Daniel Olivier ( 1 8 0 7 - 1 8 7 6 ) , Svifiss poet and expatriate, kept a school in Paris until he returned to Switzerland in 1 8 7 1 .

2835.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. June 26. 1870. My Dear Greene, I hesitate about a "subscription paper in letter form."i It would be rather awkward to send it to people; and a great trouble to you personally. I should prefer a general subscription paper in the usual form; and this, or something of the kind you should certainly have, or you will forget the names sent in to you. A list of names would have influence of course with any publisher. I still hope that "Vincent Butler of Weybosset St." will be induced to take hold of this part of the business, if Putnam hesitates or declines, when the work is finished, which I think he will not do. I was at Nahant two days ago, and found my house had been broken open, and a complete dinner-set of crockery stolen. What an absurdity it is to have two houses! One is trouble enough. The travellers^ got back from Niagara last night, all well and happy, as young people only can be. Always H.W.L Thank Anna for her nice letter, which I shall answer soon. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. In a letter of June i Greene had written: "Would it not be well to have a subscription paper in letter form and print these names on it and get as many more as I can, so as to be all that much the stronger when it comes to negotiating with Putnam for the publication?" 2. That is, Ernest Longfellow and his wife and Alice Longfellow.

358

CAMBRIDGE, 2836.

To James Thomas

1870

Fields Camb. June 28. 1870.

M y Dear Fields, Concerning the "Handful of Translations." Shall they go into the August No. as follows? Consolation. By Malherbe. T h e Angel & the Child. Reboul. M y Secret. Arvers. Remorse. Count Platen Wanderer's Night Songs. Göthe Santa Teresa's Book Mark If to appear at all in the Magazine, the sooner the better.^ How hot it is! And yet I envy you, who are not going away from home. Is not Boston seaside enough? In great haste and heat H.W.L P.S. Are you coming out to hear Holmes tomorrow?If the weather permits I shall come in tomorrow or next day — more likely next day — to take you with me in search of the Blue China. W h y did not the rogues break the windows instead of stealing the plates; it would have saved so much trouble! MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

1. T h e first five poems appeared as " A Handful of Translations" in the Atlantic Monthly, X X V I (September 1 8 7 0 ) , 3 5 9 - 3 6 2 . 2. Holmes delivered the Phi Beta Kappa address at Harvard on June 29. See Mechanism in Thought and Morals . . . With Notes and Afterthoughts (Boston, 1871).

2837.

To Isabella Batchelder

James

Camb. June 28 1870 Dear Mrs James, I am much obliged to you for your annotations and suggestions.^ This is sound criticism, from which one may profit, as I shall endeavor to do, without delay. With many thanks Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

I. These "annotations and suggestions" are unrecovered.

3 59

THE 2838.

VIRTUOUS

MAN

To Charles Sumner

Camb. June 29 1870. My Dear Sumner, I truly sympathize with you, working on in the heat of Washington, and wish you were here to go with me next week to Nahant. I am afraid you will over-work yourself. Beware in time; for the mischief once done, it is too late — too late! I am glad to hear of Nathan Appleton. He is a very nice, noble youth. But what is he doing in Washington? We have rumors of Motley's recall. Is there any truth in them?^ At the Club dinner on Saturday [June 25] I had a Cabinet Minister on my right, and a General on my left — Mr. Cox^ and Gen. Sherman. Hoar was also present. He seems jubilant at being free once more, tho' he did not say so.'' Ernest and his wife and Alice have just got back from a three weeks' tour to Niagara and Canada. Edith and Annie are in Portland; and in general, life is growing rather lonely. I met Mrs. Agassiz this morning. She says the Professor is decidedly better. They have been for a month or two at Deerfield, and are going to Bethlehem near the White Mountains for the Summer. Dr. Holmes has the Phi Beta Oration to-day. Hating crowds, I do not go, which is shabby of me; but I cannot help it. I like your Speech on penny-postage extremely.^ If that does not convince people, what will? Always Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. A t Sumner's urging, President Grant had appointed Motley minister to England in the spring of 1869; but he recalled him suddenly in 1 8 7 0 after Sumner had broken with the administration over its proposed treaty to annex Santo Domingo. 2. Jacob Dolson Cox ( 1 8 2 8 - 1 9 0 0 ) , former Union general and Secretary of the Interior, 1 8 6 9 - 1 8 7 0 . 3. Hoar ( 2 5 8 7 . 1 ) became Grant's attorney-general in 1869, but had recently retired from the cabinet. 4. Sumner delivered his speech on "One Cent Postage, with Abolition of Franking" on June 10, 1870 (Sumner Works, XIII, 3 8 7 - 4 4 4 ) .

2839.

To Edward Bangs^

Camb. June 30 1870 My Dear Mr Bangs, I have just received your letter, and shall be truly glad to have the Heidelberg Cabinet if you and Mrs Bangs^ are willing to resign it. Aunt Sam once told me that she would leave it to me; but this was many years ago, and I 360

CAMBRIDGE,

1870

supposed she had not thought of it since. I shall prize it very h i g h l y and k e e p it as a sacred memorial of her w h o m w e all loved so aifectionately. I w i l l send this b y Sawin's Express tomorrow. If ready, he will take charge of it. W i t h m a n y thanks Y o u r s truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Boston Public Library. 1. Bangs (2389.3) had written to Longfellow on June 29, offering him a cabinet that had belonged to Mrs. Samuel Appleton. 2. Anne Outram Hodgkinson (1831-1905) married Bangs in England in 1856.

2840.

T o Apfhia

Horner

Howard C a m b . July 2 1870

Dear Mrs. Howard, I have received, read and forwarded to our friend G r e e n e , the excellent article you were kind e n o u g h to send me.^ I am so glad you have f o u n d time to write it, and m e a n to write more in the same vein. It w i i ' do h i m the greatest good; for this is the kind of sympathy and recognition he needs, and has had so litde of. W e are just t a k i n g flight for N a h a n t ; and there no doubt I shall have the pleasure of receiving the other article y o u speak of, w h i c h S u m n e r is to send me.^ T h a n k i n g you in advance for w h a t y o u still h a v e in your inkstand for Greene, Y o u r s truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCBIPT: Haverhill Public Library, ADDRESS: Mrs A. W . H. Howard / Georgetown. / Mass. POSTMARK: illegible. 1. Using the pen name of "Von Vohning," Mrs. Howard wrote an article in the Washington Weekly Chronicle, VII, No. 7 (June 18, 1870) under the column title "Here and There in New England," which contains extracts from Greene's chapter on Baron von Steuben in his Historical View of the American Revolution. 2. This article, also by "Von Vohning" but about Longfellow, appeared in the Weekly Chronicle, VII, No. 10 (July 9, 1870).

2841.

To George Washington

Greene C a m b . July 3. 1870.

M y Dear Greene, I have just had a letter from Mrs. H o w a r d , enclosing the enclosed, w h i c h she requests may be sent to you. Please write her a line or two, saying you have received it. I k n o w it please[s] her to k n o w it pleases you. 361

THE

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MAN

I shall write you next from Nahant, whither we go on Tuesday [July 5]. You know, that I never like going away. It is a dislocation of life, and never pleasant. Always Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection.

2842.

To Edith and Anne Allegra

Longfellow

Camb. July 3 1870. M y Darlings, I must write you a line or two before going to bed, though it is now past ten o'clock. We shall have a noisy night; for the firing has already begun. You are already asleep, and at Highfield you will not hear any noise, unless Wad is abroad with a pistol on purpose to serenade you. We are all busily getting ready for Nahant. I have packed your pictures, and the Grand Piano, and now there is not much to do, but to wait patiently for Tuesday. I hope you are enjoying yourselves very much. Indeed I am sure of it; for you always enjoy yourselves in Portland and at Highfield. Two days ago I went down to the College, and found the College Yard full of the young Freshmen. They had just come out from their Examination, or were just going in, I do not know which. There were ever so many of them, all nicely dressed and standing about in groups, talking together, and no Sophomores in sight to vex their tender souls. I thought them very nice looking, and very gentlemanly. And so good night, Edith, and good night Annie! and good night all at Highfield. Your affectionate Papa. P.S. Tell Uncle Alex, that his box was sent last week. MANUSCRIPT: Massachusetts Historical Society.

2843.

To the President and Fellows of Harvard College

Cambridge July 4 1870. To the President and Fellows of Harvard College, Gendemen, I have the honor to send you herewith the Deed of a parcel of land, being seventy acres, more or less, of the Brighton Meadows on Charles River, 362

N A H A N T ,

1870

presented to you by friends of the College/ whose names are appended to the Deed. I enclose also a cheque for $2600.00 to redeem a mortgage on this land amounting to $2500.00, and to pay six months' interest on the same, from Jan. I. to July I. 1870. being $100.00. This mortgage is held by Mr. Witherell, in the employ of Messrs Grover and Baker, corner of Washington and Waltham Sts. Boston; and the land would have been presented without this encumbrance but for his unwillingness to relinquish the mortgage before maturity. With best wishes for the prosperity of the College and the sincere hope that this land will prove of future, if not immediate benefit, I am, Gentlemen, Your Obt. Sert. Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT;

Harvard University Archives.

I. A penciled draft of this letter, undated, is among Longfellow's business papers in the Longfellow Trust Collection. Accompanying the draft, on a separate sheet, is a list of the "friends of the College" with the sum subscribed by each: "H.W.L. N . Thayer T.G.A. A. A. Lawrence Sam Batchelder Mrs. J. Greenleaf A. K. P. Welch W . L. Whitney C.A.L. E.W.L. Alice Edith Annie Mr. [Martin] Brimmer

3.297.87 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 500.00 500.00 500.00 500.00 500.00 500.00 500.00 500.00

Both the draft and the list are in Longfellow's hand.

2844.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant July 10. 1870. M y Dear Greene I did not receive your letter^ till yesterday, which will account for the delay of my answer; there being no post to-day; and yesterday's being already gone when the letter came. I enclose the cheque as you desire; and will wait for Larned's action in the matter.® I am glad you have finished your Siege of Ninety Six; and that you can

363

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perfume its pages with a remembrance of Alba Longa.® Bitter-sweet memories! They have a taste of the rind of life in them, but nevertheless are sweet with the sweetness of youth. We have been here —now nearly a week. The air is delightful; and most things unchanged : The same wind blowing, The same sea flowing, Only the beholder Grown three years older. We have a new church, and a new steam-boat landing; and litde else that is not as old as the oldest inhabitant. I wish the Fainéant [Lazy] Congress would rise, and let Sumner loose. I agree with him about the Chinese;^ and about striking the word white out of every law of the land.® Of course, you do. Always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Unrecovered. 2. Greene had asked Longfellow to advance him $50 until Edwin Channing Larned's check for that amount arrived. 3. For Greene's description of his grandfather's unsuccessful siege of Ninety Six, South Carolina, May 22-June 19, 1 7 8 1 , see The Life of Nathanael Greene (Boston and N e w York, 1 8 9 7 ) , III, 2 9 9 - 3 1 7 . T h e reason for Longfellow's reference to Alba Longa, the ancient city of Latium said to have been destroyed by Tullus Hostilius in 665 B.c., is obscure. 4. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sumner wrote a report dated June 24, 1870, which advocated the return to China of any surplus remaining of the Chinese Indemnity Fund after the payment of all just claims (Sumner Works, XIII, 4 4 5 - 4 7 0 ) . 5. On July 2, 1870, Sumner moved an amendment to a bill to amend the naturalization laws, as follows: "That all Acts of Congress relating to naturalization be, and the same are hereby, amended by striking out the word 'white' wherever it occurs, so that in naturalization there shall be no distinction of race or color" (Sumner Works, XIII, 474). T h e amendment failed.

2845.

To Edith and Anne AUegra Longfellow

Nahant July 12 1870 My Darlings, I pass a good many times every day two open doors leading into two empty bed rooms, and I was saying to myself this morning, that it was about time for somebody to come and live in those rooms. Soon after Edith's letter arrived, and I found that somebody was thinking

364

NAHANT,

1870

the same thought. T h e n I made u p my mind to go after that somebody; and shall do so tomorrow ( W e d n e s d a y ) or the next day, taking the three o'clock train at L y n n . i I am very glad you have enjoyed your visit so much; and hope you will enjoy N a h a n t as well. T h e wind is blowing merrily, and it looks like rain. U n c l e T o m , Ernest and M r . Peterson^ have just got back from Marblehead in the Alice. T h e y have been to a Yacht race. Good night, my Darlings. Your affectionate Papa. MANUSCRIPT; Massachusetts Historical Society. 1. According to his journal, L o n g f e l l o w w e n t to Portland on July 13 and returned to N a h a n t with Edith and A n n i e on July 16. 2. T h a t is, Johan Erik Christian Petersen ( 2 5 5 3 . 2 ) .

2846.

T o Charles

Sumner Nahant

July 18 1870

M y Dear Sumner, I have just received your letter, and deplore with you the removal of Motley.' It is a gross insult to him; and a very disreputable act to all concerned in it. A n d now, it seems, the office is to go a begging, like the Spanish throne, and finally w e shall have some Yahoo sent out to disgrace us. I am glad you are released, and hope that as soon as possible you will come to me. I have a room for you, and all things necessary for your comfort in a small way; and in a large way, gladness to see you. I never knew N a h a n t in finer flavor than this year. It is a delight to look at the sea; and as for the air, none is so good for me. Thalatta! Thalatta! A n d then to think of the daily chowder! W h y no Bouillibaise of Aries or Marseilles can compare with it! So make all speed you can, and make glad the heart of Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: L o n g f e l l o w T r u s t Collection. I.

See

2847.

2838.1.

To ]ames Thomas

Fields

N a h a n t July 21 1870 M y Dear Fields, W i l l you send me a copy of " N e w England Tragedies" and of Carlyle's Translation of " W i l h e l m Meister," and pass to my account. 365

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W e hope to see you and Mrs. Fields at dinner soon. O u r dinner hour is 3.30. on W e e k days, and i o'clock on Sunday. C o m e as soon as the hot weather makes the sea attractive. I have read your Dickens Paper with great interest and satisfaction. It is very good, neither overdone nor underdone.^ If you think of it, ask Mr. [John Spencer] Clark if Bigelow sent him the new title-page of "Poets and Poetry" for the copy-right. It is too hot to write, even here at Nahant. So "no more at present." H.W.L. P.S. A n anonymous letter from O h i o suggests that the line, "Some one hath done a wrong, hath done a wrong," in the Bell of Atri, should read "Some one hath done a wrong, a wrong, a wrong." But that is too much like "fol-de-rol-deray." MANUSCRIPT: Henry E. Huntington Library. I. "Some Memories of Charles Dickens," Atlantic

Monthly,

X X V I ( A u g u s t 1870),

^35-245·

2848.

T o William

Dean

Howells N a h a n t , July 23, 1870

M y dear Mr. Howells: Pardon my long delay answering your letter. T h e indolence of the seaside has been too m u c h for my good resolutions. I have no objection to Professor Brunetta's interlinear translation of "Evangeline" though the idea does not particularly elate me.^ I should prefer, I think, a literal translation, printed opposite the original after the French fashion. But perhaps that would not answer his purpose. H e shall do as he pleases. I have found just this in Cambridge the other day,^ w h e n I went up to see Lowell. H e was sitting in his study, as if he had not been away ten minutes, and the Aldrich occupation was as if it had not been. I beg you to give my kind regards to Mrs. Howells, and to believe me always, Yours very truly, Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from mimeographed logue List N o . 1.306, Item 36, p. 4 ( M a r c h 1 9 5 6 ) .

transcript,

Van

Arsdale

Cata-

1. Eugenio Brunetta was the "Biondini" of w h o m Howells wrote in " A Y o u n g Venetian Friend" in Harper's Monthly, C X X X V I I I ( M a y 1 9 1 9 ) , 827-833. T h e two met in Venice in 1862 and became lifelong friends. Brunetta, w h o now lived in Verona, where he taught in a technical school, did not publish his translation of Evangeline. 2. T h e meaning is obscure, the result possibly of a faulty transcription.

366

NAHANT, 2849.

T o James Thomas

1870

Fields Nahant

July 29 1870.

M y Dear Fields, You see by the spreading of the ink, that this is a soft, misty day. Life by the sea-side becomes a dream. I only dream, that I am writing to you, to say that I shall not be able to go to town tomorrow for the [Saturday] Club Dinner, as Mr. C. A. Longfellow of the Yacht Dauntless* is expected here, and I cannot be absent on such an occasion. I have dreamed also several times that you came here to dine, but I believe we have only made believe eat and drink together like the Barmecide and the Barber's Sixth Brother, and that the real dinner is yet to come.^ I have dreamed moreover that I went to Portland last week, and on arriving walked two miles into the country after sunset, and came to a cottage, and saw through the open door Perabo sitting at a piano-forte, playing to a company of girls;® that the next day we went down the harbor in a vessel belonging to the Coast Survey;^ that I became so nautical, that on our safe return to port, I bought a thermometer, a barometer and a chronometer; and that the merchant threw into the bargain a Nautical Almanach, from which I learned, that "A mackerel sky and mares' tails Make tall ships carry low sails." T h e n I dreamed about coming back to Nahant; and that the weather was very hot, which I knew could not possibly be true because I was by the seaside! And that I went to a Spiritualist Séance, and saw the Medium elongated, which I knew was true, because he was lifting his shoulders and standing on his toes. He said he felt his ribs drawn apart. I asked him how it was with his back bone and spinal marrow. He modestly answered that he did not know; he had not thought of that. He was pleased at being called Count Cagliostro, and many in the audience considered his performances very wonderful." But nothing seems strange in a dream, however wonderful in reality. And now I dream that I am sitting in an upper room, by an open window, and have just received a poem called "Ramon's Bride," from a young lady in N e w South Wales, and that you are going to publish it in the Atlantic, and send the authoress an independent fortune! Yours always, dreaming or waking, H.W.L MANUSCBIPT: Boston

Henry E. Huntington

Library,

ADDBESS:

James T .

Fields Esqre /

I. In a transatlantic yacht race from Queenstown to New York, the English Cambria finished on July 27, one hour and ten minutes ahead of Dauntless, owned by Charles

367

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Longfellow's friend James Gordon Bennett, Jr. ( 2 4 3 2 . 1 ) . Charles served as a member of the Dauntless crew. 2. According to the tale in the Arabian Nights, a Barmecide prince served an imaginary meal to Schacabac, the "Barber's Sixth Brother," who went along with the jest and consequently earned a real meal. 3. " W e n t to Cambridge; then to Portland for the girls. Found no one at the old house. Walked to Highiield, and there was Aunt Anne and the rest Ustening to [Johan Ernst] Perabo, playing the Pianoforte" ( M S Journal, July 1 3 , 1 8 7 0 ) . 4. " W e all went down the harbor to Diamond Cove in the Meredith" ( M S Journal, July 14, 1 8 7 0 ) . 5. Longfellow here departs from the actual chronology of events. According to his journal, he went to a spiritualist séance at the home of William Mountford on July 7. For Count Cagliostro, see 2 1 2 2 . 3 .

2850.

To Charles Colcock Jones, Jr.

Nahant July 30 1870 My Dear Sir, The copy of your "Reminiscences of Gen. Henry Lee,"^ which you were so kind as to send me, has been forwarded to me at this place, and I have read it with great interest. I congratulate you upon your work and the beautiful manner in which it has been given to the public. Accept my best thanks, I beg you, and believe me Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Duke University Library. I. Reminiscences bany, N . Y . , 1 8 7 0 ) .

2851.

of the Last Days,

To George Washington

Death

and Burial

of General

Henry

Lee

(Al-

Greene

Nahant Aug 8 1870. My Dear Greene, Yours, with its enclosure came safe, and should have been acknowledged sooner. ^ Put it down to the heat. Sumner passed last week with me here. He is very strong and well. I never saw him looking better. He enjoyed the laziness of sea-side life, and the sea air; and lay for hours in a hammock reading "Lothair."^ Vincent Butler was here this morning. I urged upon him the agency of your book. He says he will think of it, and take it if possible. Sumner promises to speak to him on the subject; and I hope it will be brought about. I see that you have a paper in Putnam,® but I have not read it, not receiving that magazine. 368

NAHANT,

1870

I send you to-day from a paper, an account of Woodman's failure. It seems to be a very bad business; most deplorable in every point of view.^ Hoping that you are all well, and that the book is marching on. Yours always H.W.L. P.S. The news this morning is of great Prussian victories!® MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Greene had written on August 2 and enclosed Larned's check for $ 5 0 . See 2844.2. 2. Benjamin Disraeli's political novel had only recently been published. 3. "Our Earliest Annalist," Putnam's Magazine, V I (August 1 8 7 0 ) , 1 6 7 - 1 7 2 . 4. A n account of Horatio Woodman's bankruptcy, with a list of his many creditors and the sums owed each, appeared in the Boston Advertiser, C X V I , No. 3 2 (August 8, 1870). 5. T h e Franco-Prussian W a r had begun on July 19. On August 8 Longfellow read of Prussian victories in Alsace on August 4 - 6 , which led to the decisive Battle of Sudan on September i and the Siege of Paris, September 15-January 28, 1 8 7 1 .

2852.

To Winckworth Allan Gay

Nahant Aug 16. 1870. My Dear Mr. Gay, The little box of cigars came safely, and rejoiced the lazy smokers of Nahant. Many thanks for your kind remembrance; and this contribution to the comfort of the summer. This is a beautiful, windless day. If a breeze springs up Appleton starts in his yacht for Portland, taking with him Ernest and his wife and Alice. The family will be cut down to the water's edge — to speak nautically, as a man must, who is by the seaside, and the proud owner of a ship's clironometer and an Aneroid barometer! Farther than this there is nothing new at Nahant. Nothing but silence, and the great sea, and the lazy life on verandahs, or an occasional friend from town. With kind messages from all. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Columbia University Library.

369

THE 2853.

VIRTUOUS

MAN

To james Thomas Fields

[Boston] Thursday 1.30 [August 18, 1870] My Dear Fields, I can find neither you nor Fechter; and I want to ask on what day next week you can and will come and dine with me at Nahant, at 3.30. You can come down in the 2.20 boat and return at 6; or drive across to take an evening train. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

2854.

Smith College Library.

To James Thomas Fields

Nahant Aug 22 1870. My Dear Fields, I did not mean to make your coming depend on Fechter. Your day, — that is, yours and Mrs. Fields', is something sacred and apart; a gala day, a Field day. Only fix it a day or two beforehand, if you can, so that I shall not accept any invitation and be out of the way. I thought perhaps in addition, on your way to Gloucester, I mean Manchester, you might stop here by taking the 2.20 boat, and dine, bring[ing] the great tragedian with you. Do not trouble yourself about this. There is time enough; and we will speak of it when we meet. I hear Sumner's voice, not to say boots, on the piazza below, and close suddenly all further communication with you for the present. Yours truly H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Henry E. Huntington Library.

2855.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant Sept 2 1870 My Dear Greene, I congratulate you with all my heart, that you have rolled that heavy stone well over the hill-top! But do not stop to take breath, till you trundle it fairly down the other side by the shove of the final chapter.^ What a Summer record you have, while I have been idling here by the sea, wasting the lovely, irreparable days! I hear nothing further from Vincent Butler; for you know he flits away, and is no longer seen, till it pleases him to alight once more. I feel pretty confident, however, that we shall enlist him. Sumner has promised his aid, and that will be powerful. 370

NAHANT,

1870

I am aghast at the horrible massacre of men going on in Europe, to satisfy the pride of two Kings.- When will nations see that Kings are worse than useless? We stay here till the middle of the month. Then I shall look for a charming visit from you in Cambridge. I am afraid to ask you here, for fear of the weather. Ha\'e you spoken with the Governor about the School project?^ Always Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Greene had written in a letter of August 30: "I have just finished the war and got Gen. G. back to private life. T w o more quiet chapters will complete the story and they are easily written." 2. T h e King of Prussia (William I ) and the Emperor of France (Napoleon I I I ) . 3. Nothing is known of this project.

2856.

To Aubrey Thomas de Vere^

Nahant Sept 3.1870. Dear Mr Aubrey de Vere, I have had the very great pleasure of receiving your most friendly letter, and also the volume of "May Carols,"^ for both of which accept, I beg you, my warmest thanks. The poems I have read carefully and with great interest; not with such complete sympathy, perhaps, as if I were of your faith, instead of being a protestant; but still with sympathy enough to give me an understanding heart. The book is written with great fervor, and certainly solves the problem that devotional themes are "capable of a genuine poetic expression." The volume of "Selections" never reached me. Whether your New York publisher is to blame for this, I know not.® I often think with much pleasure of our midnight meetings at the Langham, and wonder if they, or any thing like them, will ever come again. I enjoyed England so heartily, that I do not like to think, that I shall never see it any more. When you see Lady Herbert I beg you to offer my kindest regards and remembrances. I write this from the seaside; but go back to Cambridge soon. Always Yours faithfully Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

1. De Vere ( 1 8 1 4 - 1 9 0 2 ) , Irish poet, critic, and essayist, had become acquainted with Longfellow in London in 1868. 2. First published in London in 1857. 3 7 I

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3. In a letter of July i z , 1870, de Vere had written: " I trust you received safely a copy of a Vol. of 'Selections' from my poems published last year by Mr Kehoe of New York; — I requested him to send you one." The volume is unidentified.

2857.

To Charles Eliot Norton

Nahant Sept 8 1870. My Dear Charles, An hour ago I had the great pleasure of receiving your very interesting letter from Siena, and make all haste to reply to it, remembering that somewhere in my portfolio lie two unfinished letters to you, one dated Rome, the other Cambridge. You will see by the date of this, that we are still lingering by the seaside. The autumnal weather is all splendor. You can not beat us there, though I confess that the Villa Spannocchi^ is larger than the Wetmore cottage. So far as I am personally concerned, I am satisfied that I made a great mistake in not staying longer in Europe. You were wiser, and have your reward. I am still hungry for more. Enough is decidedly not so good as a feast. No one is ever quite satisfied, till he gets too much. Your opinion of France and Prussia is also mine, and that of most Americans. Now that the Empire is no more, let there be war no more; and Vive la République! for as Emerson sings, (though you would hardly know he was singing), "The Lord said; I am tired of Kings."^ Agassiz is still among the White Mountains. I hear reports of his being better, but none of his being well. I am afraid — I am afraid. What Lowell is doing I do not know. He has had Tom Hughes with him, but I did not succeed in getting them here to dine and have not seen the Rugby boy. Mr. Godkin,^ I understand, has been offered a Professorship of History at Cambridge, and has declined. The University is flourishing under its young President^ to one's heart's content. A few of us have just presented seventy acres of the Brighton meadows, with your name-sake flowing through it, making its favorite flourish of the letter S. During the progress of this transaction I was assailed in the Legislature by an irate member, who accused me of a plot, to buy up lands adjoining the projected Park, and sell to the city at a great advance! So I was ranked among speculators. My vulnerable point was not this, but another, namely, that I wanted to keep the land open in front of my own house. It is as good as five hundred dollars in your pocket that you were not here; for you would have been unable to resist my blandishments. Edward Perkins is building a new house at Pine Bank, and Charles an Art Museum in Boston,® as yet on paper. Edward's will be finished first. I wish we had Ruskin here to lecture on Art, and stir people up a little upon 372.

NAHANT,

1870

the subject. The last time I saw him (Ruskin) was at Verona, perched on a ladder, copying some detail of the tomb of Can Grande, over the church door, and representing the coat of arms of the Scala family, in his own person. I admired his enthusiasm, and singleness of purpose. How good his description of the "Democratic fly" is in his last book.® Yet he belongs to the Working Classes, if ever man did. Appleton is well and thriving. He has to-day taken all my girls and boys in the "Alice" to the Yacht Races at Swampscott. We are not without our amusements also. They will all join me in kindest remembrances and greetings to you and yours, and in the hope that your mother is now quite well again. Always affectionately H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library, Baring Bros. / L o n d o n ,

ADDBESS: Charles E . Norton Esq. / Messrs

POSTMARKS: NAHANT MASS SEP 9

1870/BOSTON

SEP 9

PAID / L O N D O N E . C . В 2 1 S P 7 0

1. Norton and his family lived in this villa, built in 1470, for several months in 1870. 2. C f . "Boston H y m n , " 1. 5. 3. Edwin Lawrence Godkin ( 1 8 3 1 - 1 9 0 2 ) , English-born editor of The Nation and close friend of Norton. 4. Charles William Eliot ( 5 8 8 . 4 ) . 5. T h e Boston M u s e u m of Fine Arts, of which Charles Callahan Perkins was a principal benefactor. 6. The Queen of the Air ( L o n d o n , 1 8 6 9 ) , Part ΙΠ, Section 148.

2858.

To Edward Silas Tohey^

Nahant Sept 9. 1870. My Dear Sir, I have had this morning the pleasure of receiving your note, and regret that an engagement tomorrow will prevent me from calling at your office, as you suggest. We return to Cambridge at the end of next week; and will come to see you soon afterwards; though I must say beforehand that I cannot do any more than I have already promised to do. With great regard Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Library of Congress, ANNOTATION ( Ш another hand)·. T h e preceding has reference to aid to Col Baylor I. T o b e y ( 1 8 1 3 - 1 8 9 1 ) , Boston merchant and civic leader, had written to Longfellow on September 8 regarding Mrs. Charles G . Baylor (see 1 4 3 1 . 1 ) : "Mrs. Baylor has to-day handed to me the bills due in Swampscot for the support of her family. If you should deem an interview with me desirable, it will be convenient for me on Satur373

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day at my office at half past nine A M or at any hour between that and 1 2 M . / I shall be glad of another opportunity to explain to you the business relations which Mr Baylor sustains towards me." T h e exact nature of Mrs. Baylor's tangled financial and marital difficulties is unknown, but Longfellow's business papers reveal that he contributed $ 1 8 8 5 to her support over a nine-year period, 1 8 7 4 - 1 8 8 2 .

2859.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Sept 16. 1870 My Dear Greene, We returned yesterday from Nahant, all in good condition, sailing up the harbor in a yacht [the Alice], on the lovely September day. Entering the old house again, was like coming back from Europe. I had a kind of dazed feeling, a kind of familiar unfamiliar sense of place. But in the evening one of my most intimate bores came in, saying "I did not know you had got back, but thought I would come up and see." So he came up and saw, and — I knew that I was in Cambridge! This fact was still farther confirmed to-day; for immediately after breakfast came one of my crazy women; and I had no sooner disposed of her, than there appeared another bore, who occasionally frequents these forests — huge, Hyrcanian, hopeless! There can be no doubt of the fact; I am certainly in Cambridge. Come to me as soon as you can, and we will talk over your Summer's work and my Summer's idleness, and pass some Autumnal Hours, a good deal more agreeable than Drake's.^ Yours always H.W.L P.S. While writing the last line, an Irish woman calls with a Petition to the Governor, to pardon her son in prison for theft, "that he may become, what he is capable of being, an honor to his family and the community." MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. A reference to Evenings in Autumn; a Series of Essays, Narrative and Miscellaneous (London, 1 8 2 2 ) by the English essavist and physician Nathan Drake ( 1 7 6 6 1836).

2860.

To Charles Sumner

Cambridge Sept 18 1870. My Dear Sumner, We have got home, and hope to see you soon. If you can come out to dinner tomorrow, Monday, at 5 o'clock, I shall be happy. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection.

3 74

CAMBRIDGE, 2861.

To an Unidentified

1870

Correspondent

Cambridge Sept 24 1870 Gentlemen, The books have come safely, and I enclose the amount due for them. I am sorry to find that one of the works — Patmore's "My Friends and Acquaintance"' — is imperfect. Vol. I. is wanting; and there [are] two copies of Vol. II. Can the defect be remedied? Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT; Lehigh University Library. I. Peter George Patmore, My Friends and Acquaintance: Being Memorials, Mindportraits, and Personal Recollections of Deceased Celebrities of the Nineteenth Century (London, 1 8 5 5 ) , 3 vols.

2862.

To Charles Appleton

Longfellow

Camb. Sept 26 1870 My Dear Charlie, On receiving your letter, I sent at once in pursuit of the canvas bag marked C.A.L. and got for answer, that you had telegraphed for it, and that it had been sent to you. Is it all right? I hope you have had cooler weather in New York than we had here. Last week was very oppressive. Ernie and Hattie go to Manchester this morning. Alice is in Portland. I have Mr. Greene to keep me company. Always affect[ionatel]y H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, of J . G . B e n n e t t J r . E s q r . / N e w Y o r k ,

2863.

ADDRESS: Mr. C. A. Longfellow / Care POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS, SEP 2 6

To Henry Clay Lukens^

[Cambridge] October 6, 1870. I hope you will pardon my long delay in answering yours of August 4th, and thanking you for the handsome volume that came with it. My excuse is that I was absent from Cambridge when the parcel came, and did not return until a few days ago. I wish I could sympathize more fully than I do with this kind of writing, and consequently enjoy it more; but I confess that I have rather a dislike to it. A parody or travesty of a poem is apt to throw an air of ridicule about the original, though made with no such intention, and on that account they are 375

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unpleasant to me, however well they may be done. In fact, the better they are done, the worse they are in their effects; for one cannot get rid of them, but ever after sees them making faces behind the original. Excuse this dissertation, and accept my thanks all the same. MANUSCRIPT: u n r e c o v e r e d ; text f r o m Life, III, 1 5 8 - 1 5 9 . I. Lukens ( b . 1 8 3 8 ) , Philadelphia journalist, had sent Longfellow his burlesque of Gottfried August pathetic Ballad

2864.

Biirger's

Lenore

entitled

Lean'nora;

a Supernatural

though

Suh-

. . . by H . Y . Snekul (Philadelphia, 1 8 7 0 ) .

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Oct 17. 1870. My Dear Greene, Since writing to you I have seen Mr. Lamed and find him firm in his opinion in favor of giving the work to Hurd and Houghton. In your letter to Putnam I have suggested an omission. Perhaps you have some special reason, to me unknown, for asking again for an account of sales.' I am delighted to hear that the Governor will stereotype the whole. That "makes sunshine in a shady place. Come back as soon as you can. Every day lost, delays the publication of the work; and the second volume ought to appear, if possible, in December. Will it be possible? I have fixed Friday as the day for Plymouth with Collector Russell, who writes, "Please notify Professor Greene, and invite him for me." I shall also ask Mr. Lamed.® Sumner cannot go with us. He begins his lecturing tour to-night at Worcester. You will have him in Providence on Wednesday [October 19].* H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow T r u s t Collection. 1. Greene had written on October 1 5 , enclosing a draft of a letter to George Palmer Putnam " w h i c h [if] it expresses your views you will please to send." 2. The

Faerie

Queene,

I, iii, 4. In a letter of October 1 9 , W i l l i a m Greene asked

Longfellow to act on his behalf in the purchase of the stereotype plates, w h i c h

he

wished subsequently to retain as security against his investment. 3 . In a letter of October 1 4 , T h o m a s Russell had offered an excursion to Plymouth aboard a revenue cutter. Longfellow, Greene, and James T . Fields made the trip on October 2 5 . See L i f e , III, 1 5 9 - 1 6 0 . 4 . Sumner delivered thirty-eight lectures in as many days in an effort to raise money for the maintenance of his Washington home and for the publication of his collected works. H e usually spoke on " T h e D u e l between France and Germany, with its Lesson to Civilization" (Sumner

Works,

XIV, 7-85).

376

CAMBRIDGE, 2865.

1870

To William Henry Furness

Cambridge Oct 18 1870 My Dear Sir, I have this morning had the pleasure of receiving your new volume,' and hasten to write a word of thanks and acknowledgment. I shall read it with great interest, and I am sure with delight and profit also. Meanwhile please accept my thanks for your kind remembrance, and believe me, Yours with great regard Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT; University of Pennsylvania Library. I. JesMS (Philadelphia, 1 8 7 1 ) .

2866.

To Robert Charles

Winthrop

Camb. O c t i 8 1870 My Dear Winthrop, Accept my best thanks for your kind remembrance and the copy of your Tribute to the memory of Kennedy,^ which I have read with great interest. It would be a cruel wish, to wish any man, — that he should outlive all his friends; but I almost wish that you may, you say such kindly things of them, and always in the best way. I hope you are all well at Brookline; and ever since our return from Nahant have been intending to drive over to see you; but have been prevented by a thousand little hindrances, and interruptions. I will come before long, however; and meanwhile am, as always, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Massachusetts Historical Society. I. John Pendleton Kennedy had died on August 18. Winthrop delivered his tribute on September 8. See the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, i869~ 1870 (Boston, 1 8 7 1 ) , 3 5 4 - 3 6 5 .

2867.

To George Lowell Austin^

Camb. Oct 24 1870. My Dear Sir, I return enclosed the story of "The Two Good little boys and the Diamond Pin," and am more than ever convinced that the whole subject should be avoided in your article.^ 3 77

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I am not sufficiently familiar with Mr. Brown's paintings to form any very decided opinion of their merits.^ In great haste Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

unrecovered; text from photocopy, University of Washington Library.

1. Austin ( 1 8 4 9 - 1 8 9 3 ) , Cambridge physician and author, subsequently wrote The History of Massachusetts (Boston, 1 8 7 6 ) and an early biography of Longfellow (Boston, 1 8 8 3 ) . 2. This article, if it was published, is unlocated. 3. In a letter of October 19 Austin revealed that he was vnriting an article for the Atlantic Monthly on the Boston artist George Loring Brown ( 1 8 1 4 - 1 8 8 9 ) , and he asked to consult with Longfellow on the subject. T h e article does not appear in the Atlantic.

2868.

To William Dean Howells

Camb. Oct. 24 1870 Dear Mr. Howells, I have no objection whatever to its being known, that "I also am an A r c a d i a n . S o is Mrs Sophia May Eckley of Boston, as I learn from the Dedication of "Avenele and Other Poems." by Mrs. Sophia Caulfield.^ Accept my thanks for the tickets to your Lowell Course,® and believe me Always Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

1. See 1435.3. Longfellow refers here to the fact that he was a member of the Arcadia, the Roman academy founded in 1690. 2. Sophia Frances Anne Caulfeild ( 1 8 2 4 - 1 9 1 1 ) , minor English poet, had published Avenele and Other Poems in London in 1870. T h e dedication reads: " T o / Sophia May Eckley / (Member of the Arcadia, Rome) / A Tribute of / Respect & Affection." Miss Eckley, a now forgotten poet, was apparently from Boston, Lincolnshire. 3. During the winter Howells delivered twelve lectures on the "Italian Poets of our Century," later published as Modern Italian Poets ( N e w York, 1 8 8 7 ) .

2869.

To Alexander Wadsworth

Longfellow

Camb. Oct 27 1870. M y Dear Alex. The Tobacco, of the "Durham Breed," has arrived, twenty five pounds in all. You, as the Original Discoverer, are entitled to any portion of this. Please let me know how much you would like. The price is $ i .05 per pound. We are glad to have Alice back again after her long visit at Highfield, which she enjoyed extremely.

378

CAMBRIDGE,

1870

Mr. Greene is here and entertained with delight the idea of going down for a day or two in the Meredith — to the shores of the Penobscott next Summer. I am sure I hope we shall be able to bring it about. The enclosed is for Bessy. Yours, with much love from all, H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow

Trust

E | |sqre| I / P o r t l a n d . / M e .

2870.

Collection,

ADDRESS:

Alex.

W.

Longfellow

POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS ОСТ 2 8

To Sebastian Benson Schlesinger

Camb. Oct 31 1870 Dear Mr Sch[l]esinger, I am very sorry I was not at home this afternoon when you did me the favor to call. It will give me great pleasure to dine with you on Saturday next [November 5], at six o'clock.^ Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. I. "Dined with Mr. Schlesinger at the La Grange hotel, to meet two Englishmen, one a member of Parliament named Jones, the other a barister, name unknown. Lowell, Fields, young Captain Oliver, Leonard, the musician, and Collector Russel[l] were the other guests. After dinner, music" ( M S Journal, November 5, 1 8 7 0 ) . John Jones ( i 8 1 0 - 1 8 8 6 ) of Blaenos, Wales, was a Member of Parliament from Carmarthenshire, 1 8 6 8 - 1 8 8 0 . Among the other guests, heretofore unidentified, one was possibly Capt. James Ambrose Oliver ( 1 8 3 0 - 1 9 1 2 ) , a Civil War hero, raised in Germany, whose father of the same name was a sea captain; and the other certainly Hugo Leonhard, pianist, who had played in the symphony concert of the Harvard Musical Association on November 3 at the Boston Music Hall.

2871.

To Fields, Osgood & Company

Camb. Nov i. 1870. Gentlemen, The copy of Dante vol III. was forwarded to Baron Tauchnitz according to promise, and was published by him in 1867.^ I think that I have an extra copy in sheets, and if I have, I shall be happy to send it to him, as he may wish to complete a set of the original edition, and the sheets sent may have been destroyed. I will see to it tomorrow. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow 3 79

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MANUSCRIPT: Haverford College Library. I . In a letter of October 29, Fields, Osgood & Company had written: " W e received this morning a note from Messrs. Leypoldt & Holt requesting us to send, with bill, an unbound copy of Vol. I l l of Dante for Baron [Christian Bernhard] Tauchnitz."

2872.

T o ]ohn Henry

Clifford^

Camb. N o v 4. 1870. Dear M r Clifford, I send you herewith the passage on Anaesthesia, from " D u Bartas, His Divine Weekes and V\/orkes," ( i 5 4 4 - 1 5 9 0 ) Translated into English by Joshua Sylvester, Gent. 1633. Du Bartas was a calvinist and captain in the army of Henry of Navarre, and died of wounds received at the battle of Ivry. With great regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow Even as a Surgeon, minding ofF-to-cut Some cureless limb, before in use he put His violent Engins on the vicious member, Bringeth his Patient in a senseless slumber. And griefless then, (guided by Use and A r t ) T o save the whole, sawes off th' infested part; So God empal'd our Grandsire's lively look. Through all his bones a deadly chilness strook, Siel'd up his sparkling eyes with iron bands Led down his feet (almost) to Lethe's Sands, In briefe so numm'd his Soule's and Bodie's Sense, That (without pain) opening his side, from thence He took a rib, which rarely he refin'd. And thereof made the Mother of Mankinde. MANUSCRIPT: New NOV

Massachusetts Historical Society,

Bedford

POSTMARKS:

CAMBRIDGE

ADDRESS:

Hon John H .

Clifford/

| | S T A M A S S | | NOV 4 / N E W B E D F O R D

MASS

4

I . Clifford C 1 8 0 9 - 1 8 7 6 ) , president of the Boston and Providence Railroad Company, had prosecuted Professor John W . Webster for the murder of Dr. George Parkman ( 1 0 7 6 . 2 ) and served as governor of Massachusetts, 1 8 5 3 - 1 8 5 4 .

380

CAMBRIDGE, 2873.

1870

To Porter & Coates

Camb. Nov8 1870 Gentlemen, I have had the pleasure of receiving the eight copies of "Poets and Poetry of Europe," and also your two letters with your cheque for $555.00, which 1 hereby acknowledge with many thanks. The volume makes a handsome appearance, and is a very decided improvement on the previous ones. I am sorry for the mistake about the "Index of Authors"; but it can be remedied by putting it at the end of the volume, pp. xix to xxiv inclusive. In former editions this list stands at the end of the book, and that is really the best place for it.^ Hoping that the reception and sale of the work will satisfy your expectations, I am Yours faithfully Henry W. Longfellow unrecovered; text from photocopy, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

MANUSCRIPT:

I. T h e two letters from Porter & Coates were dated November i and November 4. In the former the publishers wrote: " T h e arrangement of the contents of the body of the work and that of the supplement and likewise the two indices of authors and lists of books referred to, all in the beginning of the book, is not satisfactory. W e should have preferred to let the supplemental index, contents and list of authorities follow page 776, but Mes Welch Bigelow & Co in paging the supplement made no allowance whatever for them and we were compelled to place them in their present position."

2874.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Nov. 14 1870. My Dear Sumner, Palfrey did not send me the enclosed till this evening, and that is the reason why I have not sent it to you sooner. These are happy days at Argyll Lodge and at Inverary; and well they may be; for the Princess is a lovely woman in her own right, and quite apart from her royal birth.^ Where are you now? In what remote and comfortless "best chamber" are you at this moment undergoing your lecturer's Purgatory? Being at Smith's^ to-day I saw a parcel directed to you, and heard him say that your things were to be forwarded to Washington. So I will follow suite, and send this letter there. Yesterday I had a letter from Sam Ward, who has just returned from Europe. He also is on his way to Washington. Miss Nilsson® is now stirring the hearts of the Bostonians. She is a charming person, as well as a beautiful singer; a true daughter of the North. She dines with me on Thursday [November 17]; and I wish you could be with us. 3 8 1

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Farther than this, I have no news to send you. So good night; and God bless you. H.W.L. P.S. U p o n reflection this letter may reach you sooner if sent to Boston. So be it. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. John Douglas Sutherland Campbell ( 1 8 4 5 - 1 9 1 4 ) , son of the D u k e and Duchess of Argyll ( 1 6 1 4 . 5 and 1 6 4 9 . 1 ) and subsequently ninth D u k e of Argyll, had recently become engaged to H . R . H . Princess Louise Caroline Alberta ( 1 8 4 8 - 1 9 3 9 ) , fourth daughter of Queen Victoria. T h e y were married on March 21, 1871. 2. A n express office at 32 Court Square, Boston. 3. Christine Nilsson ( 1 8 4 3 - 1 9 2 1 ) , Swedish operatic soprano and violinist.

2875.

T o Henry Druke

Wireman^ Cambridge

N o v 16 1870

M y Dear Sir, I have this morning had the pleasure of receiving your translation of "Lenore," and hasten to thank you for it, for fear that with my many occupations and interruptions, I might delay it too long. I am glad to see by your Preface, how fully you recognize the necessity of preserving the form of the Original, neglect of which has given the world so many bad translations. It cannot be too often and too strenuously insisted on. In regard to the poem itself, I shall read it with great interest and care. So I cannot read it in a hurry; but must take my time. M e a n w h i l e accept my best thanks, and believe me, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT; Pennsylvania State University Library (Allison-Shelley Collection). I. W i r e m a n ( 1 8 4 5 - 1 8 9 6 ) , a lawyer of Philadelphia, had sent Longfellow a copy of his translation of Gottfried August Bürger's Lenore. A Ballad (Philadelphia, 1 8 7 1 ) . See A Select Assembly of Notable Books and Manuscripts from the Allison-Shelley Collection of Anglica Americana Germanica (Pattee Library, Pennsylvania State University, 1 9 7 2 ) , where Wireman's translation is discussed, pp. 7 7 - 7 9 , and Longfellow's letter reprinted, p. 79.

2876.

T o George Washington

Greene

C a m b . N o v . 18. 1870. M y Dear Greene, Suppose w e say T u e s d a y next [November 22]?! W i l l that day be agreeable to the Governor? If so, I will come in the 11 o'clock train, and return in the evening. N o postponement on account of weather. Let me know as soon as convenient. 382

CAMBRIDGE,

1870

T h i s week I have been too full of engagements and half-engagements, the worst thieves of time ever invented by the archfiend. It is a dull, gray day; fire flapping in the grate; chimney singing its weird song; storm of rain or snow impending in the air. I will go and walk before the sky falls; and put this into the post. But not before telling you that I have heard the lovely Nilsson sing, and have had her here at dinner. She is charming; and I think I like herself even better than her singing, beautiful as that is. Addio. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. According to the M S Journal, Longfellow dined with William Greene in East Greenwich on this day.

2877.

T o Cecilia Viets Dakin

Hamilton^ C a m b . N o v 18. 1870.

Dear Mrs Hamilton, I have delayed answering your last letter, because I wished to say a word of your Novel, and it was only this morning that I received the last proofs, and read the last words of it.^ So far from having any reason to be doubtful and discouraged about it, you have every reason to be hopeful and trustful. It is very interesting, and full of beautiful descriptions and nice discrimination of character; though unequal in parts, and not always sustained to its highest level. O n e can see that you are accustomed to write for the press, by certain negligences of style here and there. Y o u are, to use Dante's words, "l'artista, C h ' ha l'abito dell'arte, e man che trema."·'' I speak, you see, frankly, and hope you will not I am sure take my frankness in ill part. I am truly sorry, that all your expectations have not been realized in N e w York. D o not be discouraged. H o p i n g to have the pleasure of seeing you w h e n you return at Christmas, always with sincere regard. Yours truly H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Massachusetts Historical Society. I. Mrs. Hamilton ( 1 8 4 4 - 1 9 0 9 ) , later Mrs. Jamison, had met Longfellow in Rome, where she was studying painting in 1868-1869. After her return to America he lent her money, encouraged her in a writing career, read her manuscripts, arranged for the 383

THE

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publication of her books, and listened patiently to her many complaints of ill health and public neglect. 2. T h e proof sheets of this novel, Woven of Many Threads (Boston, 1870), with Longfellow's annotations and corrections, are in the Massachusetts Historical Society's archives. 3. Paradiso, XIII, 7 7 : "the artist, / W h o has the skill of art and hand that trembles."

2878.

T o Samuel Eliot

Camb. Nov 29. 1870. M y Dear Eliot, I shall not be present at the meeting of your Committee, because I do not wish to serve on this or any Committee.^ I consider myself fairly Emeritus; and if I had been asked should have declined. Please get me excused in the best way you can. I hoped long ere this to have called in Brimmer St. but have been so much occupied with other people's affairs, that I have had no time to attend to my own. I will come before long. Meanwhile I am Yours always Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Boston Athenaeum. I. It is not clear to what committee Longfellow refers.

2879.

T o George Washington

Greene

Camb. Nov 29 1870. M y Dear Greene, I have this morning received from the author a Poem in XXVIII Cantos, on an Indian subject, and filling an octavo volume of 446 pages.^ It begins; "My genrie Muse! Awake and sing Of wigwam, tomahawk and quiver"; and ends; " W e love thee, happy home; we love thee still; And loud respond again to Whippoorwill." T h e best lines I have yet found in it are these; "Such were the solemn rites the throng display'd. And peaceful slept the pious Vareau's shade"; 384

CAMBRIDGE,

1870

which prove that the author has read the last lines of Pope's Iliad,^ if nothing more. I enclose you a cheque for $150, and wish you joy of your windmill.^ Of the Sumner Testimonial I know nothing, never having heard of it before; unless it be the fund raised to defray the expenses of publishing his works, which I supposed to be a secret. I will ask Houghton about his views of publication; and call his attention to the time of the Assembly's Session.^ I have already handed him the paragraphs to go into the Advertisement. Now I will go and hear young Everett® on Virgil. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Teuchsa Grandie. A Legendary Poem (Albany, N.Y., 1 8 7 0 ) by Levi Bishop С 1 8 1 5 - 1 8 8 1 ) , Massachusetts-born Detroit lawyer, poet, and historical writer, who organized the Detroit Pioneer Society in 1 8 7 1 and served as its president until his death. 2. "Such honours Ilion to her hero paid, / And peaceful slept the mighty Hector's shade." 3. In a letter of November 28 Greene had written: " I have this morning seen the owner of the windmill and agreed to take it off for $75. There will be a few dollars repair on one of the sills and the moving — all of which will come within the $ 1 5 0 . Please send me a cheque." In 1875 Greene moved the windmill to the west end of his house and converted it into a library tower. Hence the name "Windmill Cottage" for his home. 4. Greene had inquired about the plans of Hurd & Houghton for publishing his biography, pointing out that the Rhode Island Assembly, which he hoped would buy copies for each member, would be in session through February 1 8 7 1 . 5. William Everett ( 1 8 3 9 - i g i o ) , youngest son of Edward Everett, was tutor and lecturer on classical literature at Harvard, 1 8 7 0 - 1 8 7 7 .

2880.

To Sarah Watson Dana

Camb. Nov 30 1870 Dear Mrs Dana, I accept with great pleasure for my girls your kind invitation. Annie, who happens to be at home, is delighted with the idea of passing Sunday [December 4] with you; and I am sure that Edie, who happens to be out, will be no less so. With many thanks for your thought of them. Yours faithfully Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, boro' St. / Boston.

385

ADDRESS: Mrs S. W . Dana / 79 Marl-

THE 2881.

VIRTUOUS

MAN

To William Fraser Rae^

Cambridge, Dec. i, 1870 My dear Mr. Rae, I have had the pleasure of receiving your "Westward by Rail," and have read it through from cover to cover, with great interest and satisfaction, which I can say of few books on America. It is an honest and true book, and free from exaggeration and all attempt at sensational writing, the fatal stumbling block of travellers here and elsewhere. Accept my best thanks for your kindness in sending it to me, and for the candor, judgment and friendly spirit, with which you have spoken of my country. Your letter came this evening. I heartily agree with you in the opinion that war "is the greatest curse that can afflict a country." It is the most savage form of savagery; and it is time and more than time, that it was abolished and swept from the face of the earth.^ My children, who are all well and flourishing in their quiet way, send you kind remembrances, and with renewed thanks for your excellent book, I am Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow. unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

MANUSCRIPT:

1. Rae ( 1 8 3 5 - 1 9 0 5 ) , English lawyer and journalist, had sent Longfellow a copy of his Westward hy Rail: The New Route to the East (London, 1 8 7 0 ) . 2. In his letter of November 1 5 Rae had described his experiences on the continent as a special war correspondent of the London Daily News.

2882.

To George William Curtis

Camb. Deer. ID 1870. My Dear Curtis I am delighted that you can come to me on the 20th. Come to dinner at 5 o'clock, and stay all night if you can. Such is the Programme, not to be changed except by dire necessity.^ The moon is still shining. I looked out of the window just now, and there it was, making my neighbor's house beautiful, which is more than the architect did. I begin to think that the moon never sets in Cambridge, which accounts perhaps for the number of lunatics here. Your Lecture leaves behind pleasant reverberations.^ Mr. Houghton, (who shall be Mayor hereafter, though we did not succeed in getting him into the gilded coach this year)^ was here this morning, and was loud in its praises. But what I value most, was the exclamation of the old lady on coming out; "Oh dear! what a splendid Lecture!" Like Madelon in the "Précieuses Ridisse

CAMBRIDGE,

1870

cules," "Je trouve ce oh! oh! admirable. J'aimerais mieux avoir fait ce oh! oh! qu'un poème épique."^ Always affect[ionatel]y Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

1 . Longfellow's dinner party on December 20 included Curtis, Thomas Gold Appleton, Lowell, Edwin Channing Lamed, Howells, and Ernest Longfellow ( M S Journal). 2. On December 8 Longfellow had heard Curtis lecture on Dickens and had dined with him afterwards at Larned's ( M S Journal). 3. Henry Oscar Houghton was elected mayor of Cambridge in 1872. 4. Les Précieuses Ridicules, Scene x: " I think that oh! oh! admirable. I would rather have written that oh! oh! than an epic poem."

2883.

To Asahel Clark Kendrick^

Cambridge Dec 12 1870. My Dear Sir, Turning over a pile of papers on my table, I find among them your letter. Perhaps I have already answered it; but I am not sure, and will not trust to the impression. Better twice than never. What I intended to say, and did say, if as I hope, I have already written, — is, that there is no objection whatever to your printing the poems you mention, in your proposed collection, and you have my sanction so to do. Wishing you all success in your work. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

University of Rochester Library.

I. Kendrick ( 1 8 0 9 - 1 8 9 5 ) , professor of classical literature at the University of Rochester, 1 8 5 0 - 1 8 8 8 , had asked permission on October 24 to include " T h e Day is Done," " T h e Arsenal at Springfield," "Nuremberg," "Footsteps of Angels," " T h e Children's Hour," "Resignation," and " A Psalm of L i f e " in his anthology Our Poetical Favorites. A Selection from the Best Minor Poems of the English Language ( N e w York, 1 8 7 1 ) .

2884.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Deer. 13. 1870. My Dear Fields, My memory is not enfeebled to that extent, that I should forget Wednesday evening and six o'clock.' Your "Whispering Gallery" (what an unfortunate division of the word that is!)2 is excellent. I find nothing to question but what I have marked in the margin. 387

THE

V I R T U O U S

M A N

I send you an exact account of what passed between me and Hawthorne in regard to the story of Evangehne. If "the friend from Salem" can be found, I am sure he will corroborate what I say.® H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. "Dined with Fields to meet Bayard Taylor, in honor of the publication of his translation of Faust. The guests were Lowell, Richd. Dana, Howells, Osgood, Aldrich and Holmes" ( M S Journal, December 14, 1870). 2. Longfellow had divided "Gallery" to yield "Whispering Gal-lery." "Our Whispering Gallery," the first in a series of twelve informal essays by Fields, appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, X X V I I (January 1 8 7 1 ) , 1 2 2 - 1 3 7 . 3. This "exact account" is missing. Fields had written on December 2: " I always forget to ask you if Evangeline's story was proposed to Hawthorne first for a romance, and if he suggested it to you for a Poem. I seem to remember he told me this was so" ( M S , Henry E. Huntington Library). The "friend from Salem" is unidentified. See 962.1.

2885.

To Vinœnzo

Botta Cambridge

Dec 1 5

1870

M y Dear Sir, I regret extremely that I shall not be able to attend the Meeting in reference to Italy, nor even meet your wishes in regard to a letter upon the subject.^ I have never taken any active part in politics, nor written a letter of this kind, and am too old to begin. Trusting, therefore, that you will excuse me, I am, with best regards to Mrs Botta,2 Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Yale University Library.

1. Botta had written on December 13 to enlist Longfellow's support of a meeting in New York on January 12, 1 8 7 1 , to celebrate the unification of Italy. 2. Anne Charlotte Lynch ( 1 8 1 5 - 1 8 9 1 ) , author and educator, married Botta in 1855. Her home in New York was a famous literary salon.

2886.

T o William

Dean

Howells Camb. Dec. 2 1 .

1870.

Dear M r . Howells In continuation of our table-talk yesterday about Faust, Io dico

seguitando,^

that I have this morning been reading the Prelude in Taylor's translation. It is certainly a splendid bit of work; and if the whole book is done in this style, 388

CAMBRIDGE,

1870

one's criticism will be limited to single lines and words. I am really delighted with the address and dexterity with which the work is done. Hoping that you are none the worse to-day for yesterday's dinner,^ Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: H a r v a r d C o l l e g e L i b r a r y . 1 . Inferno,

V I I I , I : " I say, c o n t i n u i n g . "

2. See 2 8 8 2 . 1 .

2887.

T o George Washington

Greene C a m b . D e c 22. 1870.

M y Dear Greene, Tomorrow I shall send you a small box, with a f e w packages of English Breakfast T e a for you, and some litde Xmas presents for your wife and the children. T h e silken scarf is from Sorrento. I bought it of the weaver in her cottage, and think it very pretty. T h e agate pin is from the Isle of W i g h t ; the coral from Naples. I am afraid you will not approve of Nat's book; but I do not believe it will permanently injure him. A sled would have been more to the purpose; but as w e have no snow, w e have no sleds. I had a very pleasant dinner here for Curtis on Tuesday; with L a m e d , Lowell, Appleton and Howells. I wish you had been here. But as you would not come to Larned's supper, you could not well come to my dinner. I saw Houghton to-day and urged speed. H e says February will be the month for publication; and means to have, at all events, some specimen copies to show the Rhode Island Assembly. ^ Yesterday I found Folsom sitting patiently under the elm, at the cross-roads, and sat down by him. H e asked if you were gone, and said you had not been to see him, as you promised to do.^ H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: L o n g f e l l o w T r u s t C o l l e c t i o n . 1. S e e 2879.4. 2. L o n g f e l l o w ' s journal entry for D e c e m b e r 21 is more g r a p h i c : " G o i n g to L o w e l l ' s lecture this m o r n i n g f o u n d Folsom sitting u n d e r t h e elm-tree at the cross-streets, and sat d o w n w i t h h i m . S a d sight! Y e t h e is a l w a y s of good cheer. H e seemed to m e like some paralytic in the N e w T e s t a m e n t , w a i t i n g for the T e a c h e r to c o m e and h e a l h i m . "

389

THE 2888.

VIRTUOUS

MAN

To Bayard Taylor

CAMBRIDGE, December 22,, 1870. I was reading the "Prelude" when your letter came. It is an admirable bit of translation, and if the rest is like it, you are safe. I foresee that if any criticisms are to be made, they will be only verbal, and not on the general execution of the work. I read very slowly and deliberately, because I hate a glut of anything, and wish to ponder and enjoy. The after-taste that poetry leaves in the mind is what we really judge it by. Anything that strikes me as dubious I will mark and mention to you when you come again. I am glad you enjoyed the dinner at Fields'. I did extremely. It was a joyful occasion, and I still regret that your wife was not there.

unrecovered; text from Life and Letters of Bayard Taylor, Hansen-Taylor and Horace E. Scudder (Boston, 1 8 8 5 ) , II, 545.

MANUSCRIPT:

2889.

ed. Marie

To Léon Pamphile Lemay

Cambridge, dec'br 24, 1870. My dear Sir, I have had the pleasure of receiving your letter, and your two volumes of poems,^ and hasten to thank you for your great kindness in sending them to me. In looking over your version of "Evangeline," I am again struck by its many beauties, and my former impression is confirmed. I am glad to see that you have made the slight change at the close, thus following more faithfully the original.^ The other volume I have not yet had time to read, but shall do so, carefully and sympathetically, at my earliest leisure. Meanwhile I beg you to accept my warmest thanks for your kind remembrance and to believe me Yours faithfully, HENBY W. LONGFELLOW

unrecovered; text from Paul Morin, Les Sources de l'Œuvre Wadsworth Longfellow (Paris, 1 9 1 3 ) , p. 576.

MANUSCRIPT:

de

Henry

1. Evangeline, traduction du poème acadien de Longfellow (Québec, 1 8 7 0 ) , 2nd edition; Deux Poèmes couronnés par l'Université Laval (Quebec, 1 8 7 0 ) . 2. See Letter No. 2296.

390

CAMBRIDGE, 2890.

1870

To Anna Maria Greene

[Cambridge] Christmas 1870 My Dear Anna, At last I have a good chance to answer your letter, — left so long unanswered, — by wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I send you also "The American Egg-Producer," or rather an advertisement of it, to go with "Hannah and her Chickens."^ I am particularly pleased with the idea of D. W . Andrews, on the second page, who thinks it best to stuff fowls while they are alive. This plan for making hens lay more eggs than they want to lay, strikes me as very comical. What do you think of it? The little (or great) girls in this house are very busy at this moment. They have their cousins here from Portland; and have been all day at work in the kitchen, making all kinds of things for a tea-party they are to give tomorrow evening, at which there is to be nothing, that has not been made by their own hands. Good bye, my darling, and give my love to Kate and Mary and Nat. Your affectionate friend Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

I. T h e enclosure is unrecovered.

2891.

To Charles Sumner

[Cambridge] Xmas. 1870 My Dear Sumner, I wish you a Merry Xmas! As I write the word "merry," the two aruspices look at each other, and smile, not having been very merry for some time past! Well, then, a Happy Xmas, or a Tolerable Xmas or any unobjectionable adjective you may prefer! What shameful assaults your colleagues are making upon you in the Senate; if I may judge from garbled newspaper accounts. I need not say to you "stand firm"; because you cannot stand in any other way. "Non ragioniam di lor."^ Sam Ward writes me that he is coming to young Julia Howe's wedding this week! Think of it. And Laura and Flossy also engaged.2 And it was only yesterday, that we were saying this of their father and mother. Sam is to dine with me on Friday. How I wish you could be here. What are you going to do with your vacation? Yesterday I dined with Palfrey, to meet young Lord Walter Campbell.·'' He is a nice, modest youth. He was here a moment to-day. 391

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

I need not say that this is not a letter — only a salutation. I am so driven by angels and demons — bores, books and beggars — that I can never achieve anything that shall rise to the dignity of a letter. Ever affectionately H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Inferno, III, 51 : "Let us not speak of them." 2. Julia Romana Howe ( 1 8 4 4 - 1 8 8 6 ) married Michael Anagnos ( 1 8 3 7 - 1 9 0 6 ) , Greek patriot and Samuel Gridley Howe's successor as director of the Perkins Institution, on December 3 1 , 1870. Her younger sisters, Laura Elizabeth Howe ( 1 8 5 0 1 9 4 3 ) and Florence Marion Howe ( 1 8 4 5 - 1 9 2 2 ) , were engaged to Henry Richards ( 1 8 4 8 - 1 9 4 9 ) , Harvard graduate of 1869, and to David Prescott Hall ( 1 8 4 5 - 1 9 0 7 ) , a N e w York lawyer. Both were married in 1 8 7 1 . 3. Presumably Walter Douglas Somerset Campbell ( 1 8 5 3 - 1 9 1 9 ) of Islay and Woodhall, although efforts to place him in the United States at this time have not succeeded.

2892.

To James Grant Wilson

[Cambridge, December, 1870] I have read your privately printed volume^ with great pleasure. It is a most interesting life, and the sweet and dignified face of the Chief Justice gives an added grace to it. The powdered hair and white cravat remind me of the old judges and gentlemen of the bar that I used to see when I was a boy in Portland. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; te.xt from W . (Boston, 1 8 8 2 ) , p. 2 1 6 .

Sloane Kennedy, Henry

W.

Longfellow

I. Memorials of Andrew Kirkpatrick, and his wife ]ane Bayard ( N e w York, 1 8 7 0 ) . Kirkpatrick ( 1 7 5 6 - 1 8 3 1 ) was Chief Justice, N e w Jersey Supreme Court, 1 8 0 4 - 1 8 2 4 . Mrs. Kirkpatrick ( 1 7 7 2 - 1 8 5 1 ) "was noted for her accomplishments, benevolence, and beautiful Christian character" QAppleton's Cyclopsedia of American Biography, III, 556).

2893.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Jan [4] 1 8 7 1 ' My Dear Fields, Mr. Jordan came to see me this morning about a complimentary letter and Benefit to Fechter. I told him I would cooperate with you and Holmes and others. I beg you to see Mr. Jordan, and consult about the letter, so that nothing absurd may be done, and particularly that no allusion be made to the late troubles at the Globe.^ That would make us all ridiculous. 392

C A M B R I D G E ,

1871

I a m a f r a i d that not m o r e t h a n three of us c a n c o m e in on S a t u r d a y .

So

t h e r e w i l l be r o o m e n o u g h in t h e B o x . ® Yours always H.W.L P.S. M r . J o r d a n is of the firm of J o r d a n , M a r s h & C o . a p i e c e of i n f o r m a t i o n w h i c h I extracted f r o m h i m b y the u n l u c k y q u e s t i o n , w h e t h e r h e w a s in a n y w a y c o n n e c t e d w i t h the theatre? a question w h i c h the d e m o n s p u t it into m y h e a d to ask. MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

1 . T h e exact date is approximate but coincides with the date of an unrecovered letter to Eben Dyer Jordan ( 1 8 2 2 - 1 8 9 5 ) , senior partner of the Boston firm of Jordan, Marsh & Company, presumably on the same subject (see M S Letter Calendar). Longfellow first wrote " D " before changing to the correct month. 2. Fechter ( 2 7 8 4 . 1 ) undertook the management of the new Globe Theatre in Boston in September 1870 amid high hopes for a permanent repertory company, but after quarreling publicly with one of his actors, James William Wallack ( 1 8 1 8 - 1 8 7 3 ) , he had announced his intention to resign. A testimonial letter, dated January 6, 1 8 7 1 , and signed by Longfellow, Fields, Holmes, Jordan, and others, appeared in the Boston Advertiser, C X V I I , No. 7 (January 9, 1 8 7 1 ) . Fechter gave a benefit performance of Ruy Blas on January 14. 3. Longfellow attended a matinee performance of Black and White, a drama by Fechter and Wilkie Collins, on January 7, accompanied by two of his children and Mr. and Mrs. Fields.

2894.

T o ]ames

Ripley

Osgood Camb. Jan 6

1871.

D e a r M r . Osgood, I h e r e b y a c k n o w l e d g e the receipt of y o u r C h e q u e f o r $ 9 6 5 . 6 7 in settlement of a c c o u n t of 1 8 7 0 a n d also the ten copies of the D i v i n a C o m m e d i a i 2 m o . f o r all w h i c h p l e a s e a c c e p t m y t h a n k s . I return h e r e w i t h M r . H a w k i n s ' s letter; a n d w i s h it w e r e in m y p o w e r to a c c e p t the flattering invitation. B u t r e a l l y I c a n n o t . I m u s t b e c o n t e n t to s h o w m y a f f e c t i o n f o r o u r C o l l e g e in some other way.^ I a m not " T h e E v e r l a s t i n g N o , " t h o u g h I c o m e pretty n e a r it in some things. Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow MANuscBiPT:

Buffalo and Erie County Library.

I. Dexter Arnold Hawkins ( 1 8 2 5 - 1 8 8 6 ) was a Bowdoin graduate of 1848 and a N e w York lawyer. He had requested Longfellow's attendance on January 19 (through Osgood, Bowdoin, 1 8 5 4 ) at the first annual reunion of the Bowdoin Alumni Association of N e w York, of which he was president.

393

THE 2895.

T o George Washington

V I R T U O U S

MAN

Greene Camb. J a n i 3

1871

M y Dear Greene, I enclose y o u a c h e q u e for $200.00 b u t have not time to write you a letter, as the sun is setting, a n d I do not w a n t to lose the mail.^ I am glad the book is going on so bravely. I see it advertized in M r . C h i l d s ' "Literary G a z e t t e . " M a y all good auspices attend it!^ Y o u r s always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trast Collection. 1. Greene's letters of 1871 are unrecovered; he presumably requested the $200 to placate creditors. 2. Vol. II of the Gen. Greene biography was subsequently reviewed in the American Literary Gazette and Publishers' Circular, XVII (May 15, 1871), 39.

2896.

T o Dexter Arnold

Hawkins CAMBRIDGE, Jan. 15, 1 8 7 1 .

MY DEAR SIR: I have had the pleasure of receiving your very kind invitation to attend the first annual reunion of the B o w d o i n A l u m n i Association, and regret extremely that it will not be in m y p o w e r to accept it. M y engagements here render it impossible.^ W i t h m a n y thanks and best wishes for the success of your association, I am, my dear sir. Y o u r s truly, HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. DEXTER A. HAWKINS, ESQ. MANUSCRIPT:

Association p. 25.

unrecovered; text from First Annual Reunion of the Bowdoin Alumni of New York. At Delmonico's, January ¡9, 1871 (New York, 1871),

I. See Letter No. 2894.

2897.

To George Washington

Greene C a m b . Jan 25

1871

M y Dear Greene I am delighted to hear that you are c o m i n g on Friday [January 27]. Shall you get here in season for dinner? D o so if possible. If not, I will have some supper for you. L e t m e k n o w . 394

CAMBRIDGE,

1871

I enclose you one of the top-gallant studding-sails with which Captain Houghton is preparing to sail your three-decker round the Cape of Good Hope in search of the diamond mines of Golconda. I had something to do with the sewing of this sail, and hope it will hold the wind. H.W.L P.S. I was struck for the first time, this morning, with the perfect symmetry of your name, when written out in full; George Washington Greene. You see how Washington stands between a body-guard of six letters on each hand. MANUSCRIPT:

2898.

Longfellow Trust Collection.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Jan 28 1871. My Dear Fields, A poem on "Wind" has been sent me by its author for my opinion of its merits, with a view to its publication in some Magazine. Would you like it for the Atlantic? If so I will send it; and even now send one Stanza as a specimen, that you may judge. "O tell me gentle zephyrs That float along the vale. Are you a near relation Of the fitful stormy gale? О tell me breath of incense That wafts the sweets of flowers. Are you a blood relation Of the storm that darkly lowers?"^ I am truly sorry that I cannot be at the Club to-day; particularly as Greene, who has just come in, tells me that Whittier is to be there. Will you remind Mr. Osgood that he has never sent me a copy of "Woven of Many Threads," the proofs of which I so diligendy read.^ Yours ever H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

1 . This specimen persuaded Fields not to accept the poem for the Atlantic 2. See 2877.2.

395

Monthly.

THE 2899.

VIRTUOUS

MAN

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Feb i. 1871 M y Dear Sumner, Agassiz has just been here in very radiant mood. He says that Brown Séq[u]ard has arrived, and assures him that he is well; that he has nothing more to fear from his disease; that it has left him; and that he has only to be prudent. In all other respects he is to act freely and confidently, and all will be well. This has worked almost miraculously on Agassiz, who for the first time appears like his old self, after a year's eclipse. I hasten to write you this, knowing how much it will interest you. Brown Séquard has taken a house in Chester Square, where he can have a garden to keep animals in for experiments. What these experiments are, the Accusing Angel knows! He left behind him in Paris, which luckily he had quitted before the siege, one thousand guinea-pigs, in a garden, carrying out his views, by having this or that nerve severed, and seeing whether they could transmit it to their posterity. He finds that by severing a particular nerve, he can give a pig Epilepsy, and the pig transmits it to his children! I think I wrote to you about your noble St. Domingo appeal. It stirred me like the sound of a trumpet!^ Yours Ever H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. On June 30, 1870, the Senate had rejected a treaty offered by the Grant administration for the annexation of Santo Domingo, thus precipitating the rupture between Sumner and the president. Knowing the matter of annexation was dead, the Senate subsequently adopted a resolution — despite Sumner's vehement objection in a speech of December 21, 1870 —calling for a commission to study the problem. For Sumner's "Naboth's Vineyard" speech, see Sumner Works, XIV, 8 9 - 1 3 1 .

2900.

To Alexander Wadsworth

Longfellow

Camb. Feb 2 1871. My Dear Alex. I should have written you long and long ago to acknowledge your letter, and the money for the Durham, and the pink parcel of medicinal tea, which I have not tasted yet, not knowing exactly how strong to make it, nor what it is to be taken for. But no doubt the hour and the knowledge will come in due season. Have you among your books a little volume belonging to me, half bound in red morocco, and containing various Plays, and among others John Neal's "Otho"?i If so will you send it to me, or bring it when you come? 396

CAMBRIDGE,

1871

Also will you ask Mr. Farley^ for his bill for the chronometer. I think the amount is $40.00 but there may have been something more for putting [it] in order. Please give me his address, and I will send a cheque. For some mysterious reason he would not let me pay him at Nahant. Charley says this Durham is much better than the best sold at the shops. It was a lucky purchase. Mamy and Bessy, and all their aunts and uncles and cousins are well, and aunt Mary particularly rejoices in this warm weather. All send much love to you and Lizzy. Ever affectionately H.W.L P.S. Particular thanks for the Scuppernong. It was very generous in you to send me the last bottle. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, Portland. / M e .

POSTMARK:

ADDRESS: Alexr. W

CAMBRIDGE MASS, FEB

Longfellow Esq./

3

1. Otho: A Tragedy, in Five Acts was first published in Boston in 1819. 2. Cyrus H. Farley (d. 1934, aged ninety-four), watchmaker of 4 Exchange Street, Portland.

2901.

To Xavier Marmter

Cambridge Feb 6 1871 My Dear Mr. Marmier, I see by the papers that the way is now open for letters from London to Paris, and I hasten to write, and to beg some news of you. Will this find you in Paris? and in your charming rooms looking on St. Thomas d'Aquin? Or did you take flight before the horrors of the siege? How often we have asked each other this question. Only yesterday my sister said, "I do wish Mr. Marmier would write, and tell us where he is and how he is." Just before all communication with Paris was broken off, I received the newspaper containing your beautiful translation of the "Psalm of Life."^ But before I had time to thank you for it, Paris was beleaguered, and it was useless to write to you. I write now only to find out where you are, and how you are. If this ever reaches you, I beg you to write to me at once, and let me know. Many things that you said when we talked together in Paris two years ago, now come back to me. I did not feel them then, as I do now. They were like prophecies! All my family join me in kindest sympathy and affectionate remembrance. And forget not your little Bretonne,^ to whom I send a special greeting. Yours always Henry W . Longfellow. 397

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MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. For this translation see Drames et Poesies, tr. Xavier Marmier (Paris, pp. 1 8 1 - 1 8 2 . 2. Marmier's housekeeper.

2902.

T o John

1872),

Owen Camb. Feb 8. 1 8 7 1 .

M y Dear Owen Martin Luther in his "Table-Talk," § D C C X X X I I I . says Fiat justitia et pereat mundus. T h a t is his form of the wise old saw.^ H.W.L MANUSCRIPT;

Harvard College Library.

I. The maxim, "Let justice be done and the world perish," is attributed also to St. Augustine and the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I ( 1 5 0 3 - 1 5 6 4 ) . Longfellow's reference is from the Bohn Library edition of the Table Talk of Martin Luther, tr. and ed. by WilHam Hazlitt, with Life by Alexander Chalmers (London, 1867), p. 302.

2903.

T o Earl

Marble^ Cambridge

Feb 1 1

1871.

M y Dear Sir, I am much obliged to you for your kindness in sending me your notice of M r . Wight's^ paintings. It prompts me to go at once and see them, which I intend to do as soon as I can go to town. T h a n k s also for the poems, which I have read with much interest and pleasure. I return them enclosed, thinking that perhaps you may have no other copies and may need these. W i t h great regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Minor Boston critic and newspaper poet, aged thirty five. 2. Moses Wight ( 1 8 2 7 - 1 8 9 5 ) , Boston portrait and genre painter. Marble's notice of his work is unrecovered.

398

CAMBRIDGE, 2904.

1871

To Edward Eggleston^

Cambridge Feb 13 1871 My Dear Sir, If I were writing for periodicals, I should accept with pleasure your handsome offer. But I do very little in that way now, and that little I feel bound to give my old friend Mr. Fields for his magazine. Regretting that I am obliged to decline your friendly proposition, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House). I. Eggleston ( 1 8 3 7 - 1 9 0 2 ) , clergyman, novelist, and historian, was at this time editor of the N e w York Independent. In a letter of February 10 ( M S , Historical Society of Pennsylvania) he had offered Longfellow $ 1 0 0 for an article or poem for his journal.

2905.

To Eudora Clark

[Cambridge] February 15, 1871. I send you half a dozen autographs, and would send you more if I were not ashamed. But I am ashamed. And so will you be, when you find you have more than are wanted. But it is never too late to mend, — particularly a pen. So if you find more than half a dozen lunatics who are willing to take this paper currency, be kind enough to let me know it. MANUSCHIPT: unrecovered; text from Life, III, 1 6 7 .

2906.

To Alexander Wadsworth

Longfellow

Camb. F e b i 5 1871 My Dear Alex. I have just received your letter, and enclose for Mr. Farley a cheque for $40. Please endorse it over to him. I trouble you with it, because I do not remember his initials, and consequently cannot make it payable to his order. W e are just starting for a party at E [r] nest's, over the way. The first party in the new house, and of course great excitement among the children, who are all going. I see from the window, that they are just lighting up.^ This prevents me from telling you how I like the cigars. I shall not be able to smoke till later at night. But I can answer your question without that. I have so many on hand, that I do not care for more; particularly as I smoke only the New England brand, as a general rule. 399

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Feb. 16. The Party was a success. The girls stayed till midnight, which looked like dissipation; but as Aunt Anne stayed with them, it assumed an air of propriety. Charley hopes to run down to see you before long. With much love from all Aff[ectionatel]y Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT; Longfellow Trust Collection, Portland / M e .

POSTMARK:

ADDRESS: Alexr. W . Longfellow Esqre. /

CAMBRIDGE MASS FEB

I6

I. Ernest Longfellow had just completed a new house opposite his father's ( i o 8 Brattle Street).

2907.

To Eudora Clark

Camb. Feb. 20 1871. Dear Miss Eudora, How charming it is, to be able to help you in so good a cause by using my pen for a sword, and shedding the blue blood of my inkstand, instead of my own! I send you twelve more mercenaries, to serve in the ranks, and am always, with best wishes. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Middlebury College Library.

2908.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Feb. 20 1871. My Dear Sumner, I have just read in the morning paper an account of your illness, which I can not help hoping is much exaggerated, as such accounts are apt to be. Still I feel troubled about it; and shall not feel easy till I get a line from you, or your Secretary to reassure me. So I beg you without delay to send me word by your own hand or his, that I may know how it is with you.^ In the same way the papers have been frightening people about the Tennessee; and now she is heard from, and all safe.^ And the like tidings I hope we shall soon have from you. There is nothing new here in Cambridge; only the old renewed from year to year. The University Lectures are flourishing. Emerson is giving a Course; and Lowell, and Hedge, and Chs. Perkins. I go, now and then, to refresh my mind, and to sit again on the school benches as a pupil; — a very good way of making believe one is young!® I saw Cogswell yesterday. He has had a bad fall. Going into his cellar to 400

CAMBRIDGE,

1871

let the water on for a bath, he found he could not reach the faucet, and so made a spring at it, and fell over, bruising his head, and cutting his eye with his spectacles. He is well again; as I hope to hear you are. Ever Yrs H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. See the Boston Advertiser, C X V I I , No. 43 (February 20, 1 8 7 1 ) . In his response of February 2 2 Sumner wrote: "Last Saturday I had a paroxysm in the chest, embracing heart and left arm, precisely like that I had in Paris. T h e suffering very great. Since then I have been gaining, and though feeble, I am comfortable while I keep quiet." 2. T h e frigate Tennessee, carrying President Grant's commission to Santo Domingo (see 2 8 9 9 . 1 ) , had been reported overdue but had actually reached Samana Bay on January 24. 3. T h e University Lectures included Emerson on "Natural History of Intellect," Frederick Henry Hedge on "Theistic and Atheistic Philosophy," and Charles Callahan Perkins on "History of Ancient Art," but Lowell did not participate. For a complete description of the series, see the Boston Advertiser, C X V I I , No. 3 7 (February 1 3 ,

1871).

2909.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. F e b 2 i 1871. My Dear Greene, I am greatly troubled and alarmed about Sumner, as I am sure you are. If the enclosed account is true, the case is very serious. I hope it may be exaggerated; yet fear it is not. What do you hear? Have you any different news of any kind? I wrote yesterday to Sumner begging him to send me word by his Secretary; and tomorrow I shall doubtless know more. Meanwhile I am in great anxiety; remembering George [Sumner], and remembering what a long strain Charles has had upon his nerves, and how terrible it has been in many ways. Felton died in this way; bronchitis ending in angina γβαοτί$. And I confess my fears are very great. I wish you may be able to allay them, by some better tidings than I have. Since the false rumor and alarm about Howe in the Tennessee,^ I like to doubt all newspaper reports. They are so sensational, and the temptation to overstate everything is so great, that I hope against hope, in the present instance. I communicated to Houghton your wishes about the proofs of Vol III. and trust that he is pushing on with vigor. Yours always ' H.W.L. MANUSCBIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Samuel Gridley Howe was one of the three Santo Domingo commissioners. 4 о I

THE 2910.

VIRTUOUS

MAN

To Charles Sumner Camb. F e b z i

1871.

M y Dear Sumner, I fear your attack has been a very severe one; and the papers evidently have not exaggerated it. But to-day they give the good news, that the danger is over, and our anxiety is greatly relieved. Do be careful — do be careful! for a relapse is a bad thing. However, I need not tell you this. T h e physicians I am sure will warn you sufficiently. Only you will not listen. This time you must; for it is very evident that you have been seriously ill; and your iron nerves are bending, like a wire bridge, under too great a burden. If you will only rest, all will be well again. I wrote to you yesterday, and tomorrow shall hope to have a line from your Secretary to tell me how you really are. Farewell, and above all, get well; and God bless you. Yours always affect[ionatel]y H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection.

2911.

To Thomas Osher^

Cambridge, Mass. Feb. 23. 1871. M y Dear Sir, I have had the pleasure of receiving your letter, and the kind invitation of the Committee of the National Celebration in honor of Sir Walter Scott, and hasten to thank you for your remembrance of me on an occasion of such great and universal literary interest. I regret extremely that it will not be in my power to be present and to take a part in the celebration. I can only send you my congratulations and good wishes. T h e general printed Invitation from the "Scotsman," I have sent to the papers here,^ and I am sure that your cordial and hospitable words, will find a response in all hearts; for neither Mr. Johnson® nor Mr. Modey has exaggerated the feeling, with which the fame of Walter Scott is cherished on this side of the Atlantic. Hoping that this Centenary Celebration may be completely successful, and in all points such as you desire it should be, I am, my Dear Sir, with great regard, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. I. Usher ( 1 8 2 6 - 1 9 0 3 ) , Sheriff-Clerk Depute in Edinburgh, had invited Longfellow to attend the celebration planned by the Scott Centenary Committee, of which he was secretary. His letter is unrecovered. 402

CAMBRIDGE,

1871

2. For this invitation see the Boston Advertiser, C X V I I , No. 47 (February 24, 1 8 7 1 ) . 3. Reverdy Johnson ( 1 7 9 6 - 1 8 7 6 ) , lawyer and diplomat, had represented the defense in the Dred Scott case. He served brieHy as minister to England, 1868-1869.

2912.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Feb. 24 1871. My Dear Greene, I have just received the enclosed from Washington; a cheering letter from Sumner,^ and a warning telegram from someone else. After you have read them to the Governor, please return them to me. I have written to Sumner to leave everything and come on to me. If he comes, you must come also. I think between us we can manage to keep him quiet. But it will take more than one man to do it. If he stays in Washington nobody can prevent him from making a speech, in the Senate, or out of it, either spoken or written; — and either must be dangerous to him just now. I am tempting him with Emerson's Lectures on the "Natural History of Intellect"; for it will not hurt him to hear other people speak. If it does, we will lock him up in his room, and keep guard over him, night and day. I confess I have been a good deal allarmed. An acute attack of this kind is so dangerous. Yours always H.W.L P.S. As Brown Séquard is here, I think Sumner will see the reasonableness of coming. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. A reference to the letter dated February 22.

2913.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Feb. 24 1871. My Dear Sumner, Your letter has just come, and I am delighted beyond measure at having a word from you, showing the danger to be passed! I am glad, too, that my medicine agrees with you; and forthwith prescribe again. Prescription. Come on to Cambridge at once, and take possession of the South-west chamber, looking over the meadows and at the sunset. There you shall have uninterrupted quiet, and Brown Séquard within reasonable distance. 403

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MAN

If you stay in Washington you cannot be quiet; — you know you can not. So leave the plough in the furrow, and come. Let Santo Domingo go; as any ordinary echo would tell you, if you asked it. Above all things do not think of making another speech at present. I wish you were here now, and going down with me to hear Emerson lecture on the "Natural History of Intellect." These lectures would be a cordial to you; and there are others which would interest you. The three girls send their love, and say Ό it will be so delightful, if he comes!" Always most affect[ionatel]y H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection.

2914.

To Francis James Child

Cambridge Feb. 27 1871. My Dear Sir, I do not know Professor Cromwell; I never saw him nor his "works of art," and never wrote him any letter of any kind.^ I should have told you this sooner; but I thought you were jesting. Instead of sending me a copy of the letter purporting to have been written by me, you sent me the enclosed letter by Whittier; and I could not think you serious. Your Obt. Sert. Henry W . Longfellow P.S. I called to see you yesterday afternoon at Dr. Huntington's; but he informed me that Professor Child had not arrived, only a Professor's child instead.^ MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, ington's / Cambridge.

ADDRESS: Professor Child / at Dr. Hunt-

1. George Reed Cromwell (b. 1 8 3 5 ) , minor still life painter and self-appointed professor of art of N e w York City, made his living presenting "art entertainments" for the general public. 2. T h e Dr. Huntington mentioned here might have been Frederic Dan Huntington ( 1 8 1 9 - 1 9 0 4 ) , formerly preacher to the university and Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard, now Episcopal bishop of the diocese of Central N e w York. He was a close friend of Child.

404

CAMBRIDGE, 2915.

1871

To Elizabeth Cary Agassiz

Camb. Feb 28. 1871 Dear Mrs Agassiz, I should be delighted to dine with you on Thursday [March 2] with Mr Harte; and will make no other engagement for that day, in the hope that he will stay.^ Be so kind as to let me know his decision, and believe me Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCBIPT: Harvard College Library. I. Longfellow first met Bret Harte at the Saturday Club on February 25. He dined with him on February 2,7 at Howells's and on February 28 at Lowell's. He also entertained him at the Craigie House on March i and March 3. See M S Journal.

2916.

To Annie Adams Fields

Camb. Feb. 28 1871. Dear Mrs. Fields, +Benedictus Benedicat+ A benediction on the Benedictines+ I knew they were great lovers of literature; but I did not know they were also distillers of herbs, and manufacturers of exquisite liquors! Your charming remembrance of me on my birth-day — the jolly, round, and happy litrie monk — bedded in flowers, came safely in his wooden cradle. A thousand, and a thousand thanks! I am ashamed to send back the basket, or bucket, empty; but look round in vain for something wherewith to fill it, and find nothing. What shall I do? After all, the greatest grace of a gift is, perhaps, that it anticipates and admits of no return. I therefore accept yours, pure and simple; and upon the whole, am glad that I have nothing to send back in the basket. Still, empty is a horrid word. I try in vain to comfort myself. I make believe it is the best thing to do, and do it, knowing all the while, that it is not the best thing. Finally, and no make believe. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Henry E. Huntington Library.

405

THE 2917.

VIRTUOUS

MAN

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. March 2 1871 My Dear Fields, Here is the proof of the "Boy and the Brook." I am disgusted with it. Surely it will not answer. I beg you for my sake to suppress it. Do me this favor.^ Yours Truly H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Pennsylvania State University Library.

I. T h e poem appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, X X V I I I (July 1 8 7 1 ) , 20.

2918.

To Francis Henry

Underwood Camb. March 3 1871

My Dear Mr Underwood, The Christmas Hymn in the Waif was written by an Englishman, Mr. Alfred Dommet, who had a brother in this country a few years ago.^ I am sorry to say that I know nothing of his biography. His name is not in Rouriedge. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

I. See Letters No. 1 1 9 9 and 2295.

2919.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. March 7 1871. M y Dear Greene, Decidedly your star is rising. Everything points that way. I cut this from to-day's Evening Transcript.^ All things seem opportune for your book. All auspices are favorable. Fields is troubled about the Notice of Sumner in the "Every Saturday." He says it was written by Mr. Andrews, a newspaper correspondent in Washington.2 I hope you reached home in safety. Always Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. "— Savannah has cleaned its monument of Nathanael Greene of revolutionary memory and thinks now his name should be painted on it that Northern visitors may know that they reverence the noble and patriotic Northerner." Boston Transcript, X L I V , No. 12,550 (March 7, 1 8 7 1 ) .

406

C A M B R I D G E ,

1871

2. Sidney Andrews ( 1 8 3 5 - 1 8 8 0 ) had won a reputation as a Civil War journalist. His article on Sumner appeared in Every Saturday, N.S., II (March 4, 1 8 7 1 ) , 194-195.

2920.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Mch. 8 1871. My Dear Sumner, I admired your portrait in "Every Saturday"; but did not read the sketch that accompanied it, till I got your letter. Then I read it to Greene, who has been here for a day or two. It is very bad. The writer has no comprehension either of you, or of your work, or of your place in history. Greene was so annoyed by it, that he immediately sat down and wrote a short notice of it for Anthony's paper in Providence." I am not sure that this is not giving it too much importance; but he acted from the promptings of his heart. Fields is troubled about it; but having left the firm, he has no longer any control of this paper. As the portrait is really very good, I console myself with the thought, that few people will read the sketch; and on these few it will make litde or no impression, except one of indignation. Greene's second and third volumes are slowly dragging themselves through the press. You know what that means. I am sorry you will not come to Cambridge; but you know best; and if you will only refrain from work, all will go well. Ever Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. This notice appears, unsigned, in the Providence Journal, X L I I , No. 2 1 0 (March

7, 1871).

2921.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. March 13 1871. My Dear Sumner, You get all the great city papers, and know what the people are saying about you, and the insult that has been put upon you. I send you two papers to show you what the smaller towns say.^ For my own part I know not what to say at such astounding meanness, and folly. Are the Republican politicians trying to see how hard a strain the Party will bear without breaking? So far as you are personally concerned it will be a relief to you, — all except 407

THE

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MAN

the indignity. I get a little comfort from it in this point of view. Very little, however; for I fear you will work as hard in some other way. It makes me very sad to think how this noble country is governed, and misgoverned; and I begin to tremble lest we should be thrown at the next election into the hands of the Democrats. I am disgusted and alarmed. Palfrey was here to-day and was very doleful. In fact everybody seems troubled and indignant. Always Yours H.W.L P.S.

I o piango, sì; ma l'ira mia non langue!

Io piango, sì; ma questo pianto è sangue!^ MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Sumner's political enemies had been trying for months to have him removed as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. On March 9 the Republican caucus recommended that he be dropped from the committee entirely. See Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man, pp. 490-497. Pasted to the first sheet of this letter are two clippings on the subject from the Boston Transcript, X L I V , No. 12,555 (March 13, 1 8 7 1 ) : "One's pockets would hold all the Republican papers that indorse the removal of Senator Sumner from his place on the Committee on Foreign Relations; but an express wagon would hardly contain the journals that protest against the removal." "Charles Sumner never had so many friends as he has today." 2. " I weep, indeed; but my ire does not languish! / I weep, indeed; but these tears are blood!"

2922.

To James Ripley Osgood

Camb. March 15 1871 My Dear Mr. Osgood, The Bohn books have arrived safely, and seem to be all right with one exception. In Lowndes' Bibliographer's Manual, Vol III. Part 2nd, (letters M.N.O.) is missing, and there is a duplicate of Vol. II, Part 2. which I return. ^ If you can get me the missing volume I shall be much obliged. With many thanks Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. P.S. Please say to Mr. Fields that the proof of "The Boy and the Brook" was duly attended to; but though I have repeatedly asked for "Vox Populi," I get only promises, but no sight of it.^ MANUSCRIPT:

N e w York Public Library (Miscellaneous Papers).

1 . See William Thomas Lowndes, The Bibliographer's Manual of English Literature . . . N e w edition, revised, corrected, and enlarged . . . by H . G. Bohn (London, 1 8 5 7 - 1 8 6 4 ) , 6 vols. 2. "Vox PopuH" appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, X X V I I (May 1 8 7 1 ) , 572. 408

CAMBRIDGE, 2923.

1871

To james Thomas Fields

Camb. March 16 1871. My Dear Fields We are all much obliged to you for your kind offer of seats in your Box for Monday night, and regret that we shall not be able to avail ourselves of the opportunity of seeing the highly moral and very objectionable play, which will be represented on that night.' Many thanks! I wonder that Fechter does not come to see you. He cannot be waiting for З'ои to call first. Besides, he is sure to find you in, and you are sure to find him out. Yours truly H.W.L P.S. I shall pass your door this evening, at about 6.30. You and Mrs. Fields will be at that hour at the grouse and sallad period of dinner; or will it be the pudding period? I will not interrupt you; but will leave this at the door, and pass on to my feeding-ground, and "scream among my fellows."^ MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

1. Possibly a reference to Bulwer-Lytton's The Lady of Lyons, presented at the Boston Theatre on Monday, March 20, with Fechter in the leading role. 2. T h e "feeding-ground" was the Parker House, where Longfellow and his brother Alexander dined with a group of friends ( M S Journal).

2924.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. March 17 1871. My Dear Fields, This is excellent; the best of all your chapters; and intensely interesting.^ I have made one or two pencil marks in the margin, which you can easily rub out, if you do not like them. We were all very sorry not to come to you this evening; but were kept at home by a little dancing party of the girls. Where is Ole Bull staying? I hope I shall see him. It is near midnight, so I write no more. H.W.L P.S. I write this arrayed in my dress-coat, with a rose in my button-hole, a circumstance I think worth mentioning. It reminds me of Buffon, who used to array himself in full dress for writing his Natural History. Why should we not always do it when we write letters? We should no doubt be more courtly and polite, and perhaps say handsome things to each other. It was 409

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said of Villemain, that when he spoke to a lady he seemed to be presenting her a bouquet. Allow me to present you this postscript in the same polite manner, to make good my theory of the rose in the button-hole. MANUSCRIPT;

Henry E. Huntington Library.

I. Fields was at work on his series of essays entitled "Our Whispering Gallery" (2884.2), which, after revision, became Yesterdays with Authors (Boston, 1 8 7 2 ) .

2925.

To William

Greene

Cambridge March 17 1871. My Dear Sir, It was very pleasant to see your handwriting on the cover of a pamphlet two evenings ago. But when I drew it from its sheath, it was not a sword but an eagle's feather; — not a chapter on Political Economy, but a Poem on Domestic Economy!^ You can imagine my surprise. I read it forthwith, and with a great deal of pleasure; for it took me back to your hill-top, this time not shrouded in mist, but sun-illumined; and I saw you and your wife going to and fro about your daily avocations, in the most natural way possible. I beg you to present my compliments to the authoress. Should she by chance ask what part of the poem I like best, please tell her it is page — but no! my modesty forbids me to mention the page. What detestable doings are these in Washington! Of whom was it said; "he thought he was only committing murder, but found it was suicide?"^ With kindest remembrances and regards to Mrs. Greene. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. T h e poem referred to here, presumably by Caroline Mathewson Greene ( 2 5 8 3 . 2 ) , is unidentified. 2. T h e spoils politics and corruption of the Grant administration had recently been publicized by the demands for civil service reform. T h e statement in quotes is possibly an echo from Frederick Marryat's Mr. Midshipman Easy, Ch. 18: " B y the laws of society, any one who attempts the life of another has forfeited his own."

2926.

To John James Piatt

Cambridge March 17 1871. My Dear Mr Piatt, I hope you will pardon me for not writing sooner to acknowledge and thank you for your "Western Windows," a beautiful volume, within and without.1 It lies on my table, and I read in it from time to time, as leisure 410

CAMBRIDGE,

1871

permits, and the mood prompts, and always with great satisfaction and pleasure. M y old impressions of your poetic gifts, are not weakened, but strengthened. It is useless to refer to this piece, or that. Throughout the volume I find the true poetic insight and feeling, without which all verse is but "a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. I truly congratulate you on the publication of this volume; and trust that it will have with the public a success equal to what it has in itself. I beg you to remember me very kindly to Mrs. Piatt, and to believe me, with best wishes. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

1. Western Windows and Other Poems (New York, 1869). 2. I Cor. 1 3 : 1 .

2927.

To Porter 8r Coates

Camb. M c h i 7 1 8 7 1 . Gentlemen, I had last evening the pleasure of receiving from you a handsomely bound copy of "Poets and Poetry of Europe,"^ for which I beg you to accept my best thanks. T h u s far I have found only one misprint. That occurs in the notice of Giacomino Pugliesi, on ρ 86ο. For Crescimbeiw r. Crescimbeni Volga Poesìa r. Volgar Poesia. Please have the correction made in the stereotype plate, while we think of it, and oblige Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCBiPT:

I. BAL

2928.

Chicago Historical Society.

12155.

T o ]ames Thomas

Fields

Camb. Mch 19 1 8 7 1 . Caro Signor Campi, I beg you not to eat much dinner tomorrow, ( M o n d a y ) because I propose to give you a little supper, with my brother Alessandro, commander of the Brig Meredith, U . S . Coast Survey, etc. etc. etc. 4 I I

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VIRTUOUS

MAN

I dined this evening with Professor Horsford, to meet your friend Ole Bull, who was in high feather, and almost as good as your imitation of him. After dinner he played divinely on the violin; and told some amusing stories, for which I promised to pardon him, on condition of his dining with me when he came back to Boston. To this he assented in that peculiar manner, known only to him and yourself. He also described to me his improvement of the Piano Forte, in a way, that made me finally doubtful, whether he were explaining a musical instrument or a steam engine. I thought it was the Marquis of Worcester, reading from his Century of Inventions.^ What a child of nature, and how very agreeable he is. Yours truly H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Henry E . Huntington Library. I. Edward Somerset, sixth Earl and second Marquis of Worcester ( i 6 0 1 - 1 6 6 7 ) , was the author of A Century of the Names and Scantlings of such Inventions as at Present I can call to Mind . . . (London, 1 6 6 3 ) , a work describing, among other things, a "stupendous water-commanding engine."

2929.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Mch 22 1871. My Dear Greene, Putnam has sent me his "Trade Circular Annual," in which you figure as follows. The Life of General Nathaniel Greene. By Prof. G. W. Greene. Three vols. 8vo, cloth $12.00 Vols. II. and III. separate; $4 each. Nearly ready У

GREENE.

At the end of this Catalogue are certain "Press Comments on some of G.P.P's Recent Publications"; being special notices of Irving, [Henry Theodore] Tuckerman, Irving Browne, Mrs. Clemmer Ames^ and others, — twenty nine in all, and none of you! He also writes me a long letter,·'' in which he says; "For the present we have delivered 400 copies, reserving 100 for our own sales on your ( W . G . and H.W.L's) a/c at least until we shall hear from you again." Ask the Governor what he thinks of this. For my own part I think it is a question for Mr. Houghton to decide. Putnam also desires to have his name with that of Houghton on the title page of the other vols, and to have 100 copies sent to him for sale. 4 I 2

CAMBRIDGE,

1871

That the Governor and Mr. Houghton must decide. I should leave all these matters to the Publisher. He knows best his own business. I will see him tomorrow, and learn his views. I do not send you Putnam's letter, because I want to use it here, and I suppose he has written to the Governor. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. This four-line clipping is pasted to the sheet at this point. 2. Irving Browne ( 1 8 3 5 - 1 8 9 9 ) , New York author of textbooks and legal works, and Mary Clemmer Ames ( 1 8 3 9 - 1 8 8 4 ) , novelist and journalist of Washington, D.C. 3. Unrecovered.

2930.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Mch 22 1871 My Dear Sumner, I have received three volumes of the new edition of your Works, beautifully printed, and beautifully bound;^ and Mr. [Hebron Vincent] Butler says that my functions as subscriber are no longer to be exercised, but that I am to look upon these volumes and the rest, as a gift from you. I was just taking up my pen to thank you for this munificence, when I took up the first volume, and began to read at the beginning, "The True Grandeur of Nations [pp. 1 - 1 3 2 ] . " How it took me back to the days of youth! How it recalled the whole scene — the crowd, the hot summer day, the dismay of the military men in their uniforms — the delight and applause of the audience! Then I went on with the Phi Beta Kappa Oration [pp. 241-302] and the Prison Discipline Discussion [pp. 163-183, 486-532] — each bringing up very vividly its scene of the Past. To-night I have been living your life over again, and mine in part. I have also looked over the Contents of the other volumes; and remembering that seven more are to come, I am amazed and delighted. This is a noble monument of a noble life! God bless you! No statesman in any age or country has a better or a nobler. Always Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. See Sumner Works, Vols. I ( 1 8 7 0 ) , II ( 1 8 7 2 ) , III ( 1 8 7 2 ) .

4 I 3

THE 2931.

VIRTUOUS

MAN

To George Palmer Putnam

Camb. Mch 23. 1871. Dear Mr. Putnam, Personally I should have no objection to your suggestions in regard to the one hundred copies of Mr. Greene's first volume, still in your hands; but I own them jointly with Mr Wm. Greene, and not anticipating that you would wish to retain them, we made them all over to Mr. Houghton, when he undertook the other volumes. I think, therefore, that it would be better and simpler for you to make all arrangements directly with him. I went this morning to consult with him on the subject and found that he had gone to New York. In regard to the Second and Third volumes, having no pecuniary interest in them I have no voice in the matter. Mr Wm. Greene has taken the sole responsibility of the stereotype plates, and made the contract with Mr. Houghton.^ I mentioned your wish to have your name on the title-page of the new volumes, to Mr. Scudder at the Office this morning, and he said that the second volume was already printed and bound. With great regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

unrecovered; text from photocopy, University of Washington Library.

I. See 2864.2.

2932.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Mch 27 1871. My Dear Greene, Are you really in earnest about this?i That is the first question. If it is only a vague longing out of the past, there will be no life in the endeavor, and no use in making it. I enclose a list of the Trustees, which I got yesterday from Cogswell. You will see names there which might counteract any influence of Sumner's or of mine with the others. What you really need for success is some one in New York, who would personally urge your claims with some of these Trustees. Always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. In an unrecovered letter Greene had asked Longfellow for help in securing the librarianship of the Astor Library, N e w York. 4 I 4

CAMBRIDGE, 2933.

To George Washington

1871

Greene

Camb. Mch 30 1871. My Dear Greene, I cannot judge whether you are wise or unwise in giving up the idea of the Astor Library; but your readiness in doing it rather proves that you do not really care much about it; or at all events do not care to go through the always disagreeable and repulsive process by which such things are obtained. Your name will go upon Cogswell's list, which cannot be large; and if the office seeks you, well and good. If it does not; why, also well and good. I return Mr. Williams's letter. If I were you, I should take his cheapest advertisement. The other looks too much like blowing one's own trumpet; but as I have never seen his paper, perhaps I am wrong in this.^ The slaughter of trees in Brattle Street, preparatory to widening the same, has begun. It is a woful sight; and would greatly disgust you, if you were here. I enclose cheque for $90.00 which is not payable, you will see, till April i. This evening I have reed, vol II. of Greene's Life of Greene. As Member of the Assembly you have already received your copy! I hope you like it. I do. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. B. W . Williams, a literary agent, was the proprietor of the American Literary Bureau, 1 1 4 Washington Street, Boston. His letter to Greene, unrecovered, concerned the promotion of the Gen. Greene biography.

2934.

To Rafael Pombo^

Cambridge. March 30. 1871 My dear Sir: I have had the pleasure of receiving your long and interesting letter,^ and should have sent you a more speedy reply, but for numberless occupations and interruptions. Your translations are excellent.® They are at once faithful and glowing. In particular I like that of The Psalm of Life. I beg you to accept my most cordial thanks. In regard to the other metrical specimens,^ I am not sufficiently skilled in the subject of Spanish versification to venture any opinion. I am sorry to say that I am not acquainted with the "Sistema Musical" of De Mas;® and thank you for bringing it to my notice. As soon as I have leisure I shall endeavor to find it in some library or at some bookseller's. Thanks also for the other poems, which are original and striking. I do not 4 I 5

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

believe that the Caimán [crocodile] has ever had the honor before of being celebrated in song!® With regards and good wishes, Yours truly, Henry W . Longfellow unrecovered; text from John E. Fein, "La correspondencia de Rafael Pombo y H . Longfel[l]ow," Revista Bolivar, No. 31 (July 1 9 5 4 ) , p. 35.

MANUSCRIPT:

1 . Pombo ( 1 8 3 3 - 1 9 1 2 ) , Colombian poet and diplomat, resided in N e w York for seventeen years, 1 8 5 5 - 1 8 7 2 . 2. Unrecovered. 3. John E. Engelkirk conjectures that these translations were: " E l amanecer" ("Daybreak"); "Gaspar Becerra"; "Las ranas y la antorcha" (by Friedrich von Logau [ 1 6 0 4 1655], tr. by Longfellow as " T r u t h " ) ; " E l salmo de la vida" ( " A Psalm of L i f e " ) ; and " E n la sombra" ( " I n the Shadow"). See " E l Epistolario Pombo-Longfellow," Thesaurus: Boletin del Instituto Caro y Cuervo, Χ (Enero-Diciembre 1 9 5 4 ) , 1 6 - 1 7 , η. 3. 4. Unidentified, but see Engelkirk, p. 17, n. 4. 5. Simbaldo de Mas, Sistema Musical de la Lengua Castellana Literario (Manila, 1 8 4 5 ) . 6. For an observation on this poem, see Engelkirk, pp. 1 7 - 1 8 , n. 6.

2935.

To an Unidentified

in his

Potpourri

Correspondent^

[Cambridge] March 30, 1871. I have had the great pleasure of receiving the silver spoon made by Paul Revere which you have been so kind and generous as to send me by the hand of our highly esteemed friend Miss M.C.^ I beg you to accept my most cordial thanks. It is a gift which I shall highly prize and cherish. When I received it, I felt as if I had been christened over again, and had an "apostle spoon" sent me as a present. Paul Revere was an apostle of liberty, if not of religion. In a narrow street in Florence is still to be seen the humble shop in which Benvenuto Cellini worked. But alas! in Boston there is no longer any trace of the workshop of Paul Revere. All the more shall I value this little relic of him. MANUSCRIPT:

unrecovered; text from Life, III, 1 7 1 - 1 7 2 .

1. Identified by Samuel Longfellow as "Miss Ρ " (Life, III, 1 7 1 ) . 2. Possibly Mary Preston Clark ( 2 3 9 9 . 3 ) , to whom Longfellow also wrote on this day ( M S Letter Calendar).

416

CAMBRIDGE, 2936.

1871

To Cecilia Viets Dakin Hamilton

Camb. April I 1871. My Dear Mrs Hamilton, I wrote to you last week, but as I directed my letter to your old address, it has probably never reached you. It is no great loss; though I tried to comfort you a little about the unfriendly notice of your book,^ which you sent me, begging you not to speak of it, or think of it any more. Since then I have had the pleasure of hearing from you, and am glad to know that you have rooms that suit you better. I have seen Mr. Osgood, and spoken with him about allowing you percentage on your first edition. But he says that it would be giving up the principle on which they do business, and he was unwilling to yield. He promised, however, to send you your account on the first of April instead of the first of May. On your next book you will not have this disagreeable drawback. Try to be hopeful, and do not get discouraged. Certainly your success has been greater than [that] of most beginners; and you must not expect wholly to escape hostile criticism. Nobody does. I hope you will write again soon, and tell me that a change of residence has brought good fortune with it. With great regard Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Massachusetts Historical Society.

I. Woven of Many Threads ( 2 8 7 7 . 2 ) . T h e review is unidentified.

2937·

George Washington

Greene

Camb. Apr 2. 1871. My Dear Greene, I am very sorry to hear that my last letter never reached you. I wrote on the 28th Mch. enclosing a cheque for the sum you desired; and I am sure the letter was posted in the usual way. What can have become of it? Perhaps in this interval it has come to hand. If not, write me at once, and I will send another cheque. Still better, let me know by telegraph, if still missing. I enclose a paragraph from last evening's Transcript, which you may not have seen.^ I was at Riverside yesterday. They are distributing your Second Volume, South and West, so that it may be everywhere on hand on the day of publication. Mr. Houghton is sanguine of success, and does not think, that the "day for Revolutionary Literature has gone by." I have not heard from the Governor since he was here. I suppose he is pondering, and working out some Problem in his brain. I am sure he has every 4 I 7

THE

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MAN

desire to carry out your School plans, if he can find a way. But it must be his own way. If you are in distress of mind, jump into the train, and come to Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. T h e paragraph, once pasted to the top of the first sheet, is missing but was presumably the commendatory notice of Vol. II of the Gen. Greene biography in the Boston Transcript, X L I V , No. 1 2 , 5 7 2 (April i, 1 8 7 1 ) .

2938.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Apr 4. 1871 M y Dear Greene, To-day at dinner, instead of yourself, came your letter, saying you could not come; which made us all very sorry. V^'e shall be delighted to see you, when you can come, and Anna with you, though she will have a very lonely visit, unless she comes in vacation; for you know my girls are at school all the morning until two o'clock. Now the vacation begins tomorrow, and lasts through this week and the next; and unless you can accomplish the visit now, it would not be advisable to bring her with you, for she would be unhappy and homesick, and you also; and the visit would be a failure. Could you not continue the Index here? I regret the errant letter, and the anxiety it has given you; and send another cheque for $ roo.00. I wish I could make it more; but am too much pressed by urgent needs of my own. What Biographer says: "The history of the Revolution is not written, and cannot be till the biographies of the men who made the Revolution are completed."! Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. Greene did not answer this query. Longfellow may have been echoing Emerson.

2939.

To Charles Appleton

Longfellow

Camb. Apr 6 1 8 7 1 . M y Dear Charlie, I have just received your letter, and am glad to hear from you at last. W e were looking for you a week ago, with Stanfield. What has become of the Conart?! Here are several letters, which have dropped in, one by one since you left; 4 I 8

CAMBRIDGE,

1871

and also the invitation of Mr. and Mrs Gunther to the wedding of their daughter and your old friend John Clinton Gray.^ Where shall I find your account book? It was a pity you put it away; as the Income Tax must be provided for without delay. You will be glad to know, that this Tax is a good deal reduced this year. To-day is Fast Day; sunny and sad as usual; and dusty, as usual. Let us hear from you again. Nobody here complains of your writing too often. Always affectionately H.W.L P.S. Uncle Tom is delighted with the Alice in her new shape. He seems almost to have re-built and re-rigged her. Please let me know at once whether I can get at your account book; or whether I must wait till you return. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Presumably the yacht on which Charles was sailing. 2. Gray ( 2 3 0 6 . 5 ) married Henrietta P. Gunther, daughter of William Gunther of N e w York City, on April i8, 1 8 7 1 .

2940.

To George Washington

Henry

Greene

Camb. Apr8 1871. My Dear Greene, I send you one or two advertisements of a book,^ which may interest you. Keep the long one, as it may be interesting hereafter to see what books came out with it, and what their fortunes were. I wish I had the original advertisement of all my books. I have not one. The weather to-day has been like mid-Summer. The thermometer in my study has stood at eighty. I have kept indoors all day, and have written a new scene, that occurred to me, for the "Divine T r a g e d y . T h e danger is that I shall make it too long. The girls have a Musical Party to-night. The piano-forte is going on one side of me, and the venerable, historic brass door-knocker on the other. Some bashful juvenile is even now timidly applying his hand to it. A confused murmur of voices comes from the library; and I sit here like a Sphinx, who has had a riddle proposed to her, instead of proposing one to other people. The door again! Enter John Owen. Exeunt G . W . G and H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Unrecovered, but presumably of Vol. II of the Gen. Greene biography. For one such advertisement, see the Boston Advertiser, C X V I I , No. 82 (April 8, 1 8 7 1 ) . 2. Identified in the M S Journal as " T h e Coasts of Caesarea Philippi" (Works, V, 76-81). 4 I 9

THE 2941.

To George Washington

VIRTUOUS

MAN

Greene

Camb. Apr. 10. 1871. My Dear Greene, I have just reed, your letter, and will go in with my girls tomorrow to welcome Anna on her arrival at the station. We will make her as happy as we can without you; and if we succeed at all, we shall feel flattered, though at your expense. I send an item from the morning paper;^ and also a blast of trumpets in honor of the "Alphabetical I n d e x , t o encourage you in making yours. In great haste H.W.L. MANuscBiPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. A noncommittal notice of the Gen. Greene biography in the Boston C X V I I , N o . 83 (April 10, 1 8 7 1 ) . 2. Unidentified.

2942.

Advertiser,

To James R. Osgood & Company

Camb. Apr 22 1871 Gentlemen, I beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of your cheque for $25.00.^ and am Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Yale University Library. I . Possibly a fee for " V o x Populi" ( 2 9 2 2 . 2 ) or " T h e Boy and the Brook" ( 2 9 1 7 . 1 ) .

2943.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Apr. 24 1871. My Dear Senator, Thanks for your little note; too brief, but nevertheless very welcome. I am sorry I cannot be with you to-night, to meet the High Joint,' and their wives. But you see the impossibility. Greene is here and he greets you. He is at work on his Index, and I am trying to help him. Whatever defects you find in it, you may safely set down to me. After we had finished two volumes, I became persuaded, that he was entirely on the wrong tack, and we began all over again. \Vhat a job it is, to be sure! Your three beautiful volumes adorn my table. We look into them now and then, and read here and there, and talk of you, and wish you were here. 420

CAMBRIDGE,

1871

Vain wish! You are at your post; and never stood firmer, nor more conspicuous than now. Charley leaves us in a few days for San Francisco on his way to Japan and China.^ He wants very much to get a letter, saying who he is, from the Secretary of the Navy, to the Commodores in those Eastern Seas. Can you help him? Good night. Your alwavs aff[ectionat]e H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT;

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. The Joint High Commission for the settlement of all British and American claims arising from the Civil War had been in session in Washington, D.C., since February 27. On May 8 the commission approved the Treaty of Washington, which provided for the submission of the claims to an international tribunal. 2. Charles Longfellow left Cambridge on May i for an extended tour of the Orient. He did not return until June 22, 1874.

2944.

To Annie Adams Fields

Camb. Ap 25 1871. My Dear Mrs Fields, We accept, Greene and myself, — your kind invitation to dinner on Thursday, and will present ourselves in proper uniform at six o'clock. Do not give yourself any further trouble about the notices of Greene's book. We have found a "Tribune" here in Cambridge;^ and several other papers have been sent in by the Publishers. Already I notice something like peacock's feathers growing upon my friend, and have to spread my own very wide to show that I still exist, and am still respectable, though tarnished. It is a very comical sight to see two authors shut up in a room together! However we will be serious on Thursday. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. The New York Tribune contained a brief notice of Greene's book, X X X L No. 9374 (April 22, 1 8 7 1 ) .

2945.

To Charles Sumner

Camb Apr 30 1871 My Dear Sumner, A thousand thanks for the letters to the two Admirals. They will be of the greatest service to Charley, and when you meet Mr. Robeson,^ I beg you to say how very much obliged we both are for his kindness. 42

I

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

Only one letter is now wanting. That is to Brigham Young at the Great Salt Lake. Can that be got from the Utah Representative^ or anyone else? If so, will you be kind enough to forward it to Charley at the Great Salt Lake City, poste restante, that he may find it on his arrival. He starts tomorrow. I am glad it is not I, who have to make the journey! W h e n shall we see you here? Owen's is a sad case.® He is very patient and uncomplaining. I am at a loss to say, what can be done for him. He is like King Lear. His daughters have turned against him. His roof leaks so badly, that when it rains, he litterally sleeps — or tries to sleep, with a bathing tub and an umbrella on his bed. This he told me himself. Greene says; "Give my love to Sumner." So says also H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. George Maxwell Robeson ( 1 8 2 9 - 1 8 9 7 ) , Secretary of the Navy, 1 8 6 9 - 1 8 7 7 . 2. William Henry Hooper ( 1 8 1 3 - 1 8 8 2 ) , Utah delegate to Congress, 1 8 5 9 - 1 8 6 1 and 1 8 6 5 - 1 8 7 3 . 3. lohn Owen had been unfortunate in business since the failure of his publishing company in 1846 and now eked out his living as a proof-reader. On April 3 Longfellow had written in his journal: "Went to see Owen, whose place by the river has been sold. They are stripping it of fruit and forest trees. Poor Owen!"

2946.

T o Benjamin

Barstow

Torrey^

Cambridge May 5 1871 Dear Sir, I should like to purchase four Rights to new stock in the Boston and Providence R . R . if you can accommodate me.^ These with the eleven shares I now hold, will entitle me to one new share, as I understand it. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow Guardian unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

MANUSCRIPT:

1. Torrey ( 1 8 3 7 - 1 9 0 4 ) served as treasurer of the Boston and Providence Railroad, 1 8 6 7 - 1 9 0 4 , and of the N e w England Historic Genealogical Society, 1 8 7 1 - 1 9 0 4 . 2. Longfellow sent Torrey $ 1 1 5 in an unrecovered letter dated May 1 1 ( M S Letter Calendar).

2947.

T o Charles Appleton

Longfellow

Camb. May 10 1 8 7 1 . M y Dear Charlie, Yesterday came your telegram from Pittsburgh, and to-day the enclosed for you. 422

CAMBRIDGE,

1871

One letter I have already forwarded to San Francisco. It was a foreign letter, from the East, I should say. There have come also certain documents from Mr. Bell of the Mass. Commandery^ for you to sign, and a bill from the same for $35, admission fee and Assessment. This I have not paid, but have written to say, that perhaps the whole matter had better wait till you return.^ T o this, no answer as yet. N o newspapers have made their appearance for you. Mr. Greene is still here. Uncle Tom has returned; says he saw you in N e w York; and wonders you want to go to Japan when you can go yachting in the Alice! All send love. Ever affect[ionatel]y H.W.L« MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. James Brown Bell, a captain in the Twenty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry during the Civil War, was a charter member and Recorder of the Massachusetts Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. 2. This letter is unrecovered. 3. A postscript by Alice Mary Longfellow follows.

2948.

T o James Thomas

Fields

Camb. M a y i 3 1 8 7 1 . M y Dear Fields, Will you and your wife and Miss [Sarah Holland] Adams do me the favor to dine at the Craigie House on Wednesday next at 5 o'clock? T h e Lunch failed; — let not the dinner fail. I went yesterday to ask you. You had gone out on military duty; target practice. I saw in this morning's paper the shot you made. It hit the bull's-eye. T h e second shot went through the same hole.^ Yours always H.W.L MANUSCKIPT:

University of Washington Library.

I. On May 12, at the third annual reunion of the Army of the Potomac in the Globe Theatre, Fields had read a poem written for the occasion by Bret Harte, prefaced by a twelve-line introductory poem of his own. See the Boston Advertiser, C X V I I , No. 1 1 2 ( M a y 13, 1 8 7 1 ) .

423

THE 2949.

VIRTUOUS

MAN

To Julia Sumner Hastings

Cambridge May 18 1871. Dear Mrs Hastings, May I recall myself to your recollection by introducing my son Charles, who is on his way to Japan and China. I do not like to have him pass through San Francisco without calling to pay his respects to you and Dr. Hastings. With kind remembrances and regards. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, San Francisco.

2950.

To Charles Appleton

ADDRESS; Mrs Julia Sumner Hastings/

Longfellow

Camb. May 18. 1871. My Dear Charlie, Your two letters from Omaha^ have safely reached us, and yesterday came the parcel of Indian things, which will be opened when the girls come home from school, as they like to be present at the opening of all packages. I wrote to Sumner for a letter to Salt Lake, but it was too late. The Utah Representative had already left Washington. I wish I had thought of it sooner; but I dare say you got on very well without it. I enclose two letters of introduction for San Francisco. Sumner's sister I should like to have you see. With regard to the other letter, use your own judgment. Take good care of yourself in every way. Yours affectionately H.W.L P.S. There is nothing new but the havoc among the trees in Bratde Street, and the dust and rubbish of the widening. Yesterday I forwarded you another Oriental letter. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Dated May 1 1 and May 12.

424

CAMBRIDGE, 2951.

1871

To Stephen С. Masseti

Cambridge May 18 1871. My Dear Sir, By way of answer to your letter, allow me to introduce to you my son Charles, who will pass a few days in San Francisco, on his way to Japan and perhaps Australia, countries you have seen and can tell him about. With many thanks for the music you sent me, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, Francisco

2952.

ADDRESS: Stephen Masseti Esqre. / San

To Cyrus West Field

Cambridge May 20 1871. My Dear Sir, I have had the honor of receiving your kind invitation to meet her Britannic Majesty's High Commissioners^ at dinner on Tuesday next, and regret extremely that my engagements will not permit me to accept it. Begging you to accept my thanks and my regrets, I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow Cyrus W. Field Esqre. MANUSCRIPT: Pierpont Morgan Library. I. See 2943.1.

2953.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. M a y 2 5 1871. My Dear Greene, It was rather lonely here after you and Anna left us;^ but I set to work at once, and have written two new tales for the Second Day of the Wayside Inn. This, with the usual amount of interruptions, has kept me so busy, that I have had no time for letters, and that is the reason I have not written to you. Any other idea, that you may have taken into your head is — nonsence. Tomorrow, if the day is fair, as I fear it will be, I am going to Portsmouth with Fields to see old houses; one of which is the scene of one of my stories.^ I must be up soon after five; and now it is ten at night. Howells certainly might have been more exuberant, but, remember, he was dealing with the second volume, which cannot have the interest, for general readers, that the first and third have.^ I have been interrupted all the evening; and all day was in town, attend [ing] the wedding of Dr. Holmes's daughter.^ 425

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

I enclose you a cheque® for June i. so that you may have it in season, though you cannot use it before that date. Always Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. See Letter No. 2941. Greene arrived at the Craigie House on April 14 and remained until May 1 2 ( M S Journal). 2. "Lady Wentworth" (Works, IV, 1 6 6 - 1 7 1 ) , which Longfellow finished on May 24 ( M S Journal). 3. Howells wrote a noncommittal review of Greene's second volume in the Atlantic Monthly, X X V I I (June 1 8 7 1 ) , 779-780. 4. Amelia Jackson Holmes ( 1 8 4 3 - 1 8 8 9 ) married Turner Sargent (d. 1877, aged sixty-three) at King's Chapel, Boston, on this date. 5. For $50 ( M S Letter Calendar).

2954.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. M a y 2 8 1871. My Dear Fields, I find that we can easily accomplish our visit to Wentworth Hall, without starting so very early, or staying over night, two very disagreeable things, and if possible to be avoided. On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday there is a return train, that leaves Portsmouth at eight in the evening. If we go down on either of these days at twelve we shall have five hours at our disposal, which ought to be enough. Think of this and let me know. I looked for you this afternoon; but do not blame you for not coming. The cars are so crowded on Sunday, that nobody but a maniac would think of coming in them. You probably remembered last Sunday, and wisely abstained. Lady Wentworth's carriage is at the door; but it can wait. There is no hurry; as the old clergyman of ninety said, when his friend remarked "You must be feeling that you are very near the New Jerusalem." "Yes, but there's no hurry, no hurry." Yours alwavs ' H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

2955.

Longfellow Trust Collection.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. May 28. 1871. My Dear Greene, The little girls got home last night at ten, rejoicing in a holiday that had no drawback. They were delighted with their visit; and I thank you for giving them so happy a day. I return Mr. Angell's friendly and sympathetic letter.^ I do not know anything about the Vermont University; but Burlington is a 426

CAMBRIDGE,

1871

beautiful place. So much I know. I also know the Professor of Greek and Latin.^ But the Professors can do nothing for you. T h e Trustees are the men to aim at. Still I say, that Brown is the place for you. You could not be in a better State than Rhode Island, and I want to see you restored to your own College. Justinian must do it, and you must not go through Vermont crying "Give a professorship to Belisarius."·^ I did not go to Portsmouth, (as I feared I should,) on account of the weather. T h e excursion is postponed to some day this week. I look upon it as a reprieve; — so low is my view of all pleasure excursions. Yet I would not be without the memory of our trip to Plymouth; would you?^ Always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Unrecovered, but presumably from George Thotndike Angeli ( 2 3 4 3 . 2 ) . 2. Henry Williamson Haynes ( 1 8 3 1 - 1 9 1 2 ) , a Harvard graduate of 1 8 5 1 , was Professor of Latin at the University of Vermont, 1 8 6 7 - 1 8 7 1 , and Professor of Greek, 1 8 7 1 1873· 3. See 2597.2. Justinian in this case was probably Alexis Caswell president of Brown University, 1 8 6 8 - 1 8 7 2 . 4. See 2864.3.

2956.

To Charlotte Allman

(1799-1877),

McCarthy^ CAMBRIDGE, M a y 3 0 ,

1871.

M Y DEAR M R S . M C C A R T H Y , —

It gives me great pleasure to comply with your request, and to send you a photograph, signed and sealed and ready for its place in your album. But will it arrive in season? If you sail on Tuesday from Quebec you must be taking wing from N e w York to-morrow at the latest. I will accordingly direct this to Quebec, so that it may be handed to you on board the "Prussia." That will be as if I came to see you off, and to wish you a happy voyage, which I most heartily do. With kind regards to your husband, and all good wishes. Yours truly, HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.

P.S. — I see I have made a mistake. You sail on Saturday and not on Tuesday, so there is time enough; and this shall go to N e w York and not to Quebec. unrecovered; text from Justin McCarthy, Reminiscences ( N e w York and London, 1899), I> ^·°4· I. Mrs. McCarthy (d. 1 8 7 7 ) was the wife of Justin McCarthy ( 1 8 3 0 - 1 9 1 2 ) , Irish politician and author. MANUSCRIPT:

427

THE 2957.

VIRTUOUS

To Edward Turner Boyd

MAN

Twisleton

Cambridge, May 3 1 , 1871. I have had the pleasure of receiving the copy of "The Handwriting of Junius"^ which you were so good as to send me . . . It is a very thorough investigation of the subject and as interesting as a story by Edgar Poe, who would have greatly delighted in this book, could he have seen it. MANUSCBIPT: unrecovered; text from American Auction Association Catalogue, Item 238 (May 8-9, 1 9 3 5 ) . I. Charles Chabot, The

Handwriting

of

Junius

Professionally

Investigated,

with

Preface and Collateral Evidence by the Hon. E. Twisleton (London, 1 8 7 1 ) .

2958.

To an Unidentified

Correspondent

Cambridge May 31 1871. My Dear Sir, This will be handed you by Miss Kate Donahoe,i who wishes to get for her brother, a situation in your store. I have known the family for many years, and Edward is a very good and active boy. I hope you may have a place for him, as you advertise for further assistance. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCBIPT: Harvard College Library. I. Parlormaid in the Longfellow household.

2959.

To James Thomas Fields [Cambridge, June 5, 1871] Three fifths of twelve Are $7.20. This may appear T o be somewhat dear; But wherefore went he? The Faust of Gounod Is an opera, you know, In which Castelmary Plays the Old Harry; Therefore spent he His $7.20. 428

CAMBRIDGE, MANUSCRIPT: Henry E. Huntington Boston. ANNOTATION: $ 7 . 2 0 .

Library,

1871 ADDRESS:

James T .

Fields Esqre. /

I. T h e date is from the M S Letter Calendar. On June 3 Longfellow had attended a performance of Gounod's Faust at the Globe Theatre, Boston, with Armand de Gastan Castelmary ( 1 8 3 4 - 1 8 9 7 ) , French bass-baritone, in the role of Mephistopheles.

2960.

To George Washington

Greene Camb

June 6. 1871.

My Dear Greene, I have just received from Miss Louisa Greenough a parcel of books, which she borrowed from you and now returns. I will keep them till I hear from you. She sails for Europe in a week from to-day; and wishes to obtain the present name and address of Maria,i whom she knew so well in Florence. Are you able and willing to gratify her wish? I had a most successful day^ with Fields at his native town of Portsmouth; and saw sundry curious old houses. Among them the Wentworth House, which I was anxious to see, having already described it in a poem. I found it necessary to change only a single line; which was pretty lucky. We saw also some very interesting old people, with the grand manners of other days, that are always so attractive. Have you seen a notice of your Second vol. in the "Independent"?® I saw it to day at Riverside, a column long and more. Mr. Scudder said it was good, and promised to send it to you. Yours alwavs ' H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Greene's first wife. 2. On June I. See Life, III, 1 7 4 - 1 7 5 . 3. X X I I I (June I, 1 8 7 1 ) , 10.

2961.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. J u n e n 1871 My Dear Greene, I have not forgotten the Longest Day. It is the 22nd. You say; "We look for you on the 20th," which shows that you do not often read your Almanac. But now comes the question; Does the Governor expect me, or has he forgotten all about it? He has not written to me, and I do not wish to remind him of the engagement, for fear it may not be convenient for him, or for Madame, to receive me; and then it would be awkward to have alluded to the subject. 429

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

Perhaps you can find out without asking the question directly. At all events do not let it appear that I have asked it. Mr. [Edwin Channing] Lamed gives an entertainment for Walter [Cranston Lamed] on the evening of your longest day, Tuesday the 20th. I wish you would come to it; pass Wednesday here; and then go back with me on my longest day which is Thursday the 22nd. Think of it. The girls will not be able to come. They are engaged at the Wedding of Rosa's sister.^ Besides, they have had their cake, and must live awhile on home-made bread. Since my last letter to you I have written another poem.^ Only two are wanting to complete the seven of the Second Day. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Katherine Marie Fay ( 1 8 4 6 - 1 9 2 8 ) , sister of Rose Emily Fay ( 2 3 6 1 . 2 ) , married William Eben Stone ( 1 8 4 5 - 1 9 2 1 ) , a graduate of Brown University, 1866, on June 22, 1871. 2. " T h e Ballad of Carmilhan," begun on June 7 and completed on June 10 ( M S Journal).

2962.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. J u n e i 5 1871. M y Dear Greene I have just had a letter from the Governor in which he says that Mrs Greene had fixed upon Tuesday [June 20] for my visit. So I have written to say that I will come on Tuesday, as that day is evidently their choice and it makes no kind of difference to me. As I wrote you before, the girls will not be able to come. I yield the point of the "longest day," if there be any. There are three alike according to the best almanacs. But the Solstice is the 21st. half way between us. MANUSCRIPT:

2963.

Longfellow Trust Collection.

To William

Greene

Cambridge June 15 1871 My Dear Sir, I shall have great pleasure in coming to you next week on Tuesday the 20th, as that is Mrs. Greene's choice, and is sure to be a pleasant day. It will be pleasant whether it rains or shines. So Tuesday it shall be, and not Thursday, whatever the almanac may say to the contrary. I am much obliged to you for your kind invitation to my girls, but they 430

CAMBRIDGE,

1871

are busy with a wedding that is going on in their circle, and it will not be possible for them to come. There is something very fascinating in the Summer Solstice, the sun just rounding his Northern mile-stone, "metaque fervidis evitata rotis,"' and then, like a Democrat, taking a "new departure" for the South. How can you and I, who are not Democrats, reconcile it to our consciences to celebrate the day? With best regards to Mrs. Greene Yours faithfully, Henry W . Longfellow unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

MANUSCRIPT;

r. Horace, Odes, I, i, 4 - 5 : "avoiding the turning-post with hot wheels."

2964.

T o Charles Appleton

Longfellow

Camb. J u n e i 5 1 8 7 1 . M y Dear Charlie Here is a letter of introduction sent you by a young man in Portland, a friend of Aunt Ann's.^ It may be of use, if you go to Singapore. But are you going there? That I do not know, but send the letter nevertheless. I hear that the Pacific steamers are very good; in fact much better than the Atlantic. I hope you may find it so. Alice is passing a week with Aunt Hattie at Shark's Mouth.^ I went down with her two days ago. What a beautiful place it is. It would be difficult to find a better. Mr. Curtis had been to see the Yacht Race, in which Peterson [Johan Erik Christian Petersen] was sailing in the Alice. After the race the wind was high, and the Alice went out on her own account and has not been heard of since. Luckily Uncle Tom was not on board. People are getting alarmed about her. Alice wrote you last week and of course told you about Mabel Lowell's engagement.® That is the latest news, and the only news in Cambridge. Soon after you left I went to see Collector Russell in behalf of Gleason. He said he would consider the case favorably if Gleason should apply, which he means to do. I hope he may be successful.* Your Bank account does not make much show yet, but will soon begin to accumulate a little. But you must be careful. All send you much love and I more than all. Always affectionately H.W.L P.S. T h e Alice has come in safe, and as Uncle Tom says has "covered herself with glory." 431

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Identified in Letter N o . 3058 as Augustus H . Gilman ( 1 7 1 4 . 1 ) . 2. Near Manchester. 3. Mabel Lowell ( 1 4 8 9 . 4 ) married Edward Burnett ( 1 8 4 9 - 1 9 2 5 ) , a dairy and stock farmer of Southboro, Mass., and subsequently a U . S . Congressman, 1887-1889, on April 2, 1872. 4. It is not known if Gleason ( 2 0 6 2 . 1 ) received a position in the Boston Custom House.

2965.

To George Washington

Greene Camb. J u n e i 9

1871

M y Dear Greene, T h i s suits me exactly.^ O n l y make it clear to the Governor that I am coming on Thursday not on Tuesday. Excuse this note "on the half-shell." H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Greene arrived in Cambridge on June 20 and accompanied Longfellow to the Larned entertainment that evening (see Letter N o . 2 9 6 1 ) . O n June 22 Longfellow returned with Greene to East Greenwich, where they spent the day with W i l l i a m Greene ( M S Journal).

2966.

T o William

Greene

Cambridge June 26. 1871 M y Dear Sir, A f t e r the delightful day I passed with you, I returned home refreshed, and thinking of you and your beautiful farm, and your beautiful household, and your cordial welcome. N o t h i n g occurred to mar the pleasure of the day; only w h e n I was stepping into the horse-car in Cambridge street, the Conductor said in rather too loud a voice, I thought, "Please pass forward and make room for this old gentleman." I consoled myself as well as I could with the remembrance that even the Roman Emperors in their triumphs had some one to remind them that they were mortal. Nevertheless the day was full of sunshine, and has left only pleasant memories behind it. I was glad to see you and your family again; I was glad to look again from your door — down into the green valley, and to see George and his w i f e and children; and to make the acquaintance of so agreeable a gentleman as M r . Samuel Greene. N e x t week w e go to N a h a n t , — on the fifth of July, for the summer; and if

432

CAMBRIDGE,

1871

anything should bring you and Mrs. Greene to Boston during the hot weather I need not say how glad I should be to see you by the seaside. Always with great regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House), ADDRESS; Hon William Greene / East Greenwich / R.L

2967.

POSTMARK:

CAMBRIDGE MASS J U N

28

To William Ralston Shedden Ralston^

Cambridge, June 26, 1871. I hope you will pardon me for having so long delayed thanking you for your kindness in sending me your translation of Tourguenif's "Nest of Nobles"; two precious little volumes, which I value very highly. I should have done so sooner, but for many occupations. I have read the volumes with very great pleasure, and thank you for making me acquainted with an author of whom I had heard much, but until now, had read nothing. There is great charm in his writings and a certain freshness which is delightful. This is particularly the case in all his descriptions of nature. I think he must have travelled much by night and have watched the dawn breaking over the fields and meadows. He makes me not only see, but feel the scenes he describes, though the description may be but a few lines in length. I hope the success of this work will be such as to induce you to translate others. Whether this be so or not, accept my cordial thanks for this. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from Maggs Brothers Catalogue No. 352, Item 1954 (December 25, 1 9 1 6 ) . I. Ralston ( 1 8 2 8 - 1 8 8 9 ) , Russian scholar and assistant in the British Museum, had sent Longfellow his translation of Turgenev's Liza; or, A Nest of Nobles (London, 1869), 2 vols.

2968.

To an Unidentified

Correspondent

Cambridge June 26 1871 Dear Sir, Your letter, and the parcel you were kind enough to forward have reached me safely; and I hasten to acknowledge their receipt. With many thanks Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Frank O. Buda, Cambridge, Mass.

433

THE 2969.

To Edith

VIRTUOUS

MAN

Longfellow

Camb. June28 1871 My Darling Edie When I came down to breakfast yesterday I found your letter on the table, and was very glad to get it, I assure you, and to know that you and Pansie had arrived safe at Highfield. After breakfast Alice and Hattie went to Nahant for the day. They say the house looks very nice outside, and very untidy inside, particularly in the upper rooms. W e go down on the 5th. and shall have it all in order before you come. To-day is Commencement Day; and a pretty sultry day it is. I have been busy, trying to get Charlie's room in order. He has too many things for so young a man. Yesterday I dined with Mr. Agassiz, and met Captain Patterson of the Coast-Survey.i He persists in saying, that Uncle Alex, does not need a vessel for his work, and had better have a camp. This you can tell your uncle. Miss Lillian Bowen^ has called upon you, as you will see by the enclosed card; but no one else. None of the familiar faces are seen any more; and the house seems quite solitary and deserted. Aunt Mary has got back from her visit to Brattleboro. Mrs. Coes^ from Manchester has been here to-day; do you remember her? Aunt Anne will. And this evening comes another visitor, whose card I also send. Good night, my darling. Give my love to Pansie and all the cousins. Your always affectionate Papa. P.S. I enclose a photograph for Aunt Anne. MANUSCRIPT:

Massachusetts Historical Society.

1. Carlile Pollock Patterson ( 1 8 1 6 - 1 8 8 1 ) , hydrographie inspector of th- coast survey, 1 8 6 1 - 1 8 7 3 , and superintendent, 1 8 7 4 - 1 8 8 1 . Longfellow had first met him on June 24 at the Saturday Club dinner ( M S Journal). 2. Possibly a relation of Prof. Francis Bowen of Harvard ( 4 8 5 . 2 2 ) . 3. Mary Marble Goes ( 1 7 9 6 - 1 8 8 1 ) of Manchester, Mass., had at one time been a servant in the Longfellow home in Portland.

2970.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. June 30 1871. My Dear Greene, I wrote to the Governor last week to thank him for his hospitality and to tell him how much I enjoyed the day, and that is the reason I have not written to you. One bad effect the visit to East Greenwich had; it broke up entirely my poetic mood, and I cannot bring it back again. Any change produces this 434

CAMBRIDGE,

1871

effect. T h e mind whirls off in a new direction; and there is no astronomy can calculate its return. Moreover it has been College Week here, and of course a week of interruptions. This is enough to put the Muse to flight. And so I have written nothing more of that nature; only an infinity of letters to close up the half year. T h e clothes you left behind I have done up with the books, in a box, directed to you, and left in your room. Will you . . . Here I was interrupted by a gentleman, who stayed two hours, and wished to explain his system of short-hand writing. As he was paralytic in his legs, and had also spine-complaint, and disease of the heart — I could not help listening from compassion. I was going to say, will you have the box sent to you, or shall it wait your coming hitherward again? I am now going to dine with Lowell. So fare well. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

2971. To Anne Allegra

Longfellow

Camb July i 1 8 7 1 . M y Darling Pansie Your letter was very welcome. It came yesterday afternoon, just as I was going to dine with Mr. Lowell. You shall have a German Dictionary at Nahant. I have already put it into the box in the entry, so as not to forget it. It is rather large; — as large as a loaf of bread, known among bakers as a brick-loaf, and the words in it are as thick as plums in a cake. July 2nd. I was here interrupted by Miss Brooks,^ who is engaged in making button-hole bouquets for prisoners in the State's Prison, to be presented on the Fourth of July. Then came Mr. Zerdahelye, who stayed to dinner, and played to us in the evening. And finally Mr. Owen; and so the evening ended. T o day is cool and cloudy, and it looks like rain. T h e wind is blowing, and the chimneys singing. It must be rather fine at Nahant. Thank Edie for her second letter. I will take down the books for her. I think Virgil will be enough without Homer. If not, we can get Homer later. Mr. Howells is safe in the box.^ When you are ready to come up, you must let me know, and I will drive over to the Station for you. I think that you three young ladies might venture to come alone — if you can be alone, when you are three. Perhaps W a d will be able to come with you, or perhaps Uncle Sam will be returning. Let me know how much more money you will want. Your affectionate Papa. 43 5

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

P.S. I send Edie another Punch to-day. Love to all Aunts, Uncles and cousins and nephews and nieces. MANUSCRIPT: Alice Allegra Thorp Estate (on deposit, Longfellow House). 1. Described in Longfellow's journal as Mrs. Brooks, possibly Sarah Warner Brooks (2807.1). 2. In her second letter from Portland of June 29, Edith had reminded her father to take certain books to Nahant for her: "Do you think I should be able to read both Virgil and Homer, or should I get tired of so much heavy reading? I suppose each poem is pretty long, isn't it. / Then, I thought that for light reading I should like to read something of Mr. Howells'. Venetian Life or some other, whatever you think best."

2972.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. July 3 1871. My Dear Greene Above all things, do not lose heart. Remember that your wife and your children look to you for strength and support, and if you fail, all fails. I enclose a notice of your book from the New York Evening Mail;^ not of any great mark perhaps, but still indicating good will, and as much as one must expect from the great whirl of the maelstrom of life. I am amused with the critic's comments upon style. But critics must have something to question and dissent from. You remember the tail of the dog of Alcibiades?^ Do not for a moment think that you are to be exempt from the common lot of writers. Day after tomorrow we go to Nahant. Your next letter must be directed to that wonderful sea-side place. Ah, how happy you are, if you only knew it, (Horace)·^ who have your sea-air brought to your own doors, without going a dozen miles or more to seek it. To-day Stillman and his wife have been here to dine. She is a lovely Greek girl, born in London, who might easily set Troy (New York) on fire, without petroleum.^ It is ten o'clock, and high time for all sleepless wights, like you and me to go to bed. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. This notice from the Evening Mail, V , No. 1 1 5 3 (June 28, 1 8 7 1 ) , was once pasted at the top of the sheet but is now missing. 2. According to Plutarch, Alcibiades cut off his dog's tail so that the Athenians would complain about that instead of saying something worse about him. 3. Longfellow paraphrases a well-known passage in Vergil (Georgics, II, 4 5 8 : " O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint, / agricolas!") and mistakenly attributes it to Horace.

436

NAHANT,

1871

4. Stillman ( 1 4 5 3 . 2 ) had recently married Marie Spartali, daughter of the Greek consul-general in London. Longfellow wrote in his journal that "She has a great deal of beauty of person and voice; and a quiet manner, like Rossetti's 'Blessed Damoiselle.' There is something Pre-Raphaelite about her" (July 3 ) .

2973.

T o Edith

Longfellow

Camb. July 3 1 8 7 1 . M y Darling Edie It is late at night; I do not know how late, and do not dare to look at the clock, for fear I should go to bed without writing to you. And that would be a pity. I wonder somebody does not invent a machine for taking people up to bed, and shelling them on the way, like peas; it would be so convenient! I enclose you two cards of disappointed young gendemen, who called this evening. At dinner to-day we had Mr. and Mrs Stillman. Mrs. S. is a beautiful Greek lady, who has never been in Greece, having been born in London. Her name was Spartola [Spartali]. Her father has a cottage at Shanklin in the Isle of Wight. So we had some common topics of conversation. Thanks for your letter. When you have an idle half hour, you cannot do better than to write to me; because that always gives me great pleasure. On Sunday I wrote to Annie, and sent you a No. of Punch. You will hardly get them before Wednesday, when we shall be on our way to Nahant. T h e Fourth of July is already beginning. I hear certain unknown persons — of weak intellect I should judge — firing crackers. Probably the young Martins,^ or birds of that feather. What curious creatures boys are! Good night, my darling. I hope you will sleep better than I hope to do. Your affectionate Papa. MANUSCBIPT;

Massachusetts Historical Society.

I. Charles Martin (d. 1892, aged seventy), surgeon and medical inspector, U . S . Navy, lived with his family on Brattle Street, corner of Willard, near Longfellow.

2974.

To Edith

Longfellow

Nahant July 6 1 8 7 1 . M y Darling Edie, I write to thank you for your nice long letter;! and to say that I shall go over to Lynn for you on Tuesday, morning train, unless I hear from you to the contrary. W e came down yesterday. It was rather hard to leave Cambridge. T h e 437

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

Brighton meadows looked beautifully bright in the morning sun, with the long shadows stretching across them. T h e y were like a great backgammon board. This morning I saw the Whitney meadows trying to imitate them; and they did it pretty well. To-day it is perfectly lovely here. You will be satisfied when you come. This morning came a letter for you, which I cut open accidentally. I take it from its envelope and enclose it. I see no objection to you three young ladies coming without an escort, in case of need. I do not think there is much danger of robbers; and what else is there to fear? Uncle Tom is asleep on the sofa in the drawing room; and Alice very busy in getting the house in order. Under her energetic management, it begins to look very tidy. Mr. [Amos Adams] Lawrence's new cottage is not so great an annoyance as I feared it would be. You will soon get used to it, and not mind it. Last night, fireworks at the Grant's.^ And now as I write, the well-known hand-organ playing the well-known tunes. With much love to all, ever affectionately Papa. P.S. I wrote to you on the 3rd. before leaving Cambridge. MANUSCRIPT: Massachusetts Historical Society. 1. Dated July 5. 2. Patrick Grant ( 1 8 0 9 - 1 8 9 5 ) , a Harvard graduate of 1828 and a Boston commission merchant, maintained a summer cottage at Nahant.

2975.

To james Thomas

Fields

Nahant July 7. 1 8 7 1 . M y Dear Fields, A thousand thanks for your note and its enclosure. There goes a gleam of sunshine into a dark house; which is always pleasant to think of. I have not yet got the Senator's sunbeam to add to it; but as soon as I do, both shall go shining on their way.^ I come back to my old wish and intention of leaving the Magazine when you do. This is the wisest course; as I could easily persuade you if I had you alone here by the seaside.^ But I do not like to write about it, for you see how the paper blots and the ink spreads with the damp. I am curious to hear the effect of your reading at the island. When you come to the lines about Spring, read as follows;

438

NAHANT,

1871

" T h e robin, the forerunner of the Spring, T h e blue-bird with his jocund carolhng."® T h e Robin is more familiar and belongs more to N e w England, than the Oriole, and must take his place. I hear the Steamer's whistle blow. It is half past three. I wish you were coming to dinner, but I know you are not. W i t h kindest remembrance to Mrs. J.T.F. Always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

1. Neither the note nor the enclosure (a check for George Washington Greene) is recovered. T h e "sunbeam" was presumably another check for Greene from Charles Sumner. 2. Fields had retired as editor of the Atlantic Monthly on December 31, 1870, when he sold his interest in Ticknor & Fields. Longfellow, however, continued to contribute to the magazine. 3. "Lady Wentworth," 11. 113-114.

2976.

T o Anne Allegra

Longfellow

N a h a n t July 7 1871 M y Darling Pansie, I wrote to Edith yesterday but quite forgot to send any money for your expenses homeward. To-day I write to you, and will not forget it. But I shall write only a line, for it is already half past four, and we dine at five. H o w shall you like that hour for Nahant? I have had a letter from Miss Wall,^ saying that complaints have been made about her instruction, and she does not know whether she shall return to the school or not. I told her in answer, that I had heard no complaints from you, or Edith; but thought the trouble might be that some of the young ladies in her room did not obey the rules quite strictly enough. H o w this ink blots! It is not comfortable writing. I will stop. But first I will report what I said to Edie, that on T u e s d a y at noon I will be at the L y n n Station for you with the carriage. I enclose $10.00 and am ten times Your affectionate Papa MANUSCRIPT:

Alice Allegra Thorp Estate (on deposit, Longfellow House).

I. Annie Russell Wall (1835-1920), daughter of William Allen Wall ( 1 8 0 1 1885), New Bedford portrait and landscape painter, taught school in Cambridge and later in St. Louis. Her letter to Longfellow is unrecovered.

439

THE 2977.

To George Washington

VIRTUOUS

MAN

Greene

Nahant July 12 1871. My Dear Greene, Thanks for your letter and the notice of your book in the Nation. It is so accordant with my views, that it seems as if I must have written it in a state of somnambulism. It is pleasant to see that some Reviewer will look at the work as a whole, and recognize a plan in it. I really believe that this Reviewer has read the book. Who is he?^ I return the paper as you request. I also send enclosed the gift of a friend, which will not come amiss.^ This morning we have had a beautiful fog. It soaks one's paper, and mingles with the ink. Nevertheless I like it. Sumner's correspondence with me is not voluminous. Yesterday I received from him the following. "Hot! very hot! Yet I stay! Hope to leave next week! G.W.C. [George William Curtis] is still here. Ever Yrs. C.S."® That is the whole of it. To-day I am looking for Edith and Annie from Portland. Next week Cogswell is coming down for a day or two. I am getting used to the bracing seaair; though yesterday when I saw the boats tossing in the bay I was almost sea-sick. Ever Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Reviews of Vols. II and III of the Gen. Greene biography appeared in The Nation, X I I ( M a y II, 1 8 7 1 ) , 3 2 3 - 3 2 4 , and (June 29, 1 8 7 1 ) , 450-452. T h e writer is unidentified. 2. A reference to a check from James T . Fields. 3. Dated from Washington, D.C., Sunday [July 9, 1 8 7 1 ] .

2978.

To James Thomas Fields

Nahant July 13 1871. My Dear Fields, I have just had the pleasure of receiving your letter and the fire-wood to brighten the hearth of our friend in East Greenwich, and warm his heart. 440

NAHANT,

1871

I sent him the former cheque. Of this, I will draw the amount, so as not to muddle your Bank account; but will not send it for the present. I am glad your Portsmouth visit was so successful; and that "Lady Wentworth" was welcomed so cordially in her old home. Perhaps there were some hints, in the way of criticism, by which I might profit. Do not forget them. I hope to see you and Mrs. Fields soon. Our dinner hour is 5 o'clock on week days, and 2 on Sundays. When will you enliven the frugal board, sacred or secular, with your presence? Are you also become as I am, firm-set at the root, and like the mandrake, torn up with tears and groans? Not yet. That comes later. Are you now Fields of Manchester? or Fields of Boston? To which place shall I direct the faces of my letters? Alwavs Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

2979.

Longfellow Trust Collection.

To James Ripley Osgood

Nahant July 18 1871. My Dear Mr Osgood I heartily wish I had a volume ready for the press; but I have not yet, though I mean to have, one of these days. There is no harm in waiting. But it cannot be announced before it is finished. That would only perplex and annoy me. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

2980.

Frank O. Buda, Cambridge, Mass.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant July 19 1871 My Dear Greene On Wednesday the 12th, just a week ago to-day, I wrote you, enclosing a cheque. Not hearing from you, I begin to fear the letter never reached you. Let me know. Here is a paragraph about Sumner, who is still in Washington.i I enclose also an account of Ugo Foscolo's burial in Santa Croce, which will interest you, if you have not already seen [it];^ though it can hardly have escaped such a faithful reader of the "Chronicles of the Time" as you are. It is an uncommonly cold Summer here by the Sea; and a cold Summer is unkindly and unnatural. I like to have it hot and sit in the shade. 441

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

Sumner writes me that he is hard at work; but at w h a t work he does not say. "I am in my chair," he writes, "at 7 o'clock A . M . — hardly leaving it till 5.30, w h e n I dine, and then drive."® H o w long do you think he will be able to keep up that sort of thing? and after a long Session too> I should say not long. H o w are you all in East Greenwich? and how goes on the History of Rhode Island? Your history, I mean.^ I find it difficult to write by the seaside; almost as difficult as at sea. Pegasus becomes a nightmare. T h e wind howls and whistles; the windows rattle; good for a Sensational N o v e l ; not good for a Poem. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. A clipping from an unidentified newspaper is pasted to the sheet at this point: "CHARLES SUMNER always talks to his servants in French. Mr. Sumner's command over nearly all the modern languages is wonderful. H e speaks French as he does English in slow, measured tones." 2. Presumably the account in the Boston Advertiser, C X V I I I , N o . 14 (July 18, 1 8 7 1 ) . Foscolo ( 5 4 7 . 1 2 ) , who had died in London, had recently been reburied in the Pantheon of Santa Croce in Florence. 3. Letter dated July 17, 1871. 4. Greene had apparently begun work on A Short History of Rhode Island (Providence, 1 8 7 7 ) .

2981.

T o Charles

Sumner

N a h a n t July 19 1871 M y Dear Sumner Your working on so steadily through the hot weather fills me with wonder and envy. I cannot do it, even here at the seaside. In fact, I find that being by the sea, is as bad as being on the sea for any kind of intellectual work. It is a good place to read newspapers and reviews; and that is about all. T h i s year I have brought down with me Plutarch's Morals; a charming book in town or country. Here I cannot take the slightest interest in it. It seems prolix and ponderous. C o m e and see, if this briny atmosphere does not lay a wet cloth on your brain, and cool it down to the average human speed. T h a t is the reason w h y I do not like to stay here so long. But in Summer, would it be different elsewhere? N o , it is the season, not the place, after all. W h e n may w e look for you? M r . James was here a day or two ago. H e said his wife, or his mother-in-law, I forget w h i c h had written to you long ago,i and you had not answered. Cogswell is coming to us on Saturday for a f e w days. A f t e r that, this whole house is "a su disposición de V m d [at your service]." Y o u w h o speak all 442

NAHANT,

1871

modern languages in a "calm and measured tone," will understand Spanish. But I do not mean the words in the Spanish complimentary sense; but literally, as you well know. Ever Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. Longfellow refers here to Henry James, Sr. ( 1 8 1 1 - 1 8 8 2 ) , to his wife Mary Robertson Walsh James ( 1 8 1 0 - 1 8 8 2 ) , and presumably to Catherine Walsh (d. 1 8 8 9 ) , his sister-in-law and a member of his household. James's mother-in-law, Elizabeth Robertson Walsh, was not living at this time.

2982.

To Francis Henry

Underwood

Nahant July 22 1871 My Dear Sir, I have just received your note, and hasten to say that I shall be happy to see you at Nahant next week, but should prefer Saturday to any other day, as I shall then be free from other engagements. If you come down as you propose, in the 2 o'clock boat, we shall have time before dinner to talk over your affairs. We will dine at 5. and you can return comfortably at 6.15. I am sorry to say that the copy of your "Hand Book of English Literature, you were kind enough to send me, has never reached me. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. A Hand-Book of English Literature. Intended for the Use of High Schools, as well as a Companion and Guide for Private Students, and for General Readers (Boston and N e w York, 1 8 7 1 - 1 8 7 3 ) , 2 vols. Vol. I, to which Longfellow here refers, contained British authors only.

2983.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant July 24 1871. My Dear Greene Your letter has just reached me, and I am glad to know that you are still in the land of the living. The announcement of your appointment as Lecturer in the State Normal School I had already seen in a paper.' I cut it out forthwith, and sent it to Williams the Lecture Agent, to be used in his advertisement. It was the paragraph in the Providence Journal which I endorsed, and added something of my own. I hope it may do some good. 44 3

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

T h e emoluments of office in Rhode Island have always amazed me; the probable income of your new place most of all. What can you expect, when a member of the Assembly is paid only one quarter of the wages of a common brick-layer! Strong hands are the fellows that carry the day. Cogswell is here. He has been reading your second and third volumes; and pronounces them excellent. This of his own accord, and not of my asking. I am expecting Sumner soon. T h e papers say that he is now "passing a few days with his friend Longfellow in Cambridge." I have had the honor of having a racehorse named after me, who has made his mile in i .40. the shortest time on record! Yours always Ч

1.40

У)

MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. T h e Providence Journal, X L I I I , No. 15 (July 19, 1 8 7 1 ) : "PROF, GEORGE W. GREENE has been appointed Lecturer on History, in the Normal School. A better appointment could not he made. Thoroughly versed in historical studies, which have been the employment of his life, and to which he has brought great natural advantages and thorough culture. Prof. Greene will add largely to the value of the new enterprise with which his name is associated."

2984.

T o Charles

Sumner^

Nahant July 24 1871 M y Dear Senator, This and the like announcements are only "foreshadowing prefaces" of what is not, but is to be. W e await your coming. Greene has received the appointment of "Lecturer on American History" in the State Normal School of R.L He writes me, that the emoluments of the office "will not reach a hundred dollars." W h e n Greene was introduced by Felton to President Quincy, and told him his profession was "polite literature," the President said; "And what are you going to do with your polite literature in Rhode Island?" If the President had lived to the present day he would have got an answer. It is amazing, what small eggs the golden geese lay in R.I. It would take a dozen of them to make an omelet, which Walker^ defines as "a kind of pancake, made of eggs." Cogswell is here, and as pleasant as the day is long. He is a perfect "Conversation Lexicon." Come soon. Yours always "1.40" 444

NAHANT,

1871

MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. T h e following clipping from an unidentified newspaper is pasted at the top of the sheet: "SENATOR SUMNER is spending a short vacation with the poet Longfellow at Cambridge." Longfellow transformed the clipping into a banner under the legend "Vexilla Regis prodeunt" (Venantius Fortunatus, Durham Ritual: " T h e royal banners forward go"). 2. John Walker ( 1 7 3 2 - 1 8 0 7 ) , English actor and lexicographer.

2985.

To james Russell Lowell

Nahant July 25 1871. My Dear Lowell, I am very sorry to hear such a story of poor Akers; and will to-day send my contribution to Mr. Carter.^ I shall not be able to go to the Club on Saturday; having, in forgetfulness of its being the last Saturday, invited a gentleman to come down to Nahant on that day. Besides, the uncertainty of getting back here at night intimidates me. Is there any chance of your coming down to dine with us? Choose your own day — the brightest and hottest you can find — and we shall be only too glad to see you. We dine at 5. and you can return by the boat at 6.15. On Sunday dinner at 2; from a vague notion that somebody wants to go to Church in the afternoon. Therefore, do not choose Sunday, if you please. Mr Cogswell is passing a few days with us; and is very pleasant company. Otherwise, Nahant is unusually dull this year. I will now write a line to Mr. Carter,^ instead of filling this page to you. Always Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. 1 . In a letter of July 24 Lowell had written that Charles Akers ( 1 8 3 6 - 1 9 0 6 ) , sculptor and portrait painter, had "been taken suddenly down with a violent bleeding at the lungs" and that a fund was being collected for him by Robert Carter ( 1 7 5 7 . i ) . 2. Unrecovered.

2986.

To Annie Aubertine

Woodward

Nahant July 26. 1871. Dear Miss Woodward, Your letter! {,35 ^^ggj^ forwarded to me at this place, and I hasten to say, that I certainly would comply with your request, if I ever did anything of the kind, in any case. But I do not. I have so many requests of a similar nature, that I am forced in self defense to decline all; and I trust that you will pardon me if I do not break through my rule in the present instance. 445

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

I shall read the "Sphinx" with interest, and I doubt not with pleasure, since you have thought it worth translating, though I am unacquainted with the writing of Robert Byr.^ The "Tales from Mist Land" too, I shall not fail to read, when they appear.·' You have my best wishes for the success of both works. With many regrets that I cannot comply with your request, in regard to them, I am. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Wisconsin Historical Society.

1. Unrecovered. 2. Robert Byr was the pseudonym of Karl Robert Emmerich von Bayer ( 1 8 3 5 1 9 0 2 ) , Austrian novelist whose Sphinx (Berlin, 1 8 7 0 ) , 3 vols., Miss Woodward translated as Sphinx; or, Striving with Destiny (Philadelphia and N e w York, 1 8 7 1 ) . 3. Miss Woodward was the first American to translate the Nibelungenlied. See Echoes from Mist-Land; or. The Nibelungen Lay, Revealed to Lovers of Romance (Chicago, 1 8 7 7 ) .

2987.

To George Washington Greene^

[Nahant] Ce 27 Juillet 1871. Monsieur Ayez la bonté d'accuser réception du ci-inclus, et croyez-moi toujours Votre dévoué H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

TRANSLATION :

Monsieur Have the goodness to acknowledge receipt of the enclosed, and believe me always Your devoted H.W.L I. T h e identification is conjectural, but the penciled name Greene, in brackets and in another hand, is written beside "Monsieur." T h e enclosure might have been a check.

2988.

To Cecilia Viets Oakin Hamilton

Nahant July 27. 1871. My Dear Mrs Hamilton, I have just had the pleasure of receiving your most welcome letter, and hasten to say how much I thank you for it, and for the beautiful photograph which came with it. I like it extremely. It seems to me one of Mr. Saroni's best;^ and is every way agreeable. Be assured that I value it highly. Your letter also was just what I wished for, and told me what I wanted to 446

NAHANT,

1871

know. I am glad you have found such friends as Professor Short and his family. I remember his wife perfecdy well; and her school in Cambridge; and how my daughter went to it; and how sorry we were when it was given up, and Miss Lyman went away.^ In regard to your new book, if the Harpers make you a good offer, I think you would do well to accept it. To say the least of it, such an arrangement would be more convenient for you, than to negotiate with a Boston house.·'' I have had dealing with the Harpers, and always found them prompt and straight forward. They published my first prose book "Outre-Mer," in 1835. I hope to hear from you again soon. When you have an idle moment you cannot better bestow it, as I take a great interest in your success, and am always glad to hear from you, and to be helpful, if possible, in some way. With great regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Massachusetts Historical Society. 1. Napoleon

Sarony

(1821-1896),

Quebec-born

lithographer,

photographer,

and

portrait painter of N e w York City. 2. Charles Short ( 1 8 2 1 - 1 8 8 6 ) , classical philologist and professor of Latin at Columbia, 1 8 6 7 - 1 8 8 6 , had married A n n e Jean L y m a n ( 1 8 1 9 - 1 9 0 8 )

in 1 8 4 9 , but the Miss

L y m a n mentioned here was Catherine D w i g h t L y m a n , sister of Mrs. Short, w h o kept a school for young ladies at Brattle Street, corner of Hilliard, which Alice M a r y Longfellow attended, 1 8 5 7 - 1 8 5 9 . 3. If Harper Brothers made an offer, Mrs. Hamilton did not accept it. to Do: A Novel

2989.

Something

was published by James R . Osgood & C o m p a n y , Boston, 1 8 7 1 .

To Charles Sumner

Nahant July 27 1871. My Dear Sumner, Your room is all ready at this Wayside Inn, where we tell no Tales. Come as soon as you can. Alwavs Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow T r u s t Collection.

2990.

To an Unidentified

Correspondent

Nahant n. Boston July 29. 1871. My Dear Sir, Your letter has been forwarded to me at this seaside place, where I am passing the Summer, and I hasten to acknowledge it, and at the same time to apologize for not having answered your former letter. 447

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

It would give me great pleasure to send you the autographs you desire, if I had them, or could procure them. But I have nothing of the kind to dispose of; and it would be very difficult to get them. I can therefore only send you my own.^ Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

unrecovered; text from photostat, Longfellow T r u s t Collection

(Long-

fellow H o u s e ) . I. T h e final four-line stanza of " T h e D a y is D o n e , " signed by Longfellow, accompanies the letter.

2991.

To James Thomas Fields

Nahant Aug 2 1871. My Dear Fields, I should like full well to go with you to Newbury.^ But it is impossible. I am expecting Sumner by this morning's steamer, and cannot be away. Gilmore has not made his appearance; and I hope he will not; as it would be of no use. I cannot do it.^ At length we have some warm Nahant weather. Hitherto it has been only Winter. What a sunset we had last night! I never saw anything more magnificent. What do you think of my going to England to preside at the Literary Fund Dinner next year? I have been invited in the most cordial manner. "Resolved unanimously . . . that the President be requested to assure him of the cordiality and respect with which, on his arrival, he would he welcomed not by this Institution only, but by this entire Country."® Shall I go? Please read this to no one; as I do not wish to be my own trumpeter, except in a quiet way, now and then. The Steamer has come in, and no Gilmore. Safe for twenty four hours! and for twice that number Yours H.W.L MANUSCBIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. In a letter of J u l y 3 0 ( M S ,

H e n r y E . Huntington L i b r a r y ) Fields had asked

Longfellow to accompany him on August 4 to Indian Hill Farm near

Newburyport,

the residence of the journalist Benjamin Perley Poore ( 1 8 2 0 - 1 8 8 7 ) . 2. In his letter Fields had

written

that Patrick

Sarsfield Gilmore

(1829-1892),

Irish-born musician and "leader of the grand International Musical Festival to take place next year is going to N a h a n t perhaps tomorrow to speak with you about his plans. I am heartily in favor of his project and I hope you will feel moved to do something for h i m . "

448

NAHANT,

1871

3. Longfellow had received a letter from the Earl of Stanhope ( 2 6 7 9 . 1 ) dated July 15, 1 8 7 1 , forwarding the resolution (unrecovered) of the Royal Corporation of the Literary Fund, a society for the support of authors in distress or their widows and children.

2992.

To George Washington

Greene Nahant

Aug 3 1871

My Dear Greene, Shall I lie down and sleep on this sultry Summer noon, or sit here and write to you? The question is answered as soon as asked. You smile, and think I cannot sleep when I will. You are mistaken. I can. After so many sleepless nights — so many years of sleepless nights, I have made a great discovery, and to me of infinite value. I can put myself to sleep by an effort of the will. When I go to bed at night, I will myself to sleep; and the next thing I am conscious of is, that it is morning and the birds are singing. Congratulate me. This advertizing for six Professors, "wanted immediately; no Americans need apply"; is so grotesque — so irresistibly comic, that it makes me laugh. What are we coming to? That is the way to get cooks and chambermaids. I shall never, I fear, be able to see it in a serious light. It is incredible! Sumner has not yet made his appearance though I look for him daily. I have had a letter from Lord Stanhope, and an invitation to preside at the Royal Lit. Fund Society, couched in the most flattering terms. Shall I go? Rhyme and Reason answer, "No." H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection.

2993.

To ]ean Louts Rodolphe Agassiz

Nahant Aug 4 1871. M y Dear Agassiz, The next best thing to seeing you, is to see your handwriting. Mr. Bartoldi' presented himself on Wednesday in the afternoon. He dined with us, and was very agreeable. We only regretted that you did not come with him, which would have made our enjoyment complete. You must make up for this by coming on some other day, expressly to dine with us, at 5 o'clock. You can return in the 6 o'clock boat, if needful. If you come down at 2. you will lose only half a day. If Mrs Agassiz would come with you, you would not lose even that, and we should gain, I will not say how much. Nahant is not Nahant without you. We only make believe that it is, and do not succeed. We know it is an illusion. To-day is a wonderful day; a great field-day of Nature; all the winds trumpeting, and all the waves rejoicing. 449

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

And now the Ulysses whistles. Perhaps you are on board. I will go down and see. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCBIPT:

Harvard College Library.

I. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi ( 1 8 3 4 - 1 9 0 5 ) , French sculptor whose best-known work is the Statue of Liberty in N e w York Bay, dedicated in 1886. See Longfellow's journal entry for August 2 (Life, III, 1 8 0 - 1 8 1 ) .

2994.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant Aug 5 1871 My Dear Greene, I dreamed of you last night. You got home very late; and came up by the dumb-waiter into the dining-room closet, in a dress-coat, and a white hat, very much crushed. You said you had been out to drive with a Spanish lady. It seemed, in the dream, all very natural; but a sudden rush of rain on the roof woke me; and I laughed aloud at the absurdity of the vision; as you will probably do when you read this account of it. Allow me to offer you, for your future guidance. Alderman Gibson's views on Public Libraries.^ Your indignation about advertising "for six Professors," was superfluous. A gentleman, who spoke with President [Andrew Dickson] White on the subject, assures me it never happened. Only one was advertised for; a Professor of Architecture; and this, because he (the President aforesaid) could not find a good American architect, who would take a professorship with so small a salary. This puts an entirely new face on the matter. A gentleman, who has been trying to get a Lowell Course writes to me; "As for lectures at the Lowell next season, there has been such an overflow of applications, that it was impossible for me to obtain a course . . . Sometimes applicants have to wait 3 or 4 years." No Sumner yet. He leaves Washington on Monday the 7th. but stops in Phila. and N. York. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. A clipping from the Boston Transcript, X L I V , No. 12,677 (August 4, 1 8 7 1 ) , is pasted to the sheet at this point: "Alderman Gibson had not a doubt that the library would hold all the books actually required—such works as were likely to be in demand by the reading public, and would do any good. He believed in casting off a good deal of superfluous matter that he had reason to think was already there. T h e works of nearly every writer in the world were fast finding their way into the library, and were stored 4 5°

NAHANT,

1871

there at great expense. He asked if there were not a hundred thousand volumes on the shelves that were never called for." Nehemiah Gibson ( 1 8 1 6 - 1 8 8 2 ) represented Ward I, Boston, as alderman.

2995.

To Charles Appleton

Longfellow

Nahant Aug 9. 1871. My Dear Charlie, We have been delighted to receive your letters from the Pacific Steamer and are now looking for tidings from Japan, to tell us that you are well, and well-satisfied with your journey so far. Miss Dora Clark tells us that Arthur thinks of coming home soon, on a visit. I hope he will not have left China before you reach there. It would be pleasant for you to come home together. I am a litrie anxious about your money-matters. Your balance in Bank, Aug I. was $1916.37 which Mr. [Ebenezer] Snow has remitted to Baring Bros. You will have to limit your expenses as much as possible. We have had thus far rather cool and uncertain weather at Nahant this Summer. Uncle Tom has been as far as Portland in the Alice, towing the Wyverni down for Wad, who is beside himself for joy. To-day the Alice goes to Nantasket Roads to meet the New York [Yacht Club] Squadron, expected in these waters. Next week is the Regatta at Swampscot, which we shall witness from East Point. A week or two ago Stuyvesant- was here in the Palmer, bound for the coast of Maine. So much for the Shipping news. On land everything goes on as usual at Nahant. [William Church] Otis fires his morning and evening gun under our windows, with a good deal more powder than is necessary, being rather loud in his tastes. The Ulysses comes and goes; the girls bathe and play croquet; and I sit on the Piazza and read. The old story! Ernest and his wife are here; and [Johan Erik Christian] Petersen hovers about, rather impatient and restless. I have forwarded your papers regularly; also two letters from W. Fay, who is laid up with a lame knee. He is consoled by having a son and heir born at Lynnmere.® Good bye and God bless you. Alwavs affectionately H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT; Longfellow Trust Collection, ADDRESS: Mr Charles A. Longfellow. / Care of Messrs Russell & Co. / Shanghai. / China. / Via England & Brindisi. POSTMARK:

||CAMBRIDGE|| MASS. AUG I I

1871

1. A small sailboat belonging to Charles Longfellow. 2. Rutherfurd Stuyvesant (d. 1909, aged sixty-nine), N e w York yachtsman, Columbia graduate of 1863, and descendant of Peter Stuyvesant. 3. "Drove with Uncle Tom to Lynnmere to see the Fays; and found them rejoicing in a new baby, born on Sunday [July 9]" ( M S Journal, July 1 1 , 1 8 7 1 ) . 45 I

THE 2996.

To George Washington

VIRTUOUS

MAN

Greene

Nahant Aug 10 1871. My Dear Greene, I have your letter enclosing Houghton's account. He has also sent me his cheque for the amount of sales of Vol I. It seems to me that half the sum belongs to the Governor; and have written to Houghton to say so.^ Perhaps the whole matter had better be left for adjustment when I go back to Cambridge in September. He writes, that he has not yet made up his mind about the "Historic View."^ I have again written to him on the subject; and told him how important a work I esteem it. Here is a little paragraph about your friend Kapp, which will interest you.'' Whether the reference in Hecker's speech was really to Kapp, or to some one else, I can not say. In the extract I saw, he mentioned no'names. A young American architect was here yesterday, and told me, that he had every reason to think, that the Cornell professorship would be offered to him, though he had not applied for it, and should not. If it саше unasked he was inclined to accept it. This is as it should be.* When Sumner comes I will not fail to remind him of Vols II and III. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCBiPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. This letter, dated August 9, 1 8 7 1 ( M S Letter Calendar), is unrecovered. 2. That is, about a third edition of the Historical View of the American Revolution. See 2285.3. 3. A clipping from the Boston Advertiser, C X V I I I , No. 33 (August 9, 1 8 7 1 ) , is pasted to the sheet at this point: "Certain remarks of Friedrich Hecker at a Turner's festival in Illinois were copied into this paper yesterday, with a statement that they were understood to be levelled at Friedrich Kapp, who is charged with 'delighting Prussian junkerdom by writing slanderous books against America.' Whether Mr. Hecker had Dr. Kapp in mind in the remarks quoted, we are not able to say. But as to the rest of the statement, Dr. Kapp has many friends in this country, and many others who know and respect his reputation, who do not need to be told that it is quite untrue. He is now in Berlin, and it is entirely safe for those of his countrymen who differ from him in their opinions of German policy to make war upon him at this distance. Dr. Kapp should not suffer on that account." Friedrich Kapp ( 1 8 2 4 - 1 8 8 4 ) , German publicist and historian, resided in N e w York, 1 8 5 0 - 1 8 7 0 , became a U . S . citizen, and wrote a number of books on American affairs. He had recently returned to Germany. Friedrich Karl Franz Hecker ( i 8 i t - i 8 8 i ) , expatriate German revolutionist and Union soldier during the Civil War, was a farmer of Belleville, Ilhnois. 4. T h e "young American architect" is identified in the M S Journal as John Hubbard Sturgis ( 1 8 3 4 - 1 8 8 8 ) , son of Russell Sturgis ( 1 5 4 5 . 4 ) and the architect of the original Museum of Fine Arts in Copley Square, Boston. If the Cornell professorship was offered him, he did not accept it.

452

NAHANT, 2997.

1871

To Robert Dodge

Nahant Aug. 12 1871. My Dear Sir, Your letter has just reached me, and I am happy to learn, that you are likely to make a satisfactory arrangement with Osgood & Co. for the publication of your book.^ A copy-right of ten per cent on the retail price is, I believe, the usual price paid by all Publishers. That is what I receive for my books; and I suppose, that all the other writers, who publish with Osgood & Co. receive the same. On the whole, I have found this percentage preferable to a fixed sum per copy, which I used formerly to have. You must be glad to get away from the heat of the city to the cool mountains of Vermont; for I take it for granted, that Stowe is among the mountains, though I am not sure, never having been there. Begging you to present my compliments to Mrs Dodge,- and my regrets at not having had the pleasure of seeing her, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

MANUSCRIPT:

1 . T h e "satisfactory arrangement" fell through and Dodge did not publish with James R . Osgood & Company. 2. Dodge had married his second cousin Annie Roe in 1867.

2998.

To William

Greene

Nahant. Aug 16 1871 My Dear Sir, Mr. Houghton has sent me the enclosed account of sales of Vol. I of [the] Life of General Greene. He has also sent me the amount of "Balance to Credit" $ 1 1 8 . 9 1 , for half of which $59.46 I herewith enclose my cheque. We are having a pleasant though rather cool summer by the seaside. The sea-side is to me what heather is to a highlander. I must have it once a year. You are to be envied, who have the sea air blown across your farm, and are not obliged to go from home in pursuit of it. I hope that you and Mrs. Greene are both well, and enjoying all the out-ofdoor delights of the amiable Summer season. Senator Sumner is with me for a few days, trying to get the Washington heats out of his blood. He sends kind remembrances and regards. If he could have a month or two of this idle life, it would be the best thing possible for 453

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

him. But after only three days of it, I see, that he begins to grow restless, and paces up and down the piazza like a prisoner. With kindest regards to Mrs. Greene, Yours faithfully, Henry W . Longfellow unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

MANUSCRIPT:

2999.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant Aug 19 1871. My Dear Greene, I should have answered your letter, when it reached me yesterday, but was interrupted and prevented by company. The Senator will write to you to-day. He has a letter from Mrs. Grote,^ in which there is a paragraph about the R.I. Historical Soc. which will please you, and perhaps serve as a text for an Article in the [Providence] Journal. I feel the force of what you say about writing these Articles. Why not make believe that the Journal is a Literary Journal, and write accordingly? The Editor must want literary matter, as well as political. The "Courier des Etats Unis"^ is sent me by Sumner. I will forward it to you in future, and anything else I may find, that will furnish fuel to your furnace. I have left the Senator on the piazza, in the hands of an obese office-seeker, seemingly of the Custom House species. It is time for me to go down and release him. Since I last wrote, I have seen Houghton, and talked with him about the Historic View. He seems inclined to publish it, but still hesitates to take it from another house.® Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Harriet Lewin Grote ( 1 7 9 2 - 1 8 7 8 ) , wife of the English historian George Grote (1794-1871). 2. T h e Courrier des États-Unis, a French-language newspaper published in N e w York. 3. T h e first two editions of Greene's Historical View of the American Revolution ( 2 2 8 5 . 3 ) bad been published by Ticknor & Fields, now James R . Osgood & Co. Henry O. Houghton's Riverside Press in Cambridge published a third edition in 1 8 7 2 and a fourth edition in 1876.

454

NAHANT, 3000.

T o George Washington

1871

Greene Nahant

A u g . 21

1871.

M y Dear Greene, I have just received the enclosed from Houghton, and send it at once to you, as you can answer his questions and I cannot. To-day I was to have gone in a Steamer with the Senator and Collector Russell, to Minot's Ledge Light. But the weather proving unfavorable, (if I were writing for the papers I should say inauspicious) the expedition has been postponed to some u n k n o w n future. A very ponderous custom-house officer, w h o looked like a character from Dickens, has just been here to make arrangements; but no time is fixed upon. I wish you could be here; but do not dare to ask you on an uncertainty. Sumner leaves me on Wednesday for the rest of the week; but returns on Saturday. T h e sea is doing him great good. H e walks slowly, stops often, and is tired easily. Otherwise he seems himself; and is very merry and pleasant. It is afternoon. T h e weather brightens. W e might have gone to the Ledge very well. T h e sea is as level as a floor. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection.

3001.

T o George Washington

Greene Nahant

A u g . 25 1871.

M y Dear Greene T h e Senator has departed. H e comes back to N a h a n t on Sunday, but not to me, having another friend to visit here, w h o insists upon having his share. I am sorry to say that the violent attack of Angina Pectoris, which he had last Winter, has left some traces. H e complains that I walk too fast; and is averse to walking at all. T h e air of N a h a n t is just the thing for him; and he means to stay a week or two longer; about as long as we do. T h a n k s for the Gondolier's pamphlet on Dante.^ I dare say it is very curious; but did you find in it any valuable hint or suggestion? I am quite sure that Sumner would have no objection to your making use of the passage from Mrs Grote's letter. In fact he sent it for that purpose. So you need have no hesitation. O n Tuesday w e made our expedition to Minot's Ledge.^ It was every way pleasant and successful. W e wished you could have been with us; but it was impossible to notify you in season. T h e Light House rises out of the sea, like a beautiful stone cannon, mouth upwards, belching forth only friendly fires. W e went up into it; even into the lantern itself, the glass of which — beautiful 455

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plate glass, — cost ten thousand dollars. I can believe this, having seen it, and knowing what telescopic lenzes cost. T h e lantern will hold six people easily. T h e days grow shorter. T h e trees begin to scatter their curl-papers about the grass. T h e r e is a touch of A u t u m n in the air; and the swift Summer is gone. A l w a y s Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT; Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Antonio Maschio, gondoliere, Pensieri sulla Divina Commedia e il Trionfo di Francesca da Rimini, interpretazioni (Venezia, 1 8 7 1 ) . See J. Chesley Mathews, "Longfellow's Dante Collection," Emerson Society Quarterly, N o . 62 ( W i n t e r 1 9 7 1 ) , 2,0. 2. According to his journal entry for August 22 ( L i f e , III, 1 8 3 - 1 8 4 ) , Longfellow made this trip on a revenue cutter with Sumner, Henry James, Sr., Ernest Longfellow, Agassiz, a young Japanese prince, and Collector Thomas Russell.

3002.

T o Robert Grant

Halihurton^

N a h a n t A u g 28 M y Dear Sir, Your friendly letter has been forwarded to me at this sea-side place, I am passing the Summer, and also the two pamphlets;^ for all w h i c h you to accept my best thanks, as well as for the kind remembrance prompted you to send them.

1871. where I beg which

I have read both the Historic Sketch and the Scientific paper with much interest. In both you make out a very good case. If Darwinian readers say, " T h o u almost persuadest me to be a monkey"; yours can say "Plato, thou reasonest well."^ I look forward to the coming of the fruits with eager expectation. I shall remember you, and drink your health at that dessert. W o u l d I could be at your festival; but that is impossible. If I return to Cambridge soon enough, I shall be too happy to send a copy of Evangeline as you suggest. W i l l the 20th of Sept. be in season? I fear not; but could hardly get it to you sooner. Your N e w Hampshire friends have not sent the poems you speak of. A t all events they have not been forwarded to me here. Perhaps I may find them waiting my return in Cambridge. W i t h renewed thanks for your kindness. Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library. 1. Haliburton ( 1 8 3 1 - 1 9 0 1 ) , a lawyer of Halifax, Nova Scotia, was the author of numerous tracts on political, economic, and scientific subjects. 2. T h e letter is unrecovered and the pamphlets unidentified. 3. Joseph Addison, Cato, V , i, i .

456

NAHANT, 3003.

To George Washington

1871

Greene

Nahant Aug 29 1871. My Dear Greene, This is a rainy day. The sky is gray, the sea is gray, and the undersigned is gray; gray as the author of the "Elegy in a Country Church-yard." Sumner has returned to Nahant, but is staying with Mr. [Henry] James [Sr.], not with me. I saw him yesterday and we talked about you, and an Italian consulship. He says nothing can be done except through [Henry Bowen] Anthony. I send you to-day the Courier des Etats Unis. Out of each No. I think you might make a paragraph or article of European news, which would be better than we get elsewhere. I enclose also a short notice of old Gasparone, from the "Figaro."' Translate it for the [Providence] "Journal." It is a drop in your bucket. In front of my window passes the steamer going up to town through mist and rain. We are almost ready to go; and have fixed upon the 14th of September as our day of departure. Luckily I did not go to the Club Dinner on Saturday. Had I gone, I should probably have come down in that evening train of dire disaster,^ and should have brought Sumner with me. He stayed over night in Boston. Yours always, ' H.W.L P.S. Enclosed cheque for $50.00. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Longfellow had ¡lasted a clipping from the Paris Figaro to the top of the sheet (now missing). It presumably concerned Agénor Etienne Gasparin (2699.2), who had died on May 14, 1 8 7 1 . 2. On Saturday, August 26, a collision at Revere, Mass., between two cars of the Eastern Railroad resulted in the death of thirty people and injury to twenty-nine.

3004.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant Sept. i. 1871. My Dear Greene, This is an excellent notice of your book in the Union,' and is evidently written by some one who knows what he is about, and feels the value of your work. I have not the slightest idea, who the writer is. He hints at, but does not analyze the artistic structure of the three volumes, as a Symphony in three parts; the Idylic movement of the first; the prolonged Recitative of the second; the full orchestra in the third. This is a German view of the subject; but a true one. I doubt whether you 457

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did it on purpose. It was by instinct, and the impression of the subject upon you. You hardly take the right view of the [Providence] Journal. It is your opportunity; just as the Débats (or what was the paper?) was St. Beuve's.Look at it a litde in this point of view. You can write on all subjects, and address a large audience; and might give a series of short articles or long; but at least one a week, that would make the Journal need you. You have done so already in part, but not continuously. At the end of the year you would have a volume; and you ought to have a regular salary. If I could see Anthony I should say so to him. It would give character to his paper. Sumner thinks the same; but alas! we do not own the paper. Yours always H.W.L P.S. I return the Union with this. On the wrapper I wrote your name in full, because I was thinking of something else at the time and the pen ran on much to my amusement. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. See the Christian Union, IV (August i6, 1 8 7 1 ) , 103. 2. Sainte-Beuve did not write for the Journal des Débats. Longfellow presumably had in mind the Revue des Deux Mondes or perhaps the Constitutionnel.

3005.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant Sept 5 1871. My Dear Greene, How sorry I am that I cannot meet you in Boston tomorrow! I am prevented by an engagement here, which I cannot postpone. Fields and his wife are coming from Manchester to dine with me, and there is no possible way of sending them word to change the day. I wish it were possible for you, instead of returning home in the afternoon, to take the 2.20 steamer and come down here for the night. But I fancy that will be impossible on account of the children. I am very curious to know what Mr. [Andrew Dickson] White has to say and to offer. If it is a Professorship or Lectureship of American History [at Cornell], it will open the gate into a very pleasant field. You are so familiar with it, that you could go to all the birds' nests without any great trouble or fatigue. Whatever it is, you can always take a few days for reflection, if necessary. I am sorry you feel so depressed about it. Once engaged in the work, the old enthusiasm will come back in all its force. Only when we arc on the outside of things do they seem cold and lifeless.

458

NAHANT,

1871

It would be delightful if you could come down here. Appleton has gone to Newport, and there is a vacant room. Yours always H.W.L P.S. Sumner is still here, and Dr. Holmes. MANUSCRIPT:

3006.

Longfellow Trust Collection.

To Isabella Batchelder James

Nahant Sept 7 1871. Dear Mrs James, Mr [Thomas Gold] Appleton is at present in Newport, but he shall have your note as soon as he returns. Meanwhile I guaranty that no barberry bush shall be planted in the pavement of Scolley Square. As to Miles Standish I am afraid that I have no unbound copy; — in fact I know I have none. After my return to Cambridge next week, I will try to find one for you. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Boston Public Library.

3007.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant Sept 9 1871. My Dear Greene, Thanks for your letter and the "Golden Age." I am rejoiced to see, that your work is so well appreciated by the critic, and that he puts you in your right place. I have cut out the notice, to give it back to you when we meet in Cambridge, which I hope will be next week.^ We go up on Thursday the 14th. and if you could come on Friday and stay over Sunday it would be delightful. In case you are too busy to do this, you must give me a day, or a night on your way to Ithaca. You see I take it for granted, that Pres[iden]t White will listen to your suggestions and conditions. I was very sorry I could not meet you in Boston; and wrote you a note^ to say so. Perhaps it is all for the best; as I am not very good at negotiations, and am too much in the habit of letting other people have it all their own way. I sincerely hope there will be no hitch or hindrance in this matter, and wait your next letter with impatience. 459

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The occupation will be congenial; and much easier than you imagine. An audience does not intimidate you, and that is half the battle. Do not try too hard; but let your thoughts flow easily, as if you were talking to a friend in an easy-chair. That is my idea of an Academic Lecture. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. A review of Greene's biography of his grandfather appeared in the Golden Age, I (September 2, 1 8 7 1 ) , 6. 2. Unrecovered. Greene had apparently asked Longfellow to be present at his negotiations with Andrew Dickson White concerning the Cornell professorship.

3008.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant Sept 12. 1871. My Dear Greene, I have just received your letter, and hasten to send you a few words of reply. It is well to have a written Introductory Lecture; after that the unwritten are better. Only, I beg of you to remember that these are Academic Lectures; and need not be rhetorical, that is to say, oratorical. From long experience I can give you some good hints, which will greatly facilitate your task. Come up on Friday if you can possibly manage so to do, and we will discuss the matter thoroughly. Above all things, do not get nervous about it. You are always at ease before an audience, and have nothing to fear. But I suppose you feel as I should, if I had accepted the invitation of the Literary Fund, and were on my way to England to preside at the dinner. It is the fearful moment before the plunge. All that you need is time for preparation for this specific object; and I think you were wise in suggesting a limited course. If the course were postponed till the Spring Term, you would have time enough. Be of good cheer. All will go well. Yours alwavs ' H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

3009.

Longfellow Trust Collection.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant Sept 13 1871. My Dear Greene, Your letter, enclosing Pres. White's, has just arrived. The result of the négociation is certainly to be deplored. But then Pres. White should not have asked the impossible, nor could you be expected to undertake it. I am afraid 460

CAMBRIDGE,

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he is too much in a hurry, to get good work done; unless he applies only to those who have ready-made lectures on hand. I do not blame him for wanting to have his own way; nor do I blame you for having yours. Fortunately you had not gone very far in the business. Still I deeply regret that his conditions were such, that you could not possibly accept them. This is a windy, wailing, disagreeable day. We are packing; and unless it storms, go home tomorrow. I shall hope to see you on Friday; or on Saturday at the latest. Come if you can. Do not let this disappointment worry you too much. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection.

3010.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Sept 24 1871 My Dear Greene, Your letter, the first from Ithaca, has just reached me, and I am delighted.' All will now go well. But tell me the hours and days of your lectures, that I may follow them in thought. Do you stand or sit? If you stand, and I were in the audience, I should say; "Sit down. Sir! It is more becoming for us to stand, than for you!" If possible, look out for a lodging near your lecture room for Winter. Climbing a steep hill is not a good prologue to a lecture. I enclose you an autograph, and will at once notify [B. W.] Williams not to make any arrangements for you before January. How did you hear of Charlie's diplomatic career? I have seen no mention of it [in] any paper. If you have anything, send it to me. We had letters from him two days ago, in which he said he had been acting as Secretary of Legation for a day, and had seen the Micado of Japan.^ He is certainly in great luck for a young traveller. Very few mortal eyes have seen the Micado! Since you were here we have celebrated Alice's twenty first birth day. I wish you had been here. I wish you were here to-day, to dine with Sumner and Darley. Give my regards to Pres. White, and say what an excellent appointment he made, when he appointed you! To the students say "Plaudite."·' Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Greene had been appointed a non-resident professor of American history at Cornell, but he was not ofGcially secure in the position until September 1872. His

461

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lectures, delivered sporadically between 1 8 7 1 and 1874, were as unsuccessful as his continual efforts to improve his status at the university. Morris Bishop writes: "Many of the touted lectures [of the non-resident professors] were frankly bad. George Washington Greene did nothing but read aloud from his printed book on the American Revolution" ( A History of Cornell [Ithaca, 1962], p. 1 0 5 ) . He retired in 1875. 2. Mutsuhito ( 1 8 5 2 - 1 9 1 2 ) , emperor of Japan, 1 8 6 7 - 1 9 1 2 , under the reign name of Meiji. 3. C f . "Vos valete et plaudite" (Farewell and give your applause), an expression used at the end of Latin comedies.

3011.

To Carlos Moria Vicuña^

Cambridge, 28 de Setiembre de 1871. Estimado señor mio: El cúmulo de negocios a que he debido atender personalmente despues de una larga ausencia de esta ciudad, me ha impedido comunicar más pronto á V. mi gratitud por su bondadosa carta y por el ejemplar de su traducción de "Evangelìna," que ha tenido la amabilidad de remitirme. Suplicóle que acepte ahora mi cordial reconocimiento. Me obliga mucho el honor que V. me hace con su traducción, y como tengo alguna experiencia en este género de trabajos, sé apreciar debidamente todas las dificultades de la tarea. Hasta donde he podido examinar su version, me parece que las ha vencido V. con éxito notable, y producido un poema muy melodioso y fluido. Si algo siento es sólo la necesidad en que se ha visto de variar el metro, aunque considero que habrá V. tenido para ello buenas y satisfactorias razones, por lo cual no insisto más en este particular. Con muchas y muy sinceras gracias, me ofrezco á V. como su afectísimo servidor, HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.

Señor don

GARLOS M O R L A V I G U Ñ A .

MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; t e x t from El Mundo

Nuevo,

I (December 10, 1 8 7 1 ) , 150.

TRANSLATION:

Cambridge, September 28, 1 8 7 1 M y Dear Sir: T h e multitude of affairs to which I have had to attend personally after a long absence from this city has impeded more prompt communication to you of my gratitude for your kind letter and for the copy of your translation of "Evangeline," which you have kindly forwarded to me. I now beg you to accept my cordial acknowledgment. I am much obliged for the honor you give me with your translation, and as I have some experience in this kind of work, I can duly appreciate all the difficulties of the task. As far as I have been able to examine your version, it seems to me that you have conquered the difficulties with notable success and have produced a very melodious and fluent poem. If there is anything I regret, it is merely that you felt it necessary to change the

462

CAMBRIDGE,

1871

meter, although I assume that you must have had good and satisfactory reasons for doing so. I do not therefore dwell on this point. W i t h many sincere thanks, I am your humble servant, H e n r y W . Longfellow. I. Moria Vicuña ( 1 8 4 6 - 1 9 0 1 ) served as secretary of a Chilean legation in N e w York that was negotiating peace with Spain at this time. H e had sent Longfellow a copy of his translation into ottava rima stanzas of Evangelina. Romance de la Acadia ( N u e v a York, 1 8 7 O ·

3012.

To an Unidentified

Correspondent

Cambridge Sept 28 1871 My Dear Sir, Absence from town has prevented me from receiving and answering your letter at an earlier moment. Accept my thanks for your kind offer of the books, but as I already have copies of the same edition, I will not give you the trouble of sending them. I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection.

3013.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Sept 29 1871. My Dear Greene, This is one of the loveliest of autumnal nights. Everybody should be out walking in the moonlight. I content myself with looking at it from the window. Of course you are sitting by the waterfalls of Ithaca, with Penelope.^ Your letter came this morning. You mention the hour of your lectures, but not the days. Under such circumstances how can you expect me to follow your course? Sophocles was here yesterday. He said his lectures were advertised but not a single hearer had presented himself; which delighted him extremely, as he should not have to lecture. I threatened to go at once and subscribe; which he thought so good a joke, that he roared with "inextinguishable laughter." I am printing the Divina Tragedia.^ As soon as I get some revised proofs I will send you a specimen that you may see how it is to look in print. I hope your eyes will be as lenient as your ears have been. I think I had better send you the enclosed now, so that you may not have to wait for it, when you want it. You can keep it as well as I can. 463

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N o w I will go and see the moon. "Silver the walls of Craigie Hall And many an elm that grows thereby."·'' Good night. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. That is, Mrs. Greene. 2. See BAL 12157. Publication was on December 12. 3. C f . William Julius Mickle, "Cumnor Hall," 11. 3 - 4 ; Cumnor Hall, / And many an oak that grew thereby."

3014.

To Robert Grant

"Silver'd the walls of

Halihurton

Cambridge Oct i 1871. Dear Mr. Haliburtcn, I have "Evangeline" packed and ready for her journey. She goes tomorrow by express, all expenses paid; which circumstance I mention, that you may not be called upon to pay at your end of the line. I am delighted to have this litde share in your Fruit Show. You will accordingly find my name on the T i d e page; and on a blank leaf; "From the Author," after which you can write the name of the future owner of the book. Many thanks for "Voices from the Street";^ which I have read with great pleasure, particularly " T h e Beggar at the Church-door." Many thanks also for " N e w Materials for the Hist, of Man";^ which has just arrived, and which I have not yet had time to read. I doubt not I shall find it full of curious matter. I saw Mr. Wilder^ a few days ago. H e said you had sent nothing to the Fruit and Flower Show in Boston or Baltimore. With great regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCBIPT:

Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library.

1. Voices from the Street, &c. (Halifax, 1866), privately printed. 2. N e w Materials for the History of Man, Derived from a Comparison of the Calendars and Festivals of Nations (Halifax, 1863). 3. Marshall Pinckney Wilder ( 1 7 9 8 - 1 8 8 6 ) , merchant, agriculturalist, a founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, founder and president of the American Pomological Society.

464

CAMBRIDGE, 3015.

1871

To James Ripley Osgood

Camb. 0 c t 2 1871 Dear Mr Osgood I fear the numeration of chapters, filling nearly or quite a page, would look badly as a half-title. If there were but two or three, it would do very well; but there are ten or twelve in each division. I suggest the inclosed instead.' My M.S. makes 2 1 2 pages. This will give you about 200 of print. I have four different translations of Frithiofs Saga each worse than the others. Blackley's I have not seen. I will speak farther with you when I have seen it and the Illustrations you allude to.^ Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow P.S. Please do not announce the poem quite yet. I am a little bewildered about it, and do not clearly see my way. I want to see how it looks in print, or at least a part of it. MANUSCRIPT:

Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library.

1. T h e enclosure, a suggestion for the title page of The Divine Tragedy, is unrecovered. 2. For the various translations of Tegnér's Frithiofs Saga owned by Longfellow, see Longfellow and Scandinavia, p. 179. Rev. William Lewery Blackley's translation, edited by Bayard Taylor, was published in N e w York in 1 8 7 1 . In 1878 Osgood published a translation of the poem by Lucius Adelno Sherman with illustrations by the Swedish artist Johan August Malmström ( 1 8 2 9 - 1 9 0 1 ) .

3016.

To Francis Lieber

Camb. Oct IO 1871. My Dear Lieber, Many thanks for your poem. Like everything you write, it is manly and has a meaning. "Wo Zaudern besser schlägt a[l]s Schlac[h]t" is a fine line. So is; "An des entsagenden Siegers Linken ruhte." And the whole passage beginning; "Wie, wenn er Selbst nun."' If you have another copy, I should like to keep this. If not, I will return it. Give, I pray you, my kindest remembrances and regards to your wife, and believe me always Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. 465

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P.S. Your "Erguss" was written many years before the "Building of the Ship," w h i c h bears date 1849. MANUSCRIPT: Henry E. Huntington Library. I. Longfellow quotes lines 8, 17, and 35 of "Ein Erguss von Franz Lieber, 1843," an effusion on Washington's sword. T h e original printing of this poem, a broadside, is unrecovered, but it was subsequently reprinted in St. Louis in 1872.

3017.

To]ohnOwen

C a m b . Oct 14 1871 M y Dear Owen, W h e n I saw you this morning I certainly thought I should be at home this evening. But since then I have received some tickets to a Concert,^ w h i c h I cannot without discourtesy refuse; and as your coming is a little uncertain, I have made u p my mind to run the risk, and go. If you come, I shall be sorry. But what if I stayed at home, and you did not come? It is a rule in W h i s t ; "when in doubt, take the trick." So I take it, with all its responsibilities! Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow P.S. I enclose you a ticket for tomorrow evening's Concert, if you care to go. MANUSCRIPT; University of Washington Library. I. Possibly the concert of ballads and madrigals, produced by George Dolby C2613.4), on October 14, 15, and 16 at the Music Hall, Boston. See the Boston Advertiser, C X V I I I , N o . 89 (October 13, 1 8 7 1 ) .

3018.

To Thomas

Russell

C a m b . Oct 17 1871 Dear M r Russell I see by the evening paper that you have been obliged to send the Revenue Cutter to Gloucester. T h i s I suppose will interfere with our projected trip to Plymouth on Thursday, and consequently I shall not come in, unless I hear from you. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from photocopy, University of Washington Library.

466

CAMBRIDGE, 3019.

To Samuel Gridley

1871

Howe

Camb. Oct 25 1871. My Dear Howe, I beg leave to presci-t the bearer, Mr. Samuel Beck of England, who is very desirous of seeing the Asylum for the Blind.^ He also wishes to visit the State Prison at Charlestown, and the Asylum for Inebriates in Boston. Can you put him in the way of doing this most easily? If you can I shall be greatly obliged. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

unrecovered; text from photocopy, University of Washington Library.

I. Beck, an English Quaker, had come to Longfellow with a letter from Charles Mackay ( i 6 3 0 . 1 ) , who described him in a letter of September 15 as "a worthy neighbor of mine" (in Surrey) who was on his first visit to the United States.

3020.

To Robert Charles

Winthrop

Camb. Oct 31 1871. My Dear Winthrop, The critics always amaze and amuse me. I never cease to wonder how they should know so much better than authors, what ought to be done and how it ought to be done! Yet so it is. I have read Mr. Forman's book with interest; but I cannot assent to all his literary judgments.' Lowell, to whom I offered the volume as you requested, is too busy with his Lectures to care to read it; and I therefore return it to you, with many apologies for having kept it so long, and for having so little to say about it. If I undertook to criticise it, I should amaze and amuse myself. Regretting that I was not at the last meeting of the Historic Society, and fully intending to be present at the next Always Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library.

I. Harry Buxton Formari ( 1 8 4 2 - 1 9 1 7 ) , English scholar, critic, and editor, had recently published Our Living Poets: An Essay in Criticism (London, 1 8 7 1 ) . In it he divided nineteen contemporary poets into four groups: the Idyllic School, the Psychological School, the Preraphaelite Group, and the Renaissance Group. T h e only American included was William Wetmore Story (Psychological School).

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To Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

Camb. Nov 8. 1871. My Dear Dana, I enclose a note of introduction for Mrs. Dana to Freiligrath, the German poet, with some of whose pieces I dare say she is familiar. Among other things he has made an admirable translation of "Hiawatha."' Equally admirable are his versions of Burns and other English Poets. He was many years in England, and speaks English perfecdy; so that if Mrs. Dana and your daughters are not quite ready with their German, it is no matter. Constadt [Cannstadt] is a suburb of Stuttgart; and there I hope she will find the Poet, who is a most amiable man, and his wife, who is a most interesting woman. I have not seen them since 1842! How changed they must be, outwardly at least; but not inwardly. I am sure they will do all in their power to make Mrs. Dana feel less a stranger in that strange land.^ Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. See 1489.2. 2. T h e Danas had recently sold their Cambridge home near Longfellow, and Mrs. Dana and her five daughters—Sarah Watson ( 1 8 4 2 - 1 9 0 2 ) , Ruth Charlotte ( 1 8 4 4 1 9 0 3 ) , Elizabeth Ellery ( 1 8 4 6 - 1 9 3 9 ) , Mary Rosamund ( 1 8 4 8 - 1 9 3 7 ) , and Angela Henrietta Channing (2392.4)—were about to leave for an extended sojourn in Europe.

3022.

To Ferdinand

Freiligrath

Cambridge Nov 8 1871. My Dear Freiligrath, It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you and to Mrs Freiligrath, the bearer of this letter, Mrs R. H. Dana of Boston, who, with her daughters, intends passing the Winter in Stuttgart. Her husband you will remember as the author of that charming book "Two Years before the Mast," which I mention, not to praise, but that you may know what Mrs. Dana this is. I hope she will find you still at Constadt (I am afraid I spell the word wrong, as it is not familiar to me) and that you will be glad to see a family with which my own is so intimate. It was, and is, and always will be one of my great regrets, that I should have missed seeing you when last in Europe. I had looked forward to it, and

468

CAMBRIDGE,

1871

counted upon it as one of the happiest events of my travels. But twice you escaped me, and after that I could not get to you. With kindest remembrances to your wife, Always Yours Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

3023.

Longfellow Trust Collection.

To james Thomas Fields

Camb. N0V9 1871 My Dear Fields, It has just occurred to me that I have never sent you my Gad's Hill contribution.^ Pardon the forgetfulness and the delay. Here it is in the form of a cheque of $25.00 which I beg you not to put away in an old escritoire, to be found hereafter, but to present at once at some Bank, whose duty and pleasure it is to peruse and pay for such lyric poems. I have missed seeing you for a long time, not having been able to go to town. But I want to see you very much. I am still a "doubting Thomas," about some things.^ Please say to Osgood that my reason and excuse for not answering his note are that I have been waiting from hour to hour for the proofs, the plate-proofs of the Tragedy, and did not get them till yesterday. This week must decide the matter. Yours always ' H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

1. Fields was collecting a fund either for the purchase of Gad's Hill as a memorial to Diclcens (never realized) or for the maintenance of Dickens's family there. 2. That is, about The Divine Tragedy.

3024.

To Richard Boyd Davy^

Cambridge Nov 14 1871. Dear Sir, I have had the pleasure of receiving your letter, enclosing a note of introduction from Lady Dalling and Bulwer;^ and in reply send you a couple of notes for New York. Mr. Stoddard is a poet of good repute, and at present Editor of the "Galaxy," one of the best of our Periodicals.^ I do not know his address; but you will easily find it. 469

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

The Messrs Harpers are one of the largest publishing firms, as you well know, and proprietors of one of the most popular Magazines.^ When you come to Boston, I shall be most happy to see you; and in the mean time, I hope the introductions I send you may be of service; though after all the only thing that can be of any real service will be your own skill as a writer. I am. Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCHIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Davy was the son of Dr. John Davy С 1 7 9 0 - 1 8 6 8 ) , English physiologist and anatomist, and the nephew of Sir Humphry Davy. He had come to the United States to seek his fortune as a writer. 2. Georgiana Charlotte Mary Bulwer ( 1 8 1 7 - 1 8 7 8 ) , wife of William Henry Lytton Earle Bulwer ( 1 8 0 1 - 1 8 7 2 ) , Baron Dalling and Bulwer of Dalling. 3. Longfellow was misinformed. T h e editors of The Galaxy were William Conant Church ( 1 8 3 6 - 1 9 1 7 ) and his brother Francis Pharcellus Church ( 1 8 3 9 - 1 9 0 6 ) . 4. Longfellow's letter to Harper Brothers is unrecovered.

3025.

To Richard Henry Stoddard

Cambridge Nov 14. 1871. M y Dear Sir, I take the liberty of presenting to you the bearer, Mr. R. B. Davey of England. I have not the pleasure of his personal acquaintance, but he brings me a letter of introduction from Lady Dalling and Bulwer, and I am anxious to aid him in his plans. Mr. Davey wishes to write for the Periodicals, and I venture to ask from you a friendly hearing for him.i Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow R. H. Stoddard Esqre. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from photostat, N e w York Public Library (Stoddard Correspondence). I. For Stoddard's account of his unhappy experience with Davy, see his tions Personal and Literary ( N e w York, 1 9 0 3 ) , pp. 2 7 6 - 2 7 8 .

470

Recollec-

CAMBRIDGE, 3026.

1871

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Nov 17 1871 My Dear Fields, Two questions. Have you the ms. of the "Bell of Atri"?i Shall we go together and see Miss Cushman [as Katherine in Henry Vili] at the Globe tomorrow afternoon?^ H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. See 2 8 3 3 . 1 . 2. Fields's answer was yes. See the journal entry for November i 8 QLife, III, 1 8 7 ) .

3027.

To Robert Grant Haliburton

Cambridge Nov. 20. 1871. Dear Mr Haliburton, The beautiful apples of Acadie have arrived safe and sound, and have been tasted, but as yet only tasted. Beautiful they are to look upon, and pleasant to the taste. I have arranged them on shelves in my wine cellar, and they make it as fragrant as the orchards in which they grew. I beg you most cordially to thank the Committee of your Society for their generous gift, and to assure them that I highly appreciate their kindness. Thanks also to you personally for the newspapers and the Speeches and the "honorable mention" made therein. I await with much interest the publication of your "Home-spun Songs'V but am not impatient, knowing that there are as many delays in Printing as in Law. I am particularly curious to see your musical compositions; it is so rare an accomplishment to be able to write both words and music. "The Festival of the Dead" deserves a new and handsome edition.^ As it now stands, the page is too crowded and the type too small for easy reading. With great regard Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. 1. "Home-Spun Songs. By Samuel Slick, Junr." was published in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, C X I I I ( M a y 1 8 7 3 ) , 6 1 0 - 6 1 4 . Haliburton was the son of Thomas Chandler Haliburton ( 1 7 9 6 - 1 8 6 5 } , Canadian jurist and author who created the character of Sam Slick. 2. Haliburton's paper was privately printed as No. i in New Materials for the History of Man Derived from a Comparison of the Calendars and Festivals of Nations (Halifax, 1 8 6 3 ) and also in the Transactions of the Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science, Vol. I, Pt. I ( 1 8 6 3 ) . It was subsequently republished by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (Toronto, 1 9 2 0 ) .

471

THE 3028.

To an Unidentified

VIRTUOUS

MAN

Correspondent^

[Cambridge] November 20, 1871. I have put off answering your nice little note from day to day; but, as you see, I have not forgotten it. I have been hoping all along that some lines of poetry, such as you ask for, would come into my mind. But they would not, and so I have to write you in prose, not to keep you waiting any longer. If you will ask your papa, who knows all about it, he will tell you that good poems do not always come to one's mind when wanted. Verses — yes, one can write those at any time; but real poetry — that is another matter. I think good prose is better than bad verse. I do not say bad poetry, because when it is bad, it is no longer poetry. And so I send you this little note instead of a little song; and with it good wishes for your birthday, and kind remembrances for your father. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered;

text

from

Life, III, 187.

I. Identified by Samuel Longfellow as "Florence A

3029. To an Unidentified

."

Correspondent^

Cambridge Nov 20 1871. Gentlemen, Please send me the copy of Baretti^ you speak of in your note, and oblige Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

1. On November 19 Longfellow wrote to A. Denham & Company of N e w York and to Roberts Brothers of Boston ( M S Letter Calendar). Since he sometimes dated his letters for the day after he wrote them, his correspondent might have been one or the other of these bookselling firms. 2. Giuseppe Marc'Antonio Baretti ( 1 7 1 9 - 1 7 8 9 ) , Italian critic and lexicographer. T h e book might have been the eighth edition of his Dizionario della Lingue Italiana ed Inglese (London, 1 8 3 1 ) , 2 vols., which is in the Longfellow House library.

3030.

To Elihu Burritt

Cambridge Nov 23 1871 My Dear Mr Burritt, I am amazed and ashamed when I look at the date of your letter, and see how I have let the days go by without answering it. My only excuse is, that I have been very much occupied and very much interrupted in a thousand ways. I have sometimes longed for the deep snows of winter to block the roads, and give me a little of what Emerson calls the "tempestuous privacy of storm."! 472

CAMBRIDGE,

1871

I was extremely sorry to miss you in E n g l a n d ; b u t travelling w i t h a large party it was quite impossible for me to accept your kind and hospitable invitation. I was equally sorry that I should again have missed you w h e n you came to see m e in C a m b r i d g e some months ago. D o not be discouraged; but the next time you come to Boston let m e k n o w it, and I will surely be at home. I wish with all m y heart that I could write a S o n g of Peace, as you suggest; b u t everything seems to have been already said or sung; and those w h o do not believe already w o u l d not believe "though one should rise from the dead."W i t h kindest regards Yours f a i t h f u l l y Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

N e w Britain Public Library.

1. Cf. "The Snow-Storm," 1. 9: "tumultuous privacy of storm." 2. In his letter of September 30, 1871, Burritt had asked Longfellow for "three or four stanzas" bearing on the Treaty of Washington (2943.1).

3031.

To В ayard Tay lor C a m b . N o v 23

1871.

M y Dear Taylor, I have to-day received your letter of S u n d a y , and hasten to thank you for your generous j u d g m e n t of m y n e w book. It is, I assure you,

extremely

g r a t i f y i n g to me; and makes me feel that I have not w h o l l y failed in treating a rather d i f [ f ] i c u l t subject.^ By to-day's post I send y o u the Interludes and Finale, connecting and completing the w h o l e work; presuming that Osgood told you something of my plan, and that this n e w book is only the First Part of a work, of w h i c h the G o l d e n L e g e n d and the N e w E n g l a n d T r a g e d i e s are the Second and T h i r d ; and w h i c h , w h e n the three parts are published together, is to be entided "Christus." T h i s is a very old design of mine, formed before the L e g e n d was written. T h e "Introitus" belongs to the book as a w h o l e ; and its proper pendant or correlative is not the " E p i l o g u e " of this first part, b u t the "Finale," w h i c h I send you to-day. T h i s will explain the seeming w a n t of proportion,

and

balance, w h i c h you have noted. W i t h kind remembrances to your w i f e , w h o is always most kindly remembered b y all of us. Yours f a i t h f u l l y Henry W . Longfellow

473

THE MANUSCRIPT:

Berg

Collection,

VIRTUOUS New

simile') : Adrian H . Jolina, Rambles

York

Public

in Autograph

MAN Library, Land

PUBLISHED

Qwith

fac-

( N e w York and London,

1 9 1 3 ) , pp. 2 6 6 - 2 6 7 . I. James R . Osgood had sent Taylor the proof sheets of The review that appeared in the N e w York Tribune, his letter of November 20 T a y l o r had written:

Divine

X X X I (December " T h e Introitus

Tragedy

for a

16, 1 8 7 1 ) , 8. In

is wonderful: I know

nothing else of yours that equals it. T h e music of the lines is to me hke that of some unknown instrument, as weird and variable as a wind-harp, yet with the strength of an organ. T h e r e can be no finer prelude."

3032.

To Charles Lanman

Cambridge Nov 24 1871. My Dear Sir, Last night I had the pleasure of receiving your friendly letter, and the beautiful pictures that came with it; and I thank you cordially for the welcome gift, and the kind r.;membrance that prompted it.^ They are both very interesting to me; particularly the Reef of Norman's Woe. What you say of the Ballad is also very gratifying;^ and induces me to , jnd you in return a bit of autobiography, but for your private benefit only. Looking over a Journal for 1839, a few days ago, I found the following entries. "December 17. News of ship-wrecks horrible on the coast. Forty bodies washed ashore near Gloucester. One woman lashed to a piece of wreck. There is a Reef called Norman's Woe where many of these took place. Among others the Schooner Hesperus. Also the Sea-Flower on Black Rock. I must write a Ballad on this." "December 30. Wrote last evening a notice of Allston's Poems.® After which sat till one o'clock by the fire smoking; when suddenly it came into my mind to write the Ballad of the Schooner Hesperus, which I accordingly did. Then went to bed, but could not sleep. New thoughts were running in my mind, and I got up to add them to the Ballad. It was three by the clock." All this is of no importance to anyone but myself. But I like sometimes to recall the circumstances under which a poem was written; and as you express a liking for this one, it may perhaps interest you to know why and when and how it came into existence. I had quite forgotten about its first publication; but I find a letter from Park Benjamin dated Jan 7. 1840. beginning, (you will readily recognize his style) as follows: "Your ballad 'The Wreck of the Hesperus,' is grand. Enclosed are $25. (the sum you mentioned) for it, paid hy the proprietors of the New World, in which glorious paper it will resplendently coruscate on Saturday next." Pardon this gossip, and believe me, with renewed thanks. Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow 474

CAMBRIDGE,

1871

MANUSCRIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library, Tribune, X L I I , N0. 12, 936 (April 16, 1 8 8 2 ) .

PUBLISHED:

New

York

1. Lanman had sent Longfellow two sketches entitled " T h e Reef of Norman's W o e " and "Acadian Land" with a letter dated November 2 1 , 1 8 7 1 . 2. Lanman had written: "That poem of yours [ " T h e Wreck of the Hesperus"], has always been a special favorite with me, and I well remember the very day when Park Benjamin paid you the wretched pittance of $ 2 5 . for the privilege of first printing it in the 'New World.' " See 5 1 7 . 1 . 3. Printed in the N e w York Evening Signal, I, No. 7 3 (January 7, 1 8 4 0 ) .

3033.

To James Ripley Osgood Camb. N0V30 1871.

Dear Mr Osgood, Allow me the pleasure of introducing to you the bearer, my cousin, Mrs. M. A. Baker, who has a novel to offer you for publication.i I write to bespeak for her your friendliest hearing and friendliest judgment, and am Yours faithfully Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT; American Antiquarian Society. 1. Margaret Armistead Appleton (b. 1 8 5 1 ) had recently married George Livingston Baker ( 1 8 4 9 - 1 9 1 0 ) of Boston. She was Frances Appleton Longfellow's first cousin, once removed. Her novel seems to have remained unpublished.

3034.

To William

Greene

Camb. Dec. 4 1871 My Dear Sir, I hope you will pardon me for not thanking you sooner for your letter and your Oration.1 All last week I was so busy with some little matters of my own, which were rather urgent, that I could not find time to write. The Oration I have read with very great pleasure. It was a difficult thing to do, and is admirably well done. I note in it particularly that clearness and directness of statement, which characterize all your writings; — the knowing exactly what you want to say, and how to say it. All Eulogies are difficult. To them applies with force the French proverb, "Assez n'y a, si trop n'y a"; there's not enough, if there's not too much. You have shown skilful pilotage, and have equally avoided the too little and the too much. I am very much struck also with some of your short and condensed statements of things. For example, your definition of Courage on p. 23,^ which is worthy of Lord Bacon. 475

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

Altogether I congratulate you on this performance, and with kind regards to Mrs. Greene, am always Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House). 1. An Oration on the Life and Character of ]ohn Quincy Adams. Delivered at Cincinnati, 25 March, 1848, Before the Bar of Hamilton County, at their Request (Cincinnati, 1848). 2. "Courage with him was a virtue, to be exercised in overcoming trials, not a vice, to be instrumental in promoting evil passions. It was a cool virtue, designed to prescribe limits to indulgence, not to stimulate license to it."

3035.

To James Benjamin Colt^

Cambridge Dec. 5 1871 My Dear Sir, I have had the pleasure of receiving your letter, and in reply beg leave to say, that I have not yet heard of any proposition to erect a monument to the memory of our friend Mr. Cogswell.^ He is buried in Ipswich, his native town; and I should not be surprised to hear at any time, that his former pupils of the Round Hill School had in contemplation some such memorial. I thank you for expressing an interest in my new book. It will be published on Saturday next. I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House), ADDRESS: Mr. J. B. Colt / Hartford / Conn. 1. Colt ( 1 8 1 6 - 1 8 7 8 ) was the brother of Samuel Colt ( 1 8 1 4 - 1 8 6 2 ) , firearm inventor and manufacturer of Hartford. 2. Joseph Cogswell had died in Cambridge on November 26, 1 8 7 1 .

3036.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Dec 5 1871. My Dear Sumner, I send you to-day a couple of School Books for his Excellency Arinori Mori,^ which I beg you to hand to him as soon as convenient, as I have notified him of their going under cover to you. He was here the other day, and expressed a wish to have them, being curious about Schools. 476

CAMBRIDGE,

1871

Speaking of the dinner to the Grand Duke,^ the Advertiser says; Invitations have been extended to James Russell Lowell, Richard H . Dana, George S. Hillard, President Eliot of Harvard College, Dr. O. W . Holmes, Franklin Haven, Professor H. W. Longfellow and His Honor Mayor Gaston to speak on the occasion, and these gentlemen have all expressed their readiness to do so. Invitations have been extended to the Rev. Phillips Brooks, the Hon. John Quincy Adams, General Irwin McDowell, Captain G. V. Fox, Judge Devens, the Right Reverend Bishop Mantón Eastburn of the Episcopal diocese, and Right Reverend Bishop John J. Williams of the Catholic diocese, and one of these clerical gentlemen will ask a blessing at the banquet. T h e Hon. R. C . Winthrop will preside.® Do you not hear in that paragraph the rustle of the laurels of Miltiades?^ Be calm. I, for one, have expressed no such willingness, or readiness. Here is a consolatory paragraph from the Eve[nin]g Transcript. . . . . T h e Democratic papers throughout the country are very complimentary to Charles Sumner just now. T h e World of yesterday was sweet upon him.® That mot of Philarète Chasles on the difference between the nu [naked] and the deshabillé [undressed] is excellent, and is the best thing that can be said about l'art pour I'art.^ Owen was here last night with forty pages of somebody's proof sheets. T h e Divine Tragedy will be published on Saturday next. You shall have the first copy that reaches me. Always Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Mori ( 1 8 4 7 - 1 8 8 9 ) , Japanese diplomat, educator, and minister to Washington, 1 8 7 0 - 1 8 7 3 , might have been the "young Japanese prince" who accompanied Longfellow and others to Minot's Ledge in August. See 3002.2. A nobleman, Mori held the equivalent English title of viscount. 2. Alexis Aleksandrovich ( 1 8 5 0 - 1 9 0 8 ) , Grand Duke of Russia and third son of Czar Alexander II ( 1 8 1 8 - 1 8 8 1 ) , later commanded the ill-fated Russian fleet during the Russo-Japanese War. He was on a state visit to the United States. 3. Boston Advertiser, C X V I I I , No. 1 3 3 (December 5, 1 8 7 1 ) . T h e clipping is pasted to the sheet with the italicized words underlined in red ink. Previously unidentified guests at the banquet, held on December 9 at the Revere House, were Franklin Haven ( 1 8 3 5 - 1 9 0 8 ) , Boston banker and member of the staff of Gen. Irvin McDowell ( i 8 i 8 1 8 8 5 ) during the Civil War; William Gaston ( 1 8 2 0 - 1 8 9 4 ) , mayor of Boston, 1 8 7 1 1872, and governor of Massachusetts, 1 8 7 5 - 1 8 7 6 ; Phillips Brooks ( 1 8 3 5 - 1 8 9 3 ) , Episcopal clergyman and rector of Trinity Church, Boston, 1 8 6 9 - 1 8 9 1 ; Gustavus Vasa Fox

477

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

( 1 8 2 1 - 1 8 8 3 ) , retired naval captain and former assistant secretary of the N a v y ; Charles Devens ( 1 8 2 0 - 1 8 9 1 ) , justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court; and Bishop John Joseph Williams ( 1 8 2 2 - 1 9 0 7 ) , subsequently archbishop of Boston, 1 8 7 5 - 1 9 0 6 . 4. Miltiades ( 5 4 o ? - ? 4 8 9 B.c.), Athenian general, defeated the Persians at Marathon in 490 B.c. 5. Boston Transcript, X L I V , No. 1 2 , 7 8 1 (December 5, 1 8 7 1 ) . T h e clipping is pasted to the sheet. 6. T h e mot is unidentified.

3037.

To Robert Charles

Winthrop

Camb. Deer 7. 1871. My Dear Winthrop, Before receiving your letter, I had written to the Committee declining their invitation to the dinner on Saturday. Since receiving it, reassured by your promise, I have accepted it. You see how docile I am.^ I am glad you liked the Legend Beautiful;^ and hope you will like equally well another poem of mine in the January No. of the Atlantic,® though it is in a different vein. As to the Divine Tragedy I do not like to say anything, except that it is written with great sincerity and simplicity. Yours always faithfully Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT;

Massachusetts Historical Society.

1. In his letter of December 5 Winthrop had written: " I promised the Committee yesterday that I would intercede for your appearance at the dinner to the Grand Duke on Saturday . . . Not a syllable shall be expected of you. But the light of your countenance is essential to the success of the occasion." 2. Atlantic Monthly, X X V I I I (December 1 8 7 1 ) , 657-660. 3. "Lady Wentworth," Atlantic Monthly, X X I X (January 1 8 7 2 ) , 1 - 4 .

3038.

To James Τ homos Fields

Camb. Deer 8 1871 My Dear Fields, How very kind of you and of Dr. Upham^ to remember me, and the delight I shall have to listen to the little choristers. There is nothing so touching as the voices of children. Do not wait for me, as I do not know at what hour and minute I can come. I shall find my way easily to "Floor D. No 700." I heard to-night warm praises of your Lecture in Portland.^ Yours always H.W.L 478

CAMBRIDGE,

1871

MANUSCKIPT: unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Maine Historical Society. 1. Jabez Baxter U p h a m ( 1 8 2 0 - 1 9 0 2 ) , a physician of 31 Chestnut Street, Boston, was a member of the Boston School Committee. 2. U p o n his retirement from Ticknor & Fields in December 1870, Fields prepared a series of lectures that he delivered sporadically throughout the country after 1871. See W . S. Tryon, Parnassus Corner: A Life of James T. Fields (Boston, 1963), pp. 3 6 3 - 3 7 Ì ·

3039.

To Bayard Taylor

C A M B R I D G E , December 12, 1871. I have just got your letter, and hasten to say that I see no possible objection to what you propose.! On the contrary, I see great furtherance in it. I am delighted that you take such friendly interest in my work. Osgood, in his advertisement to-day, announces the book as "the first part of a poem, of which the 'Golden Legend' and the 'New England Tragedies' form the second and third parts." T h e publication of a few links of the connecting chain can do no harm, and may do good in helping to give an intelligible idea of the whole.

MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from Marie Hansen-Taylor and Horace E. Scudder, eds., Life and Letters of Bayard Taylor (Boston and N e w York, 1885), II, 569. I. In a letter of December 12 Taylor, w h o was preparing his review of The Golden Legend, had asked permission to mention the design of Christus outlined by Longfellow in Letter N o . 3031.

3040.

To George Washington

Greene

[Cambridge] December 14 [1871] I send you to-day, by mail, a copy of "The Divine Tragedy." I am sorry it is of the small size; but the larger ones have not been sent to me. You shall have one of them when you come. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from Luther S. Livingston, A Bibliography of the First Editions in Book Form of the Writings of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (New York, 1908), p. 80.

3041.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. D e c i 7 1871 M y Dear Greene, It is not tobacco, that brings upon the human race those evils, whose long and dismal catalogue you send me. But as Dr. Holland, (not the author of Bittersweet,! though I dare say the author of sweet bitters) once said, tapping a botde at the dinner table with his knife, "That is the fellow, that does the mischief." 479

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

I supposed that long ago you had gone from Cornel[l]'s Ithaca to your own; but by your letter to-day I see that little Telemachus must still be looking for Ulysses. The Divine Tragedy is very successful in the bookseller's point of view. Ten thousand copies were published on Tuesday last, and the printers are already at work on three thousand more. That is pleasant, but that is not the main thing. The only question about a book ought to be, whether it is successful in itself. I shall be delighted to see you. I really long for your visit. Come soon. Bayard Taylor, Lowell and Fields dined with me yesterday. Taylor has an article on the Divine Tragedy in yesterday's Tribune, which is very good.^ Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection.

1 . That is, not Dr. Josiah Gilbert Holland ( 1 8 1 9 - 1 8 8 1 ) , author of Bitter-Sweet, Poem in Dramatic Form ( N e w York, 1 8 5 9 ) , but Sir Henry Holland ( 1 7 5 1 . 1 ) . 2. See 3 0 3 1 . 1 .

3042.

a

To James R. Osgood & Company

Camb. D e c i 8 1871 Gentlemen, I hereby acknowledge the receipt of your cheque of $150. for the poem of "Lady Wentworth,"! and am, with thanks, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Pierpont Morgan Library. I. See 3 0 3 7 . 3 .

3043.

To the Union League of Philadelphia CAMBRIDGE,

December 18, 1871.

GENTLEMEN —

I have had the honor of receiving your kind invitation to be present at the reception of Mr. BOKER, by the Union League of Philadelphia, and regret extremely that my engagements here prevent me from accepting it. I highly esteem Mr. BOKER both as a poet and as a man, and should be glad to show it in this way if it were possible for me to do it. Begging you to accept my thanks and my regrets, I am, gentlemen, Yours faithfully, HENRY W . LONGFELLOW.

480

CAMBRIDGE,

1871

unrecovered; t e x t from Reception tendered by the Members of the Union League of Philadelphia to George H. Boker, Minister of the United States to Turkey. Friday Evening, December 22, 1 8 7 1 (Philadelphia, 1 8 7 2 ) , pp. 6 1 - 6 2 .

MANUSCRIPT:

3044.

To George Washington Greene

Camb. Decr23 1871. My Dear Greene, I am really dead beat tonight. The weather to-day has been Roman weather, that takes all manliness out of a man; and to-night the South wind is pelting hail, rain and sleet against my Study windows. I feel, too, a little exhausted by work, for within the last fortnight I have written a Tragedy,' which hangs over your visit like a thunder cloud. You will have to hear it, however sound you may sleep in the green chair. I have also many things to tell you of the dinner to the Grand Duke Alexis, at which I was present, sitting at the right hand of this amiable and handsome youth. On the whole it was most successful; but two or three things were said in speeches that were amazingly funny. Have you seen Försters Life of Dickens?^ It is very interesting; but it made me profoundly melancholy; perhaps I can tell you why; but I hardly care to write it. With all good wishes for a Happy, if not a Merry Christmas, Always affectionately H.W.L. P.S. Your letter of yesterday has just reached me. What a tragedy! and what does it all mean?® Let me know if you can, the day and hour of your coming. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Judas Maccahseus (Works, VI, 1 1 - 4 4 ) . 2. John Forster, The Life of Charles Dickens (London, 1 8 7 2 - 1 8 7 4 ) . Longfellow refers here to Vol. L 3. Greene's letter is unrecovered and the allusion is inexplicable.

3045.

To Charles Sumner

[Cambridge, December 23, 1871]' My Dear Sumner, This individual called upon me ten days ago. Your name was on his subscription list for $20.00. I gave him the same sum, minus the arithmetical cipher; that is to say $2.00. You probably got off cheaper than I did, as I dare say you never saw or heard of the man.^ 48

I

THE

VIRTUOUS

MAN

Thanks for your last letter.® I want no better testimony to my book than that. How strange that it should have been opened during a Congressional debate, more or less angry! J[ohn] 0[wen] has taken this book in hand, and has written an article apiece for each of the Cambridge papers in the most eíHorescent style possible. One of these days you shall see them. He virtually says, as the Scotch said, when Home's "Douglas" was performed in Edinburgh, "Where is your Willie Shakespeare noo?"^ The Reports of Congress in our papers are very meager. But I see that you have brought forward one very wise Bill, that of the One Term.® You have the prophetic instinct. God bless you and God speed you. With all good wishes for as Merry a Christmas as you and I are likely ever to have. Always affectionately H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

1. The date is from the MS Letter Calendar. 2. A clipping from the Boston Transcript, XLIV, No. 12,797 (December 23, 1 8 7 1 ) , is pasted at the top of the sheet: " C A U T I O N . A man calling himself George Vaughan called at our house last evening asking assistance for himself in establishing a school in Richmond. His paper bore Mr. Wendell Phillips's name, stating, I think, his belief that the man was honest. About an hour after he had left, an overcoat, which had been hanging in a closet in the entry, was missing, no other person having been admitted during the evening. The paper which the man carried was soiled and old. It bore several names with donations of from $ 1 0 to $20. Will you lend the aid of your friendly paper to prevent others from being imposed upon? A. W I G G L E S W O R T H . I Park street, Dec. 22, 1 8 7 1 . " Ann Wigglesworth, aged fifty-four, her sister Mary, aged fifty-six, and her brother Thomas (d. 1907, aged ninety-two) lived in a house that became the last private residence on Park Street. 3. Unrecovered. 4. John Home ( 1 7 2 2 - 1 8 0 8 ) , Scottish clergyman and dramatist, was the author of Douglas, produced in Edinburgh in 1756. 5. On December 21 Sumner had introduced a joint resolution to amend the Constitution to limit the President to one term. See Sumner Works, XIV, 320-326.

3046.

To William Webb Follett Synge

Camb. Decr28 1871 My Dear Synge I have just received your letter. It is the best Christmas present I have had; better than any pen-wipers or paper-weights, or match-boxes and the like, which are apt to rain at this season of the year. Thanks. When the proof sheets of the Divine Tragedy were sent to Routledge I forgot to ask him to send copies to certain friends in England. This was a great oversight; but I have written to him to remedy it; and you should receive your copy almost as soon as you receive this. 482

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I hope you will like it. It is very simple in style; and you will look in vain in its pages for any "purple patches" of song. But you say you are ill. What is the matter with you? Nothing more serious I hope than a winter cold. I cannot imagine you an invalid, but always think of you as fair and joyous, and abounding in vigor; — as you were when we sat together last in the sunshine of the great window at the Langham. With all good wishes and Christmas greetings to you and yours. Always sincerely Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library.

3047.

To Charles Sumner Camb. Decr3o 1871.

My Dear Sumner, Here is the sequel and I hope the finale of the story of the imposter Vaughan. The writer of the Card seems to me more interested in vindicating himself, than in protecting the public.^ Greene is here for a few days, and sends his love and good wishes for a Happy New Year. J[ohn] 0[wen] was in at lunch to-day. He never speaks of you except with the largest and longest adjectives. I went out of the room this morning while he read to Greene two new articles he has written on the Divine Comedy. As to their import Greene preserves the most profound silence. Never was man happier than J.O. is now with your "Proofsheet. Please send Revise to C.S." He thinks it the greatest joke of the season; laughs at it in the study, laughs at it in the dining room, laughs at it on his way out of the front door; and promises to give it to me for preservation, together with a brass knocker from his old house, for which I am to provide a door. Good night, and sleep well, as I mean to do. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. I. A clipping from the Boston Transcript, X L I V , No. 12,798 (December 26, 1 8 7 1 ) , is pasted at the top of the sheet: "A CARD. I have very little doubt that your correspondent, A. Wigglesworth, is correct in suspecting Mr. Vaughan to be an imposter. But when your correspondent 'thinks' that I gave him a certificate of honesty, it is a mistake. He had a letter from Judge Kelley of Philadelphia, commending him to the public, and told me some persons doubted its genuineness. I only certified that the letter was really written by Judge Kelley, of which I have no doubt. As I knew nothing of Vaughan, I did not undertake to say anything about his character or wishes, WENDELL PHILLIPS." William Darrah Kelley ( 1 8 1 4 - 1 8 9 0 ) , Philadelphia jurist and politician, served in Congress, 1 8 6 1 - 1 8 9 0 .

483

THE 3048.

VIRTUOUS

MAN

To James Ripley Osgood

Camb. D e c r 3 i 1871. My Dear Mr Osgood, Can you do anything for the young Englishman^ whose letter I enclose, and which please return after reading. I have not seen him, but he brings me an introduction from Lady Bulwer. I have advised him to stay in New York. If by chance you have any French or Spanish book to translate or to be translated, pray think of him. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow P.S. I have received a letter from Dr. Bushnell of Hartford^ on the Divine Tragedy, which you will like to see. Routledge sends me three notices from London papers, rather hostile. MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E . Huntington Library.

1. Richard Boyd Davy ( 3 0 2 4 . 1 ) . 2. Horace Bushnell ( 1 8 0 2 - 1 8 7 6 ) , gratulation is dated December 28.

Congregational theologian. His letter of con-

484

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TWENTY

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EMBERS THAT STILL

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1 8 7 2 - 1 8 7 4

JTOR THREE MORE YEARS Longfellow remained primarily within the confines of his "Castle Craigie," venturing forth only to Nahant during the summer months or to Boston to reconnoiter theaters, concert halls, and art galleries. His efficient household was run with the help of servants and gardeners, and his dinner table expanded and contracted with the arrival and departure of old friends and new acquaintances. His three daughters and their frequent house guests kept the atmosphere vibrant with games, laughter, and conversation. He saw no reason to depart from his accustomed routines. Thus he refused without regret an offer to preside at a meeting of the Royal Literary Fund in London and an invitation to be the guest of honor at festivities planned by the Harvard C l u b of N e w York. Having become a literary patriarch, he settled into the final decade of his life as one settles into an easy chair. There were still books to be read, letters to be answered, and a reputation to be maintained; but in the comfort of his home he easily resisted any temptation to conquer new worlds. Nevertheless, a future world must have occupied his thoughts from time to time during this period as he saw old colleagues and correspondents disappear from the scene. Although he had buried his parents, his two wives, and a daughter, and had mourned the early deaths of Henry R. Cleveland, Cornelius C . Felton, Hawthorne, and Dickens, among others, his middle age had served to preclude thoughts of the transitoriness of his own life. N o w , with sixty-five years and more behind him, he had his attention inevitably drawn, with each friend who died, to the diminishing years ahead. In 1872 both Charles Folsom and Francis Lieber died, the one a link to the youthful enthusiasm with which Longfellow had published his grammars and readers some forty years before (see 1 9 8 . 1 ) , and the other a reminder of Fanny Longfellow, whose special friend he had been. Louis Agassiz, who was only three months younger than Longfellow, died in 1873 at the summit of his career. And Charles Sumner, a close friend for more than thirty-seven years, whose political and personal fortunes he had followed through correspondence from the day he entered the Senate in 1 8 5 1 , died in March 1874, aged sixty-three. In "Three Friends of Mine," Longfellow composed a tribute in five sonnets (written in June and September 1 8 7 4 ) to Felton, Agassiz, and Sumner, and, in addressing the latter, revealed awareness of his own mortality: 487

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"I stay a little longer, as one stays / T o cover up the embers that still burn." Within a f e w weeks he found an opportunity to enlarge on this theme. W h e n a classmate asked him to prepare a poem in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Bowdoin class of 1825, he at first refused, urged by an old aversion to writing poetry to order and to reciting in public. Nevertheless, as Samuel Longfellow conjectures, a sudden thought apparenriy struck him, possibly after seeing a representation of Jean Léon Gérôme's famous painting "Gladiators before Caesar," and on November 24 he wrote in his journal that he had finished the poem. H e entitled it, appropriately, "Morituri Salutamus." Few of Longfellow's works provide a better illustration of his poetic style and inspiration than does this poem. Writing in rhymed pentameter couplets, he offered his audience a nostalgic journey into the past, with classical and literary allusions in abundance, an exhortation to youth, a tribute to classmates dead and alive, and a description of old age for which he himself stood as model. Whatever poet, orator, or sage M a y say of it, old age is still old age. It is the waning, not the crescent moon; T h e dusk of evening, not the blaze of noon; It is not strength, but weakness; not desire. But its surcease; not the fierce heat of fire, T h e burning and consuming element, But that of ashes and of embers spent. In which some living sparks we still discern, Enough to warm, but not enough to burn. As one would expect from Longfellow, whose reputation was built largely on a poetry of affirmation, "Morituri Salutamus" ends on a positive note. What then? Shall we sit idly down and say T h e night hath come; it is no longer day? T h e night hath not yet come; we are not quite C u t off from labor by the failing light; Something remains for us to do or dare; Even the oldest tree some fruit may bear. T h e fact is that if there was a waning in Longfellow's energy, it can hardly be measured by a decrease in his literary production. During 1 8 7 2 - 1 8 7 4 he published Christus: A Mystery, Three Books of Song, and Aftermath, and began work on his "geographical" anthology Poems of Places, which came out over the next several years in thirty-one volumes. In February 1874 he received his largest fee for a single poem when Robert Bonner of the N e w York Ledger paid him $3000 for "The Hanging of the Crane." As a trustee 488

CAMBRIDGE,

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of Sumner's estate, he devoted hours to collecting materials for an official biography, to finding a biographer, and to supervising the publication of the remaining volumes of Sumner's Works. Finally, he played his customary role as literary godfather to dozens of aspiring poets and prose writers. In addition to all this he managed a correspondence that continued to grow and to cause him constant worry. A remark in his journal on February 19, 1873, is typical of his attitude toward what had become simply a demanding chore. "This morning I counted the unanswered letters on my table. There are fifty-two! Thus is my life riddled to pieces." Most of these letters were from "the 'Entire Stranger,' whose name is legion" (Letter No. 3468) and who attacked with his pen from every corner of the country. Nevertheless, Longfellow did not neglect the claims of his principal correspondents: during 1872-1874 he wrote 138 recovered letters to George Washington Greene, mostly to soothe the bruised feelings of that frustrated man; 39 to Sumner, who also needed encouragement as his political influence declined; 29 to James T . Fields; 21 to James R. Osgood on business matters; 24 to his daughters; and 12 to his son Charles, who seemed bent on dissipating his inheritance on the pleasures of Japan. In all he wrote some 1620 letters, of which 524 have been recovered. From these figures one can only conclude that, as a correspondent, Longfellow did his duty.

3049.

To Anne Rebecca Bridge Adams^

Camb Jan i 1872 My Dear Mrs. Adams I beg you to accept my best thanks for your kind remembrance at Christmas, and for the beautiful flowers that came as your messengers. I beg you also to accept this little volume, though I will not ask you to like it, or even to read it. With it I send my good wishes for a Happy New Year to you and your household, and am with great regard Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

MANUSCRIPT:

1. Mrs. Adams ( 1 8 0 8 - 1 8 8 2 ) was the wife of Alvin Adams (837.2). The letter accompanied a copy of The Divine Tragedy (Boston, 1 8 7 1 ) with the presentation inscription: "Mrs. Alvin Adams with regards and good wishes of The Author Jan. i, 1872."

489

EMBERS 3050.

THAT

STILL

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To Marvin Henry Bovee

Camb. Jan. 3. 1872. My Dear Sir, I am so hurried, that I have not time to answer your letter properly.^ But I enclose the modest subscription you mention and am Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCMPT: Henry E . Huntington Library. I. Bovee's letter is unrecovered, but it undoubtedly concerned his campaign against capital punishment. See 1 8 5 2 . 1 .

3051.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Jan. 5. 1872. My Dear Greene, I enclose you the title of a new book on our Colonial History; new to me; perhaps known to you.^ Here also is a very pretty bit of newspaper chaff, which will amuse you.^ And still another, from a French paper, and with a French flavor.® You will be starting soon for Ithaca. I wish your road lay through New England instead of New York. But on such a journey you will avoid roundabout ways, particularly in Winter. If you do not find Mr. Neill's book in your Library, I am sure [Andrew Dickson] White would be happy to order it for you. Let me hear from you as soon as you arrive. I want to know how many lectures you have ready and how many still quedar en el tintero; that well of black water, with Truth at the bottom of it. I get no tidings from Sumner, except the contradictory ones of the papers, which are as good as none. I have dreamed two nights in succession, that he was dead. In his last letter he says; "While sitting in an easy-chair, wrapped in my dressing gown, I am entirely comfortable." Sic semper Sederet [So might he always sit] ! H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1 . Edward Duffield Neill, The English Colonization of America during the Seventeenth Century (London, 1 8 7 1 ) . 2. A clipping from an unidentified newspaper is pasted to the sheet at this point: "PROF, TYNDALL'S EXERTION IN NEW YORK. T h e N e w Y o r k Tribune

thinks that P r o f .

Tyndall's lectures in that city show a superiority over those delivered in Boston, and it adds: 'We may, if we choose, flatter ourselves with the belief that he thought us worthy of more consideration than the N e w Englanders. At all events, he exerted himself more here than elsewhere to make clear the truths which his experiments illustrated.' Probably he had to exert himself more in N e w York than elsewhere to make himself

490

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1872

clear to his hearers." John T y n d a l l ( 1 8 2 0 - 1 8 9 3 ) , English natural philosopher and professor in the Royal Institution, was on a lecture tour of the United States. 3. T h e following clipping from an unidentified newspaper is pasted to the sheet at this point: "La phrase présidentielle; 'ne perdons pas notre temps à la proclamer' a fait son chemin dans le monde. / Témoin cette déclaration amoureuse; / —Madame, je vous adore. / —Eh bien! à quand le mariage? / —Jamais! ne perdons pas notre temps à proclamer."

3052.

To Amy Fay^ C a m b . Jan 6 1872.

M y Dear Miss Fay I will come with the greatest pleasure. Moreover I will call this afternoon, and leave this note, and ask the hour which in the haste of writing you forgot to name. Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. I. T h e identification is conjectural. T h e letter is possibly to her sister. Rose Emily Fay C2361.2).

3053.

T o James Grant

Wilson

C a m b . Jan 7. 1872. M y Dear Sir, It was only a day or two ago, that happening to be in the College Library I found the volume you were kind enough to send me. As Mr. Sibley does not undertake to distribute the parcels sent to his care, they being very numerous, one sometimes may wait for weeks before getting his own. T h i s is my apology for not thanking you sooner for your book. But it has come safe at last, and I have read it with great interest.^ I remember very well the poem of "Sukey." It was written by W i l l i a m Bicker Walter. Y o u will find an account of it and its author in D u y c k i n c k [Cyclopedia of American Literature] II. 282 [283-284].^ W i t h many thanks for your kind remembrance and your valuable gift I am, my Dear Sir, Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Henry E . Huntington Library. 1. In a letter of January 5 Wilson asked if Longfellow had received a copy of his Life and Letters of Fitz-Greene Halleck ( N e w York, 1869). 2. Walter's Sukey, an imitation of Halleck's Fanny, was published in Boston in 1821. 491

EMBERS 3054.

To Clayton

THAT

STILL

BURN

McMichael· Cambridge

Jan 15. 1872

M y Dear Sir I have just had the pleasure of receiving your letter of the 12th and hasten to apologize for my great negligence in regard to Mr. Boker's Reception at the U n i o n League. I happened to be very much occupied w h e n the invitation came, and did not notice that an answer was requested, till the day had gone by. I do not wish to excuse myself from blame, but only from the suspicion of any intentional discourtesy. Enclosed is the answer I should have sent, had I written at once.^ Be kind enough to accept it, and my apology, and believe me, my Dear Sir, with great regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: University of Kentucky Library. 1. McMichael ( 1 8 4 4 - 1 9 0 6 ) was editor of the North American and United States Gazette of Philadelphia. In a letter of January 12 he had inquired if Longfellow had received an invitation to a reception sponsored by the Philadelphia Union League in honor of George Henry Boker ( 2 2 7 8 . 1 ) . 2. See Letter N o . 3043.

3055.

T o Charles

Sumner C a m b . Jan 16 1872.

M y Dear Sumner, T h a n k s for the Seven volumes of the Globe; thanks for your brief letter; but above all, and most of all, thanks for your Speech.^ I have been trying to read it this evening, till I have put my eyes out, and can scarce write to thank you. Still, I will not go to bed without that. Yours ever H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. I. T h e following clipping from the Boston Transcript, X L V , N o . 12,816 (January 16, 1 8 7 2 ) , is pasted to the sheet at this point: "SENATOR SUMNER'S GREAT SPEECH, yesterday, in favor of his civil rights bill, occupies the most of the space on the first page. H e demands for the colored race the complete equality to which they are entitled under the laws and the Constitution of the United States. A s is his wont, he bases his case upon the high ground of right. T h e right is always expedient with him. A s he impressively says : / In the uncertainties of life I would not wait for a day the discharge of this great obligation to fellow-citizens insulted and oppressed, nor would I postpone

492

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

that reconciliation which can be assured only through this act of justice. I dare not abandon the opportunity presented. / T h e speech, loftily keyed, is really a revelation of the grand controlling purpose of the whole public career of the Massachusetts senator and statesman, who believes that although there is a 'beauty in art, in literature, in science, and in every triumph of intelligence, there is a higher beauty still in relieving the poor, in elevating the downtrodden, and being a succor to the oppressed.' Transcript [in pencil, in Longfellow's hand]." See Sumner Works, X I V , 3 6 9 - 4 1 3 .

3056.

To ]ames Ripley Osgood

Camb. Jan 17 1872. Dear Mr Osgood, I send you a Novel by a friend of mine in England, in the hope that you will like it, and feel disposed to republish it, such being the desire of the writer thereof.^ It is of the "Heir of RatclifF" School;^ and it is I think excellent in its kind. It seems to be my destiny to act as Lord Chamberlain to the ladies, and usher them into the dreadful presence of the Publisher! I want very much to see you, but cannot come in on account of an obstinate cold. If you ever come to Cambridge, pray find time to call on me. I want to talk with you about bringing out the complete edition of the "Christus." Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCBIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library. 1. T h e novel was Emma Marshall's Heights and Valleys. A Tale (London, 1 8 7 2 ) . 2. The Heir of Redclyffe, a didactic novel for juveniles by Charlotte Mary Yonge ( 1 8 2 3 - 1 9 0 1 ) , was published in 1 8 5 3 and enjoyed wide popularity.

3057.

To Cecilia Viets Dakin Hamilton

Camb. Jan 18. 1872. Dear Mrs Hamilton, I have now read some eighty pages of your new book.^ The characters are distinctly drawn, and the situations dramatic and interesting. I hope it will be successful, even beyond the first. I think that in some portions you could have condensed it a little to advantage. But each one has his own way of writing, and yours is to let your pen run on easily and freely. I should have written to you sooner on the subject, but have been much interrupted by visitors, and have had a friend^ staying with me, which occupied a great deal of my time. 493

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I am glad you like the little volume I sent you. It suffers the fate of all books, to be praised by some and blamed by others.® I will see that arrow is changed to spear, in the Proemial chapter; and will consult with the Printer about the type of the Dedication.^ T h a t sheet, with the title page, has not yet been sent to me. W i t h great regard, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Massachusetts Historical Society. 1. A Crown from the Spear (Boston, 1 8 7 2 ) . 2. George Washington Greene. 3. In a letter of January 16 Mrs. Hamilton had written efFusively of The Divine Tragedy: "1 spent such a happy evening reading your book w h i c h came yesterday while I was sitting in the twilight brooding over the disappointments of my life. It was a sweet messenger and filled my heart with love and peace. I need not tell you what I think of it. I judge of it by the impression it left upon my restless unsatisfied heart. W h e n I laid it down I felt like saying Ί can wait patiently for the hereafter.' God bless you for such golden drops of comfort." 4. For the correction in the "Proemial chapter," see p. 2. T h e dedication, a sixteenline poem, was obviously addressed to Longfellow, although he is not named.

3058.

T o С hurles Apf letón

Longfellow

C a m b . Jan 19. 1872. M y Dear Charlie, It must have been a great annoyance to you to have all your letters and papers go by you to Shanghae, without the power to stop them at Yokohama. But I trust you have had them sent back to you. Otherwise there will be such an accumulation of them as to make them more of a burden than a pleasure. W e see the arrival of Mr. D e Long^ at San Francisco, but the Steamer's letters have not yet reached us. W e always have to write a day or two before w e get yours, w h i c h is a great pity. Pray let us know if any of ours have reached you. I enclose an account of the remittances made to Baring Bros, so that you may know how you stand.^ T h e y have not sent me as yet the year's account. So much for business matters. W e were all delighted with your Journal of your journey through the interior of N i p h o n . It was read aloud in the Library, with Mr. Greene among the audience. H e takes great interest in your travels, being himself of a roving disposition. M r . Augustus Gilman, w h o sent you a letter to Mr. D u n l a p in Singapore® was here a day or two ago, and confirms all you say about the beauty of Japan. I had a visit also, not long ago from Arinori Mori the Japanese Ambassador; 494

CAMBRIDGE,

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and we have in the Law School a very nice youth from Chicago [Chikugo Province], Japan, by the name of Eneas Yamada.^ So we are pretty well informed about matters in that remote region. We have also had the Russian Prince Alexis here, who has invited the Yacht Squadron to go to St. Petersburg next Summer. I have forwarded to you by the Steamer that takes this a letter from Com. [James Gordon] Bennett [Jr.], which probably refers to this subject. I directed it to Shanghae; thinking that safest. We are all well and flourishing in Cambridge, though just now threatened with a new steam Railroad to run across our field in front, and pass between Hastings' house and Todd's corner. All send much love. Ever affectionately H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

L o n g f e l l o w T r u s t Collection,

Messrs Russell & C o / S h a n g h a e . B R I D G E 11 M A S S 11 J A N

ADDRESS: M r C . A . L o n g f e l l o w / C a r e of

China / Via

San

Francisco

POSTMARK:

CAM-

20

1 . Charles E . D e L o n g ( d . 1 8 7 6 , aged forty-five) of N e v a d a served as U . S . envoy to J a p a n , 1 8 7 0 - 1 8 7 3 . H e had accompanied a special embassy of forty-nine Japanese officials, w h i c h arrived in S a n Francisco on J a n u a r y 1 5 to begin a goodwill and informationgathering tour of the U n i t e d States. 2. T h e enclosed account reads as follows: Remittances to Baring Bros, to Credit of C . A . L . Aug I. 1 8 7 1 . J a n 8. 1 8 7 2 .

$1916.37

ОГ£З49.2.9

3500.00

657.12.5

5,416.37

1,006.15.2

3. Possibly a U . S . N a v y colleague of A u g u s t u s H . G i l m a n . See Letter N o . 2 9 6 4 . 4 . Eneas Y a m a d a , properly Ineyasu Y a m a d a ( 1 8 5 0 - 1 9 0 8 ) , entered the H a r v a r d L a w School on September 2 6 , 1 8 7 1 , and left in 1 8 7 4 without a degree. A member of the prominent K u r u m e C l a n of J a p a n , he became subsequently a soldier and statesman of some prominence.

3059.

To ]ames Thomas Fields

Camb. Jan 21 1872 My Dear Fields, I have looked over my portfolios, but in vain. I find nothing that would suit your purpose. The stories of the Wayside Inn are too long, and the Interludes too short, and neither adapted to the occasion. And so, alas! I must send you an empty letter. Not quite empty; for I shall put in my thanks to Mrs Fields for her charming note about "The Baron of St. Castine," which gratified me very much, and continues to console me for the newspaper notices, which are so snappish, just now.^ 495

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I have nearly got over my cold; and am tired of staying in the house. Possibly, therefore, I may come to town tomorrow; and if so will try to see you. Yours ever H.W.L P.S. If you have finished the two vols of TourgeniefFs novel, "Eliza," I think it is called, will you let me have them?^ MANUSCRIPT; Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. In a letter of January i 8 ( M S , Henry E. Huntington Library) Mrs. Fields had written: " ' T h e Baron of St. Castine' is like a link binding together the youth and maturity of style; the freshness of your early poems and the maturity of the later both appear in exquisite combination." 2. See 2967.1.

3060.

T o George Washington

Greene C a m b . Jan 21. 1872

M y Dear Greene, D o not jump so rashly at disagreeable conclusions.^ A newspaper writer is not infallible, any more than Pio Nono.^ So do not yield to despondency because Solomon® proposes to cut the baby in two. Possibly he has no such intention. A theological question has just risen in my mind. W h a t right has a Calvinist to get married and beget children, when according to his doctrine the chances are that they will all go into everlasting torment? O u g h t he not rather to go into a Monastery, or a Shaker Brotherhood, or an Insane Asylum? I return Professor Fiske's letter, and am glad that he enjoyed the dinner. You did, and I did, and we all did; and it was very pleasant in every way.^ I send you also the last Riverside Bulletin, containing a brief notice of the new edition of the Historic View.® Houghton means to advertise, at all events, w h i c h is nowise disagreeable to an author. Y o u will see moreover that Scudder has become a partner in the firm, which seems only right and proper. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. In a letter of January 20 Greene had referred to a newspaper account regarding professorial salaries at Cornell: " A s I interpret it, it looks forward to a subdivision of Professorships which will leave very small salaries for each Professor, not exceeding twelve hundred dollars, at the utmost. T h u s every Professor will have to eke out his living as best he may, with a chilling and perpetual throb of humiliation. Magazines and newspapers must help him thro'." 2. Pius IX С1849.4). 3. T h a t is, President W h i t e of Cornell.

496

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4. Longfellow entertained Greene, President White and Professor Fiske ( 1 8 7 6 . 1 ) of Cornell, President Stephen Harris Taft ( 1 8 2 5 - 1 9 1 8 ) of Humboldt College, Humboldt, Iowa, and Samuel Longfellow at dinner on January 12 ( M S Journal). 5. For this advertisement see the Boston Advertiser, CXIX, No. r8 (January 20, 1872).

3061.

To Charlotte Saunders

Cushman

Cambridge Jan 24 1872. Dear Miss Cushman, I have had the pleasure of receiving your letter;' have given a day to thinking about it, and to reading Egmont; — and two things are quite clear to my mind. First, in order to make this performance complete, it will be absolutely necessary to give Göthe's words with Beethoven's music. Neither you, nor the musicians nor the audience would be satisfied with anything else. Secondly, it will be impossible to give the whole of the tragedy, on account of its length; but you can read the most striking parts, taking one scene from each Act. It might be done as follows. Act I. Citizen's House. Clara; her mother; Brackenburg. Page 330 - to page 334. Exeunt Mother and Daughter (Miss Swanwick's Tr. in Bohn's Library).^ Act II. Egmont and William of Orange. Pp. 347-352. Act III. Clara and Egmont Pp. 356-360. Act IV. Alva and Egmont Pp. 372-379 with curtailment perhaps of some passages. Act V. Clara and Brackenburg at Clara's house P.p. 385-389. Egmont's Dream. P.p. 396. "Sweet Sleep" &c. to the end. This is a rough canvass, but tells the story sufficiently. I suggest it to your better judgment to be amplified and modified as you may think the occasion requires. In my opinion this will be a most interesting performance, and a great success. And when this is all over I want to show you something of my own; a tragedy called Judas Maccabseus, in which there is a character particularly for you. If this could be given with Handel's music, I should be delighted. I had this in my mind before I saw it announced that you were to read Egmont; but had no opportunity to mention it to you when you were here last, as an obstinate cold prevented me from going to town, and you departed verv suddenly. What shall I do with Mosengeil's pamphlet?^ I have put it into an envelope and directed it to Carl Zerraher.^ Shall I send it to him, or to you? I do not think it would be wise to substitute it for Göthe's words. In regard to Judas Maccabaeus, I ought perhaps to add, that it is still in manuscript, and that perhaps on that account it would be better for your 497

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Readings than extracts from the Divine Tragedy which you speak of in your letter, and to which I have no kind of objection. On the contrary, I should be only too happy to have you read anything of mine. With my best compliments to Miss Stebbins and Miss Chapman,® and all the good wishes of the New Year, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Library of Congress. 1. In a letter of January 19 Miss Cushman had asked Longfellow for suggestions regarding a contemplated recitation from Goethe's Egmont with a musical accompaniment. Despite his enthusiasm for the project, Miss Cushman decided against it. 2. Anna Swanwick ( 1 8 1 3 - 1 8 9 9 ) , English author, published her translation of Egmont in Bohn's Standard Library in 1846. 3. Friedrich Mosengeil, Poetische Erläuterung der Musik von Ludwig van Beethoven zu Goethes Egmont (Leipzig, 1 8 4 8 ) . 4. Carl Zerrahn ( 1 8 2 6 - 1 9 0 9 ) , German-born conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society, 1 8 5 4 - 1 8 9 5 , and the Harvard Musical Association, 1 8 6 5 - 1 8 8 2 . 5. Emma Stebbins ( 1 8 1 5 - 1 8 8 2 ) , sculptor, was Miss Cushman's friend and companion. She subsequently edited the memoir Charlotte Cushman: Her Letters and Memories of her Life (Boston, 1 8 7 8 ) . Miss Chapman is unidentified.

3062.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Jan 27. 1872 My Dear Greene, At the Club Dinner to-day I talked with our old friend Dr. Howe. He asked about you, and said he would come out to dine with you on any day, if I would let him know when you were here. Now say when you can come, even if it is only for a day. Some Saturday, for instance, to stay over till Monday; or in any way, and at any time you can manage it. It would be so pleasant to have you and Howe at dinner—and only you and Howe! Think how much that means, and contrive accordingly. Only let me know in season to get Howe. He is a tropical bird, and is even now trying to get up a party to go to the West Indies. Will you join it? I have given up smoking for a time; and a more ridiculous, pre-Adamite, absurd, Darwinian old fool, you never saw. But I sleep like a top! As if sleep were the chief end of man. Any habit, no matter what, is a curious psyc[h]ological study. Always Yours H.W.L P.S. Have you seen Sumner's last Speech?!· MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. A continuation, on January 17, of the speech on equality before the law (see 3055.1).

498

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T o Thomas Ashton Potter^

Cambridge, Jan. 30, 1872. You will find the Horse-Cars for Cambridge in Bowdoin Square opposite the Revere House. If you take the Car marked Watertown at 4 o'clock it will land you at my door in half an hour. Missing that, you will find many others. Make sure of one that goes to Harvard Square, which is near the College. From that point, you have only a five minutes' walk to my house. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from Paul C. Richards Autographs, Catalogue No. 4, Item 202 (November 1 9 6 2 ) . I. Potter (B. 1 8 4 7 ) , an Oxford graduate of 1 8 7 1 , was the son of Thomas Bailey Potter C 1 8 1 7 - 1 8 9 8 ) , EngUsh politician and Union sympathizer during the Civil War.

3064.

To Albert W.

Whelpley^

Cambridge Jan 30 1872. M y Dear Sir, I have had the pleasure of receiving your letter, and the volume of Poems you are kind enough to send me, and hasten to thank you for your gift and your friendly remembrance. I have not yet had time to read much of the volume, but I have read enough to see the quiet and beautiful spirit in which it is written, and that assures me I shall like it. I have been particularly struck by " T h e Teacher's Dream," which has a good deal of comfort in it for many people. Begging you to accept my best thanks and best wishes, I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Ohio Historical Society, St / Cincinnati.

POSTMARK:

ADDRESS: A. W . Whelpley Esqre. / 1 1 7 W . 4th

||CAMBRIDGE MASS|| J A N

31

I . Whelpley C 1 8 3 1 - 1 9 0 0 ) , a Cincinnati bookseller and later the librarian of the Cincinnati Public Library, 1886-1900, had sent Longfellovif a copy of WiUiam Henry Venable's June on the Miami, and Other Poems (Cincinnati, 1 8 7 2 ) .

3065.

To James Thomas

Fields

Camb. Feb i 1872 M y Dear Fields, Heinrich von Meissen was his name, and his surname was Frauenlob, or Praise-the-Ladies.i His tomb is at Mainz. There the ladies buried him as may be seen by the bas-relief; and they filled his grave full of Rhenish wine, so that it ran over. Only his name is given in the "Poets and Poetry of Europe" [p. 184], none of his verses having been translated into English. 499

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You will find brief mention of him, with a picture of his tomb, in Edgar Taylor's "Lays of the Minnesingers" [London, 1825], p. 305. See also Edinburgh Rev. X X V L [February 1816], ρ zoo; and "Hyperion" Book L ch. V. near end. If you want to go deeper into the matter you must do it in German. In Von der Hagen's "Minnesinger" [Leipzig, 1838], vol. IV. p. 730 et seq. you will find twelve quarto pages, double columns devoted to this Poet of Women; but I do not believe you will care to look for him there. I hope your cold is better; and that it has not made you forget to thank Mrs. Fields for me, for the beautiful Japanese flacon. Yours always, H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

I. Heinrich von Meissen ( i 2 5 o ? - i 3 i 8 ) was a founder of the school of meistersingers.

3066.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb F e h l 1872 My Dear Greene I am vexed with myself for having been inveigled into a dinner in town on Saturday the 9th.' But perhaps I can get Howe for Sunday; and if I cannot, we must do the best we can without him. I make the following series of propositions, putting that first which I prefer. 1. Come by Friday eve[nin]g train. Howe on Sunday. 2. Come by Friday morn [in] g train. Howe on same day. 3. Postpone visit for a week, and have Howe on Saturday the i6th. Howe is so uncertain a character, that we cannot count on him. He may be in Newport, or New York, or on his way to the West Indies. So do not be disappointed if I cannot get him, but come without reference to that. Therefore I say the first plan is best. I must be sure of one of you before I try for the other. I send you enclosed not what I would, but what I can.^ I send also "The Abbot Joachim" to close your next reading with, if you feel so disposed.® Always Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. On Saturday, February 10, Longfellow and his daughter Alice attended "a grand dinner" in Boston given Ъу Mrs. Charles Dorr ( 7 5 7 . 4 ) in honor of Robert Bowne Minturn, Jr. ( 1 8 3 6 - 1 8 8 9 ) , a N e w York social leader. 2. In a letter of February i Greene had written: "Can you help me thro' this month? I trust that in the course of it I shall come to a definite understanding with Cornell. Situated as I am I shall feel obliged to accept any reasonable offer: or rather any prac-

500

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ticable one—any that will secure me a living. But I should feel very differently in working for an adequate and an inadequate compensation. It is pleasant to be recognized." Longfellow's check was for $ 5 0 ( M S Letter Calendar). 3. Greene was giving public readings of The Divine Tragedy. In a letter of February 4 he wrote that he had decided against concluding with " T h e Abbot Joachim" (the interlude between The Divine Tragedy and The Golden Legend in Christus) because none of his audience had "very distinct ideas of the great part played by monachism in the mediaeval church."

3067.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Feb 3 1872 My Dear Greene, The flighty Doctor has escaped us, as you will see by the following paragraph from the Evening Transcript.^ I think he is right to go. If I were as free as he is, I would go also. Those tropical islands must be delightful. We have neglected them too long; and have taken the trouble to go farther and fare worse in our attempts to escape the Northern Winter. I hope this sudden escapade of the Dr. will not make any change in your visit; though you will be able to act more independently as to day and hour. Make it comfortable to yourself; only give me time enough to order the salad. That is all I ask. I do not like to send you supperless to bed. Thanks for the N.Y. Evening Post, and the article on the Publishers' International Copyright.^ Do you suppose it to be by Bryant? Always Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. "DR. S. G. HOWE and Mrs. Howe, with a party of ladies and gentlemen, will sail from N e w York next week for Santo Domingo, on the steamer Tybee. This steamer makes a monthly trip to the island and touches at the principal points going and returning. So that parties remaining at Santo Domingo City over one or two trips have an opportunity of seeing this beautiful island, and enjoying delicious warmth, tropical fruits and surf-bathing, during the months which are the most trying to invalids here." Boston Transcript, X L V , No. 1 2 , 8 3 2 (February 3, 1 8 7 2 ) . 2. N e w York Evening Post, L X X I (January 30, 1 8 7 2 ) , 2.

3068.

To Russell Sturgis^

Cambridge Feb 3 1872 My Dear Mr Sturgis, After much meditation on the subject of your letter, and turning it over in every possible way, and putting it in every possible light, I cannot see that it will be any easier for me to come to England in 1873, than it would be in 1872. In fact it will be more difficult; as I shall then be a year older then than now. 501

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I must therefore beg you to say to the Secretary of the Royal Literary Fund, that while I am grateful for the compliment he pays me, and truly appreciate it, I cannot see how it will be possible for me to accept the proffered honor. I am forced to decline it, as before, with many thanks and many regrets. Please put this in a way to make my refusal seem better than my acceptance would have been, and greatly oblige Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from photostat, Longfellow Trust Collection fellow H o u s e ) .

(Long-

I. Sturgis ( 1 5 4 5 . 4 ) , now a resident of London, had sent Longfellow a letter (unrecovered) pressing him to accept an invitation of the Royal Literary Fund for the year 1873. See Letter N o . 2991.

3069.

T o Richard Boyd Davy^ Cambridge

Feb 5 1872.

M y Dear Sir, A s soon as I received your ms. I handed it to the Editor of the Atlantic, bespeaking for it a fair hearing. To-day he returns it to me, and I am very sorry to say, declines it, but without going into particulars. So I am forced to send it back to you, w h i c h I do by this evening's post. I regret also to hear that you have been disappointed in not obtaining pupils; for though "the pen may be mightier than the sword," it is not a safe staff to lean upon. W i t h best wishes. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. I. T h e identification is conjectured from the fact that D a v y sent Longfellow a manuscript on January 29 to be forwarded to the editor of the Atlantic. His letter, however, contains no reference to his inability to obtain pupils.

3070.

To George Washington

Greene

C a m b . Feb 6 1872 M y Dear Greene, It is nine o'clock. Y o u have just finished your Reading, and your audience has gone home, making its comments on the way. I thank you; and particularly for closing with St. John^ instead of the Abbot Joachim. 502

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

This is an age of unbelief, or dead belief; and I am rather anxious to know what effect your Readings produced on a mixed audience, and whether you had any audience at all on this third and last evening. This you will tell me when you come on Friday. I shall look for you at dinner. If you do not come, the best part of the dinner shall be kept for your supper. I am very glad you are coming. Your mind must be kept in an unpleasant state of tension by the doubt and uncertainty of the decision at Cornell; though I have no doubt they will make you a good proposition, if they do not frankly and fully accept yours. A little change of scene will be beneficial to you just now. Good night. H.W.L P.S. Our excellent Folsom has had another paralytic stroke. I fear he will not rally.2 MANUSCBiPT: Longfellow T r u s t Collection. 1. T h e finale of

Christus.

2. Folsom lingered until November 8, 1 8 7 2 .

3071.

To Paul Hamilton Hayne^

Camb. Feb6 1872 My Dear Sir, I have had the pleasure of receiving your very kind and friendly note, but the volume of Poems has not yet reached me. I have waited a week for its coming, and will wait no longer, but thank you for it in advance. This is of no great consequence, as you know already my opinion of your writings; and even if you did not, one does not care so much about opinions, but asks only sympathy and welcome. And these you are sure of. I enclose a paragraph from last evening's paper, which may not otherwise reach you. I do not know who wrote it; but it is some one who feels warmly towards you.^ With best wishes Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: T h e Carl H . Pforzheimer Library. 1 . H a y n e ( 1 8 3 0 - 1 8 8 6 ) , the "Laureate of the S o u t h , " was known for his lyrics in praise of southern ante-bellum ideals. H e had sent Longfellow a copy of his and Lyrics

letters to Longfellow are printed in Daniel Morley McKeithan, ed., A Hayne 2. A

Legends

(Philadelphia, 1 8 7 2 ) with a covering letter dated January 2 4 , 1 8 7 2 . H a y n e ' s Collection

of

Letters ( A u s t i n , T e x . , 1 9 4 4 ) , pp. 1 4 3 - 1 7 8 . review of Legends

and

Lyrics

in the Boston Transcript,

(February 5, 1 8 7 2 ) .

503

XLV,

No.

12,833

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To Rafael Pombo

Camb. Feb 6. 1872. My Dear Sir, I have read with great interest and pleasure your vigorous poem of "Cadena," and have carefully compared the translation with the original, making here and there a suggestion in pencil on the margin. The version in English seems to me very faithful and well done; and for your purpose is much better than any freer translation would be. I do not see that in any stanza it adds or omits anything, or in any way perverts your meaning.^ "La Cuestión Penal"^ I take the liberty of keeping, as I have not yet had time to read it with care. I thank you for the notice of "Evangeline." I am glad to see Mr. Morla's labor so well appreciated.® The notice in the Evening Post I have not seen.·* Excuse me for not sending a more speedy answer to your letter, and believe me, my Dear Sir, Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Mrs. Otto GafFron, Southampton, N . Y . PUBLISHED: "Cartas Inéditas de Longfellow a D. Rafael Pombo," Anuario de la Academia Colombiana, III ( 1 9 1 4 ) , 168-169. 1. In a letter of January 27 Pombo had sent Longfellow an English translation of his poem "Cadena" with a request that he revise its Uteralness. 2. Enrique Cortés, сотр., La Cuestión Penal (Nueva York, 1 8 7 1 ) . "Cadena," dedicated " A mi amigo Enrique Cortés," appears on pp. 3 7 - 3 9 . Cortés was Colombian secretary of legation in Washington, D . C . 3. A review of Moria Vicuña's Evangelina ( 3 0 1 1 . 1 ) appeared in El Mundo Nuevo, I (December 10, 1 8 7 1 ) , 1 5 0 - 1 5 1 . 4. A notice of the translation also appeared in the N e w York Evening Post, L X X I (January 24, 1 8 7 2 ) , 2.

3073.

To Albert W.

Whelpley

Cambridge Feb 6 1872 My Dear Sir, I should be happy to comply with your request,^ if I could do so without inconsistency. I have always strenuously opposed the publication of private letters in advertising books, and have always declined having mine so used. I could not without great embarrassment make any exception to this rule.

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CAMBRIDGE,

1872

While, therefore, I have no objection to your showing my letter privately, I should have great objection to your publishing it. I am glad to hear of the success of your book, and am, with good wishes, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, Cincinnati.

I. In a letter of February 3 Whelpley had asked permission to use Longfellow's opinion in Letter No. 3064 "in a quiet way when 'June on the Miami' is fairly thrown on the market."

3074.

To Francis Henry

Underwood

Camb. Feb. 8. 1872. My Dear Sir, I return enclosed the list of dates, corrected and completed.^ I take the opportunity also to thank you for the bound copy of your "Cloud Pictures"^ which you were kind enough to send me, and which I highly value. I hope its success with the public has been equal to its merits, and am. Yours faithfully Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Edward Laurence Doheny Memorial Library, Camarillo, Cal.

1. Underwood was at work on A Hand-Book of English Literature (Boston and N e w York, 1 8 7 3 ) , Vol. II (American authors). In a letter of February 6 he had written: "Is the list of your works enclosed complete? And will you be kind enough to fill the blanks with dates?" 2. Boston, 1872. T h e work is dedicated to Longfellow.

3075.

To the Harvard Club of New York

Cambridge Feb. 9. 1872. Mr. Longfellow regrets extremely, that it will not be in his power to accept the very kind invitation of the Harvard Club of the City of New York, to be present at their annual dinner on the 21st of this month. MANUSCRIPT:

N e w York Public Library (Miscellaneous Papers).

505

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To james Ripley Osgood

Camb. Feb. 9 1872. Dear Mr. Osgood, I return Mr. Whedon's letter with many thanks.i It is an excellent protection against the perpetual drizzle of the newspapers. He has seized the idea I had in my mind, and I am much obliged to him for his friendly judgment, and to you for sending it to me. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Princeton University Library.

I. Daniel Denison Whedon ( 1 8 0 8 - 1 8 8 5 ) , Methodist clergyman and author, was editor of the Methodist Quarterly Review, 1 8 5 6 - 1 8 8 4 . His letter is unrecovered.

3077.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Feb 12 1872. My Dear Fields, I was at your door to-day to thank you for your kind invitation for Friday, and to explain why I could not have the pleasure of accepting it. I found that you and your wife had both taken flight for New York — together, I presume, though I did not ask any indiscreet questions. The weather is lovely, so lovely that one has to allude to it even in letters. The streets of Boston were flowing with milk and honey, or something of a similar color, well calculated to deceive the inexperienced; and I will venture to say you have seen nothing superior in the city of New York. I am looking impatiendy for your book to enliven this rather silent and solitary life. When will it appear?^ I shall hope to see you soon; and till then, and perhaps even longer, shall remain Yours truly H.W.L MANUSCBIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. Yesterdays ( B A L , 5956).

3078.

with Authors

(Boston, 1 8 7 2 ) had been announced for February

17

To Juliet C. Marsha

Cambridge Feb 14 1872. Dear Madam, I have had the great pleasure of receiving your friendly letter, and hasten to thank you for it, and to assure you of the sincere gratification it has given me. 506

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

I presume that no author is indifiFerent to the good or evil report of his writings. Certainly I am not; but am always glad to know that I have given pleasure, comfort or encouragement. Accept, then, I beg you, my best thanks for your letter, and believe me, Dear Madam, Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow Mrs Juliet C. Marsh MANUSCBIPT: W i l l i a m s College Library, A v e n u e / Brooklyn. N . Y .

ADDRESS: M r s J u l i e t C . M a r s h / W a s h i n g t o n

POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS, F E B 1 5

I . I n a letter of F e b r u a r y 1 2 M r s . M a r s h , an u n k n o w n admirer of L o n g f e l l o w , h a d written : " P a r d o n the liberty of a stranger — w h o dares thus to intrude upon y o u r time a n d patience — but in w r i t i n g — I feel I a m discharging a d u t y I o w e to one, w h o s e Poems h a v e for years afforded m e most exquisite pleasure. T h e y h a v e embellished m y p a t h w a y , like b e a u t i f u l flowers, and refreshing fountains. Y o u r R a i n y D a y — G o b l e t of L i f e , and Resignation — h a v e brightened some of the darkest hours of m y l i f e . "

3079.

To Rafael Pombo Cambridge

Feb. 14 1872.

My Dear Sir, I think the stanza would read better as follows; "Among my reprobate seven chiefs, of old I portioned out the world; Pride reigns supreme; Four brutalize, despoil it, and destroy, With Sloth and Envy seething at their feet." In the other stanzas. "A Virtue militant is each reverse." and "Thou didst succeed in quenching, but 'twas saved." substituting " 'twas" for "was"; the "it" referring to the "llama celeste." 507

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T o Charles Sumner

Camb. Feb 15 1872. M y Dear Sumner, Though long silent, I am none the less a careful observer of all your noble doings. Your speeches in the Globe I read with intense interest; and could not help saying, with Voltaire "Heureux à qui le ciel a donné le pouvoir De remplir comme vous un si noble devoir."^ This morning's paper brings me an account of your new movement for honesty and uprightness. Alas for this country. T h e same paper is full of defalcations and other acts of scoundrelism. Are we becoming, or have we become the most dishonest nation on the face of the earth? This is the result of war. This comes from sowing gunpowder; a bitter seed. Reading Göthe's Iphigenia the other day I was struck with the passage which I transcribe below. I think it deserves to be worked in as a motto in some one of your volumes. Greene has been here, full of doubts and perplexities, but unfailing in his love and loyalty to you. H.W.L Our passions early catch hold of laws W h i c h they can wield as weapons. But for me Another law, one far more ancient, speaks, And doth commend me to withstand thee. King! T h e law declaring sacred every stranger. Göthe's Iphigenia. Act V. Sc. 3. Miss Swanwicks Tr. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. I. Zaïre, II, i, 1 7 - 1 8 ; " H a p p y is he whom heaven has given the power / T o complete as you have done a task so noble."

3083.

T o George Washington

Greene

Camb. Feb. 16. 1872. M y Dear Greene, I do not hear from you to-day, but draw no evil augury from that. I hope and trust that your attack is not very serious. I observed that you took your overcoat oíF in the warm rooms at Riverside; and though we came back in a raw and chilly wind we were not long exposed to it. I shall not therefore 510

CAMBRIDGE,

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believe, till I hear from you that you are seriously ill. Tomorrow I shall look for good news. What do you say to this paragraph?^ This may be true, but why be scurrilous in mentioning such a surmise? Why not do it decendy? To-day, out of my own family, I have not seen the face of a friend. Life grows solitary. To fill up the blank I have read one of Joanna Baillie's tragedies, "Basil" by name, which portrays the passion of love, and shows how hard it is for an English mind to emancipate itself from Shakespeare.^ I enclose you [a] half column from the Eve[nin]g Trans, which will interest you, as it relates to Ellis's Count Rumford.® Let me hear tomorrow that you are better. Ever H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1 . T h e following clipping from the Boston Transcript, X L V , No. 12,843 (February 16, 1 8 7 2 ) , is pasted to the sheet at this point: "A POSSIBLE EXPLANATION. Intimations come from Washington that to one irresponsible marquis of Chambrum (shouldn't it be Sham brun?) some how, but nobody seems to know exactly how, connected with the French Government may be traced the origin of the allegation that this neutral nation sold arms and ammunition to one of the belligerents in the Franco-German war. Rather than have our republic even suspected of violating international law, it would be even well to have it appear that acute senators have been deceived and the veritable culprit discovered. This surmise about the marquis makes investigation all the more desirable." T h e "irresponsible marquis of Chambrum" alludes possibly to Joseph Dominique Aldebert Pineton, comte de Chambrun ( 1 8 2 1 - 1 8 9 9 ) , Orleanist and member of the National Assembly. 2. Joanna Baillie ( 1 7 6 2 - 1 8 5 1 ) , Scottish dramatist and poet, published Basil in London in 1798. 3. T h e enclosure is missing, but see the Boston Transcript, X L V , No. 12,843 (February 16, 1 8 7 2 ) . George Edward Ellis (485.20) published his memoir of Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford ( 3 2 3 . 2 ) , as a preface to an edition of the latter's complete works (Boston, 1 8 7 0 - 1 8 7 5 ) .

3084.

To Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Camb. Feb 19 1872 Dear Mr Aldrich, Enclosed I send you the extract from Dr. Barbas,! g^d am Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT; Harvard College Library. I. T h e allusion remains obscure. 5 I I

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Greene Camb. Feb 19 1872.

My Dear Greene, I hope this letter will find you much better; not only well enough to be read to, but well enough to read; not that the letter deserves it, but that I ardently desire it. I have been reading this afternoon Ranieri de' Calsabigi's letter to Alfieri on his first four Tragedies, and Alfieri's reply; both very good and very interesting.^ But what men of leisure they must have been even to conceive of such dilated disquisitions! What Alfieri says of the Italian language in different ages deserves quoting. "Questo è il secolo che veramente balbetta, ed anche in lingua assai dubbia; [che] il secento delirava, il cinquecento chiacchierava, il quattrocento sgrammaticava, ed il trecento diceva."^ But I dare say that you, who remember all things, remember this also. This morning I heard Sophocles lecture. He said the Essenes never went to weddings. That is mere assertion; perhaps because I was there.® On Monday next he takes up Simon Magus. He says he has something new about him. It is now time, or soon will be, to hear from Ithaca. May the Gods of that city be propitious. I hope I shall have a line from your own hand tomorrow, which will be the best sign of convalescence. Ever Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. See "Lettera di Ranieri de' Calsabigi all'autore sulle quattro sue prime tragedie" and "Risposta dell'autore" in Tragedie di Vittorio Alfieri da Asti (Milano, 1 8 1 8 ) , L 4 1 7 - 4 5 8 and 4 6 1 - 4 7 9 . 2. "Risposta dell'autore," p. 478: "This is indeed the century that stutters and what is more in rather dubious language; for the seventeenth century raved, the sixteenth century chattered, the fifteenth century spoke ungrammatically, and the fourteenth century expressed itself." 3. See "The Marriage in Cana" in Christus (Works, V , 3 1 - 3 6 ) .

3086.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Feb. 20 1872. My Dear Greene Your wife's letter assures me to-day, that you are improving slowly, and that is something though I wish she could have said rapidly instead of slowly. I wish also that I could send you something to enliven you; but though the day has been beautiful and warm, the walking is so bad that I have been 5I2

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1872

forced to limit myself to the "Ghost's Walk" on the verandah. So I have seen no one, and have no news. Here are two paragraphs from the Evening paper, which I should read to you, were you here, walking up and down the room after dinner. As you are not, I send them for your wife to read, though of no great moment.! To-day my reading has been Alfieri's "Filippo," which is as fierce as a Bullfight. A tremendous tragedy, of great force and concentration. T h e style seems to me rather labored and involved; — not quite simple and straightforward enough. If you recover soon, I shall hold it to be a triumph of Homoeopathy. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. T w o paragraphs from the Boston Transcript, X L V , No. 12,846 (February 20, 1 8 7 2 ) , are pasted to the sheet at this point: "ROSCOE CONKLING is endeavoring to win a little cheap notoriety by attacking Senator Sumner. He may succeed in that purpose, but no effort he may put forth can elevate him above the atmosphere of political and personal coxcombry, in which he is enveloped, to the serene heights of statesmanship long occupied by the Massachusetts senator." ". . . E. P. Whipple says of Ralph Waldo Emerson's writings: 'There is something in them not merely original but "aboriginal" — a flavor as of the wild strawberry, a fragrance as of the wild rose.' " Roscoe Conkling ( 1 8 2 9 - 1 8 8 8 ) , lawyer, politician, and supporter of Grant, was U . S . senator from N e w York, 1 8 6 7 - 1 8 8 1 .

3087.

T o Charles Eliot

Norton

Camb. Feb 20. 1872. M y Dear Charles, I was delighted to get your letter,^ and to learn that you are all well, and particularly that your mother's health is quite restored again. That is the best news you could send us, and brightens up your letter, otherwise rather gloomy with the gigantic scoundrelism of your native land. And no wonder. At times it seems to me that we have the mill-stone round our neck, and that the rest is coming. Still I have faith, that the good will conquer, and do not fall on my sword. Thanks for the Uhland Catalogue,^ which is curious and worth keeping. But what a mouldy, mediaeval collection of old armor! Quaritch® has also published a similar catalogue of valuable old rubbish ( N o 282 Feb. 1 8 7 2 ) which if you have not seen, I advise you to get. It is very curious, and for the moment one is seduced into believing, that he really wants the books, and must have them; but lays the catalogue away, and the pleasing illusion soon vanishes. Still I confess, that of all the ways of spending money yet devised by man, this, to me, is the most fascinating. I have requested Tauchnitz to send you a copy of his edition of my new 5I3

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book.^ It is the first part of "Christus"; the second part being " T h e Golden Legend"; and the third " T h e N e w England Tragedies"; the three parts to be joined by Interludes of " T h e Abbot Joachim" and "Martin Luther," and closed by a Finale, "St. J o h n , " — as counterpoise to the "Introitus" of the present volume. T h i s is an old, old design, twenty years old and more, and only now completed. In a certain sense one part explains and requires the others. H a v i n g said so much of books, let me now tell you of men and things in general. I never knew Lowell better or brighter. But he is wasting an immense deal of time over Old French Romances of Chivalry. H e is now in his full force and maturity, and should be writing instead of reading. So I tell him; and he answers, " I know it"; but still goes on with this chasse aux irréguliers

verbes

[hunting of irregular verbs] in the thickets of the Langue d'Oc

and the Langue d'Oïl. H e is too good for that; too much of a Trouvère and Troubadour himself to be so busy with interpreting the songs of his predecessors. But he is going abroad next Summer, as I suppose you know; and will begin a new life.® You have doubtless heard of the misfortunes of our friend [John

W.]

Field of Philadelphia. Nearly all his fortune is swept away; — all of his own, and a part of his wife's. H e says w e must not pity him; that he was never more cheerful and happy in his life. T h a t kind of exaltation cannot last. H e will feel his losses bitterly when it comes to the close economies, to which he is not used. Your cousin Sam Eliot has begun his Lectures on the History of the present Century, in the University Course. I hear that his audience is large; and young ladies abound in the class. I missed the Introductory, but shall attend the rest. I rejoice in his success.® Poor M r . Folsom has had a second stroke of paralysis, and is in a melancholy condition. Y o u will hardly see him again.^ Appleton has a volume of poems in the press!® I have not seen his proofsheets, nor have I been in any w a y consulted about it. H e wants to surprise me. W i t h much love to you all from me and mine, always affectionately Yours H.W.L Harvard College Library, A D D R E S S : Charles E. Norton Esq / 9 Räcknitz Strasse / Dresden / Germany, P O S T M A R K S : C A M B R I D G E M A S S , F E B 21 / B O S T O N P A I D D I R E C T F E B 23 [remainder illegible] / B R E M E N 9 3 72 F R A N C O / A U S G . I I 3

MANUSCRIPT:

NO. I

1. Unrecovered. 2. Unidentified, but possibly a catalogue of the library of Johan Ludwig Uhland. 3. Bernard Quaritch (1819-1899), Prussian-born bookseller of 15 Piccadilly, London. 4. See BAL 12520.

514

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5- On J u l y 9, 1 8 7 2 , having resigned his professorship at Harvard, Lowell sailed with his w i f e for a two-year sojourn in Europe. 6. Eliot delivered his lectures each Thursday at 3 P.M. in Boylston Hall, beginning on February 1 5 . See announcement in the Boston Advertiser, C X I X , N o . 33 (February 7, 1 8 7 2 ) . 7. See 3070.2. 8. Faded Leaves (Boston, 1 8 7 2 ) .

3088.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Feb. 21 1872 Dear Convalescent I saw this morning at the Printing Office a new "Dictionary of Biographical R e f e r e n c e . A m o n g the "One Thousand" names it contains I found yours, which confirmed me in the view I have always had, that you were one of a thousand. After your name followed the mysterious letters "a. D. e. F. M." and turning back for an explanation, I found that these letters indicated other learned works in which your name is mentioned; and meant as follows, a. Allibone's Die. of Authors D. Didot. Nouvelle Biographie Universelle, е. Ripley. Am. Cyclop. F. Vapereau. Die. Univ. des Contemporains. 1858 M. Walford. Men of the Time. 1868. A formidable catalogue of references, to which add, Thomas, Die. of Biog. and Mythology.^ I scribble this while waiting for dinner, in the "quart-d'-heure d'Aguessemi," not of Rabelais.® May it find you better than yesterday's letter did. This evening I am going to hear Miss Nilsson in Lucia [di Lammermoor] Ever Yours H.W.L MANuscBiPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Francis Samuel Drake, Dictionary of American Biography, Including Men of the Time; Containing Nearly Ten Thousand Notices of Persons of Both Sexes, of Native and Foreign Birth, Who have been Remarkable, or Prominently Connected with the Arts, Sciences, Literature, Politics, or History, of the American Continent (Boston, 1872). 2. These "learned works" were: Samuel Austin Allibone, A Critical Dictionary of English Literature, and British and American Authors, Living and Deceased, from the Earliest Accounts to the Middle of the Nineteenth Century (Philadelphia, 1 8 5 8 - 1 8 7 1 ) , 3 vols.; Nouvelle Biographie Universelle depuis les Temps les plus Reculés jusqu'à nos Jours (Paris, Firmin Didot Frères, 1 8 5 2 - 1 8 6 6 ) , 46 vols.; George Ripley and Charles H . 5 I 5

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Dana, eds., N e w American Cyclopaedia; a Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge ( N e w York, 1 8 5 8 - 1 8 6 3 ) , 16 vols.; Louis Gustave Vapereau, Dictionnaire Universel des Contemporains (Paris, 1 8 5 8 ) ; The Men of the Time, new edition . . . brought down to the present time by Edward Walford (London, 1 8 6 2 ) ; and Joseph Thomas, Universal Pronouncing Dictionary of Biography and Mythology (Philadelphia, 1 8 7 0 ) , 2 vols. 3. "Le quart d'heure de Rabelais" refers to the uneasy quarter of an hour when the bill has to be paid. Longfellow's allusion to Henri François d'Aguesseau ( 1 6 6 8 - 1 7 5 1 ) , French jurist and chancellor of France, is inexplicable. 4. At the Boston Theatre.

3089.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Feb 25 1872. My Dear Greene, I have been reading to-day Schiller's "Don Carlos." It is more poetical than Alfieri's "Filippo," but not so simply tragic. Alfieri's tragedy is the drop of deadly poison in a ring; Schiller's the same diluted, and drunk from a silverchased goblet. Schiller's is a very noble poem; affluent in thought and diction; but too long, and too intricate for a tragedy. The real tragic Muse hardly stops to pluck so many flowers by the way. Yesterday I saw Fields at our Club dinner. He has been in New York, where he saw President White; and from the conversation he had with him thinks your Professorship safe beyond peradventure. He told the Pres[iden]t that if he wanted a Professor to speak on that subject, from fulness of knowledge, you were the man. I am very glad he thought to say just those words; for the right words are the "open Sesame" where "barley" will not serve.^ Thanks for your letter. I am so glad to know you are on your feet again. Tomorrow I shall think of you in the Assembly. Only be careful. I am always afraid of a relapse. Always Yours H.W.L. P.S. I send you to-day the Camb. Chron. Please read to the Governor the article on Sumner.^ MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. That is, where negotiations ("barley" is Scottish for "parley") will not serve the end of obtaining the Cornell professorship. 2. Cambridge Chronicle, X X V I I , No. 8 (February 24, 1 8 7 2 ) . T h e article begins: "There is no disguising the fact that Sumner, wrong, is more a subject of admiration to the galleries than any other Senator right. Even his enemies admire him, and his failings seem to be much more worthy of admiration than many of his colleagues' virtues."

516

CAMBRIDGE, 3090.

1872

To Charles Sumner [Cambridge, February 25, 1872]' "Till then, my Carlos, Forget not this; that a design conceived Of lofty reason, which involves the fate, The sufferings of mankind, tho' it be baffled Ten thousand times, should never be abandoned." Schiller's Don C. III. i.^

My Dear Sumner, I send you this instead of a letter. Let the Marquis von Posa speak for me, since he speaks better than I can. When I have a noble thought in my reading, I instinctively think of you. Here also is what Pylades says to Orestes in Göthe's Iphigenia II. i. "We would every deed At once perform as nobly as it shows After long ages, when from land to land The poet's swelling song hath rolled it on. It sounds so lovely, what our fathers did, When, in the silent evening shade reclined. We drink it in with music's melting tones; And what we do is as their deeds to them, Toilsome and incomplete!"^ This is very true, and worth thinking of now and then, when you are weary of opposition, and the inane clamor of vulgar and low-minded people. Since Greene went home from here, he has been ill with pneumonia, the disease that kills old men. But he is not killed; perhaps because he is not old, being only sixty; perhaps because he is a homœopathist. At all events he is recovering. He only needs good news from Ithaca, where he is looking for an appointment as Professor of American History in Cornell University, to make him all right again. Yours always ' H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

1. T h e date is provided by the M S Letter Calendar. 2. T h e reference is incorrect. See Act II, Scene 15. T h e translation, by R . Dillon Boylan, was first published in London in 1850. 3. Translation by Anna Swanwicli C3061.2).

5 I7

EMBERS 3091.

To George Washington

THAT

STILL

BURN

Greene

Camb. Feb 26 1872. My Dear Greene, If the northwest wind has been roaring and raging in East Greenwich to-day as it has in Cambridge, I hope you have not set foot out of doors. If you have, ah me! tomorrow you will be lying in your bed again worse than ever. I went down this morning to hear Sophocles lecture on Simon Magus. It was curious, curt, sarcastic, learned. He has found some rather new material, which the ready-writers of the Biblical Dictionaries seem to have overlooked; but virtually it was the portrait I have given in the Divine Tragedy. There were somethings, however, which I wish I had known before. I am at this moment paying the penalty of exposure to the bitter wind. It has pierced me with a thousand spears; dried up my lungs, and parched my throat. Talk of the East Wind! It is a benediction compared with this. And it is out there now, howling like a wolf; though, come to think of it, I never heard a wolf howl; only a dog. I have been reading to-day MafiFei's Merope.^ An interesting subject; but what a style! The great Dry-as-Dust himself could hardly surpass it. Schlegel is unjust to Alfieri. He emphasizes his defects, and seems not to see his merits; his force, his directness, the "still river that runs deep" of his style.^ Ever Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Francesco Scipione di Maffei ( 1 6 7 5 - 1 7 5 5 ) , Italian scholar and author, published his tragedy Merope in 1 7 1 3 . 2. See August Wilhelm von Schlegel, Vorlesungen über Dramatische Kunst und Literatur, Achte Vorlesung.

3092.

To James R. Osgood & Company

Camb Feh 29 1872 Gentlemen, I hereby acknowledge the receipt of your cheque for $150. for poem in March Atlantic.! Be so kind as to pay Mr. Drake's bill [of] $7.00^ enclosed and pass to my account. Has Mr. Osgood had time to look over the English Novel yet? If so, I hope it strikes him favorably. If not, will he do so as soon as possible?® Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow

518

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

MANUSCBIPT: Boston Public Library. 1. " T h e Baron of St. Castine," Atlantic Monthly, X X I X (March 1 8 7 2 ) , 3 3 2 - 3 3 7 . 2. Presumably for the Dictionary of American Biography by Francis Samuel Drake ( 1 8 2 8 - 1 8 8 5 ) , Boston author and editor. See 3088.1. 3. See 3056.1. In a letter of March 3, 1872, Osgood wrote of Mrs. Marshall's novel: "It has nothing striking about it, is rather commonplace in incident and with a marked absence of the sensational element craved by novel-readers of today. I don't think it a good commercial speculation."

3093.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. March 2 1872. My Dear Greene, Thanks for your letters. They show that "George is himself again," however it may be with "Richard. I wonder that you get no word from Ithaca. How others may be feeling at any given moment, is one of the first things one ought to think of in the affairs of life. And yet how often it is forgotten. There is a kind of refined cruelty in this, which I do not understand. The morning paper says that Sumner is again ill, with the old illness; but that the attack is not so severe as the former one. Though not so severe it may be more serious, as being the second. I have written to him to-day. Pray do the same, as soon as you have a moment's leisure. I have before me a vision of those women on Wednesday. Suppose that one of them in spectacles should rush up to you and say; "Thou art my affinity." A swarm of bees. Honey enough somewhere; also stings. So beware. Use the warming-pan; but act with discretion. Wishing you well through with it^ Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Colley Cibber, Richard III, V, v, 85: "Conscience avaunt! Richard's himself again!" 2. Having recovered from his illness, Greene had returned to his legislative seat, where on Wednesday, March 6 (later postponed to March 1 2 ) , he was to receive a group of petitioners for female suffrage. On February 28 he had written: ". . . you may imagine me in the chair of state with a hall full of very eager and very indifferent looking women around me, or rather before me. Having formed my opinion before hand, I shall be in an excellent frame of mind for listening to their eloquence."

519

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To Charles Sumner

Camb. March 2 1872. M y Dear Sumner I am grieved and alarmed by what I read in this morning's paper of your illness. You must obey your physician and leave off work at once. Fortunately this does not seem to be so serious an attack as the previous one; and yet is more serious as being the second. Do not make light of it. "Poor man! he is working himself to death," exclaims Edie; and I echo the words. Forbear in season. I wish you could come and be with me in Cambridge. It is quiet enough here. It seems certain that you cannot go on in this way any longer. You must pause. I send back Emerson's affectionate and loyal letter. He is a true friend. How many thousands would say the same, if they could!^ I am confined to the house by a severe cold, and have been reading Grimm's Life of Michael Angelo,^ a learned and admirable book, though a little prolix here and there. I dare say you have read it. I have read also your article on Engravings which is excellent and very interesting.® Above all things, take care of your health. Ever affectionately H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT; Harvard College Library. 1. Sumner had written on February 2 5 : "Here is a letter from R . W . E . which you will read with interest. [George William] Curtis thought it worth more than any diploma or office. I am much touched by it, and shall keep it among my treasures." T h e letter is unrecovered. 2. Hermann Friedrich Grimm, Life of Michael Angelo, tr. Fanny Elizabeth Bunnett (Boston, 1 8 6 5 ) , 2 vols. 3. " T h e Best Portraits in Engraving," The City, an Illustrated Magazine, I, No. i (January i, 1 8 7 2 ) , 6 - 1 7 . See Sumner Works, X I V , 3 2 7 - 3 5 4 .

3095.

To Thomas Gold Appleton

Camb. March 3 1872. My Dear Tom, I am delighted with your book.^ It is full of beautiful thoughts; and if I were reviewing it for the Saturday Review I could urge nothing against it but an occasional haziness of expression, and what Montaigne would call "faute de façon," or want of making up.^ I am rather astonished to find how many of the poems I remember; which proves how much they impressed me at the first reading. The copies you left with me for Mrs. [Mary Bowditch] Dixwell, Mrs. 520

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

H [oratio] Greenough and Mrs. [Mary Longfellow] Greenleaf, were sent without delay. But Mrs. Dixwell is out of town, I understand, so you will not hear from her immediately. Mrs. Greenleaf, into whose hands I put the book, was much gratified by the gift, and desired me to express her warmest thanks. The "Literary World" of yesterday quotes your Sonnet on "Gay."® Always afFect[ionatel]y Yours Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1 . See 3087.8. 2. "Sur des Vers de Vergile," Essais, Вк. III, Chap. 5. 3. Appleton's sonnet to Winckworth Allan Gay C 1 7 9 7 . 5 ) appears in the Boston Literary World, II (March i, 1 8 7 2 ) , 159.

3096.

To Thomas Graves Cary^

Gamb. March 4 1872 Dear Mr Gary, I have just received your note, and Biard's "Deux Années au Brésil," belonging to Mr. Pierce. I will see that it is safely restored to him. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

I. Cary ( 1 8 2 4 - 1 8 8 8 ) was the brother-in-law of Louis Agassiz. In a letter of March 4 he had written: "When Professor Agassiz was preparing for his expedition to the Amazons, Mr J[osiah] Pierce Jr. of Portland lent him [François Auguste] Biard's [Deux Années au] Brésil [Paris, 1862], with the request that, after he had done with it, he would send it to you. / Our dear Professor is not very prompt in his returns, and I found this book in his Library the other day."

3097.

To Charles Sumner

Gamb. March. 5. 1872. My Dear Sumner, The flock of newspapers and catalogues, — your carrier-pigeons — with your inimitable autograph under their wings, has somewhat reassured me about your health. A few lines now, to say that you are well again, would make me well. For the last week the northwest wind and an obstinate and unreasonable cold have kept me at home in the body, while in the spirit I have been in Italy among the artists, by means of those swift transports, books. 521

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I have been reading Grimm's Life of Michael Angelo, a book of mark; and that led me back to Vasari, and Benvenuto Cellini.^ All that I have wanted was good engravings, in which I am lamentably deficient, as you know. Equally so is Grimm's Life of M.A. and the other books. Nevertheless I have passed a pleasant week, spite of wind and influenza. I hope you have had some solace of this kind. Always Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. I. For Vasari, see 594.1. Longfellow read the Memoirs Bohn's Standard Library edition (London, 1 8 5 0 ) .

3098.

To George Washington

of Benvenuto

Cellini

in

Greene

Camb March 8 1872. My Dear Greene, A brief letter will go quicker than a long one, because it will not miss the mail. So I shall be very brief, and only enclose a cheque.^ I wonder greatly that you do not hear from Ithaca. I saw in the papers the other day, that some one had brought an action against Mr. Cornell for the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.^ That may have made the Trustees postpone proceedings a little; but it is no reason why the President should not answer your letter. If things have come to a dead-lock, I think he would have written. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. In a letter of March 7 Greene had recounted the uncertainty of his position relative to the Cornell professorship and asked Longfellow for thirty dollars. 2. Longfellow had misread the report in the Boston Advertiser, C X I X , No. 56 (March 5, 1 8 7 2 ) . William A. Woodward had sued Ezra Cornell ( 1 8 0 7 - 1 8 7 4 ) , the founder of Cornell University, for $ 1 1 6 , 0 0 0 for services as agent in locating government lands for the benefit of the university. Although Cornell claimed that he had lost $250,000 through his agent's acts, Woodward eventually won his suit. See Carl L. Becker, Cornell University: Founders and the Founding (Ithaca, 1 9 4 4 ) , pp. 1 1 4 - 1 1 7 .

3099.

To James Ripley Osgood

Camb March 9 1872 Dear Mr Osgood, I hereby acknowledge the receipt of $300.00 in payment of copyright upon 500 Poems — Blue and Gold, and 1000 Divine Tragedy. I return also Mr. Morgan's letter. His "surprise" is wholly owing to your 522

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

illness, and my not seeing you. I had no objection to his using the poem as an advertisement, and said so to Mr. Aldrich. I sent you the letter, because I thought it only right and proper, that you should see it.^ A bad cold has prevented my coming to town for the last week or two. I have soon to see you and to persuade you, that now is the time to issue the "Christus" in complete form.^ Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT;

University

of

Texas Library.

1 . Charles N . Morgan, president of the Excelsior Life Insurance Company of 68-70 William Street, N e w York, was planning an illustrated edition of "Excelsior" as a promotional device. See BAL 1 2 5 1 1 . T h e letter referred to is unrecovered. 2. See B A L 1 2 1 6 0 .

3100.

To George William Curtis

Camb. March 10 1872. My Dear Curtis, I have just been reading your very generous notice of my book, in Harper's Magazine for this month,^ and write to say how much I thank you for it. When the whole is published together I hope it will in some measure justify your good opinion. Your exposition of the aim and meaning of the several parts is excellent. I could not have done it so well in a Preface; and with this key any reader of common capacity can understand the work. You will be greatly grieved, as I have been, to hear of Mrs Chs. Norton's death in Dresden.^ Alas for his maimed life, and the lonely days that are coming! I hear of Sumner's illness, but hear nothing directly from him. I confess, I am rather alarmed at a second attack; for though not so violent as the first, it is perhaps more serious as being a repetition. With kind remembrances to your wife, always Affectionately Yours Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Harper's New Monthly Magazine, X L I V (March 1 8 7 2 ) , 6 1 6 - 6 1 7 . 2. Mrs. Norton had died in February, a few days after the birth of her son Richard (d. 1 9 1 8 ) .

523

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THAT

To George Washington

STILL

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Greene

Camb. March 10 1872 My Dear Greene, If you escaped unharmed the inexorable wind of last week I shall think you proof against weather, and good for twenty years to come. I was all the week in Italy. Falling in with a copy of Grimm's Michael Angelo, I read it with avidity; then Vasari, and Mrs. Jameson and Ranke's History of the Popes.^ And with these companions I got through the week. How much a good chronological history of Italian Art is still needed. Vasari and Lanzi^ are good in their way. Grimm gives a great deal of political history, mixed up with his biography; and I understood how it was you became fascinated with that theme, and wished you had written your book. I hear nothing from Sumner, but get newspapers and catalogues. I should think it wise for him now to retire from public life; and hope he will do so. Have you anything yet from Ithaca? and do you think that the circumstance I mentioned in my last letter can have anything to do with this delay? Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT;

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Anna Brownell Jameson, Memoirs of the Early Italian Painters, and of the Progress of Painting in Italy. From СгтаЪие to Bassano (London, 1 8 4 5 ) , 2 vols.; Leopold von Ranke, The History of the Popes . . . tr. E. Foster, Bohn's Standard Library (London, 1846). 2. Luigi Antonio Lanzi, The History of Painting in Italy, tr. Thomas Roscoe, Bohn's Standard Library (London, 1 8 4 6 ) , 3 vols.

3102.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. March 11 1872 My Dear Fields, I do not believe that the missing volume of Brantomei is lost. It has only been put into a dark closet because it is naughty. I want it to verify a quotation. You can get it no doubt by asking for it; and it will be very interesting to you to visit that ward of the Athenaeum prison in which the bad books are confined. Yours always H.W.L P.S. I must not forget to thank you for bringing out those very agreeable women the other day. The visit was very pleasant to me. I hope that Mrs. Fields is better. 524

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

MANUSCRIPT: Henry E. Huntington Library. I. Possibly an edition of Vies des Dames Brantôme (с. 1 5 4 0 - 1 6 1 4 ) , French chronicler.

3103.

Galantes

by Pierre da Bourdeille de

To Charles Eliot Norton

Camb. March 15 1872. My Dear Charles, When writing you the other day/ how Httle I dreamed of the melancholy tidings that were on the way from you to us. In the presence of such a sorrow I am dumb. I can not speak of it. I can only tell you how keenly I feel it, and how I sympathize with you, and all of you. I will not say any more. Never so much as now, nor so affectionately. Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library, Messrs

Baring

Bros / L o n d o n ,

L E T T E R LONDON с PAID M R 2 9

ADDRESS: Charles E. Norton Esq. / Care of

POSTMARKS:

CAMBRIDGE

MASS,

MAR

1 5 / SHIP-

72

I. Letter No. 3087. See 3100.2.

3104.

To Giuseppa

Fabbrini

Cambridge 16 di Marzo 1872. Cara Signora Giuseppa, Vi scrissi due mesi fa, mandandovi un Primo di Cambio di 500 franchi.^ Non ricevendo resposta vi mando oggi il Secondo, che è equivalente in caso il Primo non è stato pagato; ma pagato il Primo, questo Secondo non [h]a nessun valore. Respóndete, vi prego, e credetemi sempre Devmo. Vostro Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Boston College Library. TRANSLATION:

Cambridge March 16 1872. Dear Signora Giuseppa, T w o months ago I wrote to you sending you a note of exchange for 500 francs.1 Not having received an answer, I am sending you a second one which is equivalent, just in case the first one has not been paid; but if the first has been paid, the second has no value. Please answer, and believe me always Your most devoted Longfellow. I. Longfellow's first letter, dated January 22, 1 8 7 2 ( M S Letter Calendar), is unrecovered. Signora Fabbrini's response of April 8, 1872, makes it clear that Longfellow sent the money to help her through a period of illness and financial difficulty. 5^5

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T o Isaac Angel·

Camb. March 17 1872. M y Dear Sir, I am much obliged to you for your kind remembrance, and for the trouble you have taken in making a translation of Hallevi's poem for me. I have read it with pleasure. T h e author seems to have adhered very closely to the old Biblical story, which is not a defect, and is probably more ap[p]arent in the prose version than in the metrical one. Begging you to accept my thanks for your great kindness, I am Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Forest L a w n Museum, Glendale, Cal. I. In a letter of March 15 Angel, w h o gave his address as "Care of J[oseph] G . Holt / Counsellor at L a w / Cambridgeport," had written: "Herewith I send you a translation of a Hebrew poem written in Hebrew by Rabbi Yehudah Hallevi, and illustrative of the book of Esther hoping you will excuse the liberty I have taken to address a man of such profound erudition." Judah Halevi (c. 1 0 7 5 - 1 1 4 1 ) was a Spanish rabbi, poet, and philosopher.

3106.

To Richard Henry Stoddard

Camb. March 17 1872. M y Dear Mr. Stoddard, I have had a letter from Lady Dalling and Bulwer,i in which she speaks in warmest terms of Mr. Davy. She says; "He is of a most respectable family of our gentry. His father was an eminent physician; his brother holds a high position in the W a r Office. He is a very clever young man, with a great taste for literary pursuits; and has great knowledge of languages; for besides English he speaks and writes French, Italian and Portuguese as a native. In consequence his family wished much to place him in some great mercantile or banking house; but though perfectly competent for this branch of business, his tastes led him to turn to other pursuits. He went to America by my advice, rather than to Constantinople; because it seemed to me his great knowledge of languages would be more useful there than in the East, where all speak five or six languages. He has also a remarkable talent for drawing. I can make myself responsible for his being an honorable and trustworthy genrieman, who will always do credit to anybody who kindly takes him by the hand. I have seldom met with so high principled a youth." I am very glad to get this testimony, and think it but right to communicate it to you, who have been so kind to Mr. Davy.^ Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow 526

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

Sue W. Boehnken, St. Louis, A D D B E S S : R . H . Stoddard Esq / 346-348 Broadway / New York, P O S T M A R K ; C A M H R I D G E M A S S M A R 18

MANUSCRIPT:

1. Dated Nice, February 24. 2. Stoddard responded in a letter of March 19: "I am heartily glad for Mr Davey's sake that Lady Bulwer has written to you what she did about him. I frankly confess I could not make him out, and cant yet . . . He has about given up the idea, I think, of trying to live by letters, and has taken to lecturing in young ladies' schools . . . He ought to go back to England, however, for he can do nothing in this country, — nothing that will maintain him like a gentleman." See Letter No. 3024.

3107.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb March 21 1872. My Dear Greene, I have just received your brief note. That White should not have written to you is a mystery and a mistake.^ To comfort you I send you enclosed Houghton's account of six months' sales of Vol. I. and make over to you half the proceeds thereof, which he has sent me.^ If the Governor is moved to do the same, it will be a help to you in this long waiting and uncertainty. I hope the weather has not been so severe with you as with us. But when the wind is North-west, no climate is good; and for the last three weeks this pitiless wind has been blowing as if human beings had no rights it was bound to respect. It has considerably modified my views of our New England climate. If I were in your place I think I should not write again to White. Perhaps you might write privately to Fisk[e], asking if he knows why the decision is so long delayed. I cannot help thinking that the law-suit I mentioned in a previous letter has something to do with it.® Let me know if this reaches you in due season. Yours always. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Greene had written on March 20: "Not a line from White. Shall I write again? I am very much troubled. This unjustifiable neghgence disturbs all my plans. I can't make out a letter. What shall I do?" 2. The sum was $68.94. See Hurd & Houghton to Longfellow, March 20, 1872. 3. See Letter No. 3098.

3108.

To Eudora Clark

Camb. March 25 1872 Dear Miss Dora, Be kind enough to accept this volume,^ with the best wishes and regards of Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow 527

EMBERS

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MANUSCRIPT: Brown University Library,

STILL

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ADDRESS; Miss Eudora

I. As a wedding present. Miss Clark ( 2 0 4 5 . 5 ) married Rev. Timothy Atkinson ( 1 8 0 6 - 1 8 7 5 ) on April 9, 1872.

3109.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. March 25 1872. My Dear Greene, I have just received your letter of yesterday; and however despondent you may be, the two paragraphs I enclose from the evening paper cannot fail to enliven you.^ Here is a clerical insect, bumping his head against the window-panes, like a blue-bottle fly; making a great buzzing, but not one drop of honey. The question hereafter will be who made the honey; not who buzzed and bumped at the windows. This "flaming minister" preaches in a Chapel in School Street, opposite the statue of Franklin. Now, in my opinion the bronze Bostonian outside preaches better sermons than the brazen Calvinist within. "Whose turn next?" asks the newspaper. Why, of course Benjamin Franklin's. That statue must be removed. It is a perpetual rebuke to "the flaming minister," and I wonder he does not preach against it. I begin myself to grow a little anxious about Cornell; and cannot quite understand the long silence. I find another newspaper paragraph on my desk and close with it.^ Yours always. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. T h e two paragraphs from the Boston Transcript, X L V , No. 12,874 (March 25, 1 8 7 2 ) , pasted at the top of the sheet, are as follows: ". . . Among the pulpit pleasantries of yesterday morning in Boston, may be named Rev. Dr. Fulton's assertion that Channing was 'a man who spent his hfe in caricaturing Christianity,' and Rev. Mr. Bland's description of Dr. Fulton as the Rip Van Winkle of the Boston pulpit, 'whose speech was but articulate snoring.' " "REV. DR. PULTON has this week disposed of Dr. Channing. Whose turn next, and how long can civilization endure this putting out of its brightest luminaries one by one? Think of it. Emerson and Channing, both gone in a single fortnight. W e have not many such to lose. But let us struggle on in partial darkness, trusting, whatever may betide, that nobody will extinguish Dr. Fulton. 'If I quench thee, thou flaming minister, I know not where is that Promethean heat That can thy light relume.' " For the quotation, see Othello, V , ii, 8 and 1 2 - 1 3 . Rev. lustin Dewey Fulton ( 1 8 2 8 1 9 0 1 ) , Baptist clergyman and zealous opponent of drink, the drama, women's suffrage, and Roman Catholicism, was minister of the Union Temple Church, Tremont Street,

528

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

Boston, 1863-1873. Rev. John Pindar Bland (1842-1919) was minister of the Lee Street Society (Unitarian), Cambridge. 2. A paragraph from James T . Fields's chapter on Hawthorne in Yesterdays with Authors (Boston, 1872), p. 124, reprinted by an unidentified newspaper, is pasted to the sheet following this sentence: "On the 24th of May we carried Hawthorne through the blossoming orchards of Concord, and laid him down under a group of pines, on a hillside, overlooking historic fields. All the way from the village church to the grave the birds kept up a perpetual melody. The sun shone brightly, and the air was sweet and pleasant, as if death had never entered the world. Longfellow and Emerson, Channing and [Ebenezer Rockwood] Hoar, Agassiz and Lowell, Greene and Whipple, Alcott and [James Freeman] Clarke, Holmes and Hillard, and other friends whom he loved, walked slowly by his side that beautiful spring morning. The companion of his youth and his manhood, for whom he would willingly, at any time, have given up his own life. Franklin Pierce, was there among the rest, and scattered flowers into the grave. The unfinished romance, which had cost him so much anxiety, the last Hterary work on which he had ever engaged, was laid on his coffin. 'Ah! who shall lift that wand of magic power. And the lost clew regain? The unfinished window in Aladdin's tower Unfinished must remain.' "

The stanza is from Longfellow's "Hawthorne," 11. 33-36.

3 1 1 o.

T o Mabel

Lowell

C a m b . March 25

1872

Dear IVIabel, Be kind enough to accept this Chinese V a s e , ' with the love and best wishes of Yours truly H e n r y W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

I. As a wedding gift. See 2964.3.

3111.

T o George Washington

Greene

Camb. iVIarch 26 1872. M y Dear Greene, I am sincerely sorry for this postponement of the decision until June. But one cannot determine the action of others, and you must wait. White's letter does not seem to me to require any answer. At all events I should not answer it at present. T h a t also can wait.^ In all aspects this is unfortunate; but as it is inevitable you must make the best of it, if there be any best in such a business. T o help you to do so I will send you on the first of April, M a y and J u n e a cheque of $50. And oh! if 529

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those about you could only feel, or think, or ask what the necessities of the hour are! No matter. You will work your way through this, as through other difficult straits and shallows. Be of good courage and fear not. I return White's letter. You do not tell me whether you have shown it to the Governor or not. You should do so. Nor do you tell me what he did with his half of the proceeds of Vol L Did he put it into his own pockethook, or into yours?^ For a man who has lived so long in Italy, you are the most reticent writer of letters I ever heard of. What would Bembo or Aretino® say to you? H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow T r u s t Collection. 1 . In a letter of M a r c h 2 5 Greene had written:

" H e r e is a letter [from President

W h i t e of Cornell University] at last. W h a t do you think of it? H o w shall I interpret it? H o w shall I answer it? / W a s there ever such luck as mine? Struggle, struggle, disappointment and even w h e n successful, unable to enjoy m y success. / I shall not write till I hear from y o u . " 2. Greene responded on M a r c h 2 9 : " I showed W h i t e ' s letter to the Governor. H e thought it was very unbusiness like and inconsiderate, and there the matter ended. H e told me also that he had received a payment from H u r d & H o u g h t o n . " 3 . Pietro Bembo

(1470-1547),

Italian

scholar

and

cardinal;

and Pietro

Aretino

( 1 4 9 2 - 1 5 5 6 ) , satirist and writer of six volumes of letters.

3112.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. March 31 1872. My Dear Greene This is a very melancholy Easter Sunday; gray clouds and rain, and no sun dancing in the sky. I have not time to write more than to say that I have your letter, and enclose a cheque for $50.00 which I hope will reach you tomorrow, not as a "Poisson d'Avril [April fool]" but as a fish with money in its mouth. Yours always, H.W.L P.S. What has put it into my head I do not know, but I was thinking just now of Empoli, famous in Tuscan Annals and Storie Fiorentine. We passed through it after dark. The station was ablaze with lights. It sounded strangely to hear the conductor of the train say: "Empoli," and a boy selling cakes and fruit repeat over and over again "Aranci, cigari, pane, paste, mele [Oranges, cigars, bread, pastry, apples]." What a contrast with Farinata's fiery speech in the days of old!^ If you can tell by what possible association this comes to mind, you can do more than I can. 530

CAMBRIDGE, MANUSCRIPT:

1872

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. Farinata degli Ubarti (d. 1 2 6 4 ) , Florentine Ghibelline leader, immortalized by Dante in the Inferno, X, 2 2 - 5 1 .

3113.

To Francis Lieber

Cambridge, April 3, 1872. You who know all things, can tell me what I wish to know, and solve a doubt that perplexes me. Is there tide enough in the Baltic to be alluded to in poetry? In describing the harbor of Stralsund would it be right to say: T h e sun went down, the full moon rose. T h e tide was at its flood; And all the winding creeks and bays And broad sea-meadows seemed ablaze, T h e sky was red as blood — or would this be a Schnitzer [error] unrecovered; text from handwritten copy, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

MANUSCRIPT:

I. When Lieber answered on April 7 that " T h e Baltic Sea has no tide — no orthodox lunar tide," Longfellow changed the second line of this stanza from " T h e Ballad of Carmilhan" QWorks, I V , 1 5 9 ) to "Serene o'er field and flood."

3II4.

To George Washington Greene

Camb Apr 10 1872. M y Dear Greene, "Mrs Grote is writing a biography of her husband." This I read in the evening paper;! g^y ^q myself, would it not be well for you to help her with your reminiscences of Grote in Rome, if that Everlasting Assembly would only leave you time to do it. Pray think of this; it would be a grateful tribute to his memory, and you could furnish something, which she can get no where else, and which, if you do not write it, will be lost forever. This is worth thinking of, and acting upon. Field of Philadelphia, Fields of Boston, and Lowell of Cambridge dined with me to-day. After dinner Franklin was mentioned, and I brought up the subject of his statue in the Capitol. It awakened no response. It will be an Adams; you may be sure of that. Whether John or Samuel, who knows?^ Thanks for your letter. It is always pleasant to see your handwriting. W h e n the Everlasting Assembly finally comes to an end, I shall hope to see you.^ H.W.L 53 I

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Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. See Harriet Grote, The Personal Life of George Grote (London, 1 8 7 3 ) . 2. On July 2, 1864, Congress had passed an act setting aside the old hall of the House of Representatives as a national hall of statuary, each state to he represented by statues of two eminent citizens. Massachusetts had yet to make its choice, but was ultimately to choose statues of Samuel Adams ( 1 7 2 2 - 1 8 0 3 ) and John Winthrop ( 1 5 8 8 1649). 3. In a letter of March 29 Greene had made it clear that with the adjournment of the Rhode Island Assembly he would have completed his "last effort on the legislative stage."

3115.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Apr 12 1872. My Dear Greene, Can you come next week? Can you come early in the week? Can you be here on Wednesday at our family dinner? Answer me these three questions. I met [Charles] Deane in the street to-day. He said he had just returned from a trip to the South; had been at Savannah; had seen the tomb of General Greene. Upon it was no inscription whatever; not even his name. What is the meaning of this? I have put up the long-talked-of balustrade in front of the house, and do not half hke it; but suppose I shall get used to it in time. At all events, being of wood, it can be easily taken away again; and will in the meantime be very romantic by moonlight. I shall therefore expect you to like it. Have you any good book on Medieval or Modern Rome, with an account of all the Churches? If you have please bring it with you when you come. If you have not, can you give me the title of any such work?^ It is nine at night. The girls have gone to some private German Theatricals. I am as lonely as a bear in winter. I am heartily glad that Sumner will have nothing to do with the Cincinnati Conven tion.^ Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Greene answered on April 16: " I have nothing upon Roman churches but [Giuseppe] Melchiorri's Guida [Metodica] di Roma [e suoi Contorni (Roma, 1 8 5 4 ) ] . I will bring it when I come." 2. T h e Liberal Republican Party, which had its genesis in Sumner's break with President Grant (see 2899.1), planned a presidential convention in Cincinnati on May I. Sumner, fearful that Democrats would gain control of the movement, stood aloof from the convention but eventually supported its candidate, Horace Greeley (the nominee also of the Democratic National Convention). See Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man, pp. 539-544. 53i

CAMBRIDGE, 3116.

To George Washington

1872

Greene

[Cambridge] April 14 [1872] This week I have the proof-sheets of Judas Maccabeus — and wish very much to have your judgment and good counsel upon the work before it passes into irrevocable stereotype. The new volume will be called "Three Books of Song'V the First being the Wayside Inn; the Second Judas Maccabeus; and the Third, translations. This is in order to give a new title, which Publishers think very important; as it prevents confusion. The volume will not be large, but large enough; somewhat under two hundred pages, of which the Tales makes one hundred. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from Luther S. Livingston, A Bibliography of the First Editions in Book Form of the Writings of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (New York, 1908), pp. 82-83. I. BAL 1 2 1 5 9 .

3117.

To Bayard

Taylor

Camb. Apr. 19 1872 My Dear Taylor, I congratulate you on your new poem.i It is a lofty theme, and you have treated it in a lofty manner, and in a style solemn and impressive. You may safely write under it "Fecit, fecit"; the double mark of Titian. To the common and careless reader it may at first be something of a puzzle; but no one can read it through without seeing your noble aim and meaning. I am delighted to see you taking so high a flight; and heartily say "God-speed." Give my kind regards and remembrances to your wife, and believe me Always Yours faithfully Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Henry E. Huntington Library, PUBLISHED; Marie Hansen-Taylor and Horace E. Scudder, eds., Life and Letters of Bayard Taylor (Boston and New York, 1885), II, 585. I. The Masque of the Gods (Boston, 1872).

3118.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Apr. 21 1872. My Dear Greene, James T . Fields requests the pleasure of your company at dinner tomorrow, which is Monday, to meet Mr. Emerson and the undersigned, at 5 o'clock. I told him I feared there was small chance of your being here; but accepted for you in case you саше. Should you by good luck come in the morning train, it will be all right. 533

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Should you come in the evening train, you might join us there on your way through Charles St. supposing you arrive by nine o'clock; as I shall not stay later than 9.30 or 10. Should you not come at all on Monday, we shall lament and submit. I have been writing a poem, which I think will please you. It is not yet finished, but enough is written to make me see my way clear. It is a dramatic poem to be called "Michael Angelo." Seven Acts, or Parts are already finished; but some important ones still remain. The subject is beautiful, and I shall be disappointed if you do not like it. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT;

3119.

Longfellow Trust Collection.

To Rohen Watt^

Cambridge Apr. 23 1872. My Dear Mr. Watt, Last night I had the pleasure of receiving your parcel of books, and hasten to thank you both for your kind remembrance and for your welcome and valuable gift. First of all let me thank you for your own books, which I shall read with curiosity and interest, all the more from having known the author; — next for "Helge," which I have long wished to see; — then for Hoist's comedy and Ibsen's poems; and lastly for Bern's translation of "Hiawatha," which I am very glad to possess.^ The volumes for Mr. Scudder I have already sent to him. He will be much pleased to get them, and will write to you directly about them. Let me thank you also for your kind letter before sailing for Denmark.'' I hope your voyage was pleasant; and I am sure you found Copenhagen so; for there are few things pleasanter than getting back to old familiar habits and scenes after long wandering. If you know Mr. Bern personally, I beg you to make him my best acknowledgments for the honor he has done me in translating "Hiawatha." Remember me also most cordially to Hans Christian Andersen, and believe me Yours faithfully Henry W. Longfellow P.S. I was just sending off this letter, when the post-boy brought me yours of the 23rd of March; so that I have time to acknowledge its receipt, and enclose a photograph, made in Florence; a pretty good likeness, but very bad as a specimen of art. I hope soon to have something better, and will try to remember to send you one. 534

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

Mr. Scudder I have not seen for some time. But I will make a point of seeing him, and of speaking with him about your volumes, and the possibility of their republication in America. I am much gratified by your kind remembrance of me, and of the rainy day you made pleasant for us. Any description you may write of it will, I am sure, not be "indiscreet"; and I am much obliged to you for your willingness to undertake it, when you have the burden of a daily paper on your hands. It proves your kindness and good will.^ I shall publish a volume of poems in the course of the year, and will send you a copy of it as soon as it is out. My daughters join me in kind remembrances, and I am, with great regard Yours truly H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia, Yale University Library.

POSTSCRIPT:

1. Watt C 1 8 3 7 - 1 8 9 4 ) , Danish author and theater director (after 1 8 7 6 ) , had called on Longfellow on January 5, 1872, with a letter of introduction from Hans Christian Andersen ( M S Journal). 2. According to Watt's letter of March 23, 1872, he had sent Longfellow three of his own books — Igjennem Europa (Köhenhavn, 1866); Mit Album. Skildringer fra det virkelige Liv (Ki0benhavn, 1869); and Fra /Îgypternes Land (KÌ0benhavn, 1 8 7 0 ) — as well as the following: Adam Oehlenschläger, Helge. Et Oigt (KÌ0benhavn, 1 8 6 2 ) ; Frits Holst, En sand Demokrat. Lystspil i 4 Akter (Kj0benhavn, 1 8 7 0 ) ; Henrik Ibsen, Digte (K0benhavn, 1 8 7 1 ) ; and Sangen am Hiawatha, oversat af G. Bern (Ki0benhavn, i860). 3. Dated from Washington, D.C., January 18, 1872. 4. In his letter of March 23 Watt revealed that he had been engaged to write a sketch about his visit to Longfellow, to be illustrated with a portrait, which he asked the poet to send him. "You need not be afraid that I shall repay your kindness towards me, with an 'indiscretion.' " "Et Bes0g hos Henry Longfellow" appeared in For Romantik og Historie, V I I I ( M a y 1 8 7 2 ) , 4 7 0 - 4 8 1 .

3120.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Apr. 24 1872 My Dear Greene, The weather has been doing itself so little credit this week, it is perhaps well you could not come on Monday; though the dinner was very pleasant at 148 Charles St. and you were missed. This morning I have your letter, and shall cease to expect you till you come. Have you seen the Aldine? Your sketch of the Craigie House is capital; could not be better. The drawing of the Library is also good, but I decline to recognize myself in that old blackguard reading a newspaper!^ I return the notice of the Republican Caucus in East Greenwich. It is possible that you have been four years in the Assembly? How time flies. 53 5

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D i d I tell you that Ernest and his w i f e are going to Europe in J u n e , and that Alice goes with them? T h e y pass the Summer in the Tyrol, and return in September.^ If I were as young as they are I should like to go also. I am sorry to hear that A n n a comes back from Chicago painted yellow. She is as good as gold, but I do not want her to have just that color. T h e roses in her cheeks must not be tea-roses.® Yours always H.W.L P.S. I liked the article on Sumner's position, in the Providence Journal.^ MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Greene's article, entitled "Longfellow's House and Library," with two illustrations by Asa Coolidge Warren ( 1 8 1 9 - 1 9 0 4 ) , appeared in The Aldine, V (May 1872), 100-103. 2. The party sailed on June 11 and returned to Cambridge on October 23. 3. In a letter of April 14 Greene had written of his daughter: "Anna returned yesterday. Before leaving Chicago she had an attack of jaundice and is still very yellow, emaciated and feeble. I trust that home and homeopathy will set all right again, but her thin face and feeble step make us very sad." 4. In which Sumner's attitude toward the Cincinnati convention of Liberal Republicans C3115.2) is commended. See the Providence Journal, XLVI, No. 95 (April 19, 1872).

3121.

To Sebastian Benson

Schlesinger

Camb. А р г г б 1872 M y Dear M r Schlesinger, It gives me very great pleasure to send you the enclosed f e w lines to Dr. Roesing.i I could easily have made the letter longer, but that would have diminished its chances of being read. I congratulate you on your appointment and with kind remembrances to your wife,® am Yours truly H e n r y W . Longfellow MANUSCBIPT:

Pierpont Morgan Library.

1. In a letter of April 26 Schlesinger had written: "I received today an official letter from Dr. Roesing, General Consul of the German Empire in New York, asking whether I would feel disposed to accept the Consulate in Boston and if so to accompany my acceptance by a few letters of recommendation." Longfellow's letter to Dr. Johannes Rösing (1833-1909), German general consul in New York, 1871-1874, is unrecovered. See 2618.1. 2. On September 14, 1871, Schlesinger had married Bertha de Pourtalès, daughter of Count Louis François de Pourtalès (1823-1880), Swiss-born marine zoologist and associate of Louis Agassiz.

536

CAMBRIDGE, 3122.

1872

To Samuel Eliot

Camb Apr 30 1872 My Dear Eliot I was doubly disappointed on Thursday last; first in not dining with you, and then in not dining with Greene, for he did not make his appearance, though he was over-due. He has been coming since Monday of last week. Finally he writes me that he will be here to-day, and on Thursday you may look for our two faces side by side at your lecture,^ and also at your dinnertable afterwards; for I do not think there is any possibility of his declining either invitation. Yours affectionately H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Boston Athenaeum.

I. See 3087.6.

3123.

To Samuel Eliot

Camb. Apr. 30 1872 My Dear Eliot, Greene has come at last. He is much gratified by your kind invitation to dinner after the Lecture on Thursday, and accepts it with great pleasure. Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT;

3124.

Boston Athenaeum.

To Francis Samuel Drake

Cambridge May 5 1872. My Dear Sir, In looking over your valuable "Dictionary of American B i o g r a p h y , I notice two statements, to which I desire to call your attention. On page 560. you say of my father, that he was "descended on the mother's side from John Alden the Pilgrim." This is true of me but not of my father, as it was by his marriage into the Wadsworth family that the relationship with the Aldens came about. You also say — and Dr. Allen fell into the same error — that he "compiled 16 vols of MS. and 12 vols of Me. Reports." To the best of my knowledge and belief he never was Reporter either in Mass. or Me.^

537

EMBERS

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Thinking that you would like to correct these statements in your next edition, I have taken the hberty to point them out to you, and am Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library.

1 . See 3088.1. 2. Drake replied on May 9 that the error respecting the Maine Reports had already been corrected in the second edition.

3125.

To Thomas Groom

Camb. May 9 1872. My Dear Sir, I am much obliged to you for your kind offer,' but can think of nothing to trouble you with beyond the commission for the note-paper. That will be a real service, if you can find it, but I know it is old fashioned, and probably is no longer made. The only chance will be in somebody's old stock. I enclose you half a dozen autographs, and am Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

unrecovered; text from photocopy, University of Washington Library.

I. Groom C2654.2) had written to Longfellow on May 7 and offered to serve him while he was in England.

3126.

To William Blake Atkinson

Cambridge May 13 1872. My Dear Sir, I have had the pleasure, and I must say also the pain of receiving your letter; for I am mortified to find how long I have delayed thanking you for your book, and its graceful and generous " D e d i c a t i o n . I beg you not to put this down to intentional neglect, but to the score of that "thief of time" Procrastination^ — the meaning to do a thing and not doing it — a misdemeanor almost inevitable with those who have much to do, and many letters to write. It will serve me as a warning, and remind me that "What to-day is not a-doing Will tomorrow not be done."® I have read your volume with great pleasure. It is written in a pure and simple style, and a gentle spirit pervades it throughout. I thank you for it;

538

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

and for the "Dedication," and for the "Welcome," which coming to me now out of the Past fills me with pleasant memories of England.^ With my thanks accept also my best wishes for your future success, and believe me, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

University

of

Washington Library.

1. See 2725.2. 2. Edward Young, Night Thoughts, Night I, 1. 393. 3. Goethe, "Vorspiel auf dem Theater," Faust: " W a s heute nicht geschieht, ist morgen nicht getan." 4. In a letter from London of April 22, in which he inquired if Longfellow had received a copy of Songs of the Heart, Atkinson included a four-stanza poem entitled "A Welcome to Longfellow," undated but written at Wallingford in 1868.

3127.

To Joshua Melancthon

Addeman^ CAMBRIDGE, M a y 1 4 ,

1872.

My Dear Sir — Yesterday I had the pleasure of receiving the beautiful roses which you and Miss [Winsor]^ were kind enough to send me, in memory of your visit, and which now, standing on my study table, fill the room with their fragrance. I have seen a juggler pull bouquets out of his hat and shake them from his sleeve, but it requires a magic known only to young ladies to draw them out of a glass no bigger than your finger, or from a teacup in which there was apparently nothing but cold tea. Yet the deed has been done; and in proof of it here are the tea-roses. I beg you both to accept my best thanks for the flowers and for your kind remembrance, and so be assured of the great gratification your visit gave me. With much regard, yours truly, Henry W . Longfellow. unrecovered; text from Joshua Melancthon Addeman, "A Day with Longfellow," Providence Journal, LVII, No. 1 1 5 ( M a y 15, 1882).

MANUSCRIPT:

1. Addeman ( 1 8 4 0 - 1 9 3 0 ) , a Providence attorney, served as Rhode Island Secretary of State, 1872-1887. 2. Louisa M. Winsor, aged twenty-one, of Thompson, Conn., married Addeman on October 25, 1872 (Providence Journal, XLVI, No. 257 [October 26, 1872I).

539

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To George Washington

THAT

STILL

BURN

Greene

Camb. May 14 1872. My Dear Greene, After you left me on Saturday I beguiled part of the dull day by reading the last book of the Iliad in Cesarotti's translation, comparing it with Monti's,^ as I went along. This reading confirms me in my theory of translation. In Monti you see too much of Monti, whom you do not particularly care to see; in Cesarotti you see Homer, the very gentleman you are looking for. Sometimes his prose runs almost into hexameters. Yesterday I received a beautiful bouquet of tea-roses from Mr Addeman and Miss Winsor, in memory of their visit. I also wrote a poem on the "Descent of Charlemagne into Italy," from an old Latin Chronicle; a very striking incident. It will find a place, indeed has already found a place in "Michael Angelo";^ you will not see how nor where, but I do. Thanks for your letter. Soon after you were gone, came a note from Mrs. Fields inviting us to dine with her after hearing Emerson on Monday. I rejoice in the good news of Anna.® Always Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1 . Abate Melchior Cesarotti's L'Iliade d'Omero was first published in Padua in 1 7 8 6 1 7 9 4 in nine volumes; Vincenzo Monti's translation first appeared in Brescia in 1 8 1 о in three volumes. 2. It f o u n d instead a place in Tales of a Wayside Inn (Works, I V , 1 9 7 - 1 9 9 ) . 3. In a letter of M a y 1 3 Greene had written that his daughter was better "tho' very weak and nervous." See 3 1 2 0 . 3 .

3129.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. May 14 1872. My Dear Sumner, I was delighted to get your letter a few days ago; and should have answered it at once, but was diverted from my duty by a visit from Greene, to whom I devoted all my time and attention. American politics puzzle me and annoy me, not to use a more energetic word; and I turn away in rather a cowardly manner to more congenial things. You who are in the midst of battle feel the gaudia certaviinis [joys of battle]; I who am looking on from a safe distance, see only the clouds of dust. This will account for my silence on this topic.^ I believe I told you that Alice is going with Ernest and his wife to pass the Summer in Switzerland and the Tyrol. I as usual shall bury my head in the sands of Nahant. You must come and help me do it. I count upon that. 540

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

I was glad that you had nothing to do with the Cincinnati Convention. I do not Hke to think of the "white great-coat"^ at the White House. Will this nation ever be educated up to the true idea of a Republic? Or is the undertow too powerful? I have a new volume of poems in press, containing a Second Day of the Wayside Inn, and other things.® With love from my girls. Always Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. 1 . Although he was no admirer of Grant, Longfellow found it difficult to join Sumner in his intense dislike of the president. H e thus chose not to comment on his friend's remark in a letter of April 2 5 : " A s the discussion proceeds I think Grant's chances become less. But I do not prophesy. [Carl] Schurtz thinks Grant, if he continues a candidate, will not have more than 6 states in the Electoral College. M y hope is that he may have the patriotism to withdraw and give us peace. His name divides instead of uniting the party." 2. Presumably an allusion to Horace Greeley (see 3 1 1 5 . 2 ) , w h o m Longfellow compares to the character in Dickens's Dombey and Son called "the G a m e C h i c k e n , " w h o wore a white great-coat even in the warmest weather. 3. Three Books of Song (Boston, 1 8 7 2 ) .

3130.

To Annie Adams Fields

Camb. M a y i 6 1872 My Dear Mrs Fields, What a charming poem this is, which you have written for the Atlantic. I have just read it in the Evening Transcript, and liked it extremely, and wondered who wrote it; when in another column of the paper, I found the secret revealed.^ I congratulate you. It is a beautiful poem. Yours truly H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Henry E . Huntington Library. I . T h e poem was "Little G u i n e v e r . " See the Boston Transcript, X L V , No. ( M a y 1 6 , 1 8 7 2 ) , and the Atlantic Monthly, X X I X ( J u n e 1 8 7 2 ) , 730.

3131.

To George Washington

12,918

Greene

Camb. May 16 1872 My Dear Greene What a pity! How many gaps are widened, how many wounds inflicted, how many friendships sundered by the neglect of little things; — little in themselves, great in their consequences. I have known life-long alienations engendered by an unanswered letter, and open hostilities by some ill-considered expression, or supposed neglect. 541

EMBERS

THAT

STILL

BURN

But your interpretation of this mystery is not the correct one. I do not believe that Sumner ever saw the card, that was left. I know too well his regard for the Governor and his opinion of him, to imagine for a moment that he would let a day pass without seeing him, or writing to him, or at least sending him some message, had he known he was in Washington. You may depend upon it, the card was not delivered by the Servant, or was mislaid, or what you please; but I do not admit that between two such men as the Governor and Sumner, there could by any possibility be any such thing as intentional neglect.^ Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT : Longfellow Trust Collection. I. In a letter of M a y 15 Greene had written: "I saw the Governor last evening. Mrs. G is furious against Sumner. T h e y passed two days in Washington and he took no notice of them, tho' the Governor called on the day of his arrival and finding S. at dinner, left his card. / Of course S. may have had engagements — may have supposed that they would stay longer &c &c. But you and I know that S. is negligent in these things. / I regret this very much. T h e Governor is not exacting. But Madame's vanity has been wounded and unless balm from some skilful hand is applied to the wound, I shall have to avoid Sumner's name for ever in the old historic house."

3132.

To Charles

Sumner Camb. M a y i 6

1872

M y Dear Sumner, I am as angry to night as a man can be without sinning. I have just received from a friend in England three volumes, freight paid; and here are the charges of the N e w York Custom House. Duty Appraisement Cartage Storage Stamps and Fees Brokerage

5.70 .20 •25 1.15 .65 2.50 $10.45

Total

Are we not a nation of swindlers? and has not the Government set the example in continuing a W a r T a x on Income seven years after the W a r is over? Here are one or two items of news I ought to have sent you in my yesterday's letter. Lowell goes to Europe for a year in June. His daughter Mabel is just married to a very nice youth, young Burnett, son of the druggist in Boston.1 542

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

T h e Nortons are coming back in September. You heard of the death of Mrs. Charles. What will he do here? Emerson is giving a course of Lectures in Boston, to crowded houses. A great success, at which you will rejoice.^ Yours always H.W.L P.S. Nichols was here to-day, to verify one of your quotations from Dante. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. 1. See 2 9 6 4 . 3 . Lowell's biographer states that E d w a r d Burnett was "the handsome eldest son of a successful businessman-farmer from Southboro, Massachusetts" Duberman, ]ames Russell Lowell

(Martin

[Boston, 1 9 6 6 ] , p. 2 4 2 ) .

2. Emerson delivered six "Conversations on Literature" at Mechanics' Hall, Boston, April 1 5 - M a y 20, 1 8 7 2 (Letters

3133.

To

Karl

of Emerson,

V I , 209 п.).

Knortz

Cambridge May ai 1872 M y Dear Sir, I have had the pleasure of receiving your letter, and the copy of your translation of " H i a w a t h a , w h i c h you have had the kindness to send me. I hasten to thank you for both; and especially for the honor you have done me in giving so much time and labor to this work. I have read your Preface with much interest; but I confess it does not quite convince me; and I do not see on what authority you change the spelling of Indian names. This is a very knotty subject, and I suppose we never shall get it quite straight.^ T h e translation itself I have not yet had time to examine excepting in parts, which I had seen before; but I have no doubt of its fidelity, as this has been with you a labor of love, and as such I accept it and appreciate it. I send you by to-day's post a copy of the "Divine Tragedy." It is the first part of "Christus"; of which the "Golden Legend" is the second part, and the " N e w England Tragedies" the third. T h e entire work will appear in the autumn with the connecting Interludes and Finale. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: T h e Carl H . Pforzheimer Library. 1. Der Sang von Hiawatha,

übersetzt, eingeleitet und erklärt von Karl Knortz ( J e n a ,

1872). 2. In a letter from Cincinnati of M a y 1 9 Knortz had written: " T h e authorities for m y change of Indian names etc are first the Indians themselves, among which I spent some months for the sake of study . . . Besides that I used Bishop Baraga's Otchipwe Dictionary, also some missionaries of Lake Superior assisted m e . " Friedrich Baraga's tionary of the Otchipwe

Language

was first published in Cincinnati in 1 8 5 3 .

543

Dic-

EMBERS 3134.

THAT

STILL

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To ]ames Thomas Fields

Camb. May. 27. 1872 My Dear Fields, There is nothing our friend Greene enjoys more than being lulled asleep by the reading of first-class poetry. Any bright day, about noon, when you want to indulge in this luxury, present yourself; the sleeping draught is ready. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: L o n g f e l l o w Trust Collection.

3135.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb May 27 1872. My Dear Greene, I send you a couple of paragraphs from the Evening papers. The first perhaps is true enough. The moment a man is a candidate for office he should be deprived of the use of pen and ink.^ The second is a good specimen of what national prejudice will do, and about as lusty an example of insular pride as you will find. Or is it personal animosity?^ I send you also the promised cheque for June,® lest I should by accident be behind hand. Yours always H.W.L P.S. This morning I forwarded to you a copy of "Three Books of Song." MANUSCRIPT: L o n g f e l l o w Trust Collection. 1 . T h e first clipping — from the Boston Transcript, X L V , N o . 1 2 , 9 2 7 ( M a y 27, 1 8 7 2 ) — is pasted to the sheet at this point, "THE LETTER KILLETH. Evidence accumulates from day to day from which some people conclude that, but for a thoughtless letter, — for which the writer is blameworthy, and the thoughtless publication of it, for which thoughtless well wishers were still more blameworthy, — a third Adams, 'charnelhouse candidates' though they be, might have sat in the W h i t e House." O n April 18, 1 8 7 2 , Charles Francis Adams had written to D a v i d Ames Wells ( 1 8 2 8 - 1 8 9 8 ) , the economist, stating bluntly that he did not want the nomination of the Liberal Republicans but would consider it in case of an "unequivocal call." 2. T h e second clipping, from an unidentified newspaper, is pasted to the sheet after this paragraph. ". . . T h e London Spectator does not admire Bryant's translation of the Odyssey. It says, 'Our candid opinion is that it is perfectly worthless, indifferent as a poem and faulty as a translation. W e have no special recollection of the quality of M r . Bryant's blank verse, but w e are quite certain that anything so dull and feeble as what w e have before us would have gone a long w a y to damage his f a m e as a poet.' " 3. A check for $ 5 0 accompanied the manuscript ( M S Letter C a l e n d a r ) .

544

CAMBRIDGE, 3136.

1872

To Sidney Woollett^

Cambridge May 28 1872. M y Dear Sir, I should be most happy to sign the Invitation you speak of, were it not for the circumstance, that you propose to do me the honor of reciting one of my own poems. In this case it strikes me as more becoming, that my name should not be on the list. Meanwhile I shall be glad to see you whenever it may be convenient for you to call. You will be pretty sure to find me at home on any day from twelve o'clock till one. I return the notices of your Recitations you were kind enough to send me, thinking you may wish to preserve them. I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Clifton W a l l e r Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. I . Woollett

(d.

1917,

aged

seventy-one),

London-born

elocutionist,

had

recently

arrived in the United States and remained for the rest of his life. In a letter of M a y 2 7 he had announced his intention to read from

Miles Standish and

had asked per-

mission to append Longfellow's name " i n connection with such names as W e n d e l l Phillips, R . C . Winthrop, Amos Lawrence, Jno. O . Sargent, R e v :

Phil[l]ips Brooks,

and others to an invitation, for me to recite in Boston."

3137.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb May 29 1872 My Dear Greene, Never was anything so silent as this cold, gray twilight hour. Not a breath of air in motion, not a leaf stirring; only the river gleaming in the meadow, and the white houses in the town beyond. So I turn away from the window, light my lamp, and sit down to thank you for two letters; brief "swallow flights"^ of epistolary writing, but always welcome. I am glad you like the new volume. I think it will be well received. The notice you send me is warm and cordial.^ I have sent a copy, not to the Governor as you suggested, but to his wife. I dare say that will please him quite as well. Do you know Mr. Farnum of Providence, a young man who has a Library?® He was here the other day with Howells, and seemed intelligent, and a great lover of books. I am very sorry that you are feeling so weak and depressed. The medical men here have noticed that there is something very peculiar in this season, which has strongly affected the nervous systems of people in general. Yours always H.W.L. 545

EMBERS

THAT

STILL

BURN

MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Tennyson, In Memoriam, X L V I I I , iv, 3. 2. In his letter of May 28 Greene had enclosed a commendatory notice of Three Books of Song from the Providence Journal, X L V I , No. 1 2 8 ( M a y 28, 1 8 7 2 ) . 3. Alexander Farnum ( 1 8 3 0 - 1 8 8 4 ) , a cotton merchant and banker of Providence, was a Brown graduate of 1 8 5 2 . For his library, sold at auction, November 1 8 - 2 0 , 1884, see Catalogue of the Library of the Late Alexander Farnum, Esq., of Providence, Rhode Island ( N e w York, 1 8 8 4 ) .

3138.

To Francis Lieber

Camb. May 30 1872. My Dear Lieber, I should have written to you sooner, but I put away the "Sword of Washington" so carefully that [I] have forgotten where I put it; and I did not wish to write till I could lay my hand upon it. I hope you can remember the lines; for the poem is a very striking one, and I should never forgive myself if it were lost by my neglect. Lost it is not, but mislaid. Have patience, and it will come to light again.^ Thanks for the two you now send me, and for the violets from Minnesota, and the prettier flower on the outside — the simple words of your little grandson.^ Of the two poems I prefer the second, on the words of Novalis, "Was passt, das muss sich ründen." It is a beautiful poem, and full of deep meaning. I cannot read it without emotion. You know I have always said that you ought to collect your poems together. If you do not, I hope that your wife will. I thank her for these. "Was hindert, muss erweichen [entweichen]. Was krumm ist, muss sich gleichen. Was fern ist, sich erreichen Was keimt, das muss gedeihn."® With kindest remembrances to Mrs. Lieber, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Henry E . Huntington Library. 1. Lieber had written on April 7: "All the copies I had of my metric effusion on Washington's sword are gone — I fear burnt. Please send me the copy I sent you, and Matilda Lieber will copy it." See 3 0 1 6 . 1 . 2. In a letter of May 26 Lieber had sent Longfellow two manuscript poems, both in the hand of Matilda Lieber, entitled "Milton" ( 1 8 4 3 ) and " W a s sich liebt dass muss sich finden" ( 1 8 4 2 ) , the latter poem (subsequently printed in St. Louis with "Ein Erguss") being based on the lines from " A n Adolph Selmnitz" by Novalis. In his earlier

546

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

letter he had included two pressed violets gathered by his grandson, who had said of them that "Uncle God makes the flowers grow." 3. "An Adolph Selmnitz," 11. 5-8. See 2475.4.

3139.

To Karl Witte

Cambridge Mass. May 30 1872. My Dear Sir, I have just received a letter from my friend Mr. Charles Norton, in which he describes his pleasant visit to you in Halle, and which makes me regret more than ever, that I missed seeing you, when I was last in Germany. Had I been alone, I should not have failed to go to Halle to see you; but travelling with a large party I was obliged to adapt my movements to theirs, and to leave many things undone, which I now greatly regret. In speaking of your very extensive and valuable Dante Library, he says that you have no copy of the original American edition of my translation of the Divina Commedia. I therefore have great pleasure in sending you one, through Mr. Steigler of New York,i who will forward it to F. A. Brockaus in Leipzig.^ I have strictly charged him to pay all expenses to your door; which I mention for fear that some charge should be made at your end of the line. Can you tell me where Professor Karl Bartsch is at present?® With great regard. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

1. Ernst Steiger ( 1 8 3 2 - 1 9 1 7 ) , German-horn importer, bookseller, and publisher of 22-24 Franklin Street, New York City. 2. Publishing firm founded by Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus ( 1 7 7 2 - 1 8 2 3 ) . 3. Karl Bartsch (1832-1888), German philologist, critic, and translator of Dante, was professor at Heidelberg, 1871-1888.

3140.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. June i. 1872. My Dear Fields, I want to consult you about the change of title in one of the New England Tragedies. I am not satisfied with "John Endicott," for they are two, father and son. Nor is "Wenlock Christison" satisfactory, as he plays rather a subordinate part. I am inclined to call it, "Scourged in Three Towns," as that is the punishment inflicted on the heroine, who is really the most important character in the piece. 547

EMBERS

THAT

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You, who are as good at titles as a Court Chamberlain, tell me if this will do.i I hoped the other day that you and your wife and Mrs. Thaxter^ would stop on your way to town at my door. I had lunch on the table, and waited for you in vain. But when I saw the threatening skies and the crowded cars that went by, I gave up all hope, and thought that if you had secured seats, and were under cover, you did well not to stop anywhere short of Charles Street. Do you feel disposed to go to one of Gilmore's Rehearsals in the Music Hall on Tuesday evening?® H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Fields responded on June 4 : " N o ; I should let the title stand. It will confuse every one, and not help. You have published a poem and chosen a title after deliberation, and I would never alter it" ( M S , Henry E. Huntington Library). 2. Celia Laighton Thaxter ( 1 8 3 5 - 1 8 9 4 ) , N e w Hampshire poet. 3. Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore was now conducting rehearsals for his extravaganza entitled the "World's Peace Jubilee and International Music Festival," which opened on June 1 7 in a specially erected cohseum. It closed on July 4. See 2991.2.

3141.

To George Washington

Greene Camb. June i. 1872.

My Dear Greene, "Life let us cherish While yet the taper glows."^ I have just received a letter from Winthrop,^ saying there is to be a meeting of the Mass. Historical Society at his house on Thursday next. He goes on as follows; "But I write particularly to say, that if your friend Greene should be with you, or within reach, it would give me peculiar pleasure to see him in his place on this occasion, as one of our Corresponding Members." I therefore beg you to come on Wednesday, and I will dri\'e you over to Brookline in the lovely June weather. Come if you possibly can. What a tremendous anathema Sumner has been uttering against the President.·'' As yet I have only glanced at it, here and there, the newspaper type being dangerously small for people born near the beginning of the century. Not withstanding the poetic fame of Hector "the tamer of horses," I must say that a President of the United States, with a cigar in his mouth, in a skeleton wagon, crying "Hi!" to a pair of fast-trotting horses, is not a dignified spectacle for Gods or men to contemplate. H.W.L 548

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1 . Translated from "Freut euch des Lebens, / Weil noch das Lämpchen glüht" by Johann Martin Usteri ( 1 7 6 3 - 1 8 2 7 ) and first published in Charms of Melody, No. 86 (Dublin, n.d., c. 1 8 1 0 ) . 2. Dated June i. 3. See "Republicanism vs. Grantism," delivered in the Senate on May 31 (Sumner Works, XV, 8 3 - 1 7 1 ) ·

3142.

To Sarah Anne Clarke

Camb. June 2 1872 My Dear Miss Clarke, I shall be delighted to see your drawings in the "Footsteps of Dante'V and if it is convenient for you to come on Wednesday, I will be at home from two o'clock till four. If more convenient for you I would come to town any forenoon, and meet you at Messrs. Osgood & Co.'s at any hour you might prefer. Yours truly, Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library, J a m e s F r e e m a n C l a r k e / Boston,

ADDRESS: Miss Sarah Clarke / Care of Revd

POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS J U N 3

I. See 2790.2. Many of Miss Clarke's drawings were used as illustrations in her "Notes on the Exile of Dante," The Century, X X V I I (March 1884), 7 3 4 - 7 5 2 and (April 1 8 8 4 ) , 833-849·

3143.

To Sarah Anne Clarke

Camb. June 3. 1872. Dear Miss Clarke, Mr. [Jabez Baxter] Upham was here this morning and wants me to hear the school-children sing on Wednesday at noon. This will take me to town on that day, and may spare you the long journey to Cambridge. I will be at Mr. Osgood's at eleven o'clock, and if you can meet me there with the Dante portfolio, I shall be most happy to see the designs, of which Mr. Fields speaks most highly, and which must be very interesting to every lover of Dante. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library.

549

EMBERS 3144.

To George Washington

THAT

STILL

BURN

Greene

[Cambridge] June 4, 1872. On reading the line in your letter about your reluctance to touch an Italian theme/ there came swimming into the twilight of memory, like a planet, a sentence from Locke, which I have remembered ever since my college days ; "Thus the ideas, as well as the children, of our youth often die before us; and our minds represent to us those tombs to which we are approaching, where, though the brass and marble remain, yet the inscriptions are effaced by time, and the imagery moulders away."^ That little flower of rhetoric blooms for me far back in my Junior year. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from Life, III, 2 0 1 . 1. Greene had written an encomium on the Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini ( 1 8 0 5 1 8 7 2 ) , which had been published in the Providence Journal, X L V I , N o . 1 2 9 ( M a y 29, 1 8 7 2 ) . In a letter of June 2, enclosing the notice, he had remarked: "Scudder sent me this book upon Mazzini and asked [me] to notice it in the Prov. Journal — otherwise I would not have touched an Italian subject. It is dangerous." 2. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Bk. II, Chap. 10, Sect. 5.

3145.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. June 5 1872. My Dear Sumner, I greatly admire your courage in exposing the malefeasance of an Administration of which we all hoped so much, and in which so many of us have been so bitterly disappointed. This is a terrible Speech of yours but the terror of it is in its truth. It is not the exposure which is fearful, but the facts. The feeble attempts at reply must convince everyone, that no reply is possible. I observe that no one as yet denies the facts, except in a vague, loose way. It is painful to think of. To what would this sort of thing lead us in a decade or two? Of course you will be thoroughly abused in Speech and Newspaper; but if nobody does better than Mr. [Matthew Hale] Carpenter, your opponents may as well be silent.^ But I will not write more of these matters, hoping soon to see you, and hear you. Ah! if I could only have the pleasure of voting for you as President, I should be comforted! Always Yours H.W.L 550

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

MANUSCRIPT: H a r v a r d College Library. I . Carpenter

(2377.1),

an ally

of

President

G r a n t , had clashed

frequently

with

S u m n e r in the Senate.

3146.

T o ]ames Baird^

Cambridge June 13 1872. M y Dear Sir, I have had the pleasure of receiving your letter, and in reply would inform you that my name was added to the Committee of the Peace Jubilee entirely without my consent or knowledge. I know nothing of their arrangements but what I see in the papers. I believe they have put the single tickets at $5.00 and the season tickets at $50.00. You kindly remind me of my late visit to England. M y reception there was most cordial and generous; and the hospitality shown to me was without stint. T h e memory of it will always remain very precious. Hoping that I shall have the pleasure of seeing you when you come to Boston, I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Historical Society of Pennsylvania. I . Baird served as minister of the U n i t e d Presbyterian C h u r c h of Paterson, N . J . , until

1 8 7 9 , w h e n he removed to St. John's, N e w f o u n d l a n d , w h e r e he became a w i n e

merchant and groceryman. In an undated letter to L o n g f e l l o w he had requested information about the price of ticlcets to the " W o r l d ' s Peace Jubilee and

International

M u s i c Festival."

3147.

T o August Hjalmar

Edgren^

Cambridge June 13 1872 M y Dear Sir, I am extremely obliged to you for the honor you have done me in translating into Swedish my poem of "Evangeline," and most cordially thank you for sending me your manuscript.^ I have looked it over with great pleasure and satisfaction, though I have not had time to compare it critically with the original. It seems to me extremely well done; very faithful and well versified. I sincerely congratulate you on your success. A translation of "Evangeline" in Swedish by Alb. Lysander appeared in 1854.^ I have never seen it, nor any notice of it beyond the simple announcement. 551

EMBERS

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Thanking you again for the task you have been willing to undertake, and for your graceful Dedication, and with best wishes for the success of your Translation, I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow P.S. I return your ms. by to-day's mail. MANUSCRIPT;

Mrs. W. E. Barkley, Lincoln, Nebr.

1. Edgren ( 1 8 4 0 - 1 9 0 3 ) , Swedish-born officer in the Union Army, 1862-1863, h^d taken his B.A. degree at Cornell in 1871 and was to receive his Ph.D. at Yale in 1874. He was at this time a teacher and drillmaster at the Riverview Military Academy, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. 2. Edgren's translation was published in Gothenburg in 1875. 3. Albert Theodor Lysander, Evangelina: en Saga от Kärlek i Acadìen (Stockholm, 1854)·

3148.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. June 16. 1872. My Dear Greene, You had not been gone an hour, when there came a note from Collector Russell asking me to fix a day for the Plymouth expedition. I have fixed Wednesday next. We start from Boston at 8 o'clock in the morning. Half the invitation is to you. Can you come on Tuesday? Your monstrous bundle leaves here by express tomorrow morning, the earliest moment. I hope it will reach you safely; for you will take note of the great care with which it is done up.^ Yours truly H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. According to Greene's response of June 19 the "monstrous bundle" was a "chair and its accompaniments" for Anna Maria Greene.

3149.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. June 18. 1872. My Dear Fields, I wish it were possible for me to come to Compton according to your very agreeable programme and invitation.' But this week and the next are too crowded with engagements and visits of friends to leave time for a run to the mountains; and with great reluctance I must give up the idea. We are having splendid weather; and the birds hold a Peace Jubilee here 552

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

in the garden, morning, noon and night, not so loud as Gilmore's, but a good deal cheaper. Tomorrow I go to Plymouth with the indefaticable Collector in his steamer. The next day is Class Day; and next week cousins are coming from Pordand. Mr and Mrs Ernest and Alice sailed on Tuesday last, a week ago, in the Hecla for England. By this time they are beyond ice and fog. With kindest remembrances to Mrs F. Yours always H.W.L. P.S. Reprieve! A note has just come from the Indefaticable saying he cannot go tomorrow; so I shall not have to get up at five, and be sea-sick all day, and get home at midnight! MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E . Huntington Library.

I. In a letter of June 1 3 Fields had written: "Come up and see this beautiful land of glory. T h e rivers were never fuller, the hills greener, or the roads better. Come, come, come! Bring your girls and we will ride and walk and fish till July if you say so, or for a week" ( M S Henry E. Huntington Library).

3150.

To Charles Eliot Norton

Camb. June 19 1872 My Dear Charles, As soon as I received your last letter, I acted upon it without a moment's delay. I wrote a line or two in the evening to Karl Witte, and the next morning sent a large paper copy of the Divine Comedy to Steigler [Steiger] in New York to be forwarded to the Professor without delay, all expenses pre-paid.1 In short, everything was done as you would wish; and long before this I hope the three volumes are on the shelves of the German student. Your description of him is very interesting, and makes me regret that I did not go to Halle, and visit him in his cell, and see his Dante Collection, as you did. I suppose you have not yet seen Miss Rossetti's "Shadow of Dante." It is an excellent book, which you will like. Lowell has a review of it in the next North American.2 Cambridge is now in all its glory of leaves and blossoms; and awaits your return with impatience. Last week Ernest and his wife and Alice sailed in the Hecla for England. They pass the Summer in Switzerland and the Tyrol. Charles is still in Japan, and comes home, I know not when. With affectionate regards to all of you. Always Yours H.W.L 5 53

EMBERS

THAT

MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library.

STILL

BURN

ADDBESS: Charles E . Norton E s q u / C a r e of

Messrs Baring Bros / London

POSTMARKS: CAMBRIDGE MASS, J U N 1 9 / LONDON В

PAID A I J Y 7 2 [two postmarks

illegible]

1 . See Letter N o . 3 1 3 9 . 2. Maria Francesca Rossetti ( 1 8 2 7 - 1 8 7 6 ) , sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, had published a Boston edition of her Shadow self, his World,

and his Pilgrimage

Review,

C X V (July 1 8 7 2 ) ,

3151.

To George Washington

of Dante,

being an Essay Toward

Studying

in 1 8 7 2 . For Lowell's essay see the North

Him-

American

139-209.

Greene

Camb. June 20. 1872. My Dear Greene, Some good angel sent my letter round by New Bedford, and prevented you from going to the Post Office at your usual hour on Tuesday. If you had come, it would have been a bootless errand, though you had come in your best boots; for we did not go to Plymouth, after all! Tuesday evening came a letter from the Collector, saying that he must postpone this voyage in the wake of the Pilgrims, till after General Grant's visit to Boston; so that at all events we shall not go before the end of next week.i As soon as he fixes a day, I will notify you. To-day I dine in town to meet the Russian Minister, Baron D'Offenberg. I wonder whether he will prove as lively and entertaining as Catecazi?^ The great Peace Jubilee is thundering away with all its drums and cannon, and Regimental Bands; but I have not yet been to see and hear, having an instinctive dislike to great crowds. A more important hearing would be some good news from Ithaca. Yours alwavs ' H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1 . President Grant attended the " W o r l d ' s Peace Jubilee and International

Music

Festival" on J u n e 2 5 and the Harvard Commencement on J u n e 2 6 . 2. Genrikh Russian

Genrikhovich

minister

to

the

Oifenberg

United

(b.

States,

1820),

soldier and

1872-1874.

His

diplomat,

predecessor,

served

as

Konstantin

Gavrilovich Katakazi ( 1 8 3 0 - 1 8 9 0 ) , served from 1 8 6 9 to 1 8 7 2 .

3152.

To Charles Appleton

Longfellow

Camb. June 20 1872. My Dear Charlie, W e begin to think here, that you are now sufficiently Japanned, and had better be turning your face homeward. The last Steamer brought us no letters; in fact it is two months since we heard from you; but I dare say there 554

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

is a letter just arriving in San Francisco; too late to be answered by this Steamer. Ernest and his wife and Alice sailed on the i ith. in the Hecla for England. They pass the Summer in Switzerland and the Tyrol and return in October. You will have seen in your papers the death of Mr. Bennet^ the elder. His son came back from England a few days ago, and I see that the Dauntless is also on her way home. So his part of the Baltic yachting expedition is given up. Uncle Tom is at his new house in Newport; and we go as usual to Nahant in July; that is the three of us that are left. Next week Wad comes on to enter College; and the girls are looking with great interest for the event.^ I wish you would let me know how your account stands with Baring Bros. They send me no notice. My last remittance to them was in Jan. last $3.500 or £657.12.5. I shall make another in July. How much it will be, I cannot say till the July Dividends come in. I do not think you can safely rely upon more than a thousand pounds a year, or twelve hundred at farthest. Annie says she is much obliged for your nice letters, and will write soon. We remembered your birth day, and I bought you a lot of books on the East as a present. With much love from all. Yours affectionately H.W.L MANUSCRIPT;

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. James Gordon Bennett ( 4 4 6 . 1 8 ) had died on June i. 2. Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow ( 1 9 7 8 . 3 ) graduated from Harvard in 1876.

3153.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. June 20 1872. My Dear Sumner, This is a very pleasant letter of Bartholdi's, which I return with thanks. It must have come to you like a breath of fresh air from the cool realms of Art, into the fiery political furnace, in which you are living. I am to dine to-day in town to meet the Russian Minister, Baron D'OfFenberg. The dinner is given by Mr W[illiam Warren] Tucker, at the Somerset Club, in the Sears House, Beacon St. How many phantoms will flit before me! One evening paper says, that you are coming to Boston in a day or two. The next, that you are not coming till July. I do not see that anybody undertakes to deny the allegations of your Speech.^ They only make light of them, as if they were of no importance, and then vent their wrath upon you. 5 55

EMBERS

THAT

STILL

BURN

Ernest and his wife and Alice sailed in the Hecla last week for England. If they have escaped the fogs and ice, they must now be near their port. T h e y come back in October. Always affectionately H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. I . See 3 1 4 1 . 3 .

3154.

To Sidney

Woollett

Camb. J u n e 2 i 1872 M y Dear Sir, I am much obliged to you for your kind remembrance, and for the Caricatures, which, I am sorry to say, are very poor and unpleasant, and without even artistic merit. One does not see what right they have to exist.^ T h e weather is growing very hot. I congratulate you upon being among the groves and hills of Milton, which from your description of it must be the "Paradise Regained." Hoping that your Summer will be pleasant and profitable I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

unrecovered; text from photostat, Longfellow T r u s t Collection

(Long-

fellow H o u s e ) . I . In a letter from Milton-on-the-Hudson of J u n e

1 7 Woollett had enclosed some

caricatures of English statesmen from an unidentified weekly journal of N e w York City.

3155.

T o William WhitevTright

Stuart^

Camb. June 22 1872. M y Dear Sir, I was not mistaken when I told you last evening that I had answered your letter. On consulting a list which I keep of all the letters I write, I find that I wrote to you on the fourth of May; and the only way in which I can account for the miscarriage of my letter is, that possibly I may have transposed the two numbers of your address, and directed it to N o 37 East 27th St. I make good the loss without delay, and enclose the autograph you desire. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library. I . Stuart C 1 8 4 9 - 1 9 1 4 ) , a Princeton graduate of 1 8 6 8 , took his law degree at Columbia in 1 8 7 4 .

556

CAMBRIDGE, 3156.

1872

To Charles Sumner

Camb. June 22 1872. My Dear Sumner, "If I could show you the cabbages I planted with my own hands at Salona, I should be no longer urged to relinquish the enjoyment of happiness for the pursuit of power."^ These words, you remember, Gibbon puts into the mouth of Dioclesian. Montaigne says melons,^ instead of cabbages. Whichever Dioclesian said, he forgot that happiness does not consist in planting either of them, but in the exercise of faculty. This alone can comfort you while you are hard at work in the heat of Washington, and I dining with the Russian Minister, at the Beacon St. Club. I sat beside the Baron at table, and found him a very quiet, pleasant gendeman. He said his first call in Washington was upon you, and what he said of you was as good as a letter of introduction to me. Yesterday I had the honor of a call from Admiral Polo, and Señor Flores,® who were like the two campanions of Uhland, when he crossed the ferry; "One with all a father's truth; One with all the fire of youth It was Class Day, and they had been through the regular programme, and had had no dinner, and were weary, and glad to rest in arm-chairs. My dinner had just been taken from the table; but I ordered it back again. Luckily there were two dishes untouched, and though they were cold, the weather was hot; and the claret and iced water just what they most wanted. So we had a very merry time, and I think they enjoyed this off-hand hospitality better than a formal banquet. Reading this morning the Encheiridion of Epictetus I came to this wise sentence; "Do not desire that all things shall happen as thou wishest, but rather wish that everything should happen as it does; and all will turn out well for thee."® The enclosed article I cut from the "Liberal Christian"; a paper edited by Dr. [Henry Whitney] Bellows. I think the writer must have had you in mind when he wrote it; at all events I had, when I read it.® If possible I shall run down to Newport for a day this coming week; but I never find a day quite free from encumbrances of some kind. The Hecla has safely reached Queenstown with Ernest and his little party. Farewell. Let me know of your coming soon. Always affect [ionatel] y H.W.L

5 57

EMBERS MANUSCRIPT:

THAT

STILL

BURN

Harvard College Library.

1. Cf. Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chap. XIII. 2. Essays, Bk. I, Chap. 42. 3. Rear-admiral José Polo de Bernabé ( 1 8 2 1 - 1 8 9 5 ) , Spanish minister to the United States, 1872-1874, and Antonio Flores ( 1 8 3 3 - 1 9 1 5 ) , Ecuadorian minister to the United States and subsequently president of Ecuador, 1888-1892. 4. " T h e Passage," 11. 7 - 8 (Poets and Poetry of Europe, p. 339). 5. Sect. VIII. 6. T h e article is unrecovered.

3157.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. June 23 1872 My Dear Greene, I find in my Vade Mecum and Encheiridion, the Evening Transcript, this paragraph; says he will accept the Baltimore nomination, if he can get it. The Greeley men retort, "Nobody asked you, sir."^ HON. C H A R L E S F R A N C I S A D A M S

I know not whether it be true or false; but it reminded me of Dante's lines, "sollecito risponde Senza chiamare, e grida : io mi sabharco"^ which rendered into English would be "Barkis is willing." This is truly comical, if true. For the sake of Mr. Adams I doubt its truth. Perhaps you can tell me more about it. Since I wrote to you I have heard nothing from the Collector. If he inveigles us into going aboard his galère, he will be a Collector of simples, or simpletons. It is a great stretch of the imagination to be seasick all day, and look upon it as pleasure. Also since I wrote to you I have had the honor of an interview with three foreign Ministers, from Russia, Spain and Ecuador, — the North Pole and the Equator — all agreeable men. Moreover I have had a visit from a German Pennsylvania farmer, in a dirty shirt and without cravat, who said; "Es isht mir mehr handy Deutsch zu sprechen als English!" So the time has not passed wholly in vain, though it has been as hot as — a theological discussion with a free use of the objectionable word. Yours always H.W.L

558

CAMBRIDGE, MANUSCRIPT:

1872

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Boston Transcript, X L V , No. 12,950 (June 22, 1 8 7 2 ) . T h e clipping is pasted to the sheet. The Democratic National Convention at Baltimore chose Horace Greeley as its candidate on July 9. See 3 1 1 5 . 2 . 2. Purgatorio, VI, 1 3 4 - 1 3 5 : "thy solicitous people answereth / Without being asked, and crieth : Ί submit.' "

3158.

To )ames Ripley Osgood

Camb. June 26. 1872. Dear Mr. Osgood, 1 am very much obliged to you for the Tickets. We were at the Concert yesterday, and were much delighted. The playing of the English, Prussian and French Bands was superb, or as the papers say "beyond adjectives," which is a good phrase, particularly when you do not know what to say. If you have a stray ticket, and would send it to John Owen, 17 Ellsworth Avenue, Cambridgeport, you would make him very happy. He belongs in a certain sense to the Press, as he reads proofs and writes notices. With many thanks Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

3159.

Buffalo and Erie County Library.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. June 28 1872. My Dear Greene, I am very, very sorry to hear by your letter just reed, that you are ill and in bed. What is it? For you do not say what it is, only that it is, and that you have been fighting against it. I trust it is nothing serious, but only some attack incident to the season. That would affect the eyes, as any weakness will. Let me know more particularly.^ The great musical Jubilee is now in full force, and is going on triumphantly. There is of course some "music for the Million"; but the performances of the different European Bands are first class in their kind, and you who have heard European Bands know what that means. I hear nothing further from the Collector; so that expedition is given up for the present. That you should not have heard from White surprises me. But as you do not hear from him you will need the enclosed.^ 559

EMBERS

T H A T

STILL

BURN

G o o d night; and m a y y o u soon be better. T o m o r r o w I think of r u n n i n g d o w n to N e w p o r t to pass the S u n d a y ; b u t it is a great effort. W e

go to

N a h a n t on the fifth. Y o u r s always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. In a letter of June 27 Greene wrote that "After fighting it as long as I could I have been compelled to give up and take to my bed." O n June 30 he defined his illness as "exhaustion of the brain" and on July i as "gastric fever." 2. A check for $50 ( M S Letter Calendar).

3160.

T o George Washington

Greene C a m b . July i

1872

M y Dear Greene, T h e Post b e t w e e n C a m b r i d g e and G r e e n w i c h seems to be bewitched. I wrote to you on the 28th of June, and on the 30th. you had not received the letter; but I hope to hear this e v e n i n g or tomorrow morning that it has reached you at last. I am not surprised to hear that on S u n d a y your eyes were worse. T h e r e never was a hotter day. E v e r y b o d y was as l i m p as a lily; and to quote the "parson'd page" of the nocturnal D r . Y o u n g " M a n ' s greatest strength was s h o w n in standing still. N o w o n d e r your poor eyes felt it. I venture to predict, that the first cool day will bring you great relief. I did not go to N e w p o r t . T h e heat was too great; and m y courage oozed out of the tips of m y fingers, and out of every pore of my body. B u t w e go to N a h a n t on the 5th. If y o u are w e l l e n o u g h to come before that, you will find us too h a p p y to see you. If you come later, w e shall be equally happy to have you at N a h a n t , from w h i c h point you can reach D r . Williams^ daily b y steamer; but I fear the glare w o u l d be too great. I shall hope good n e w s from y o [ u ] tomorrow. Always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Cf. Night Thoughts, Night VIII, 1. 924. 2. Henry Willard Williams (1821-1906), ophthalmologist and professor of ophthalmology at Harvard, 1871-1891.

560

NAHANT, 3161.

To George Washington

1872

Greene

Camb. July 4 1872 My Dear Greene, If it is any comfort to you to hear it, I will say that I have to-day heard of three cases similar to yours; where some derangement of the system took deadly aim at the eyes. For my part, I never suffered so much from heat as Sunday and to-day. I might almost as well pour a stream of ink from the inkstand down the page, as to form it into letters, and make believe I am writing an intelligible epistle. We go to Nahant tomorrow, and before starting I shall hope to have a line from you saying that you are better. Yesterday I met the Collector in Boston, and he immediately broached the subject of the Plymouth expedition. I begged him to postpone it till Sumner came, to which he willingly assented. Sumner is coming to stay with me at Nahant, and if you could come at the same time, we might carry out our plan triumphantly. I do not wonder that you are allarmed about your eyes. But it is not primarily the eyes. It is the state of your system acting on a tender point. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

3162.

Longfellow Trust Collection.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant July 7 1872. My Dear Greene, Your letters of the 3rd and 4th did not reach me till yesterday after our one daily mail had departed. To-day there is no mail. This therefore cannot go till tomorrow, and you will not get it before Tuesday. By that time you will have gone to Boston, and will have seen Williams. I only hope you made sure of his being in Boston before starting. I should have been too glad to have met you at the Station and to have taken charge of you. But it is too late for that; and besides it would have been very difficult to have combined at this distance, even had you known exactly when you should be well enough to go. Let me know the result of your consultation. I hope it will turn out as your brother predicts; and that there is no disease of the eyes themselves, but only overtax of the nerves. Nahant is in all its glare and glory; but yesterday like an idiot I sat too long in the wind, and to-day am paying for the luxury by flushes of fever and shudders of chill; and am rather miserable in consequence. 561

EMBERS

THAT

STILL

BURN

Nobody is here but Edith, Uncle Sam [Longfellow], and your Humble Servant, H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

3163.

Longfellow Trust Collection.

To Charles Sumner

Nahant July 7. 1872. My Dear Senator, I beg leave to inform you that the Hotel Wetmoiei at Nahant is now open for the season, and the present proprietor is anxious to secure your patronage. You can have your old room, or the one opposite, or four rooms in the upper storey, without extra charge. Good Sea Bathing. Meals at all hours. Charges moderate. W e came down on the fifth. The weather is perfect; but our household small; only Edith and myself, and Sam for a day or two. The sooner you come the better. What has become of Uncle Tom I do not know. Edw. Austin said he met him a few days ago with a Cunard Steamer ticket in his hand. Yesterday I heard he was seen on board an Eng. Steamer at New York. Probably we shall hear tomorrow from him. I do not think he has gone to Europe; though the great heats always sting him into a phrensy. I think I wrote you that Greene was ill, and suffering much from his eyes. Here are two letters from him, which please return, after reading. The weather this afternoon is "too lovely," as the schoolgirls say. H.W.L Yours of Tuesday did not reach me till Saturday. MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

I. So called because Longfellow's cottage had Wetmore. See 1 6 7 5 . i .

3164.

To George Washington

originally belonged

to

Thomas

Greene

Nahant July 10. 1872. My Dear Greene, I am delighted that you are coming. Take the steamer Ulysses, at the extreme end of India wharf, at 2.20. or missing that at 5. o'clock. Take no other Steamer. There is a rival line close by, that inveigles the 562

N A H A N T ,

1872

unwary. Insist upon the Ulysses. Turn a deaf ear to the sirens of the Greeley, or whatever it may be called. 1 am all right again. It was only a passing shiver. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

3165.

Longfellow Trust Collection.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant July 11 1872. My Dear Greene, Your letter of yesterday has just come in, and I am truly sorry to hear of another relapse. Your coming must depend so much upon your feelings and the weather, I see it will be hopeless to try to meet you in town. You must be entirely free in your movements, and not fettered and fretted by any engagements. I sent to Osgood's for you the Time-table of the Steamer Ulysses. You will find it there; but I will repeat it here so as to save you the trouble of calling there. Steamer Ulysses leaves the end of India wharf at 2.20 and 5. o'clock. There is an opposition boat near by at the same wharf, which will land you miles away on the sands between here and Lynn, if you are unwary enough to go on board of her. Be sure, therefore, to take the Ulysses, and no other boat. Do the same in your politics; for this is the safer boat of the two. Yours always H.W.L. P.S. Bring your blue or green spectacles, for the glare is very great here. I do not know when to look for the Senator. He says nothing about his coming. MANUSCRIPT:

3166.

Longfellow Trust Collection.

To Anne Allegra

Longfellow

Nahant July 12 1872. My Dearest Pansie, I never come up these stairs without seeing a little girl tumbling down them, and rolled into a ball, like a kitten. I have just seen her now, as I came up to write this letter, and wonder she kept doing it so long. Uncle Sam went back in the rain two days ago, and since then we have shortened the table, so that you can hardly see it. But your friend DimpfeP dines with us on Sunday, and we shall put in a leaf. Next week we will draw it at full length, if you say so.

563

EMBERS

THAT

STILL

BURN

We look for you on Monday.^ I shall not send over to Lynn for you; as you will find carriages there, and I have none to send. We shall be very glad to see you, and have missed you, oh, so much! To-night we have the Band, playing wal[t]zes and the like in front of the Church. Then the flag-staff, two thousand feet high, or less; and the black asphalt side-walks, soft as felt at noon, hard as rock at night! You will hardly know Nahant. But Edie has told you all before me, so I have only to kiss you and sign my initials H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Alice Allegra Thorp Estate (on deposit, Longfellow House).

1. Frederick Pierre Dimpfel (d. 1 9 1 2 ) , a Harvard law graduate of 1 8 7 1 . 2. Anne Allegra had been in Portland since July 2 ( M S Journal).

3167.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant. July 13 1872. My Dear Greene, Yours of yesterday has just arrived, and does not bring very cheering news. I really do not think you should go to Boston till you are stronger and every way better. The risk is too great; and though you are naturally impatient to see Williams, you must not be too impatient, and make matters worse. I certainly will meet you in Boston if possible; but it will be likely to be after you have seen Williams; say, at Osgood's at 12.30 or thereabout. It is of no use to send a telegram. There are no wires to Nahant; and a letter comes about as quick as a telegram, which has to be brought by mail or messenger, for miles. Perhaps you are already better to-day; things fluctuate so in this hot weather. It is one day up, and one day down. Do not be discouraged. I shall try to send this by private hand to Boston, so that you may get it tomorrow. Always Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

3168.

Longfellow Trust Collection.

To Thomas Gold

Appleton

Nahant July 14 1872. Sieawatissimo Signore, How high did the nimble Mercury mount his ladder with you at Newport this week? Here he ran up and down like a sailor on the shrouds; and now lies flat on his back. To-day it has been pleasant sitting in the sun; but the 564

NAHANT,

1872

little mountebank begins to stir again, and will soon be on the topmost round. Everything at Nahant is serious, not to say solemn. The gayeties of the place are limited to Sociables at the town-hall once a week, and once a week the Boston Band plays wal[t]zes in front of the church, from eight o'clock till nine. Then we all go to bed; tired with the labors of the day. They also work, who only sit and read. Annie comes back tomorrow, with a Portland cousin or two. A new boat has been bought, and has been christened the Saidy Weiss,^ after a schoolmate of Edie's, who is staying here. She is one of the new generation of Watertown beauties, a race that has never died out since the days of Mrs Welles and Mrs. Wiggin.^ I forgot to tell you, that we have asphalt sidewalks, running on one side of each street, like a strip of court-plaster, or bit of black ribbon. No news of anybody or anything. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Sarah Weiss, aged sixteen, was the daughter of Rev. John Weiss (882.2). 2. Mrs. Welles was presumably Susan Codman Welles ( 8 1 . 2 ) ; Mrs. Wiggin is unidentified.

3169.

To George William

Childs

Nahant July 17 1872 My Dear Mr. Childs, A thousand thanks for your very kind invitation to Long Branch, which, from all I have ever heard, must be a delightful place of resort in this hot season.^ I am sorry to say that it will not be in my power to absent myself from this St. Helena; both because I am expecting guests here, and because in these extreme heats I do not wish to move one inch farther South. Here it is cool even on the hottest days; cool in the shade, I mean. So I must beg you to excuse me if I turn a deaf ear to your friendly call. Begging you also to remember me very cordially to Mrs. Childs,^ who, I trust is well this Summer, I am Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow unrecovered; text from photostat, Longfellow Trust Collection fellow House).

MANUSCRIPT:

(Long-

1. In a letter of June 29 Childs had invited Longfellow and his daughters to visit him at his summer cottage in Long Branch, a fashionable bathing resort in Ocean Township, N . J . 2. Emma Bouvier Peterson Childs ( 1 8 4 2 - 1 9 2 8 ) .

565

EMBERS

THAT

STILL

BURN

We have had letters to-day from our travellers. They were in Paris, on their way to Interlachen, where they now are, in sight of eternal snows, a pleasant sight in July. Sumner has not yet pulled up his anchor at Washington. He is so reticent and sparing of letters, that I have no idea when he is coming. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT; Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Both of whom were in Europe.

3173.

To Elizabeth Lawrence^

Nahant July 20 1872 Dear Mrs Lawrence, It gives me great pleasure to know that I have given you pleasure by sending the Dante volumes; but your pleasure cannot be half so great as that you have given me by the very precious Dante relic. Every now and then the feeling comes over me, that I have not thanked you enough for it; and that I must instantly write and thank you again. Believe me, though I have said little about it, I am very grateful for your gift, and shall always keep it and guard it with reverential care. Meanwhile, it remains in its case at the Athenaeum; partly because you placed it there, and partly because it is safer there for the present than anywhere else. I have in Cambridge an Italian pamphlet — I forget the author's name — ^ giving a minute description of the discovery of Dante's bones, and how they happened to be where they were. I dare say you have a copy of it. If not, you may like to see it perhaps, and shall when the villeggiatura is over. Always with thanks and kind remembrances Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: ADDRESS:

unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Boston Mrs. T . B. Lawrence, 3 Catherine St., Newport, R.I.

Athenaeum.

1. Mrs. Lawrence ( 1 8 2 9 - 1 9 0 5 ) , the widow of Timothy Bigelow Lawrence ( 2 2 1 7 . 3 ) , had presented Longfellow with "a small piece of Dante's coffin — or rather a piece of the box in which his ashes were placed at the moment when they were hidden for safety within the walls of the church at Ravenna by the monks of the adjacent convent" (Letter of June 3, 1 8 7 2 ) . For a description of this relic, now preserved in the Longfellow House, see J . Chesley Mathews, "Longfellow's Dante Collection," Emerson Society Quarterly, No. 62 (Winter 1 9 7 1 ) , 20. 2. Relazione Storica sulla Avventurosa Scoperta delle Ossa di Dante Alighieri compilata da Primo Uccellini (Ravenna, 1 8 6 5 ) . 568

NAHANT, 3174.

T o Alice Mary

1872

Longfellow

Nahant July 20 1872 M y Darling Alice, It was a great pleasure to us this morning to get your letter of the 7th; — and the blue stamp over the seal, "Hôtel du Jardin," called up pleasant memories, though it is rather bitter to be so soon forgotten by landlord and landlady. But of course they take no personal interest in any one.^ I have just read your letter aloud to Annie, reclining in a long chair on the back piazza, she having sprained her ancle, which will keep her quiet a day or two. Edie and May Dixwell^ have gone to a Fair, presided over by Jemmy Beales,^ for some benevolent object. Mamie is keeping Annie company, and yesterday Sadie Weiss left us after a ten-days' visit. Uncle Tom has not yet come from Newport, and I have been alone with these five wild school girls, whose chief amusement is bathing, boating, and lunching, and playing the Anvil Chorus with spoons on empty tumblers. Nahant is unusually quiet and solemn this Summer. Dimpfel is here. I am sorry that no honie letters had reached you. By this time they have; for Edie has written four, and Annie one. T h e y are on the way, and will find you first or last. Here is a sad piece of news about Natie's friend Post,·* which I enclose. You will all be sorry to hear of his sad fate. W e have had thus far an intolerably hot Summer. Even here at Nahant the weather is bewitched; heated like an oven in the morning, and a thunderstorm every other afternoon. By this time you are at the Pension Ober, looking out on the lovely landscape. Greet Interlachen for me; and the Valley of Lauterbrunnen. If it were not for the going and coming, I should Hke to be there with you. M y letters never contain any news. I leave all that for the girls. With much love to Ernest and Hattie, Always affectionately H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Longfellow and his party had stayed at the Hôtel du Jardin, Paris, in July 1869. 2. Mary Catherine Dixwell (b. 1 8 5 5 ) , daughter of Epes Sargent Dixwell ( 1 2 1 4 . 2 ) . 3. James H. Beai (d. 1 9 1 2 , aged fifty-six) was the son of neighbors at Nahant. 4. Accompanying the manuscript is a clipping from an unidentified newspaper that describes the death by drowning off Long Island of Albert Kintzing Post (b. 1 8 4 3 ) , a Harvard graduate of 1863 and classmate of Nathan Appleton ( 1 5 4 4 . 5 ) .

569

EMBERS 3175.

To Thomas Gold

THAT

STILL

BURN

Appleton Nahant. July 21

1872

M y Dear Tom, This is the way to put it in the newspapers. Miscellaneous matters. Fanny Elssler and her husband, the father of the King of Portugal, are on a visit to Paris. 1 Hensler becomes Elssler, and goes dancing down through the history of Portugal to the end of time, unless somebody stops her. I have no news to send you to-day, except the above paragraph. As to those sacred fragments of Dante's coffin, I have left them in their case at the Athenaeum till we go back in September; partly because Mrs. Lawrence put them there, partly because Chs. Perkins has them in his Catalogue;^ and partly because that is the safest place for them at present. I know not how sufficiendy to thank Mrs. L . for so valuable and rare a present. Perhaps the best thanks of all will be shown by my faithful and affectionate guardianship of this relic of the great Italian. T h e wind is piping merrily, the poplar trees rustling like the rain, and the church bells making a feeble clangor in the distance. Nahant is still Nahant. H.W.L. P.S. If you see Calvert, give him my compliments on his new book about Göthe,·'' which I have just been reading with much interest. unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

MANUSCRIPT:

1. This clipping from an unidentified newspaper confuses Fanny Elssler, the Austrian ballet dancer ( 5 5 0 . 2 ) , with Elise Hensler, countess of Edla, whose husband (see 1 5 9 5 . 6 ) was the father of King Luis of Portugal ( 1 8 3 8 - 1 8 8 9 ) . 2. See Catalogue of the Collection of Ancient and Modern Works of Art, Given or Lent to the Trustees of the Museum of Fine Arts, at Boston (Boston, 1 8 7 2 ) , p. 39. Charles Callahan Perkins wrote the fifteen-page introduction to this catalogue. 3. George Henry Calvert, Goethe: His Life and Works. An Essay (Boston and N e w York, 1 8 7 2 ) .

3176.

To Charles Appleton

Longfellow

Nahant July 23 1872^ M y Dear Charley I forget whether I ever told you that your friend Gabriac had sent me a copy of his book on India. It is very lively and clever; and he gives an amusing account of your reception of the two rival and hostile Rajahs, Naring Sing, 570

NAHANT,

1872

and the other whose name I have forgotten.^ I wrote to thank him,^ and give him your address, which he asked for, and I dare say he has written to you by this time. At Nahant things are going on as usual at Nahant, though I fear you would find it rather dull. Yesterday came your letter to Edie, and enlivened us a little. Uncle Tom is still at Newport. Miss Davie arrived this morning on a visit; and the Clarks have been here and told us about Arthur, with all the particulars of his shipwreck. You must have had a pleasant meeting in the Yeddo [Tokyo] Club-room, and a pleasant tour together. July 30. We had a letter from Alice this morning. They were at Interlachen, and enjoying themselves as much as if they were in Japan. Next Friday the Boston Board of Trade gives a Banquet to the Japanese Ambassadors, on their way to England.'' I think I shall not go, though invited. It is too hot. On the 12th of the month Mr. Snow deposited to your credit $2,500. so that you will be pretty well in funds. Did the box of arms sent by ® arrive safe and in season? All send much love. Affectionately Yours H.W.L P.S. The "Military Order, Loyal Legion" sends in a bill of $45.00. Admission Fee 25, 2 Annual Asses[smenjts 20. Shall I pay it? Or let them wait till you return? MANUSCRIPT; Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. T h e following clipping from an unidentified newspaper is pasted to the top of the sheet: "— M . le président Benoit-Champy est mort des suites d'une maladie qui, depuis quatre mois, le tenait éloigné du tribunal. / Il était âgé de 68 ans." Adrien Théodore Benoit-Champy (b. 1 8 0 5 ) , French politician, had died on June 22. Charles Longfellow had presumably met him in France. 2. Count Alexis de Gabriac, member of a noble family of Languedoc, and Charles Longfellow met as fellow passengers aboard the Malta in 1868 (see 2701. i ) and remained together for a considerable time in India. Gabriac's book, Course Humoristique autour du Monde: Indes, Chine, Japon (Paris, 1 8 7 2 ) , contains a number of references to Charles. See pp. 1 2 8 - 1 3 2 for the "amusing account" of their entertaining Raja Sir Deo Narayan Singh ( 1 8 2 0 - 1 8 7 0 ) and Sir Isri Prasad Narayan Singh, Maharaja Bahadur of Benares ( 1 8 2 2 - 1 8 8 9 ) . 3. T h e letter is unrecovered. 4. See 3058.1. 5. T h e name is omitted by Longfellow.

571

EMBERS 3177.

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To Charles Lanman

NAHANT, July 26, 1872. My dear Sir, — These are both good poems that you send me, and particularly The Cardinal Flower, which I like very much.^ Were I to criticise it in any way, I should say, suppress the stanza beginning "No ritual pomp is here," and the one following, because they remind the reader of Horace Smith's Hymn to the Flowers, as you will see, if you read the two together. I write you this from the seaside, where your paintings of "Norman's Woe" and the "Coast of Acadia" adorn the parlor walls, with other sea views by other hands.^ Thanking you in advance for your book on the "Japanese in America,"® I am, my dear sir.

Yours truly, HENRY W . LONGFELLOW unrecovered; t e x t from Charles Lanman, Haphazard chiefly of Noted Americans (Boston and N e w York, 1 8 8 6 ) , p. 33.

MANUSCRIPT:

Personalities;

1 . In a letter of l u l y 23 Lanman had enclosed two poems by an amateur poet named William Lukens Shoemaker ( 1 8 2 2 - 1 9 0 6 ) of Georgetown, D . C . (one, in manuscript, entitled " T h e Cardinal Flower" and the other, in a newspaper copy, entitled " A Song of the N i g h t " ) , with a request for Longfellow's judgment of them. 2. See 3 0 3 2 . 1 . 3. The Japanese in America, ed. Charles Lanman ( N e w York, 1 8 7 2 ) .

3178.

To Charles Sumner

Camb July 27 1872. My Dear Sumner, A thousand thanks for your speech.' It is excellent, it is irresistible. I envy you the opportunity and the power of making it. Emerson sat next to me at the [Saturday] Club dinner to-day. He was emphatic in his praise of you. Such elegant and easy hospitality; such a worker; such agreeable company, and so on to the end of the chapter. But I observe that the hair is all gone from the back of his head. Does philosophy produce such results? Do you remember ^ s o p ' s Fable of the two dogs? or "Le Loup et le Chien" of La fontaine? "Le collier dont je suis attaché De ce que vous voyez est peut-être la cause. And here enters J.О. the American Petrarch, with an armful of books and photographs. He says he has read your speech three times, and each time with 572

NAHANT,

1872

increased admiration. Now that is a Reader worth having. None of your weakeyed friends that wait for large print! I wish you could have been at the Club to-day. None of the young members came. There were a dozen of us, all over sixty. It was like a dinner at some Old Men's Home, or Hôtel des Invalides. Always Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. 1. "Republicanism vs. Grantism." See 3 1 4 1 . 3 . T h e speech was published separately in both N e w York and Washington, D.C. 2. Fable V, 11. 3 4 - 3 5 : ' T h e collar by which I am tied / Is perhaps the cause of what you see."

3179.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant July 28 1872 My Dear Greene, I shall not write you much of a letter to-day; for I have guests down stairs, and have only stolen up here to ask you how you are this bright, breezy day. I have written to Sumner warning him against Democratic allurements and delusions. I hope he will do and say nothing to give aid and comfort to the hostile camp. I send you to-day a paper with a letter in it addressed to him, which will interest you.^ I send you also the enclosed bit of court-plaster,^ to be applied August i. and not before. "Mustard Leaves for Sinapisms," perhaps I ought to call it, as it will be found to draw on application. Pardon this very feeble jest. I am none the less Yours ever H.W.L P.S. To spare your eyes, I make the cheque payable to your wife. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. T h e letter, an indictment of the Greeley nomination, appeared in the Boston Advertiser, CXX, No. 23 (July 27, 1 8 7 2 ) . 2. T h a t is, a check for $50 ( M S Letter C a l e n d a r ) .

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EMBERS 3180.

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To Samuel Chapman Griggs^

Nahant July 28 1872. My Dear Sir, I have had the pleasure of receiving this morning the copy of Mr. Peterson's "Norwegian-Danish Grammar and Reader," which you were kind enough to send me. I shall examine it at my earliest leisure with much interest. Meanwhile I beg you to accept my thanks for your kindness, and to believe me Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, & Co / Chicago

ADDRESS: Mr S. C. Griggs / S. C . Griggs

POSTMARK: NAHANT MASS, J U L

29

I. Griggs ( 1 8 1 9 - 1 8 9 7 ) , a Chicago publisher, had sent Longfellow a copy of C. J. P. Peterson's Norwegian-Danish Grammar and Reader (Chicago, 1 8 7 2 ) with a covering letter dated July 24, 1872.

3181.

To Charles Sumner

Nahant July 28 1872 My Dear Sumner, Why tarry your chariot wheels so long? The days are shortening, the Summer is waning, and yet you come not. I pray you have no dealings with Democrats. They will deceive you, if they can. Do not trust to Southern blandishments. They are illusions.^ "La gioia dei profani È un fumo passeggier."^ This Summer Nahant seems to me uncommonly solemn and serious. Tom has not yet arrived from Newport; and as yet few strangers have been here; and the weather has been rather unruly, and restless, tossing like a sick man on its bed of air. It is symbolical of the political atmosphere. You have read in the papers of the burning of Emerson's house. That will be a sad blow for him; and a loss he cannot comfortably bear.® If you have time, write a few lines to Greene. It will cheer him. He is still unwell. Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. I. Longfellow's appeal arrived too late. On July 29 Sumner announced his decision to support Greeley against Grant and in a letter of August 2 he wrote to Longfellow:

574

NAHANT,

1872

" T h e storm beats, — but I could not have done otherwise. M y present effort is the most important of шу life. Besides bringing an original Abolitionist into the White House I hope to obtain for the colored men the full recognition of their rights throughout the South." 2. Gaetano Donizetti, Lucrezia Borgia, Act II, Scene 5: " T h e joy of profane life / Is a transitory vapor." 3. Emerson's house had burned during the early morning of July 24, but most of the contents were saved. See Ralph L. Rusk, The Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson ( N e w York, 1949), pp. 4 5 2 - 4 5 3 .

3182.

T o the Committee of the Boston Board of Trade

Nahant July 30 1872. T o the Committee of T h e Boston Board of Trade. Gentlemen, I regret extremely that it will not be in my power to accept your polite invitation to be present at the Banquet to the Ambassadors of Japan.^ I am expecting guests here at Nahant, which renders it impossible. With many thanks and regrets, I am. Gentlemen, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Frank O. Buda, Cambridge, Mass.

I. See 3 0 5 8 . 1 .

3183.

To Mary Longfellow

Greenleaf

Nahant July 30 1872. M y Dear Mary, W e are all so sorry about Aunt Ann; and your letter, saying she is better, was very welcome. This seems to be an epidemic; I have heard of many similar cases, my friend Greene among others, who I believe gets a part of everything going, and first or last has had all calamities. Nothing remains for him, but to be struck by lightning; and this Summer he will have a good chance for that, as we have on a[n] average one thunderstorm a day. This morning brought us a letter from Alice. T h e y are at the Pension Ober, Interlachen; and as happy as possible. I send you the letter. It may amuse you and Aunt Ann. T h e enforced idleness and do nothing ness of seaside life is not very satisfactory to me. A week or two may be salutary; but when it comes to months, it is tedious as convalescence, and must be looked upon as a cure. But I ought not to complain, who have not a sprained ancle. Annie thinks that Nahant is just the place to have one; and is patient and progressing. 575

EMBERS

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They are all looking out now to see the British Steamer [Palmyra] go by, with the Dixwells on board. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, L e w i s Pierce E s q / Portland / M e

3184.

ADDRESS: Mrs. James Greenleaf. / Care of

POSTMARK: NAHANT MASS, J U L 3 1

To james Ripley Osgood

Nahant July 31 1872. My Dear Mr. Osgood, I am much obliged to you for your kind ofFer;^ and will avail myself of it to the following extent. Please send from London, or from Paris, if you go there, copies of "Three Books of Song," unless Routledge has already done it, 1. To Xavier Marmier, No i. Rue St. Thomas d' Aquin Paris. 2. To Eugène Goubert,^ Aux Rochers, par Bruz, Ille-et-Vilaine. 3. To Louis Dépret, N o 4. Rue des Jardins. Lille. Nord. These, prepaid, by Book Post. Please get at Elliot and Fry's, Photographers, 55 Baker St. Portman Square. London, one dozen photographs of the undersigned, with face leaning on hand. If you can find time to do all this for me, I shall consider you a benefactor of the human race, or at least, of that small portion of it which I have the honor to represent. Wishing you calm seas, and a prosperous voyage. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from photocopy, University of Washington Library. 1. In a letter of July 30 Osgood informed Longfellow that he was going to Europe for six weeks and would be pleased to be of service to him. 2. Goubert, a minor French poet, had included several translations of Longfellow's poems in his Poésies Intimes (Rennes, 1 8 7 2 ) , a copy of which, inscribed " A Monsieur Henry Longfellow, / témoignage d'affectueuse sympathie, / Eugène Goubert," is in the Harvard College Library.

3185.

To Gustavvs Adolphus Giuseppe Maria Finotti^

Nahant August i 1872 My Dear Sir, I enclose a check for $50.00 being the subscription of Caroline Weston^ of Weymouth for your "Italian Collection." I send also her letter of sympathy, and I am Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow 576

NAHANT,

1872

unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

MANUSCRIPT:

1. Finotti ( 1 8 1 2 . - 1 8 9 1 ) , Italian-born merchant at 1 7 Broad Street, served as Italian consul in Boston, 1 8 6 5 - 1 8 7 5 . T h e nature of his "Italian Collection" is not known, hut business reverses apparently forced its sale. Finotti subsequently moved to Yankton, S.D., where his descendants yet live. 2. Miss Weston ( 1 8 0 8 - 1 8 8 2 ) was a sister of Maria Weston Chapman ( 8 7 7 . 1 ) and had been active with her in the abolitionist cause.

3186.

To Hurd & Houghton

Nahant Aug 2 1872 Gentlemen, I beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, with Account of sales of Vol I. of Greene's Life of Greene, and your check for $ 7 1 . 1 7 . I think this looks very well for the success of the work, and if the next six months make as good a show, it will be highly satisfactory to the author and his friends. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCBIPT:

3187.

University of Texas Library.

To an Unidentified

Correspondent

Nahant, August 2, 1872. In this dreamy life by the sea — your letter was doubly welcome, and touched the gray day with what Matthew Arnold would call "sweetness and light." The "Alice" whose "Shipping News" you sent me, has not yet made her appearance, though I have watched for her daily — looking out over the sea to espy the great mainsail. All was vacancy, and the waggish light-house at the entrance of the harbor winked his one red eye, as if it were all a joke. Your messenger has not yet arrived. When he comes he shall be received and banquetted, as if he were the Japanese Ambassador. MANUSCRIPT:

unrecovered; text from Robert K. Black, Catalogue No. 94

(1963),

Item 56.

3188.

To Charles Sumner

Nahant Aug 9 1872 My Dear Sumner, Are you never coming? The season wanes; the days grow shorter; the good wine is nearly gone, and likewise my patience. Leave the heats of the Potomac, leave the heats of Politics, and come "from your martyrdom unto this peace. 577

EMBERS

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Greene is here and sends his love. He says you must not answer Garrison, of whose letter we have seen only a few blazing particles, blown about like cinders at a fire.^ But you know best what to answer, and what not to answer. I have not returned to you the various letters you have sent, but keep them for you, till you come. If you have need of them let me know. Tom came from Newport two days ago in his yacht, bringing with him Mr and Mrs Waring.® Mr. Waring is a great friend of "The Younger Franklin,"'' but he did not try to convert me from the error of my ways. Always, Dear Sumner, most afFectionatelv Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. 1. Paradiso, XV, 148. See also Longfellow's "President Garfield," 1. 14. 2. In a public letter to Sumner of June i, 1872, William Lloyd Garrison had criticized his "ill-judged, ill-timed, and . . . extravagant" attacks upon President Grant. See Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man, p p . 5 5 2 - 5 5 3 .

3. George Edwin Waring ( 1 8 3 3 - 1 8 9 8 ) , agriculturalist, sanitary engineer, and at this time manager of the Ogden farm, Newport, R.I. H e married Virginia Clark, the second of three wives, on December 27, 1865. 4. An allusion to Horace Greeley, whose journalistic career paralleled Franklin's in some ways and whose farm at Chappaqua, N.Y., Waring had managed, 1 8 5 5 - 1 8 5 7 .

3189.

To Charles Sumner

Nahant Aug 13. 1872. My Dear Sumner, I hope this will reach the Coolidge House as soon as you do, to welcome you on your arrival and bring you down here without delay. It is hot enough by the seaside to-day; what must it be in Boston? Greene is still with us and eager to see you; and here you will find rest, if your political friends will let you alone, which I very much doubt. I know it is impossible, yet wish it might be, that you were on board the steamer just now casting loose from the Boston wharf, for that would bring you to dinner, and you would meet Prescott's grand-daughter, a beautiful girl of eighteen,1 who is to dine with us. How strange it seems, to have these girls grown up so suddenly. You see a sweet, bright face, and ask; "Who is it?" and are told, "Oh, that is So-and-So's grand-daughter," and alas! So-and-So is your contemporary! Come as soon as you can. Did you get my letter of the 9th? Always aifect[ionatel]y H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. I. Edith Prescott ( 1 8 5 3 - 1 9 3 4 ) .

578

NAHANT, 3190.

To George Edwin

1872

Waring

Nahant Aug 16 1872. My Dear Mr Waring, The "Patent Cooker" arrived safely on Tuesday, but so slow is the communication between kitchen and parlor, at Nahant, that I did not hear of it till this morning. This is my excuse for not thanking you sooner for your kind remembrance and your valuable gift. And even now I must thank you in advance, as I sometimes do a poet who sends me his book, for the pleasure I have in store. If this domestic, fire-side poem does not greatly surpass some of another kind that are sent me, I shall greatly wonder. I shall put it to the test tomorrow Aug. 17. 1872. and report upon its merits after a fair trial, if you wish for any report. There never was a little town so terrified, as was Nahant two nights ago by that prodigious thunder-storm, of which you will read in the papers. But no one was hurt. I hope you escaped unscathed, and the cattle on the farm. With pleasant memories of your visit, and kind regards from all of us to Mrs Waring, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: C l i f t o n Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

3191.

To James Thomas Fields

Nahant Aug 22 1872. My Dear Fields, The masked batteries of the clouds have opened upon us again to-day, and I write this under fire. The house leaks like a friend to whom you have confided an important secret; and altogether the aspect of things is lugubrious. Sumner and Greene have both departed, each taking up his burden of cares, that he had laid down for a little while, and I have, at length, leisure to thank you for your letter of last week, and Mr. Lea's of this week. His communication is very interesting, and curious. At all events it shows how old the song is, and quite cuts off the claims of the Young Lockinvar of the West who wants to run away with Muse.^ Owen has found in Cambridge a lady, who says her mother taught her those lines in childhood; and another who says they were written by Abraham Lincoln! There is an interesting Englishman here, Mr. Louis,^ who says he has five letters of introduction for you. He intends to establish himself in Boston as lawyer and man of letters. 579

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Yesterday Owen was here with Miss Virginia Vaughan,^ a very intelhgent woman. With kindest regards to your wife, Always Your H.W.L P.S. I should like to keep Mr. Lea's letter till we get back to Camb. MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

1. In a letter of July 26, 1872, Charles W . Hobart of Iowa City had pointed out to Longfellow that the song of the Cobbler of Hagenau in Tales of a Wayside Inn (Works, I V , 1 4 7 ) had been taken "with some slight modification" from his own poem entitled "Tide of Life," published twenty-two years earlier in the Penn Yan, N.Y., Democrat. Longfellow's and Hobart's lines are indeed similar: Longfellow Our ingress into the world Was naked and bare; Our progress through the world Is trouble and care; Our egress from the world Will be nobody knows where : But if we do well here W e shall do well there; And I could tell you no more, Should I preach a whole year!

Hobart Our ingress in life, is naked and bare; Our progress through life, is trouble and care; Our egress out of it, we know not where, But doing well here we shall do well there — I could not tell more by penciling a year.

Mr. Lea, whose letter to Fields is unrecovered, might have been Henry Charles Lea ( 1 8 2 5 - 1 9 0 9 ) , publisher and historian of Philadelphia. He presumably supplied the information, included by Samuel Longfellow in Life, III, 205, that the lines "have been attributed to Franklin, and are found in print in an English work, [The] Eccentricities of John Edwin, [London] 1 7 9 1 . " See also Works, IV, 263. 2. Alfred Hyman Louis ( 1 8 2 9 - 1 9 1 5 ) , an impecunious and eccentric Englishman, attached himself to Longfellow briefly after becoming accustomed to the hospitality of the Nahant cottage and the Craigie House. See William Dean Howells, Literary Friends and Acquaintances ( N e w York and London, 1 9 1 1 ) , pp. 1 8 7 - 1 8 8 . Louis subsequently became the model for Edwin Arlington Robinson's Captain Craig ( W . Denham Sutcliffe, " T h e Original of Robinson's Captain Craig," New England Quarterly, X V I [September 1943], 4 0 7 - 4 3 1 ) . 3. Miss Vaughan (d. 1 9 1 3 , aged eighty-one), a translator of George Sand's novels, had recently attracted attention with a lecture on "Poetry of the Future," which she delivered in Boston and other cities. She had lived with Harriet Hosmer ( 1 7 9 4 . 4 ) in Italy, where she had become the friend of the Brownings, the Hawthornes, and other literati.

580

NAHANT, 3192.

To George Washington

1872

Greene

Nahant Aug 23 1872. My Dear Greene, The enclosed! jj^jj morning, and shows only that nothing has been done. This is better than if something had been done in the wrong direction. They may yet come to see the wisdom of your propositions. You should have heard, or rather your wife should, the eulogy pronounced upon you at dinner yesterday by Mr. Louis, and his regrets that you were gone. He quite touched me by his appreciation of your merits. You made a deep impression upon him. "Singularly attractive," and "I dont know when I have met a person so attractive," &c. &c. Altogether it was very pleasant to hear him. We had another thunder storm yesterday, and a deluge of rain. To-day the weather is perfect again. It is now four o'clock and I shall soon hear the tread of the Commendatore [Louis] on the piazza. So I say farewell. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. A letter, unrecovered, from President White of Cornell. Greene's letter to Longfellow of August 26 gives an indication of its contents: "White's letter is altogether unsatisfactory. It is now nearly a year since my proposition [of an increase in salary] was first brought before the Committee and I am still as much in the dark as ever."

3193.

To Luigi Monti

Nahant Aug 25 1872. My Dear Mr Monti I ought long and long ago to have answered your kind letter and to have thanked you for the translation of Dr. Parson's Ode on Dante's Bust; but the weeks and months have slipped away and I have left undone the things I ought to have done: Peccavi etc. General Masi's Translation is excellent. I only regret that he found it necessary to change the metre of the original, which I always thought very felicitous. Still it makes a beautiful poem in Italian; and is faithful to the original in meaning and melodious in its verse.^ Can you without any great trouble send me two quarter casks of Florio's best Marsala^ direct to Boston? If you can, please send by mail the Invoice so that I may have no trouble at the Custom House, and draw on me at sight for the amount due. This will greatly oblige me. We are here, as usual for the summer, but return to Camb. about the middle of Sept. 581

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Ernest and his wife with Alice are in Switzerland, and Charley still lingers in Japan. Edith and Annie join me in kindest remembrances to yourself, your wife and Nelly, and I am Always Yours Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT;

Frank O. Buda, Cambridge, Mass.

1. In a letter of March 9, 1872, Monti had informed Longfellow that he had sent with the same mail a translation of Thomas William Parsons's "On a Bust of Dante" by Luigi Masi (Ъ. 1814), doctor of medicine, journalist, amateur poet, colonel under Garibaldi, and general commanding the Italian army at Palermo until his death in the spring of 1872. 2. Vincenzo Florio ( 1 7 7 9 - 1 8 6 8 ) , Italian entrepreneur, had established in 1831 the winery at Marsala that still bears his name.

3194.

To Charles Sumner

Nahant A u g 27 1872. M y Dear Sumner, T h e enclosed came this morning, and I cut it open with my other letters, without noticing that it was for you. W e have been looking for you, but in vain. Mr. Louis still lingers and seems "loath to depart."^ T h e Nahant air agrees with him; and he often wonders, that you give yourself so short a vacation. I have seen nothing of [Henry] James [Sr.] since you left us. To-day we have mist and rain. I think it is the beginning of a three days' storm, such as we usually have near the end of August. Greene has had a letter from White, saying that nothing has been done about the Professorship. So he is still in doubt as to his position and income. Owen has been here twice since your departure; once bringing Miss Virginia Vaughan, a very lively and intelligent lady. Come as soon as you can. Always Yours. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

I. Matthew Prior, "The Thief and the Cordeher," 1. 24.

3195.

T o William

Greene

Nahant Aug 30 1872. M y Dear Sir, I agree with you entirely in your view, that the return to power of the Democratic Party would be a most deplorable event. Even admitting the truth 58Z

NAHANT,

1872

of the allegations against the present administration, I still feel, that the country is far safer in its hands, than it would be in those of its opponents. I am sorry that Sumner sees things in the light he does, and puts faith in the promises of a Party that has always shown itself corrupt and dangerous. While I respect his convictions, and sympathize with him in what he wishes to accomplish, I wonder at his credulity, and his willingness to act with such men as now surround him. He thinks that the Democrats have come over to him. He will be terribly disabused.^ We had a very pleasant visit from George, but all thought him ill and feeble. I hope he gained strength here. To lecture in the present condition of his eyes will be extremely difficult. With best regards to Mrs. Greene, I am Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Helen Roelker Kessler, Cambridge, Mass. I. In a letter of A u g u s t 1 7 W i l l i a m Greene had written : " I should regard that man's [Greeley's] election to the Presidency as the greatest calamity that could befall our country. I should regard it as about the beginning of the end of our vaunted American Institutions . . . I M r . Sumner's declaration for Greel[e]y filled me with

amusement

and alarm. W i t h unabated confidence in his moral worth, I cannot help thinking that that declaration was a fearful — terrible — mistake of judgment."

3196.

To Annie Adams Fields

Nahant Sept3 1872 My Dear Mrs Fields, The interruption of many visitors has prevented me from thanking you sooner for your beautiful poem.i I have read it and re-read it with great pleasure. It is simple and tender, as an Idyl should be, particularly an "Idyl of the Shakers." I have long thought that a poem could be drawn from their strange unnatural lives of self-surrender and seclusion from the world. They are the Protestant Monks and Nuns. You have treated the theme with great delicacy and sympathy; the only way in which such a theme can be treated. You must soon be going home. I wish I were. I am tired of keeping tavern; and yet before closing this establishment, where the "sea-views are unrivalled, and charges moderate," I hope to be honored by your presence and that of your husband. We remain here till that indefinite period known as "the middle of next week." Till then and afterward. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. 583

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MANUSCRIPT; Longfellow Trust Collection. I. The Children of Lebanon (Boston, 1872). Longfellow's copy, in the Harvard College Library, contains a letter tipped in from James T. Fields, dated August 28, 1872, with the remark: "Here is a little poem which my wife has written about the Shakers."

3197.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant. Sept. 3. 1872. My Dear Greene, You will be glad, though surprised to hear that Sumner sails to-day in the Malta for Liverpool; and will sing the old Song "Which when the captain came to be informed of, He very much approved what had been done." Sumner was here on Sunday, and told me his intention. It was mainly Howe's urgent entreaties that brought it about, and we cannot be too thankful that Sumner yielded at last. The fret and worry of the campaign would have killed him. He is going to Paris to consult Brown Séquard; and will get three months of picture galleries, and foreign travel, and oblivion of political strife. Professor Crane^ was here yesterday. He is an enthusiastic young student and full of promise. We all liked him very much. With him came a son of my old friend Freiligrath.^ This took me back to the banks of the Rhine, and made me feel how old I am. The "Man in the Iron Mask,"® who has lingered here all this while, departed with them on their return to Boston. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Thomas Frederick Crane ( 1 8 4 4 - 1 9 2 7 ) , professor of modern languages at Cornell, 1868-1909. 2. George Percy Freiligrath (b. 1852). 3. Possibly Alfred Hyman Louis ( 3 1 9 1 . 2 ) .

3198.

To Charles Sumner

Nahant Sept 3 . 1 8 7 2 . My Dear Sumner, As I sit writing to you this afternoon, you are bounding away over the billows blue. I go with you in thought. If I had been a free man, I verily believe I should have gone with you in the body. By this time the secret is out. I wait for the evening papers to hear the first report! Sept. 4 I cut the following from the Boston Morning Journal of to-day.' 584

NAHANT,

1872

The weather has suddenly grown very cold here; and I shiver in this house of cards, and begin to long for home. When you reach Queenstown you may think of me in Cambridge. You will then have nothing but pleasant sights to see. I envy you this flight through Europe. When you gaze at the great paintings of the great masters, О then remember me! When you stroll down the Quai Voltaire and peep into the shops of the Bouquinistes [dealers in old books], О then remember me! When you wander in wonder in Spain, О then remember me!^ I received your farewell salutation this morning. Pray let me hear from you again as soon as possible. Always most afF[ectionatel]y H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. 1. Following this sentence, a paragraph from the Boston Morning Journal, X X X I X , No. 1 3 , 1 4 0 (September 4, 1 8 7 2 ) , is pasted to the sheet: "MR. SUMNER'S DEPARTURE. / W e give elsewhere all the known facts respecting the sudden — certainly the suddenly announced — departure of Senator Sumner for Europe. W e but expr^ -s the common feeling of our community in deeply regretting the necessity of this step. Whatever diversities of opinion may prevail in Massachusetts in regard to our senior Senator's recent political course, there is but one feeling of respect for the man and sympathy with him on account of the faltering state of his health, entailing as it does serious suffering as well as the relinquishment of his customary pursuits. This is mainly the result of devotion and over-devotion to public duties; and none, surely, can regard it with a tenderer interest, than those who for years have been proud to look up to their Senator as their leader and instructor. W e sincerely trust that the foreign trip which Mr. Sumner's medical advisers have now enjoined upon him, will not only prove effectual in a sanitary point of view, but will open to him renewed and constant sources of enjoyment and refreshment, such as the exhausted statesman so sadly needs, and that we shall see him back again when Congress meets in December, perfectly restored in health, with the old vigor of his palmiest days about him." Accompanying the letter is another and longer clipping relating to Sumner's departure, from the Boston Advertiser, C X X , No. 56 (September 4, 1 8 7 2 ) . 2. Longfellow echoes the words of the ghost of Hamlet's father in Hamlet, I, v, 91,

3199.

To Charles Sumner

Nahant. Sept. 6. 1872. My Dear Sumner, This morning's mail brought a newspaper for you, "at Mr. Tennyson's, Nahant." Mr. Tennyson has taken the liberty to open the envelope, and requests me to send you the piece marked in the paper; "Farragut's Funeral," with the author's card. It is evident that Johnson has but confused ideas of contemporary literary history.^

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The more I think of it, the more glad I am, that you are on your way to Europe; and I imagine you now speeding onward, horizontal, head-foremost, shot forth as from a bow; — ejaculated, as Choate^ would have said, toward foreign shores. In Paris I hope you will make a point of seeing Marmier. He is such a gentle lover of books, such an agreeable causeur [talker], that I am sure you will be pleased with him. Give him our most cordial regards and remembrances. Owen has not reappeared on the Nahant boards since your departure. The "Man in the Iron Mask" has gone to Boston. He has formed an alliance with Snelling;® though he communicated to me in confidence the other day, that he "thought Snelling a bit of a bore." Excuse this unworthy gossip. Did not Prometheus gossip when he was chained to the rock, with the American eagle pecking at him? Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

1. Admiral Farragut ( 2 1 7 4 . 2 ) died in Portsmouth, N . H . , on August 14, 1870, and a public funeral was held in N e w York on September 30, attended by President Grant and other dignitaries. For a detailed description of the event see the N e w York Tribune, X X X , No. 9200 (October I, 1 8 7 0 ) . T h e account mentioned here is unidentified. Johnson may be Dr. Joseph Taber Johnson ( 1 8 4 5 - 1 9 2 1 ) , Sumner's physician in Washington, D.C. 2. Although Longfellow may be referring here to Rufus Choate ( 3 6 7 . 6 ) , he more likely meant Joseph Hodges Choate ( 1 8 3 2 - 1 9 1 7 ) , Harvard-trained lawyer of N e w York, active Republican, and celebrated after-dinner speaker. 3. Possibly George Henry Snelling ( 1 8 0 1 - 1 8 9 2 ) , Harvard graduate of 1 8 1 9 and a Boston lawyer.

3200.

To Edward Arthur Lawrence^

Nahant. Sept. 7 1872. My Dear Sir, In reply to your letter just received, I beg to say, that I have no objection to having the poem "The Legend Beautiful" inserted in the Reader of Professor Holmes. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Library of Congress.

I. Lawrence ( 1 8 3 2 - 1 8 8 3 ) , of Flushing, N . Y . , had written to Longfellow on September 5 on behalf of Professor George Frederick Holmes ( 1 8 2 0 - 1 8 9 7 ) of the University of Virginia, who wished to include " T h e Legend Beautiful" in a forthcoming volume of his First Reader ( N e w York, 1 8 7 0 ? - : 8 7 2 ) , 6 vols. 586

NAHANT, 3 201.

1872

To Louis Girard

Nahant Sept 8 1872. Dear Louis, We return on Saturday next [September 14]. Please let Ernest drop this Order into Mr. Danforth's box/ and oblige Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Frank O. Buda, Cambridge, Mass. I. For Ernest Girard, see 2 7 1 2 . 2 . Danforth was possibly Isaac W . Danforth, aged forty-six, a Cambridge hardware dealer.

3202.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant Sept. 8. 1872 M y Dear Greene, The only thing it is wise for a man to do, when he is in doubt, is — nothing. At all events, in the present crisis do not take any desperate step, that cannot be retrieved. I would not even let White see, that you feel vexed at his silence.^ I wish I knew the exact terms of your engagement with the University. Is there nothing in the proposition originally made to you, which would show, whether your engagement was for one Course, as at the Lowell? or was [it] a regular appointment like most Professorships?^ Your name being on the Catalogue as Professor, you have a right to assume the latter, unless the former is specified; and I should act accordingly, and should go on to resume my duties, or write to say I was coming. We go back to Camb. on Saturday next. If you could be there to meet us, or could come on Monday, we might possibly determine what is best. Do not, at all events, resign at present. There is time enough for that later. I hope that before the week is out the question will have answered itself, and you will have received the long-delayed letter from White. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Greene had written desperately on September 5: "Another mail and not a line from White. I never was treated with such indignity before. What can it mean? What can I — what ought I to do? I never felt the humiliation of poverty as I do now. I feel that my self respect demands that I should break off all connection with a man so wantonly regardless of what is due to a gentleman: but I feel that regard for гг»у family requires that I should hold on to every means of securing their support. I shrink too, from the questionable position I have so long held — a doer of job work, higgling over sixpences — living from hand to mouth — a burthen to my friends. What shall I do?" 2. In response to these queries, Greene wrote on September 1 1 : " I have no copy

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of m y original letter of acceptance but the language of the catalogue shows that I was appointed Prof, of A m . Hist." T h e matter of the professorship was eventually resolved and Greene departed for Ithaca on January 6, 1 8 7 3 (letter of December 3 t , 1 8 7 2 ) .

3203.

To George William Curtis

Nahant Sept 9 1872. My Dear Curtis I deplore, as much as you do, this fatal delusion of our friend. What madness seized him? What demon drove? I wonder if everybody is not a little insane! But that is all swallowed up in my anxiety about his health. He is seriously ill. When here he could not walk [a] quarter of a mile without great exhaustion; and his only hope seemed to me in escaping from the unhealthy excitement of a political campaign.^ Another thing I deplore is the aspect of public affairs. Grant has at least the dignity of silence; but Greeley, — well really it makes one laugh and weep at once, and we will say no more about it. Kensett arrived this morning, and he and T.G.[A.] have gone across the bay to eat raw birds at Taft's, on Shirley Point, a famous place,^ where while you feast like Lucullus, you can look out of the windows at Deer Island almshouse opposite, and make a good many reflections. I wish that on your way back to New York you could take Cambridge in your route. I should be so delighted to see you. Perhaps you will think of it. We go back next Saturday. Always with great affection Yours H.W.L P.S. Alice is in Europe for the Summer with Ernest and his wife. Only Edith and Annie are here to send their love to you. P.S. Have you had anything better in your nursery than what follows? My neighbor's little boy, going to bed very sleepy, said his prayers after this fashion. "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep; Hurrah! hurrah! We sing the Jubilee! Amen!" Lowell, you know, has gone to Europe for a couple of years.® I have not yet heard from him. Norton remains another year, or at all events, till Spring. 588

NAHANT,

1872

Cambridge will be desolate. But we look for Agassiz in October;^ and I shall not be left quite alone. As I write, I look from the window over the slate-blue sea. The steamer Ulysses blows her whistle, and sails by to her landing. It is a gray day, and cool. The rising tide rushes among the rocks. I am thinking of the old days, when you were here with the Storys; perhaps had this room, and wrote at this window. I wish you were here now, to "Breathe a native atmosphere In the world of Long Ago." But my Postscript is growing as long as my letter. I join the end with the beginning by saying that I will not fail, at an early hour to send your kind greeting to Sumner. If you see any generous paragraph in the papers, that would cheer and comfort him, I beg you to send them to the care of Baring Bros. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow T r u s t Collection. 1. In a letter of September 5 from Ashfleld, Mass., Curtis had written of his concern tor Sumner: " I see by m y paper today with infinite pain but not with surprise that Sumner has gone away. During the winter I saw too much of him not to perceive how old he had grown and h o w weary he was, — and I had sad experience of the struggle in which he was engaged. I sought, long after others had abandoned the attempt, to find some means of healing the breach between him and the President. But 'tis fate, — and I submitted . . . Should you write to him tell him, please, with m y most affectionate love, that nothing has ever pained me more than the necessity of differing at this time."

2. See 2277.2. 3. See 3087-5· 4. See 3 1 7 1 . 1 . Agassiz had arrived in San Francisco on A u g u s t 2 4 , 1 8 7 2 .

3204.

To Francis Lieber

Nahant. Sept. 9. 1872. My Dear Lieber, Held aloft by the right hand of Governor Reynolds "Excalibur"i flashed again above the waters, and I rejoice greatly. I was afraid that through my negligence it had disappeared forever, and could not forgive myself. As a poem, the "Gloss" on the words of Novalis, (which you persistently misquote) is perhaps the better of the two. At all events it touches me more.^ Thanks, too, for the "Ship Canal."® You know I always liked that poem. 589

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But I mistrust all so-called emendations. They are made in cold blood; while the poem is written in a glow. As soon as I return to Cambridge, I will hand it to the editor of the Atlantic. The only difficulty I anticipate is in its having been published before. You, who like not childish things, but things appertaining to children, listen to what follows. The son of a neighbor here, a child of three years, being very sleepy, said his evening prayer thus; "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep; Hurrah! hurrah! We sing the Jubilee! Amen!" With kind regards to Mrs. Lieber. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

1. A reference to "Ein Erguss," Lieber's poem on Washington's sword. See 3 0 1 6 . i . T h e St. Louis reprint of the poem was arranged by Thomas Caute Reynolds (c. 1 8 2 1 1 8 8 7 ) , lieutenant governor of Missouri, 1 8 6 0 - 1 8 6 2 , secessionist, governor in exile, 1 8 6 2 - 1 8 6 5 , and friend of Lieber. 2. See 3 1 3 8 . 2 . 3. In his letter of September 5, enclosing the printed "Ein Erguss," Lieber had also sent Longfellow a revised version in manuscript of this poem on the Darien (Panama) Canal.

3205.

To james Thomas Fields

Nahant Sept 10 1872. My Dear Fields You did not come, therefore I did not go, namely, to Taft's. But the rest of the party went yesterday in the gray and rainy weather. Taft's and the Hospital opposite, and the great gulf between are an illustration of the Parable of Dives and Lazarus; — Dives faring sumptuously every day, and the sea-tides coming and licking the sores of Lazarus.! I do not send you a stanza from "Palingenesis," because I have not a copy of the poem at hand, and cannot remember the exact words. "Thus," as Locke says, "the thoughts, like the children of our youth, often die before us, and our minds represent to us the tombs to which we are all approaching, 590

NAHANT,

1872

where, though the brass and marble remain, the inscriptions are effaced, and the images moulder away."^ Or words to that effect. W e go to Cambridge on Saturday. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: H e n r y E . Huntington Library. 1. C f . L u k e 5 7 : 1 9 - 2 1 . 2.

3206.

8663144.2.

T o Charles Appleton

Longfellow

Nahant Sept 10 1872. M y Dear Charley I have just got your letter of Aug. 4. and it seems quite clear that some letters have miscarried. Before coming down to Nahant I saw Mr. Wellman, Baring Bros' agent in Boston,^ and told him that you had written to London for a new Credit. He said there was no difficulty about it, and that if you had written for it, it must be on its way. Hearing from you again in Aug, that nothing had reached you, I wrote to Mr. Wellman.^ I enclose you his answer, which may be of service, if there is any delay in the new letter from Baring. But I trust that before this reaches you all will be set right. As I wrote in a previous letter, you[r] income is about one thousand pounds per annum. T r y to keep within it. I sent you also an account of the sums paid over to Baring this year. In June the account was in your favor. Since then I have deposited to your credit $2,500. A bill of $45. has been sent in from the Mass Commandery of Loyal Legion. Shall I pay it? I wrote to you June 20th. and July 25th. T h e only news I have to send you to-day [is] that of Cora Spelman's engagement to Frank Eustis.® W e are all well, and all send much love. W m . [Church] Otis wants you to buy him a punch bowl, and draw on him for the amount! Always your affectionate H.W.L. MANUSCKIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. W i l l i a m Augustus W e l l m a n

(d.

1 8 7 8 , aged seventy-three) became manager of

Baring Brothers, Boston, in 1 8 5 4 , after twenty-seven years in the Boston Custom House. 2. T h i s letter is unrecovered. 3 . Cora Spelman ( 1 9 4 7 . 1 ) married Frank Izard Eustis ( 1 8 4 7 - 1 9 2 8 ) , son of H e n r y Lawrence Eustis ( 1 8 1 9 - 1 8 8 5 ) ,

professor of engineering at Harvard,

December 28, 1 8 7 4 .

591

1849-1885,

on

EMBERS 3207.

T o Alice Mary

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Longfellow

Camb. Sept 1 5 1872 M y Darling, W e came from Nahant yesterday, Uncle Sam and I by Steamer, Uncle Tom and the girls by the yacht "Alice." T h e y were six hours in doing it; and thought it very pleasant. M y first visit was to Cora, who was very smiling and happy. So was Mrs. Spelman. T h e y came back from R y e Beach, only a week ago, satisfied with their summer. Harry^ allows no one to speak ill of Rye. Mr. S. thinks it rather far off. W e have been here but a day, and already I have had two visits from J[ohn] 0 [ w e n ] . To-day is a rainy Sunday; and now it is evening. Annie is writing, and Edie reading the life of Tasso by Ginguené,^ preparatory to beginning the "Gerusalemme Liberata," which she proposes to do tomorrow. I enclose you M . Guyot's address,® that you may not forget the book-case for the entry up-stairs; medium size, double doors, colonnes torses [wreathed columns], if you find one. It need give you little trouble. You have only to buy it, and let Guyot send it to Bolles, (or Bowles)^ who will do all the rest. Be particular to tell Bowles to send it by ship direct to Boston. I remind you also of the doz. shirts at Boivin-jeune's,® and the English gloves, dark colors, 8V2. So much for commissions. W e shall be looking for you soon. Your Cadenabbia letter made us all envious. W e wished we were there. Love to E. and H. and to yourself, my darling from your affectionate father H.W.L P.S. Both Edie and Annie have written you to-day. T h e y will direct to Baring Bros, London. So will Mrs. Spelman. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Henry Munson Spelman ( 1 8 6 1 - 1 9 4 6 ) , brother of Cora Spelman and Harriet Spelman Longfellow. 2. Chapter X I V in the Histoire Littéraire d'Italie ( 2 1 9 8 . 3 ) . 3. Pasted to the top of the first sheet is a printed advertisement, as follows: "Passage Choiseul, 79 & 81, / Sous le Cadran / 6. Rue Monsigny. / Guyot, Md. de Meubles. / Commission-Exportation. / Spécialité d'emballage pour / la Province & l'Etranger." 4. Bowles Brothers & Company, bankers, had offices at 12 Rue de la Paix, Paris, and at 27 State Street, Boston. 5. A haberdashery on the Boulevard des Italiens, Paris.

592

CAMBRIDGE, 3208.

1872

To John VoldO-

Cambridge Sept. 18 1872 Dear Sir, In reply to your question I would state, that there are two translations of "Hakon Jarl" in English. One is anonymous, and was published by "T. Hookham Old Bond St. London. 1840."^ The other is by Mr. Gillies, and appeared in "Blackwood's Magazine," some years ago.® If there are others, I do not know them. One or both you would be likely to find in the Astor Library. I am. Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow P.S. I do not know whether Mr. Gillies' translation has ever been published in book form. Some specimens of it you will find in "Poets and Poetry of Europe."^ MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. 1. Volck, a clerk of 338 East 21st Street, New York, had asked Longfellow in a letter of September 7 to inform him about a translation of Adam Oehlenschläger's Hakon Jarl. 2. Hakon Jarl, a Tragedy, in Five Acts, translated from the Danish of Öhlenschläger; and Poems after Various Authors (London, 1840). 3. Robert Pearse Gillies ( 1 7 8 8 - 1 8 5 8 ) , Scottish author and editor, published his translation of Hakon Jarl in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, VII (April 1820), 73-89· 4. See pp. 9 8 - 1 1 0 .

3209.

To Alexander Denham & Company^

Cambridge Sept 20 1872 Dear Sir, Please send me from your Sept. Catalogue, No 764. Irving; Bracebridge Hall [London, 1822]. 2 vols 8 vo. care of Sawin's Express Boston, and oblige Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Boston College Library. I. Booksellers of 17 Murray Street, New York.

593

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To George Washington Greene

Camb. Sept 23. 1872. My Dear Greene, You had no sooner gone than the enclosed missive came from the facetious Fields. This is his latest and best joke; to leave two such "Children in the Wood" as you and I, to find our way alone into those unknown regions. I do not know Mr. Poor well enough to go without a proper guide and programme; even if there were time, which there is not, to arrange the expedition for this week. So this symphony belongs to the "music of the future."^ Young Mr. Scribner^ was here this afternoon. He expressed his regret that I could not go on to the Froude dinner; said Curtis would preside; and that probably Bryant would be there; and that it would be a very quiet aíFair.·® But, like Alfieri, I tie myself to my chair, and cannot be moved. I long to get at my work again; but as long as doors and windows are open, there is little chance of it. Hoping that you have heard from irresponsive Ithaca, and are happy. "Ithaca, die, per omnes Te Deos oro; Sybarin, cur properas silendo Perdere."" H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Fields's missive is unrecovered, but it might have contained another invitation to visit the residence, near Newburyport, of Benjamin Perley Poore. See 2 9 9 i . i . 2. John Blair Scribner ( 1 8 5 0 - 1 8 7 9 ) had succeeded his father Charles Scribner ( 1 8 2 1 - 1 8 7 1 ) as head of the N e w York publishing firm that conducted business as Scribner, Armstrong & Company from 1 8 7 1 to 1878. 3. In an invitation dated September 18, Scribner, Armstrong & Company had asked Longfellow to attend a dinner at Delmonico's in N e w York on October 10 to honor the English historian and man of letters James Anthony Froude ( 1 8 1 8 - 1 8 9 4 ) , who was lecturing in the United States. 4. C f . Horace, Odes, I, viii, 1 - 3 : "Tell me, Ithaca, in the name of all that's holy, why are you set on destroying Sybaris with silence."

3211.

To William Greene

Camb. Sept 24 1872 My Dear Sir, I had the pleasure this morning of receiving your letter, with its enclosure, and hasten to thank you.^ Your argument on the "Tarif [f] Question" is very clear and convincing. It goes straight to the mark, as all human speech should. It will not do to open 594

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

our gates to the Wooden Horse quite yet; but I am inconsistent enough to rejoice at the suppression of all duties on books published before 1850. I am very sorry to hear of the death of Mr. Samuel Greene.^ The loss of so courteous and cultivated a gentleman must be deeply felt by you. I return your Article as you perhaps have no other copy, and will wish to preserve this. With best regards to Mrs Greene, I am my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Helen Roelker Kessler, Cambridge, Mass.

1. With a letter of September 23 William Greene had enclosed a paper he had written (unrecovered) in support of the protective tariff. See 2 3 5 6 . 1 . 2. Samuel Ward Greene ( 2 5 3 0 . 2 ) had died on September 2 1 .

3212.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Sept 26 1872. My Dear Fields, Do you feel inclined, after our dinner on Saturday, to look in at the Mario concert? Limited liability. Either party free to annul the contract at pleasure; as in this capricious climate change of mind is not only a luxury, but a necessity, and it is the climax of absurdity to bind one's self, by any absolute engagement, to do any particular thing at any given time.^ At present. Yours truly H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Chicago Historical Society.

I. Mario ( 1 4 0 8 . 3 ) sang in concert with Carlotta Patti ( 1 8 4 0 - 1 8 8 9 ) , coloratura soprano, at the Boston Music Hall on Saturday, September 28. Longfellow apparently did not attend the concert after the Saturday Club dinner ( M S Journal).

3213.

To Francis Lieber

Camb. Sept. 27. 1872. My Dear Lieber, I ought to have written to you long ago; but an imber edax^ of visits has consumed my time. I will delay no longer; "Proeliis audax neque te silebo Lieber. As soon as I came from Nahant I took your fine poem to the Editor of the Adantic, and left it with him. Day before yesterday he called; said he liked it 595

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much; but wished to know how much had been changed in it since its first publication. He said he should write to you on the subject, and I presume he has already done so.® I have written twice to Sumner since his departure, but hear nothing from him as yet. The papers say he has left London for Paris. Every time I think of his political position, it strikes me like a blow. Why would he ally himself to that ignoble crowd? And then the state of his health gives me great anxiety. I hope Brown-Séquard will find some remedy. If he cannot, Sumner's life is in daily danger, not to say hourly. Yours truly H.W.L Sept 28. 1872 P.S. In my letter yesterday I forgot to speak of the poem in the Ledger. Mr. Fields, who keeps the run of such matters, says that it is by Tennyson. I therefore suppose there is no doubt of it. To the best of my knowledge it has not been published in any of his volumes; but in the paper it appeared with his name appended.^ H.W.L MANUSCRIPT; H e n r y E . Huntington Library. 1. Horace, Odes, III, xxx, 3 : "corroding rain." 2. Longfellow amends Horace, Odes,

I, xii, 2 1 , to accommodate his pun,

"Lieber"

for " L i b e r ( B a c c h u s ) " : " I will not be silent about you. Lieber, daring in battle." 3 . In his letter of September 5 Lieber had asked Longfellow to submit his poem on the " S h i p - C a n a l " to the Atlantic

Monthly.

See 3 2 0 4 . 3 .

4. O n September 1 9 Lieber had asked Longfellow if T e n n y s o n had ever acknowledged the authorship of " E n g l a n d and America in 1 7 8 2 , " a poem for which he received £ 1 0 0 0 w h e n it first appeared in the N e w York Ledger,

3214.

X X V I I ( J a n u a r y 6, 1 8 7 2 ) , 4.

To William Dean Howells

Camb. Sept 28. 1872 My Dear Mr. Howells I have just received the enclosed from Mr. Lieber.^ It will give you the desired information, and save you the trouble of writing. Yours truly H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. I . Presumably Lieber's letter of September 28, in which he wrote of his poem the "Ship-Canal":

" T h e editor of the Atlantic has not written to me . . . T e l l him pray

that I have left out at least 6 or 8 stanzas of the original; have added 3 or 4 n e w ones, and rasped, filed, filled, condensed or pulled all." Despite this defense of the poem's originality, Howells did not accept it for the

Atlantic.

596

CAMBRIDGE, 3215.

1872

To James Ripley Osgood

Camb. Sept. 30. 1872. Dear Sir, Please send me a copy of "Flower-de-Luce" in sheets. I find upon examination that of Hawthorne's Note Books I have French and Itahan 2 vols English 2 vols. What I want to complete my set are the American Notes.^ Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow P.S. Please send also in sheets a copy of "Christus."^ MANUSCRIPT;

Boston Public Library.

1. For these works by Hawthorne, see BAL 7632, 7635, and 7636. 2. The postscript has been deleted.

3216.

To George William Curtis

Camb. Oct. i. 1872 My Dear Curtis I am sorry that I cannot come to hear you this evening,^ but hope to see you notwithstanding. If you can dine with me tomorrow (Wednesday) at five, I shall be deIighted.2 You will meet Robert Dale Owen^ and Howells; also Dr. Palfrey. Come if you can. I am haunted by an impression that in writing to you from Nahant I directed the letter to Ashland instead of Ashfield, and thereby endangered the safe delivery of the same. If I knew where to find you in Boston I should go in pursuit of you. Not knowing I write this instead. Always Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

University of Washington Library.

1. On this date, at the Tremont Temple, Curtis opened the fifteenth annual course of lectures sponsored by the Parker Fraternity, speaking on the subject "Grant or Greeley, and Why?" 2. Curtis responded on the same day that he had to "return at too early an hour even to see you, much less to dine." 3. Owen ( 1 8 0 1 - 1 8 7 7 ) , Scottish-born social reformer, had been during a varied life a member of Congress, 1843-1847, a founder of the Smithsonian Institution, and an ardent advocate of emancipation.

597

EMBERS 3217.

THAT

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To Thomas Frederick Crane

Camb. O c t 3 1872. M y Dear Mr. Crane, I have had the pleasure of receiving your friendly letter, and the little volume of Philarète Chasles,i which I will return to you, as I see it is a presentation copy, as soon as I have run it through and shown it to Mr. Appleton. He is not here at present, but is passing some weeks at Newport, or has gone to the White Mountains. I am glad to hear that your classes are so flourishing; and almost envy you the pleasure of lecturing on Dante and Calderón. I say lecturing, for all good instruction takes more or less that shape, whatever name we give it. I always thought the problem of instruction was not how much we can get out of pupils, but how much we can get into them. With best wishes for your success, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Cornell University Library. I. Crane's letter of September 29 identifies this book as Questions du temps et problèmes d'autrefois. Pensées sur l'histoire, la vie sociale, la littérature. Cours du Collège de France, 1841-1867, ed. С . Combarieu (Paris, 1867).

3218.

То Charles Sumner

Camb. Oct 4. 1872. M y Dear Sumner, I sent you two little notes from Nahant, just as you had sailed out of the harbor, and hoped before this to have had a line from you. Your safe arrival, and transit from London to Paris, I see in the papers; and that you have dined with a banker with a German name, which I have forgotten.i I have learned also that Brown Séquard is no longer in Paris, but here in Boston. You will have missed him, which I very deeply regret. At the Club on Saturday Emerson told me he was going immediately to England to look after his son, who is ill there.^ On your way back you will probably meet him, which will be a pleasure to both. Perhaps, too, you have found Lowell in Paris. How do the pictures look? and the Boulevards and the Cafés? Are they tarnished by time? Or fresh in perennial bloom? Here all things go on in the customary grooves. Greene has been here, a good deal discouraged. They have put his Course into the Winter, and increased the number of his lectures to thirty-six, which I am sorry to say are not ready. He has hard work before him; but meets the emergency with courage and determination. 598

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

You will be startled to hear of Lieber's sudden death.® I know as yet none of the particulars. Only two days before, I had a letter from him. He was anxious, for some reason, to get his poem on the Darien Canal, reprinted with corrections and additions, in the Atlantic. Kind salutations to Marmier, if you see him. Always with greatest affection, H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

1. Presumably Joseph Seligman ( 1 8 1 9 - 1 8 8 0 ) , German-born head of the banking house of J . & W . Seligman & Company, New York, who entertained Sumner in Paris. See Sumner Memoir and Letters, IV, 538. 2. Emerson and his daughter Ellen Tucker ( 1 8 3 9 - 1 9 0 9 ) left N e w York on October 23 and returned to Boston on May 26, 1 8 7 3 , after traveling in England, on the Continent, and in Egypt. Edward Waldo Emerson ( 1 8 4 4 - 1 9 3 0 ) , a Harvard graduate of 1866, was a medical student in England at this time. 3. T h e following clipping from the Boston Transcript, X L V , No. 1 3 , 0 3 7 (October 3, 1 8 7 2 ) , is pasted to the top of the sheet: " N e w York, Oct. 3. T h e death of Professor Lieber, yesterday, was very sudden, and was a severe stroke for his family. His affliction was heart disease. He was in his seventy-third year. T h e funeral arrangements are not yet completed."

3219.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Oct. 6.1 1872 My Dear Greene, I am tired of everything to night, even of the Nouveaux Lundis of Saint[e] Beuve. The thermometer in this room, at half past nine stands at seventy four with the window open, and Pegasus sweats in his harness. Darley dined with me to day, and I am glad to find he has so much reverence for Allston, and Cooper. He says, however, that Cooper's novels do not sell; and the Appletons have discontinued their new edition, stopping with the Leather Stocking Tales. This evening Robert Dale Owen has been here. He is writing his Autobiography for the Atlantic.^ I am not sure that he did not tell you of this, when you were here. I am curious and anxious to know what progress you make in the new lectures. From Sumner I hear no word. I have written to him again. Every day I deplore his difficult position, and it seems sadder and sadder to me. Lieber's death was a sudden shock. Only the day before, I had a letter from him.® Yours always H.W.L 599

EMBERS MANUSCRIPT:

THAT

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Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Longfellow wrote "Oct. 7 no 6." 2. Seventeen chapters of Owen's autobiography appeared in the Atlantic between January 1873 and January 1875. They were collected and reprinted as Twenty-Seven Years of Autobiography. Threading My Way ( N e w York, 1 8 7 4 ) . 3. Dated September 28. See 3 2 1 4 . i .

3220.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb.OctS. 1872 M y Dear Greene, If you have forgotten it, you will be pleased to be reminded that Horace mentions the Craigie House in Ode X X I of the First Book. He speaks of it as the viridis Cragi, ^ in which Diana takes delight, that is on which the moonlight lingers. To-night her face is rather clouded, as she looks across the meadows. Pray do not forget, or do not any longer delay, the autograph letters promised to Fields. He has spoken to me once or twice about them; and evidently desires to have them.^ And the Lectures? I hope the task does not prove so formidable as it looked at first; "E l'aspettar del male è mal peggiore Forse, che non parrebbe il mal presente."® How splendidly the Autumn begins to tread his wine-press! The creepers round the seat in the old apple-tree have assumed the shape of two magnificent bay horses, or red-bronze horses rather; the eyes being formed by hollows in the old trunk. I delighted in them for an hour to-day, pacing the verandah after the rain. Nothing from Sumner yet. He is as silent as Grant, and I am as garrulous as Greeley, having already written him three letters. Mr. MacDonald is here, and lectures on Burns next Thursday at Cambridgeport.'' He is a stalwart Scotchman, and looks like Welsh^' of the University Press, — when he was alive. H.W.L. P.S. I have heard no news from Howells yet, in regard to the N.A.R. I will try to see him soon, and remind him of his promise.® MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1 . Odes, L xxi, 8: "verdant Cragus." 2. After being twice reminded of his promise, Greene wrote in a letter of October 27: "Fields shall have the autographs as soon as they are copied, for being historical matter I feel it to be necessary to keep copies of them all." 3. Tasso, Gerusalemme Liberata, L Ixxxü, 1 - 2 : "And looked-for evil is a greater ill / Than the winged mischief when it comes" ( J . H. Wiifen translation).

600

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

4. George Macdonald ( 1 8 2 4 - 1 9 0 5 ) , Scottish poet and novelist, delivered his lecture on October 1 0 at the Union Hall before the Harvard-Street Literary Association (Boston Advertiser, C X X , No. 88 [October 1 1 , 1 8 7 2 ] ) . 5. That is, Albion K. P. Welch, who had died in 1870, aged forty-six. See 2 1 7 2 . i , where his dates are incorrectly given. 6. Henry Adams, who had become editor of the North American Review in January 1 8 7 1 , resigned in the spring of 1 8 7 2 to make a wedding tour of Europe. Greene entertained a forlorn hope of succeeding him, and Howells apparently promised to intercede in his behalf. T h e hope collapsed when Thomas Sergeant Perry ( 2 3 8 9 . 1 ) was appointed editor until Adams's return to the post in January 1874.

3221.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Oct 11 1872 My Dear Greene, I enclose a couple of paragraphs about Sumner. These are the last I have seen, and the final one, from this evening's paper, is not very encouraging.^ However, I do not attach much importance to newspaper reports. I am afraid the news of the discomfiture and utter rout of the Greeley forces will disturb him greatly. Que diable allait-il faire dans cette galère [What the devil induced him to get into that scrape]? Yesterday evening, against my usual custom, I went down to Cambridgeport to hear Mr. MacDonald lecture on Burns. He spoke without notes; and I thought how much more interesting that style of lecturing is than any reading; though certainly not without its drawbacks and defects. After the lecture he and his wife and son, with Mr. and Mrs. Fields, and Howells came home to supper here, and the large round table and Providence River oysters reminded me of the old Dante suppers. MacDonald is a very cordial, pleasant man. He looks like the late Mr. Welsh of the University Press, with his long brown beard, and easy ways. Howells tells me they have no answer yet from Professor Dunbar.^ Good night. H.W.L P.S. I want to add a postscript, but unfortunately have nothing to put into it. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Three newspaper clippings are pasted to the top of the sheet. T w o are from the "English Gossip" column in the Boston Advertiser, C X X , No. 87 (October 10, 1 8 7 2 ) . T h e third, from the Transcript, X L V , No. 13,044 (October 1 1 , 1 8 7 2 ) , reads as follows: "PERSONAL. Gentlemen who arrived at Washington from Paris met Senator Sumner in that city on the 26th of last month. They report the general health of the senator as worse rather than better, and that symptoms of his old attack are more alarming than when he sailed. He was about to have a consultation with eminent physicians." 2. T h e interim editorship of the North American Review might have been offered to Charles Franklin Dunbar ( 1 8 3 0 - 1 9 0 0 ) , professor of political economy at Harvard, 1871-1900. 6 о I

EMBERS 3222.

To George Washington

THAT

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Greene

Camb. O c t i 3 1872 My Dear Greene, I came home from the Post Office this morning quite jubilant, having in my pocket a letter from you, and one from Sumner. But my joy was soon turned into mourning.^ How very, very sorry I am to receive such bad news from you. I shall wait impatiently for your tomorrow's letter in hope of hearing something more cheering. Sumner says of his health; "I think I am much better; but my case seems fitful. My first day in Paris was of bad omen. A very short walk — three fourths of the Rue de la Paix, — left me as feeble as if I had walked thirty miles."2 He has taken his return passage in the White Star line of Nov. 14th for New York. To-day I have been reading over again "Eckermann's Conversations with Göthe."·^ Of the "Promessi Sposi" Göthe says; "Let me announce to you that Manzoni's romance soars far above all we possess of the kind. I need say to you iiothing more, than that the inmost — all that comes from the soul of the poet — is absolutely perfect; and that the outward — the drawing of localities, and the like — is no way inferior."^ This will please you, if it finds you well enough to enjoy it, which I heartily hope it may. Always Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. In a letter of October 1 2 Greene reported a new attack of pain, nausea, and vomiting. 2. Letter dated Paris, September 27, 1872. 3. 866485.18. 4. Conversation of Wednesday, July 18, 1827.

3223.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Oct 17. 1872. My Dear Greene, I wonder now if your attack were not Dyspepsia, pure and simple. If so, listen to the following medical advice, for which I charge you nothing. After each meal take one teaspoonful of brandy, neither more no[r] less. Thus doing, you will find the lang[u]or, that follows breakfast and dinner, greatly diminished or wholly gone. I was at a Concert yesterday afternoon, where Rubinstein played the pianoforte, and Wieniawsky the violin most admirably.^ I never heard these instruments better played, I think; even by Liszt and Paganini. 602

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

Looking into Allibone's Dictionary to-day, I find this quotation from the London Times: "We agree with those who consider Mr. Tennyson as the greatest poet of the age." T o this Allibone appends the note; "This is but faint praise."^ Sarcastic Alhbone! A letter from Alice, dated Paris, says they have seen Sumner. He thinks himself better, but cannot walk much without trouble at the heart. I am rejoiced to hear that you are at work again. Take it as easily as you can, and do not fret yourself about the result. Are you writing the Lectures in full, or only making notes? H.W.L P.S. Yours of yesterday just received. MANUSCRIPT; Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Anton Rubinstein ( 1 8 2 9 - 1 8 9 4 ) , Russian pianist and composer, and Henri Wieniawski ( 1 8 3 5 - 1 8 8 0 ) , Polish violinist, were performing at the Music Hall, Boston. 2. Longfellow quotes from memory. See Allibone's Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors, ΙΠ, 2375.

3224.

To Franz Liszt

Cambridge Oct 18 1872. My Dear Sir, Be kind enough to accept this volume from me, in memory of pleasant hours passed in Rome, and of your kindness to me there.^ To me those are memorable days. Your portrait, with the light, hangs in my Library. It always gives me pleasure to look upon it; and not less to all who see it.^ I have commissioned Mr. Zerdahelyi to bear you my most cordial greetings, and am, my Dear Sir, Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow. P.S. Many thanks for your note of introduction to Mr. Damrock.® I shall be delighted to see him; but he still lingers in New York. I trust I shall soon have the pleasure of receiving him here. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection M. l'Abbé / Franz Liszt / à Pasti.

(Longfellow

House),

ADDRESS:

À

1. A copy of Evangeline bearing the inscription 'Tranz Liszt, with kind remembrances of the Author, — Cambridge, America October 20, 1 8 7 2 , " which was presumably meant to accompany the letter, is in the Longfellow House. 2. See 2698.2. 3. Liszt's note of February 28, 1 8 7 1 , from Pest, introduced Leopold Damrosch ( 1 8 3 2 - 1 8 8 5 ) , German violinist, composer, and conductor, who in 1 8 7 1 had come to N e w York, where he remained to play a prominent role in the musical life of the city.

603

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T o Charles Appleton

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Longfellow C a m b . O c t . 18. 1872.

M y Dear Charlie, I have just had a letter from W i l l i e Fay, asking me if you are coming home this autumn. I was obliged to say, that I did not know, though I hoped you were. Since this reaction in the Japanese Government w h i c h w e hear of, it will be hardly safe, I should think, to make excursions into out-of-the-way places. Be careful.^ T h e "Vie Élégante"^ seems to be coming regularly. I have sent you some Nos. Shall I continue to send them? W e are now looking for Ernest and Alice in the Hecla; which at this moment must be ploughing through the fogs of the Grand Bank. T h e r e is nothing n e w at the Craigie. T h e old life in the old house. W a d and T o m Talbot® are in full feather as Freshmen; and seem to enjoy it. Concerts abound; Lectures abound, and some how or other the time spins away \'ery rapidly. Don't ruin yourself in buying strange bronzes. Y o u will have a perfect musaeum of curiosities; and I shall have to put a Mansade roof on to your part of the house to hold them! D o you wish me to pay the Bill of the Grand Army something or other, $45.00 I think, or thereabout? "Military Order, Loyal Legion" is the tide. I leave to Edith the pleasant task of telling you the news; though I must not forget to tell you that W . P . F . has another daughter.^ A l w a y s most affect [ionatel] y H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, ADDRESS: Mr. C . A . Longfellow. / Care of Messrs W a l s h , Hall & Co. / Yokohama. Japan. / San Francisco. Overland POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS. OCT 2 1

1. During the reign of the Emperor Mutsuhito ( 3 0 1 0 . 2 ) the Japanese feudal system was overthrown by means of extraordinary reforms in all branches of the government. Longfellow refers here to the sporadic but generally ineffective opposition to these reforms by the weakened Samurai. 2. A French sporting journal that enjoyed a brief life in 1872. 3. Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow ( 1 9 7 8 . 3 ) and Thomas Lincoln Talbot ( 1 8 5 4 1 9 4 1 ) of Portland were members of the Harvard class of 1876. 4. T h i s daughter does not appear in the Vital Records of Massachusetts nor is she mentioned in William Pickman Fay's will (Salem Register of Probate).

3226.

To George Washington

Greene

C a m b . Oct 21. 1872. M y Dear Greene, T h e cable brings to-day this news of Sumner.^ T o this some penny-a-liner in the paper appends the following, as if wishing to underline it.® 6 0 4

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

The Paris correspondent, who evidently sends this message maliciously, must be a near relation of Tasso's "Gran fabbro di calunnie, adorne di modo Novi, che sono accuse, e pajon lodi."'' I do not believe that Sumner ever passed judgment in such wholesale fashion on the French nation. The French think themselves a very religious people. Foreigners always judge them by their worst side. Since my last letter I have seen Mr. Yates, the novelist;'' and Professor Tyndall, both lecturing in Boston, though I have heard neither. Agassiz, also, has returned, looking round and rosy. I have seen Osgood as you requested, and it turns out that the arrangement they wish to make is only temporary; as he expects [Henry] Adams to resume his duties as Editor [of the North American Review] on his return. Of course that would not answer your purpose. The whole thing is at loose ends apparently. Yours always H.W.L P.S. W e expect Alice and Ernest tomorrow morning. I have not yet seen Froude, though I hear he has arrived in Boston. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. A clipping from the Boston Transcript, X L V , No. 13,052 (October 2 1 , 1 8 7 2 ) , is pasted to the sheet following this sentence: "PARIS, Oct. 19. Charles Sumner visited M. Leon Gambetta yesterday. During a conversation between them, Mr. Sumner expressed the warmest sympathy for the French Republic, but regretted the want of sincere religion in France. Gambetta was deeply impressed by the interview with Sumner." Léon Gambetta ( 1 8 3 8 - 1 8 8 2 ) , lawyer and statesman, had led the French opposition to Napoleon IIL He served as premier of France, 1 8 8 1 - 1 8 8 2 . 2. This clipping, from the "Brief Jottings" column of the Transcript, reads as follows: " T h e Atlantic cable brings intelligence that Mr. Sumner regrets the want of sincere religion in France." 3. C f . Gerusalemme Liberata, II, Iviii, 7 - 8 : " A n d wove his webs in such ingenious ways, / That each calumnious charge had all the air of praise" ( J . H. Wiffen translation). 4. Edmund Hodgson Yates ( 1 8 3 1 - 1 8 9 4 ) , Enghsh journalist and novelist.

3227.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Oct 22. 1872 My Dear Sumner, How very negligent I have been in not thanking you sooner for the lovely book you sent me as a parting gift; La Croix's "Les Arts au Moyen Age."i Thanks a thousand times. It is very choice and precious. 605

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So is your letter,^ saying you find yourself really better. Nothing can be more welcome than that, save your return, which will not now be long delayed. At this moment I am expecting the "Hecla" to be telegraphed; when I shall start for East Boston to welcome Alice and Ernest. It is a beautiful day. I hope the messenger from town will come soon. Professor Tyndall is lecturing to crowded houses at the Lowell Institute. Froude is still in N e w York; and the lovely Irish are flourishing the Shilelah over him, as follows. FROUDE AND FATHER TOM BURKE.

T h e war against Froude is already getting hot. Father T o m Burke, as the champion of the traditional Ireland, has cancelled ninety lecture engagements to take a leading hand in it, and is coaching sedulously on old Irish history to refresh his memory, and anonymous writers of threatening letters have begun to fire their missiles. One hot-headed Philadelphian has written to the bold historian that he has his eye on him, and that if he continues on the course which he has begun will make this country too warm for him. Father Burke is to give a lecture entirely on Froude at N e w a r k on Wednesday night, and others elsewhere in rapid succession. Mr. Froude, though seeking no contest, seems ready to argue the points at issue, and offers, it is said, to give one evening to a platform discussion with the eloquent T o m Burke, if the latter desires it. Froude's third lecture tonight was attended by a larger audience than either of the previous ones.® Agassiz has returned, looking stout and hearty.^ But he complains of want of strength. T h e papers say: Just before Professor Tyndall's lecture last evening. Professor Agassiz, newly returned from his travels, appeared within the railing before the platform, and was greeted with very long and loud applause, which he was at last compelled to recognize by a bow.® Mr. Yates, the novelist, has also been here. And again the papers say : E d m u n d Yates has returned to N e w York, after being entertained by Mr. Henry Longfellow.® T h e entertainment consisted of a glass of Sherry and a biscuit! T h i s is Edith's birth-day. She is nineteen. Charley is still enjoying himself in Japan, and says nothing about coming home. 606

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

Uncle Tom says he is going to Europe. This country is too much for him, except in small doses. So we come and go; but I remain always affectionately Yours, H.W.L. P.S. J[ohn] 0 [ w e n ] was here to-day to show me his letter from you. He desires his love to you. MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

1 . Paul Lacroix, Les Arts au Moyen Âge et à l'Ëpoque de la Renaissance (Paris, 1869). 2. Dated September 27, 1872. 3. Boston Advertiser, C X X , N0. 97 (October 22, 1 8 7 2 ) . Thomas Nicholas Burke ( 1 8 3 0 - 1 8 8 3 ) , Irish Dominican friar who was in the United States on a lecture tour, published his replies to Froude as English Misrule in Ireland ( N e w York, 1 8 7 3 ) . 4. See 3203.4. 5. Advertiser, C X X , No. 97 (October 22, 1 8 7 2 ) . 6. Advertiser, C X X , No. 96 (October 2 1 , 1 8 7 2 ) .

3228.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Oct 24. 1872. My Dear Greene, The name of Smith is not, I believe, an uncommon name. I have often heard it; but never so often as to-day. At breakfast came two letters, one from Miss Smith of Philadelphia,^ and the other from Dr. Schmidt of Germany.^ After breakfast, I had no sooner got into my study, than there came a ring at the front door, and a tall woman in black was announced as Mrs Smith! At lunch I was called away to attend to the wants of a very voluble Irish gentleman by the name of Smith; and to complete the catalogue, just as I was going to dinner, a litde girl came wanting money for Mrs. Smith, one of my pensioners! I began to think that the Smithsonian Institute had broken loose, and was on the rampage. Yesterday my travellers returned. A message came out to me before I was up; the Hecla would be at her wharf in East Boston by half past seven. I dressed and breakfasted with all speed, and drove to the scene of landing with equal speed, to find all safe and well. Osgood promised to write to me about the N.A.R. but has forgotten to do so. Do not you forget those autographs for Fields. Emerson has gone to Europe and Agassiz has got home, looking very well. He says he is well; but not strong. H.W.L. 607

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P.S. I forgot to say that Dr. Schmidt's object in writing to me, an "entire stranger," is to get a Professorship at Cornell, or some other University, in order to pursue his studies in comparative philology, "in the manner of Max Miiller's method, without hindrance."® He further says; "I should be happy to contribute to the sciential development of a country that produces men like James Gordon Bennett, and Henry M. Stanley."^ I received the other day a valuable and curious present from England, namely Coleridge's Inkstand; and only wish he had left some of his poems in it. It is an oblong ebony tray, with two glass flacons for the ink. Inlaid between them is a small ivory plate, with the inscription; "Saml. Taylor Coleridge his inkstand." I fear that the bronze owl, which now adorns the centre of my study table, will have to give place to this interesting relic.® I have been reading lately Göthe's "Tag und Jahres Hefte," and "Schiller's Correspondence with Kömer."® Taken together they give a very different view of Göthe, than the one usually given; and show a man not holding himself apart from others, but longing for sympathy, and very lenient in his judgments. Schiller and Körner do not spare his weaknesses. Extracts from these and similar works would make the best Life of Göthe. All that is tedious could be left out. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Mary Rebecca Darby Smith ( ι 8 ΐ 4 ? - ι 8 8 6 ) of 1934 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, is presumably synonymous with Rebecca D. Smith of Letter No. 1065. She wrote 20 letters to Longfellow, 1 8 7 3 - 1 8 8 1 . 2. Identified in the M S Letter Calendar as Dr. Phil. F. Schmidt and thus possibly Dr. Ferdinand Schmidt ( 1 8 1 6 - 1 8 9 0 ) , German teacher and author of popular biographies and other works. 3. Friedrich Max Müller ( 1 8 2 3 - 1 9 0 0 ) , German-born British philologist and orientalist, was first professor of comparative philology at Oxford, 1 8 6 8 - 1 8 7 5 . He was the son of the poet Wilhelm Müller ( 1 7 9 4 - 1 8 2 7 ) . 4. Bennett ( 4 4 6 . 1 8 ) was born and brought up in Scotland, and Henry Morton Stanley ( 1 8 4 1 - 1 9 0 4 ) , the journalist and explorer, in England. 5. T h e inkstand, which remains in the Longfellow House, was a gift from Samuel Carter Hall ( 1 5 8 3 . 1 ) · See Life, III, 444-446. 6. Correspondence of Schiller with Körner. Comprising Sketches and Anecdotes of Goethe, the Schlegels, Wieland, and Other Contemporaries, with Biographical Sketches and Notes, by L. Simpson (London, 1849), 3 vols.

608

CAMBRIDGE, 3229.

1872

To James Grant Wilson^

Cambridge Oct 25 1872. My Dear Sir, Your letter and the valuable present of Mr. S. C. Hall have reached me safely. Please accept my best thanks for the kindness you have shown in taking charge of a gift so precious as the Inkstand of the Poet, who wrote the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Will you be so good as to send me the present address of Mr. Hall? I wish without delay to acknowledge this mark of his remembrance and regard, and am not sure where a letter will find him. With renewed thanks I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. James Grant Wilson Esqre. unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

MANUSCRIPT:

I. Wilson ( 1 8 3 2 - 1 9 1 4 ) , Scottish-born editor. Union soldier, and biographer of Fitz-Greene Halleck, had informed Longfellow in a letter of October 23 from N e w York that he had forwarded the Coleridge inkstand to Cambridge.

3230.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Oct. 27. 1872. My Dear Greene, Here is a bold rhyme from a new poet. What would the Academy say to it, — if there were an Academy? shade the sky doth sweep, And transient glooms creep in to sleep Amid the orchard; Fantastic breezes pull the trees Hither and yon, to vagaries Of aspect tortured.^ A PENCILLED

Hood and Horace Smith would have delighted in it. But you will think that Pegasus has caught the influenza now prevailing among horses.^ This influenza has cut us off from Boston almost entirely. It has thrown Cambridge back to where it was forty years ago. Our City has become once more a remote and quiet village. To me the feeling is delightful. I think of the army of invaders, unable to cross the bridge, and enjoy their discomfiture, and my repose. Alas! it is only a momentary triumph. 609

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"L'onde s'enfle dessous, et d'un commun effort Les Maures et la mer entreront dans le port."® For Maures read Bores; and for port, Cambridgeport. You will see by this quotation, that I have just been reading Corneille's Cid. It is in the grand style; and a strong and effective tragedy. It made me think of Cooper, by its rude power, and a certain force and roughness. As I may not write again before the end of the month, I enclose a cheque for November. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. An unidentified newspaper clipping, pasted to the sheet. 2. A horse distemper swept through the country in October, immobilizing passenger coaches and horse cars in Boston and other cities. 3. Corneille, Le Cid, IV, iii, 68-69: "The wave swells beneath, and joining their forces, / The Moors and the sea sweep into the port."

3231.

To Samuel Gridley

Howe Camb. Oct. 28. 1872

My Dear Howe, The lines you send me may be literally rendered thus: "In crying bread they take great pains. And the blind with loud voice, or breath, Cry for bread to those [of] Champ-Pourri, Whereat full oft, know you, I laugh." Or in doggerel, as follows: "In crying bread is their delight. And cry the blind with all their might For bread to those of Champ-Pourri, Whereat full oft I laugh, you see."^ The Blind Asylum of the Quinze Vingts was in Villeneuve's time, and for aught I know — you will know — is still at a place called Champ-Pourri. This information I get from Barbazan. Fabliaux et Contes, II. 281.^ Second hand condition. I have had a letter from Sumner. He says he is better, but his "case is fitful."® He sails from Liverpool for New York in the Star Line, Nov. loth. It seems to me a pity to come home so soon to disappointment and ungrateful toil. Yours always Henry W . Longfellow 6 Iо

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

P.S. Kindest remembrances to Julia. It seems to me years since I had the pleasure of seeing her. Soul: some people we remember unseen; and with you and her, memory never drifts from its moorings. MANUSCRIPT; unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House). 1. In a letter of October 2 7 H o w e had written: " I want to get a perfectly reliable translation of a passage from the old french books of Guillaume de Villeneuve — called Ies Crieries de Paris: W i l l you be so kind as to give me your version? A pain crien mettent quant peine, E li aveugle, a haute alaine, D u pain a eels de champs porri, Dont moult sovent, sachier, me ri. From Bartimeus down w e find the blind man among the beggars; and w e are trying to lift him out of the pauper class." For Guillaume de la Villeneuve's Les Crieries de Paris, see Etienne Barbazan, fabliaux XV"

et Contes

des Poëtes

François

des XU,

XIU,

XIV

&

Siècles (Paris, 1 8 0 8 ) , II, 2 7 6 - 2 8 6 .

2. T h e Hospice des Quinze-Vingts, founded in 1 2 6 0 , has occupied the Hôtel des Mousquetaires-Noirs since 1 7 8 0 . 3. Letter dated September 2 7 , 1 8 7 2 .

3232.

To Alexander Wadsworth

Longfellow

Camb. Oct. 30.1 1872. My Dear Alex, Thanks for your letter and the historic extracts, which are both interesting and curious. In return I send you two paragraphs from the morning paper, which you may not otherwise see, concerning two illustrious individuals, whose names are not unknown to you.^ We are all delighted with Wad. He takes hold of College life with great spirit, and I am pleased to see, that in all things he is so right-minded. He will succeed in the world. We are afraid that Lizzy had rather a rough time in getting home. What with abundance of rain, and total absence of horse-power, it seemed a difficult task, or at all events a disagreeable one. I suppose you will soon go into Winter quarters; and then we shall hope to see you. You will want to take a peep at Wad and Tom Talbot in their rooms, which are about as big as the cabin of a schooner, with one state-room. Bessie has left us and gone to Aunt Mary. She is very sweet and gentle, and a great pet of her cousins. Mr Tyndall has just been here. I think you would have been pleased to have seen and heard him. Always affectionately H.W.L. 611

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MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, Portland / M e .

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ADDRESS: Alexr. W . Longfellow

Esq/

P O S T M A R K : CAMBRIDGE MASS ОСТ 3 1

1. T h e date has been changed from "Oct. 28." on the basis of internal evidence. 2. T w o clippings from the Boston Advertiser, C X X , No. 104 (October 30, 1 8 7 2 ) , are pasted to the top of the sheet. T h e first reads: "For the information of anybody who is still in doubt as to the result of the election next Tuesday we print the following special d e s p a t c h : — N E W

YORK, O c t . 2 9 , 1 8 7 2 , TRAIN LEAGUE HEADQUARTERS.

Victory

culminating. Greeley's resignation guarantees presidential stampede. Remember Chicago prophecy. GEO. FRANCIS TRAIN, N e x t President America, St. Nicholas Hotel." Train ( 1 8 2 9 - 1 9 0 4 ) , Boston merchant, author, and eccentric, was a self-proclaimed candidate f o r t h e p r e s i d e n c y . T h e second c l i p p i n g reads: "WHAT THOMAS SMITH KNOWS OF CORDON

GORDON. T h e litigation between Jay Gould and Gordon Gordon was revived today by the taking of testimony in supreme court chambers of one Thomas Smith of the firm of Marshall & Co., jewellers, of Edinburgh, Scotland, to the effect that he identified Gordon Gordon as one who, under the name of Lord Glencairn and the assumption that he was a land-owner of great wealth, had got a lot of jewelry from him in 1870 for which he had not paid, and had obtained property and money to the amount of £10,000 from others through representing that the Duke of Hamilton and the Marquis of Hastings were nearly allied to him, which did not prove true, as these parties denounced him as none of their ilk." Gordon, with whom Longfellow and his brother had dined on March 16, 1 8 7 1 , at the Parker House (see 2 9 2 3 . 2 ) , was an impostor, known in Scotland in 1868 as Hubert Hamilton. H e had fled London for the United States in March 1870 ( N e w York Times, X X I I , No. 6588 [October 30, 1 8 7 2 ] ) and first called on Longfellow on January 1 3 , 1 8 7 1 ( M S Journal). H e committed suicide in Canada on August i , 1874. Nothing more is known of his difficulties with Jay Gould.

3233.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Nov 4 1872. My Dear Fields, I was extremely sorry to miss your Lecture last week.i A dinner engagement, entered into before I knew your day, was the cause. Otherwise I should have been present to listen and applaud. It seems to me a long, long while since I saw you last. I greatly desire to hear your Western experiences; and if I had a pair of easy shoes, would walk to town on purpose. Tell Mrs Fields that I received the "Ballads of Brittany" safe and sound to-day; and return "Phantastes" herewith, and with many thanks.^ Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Fields delivered his lecture "Masters of the Situation" several times in Boston, N e w York, and Chicago during the season of 1 8 7 2 - 1 8 7 3 . See W . S. Tryon, Parnassus Corner: A Life of James T. Fields (Boston, 1 9 6 3 ) , p. 366. 2. Ballads and Songs of Brittany by Tom Taylor, translated from the "Barsaz-Breiz" of Vicomte Hersart de Villemarqué (London and Cambridge, 1 8 6 5 ) ; George Macdonald, Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women (London, 1 8 5 8 ) .

612

CAMBRIDGE, 3234.

To George Washington

1872

Greene

Camb. Nov. 4. 1872. My Dear Greene, I write you this on the eve of the great battle. If you have in your mind any hesitation or shadow of doubt, here is a paragraph, which is so cogent and convincing, that after reading it, you will neither doubt nor hesitate.^ I enclose also for Katie another paragraph,- which is a pretty little story in itself, and which she can stick up with a pin on the wall of her room, or put into her drawer, as she may think best. Never in all my life have I been so perpetually and disagreeably interrupted in all kinds of ways, as this autumn. All my peace of mind is gone. I cannot even enjoy the beautiful weather; and hail the rainy days, and long for the snowstorms of winter. And then the letters! I shall some day be found buried under a drift of them. I have just been reading a nice little book by Ozanam; "Un Pèlerinage au Pais du Cid."® And that set ше to reading over again the earliest Spanish Poem, "El Poema del Cid"; as rough and red as Catalan wine. H.W.L. P.S. Did you get my letter of Oct 27. with its enclosure? MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. T h e following clipping from an unidentified newspaper is pasted to the sheet at this point: "THE FRANKNESS OF DEMOCRATIC ORATORS. T h e supposed success in North Carolina develops greater frankness, as well as confidence, among the democratic orators. At a barbecue at Lexington, Ky., on Friday [November i]. Representative Beck, a candidate for reelection, declared positively that the democrats supported Greeley simply as a means of getting into power, and that upon his election a democratic Congress would not only prevent him from doing harm, but compel him to acquiesce in such measures as they deemed necessary. General George B. Hodge spoke with even more boldness, saying: 'Looking back now upon what he once considered the shattered and fruitless hopes of the South, he saw that the equal rights and sovereignty of the States would be restored, and that his comrades of the lost cause have not died in vain; that this anticipated triumph would be the victory for which they fought.' He also said that the election of Greeley meant the restoration of John C . Breckenridge and other chivalric sons of the South to their former positions of power and influence in the nation." James Burnie Beck ( 1 8 2 2 - 1 8 9 0 ) , Scottish-born member of Congress from Kentucky, 1 8 6 7 - 1 8 7 5 , served as U.S. Senator, 1 8 7 7 - 1 8 8 9 . George Baird Hodge ( 1 8 2 8 1 8 9 2 ) , former soldier and member of the Confederate congress, was an elector on the Greeley ticket. 2. Unrecovered. 3. Antoine Frédéric Ozanam, Un Pèlerinage au Pays du Cid (Paris, 1 8 5 3 ) .

613

EMBERS 3235.

To Daniel Noyes

THAT

STILL

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Haskell·

Cambridge Nov. 6. 1872. My Dear Sir, Perhaps the enclosed may be of interest to the readers of the Transcript. It has been sent to me by a young lady of Boston, now travelling in Italy, and she would like to have it published in some journal.^ Be so good as to look it over, and see what you think of it. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: University of Washington Library, Editor of the E v e n i n g T r a n s c r i p t / Boston,

ADDRESS: Daniel N . Haskell E s q / POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS NOV 6

1. Haskell ( 1 8 1 8 - 1 8 7 4 ) was editor of the Boston Transcript from 1 8 5 3 until his death. 2. T h e "young lady of Boston" is unidentified, but her article, entitled "Inundations in Tuscany," appeared in the Transcript, X L V , No. 13,067 (November 7, 1 8 7 2 ) .

3236.

To Jane Maria Abbott^

Cambridge Nov 13 1872. My Dear Sir, I remember perfectly well the Simon Willard clock I bought for Dr. Woods. One just like it now stands here in my study. But neither of them is the Old Clock on the Stairs. That belongs to Mr. Appleton of Boston; and when the poem was written stood in his father's house at Pittsfield. It is more richly ornamented than yours or mine, but not so graceful in shape. I am glad you value the one you possess. It stood in my bed-room for a year, while the Dr. was in Europe; and for aught I know may have suggested the poem, though it was not written till many years later. Such is in brief the chronicle of the clocks. With kind regards to your father, to whom I wrote three days ago,^ I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library. 1. Miss Abbott ( 1 8 3 3 - 1 9 0 0 ) was a daughter of Rev. John S. C. Abbott ( 1 4 8 6 . 4 ) , not a son, as Longfellow assumed from the fact that she signed her letter of November 1 1 " J . M . Abbott." In her letter Miss Abbott reported that some fifteen years earlier her father had bought a Simon Willard clock, No. 47, from Dr. Wood ( 3 0 1 . i ) , who had told him that he had bought it from Longfellow and that it had inspired " T h e Old Clock on the Stairs" (Works, L 2 3 1 - 2 3 3 ) . 2. This letter is unrecovered.

614

CAMBRIDGE, 3237.

To George Washington

1872

Greene

Camb. Nov. 13. 1872. My Dear Greene, This is a pretty serious calamity, this fire in Boston. Every body seems to have lost something, who had anything to lose. Even the present writer, whom you might have supposed safe from such perils, loses fifteen thousand dollars, and how much more he knoweth not. My children lose about five thousand. You may depend upon it, there is nothing perfectly secure but poverty.^ I had a letter yesterday from Sumner, in London. He says he has not read an American newspaper since he went away; but some idiotic friend has sent him articles by Curtis, which stir him up to wrath. He will soon return to find, what? His party defeated. "Et cuncta terrarum subacta Praeter atrocem animum Catonis."^ That is to say, his own intrepid mind. Yesterday I was at Folsom's funeral in the chapel of Mt. Auburn.^ A soft, Indian Summer day. All peaceful, at last. Only very brief notices of him have yet appeared. When any thing good comes, I will send it to you. I lunched to-day at Winthrop's to meet Froude; a very quiet, pleasant gendeman, whom I like much. I have not yet heard any of his lectures. H.W.L P.S. Your letter came this morning. Thanks. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. On November 9 - 1 0 a fire consumed sixty acres of Boston's business center in fifteen hours, destroying real and personal property worth over $ 7 5 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 . Longfellow might have exaggerated his own loss, but the exact amount — incurred by the failure of insurance companies in which he had investments — cannot be established. 2. Horace, Odes, II, i, 2 3 - 2 4 : " A n d the whole orb of earth subdued / Save Cato's dauntless soul." Charles Folsom had died on November 8.

3238.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb Nov 14 1872. My Dear Greene, This letter will be only a dead wall, on which various placards are pasted. Imagine yourself walking along, and stopping to read them as you go. First of all you will find this. 615

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A good audience gathered in the Music Hall last evening in the expectation of hearing Mr. Bret Harte lecture upon " T h e Argonauts of '49" as advertised. At 7 : 3 0 M r Redpath stated, without attempting to conceal his annoyance, that after every effort on the part of the committee they had been unable to hold M r Harte to his engagement. "This," said Mr. Redpath, "is the third time that 'the Heathen Chinee' has insulted a Boston audience, and I think it is time this man was taught his place. It is the custom in this course, in any case where the committee have been unable to keep their promise, for them to procure a lecturer of superior merit to the one advertised, and this evening we have the pleasure of announcing Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes." Dr. Holmes, after explaining that he had been summoned unexpectedly, read portions of his lecture on English Versification and selections from his own poems.^ Then something sad, and suggestive of the past. T H E DEATH OF M R . C H A R L E S F O L S O M at Cambridge, yesterday, will awaken in many minds pleasant reminiscences of past years when he was in active life, mingled with respect for his scholarship and regard for the excellencies of his character. T h e deceased belonged to the class of 1 8 1 3 , H . U . , and his name appeared in the last Triennial as one of the nine survivors of its fifty-nine members. As tutor and librarian at Cambridge, librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, a careful proof reader, editor and annotator of Cicero's Orations, Livy and other works, Mr. Folsom was known for his wide knowledge of classical literature, accurate and minute learning, painstaking diligence, and the conscientiousness with which he fulfilled the duties of the various positions he filled; devoting to the best uses his talents and acquisitions. In the comparative quietude and retirement of his career he was the helper and intellectual friend of many, who will remember his urbanity and kindness, and do honor to the pure personal virtues which marked and graced his daily life.^

Then something, in which I do not put entire faith, but which nevertheless gives me some anxiety. A gentleman who arrived in this city a day or two since from Paris, and who saw Mr. Sumner just before leaving, says the Senator's health is still very much shattered, and has been impaired rather than improved by his European trip.® Then an advertisement of the Fire-Eaters. 616

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

Several of the leading southern papers sharply reprove some of their exchanges for articles of apparent rejoicing over the Boston fire put forth as the sentiment of the southern people, when in fact they harbor no feeling of anger or resentment. Then the visit of an Emperor to a Poet. The Emperor of Brazil visited the great Italian novelist, MANZONI recently. After the aged MANZONI had expressed his gratitude for the honor done him, the Emperor replied, "It is I who feel honored in having been received by you. Ages to come will remember ALESSANDRO MANZONI, whilst a few years will efface the memory of DON PEDRO D'ALCANTARA."*

And finally this. . . . . Monsignor Nardi, who has just returned to the Vatican from his diplomatic visit to France and England, reports that he has positive assurances from high authority, in both France and England, that when Thiers is out of the way France and England, with Austria and Russia, will form a quadruple alliance against Germany and Italy. Thiers is now the only obstacle to such an alliance; and, therefore, "the clergy must do their utmost to remove him from power." It is evident that this Monsignor has a bee in his bonnet. The Pope is overjoyed, however, at the success which he claims for his mission; and Antonelli has sent him off again to St. Petersburg, to see if any arrangements were entered into by the three emperors at their late meeting concerning the Jesuits.® Reading yesterday with Edith Horace's Ode "Ad [Pompeium] Grosphum." II. 16. one of the most beautiful of all the Odes, — she exclaimed; "Oh, I wish Mr. Greene were here to read this with us. How he would enjoy it." It is a charming poem. I am particularly delighted with the "paternum salinum," the "ancestral salt-cellar."® H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Boston Advertiser, C X X , No. n y (November 14, 1 8 7 2 ) . W h e n Harte finally delivered his lecture at the Tremont Temple on December 1 3 , it was under the auspices of the American Lecture Bureau and not James Redpath's Boston Lyceum Bureau. 2. Boston Transcript, X L V , No. 1 3 , 0 6 9 (November 9, 1 8 7 2 ) . 3. This and the following clipping are from the Boston Advertiser, CXX, N o . (November 1 5 , 1 8 7 2 ) , indicating that Longfellow finished his letter on the 15th. 4. From an unidentified newspaper.

617

118

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5. Giacomo Antonelli (2704.6), secretary for foreign affairs for the Papal States, was a strong opponent of Italian unification. His envoy was Francesco Nardi ( : 8 0 8 - 1 8 7 7 ) , auditor of the Sacra Romana Rota. T h e clipping is from an unidentified newspaper. 6. See 11. 1 3 - 1 4 .

3239.

To George Washington Greene

Camb. Nov. 17. 1872. My Dear Greene, I continue the Dead Wall, or Complete Letter Writer, on a new and improved plan.^ MERCHANTS' I N S U R A N C E COMPANY, I N BOSTON. A SUBSCRIPTION LIST IS now Opened at the Office of the old Merchants' Insurance Company, No. 38 State street, for the creation of Insurance Capital for a NEW COMPANY, to be formed under the name of the N E W M E R C H A N T S ' I N S U R A N C E CO., with a Capital of not less than $300,000. Nov. 13, 1872. 3t η 14 This to you means nothing. To me it means a still farther loss of five thousand dollars. But this is nothing to what follows. THE YOUNGEST VICTIM OF THE FIRE. The funeral of Mr. Frank D. Olmsted took place yesterday from his mother's house in Cambridge. It was largely attended by sympathizing friends and by others who wished to pay respect to the generous purpose which cost him his life. For eighteen centuries the simple statement "the only son of his mother and she a widow," has gone straight to the hearts of millions, and rarely been more felt than in this event. Young Olmsted had recently entered the countingroom of Messrs. Nevins & Co., and on Saturday night finding that their building was not immediately exposed he went to Federal street, and seeing there was danger that a wall next Walker's carriage depot might fall, he volunteered to rush in and give warning to the firemen, who were at work there. He was called back but kept on, gave the warning and was nearly out, when the wall fell. It did not bury him, but he was hit by fragments, receiving fatal wounds of which he died on Sunday. Some of the firemen of Engine No. i of Cambridge, who recognized him, brought him out at peril to themselves, and tenderly put a fireman's cape over him. This led at first to the mistake that he was a fireman, and he was reported as "the young fireman" who lost his life in the dis6 I 8

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

charge of his duty. T h a t would indeed have been a credit, but to him is due the honor of having volunteered in a perilous act of humanity. T h e deceased, who is a cousin to M r . R. H . Dana, had recently left the H i g h School of Cambridge, with flattering testimonials, to begin business life, and was only in his eighteenth year. H e was known and loved for good conduct, pleasant manners, fearlessness in adventure, and for bodily activity. So much were the Cambridge firemen affected by his brave and generous effort, that, on the day of the funeral, they dressed their house in black and set their flag at half mast. [Advertiser]. T h a t is indeed a loss, compared with w h i c h all others are nothing, less than nothing! A f t e r this, I am ashamed to mention, that out of ten Insurance companies in w h i c h w e are interested, eight have gone by the board. O f the other two I am not certain. Here is something mysterious. D O N T HOPE T o escape me by leaving Paris with your wife. Every movement shall be watched. I have not found you to lose you. From this there is no escape. "Cora," at termination of Act 2d, in "Article 47." to

n i l

T h e name of Cora makes me stop to ask whether I have mentioned in any of my letters Cora Spelman's engagement to a son of Prof. Eustis? Pasquino came to dinner to-day. H e does not come very often. Since the Presidential Election the visits of Marforio even have become infrequent.^ Froude promised to come out to-day; but has forgotten it, or something has prevented him. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. T h e three newspaper clippings that follow, all pasted to the sheet, are from the Boston Transcript, X L V , N o . 13,074 (November 15, 1 8 7 2 ) . 2. Greene and Longfellow had playfully dubbed Alfred H y m a n Louis "Pasquino" and John O w e n "Marforio" after the two Roman statues on which, beginning in the sixteenth century, satirical verses were pasted.

6

I

9

EMBERS 3240.

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STILL

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To James Ripley Osgood

Camb. Nov. 17. 1872. My Dear Mr. Osgood, I have just written to Mr. Strahan, declining his liberal offer, on the ground, that it would not be convenient for me to enter into any new engagements just now. I return the letter of Mr. Isbister as you desire.^ Last year, when the large illustrated edition of my Poems was published, I received but half the copy-right. It would be a great convenience to me to have the other half now, as I am a heavy loser by the fire; and besides have to pay an assessment to a Mutual Fire Insurance Co. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Buffalo a n d Erie County Library.

I. On November 1 5 Osgood had sent Longfellow two letters : one, addressed to Longfellow and dated October 3 1 , 1872, was from Alexander Strahan (d. 1 9 1 8 , aged eightyfive), English publisher, who requested contributions during 1873 for his periodical Good Words; the other, addressed to Osgood, was from William Isbister, whose company took over the publication of Good Words in 1873. Isbister's letter is unrecovered.

3241.

To Alexander Strahan

Cambridge Nov 17 1872. My Dear Sir, I have received, through Mr. Osgood, your very liberal oifer, and regret that it is not in my power to accept it. Unluckily I have nothing on hand, which I wish to publish, nor do I know when I shall have anything. I am therefore unwilling to enter into any new engagements. Please accept my thanks and my regrets, and believe me Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

3242.

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Nov. 18 1872. My Dear Greene, Have you any curiosity to see the ruins of the burnt acres? the Lost Town, as it was called in the old colonial times? If so, you know how glad I should be to see you. 620

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

Therefore, if you are weary with work, if your eyes begin to fail you, if you could make a little break in your task without throwing yourself out of the mood for writing, take the train on Wednesday, and run down for a day or two, and w e will go with the other rustics and stare at the ruins. D o not trouble yourself about my losses. T h e y are not very great, and "Vivitur parvo bene, cui paternum Splendet in mensa tenui salinum."^ N o t only is the "paternal salt-cellar" safe, but so is the Avignon claret. I want you to taste it; for though it is not yet bottled, there are ways of getting at it. I hope to send you some for your Thanksgiving dinner. T h i n k of sea-sick Sumner in the middle of the Atlantic, rolling, pitching, rising, sinking, and thank heaven that you are quiet by your own fireside.^ I ought to have gone in to hear Froude this evening but could not summon resolution enough. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Horace, Odes, II, xvi, 1 3 - 1 4 : " O n e can live well for little, for w h o m an ancestral salt-cellar gleams on a frugal table." 2. Sumner had left Liverpool on November 14 and arrived in N e w York on the 26th.

3243.

To Charles Appleton

Longfellow

C a m b . N 0 V 1 8 1872. M y Dear Charlie, I have sent you some papers with news of the great fire in Boston. T h e loss of property is immense, and w e are all more or less losers by the failure of Insurance Cos. O u t of ten, in w h i c h w e are interested, eight have gone by the board. A m o n g these are the Manufacturers, the Merchants and the Prescott, the companies in w h i c h you have stock, or rather had stock, for it is all gone now. Your loss is $2,710, taking the valuation as it stands on your book. It is very fortunate for us that w e had so litde invested in the Insurance Cos. and that State Street escaped the fire. Y o u have probably seen in the papers the failure of Bowles Bros. I hear that N a t h a n [Appleton] is deeply involved. I hope it will not entirely strip him of his property; but it will take away a good deal of it. W h a t a mistake he made!! W e duly received the photographs you sent, of yourself and your travelling companion; and one of them is framed and hangs in the dining-room. Those for Fay were sent to him. Alice has just come in, and says that Walko^ was burned out with all his furs. So you will see no more your superb Russian coat! 621

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Mr Read® called a few days ago, and said he had seen you, and that you were living very pleasantly in your house. We are always glad to have news of you. Col. (or Capt.) Medley of the Royal Engineers was in town from India last week; but I missed seeing him.^ Pray say to Mr. de Long how sorry I was he did not come to Cambridge. Yours aff. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Bowles Brothers & Company (3207.4) had failed on November 9, much to the financial embarrassment of Nathan Appleton, who, as a special partner, had invested heavily in the firm. See the Boston Advertiser, CXX, No. 144 (December 18, 1872) and No. 145 (December 19, 1872). 2. Martin Wallco & Company, furriers, 39 Summer Street, Boston. 3. Possibly John Meredith Read ( 1 8 3 7 - 1 8 9 6 ) , whose acquaintance Longfellow had made in 1868 in Paris, where he was U.S. consul general. He subsequently served as minister to Greece, 1873-1879. 4. Julius George Medley (1829-1884), lieutenant-colonel, Bengal Engineers, 18471884, wrote an account of his American visit entitled An Autumn Tour in the United States and Canada (London, 1873). Charles Longfellow had presumably made his acquaintance in India in 1869.

3244.

To Charles Appleton

Longfellow

Camb. Nov. 26. 1872. My Dear Charlie, I have just received a note from Baring's agents in Boston, which troubles me not a little. They write that your account on Oct i. was overdrawn to the amount of £1180. or $6,000. and as no remittances have been made since, it must now amount to more than that. Unluckily you have no funds in the Bank to pay this with, and I fear your future dividends will be diminished on account of disturbance in business of all kinds by the fire. To meet the payment I must either borrow money, or sell Bonds. I will do what seems best, as soon as I can see Mr. Wellman. In the meantime you must curtail your expenses, or you will get into great embarrassments. You should have made it a rule not to spend more than your income. That is the only safe course; and you will see the necessity of economizing now. If it were not Winter, I should advise you [to] return at once. As it is, I hope you will make arrangements to come home in the Spring. Nov. 28. This is Thanksgiving Day. We dine with Aunt Hattie Curtis in town. We shall miss you, but will drink your health. All the girls send their love and wish you were here. Affectionately Yours H.W.L 622

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

P.S. Your papers "The Far East" have arrived. Very curious with their photographs. I have sent you papers with account of the Boston fire. P.S. Yours of Oct 23d has reached us. I fear some of our letters have been lost. With love and good wishes for a Merry Christmas. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, address: Mr. C. A. Longfellow / Care of Messrs Walsh Hall & Co. / Yokohama. Japan. / Via San Francisco. Overland. POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS NOV 2 9

3245.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. N0V28 1872. My Dear Greene, I am not going to write you a letter to-day; only a word with a flower from the Bank of Charles River,i for fear of delay. The Interviewers of New York give good news of Sumner, and say that his health is "vastly improved." Mr. Eliot^ returned your call this morning, and was very sorry to find you gone. H.W.L P.S. A box of Avignon goes to you by Express tomorrow. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. A check for $50 ( M S Letter Calendar). 2. Possibly Charles William Eliot (588.4), president of Harvard.

3246.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Nov. 28 1872. My Dear Sumner, Welcome home! Would I could say. Welcome to Camb! that I might see your face once more. I am amazed that the all-seeing Interviewers should have this privilege which is denied me. But they say you report yourself as being "vastly improved" in health and I forgive them. From the accounts in the papers your passage must have been a rough and dangerous one. But you saw a sight, which it is given to few men to see, and once seen must remain forever a picture in the mind, almost as terrible as the "Wreck of the Medusa" in the Louvre.^ 623

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I desire greatly to hear your foreign experiences from your own lips. I must wait for that; till they are faded out, or mingled with former ones. Everything here goes on as usual. W e are all sufferers by the fire, as well as yourself, and therefore can sympathize with you. Of course nobody to blame; and that is the worst of it. I hope you will find everything comfortable in Washington. Keep well. T a k e air and exercise; and do not work too much. Always Aff[ectionatel]y H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

I. On November 19 Sumner's steamship, the Baltic, rescued the crew of the sailing vessel Assyria, which had foundered in heavy seas. Sumner described the scene in a letter dated December 2 : "The capt. in 1 3 3 voyages had never encountered such a storm as we had. The shipwrecked men huddled together, with the Union Jack bottomupward as the signal of distress, and the wreck tossing wildly on the waves, one mast down and the sails blowing in ribbons, made a touching and sublime scene, never to be forgotten." The painting in the Louvre was "The Raft of the Medusa" by Jean Louis André Théodore Géricault C 1 7 9 1 - 1 8 2 4 ) .

3247.

To Dudley

Buck^ Camb. D e c 2

1872.

M y Dear Sir, I have received your letter and the "Libretto," which seems to me well done for your purpose, but which nevertheless is a great mutilation of my poem. M u c h as I should like to oblige you, I must frankly say, that I never could consent to its appearing in that shape. I think, also, that M r . Osgood, the Publisher, who holds the copyright of the work, would have still greater objections to its publication.^ Hoping that you have not proceeded far in your composition, and regretting that I cannot meet your wishes in this matter, I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCBIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

1. Buck С1839-1909), composer, was at this time the organist of the Boston Music Hall Association. 2 . Buck had written on November 2 2 , enclosing his musical adaptation of The Golden Legend and requesting Longfellow to provide " 2 0 - 3 0 lines additional in a place marked on [the] ms." When Longfellow demurred, Buck laid the libretto aside, but he wrote again on May 2 4 , 1 8 7 8 , requesting permission to complete the work as "Scenes from Longfellow's Golden Legend." Longfellow agreed to the proposal in an unrecovered letter of May 2 6 , 1 8 7 8 . The finished cantata was published in 1 8 8 0 (see BAL, V, 6 2 8 ) , the same year that it won the Cincinnati Music Festival Prize of $ 1 0 0 0 for the best composition for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra.

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CAMBRIDGE, 3248.

1872

To ]ohn JSüchol

Camb. D e c i 2 1872. My Dear Professor, I have received your new book,i and have read it with deep interest from beginning to end; too rapidly I know, but I could not stop. It is excellent; and full of power and beauty. The verse gleams like armor, and the little arrow-flights of song sing through the pages. Well done. I cordially congratulate you on this work. Strangely enough, just as I finished the reading I took up an Enghsh Catalogue, and my eye fell on this advertisement; "Hannibal in Italy: an Historical Drama by Wm. Forsyth": to be published by Longman, Green & Co [London, 1872]! I have often noted this duality in literature. What is it? Are thoughts in the atmosphere, like a miasma or a perfume? Years go, when I published "OutreMer," a title one would think not likely to occur to two persons at once, a French writer in Paris came out also with an "Outre-Mer," describing his adventures in America!^ I am rejoiced to see that your friend Jowett has been chosen Master of Bal[l]iol.® When you write to him I beg you to present my kind regards and remembrances. With cordial greetings to Mrs. Nichol, and renewed congratulations to yourself, I am Yours always Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Pierpont Morgan Library. 1. 2. 3. until

Hannibal; a Historical Drama (Glasgow, 1 8 7 3 ) . See 3 3 1 . 8 . Benjamin Jowett ( 3 0 8 1 . 2 ) served as master of Balliol College, Oxford, from 1870 his death.

3249.

To Charles Sumner

Camb Deer 12 1872. My Dear Sumner, Certainly the Book moves slowly. ^ But it moves surely. It will be so thoroughly winnowed and sifted by the Nichols and Owen patent machine, that nothing will be left for the critics to carp at. Have patience, and attain to perfection. Thanks for the letter of the Duchess.^ She is always charming and true. When you write to her do not forget to send my cordial regards and remembrances. "How much I hope you will know when to rest." Write those words over 625

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your mantle-piece, and read them every hour. If my warnings will not prevail, I trust that hers will! Seriously, we must learn to do nothing. A hard lesson for a busy brain. I rejoice to see you have made a kind of beginning by declining to serve on any Committee; and I hope you will abstain as far as possible from taking any part in any debate this Session. That will be wise and well. Meanwhile let me know how you really are. Newspaper reports I rather distrust. We have but a dismal winter here. Horse-distemper — Great Fire — Influenza, and now Small Pox raging, and frightening people. These and the cold weather you escape. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

r. Vols. V, V I , V I I , and V I I I of Sumner Works were published in 1873. 2. This letter from the Duchess of Argyll is unrecovered.

3250.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Deer. 19. 1872. My Dear Greene, Your letter of yesterday is like a bucket of water poured into a dry pump, and forthwith sets the valves at work again. The cold I took when you were here has lasted till now, and made me rather disinclined to do anything but read. I have only written to my enemies, and the worst of all enemies the "entire strangers" who ask questions that it takes a day's research to answer. Marforio was here yesterday and stayed three hours; but the day before Pasquino stayed five. So I forgave Marforio, though he left all his sentences unfinished. It is my own fault, I know; and I seem to hear the words of Demosthenes "How would you comport yourself in weightier concerns, if you cannot turn off an impertinent babbler, but suffer the eternal trifler to walk over you without telling him 'Another time, good Sir; at present I am in haste.' "1 Among my readings is that of "Thorwaldsen, his Life and Works," by Eugene Plön [Boston, 1873]. Not very well written, but extremely interesting, and illustrated with thirty five wood engravings of the great master. It is like a dream of Rome. You will be afraid to read it, and yet you must. I lament over your neuralgia; but rejoice that the lectures go on. You will accomplish the task, and have your reward.^ Always Yours H.W.L 626

CAMBRIDGE, MANUSCRIPT:

1872

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. T h e quotation is unlocated. 2. In his letter of December 16 Greene had remarked that an "obstinate attack of neuralgia" had not kept him from working on his lectures for Cornell.

3251.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Deer. 22 1872. My Dear Greene, On Friday, in rain and snow, Marforio came at noon and stayed till three. On the same day Pasquino came at five, but I did not see him as I was going out to dinner. To-day Pasquino came at three and stayed till eight; and Marforio came at seven and stayed till nine. The floor is strewn with broken sentences, and the air filled with low, plaintive tones, which even the singing chimney cannot drown!^ You ask me about Sumner. Some correspondent in a Boston paper says he is looking worn and haggard; but I leam from another source, that Brown Séquard says he is better now than when he first returned. I have no letters from him; and am in constant dread of hearing some bad news. The Legislature of Mass. has just done a very foolish thing; namely, has passed a Vote of censure upon him for his Bill on the Batde Flags.^ His enemies are active, and I hear one trying to stir up the next Legislature to request his resignation. For the good name of the State, I trust this is not true. The clock is striking ten. Good night. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. See 3239.2. 2. On December 2 Sumner had introduced a bill in the Senate ordering that "the names of battles with fellow-citizens shall not be continued in the Army-Register, or placed on the regimental colors of the United States." T h e bill, ostensibly introduced in the interest of "national unity and good-will," was in reality a political thrust at President Grant. Sumner's enemies, still angry at his support of Greeley, then passed a motion in the Massachusetts legislature condemning the bill as "an insult to the loyal soldiery of the nation." Over a year later, in February 1874, after much pressure by Sumner's friends, the legislature voted to rescind its censure. See Charles Sumner anà the Rights of Man, pp. 563-566, 5 6 8 - 5 7 1 , and 584-585.

3252.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Deer. 23. 1872. My Dear Greene, This is only a Postscript to my last evening's letter. I cut from the morning paper the following. 627

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Notwithstanding the piercing cold of yesterday a large audience gathered in the Church of the Disciples, drawn by the announcement that Dr. [James Freeman] Clarke would preach on " T h e Duty of Being Unfashionable, with remarks on a recent Act of the Legislature." Speaking first of the requirements of fashion, of the advantages of observing them in some cases and of disregarding them in others, as in literature, art and religion, he alluded to its being December 22, the anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims, of whose seed N e w England or Boston has never been destitute. "Let the single man plant on his instincts," Dr. Clarke said in the words of Emerson, "and this great globe will come round to him." He then spoke of the fight against slavery and Charles Sumner's prominence in the struggle, and of his present attitude in relation to the national battle-flags, saying that he entirely agreed with Mr. Sumner, and thought it eminently proper and right that on those national banners no sign of the past conflict shall remain. He had not often wished to be in political life, but he would have given something to have stood for one half hour on the floor of the State house by the side of those who defended the name of Charles Sumner against the assaults of men who owe their position on that floor to what he and his companions have endured when they were playing marbles and studying English grammar. He denied that the action of Mr. Sumner met with the unqualified condemnation of the people of the State. T h e people of Massachusetts have a right to say whether they are properly represented by that vote, and said Dr. Clarke, "I, for one, say it does not represent me."^ You see by this that the Vote of Censure will not go without protest. But the newspapers are slow and cowardly; at least, those that I see. Perhaps others are more alive to a sense of shame . I add a couple of anecdotes, which will amuse you. One tells in favor of human nature; the other against it. STORIES OF T H E F I R E . — T h e fund of incidents of the fire is not by any means exhausted, and new and interesting stories are told daily. T h e Bulletin tells of a merchant who was busy collecting together a few valuables to carry away in his arms, when a rough-looking fellow came up with a large wagon, and wished to know if he didn't wish to hire him for a load. T h e merchant jumped at the offer and loaded the wagon, only to be informed after the man had gone that he was a notorious thief. Sure enough the next morning the goods were not where he ordered them to be left and he gave them up for lost. T w o days afterwards, however, he was surprised by the carter's appearance, who apologized for not coming before by his inability to find the merchant, and, handing him a key, told him his load of goods was stored in the room of a hotel,

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1872

w h e r e he w o u l d find them. H e told the man w h a t he had been told, and was still further astonished w h e n the man reminded him that his good j u d g m e n t w h e n serving on a jury had prevented his conviction, in spite of his bad reputation, of a crime w h i c h he had not committed, and he added: "I've been trying to get even w i t h y o u for more than two years, and never got a chance till last night, w h e n I borrowed

a horse and cart,

and took your goods out of the fire. T h e r e ' s the key, and there's n o t h i n g to pay." A w o m a n w h o was burned out and relieved b y the committee appeared at C h a r d o n street the other day w i t h her son, a lad of thirteen summers, and asked for a n e w suit of clothes for the boy. U p o n investigation it was f o u n d that he was living in the country and had been sent for to get a fit-out from the f u n d s Boston people were contributing to the sufferers. It is very cold here to-day, and snow is sifting d o w n through the windless air. T e l l m e of your Lectures; h o w m a n y you have written; and h o w m a n y still remain in the inkstand. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. This and the following clipping are from the Boston Advertiser, CXX, No. 148 (December 23, 1872).

3253.

To Annie

Adams

Fields C a m b . D e c 24. 1872.

M y D e a r M r s Fields, I w a s just upon the point of w r i t i n g your name on this little volume,^ w h e n S a w i n ( B i r d of Freedom and G a n y m e d e u n i t e d ) brought in the beautif u l china " c u p that c h e e r s , a n d so forth. It certainly cheered me. Y o u r k i n d words are better than tea; better than the best English Breakfast or Bohea. W i t h a thousand thanks and good wishes to you and Fields for numberless N e w Years. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. According to Mrs. Fields's response of December 25 ( M S , Henry E. Huntington Library), the "little volume" was Charles Brunei's translation of Evangeline (2694.7). 2. Cf. Cowper, The Task, Bk. IV, 11. 39-40.

6 2 9

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To Edith and Anne Allegra

STILL

BURN

Longfellow

Camb. Dec. 24. 1872 My Darlings, Before going to bed I must write you a line or two.^ They will not reach you any too soon. The clock is now striking nine; and you I trust are warm and safe at Highfield enjoying your Christmas games. I can see Wad entering the front door of the paternal mansion with his cane, and narrow-brimmed hat; and hear the shout of merriment that follows the first appearance of the Harvard Freshman. I can see — well no matter what I can see. You know it all. Let me tell you something that you do not know. No sooner had the carriage whisked you out of sight than I returned to the silent, empty house, and to my solitary luncheon. Tears came into my eyes, but I was a brave boy, and did not cry. Then Agassiz came and sat with me a while, and sent you his love. Then I wrote a letter to Sumner; and then Carl Schurz came, and stayed to dinner. And so the first day is over, and the worst day; and so ends the first letter and the worst letter, from your affectionate father. H.W.L MANUSCBIPT:

Massachusetts Historical Society.

I. Longfellow's daughters had left on this day to spend Christmas in Portland with the family of Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow ( M S Journal).

3255.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Dec 24. 1872. My Dear Sumner, Thanks for the Catalogue! just received. If you are going to import anything from it, you may add the five books I have marked, to come in the same bundle. Otherwise, I do not care about it. L'occasion fait le larron [opportunity makes the thief], and I rob myself, to enrich myself. I see that the retiring Legislature of Mass. has shot a Parthian arrow at you. Foolish and stupid people! I had got thus far, when Carl Schurz came; and I asked him to stay to dinner, which he did, and was very pleasant. He is just gone now; and left me only time to say good night. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

I. Unidentified.

630

CAMBRIDGE, 3256.

To George Washington

1872

Greene

Camb. Xmas. 1872. My Dear Greene, Multos et felices! Many happy returns, as a young lady of your acquaintance here said to a friend, who was just engaged, not knowing what else to say. Multos et felices! a coin pretty well worn, and somewhat wasted. One may say as St. Peter in Paradise says of Faith; "assai bene è trascorsa D'està moneta già la lega e Ί peso."^ And I reply, like Dante, "l'ho sì lucida e sì tonda. Che nel suo corio nulla mi s'inforsa."^ And such I send it to you. Unluckily you cannot pay your bills with it. The unsentimental grocer will not receive it. Carl S[c]hurz came to see me yesterday, and stayed to dinner. He said a good deal about Sumner, and thinks he feels keenly the action of the Mass. Legislature. Well he may; for it was vindictive and brutal. S[c]hurz thinks that Sumner's health is in a perilous condition, and regrets that he brought in his Battle Flag Bill just now, when not well enough to support it. The subject, he thinks, is sure to be called up, immediately after the holidays. Sumner is writing a Speech to sustain his motion; and S[c]hurz offers to read it for him, and fight the battle, sure to follow.® Once more, Multos et Felices. H.W.L P.S. It is so cold I can hardly hold my pen. Thermometer in my study 52°! MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Paradiso, X X I V , 83-84: "Very well has been gone over / Already of this coin the alloy and weight." 2. Paradiso, X X I V , 86-87: "Yes, both so shining and so round, / That in its stamp there is no peradventure." 3. See 3 2 5 1 . 2 . Sumner did not complete the speech in support of his bill.

3257.

To Edith and Anne Allegra

Longfellow

Camb. Xmas. 1872. My Darlings The clock is striking nine again. It is just twenty four hours since I wrote to you; and Christmas is over. A very cold one it has been.

631

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Alice and Hatty and Ernest are sitting in the Library by a wood fire. Alice has been writing to one of you, or both, and I add this as a postscript to her letter. I want you to thank Dick [Richard King Longfellow] for his picture, which was handed me this morning. It is very pretty, and does the young artist great credit. I hope the pictures I sent him gave him as much pleasure as his gives me. If it is as cold at Highfield as it is here, I shall hope you did not go to town to-day. It is as cold as — what is the usual comparison? — as Nova Zembla, let us say at a venture. That will be near enough. This forenoon a messenger called, bringing a bottle of wine, and a card from my friend Mr. Ward of New York. Do you remember him? He says he will come out and breakfast with me tomorrow at 9.30. Therefore, Alice is looking forward to a nice long morning in bed. That is the warmest place, at all events. I think I will make sure of it by going now, or pretty soon. So good night; and God bless you, my darlings. With much love to all Your affect. Papa. MANUSCBIPT: Massachusetts Historical Societv.

3258.

To Edith and Anne Allegra

Longfellow

Camb. Deer. 26 1872. My Darlings, Is it not strange that the pure white snow in falling should darken the air? Yet it does; and now at four o'clock in the afternoon, I have had to close my book, and light my lamp. And so I will take a little pleasure, and that shall be writing to you; while the great snow-storm out of doors deadens every sound except the voice of Cora [Spelman] singing in the Library. Mr. Ward came to breakfast this morning, though he kept us waiting till ten. He was as gay and pleasant as ever; and told a great many funny stories which you would have liked to hear. As soon as he had gone, who should appear, white with snow, but Rosa [Fay] and Hattie Carr.^ For Rosa there were two letters, which I had just enclosed in an envelope for her. So they were safely delivered. She hopes she shall have one from you to-night or tomorrow. A good part of the day Katie Howe has been here with Alice. They have been reading; History I hope; — a Novel, I fear; but am not much afraid. 632

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

I wonder whether Penny^ will come through the deep snow to-night? A n d if he does, whether he will bring me a letter from Highfield? W i t h many kisses, Your absent lover H.W.L^' MANUSCRIPT: Massachusetts Historical Society. 1. Harriet Hosmer Carr (d. 1880, aged twenty-five) was the daughter of Lucien Carr ( 1 8 2 9 - 1 9 1 5 ) , a Cambridge neighbor and later the assistant curator of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard, 1 8 7 7 - 1 8 9 4 . 2. T h a t is, the Penny-Post boy. 3. T w o clippings from an unidentified newspaper concerning " T h a t Cold Atmospheric Tidal W a v e " and "Sixty Locomotives Frozen U p in Indiana" are pasted to the first sheet of the letter.

3259.

T o Edith

Longfellow C a m b . D e c 27 1872

M y darling Edie, T h i s morning at breakfast I received your charming letter from Highfield.^ It is always pleasant to hear something pleasant. N o one will dispute that; and I was delighted to know how agreeably you glided down in the Pullman Car. Even U n c l e Alex, did not miss his india-rubbers, w h i c h he left behind! To-day nothing in the world has happened in Cambridge. But, last night, there was a fire in Harvard Square. Here is an account of it from the Evening Transcript of to-night. F I R E I N C A M B R I D G E . About ten o'clock last night, fire was discovered in the upper story of the old Willard Tavern, now occupied by the U n i o n Railway C o m p a n y in Harvard square. By the promptness and energy of the firemen, the flames were confined to the floor on which they originated though the roof was badly damaged, and the interior considerably injured by water. John Ford, printer, Charles Belcher, confectioner, and the Cambridge Gaslight Co., occupants, were losers to considerable amounts.^

I am very glad you are enjoying your visit so much. N o t h i n g can be pleasanter than such a Merry Christmas. T a k i n g up a book on the Library table last evening, Alice discovered under it a letter directed to "Lucia, with A . A . L ' s love." It was forwarded, with slight alterations in the address, this morning. I hope it came safely. I can imagine Annie looking in vain for it in her trunk! I really think that Belcher ought to change his name. It is positively disgraceful for a Confectioner to call himself by such a name. 633

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Alice is now going to read Miss Procter's book on Russia,·^ and sends her love, and I close this letter. Your afFectionate Tancredi.^ MANUSCRIPT: Massachusetts Historical Society. 1. Dated December 25, 1 8 7 2 . 2. Boston Transcript, X L V , No. 14,008 (December 27, 1 8 7 2 ) . T h e printer was John Ford ( 1 8 0 7 - 1 8 7 8 ) , who maintained his shop in Harvard Square from 1 8 5 8 until his death; the confectioner was presumably Charles Francis Belcher ( 1 8 3 7 - 1 8 9 5 ) . 3. Edna Dean Proctor ( 1 8 2 9 - 1 9 2 3 ) , N e w Hampshire-born poet and magazine writer, was the author of A Russian Journey (Boston, 1 8 7 2 ) . 4. A leading character in Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, which Longfellow had been reading with his daughters.

3260.

To George Washington Greene

Camb. Deer 28 1872. My Dear Greene, For two days past I have had trouble in my left eye; a kind of network before it, or as Dr Johnson might say "something [anything] reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections." Moreover a great display of fireworks, or as the same learned lexicographer would call them, "pyrotechnical performances"; sparks and shooting stars, "Quante il villan . . . . Vede lucciole giù per la vallea. This is by no means pleasant, but it shall not prevent me from thanking you for your letter. I rejoice that you agree with me about Sumner's motion on the Battle Flags. I shall let him know what you think of it, as it will comfort him, and you have not time to write to him just now, I suppose. I saw the account of Putnam's death in the paper, but said nothing about it to you, not wishing to come with black sails, and thinking that you would see it in your Journal.^ This cold weather is very disconsolate. Sitting at dinner yesterday, I thought of you, and wished we were both at Amalfi. I had a vision of sunshine, and a sapphire sea, which sent the nimble Mercury up many rounds of his ladder in the thermometer. Let me know when you start for Ithaca. H.W.L

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1872

MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Inferno, X X V I , 25, 29: " A s many as the hind . . . / Seeth the glowworms down along the valley."

2. George Palmer Putnam ( i 2 2 4 . 1 ) had died in N e w York on December 20.

3261.

To Edith

Longfellow

C a m b . D e c 28. 1872. M y Darling Edith, H o w glad I am, that you and A n n i e went down to Highfield! Such a Merry Christmas you could not have had anywhere else in the world, and it would have been a thousand pities to have missed it. D o not be a moment troubled by us. W e are doing very well, and are as comfortable as the cold weather will let us be. Yesterday morning came a litde roll of photographs for you, brought by N e d H a v e n i from Charley in Japan; his house in Yedo, and himself, and any amount of Japanese, male and female. T h e s e are the photographs he speaks of in his last letter to you, which I send with this; the letter, I mean, not the pictures. Yesterday, also, I went in to dine with the C l u b ; and before dinner called on Miss [Edith] Prescott. She was just going out to drive, but nevertheless I saw her for a f e w minutes in her wheeled chair, looking as fresh and bright as ever. She says you must come and see her as soon as you return; w h i c h I promised you would do. She, and Mrs. T i c k n o r and Miss Ticknor^ were sorry they were out w h e n you last called. Such is the chronicle of yesterday. To-day nothing has happened. But something is going to happen. I am going to do something I never did before in all my life. I am going — to take tea with the Spelmans! T e l l Pansie I shall answer her letter at once. I[t] did not come till yesterday, and was marked "Missent." W h e r e had it been? Affectionately Yours, Rinaldo.3 MANUSCRIPT: Massachusetts Historical Society. 1. Edward Belknap Haven ( 1 8 4 4 - 1 9 0 9 ) , a Cambridge friend of Charles Longfellow. 2. Anna Eliot Ticknor ( 1 8 2 3 - 1 8 9 6 ) , daughter of Mrs. George Ticknor ( 1 2 4 7 . i ) . 3. Rinaldo was the Achilles of the Christian army in Jerusalem Delivered. See 3259-4·

635

EMBERS 3262.

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To ]ohn Owen Camb.Dec28 1872.

M y Dear Owen Here is "the girl you left behind you." She may be virtuous, but she is not beautiful.^ Yours truly H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

I. After a visit to Longfellow, Owen had left behind a photograph of the Spanishborn ballet dancer Isabella Cubas ( 1 8 3 1 - 1 8 6 4 ) . T h e photograph accompanies the letter. In his reply of December 29 ( M S , Clifton Waller Barrett Collection), Owen wrote: "It was certainly fortunate for the virtue of the 'girl I left behind me' that 'she is not beautiful.' Otherwise exposed a whole night in company with such mercurial fellows as Sumner, Emerson, Felton, Greene, and, last not least, the gay author of 'Endymion,' it [she] would have stood in great peril! / Assured that I can therefore receive her back as virgo albeit virago I am very thankfully / Yours / J.O." T h e "mercurial fellows" were the Eastman Johnson portraits in Longfellow's study.

3263.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Deer. 28 1872. My Dear Sumner, Instead of a letter I send you this strip from the Advertiser of this morning.^ I send you also a letter from Greene, every word of which I doubly endorse.^ Please return it. Yours ever H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

1 . Accompanying the letter is a long article defending Sumner's battle flags resolution ( 3 2 5 1 . 2 ) from the Boston Advertiser, C X X , No. 1 5 2 (December 28, 1 8 7 2 ) . 2. Greene had written in a letter of December 25: " I have never doubted that when men got sober again they would recognize the true character of Sumner's motion. It is one of the wisest and best that he ever made. How long he will have to wait for a full recognition I can not say — but sure I am that it will come and fully."

3264.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Deer 29 1872 My Dear Fields, I send you the pleasant volume^ I promised you yesterday. It is a book for Summer moons by the seaside; but will not be out of place on a Winter night by the fireside. 636

CAMBRIDGE,

1872

Please let me have it again as soon as you have read it; as I want to make use of it. On page 79 you will find an allusion to the "blue borage flowers" that flavor the claret-cup. I know where grows another kind of bore-age, that embitters the goblet of life. I can spare you some of this herb, if you have room for it in your garden or your garret. It is warranted to destroy all peace of mind, and finally to produce softening of the brain, and insanity.^ "Better juice of vine Than berry wine! Fire! fire! steel, oh, steel! Fire! fire! steel and fire!" Yours truly H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Henry E . Huntington Library. 1 . E d w a r d James Mortimer Collins, The Secret of Long Life (London, 1 8 7 1 ) . 2. Longfellow refers facetiously to the numbers of visitors w h o encroached on his time and hospitality.

3265.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Deer 30 1872. My Dear Greene, This "reticulated or decussated" left eye of mine still troubles me. The ugly tavern-bush still hangs before the darkened window, but the fire-flies are no more. The year wears to its end. Of its precious wine only one bottle and a half remain. Let me share the half bottle with you. The other is not yet uncorked, and its seal is unbroken. I have been busy this morning with the beginning of a new series of the "Wayside Inn," and have the Prelude and the first Tale finished.^ The corner stone being thus laid, I shall build at my leisure. When a beginning is fairly made, the rest follows of itself. But I am in no hurry, and shall not fret myself. I sent your words of cheer to Sumner, and they will do him good. Thoughts of his true friends are the best New Year's presents that can be sent him. Having said this I must go out into the air. When I come back we will take another glass. H.W.L. P.S. Here it is. Porgete quel bicchiere in qua [Hold out the glass this way]. I fill it with this from the printing-press. Let us drink 637

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Sumner's Health. Senator Sumner is in better health than he was at the time of the adjournment of Congress, and takes his usual out-door exercise daily. The report telegraphed that his health was so precarious that his physician visited him twice a day is without any foundation whatever. Dr. W . H. Johnson, his attending physician, calls to see him regularly, as he has been in the habit of doing for some time.^ MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Longfellow had actually composed the first tale of Part III — "Azrael" — on May 24, 1872 (see Works, I V , 1 9 4 ) , so he was presumably occupied on this day primarily with the Prelude. 2. T h e clipping, from the Boston Transcript, X L V , No. 1 4 , 0 1 0 (December 30, 1 8 7 2 ) , is pasted to the sheet at this point. T h e report errs in its identification of Sumner's physician. He was Joseph Taber Johnson ( 3 1 9 9 . i ) .

3266.

To Anne Allegra

Longfellow

Camb. Dec. 30. 1872 My Darling Pansie, What are called events are rare in this region. Nevertheless I shall write to you without them, if only to thank you for your nice letter, which was very sweet and very welcome. As to good advice, I have not enough to go round. So I keep what I have for those who need it more than you do. Last night I took tea with the Spelmans, as I said in my letter to Edie I was going to do. I drank two cups, into which I think must have been infused all the eyes of Argus, for I did not get to sleep till three o'clock this morning. To-day I went to see Rosa [Fay] and Hattie Carr, who were both bright and blooming. Rosa had received Edie's letter, and I thought was meditating an answer. This afternoon two damsels came and went up into your room. Looking from the window as they went out, I thought I recognized the Wymans.^ They had probably been up to muse, but found it rather cold, and did not stay long. Such is my interpretation. Alice's guests have arrived. They are reading aloud in the Library — "Backlog Studies," I believe;^ and it must be a very facetious book, from the peals of laughter I hear frequently. But some people laugh easily. Almost any three girls can do it. Saidie Weiss has proved faithless, and I cannot drown myself because the river is frozen. Besides the weather is too cold. Notwithstanding all this nonsense, I am always, as you know. Your loving Papa. 638

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Alice Allegra Thorp Estate

(on

1872

deposit, Longfellow House).

1. Possibly Susan Wyman (b. 1 8 5 1 ) and Mary Morrill Wyman (b. 1 8 5 5 ) , daughters of Jeffries Wyman ( 1 8 1 4 - 1 8 7 4 ) , professor of anatomy at Harvard, 1 8 4 7 - 1 8 7 4 , and curator of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, 1 8 6 6 1874· 2. Charles Dudley Warner, Backlog Studies (Boston, 1 8 7 3 ) .

3267.

To Edith and Anne Allegra

Longfelloiu

Camb. Deer. 31. 1872. My Darlings, If it were Summer now, and I were at Nahant, I dare say I should not write you half so many letters. Down there, with doors and windows open, or only a dull lamp, it is difficult; but here by the fireside, the nimble pen skips about, and hops into the inkstand and out again of itself; and it is hard to stop it. If you have looked at the date of this letter, which I dare say you have done, you will see that it is the last day of the year. Alice gives a supper at eleven o'clock tonight to her two guests; the two Jones Bros.^ and Ernest and Hattie. Then they are going to sit up till the year 1873 begins. The grand sleigh-ride they had planned for this evening has been given up, on account of the weather. Fanny Haskins^ was here this morning, notwithstanding the snow-storm, and brought me a bowl of whipped cream for lunch. The snow-storm! yes, it has been snowing all day long, and the earth is as white as a weddingcake. Eva Mackintosh is coming after all. She will be here tomorrow or next day. She must be very brave to try a Winter passage. As a New Year's present Uncle Tom has sent Alice a beautiful Turkish rug, which is spread before the fireplace of her bed-room. Tomorrow I dine with Wm. A[ppleton] in Beacon St. The time passes. Half your visit is over. Enjoy the last half, as much as the first, if possible. With much love to all. Your most affectionate Papa. MANUSCRIPT:

Massachusetts Historical Society.

1. Arthur Earl Jones ( 1 8 4 5 - 1 9 0 3 ) and Robert Gould Jones ( 1 8 4 7 - 1 8 8 5 ) , Harvard graduates of 1867 and 1 8 7 1 , were the brothers of Ahce Mary Jones ( 2 3 9 2 . 3 ) . 2. Frances Greene Haskins, aged seventeen, daughter of Rev. David Greene Haskins ( 1 8 1 8 - 1 8 9 6 ) , Episcopal minister of 839 Main Street, Cambridge.

639

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THAT

T o Edith and Anne Allegra

STILL

BURN

Longfellow

Camb. Jan I 1873. M y Darlings, T w o young gentlemen called upon you this morning, and I send you their cards. I have just returned from Boston, where I have been to dine with your uncle William. Ernest and Hattie went with me, but Alice did not go. W e drove in half an hour before the time, so as to pay Uncle Tom a N e w Year's visit, and found him lying on his sofa, ill with influenza. He has sent Edie a silver châtelaine, and Annie a — upon my word, I cannot remember what, but something very pretty. Aunt Hattie sends you each a handkerchief with a lace border, very elegant. Our supper last night was most agreeable. W e sat down at eleven, and sat up till one. This morning Yamada called. He says that the Japanese for "I wish you a happy N e w Year" is "May-day-to." What a comprehensive language, to say all that in one word! I am very sorry to tell you, that Maimy Horsford has the Scarlatina; but fortunately she has it mildly, and they are not alarmed by it. Good night, my Darlings; and A happy N e w Year to you, and to all at Highfield. I do not expect you to answer all my letters. I write them for the pleasure of it. Alice has also written to night to Annie. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

3269.

Alice Allegra Thorp Estate (on deposit, Longfellow House).

T o Edith and Anne Allegra

Longfellow

Camb. Jan. 2. 1873. M y Darlings, I must not forget to tell you that I made Penny a N e w Year's present "from me and the Young Ladies," which has put a fresh elasticity into his india-rubber boots. That is the first event to be recorded. T h e second is, that I met Saidie Weiss in the street this morning, and she enquired eagerly after you. T h e third is, that Mr. Richardsoni has sent in a Bill for "V2 Ton Stove Coal for Mrs. MacCauley,"^ which I shall not pay till you come back. T h e fourth is, that Mr. [Robert] Dale Owen has been here this evening, and brought a novel written by himself, in which he has inscribed these words; "Presented to Miss Edith Longfellow, with the compliments and good wishes of the Author." T h e fifth is, that Mr. Howells dined here to-day, and made himself very agreeable to the three young ladies.^ 640

CAMBRIDGE,

1873

The sixth is, that last night Uncle Tom gave me a little Album, bound in green velvet and no bigger than the palm of your hand, belonging to Edith Bronson of Newport,^ and asked me to write some lines in it; which I did this morning after breakfast, and which lines I copy here. She who comes to me; and pleadeth In the lovely name of Edith, Shall not fail of what she wanted. Edith means "the Blessed"; therefore All that she may wish or care for Will, when best for her, be granted. Will that do for a beginner? And I am a beginner for I never wrote in an Album before, — and never will again. With a thousand kisses. Papa. MANUSCRIPT:

Massachusetts Historical Society.

1. William T . Richardson, coal dealer, College Wharf, Cambridge. 2. Perhaps an object of the girls' charity in Cambridge. 3. That is, Alice Longfellow and her two house guests, Alice Mary Jones and Katherine Coolidge Howe. See 2392.3. 4. Unidentified.

3270.

To James Freeman Clarke

Camb. Jan. 3. 1873. My Dear Sir, To the best of my knowledge and belief I have no claim whatever to any part of the old cabinet. If I have, I know not how I came by it. But I have an old French Pier table, like the one you mention in your letter,^ minus the marble and the gilding. This also once belonged to General Hull,^ and is no doubt the mate of that at Mrs. Sumner's;^ a poor relation whose gold is gone. I am greatly obliged to you for your note, and shall, if possible, drive over to Jamaica Plain before the sale. I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

1. Unrecovered. 2. William Hull ( 1 7 5 3 - 1 8 2 5 ) , Revolutionary officer and governor of Michigan Territory, 1 8 0 5 - 1 8 1 2 . He was sentenced to death for surrendering an army to the British in August 1 8 1 2 , but time has shown that he was unjustly convicted. T h e sentence was never carried out.

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3. Mary D. Kemble Sumner, widow of Gen. William Hyslop Sumner ( 1 7 8 0 - 1 8 6 1 ) , a Harvard graduate of 1799, had died in Jamaica Plain on November 16, 1872, aged seventy-seven. Her possessions were being sold at auction.

3271.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Jan. 3. 1873. My Dear Greene, This is my tenth letter to-day, and I forewarn you, that you will not find it a very good one. I got up this morning at five o'clock; lighted my study lamp, and noted down some poetic thoughts that came into my head, — or what I thought such, though I dare say they were all nonsense. Since then I have been hard at work, slopping about the streets a little, but mostly at home, with those nine Scarlet Letters breaking out all over me. Meanwhile yours came and encouraged me about yourself, and discouraged me about Sumner. I do not like to think of it. He seems bent on self-destruction, and nothing that his friends can say, or his physicians either, will have any effect. I wish you had been here yesterday. Howells dined with me, and of course we had oysters and maccaroni and Italian wine. I wish you had been here to-day. My company at dinner was even more select, for I dined alone, absolutely alone. I thought I was at a French café; only at the end there was nothing to pay, and I escaped the "mauvais quart d'heure de Rabelais."^ So the loneliness creeps on, imperceptible as twilight and as certain. For fear of moralizing I will say good night. And Happy Years to you and yours. Always the same H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. See 3088.3.

3272.

To Edith and Anne Allegra

Longfellow

Camb. Jan. 3. 1873. My Dear Girls, I really do not know which of you I am writing to to-night, and think it must be both to-gether, for your two letters came in one envelope this morning, like a double almond or Philippine, in one shell. This morning I got up at five o'clock, as if I were going to take an early train for somewhere. But that was not the reason. A great thaw came in the night, and at that early hour I heard the dreadful sound of drip! drip! drip! 642

CAMBRIDGE,

1873

and that startled me, and I could sleep no more. And all day long we have had a hard battle against the water. Welsh was on the roof at day-break, shovelling ofF the snow; and ever since Mr. Perkins has been at work, and at last we have conquered.^ To-day I dined all alone, "mother-soul alone," as the Germans say; "Mutterseelen allein." But such a sumptuous dinner! I thought I was dining at the Maison Dorée in Paris; for Craigie House is not only a Maison Dorée, but a Maison adorée! Here is the Menu of my dinner. Potage Tomate. Morue à la Ste. Minéholde [Menehould] Coq de Bruyères. Langue de Boeuf. Riz au naturel. Fromage de Roquefort Dessert d'Empoli "Aranci, sigari, paste, pane, mele [Oranges, cigars, cakes, rolls, apples]." Last night came a little wooden box, about a foot square, marked thus; "With Great Care. Miss Annie Longfellow. From Richard Briggs."^ It must be Uncle Tom's present; but I have not opened it, nor will it be opened till the owner arrives. What is inside I do not know; but I think there is a good deal of straw! W e have not heard of Eva [Mackintosh]'s arrival; but she must be very near now. Good night, Darlings; and do not forget to tell Aunt Lizzy that I liked her Xmas poem very much. It is charming. Your affectionate Papa. MANUSCRIPT;

Massachusetts Historical Society.

1. Florence Welch, aged sixty-three, was Longfellow's Irish-born gardener and caretaker. Perkins was possibly Levi Perkins, a Cambridge carpenter. 2. Briggs ( 1 8 2 9 - 1 8 9 3 ) was a china decorator and pottery dealer of 1 3 7 Washington Street, Boston.

3273.

To Alexander Wadsworth

Longfellow

Camb. Jan. 5. 1873. My Dear Alex, Before this reaches you the merry Christmas company will have jingled itself away to town, and as Ossian would sav "there is silence in the deserted halls of Highfield."! I write to thank you for all your and Lizzie's kindness. You have made them very happy; and they will ha\'e stored away in their hearts the memory of a very Merry Christmas. We look for the returning party tomorrow noon; and the carriage is al643

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ready ordered to meet tbem at Somerville. T h e y will find Cambridge all afloat; for we have had a great deal of snow, followed by thaw and rain, and as water cannot run off· this level land, it has to "stand and wait."- So likewise do the inhabitants. T h e girls sent me Lizzie's Christmas poem, and I thought it very successful; particularly as nothing is more difficult to write than an occasional poem. I have sometimes tried my hand at it, and know how hard it is. It is not yet nine o'clock, but the three young ladies here, wearied with a week's dissipation, and the warm weather after the cold, have gone to bed. I will follow their good example. So good night. Always affectionately H.W.L. P.S. I send you enclosed an anecdote which may amuse you.® MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, Portland. /Me.

ADDRESS: Alexr. W .

POSTMARK: CAMHKIDGE MASS, J A N

Longfellow Esq/

6

1. Longfellow had reread James Macpherson's Poems of Ossian on October 30, 1 8 7 2 (see Life, III, 2 1 0 ) . His Ossianic quotation migbt have been an echo of the first sentence of "Lathmon" : "Selma, thy halls are silent." 2. Milton, "On His Blindness," 1. 14. 3. The anecdote, presumably a newspaper clipping, is missing.

3274.

T o Edith Stuart

Appleton^

Camb. Jan. 7. 1873. Dear Cousin Edith, Here is something which ought to belong to you. It is a photograph of your husband, and has had strange adventures. It was stolen from my Album by a French Governess we once had in the house, and by her transformed into a False Demetrius, as you will see by the inscription on the back. She passed him off as her brother. She also stole Lady Napier, and made an intimate friend of her, with affectionate words recording the fact. She even went farther and purloined the Queen of England; but had not fully made up her mind what one of her relations her Majesty should represent, when her pilferings were discovered. W e have just heard of Eva's arrival, and some of the family have gone in to see her. Yours truly H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Upiversity of Washington Library, 39

Beacon

St. / Boston,

POSTMARK:

ADDRESS: Mrs W . S. Appleton./

CAMBRIDGE

MASS,

JAN

7

ENDORSEMENT:

Uncle Henry I. Mrs. Appleton ( 1 8 4 9 - 1 8 9 2 ) was the wife of William Sumner Appleton ( 1 0 9 5 . 1 ) .

644

CAMBRIDGE, 3275.

T o George Washington

1873

Greene

Camb. Jan. 14. 1873. M y Dear Greene, Following your advice I consulted the occulist. H e enlarged the pupil of my eye with a drop or two of Belladonna, then went through the opening with his lantern, rummaged through all the chambers, and finally came out with a high idea of the retina, which he says is in perfect condition. H e gave me no remedies; said I needed none but a little rest. I take it by writing to you; to thank you for your note of this morning from Ithaca. I enclose you a letter just received for you, and why not sent direct I cannot imagine. It comes accompanied by these words; "I have your kind permission to seek Mr. Greene's address from yourself. Pardon me if I use it in that full recognition of the past, which assures us of the future." If you have the slightest idea what that means, it is more than I have. I begin to feel a certain stress and strain on the nerve of my eye, and am reminded of the Doctor's injunction. Alv\'ays Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection.

3276.

T o Alexander Wadsworth

Longfellow

Camb. Jan. 14. 1873. M y Dear Alex, M y eyes are troubling me a little, so that I can not write you a letter in answer to yours, only a line to say, that I send you, by express, half a Roquefort cheese. Please enquire for it when you go to town. With much love from all at the Craigie, Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, Portland. / M e .

3277.

ADDRESS: Alext. W . Longfellow Esq. /

POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS, J A N

T o Charles Appleton

15

Longfellow

Camb. Jan. 18. 1873.1 M y Dear Charley, Médétol which I understand is Japanese for "I wish you a happy N e w Year." Perhaps it should be written May-day-to; as that is the sound of the word, as it came from the beardless lips of Eneas Yámada this morning. But whichever way you spell it, that is what we all send you. 645

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As Alice has written you by this post, I suppose she has anticipated me in the matter of news. But I do not beheve she has sent you this rather cruel jest of Dan Curtis^ at Nathan's expense, who still has faith in Bowles Bros. One hardly knows whether to laugh or cry at it. I do the latter. T h e jest is; "Three empty Bowls and a Spoon." It is almost too bad to transcribe. Whenever your Deposits accumulate to a thousand dollars, I forward the same to Barings. I suppose that is right. Be as careful as you can in expenditures, for as you will see by my last letters you have run far behind hand. I was obliged to sell $5000 of your 5.20s to make up deficiency. Your income last year was $6,488.97. W e are all well here, and hope to see you before Summer. Your affectionate Father H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1 . T w o clippings from the Boston Transcript are pasted to the top of the sheet: "PERSONAL. T h e English papers state that the whole private fortune of Mr. Nathan Appleton of Boston is liable for the debts of Bowles Brothers, as his relation as special partner of the firm had been changed to that of general partner" ( X L V , No. 14,000 [December 17, 1 8 7 2 ] ) . "PERSONAL. T h e estate of Mr. Nathan Appleton in Newport has been attached by the creditors of Bowles Brothers" ( X L V , No. 14,002 [December 19, 1 8 7 2 ] ) . 2. Daniel Sargent Curtis ( 1 8 2 5 - 1 9 0 8 ) , Harvard graduate of 1846 and wealthy Bostonian, lived in Venice after 1875.

3278.

T o Alfred Marshall

Mayer^

Cambridge Jan 18. 1873. M y Dear Sir, I regret extremely that it will not be in my power to accept your kind invitation. I should be delighted to attend a dinner given in honor of your excellent and distinguished guest, but it will be impossible for me to leave home at the time you mention. Accept my thanks and my regrets, and believe me, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Princeton University Library. I. Mayer ( 1 8 3 6 - 1 8 9 7 ) , physicist, was a professor at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N-I·, 1 8 7 1 - 1 8 9 7 . In an unrecovered letter he had invited Longfellow to attend a dinner in honor of John Tyndall.

646

CAMBRIDGE, 3279.

1873

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Jan. 19. 1873. My Dear Sumner, "Get well!" you say.^ I should like to see you do it. "When I am sitting in my easy-chair, wrapped in my dressing gown, I am entirely comfortable." Then sit there, and let the world roll on its own mad way. A man may do a great many things in an easy-chair, beside taking his ease, — and poison. I do not know what secret diagnosis Agassiz made of me, or what he has been telling you, but I can tell you, that my eyes, though second-hand and a little shop-worn, are almost as good as new. The weather here has been very cold; and I have been taking comfort in, what do you think? a Reefer's jacket! When the port is in sight, and one is reefing sail, as Dante says,^ what can be more appropriate than a Reefer's jacket? Owen comes frequently, always with his pockets stuffed with you,® and a clergyman he has lately taken in tow. (Marine phraseology continued.) But the Vino di Zucco! It is excellent, and deserves Montesquieu's countersign.^ A thousand thanks for each bottle; in all twelve thousand thanks. If you want to know what more to do in your easy-chair, write to your Ever affectionate H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

1. In a letter of January 15, after Sumner had heard from Agassiz that Longfellow was having eye trouble. 2. C f . Inferno, X X V I I , 8 0 - 8 1 . 3. That is, with the proof sheets of Sumner's Works. 4. Sumner had sent Longfellow a case of Vino di Zucco from the vineyards of the Due d'Aumale ( 2 6 6 1 . 1 ) or, as Sumner wrote, ' " f r o m the good God,' to borrow a phrase of Montesquieu commending his wine to an English customer."

3280.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Jan 23. 1873. My Dear Greene, Here are a couple of very amusing specimens of modern criticism. Browning, The Ring and the Book. "Beyond all paral [1] el the supremest poetical achievement of our time . . . The most precious and profound spiritual treasure that England has produced since the days of Shakespeare." Lond. Athenseum.'^ Exit John Milton. Dr Holland. Arthur Bonnicastle. "No such character as Peter Bonnicasrie has appeared in literature since the Vicar of Wakefield." Newspa-per critic? 647

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Exeunt Omnes. M y lame eye continues lame, and the Doctor says; "Give it rest"; and rest I must give it, as he prescribes nothing else. Mrs Agassiz writes me good news of Sumner from Washington. She says; "Agassiz sees him daily, and says, after repeated interviews with him, he feels very sure that there is no organic trouble, . . and has the greatest hope he may recover."® Agassiz wrote to Brown Séquard, who answered; "Your diagnosis is the same as mine"; and spoke very hopefully. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT; Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. No. 2 1 6 0 (March 20, 1 8 6 9 ) , p. 399. 2. T h e critic is unidentified. Josiah Gilbert Holland's Arthur Bonnicastle. An can Novel ( N e w York, 1 8 7 3 ) was running serially in Scribner's Monthly. 3. Mrs. Agassiz's letter is unrecovered.

3281.

Ameri-

To Henry Clay Townsend^

Camb. Jan 23 1873. My Dear Sir, I have just had the pleasure of receiving your letter; and would say in reply that I do not care to compete for the Portrait in question, as I already have two by the same hand. I thank you none the less for your kindness in notifying me of its sale, and am Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, W a l n u t St. / Philadelphia

ADDRESS: H . C . Townsend Esqre / 709

POSTMARK: CAMRRIDGE MASS, J A N

23

I. Townsend ( 1 8 2 2 - 1 8 9 9 ) , who subsequently published A Memoir of T . Buchanan Read (Philadelphia, 1 8 8 9 ) , had written on January 21 offering to represent Longfellow at a public sale of Read's works in Philadelphia: "Among the portraits is what I consider a good and faithful likeness of yourself for which you sat a few years ago in Rome . . . I have thought it due to you to inform you of this fact and to offer my services to purchase the portrait of yourself for you if you desire it at such a price as vou mav name."

3282.

To Mathilde de Maltchycé^

Camb. Jan 24. 1873. Dear Mlle Maltchycé, A thousand thanks for your kind invitation to the French Plays, on the evening of the 31st. 648

CAMBRIDGE,

1873

We shall be delighted to come, unless some unforeseen event prevents us, which I trust will not be the case. With my best compliments and regards to your mother, and my best wishes for the complete success of your Representation, Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio. I . Mile de Maltchycé, born in Fontainebleau in 1849, lived with her mother, Marcienne Sanewska de Maltchycé Gordazewski, in Boston. Her La Petite Maman. Comédie (Boston and N e w York, 1 8 6 4 ) , a collection of modem French plays for children, went through several editions. In 1878 she entered the Convent of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Oakland, Cal., as a postulant, assumed the religious name of Anatolie de la Salette as a novice, but returned to secular life in 1 8 8 1 .

3283.

To William

Mountford

Camb. Jan 24 1873 My Dear Mr Mountford, I am extremely sorry that I cannot accept your kind invitation for tomorrow. Had it been any other day in the week I would have come with great pleasure, but tomorrow I have an engagement which I can in no way get rid of. With much regret Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCBtPT: unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript. University of Washington Library.

3284.

To Michelangelo Caetani di Sermoneta

Cambridge, Mass. Feb. 2 1873 My Dear Sir, After long delay, I have at length had the great pleasure of receiving the likeness of yourself, which you were kind enough to send me last Summer by Mr. Hooker.1 I am delighted with it, and have it in my study, where it constantly reminds me of you and your family, and all your hospitality and kindness to me in Rome, "dei di che f u r o n o . A h , how often I think of those pleasant days, and wonder if I shall ever see Rome again! I have heard, my Dear Sir, with great sorrow, of your recent bereavement. I know what that grief is, and lay "my hand on my mouth, and my mouth in the dust";® but my silent sympathies are with vou and with your household. 649

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In the affairs of Italy I take great interest. She seems to me at this distance, more an united nation now, than she ever has been since the old days of Rome. No nation has produced greater men, in every direction of the human faculties than Italy. With renewed expressions of most affectionate regard, and kindest remembrances to your family, I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Caetani Family Archives, Rome, PUBLISHED: Barbara A. Melchiori, "Longfellow in Italy, with Unpublished Letters of Longfellow and Howells," Studi Americani, XII ( 1 9 6 6 ) , 131-132. 1. James Clinton Hooker ( 1 8 1 8 - 1 8 9 4 ) , Vermont-born partner in the Rome banking house of Maquay, Pakenham & Hooker, occupied the Palace of the Bonapartes as a residence. 2. Alessandro Manzoni, il Cinque Maggio, 1. 77: "of the days gone by." 3. Cf. Job 40:4 and Lam. 3:29. T h e duke's English wife. Margherita di Sermoneta, had died in 1872.

3285.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Feb. 3. 1873. My Dear Greene, I have just received the enclosed from Houghton.^ If it had been ten times as much, I should have been ten times better satisfied. Such as it is, I send it. You see by the infrequency of my letters what good care I am taking of my eyes. The accumulating snowdrift of letters on my table is appalling. Meanwhile the new volume of the "Wayside Inn" is more than half done; that is to say, four stories out of seven, with Prelude and Interludes complete thus far. That kind of writing does not fatigue the eyes, on account of breaks and pauses. The continuous stream of letters is much worse. So is reading; and I abstain as much as possible. Here is the last expression of Republicanism. I have been waiting for it some time, and it comes at last. General Sargent, in his Oration on laying the corner-stone of the Miles Standish Monument calls the Creator "the Supreme Executive of Earth and Heaven. Agassiz has just returned from Washington and brings very encouraging accounts of Sumner. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. 2. with tain's

A royalty check on sales of the General Greene biography. For Horace Binney Sargent's oration see Stephen Merrill Allen, Miles an Account of the Exercises of Consecration of the Monument Ground Hill, Duxbury, Aug. 17, 1871 (Boston, 1871), pp. 21-35.

650

Standish, on Cap-

CAMBRIDGE, 3286.

1873

To Edward Penington^

Cambridge Feb. 7 1873. My Dear Sir, Please accept my thanks for your kindness in sending me the "Brief Account" of Mary Penington. It is a very singular and interesting autobiography; a soul laid bare with great frankness and simplicity. I am much indebted to you for giving me an opportunity of reading it. I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

I. Although Penington is not more closely identified, he was presumably related to Henry Penington ( 1 8 0 7 - 1 8 5 8 ) , who provided the introduction to Mary Penington's Brief Account of My Exercises from My Childhood: Left with My Dear Daughter, Gulielma Maria Penn (Philadelphia, 1848).

3287.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Feb. 8. 1873 My Dear Greene, Here is an anecdote, which if not already printed in your papers, may serve to point a sentence in one of your Unwritten Lectures. I see no particular reason why it should not be true. Perhaps you may; having greater knowledge of the men and the times.^ I think, upon the whole, that you will have great satisfaction in the Unwritten Lectures, particularly when they touch upon points that interest you. There is a pleasurable excitement about them, which I well remember. It is only the first word that costs. As soon as you hear the sound of your own voice, all goes well enough. Thanks for your President's Remarks on Professor Cleveland. I passed his mother's house the other night, coming out of town. The windows were lighted in various rooms of students, but I thought of the darkness in the mother's heart.^ Sumner writes; "I begin tomorrow with another poison — henbane!"^ Upon my word, if the malady does not kill him, I fear the remedies will. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. T h e following clipping from the Boston Advertiser, C X X I , No. 34 (February 8, 1 8 7 3 ) , is pasted to the sheet following this paragraph: " — A Berlin correspondent writes to the Christian Union: A while ago the late Dr. Lieber published a card calling for the origin of an anecdote of Washington, which one of the professor's law students had heard from Laboulaye. Washington and Jefferson being at tea together, the latter was arguing

651

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against two houses, and demanded of Washington some good reason for a senate. 'You yourself, Mr Jefferson,' said Washington, 'have just given me the argument. Finding your tea too hot, you poured it from the cup into the saucer to cool it; we need a second chamber to cool off the first.' Your correspondent remembers telling this anecdote to Laboulaye at his table several years ago; and my authority for it was the late Judge Daggett, who told it, with inimitable gusto, in his law lectures to the senior class in Yale College. His authority was probably the former Senator, Hillhouse of New Haven; and any survivor of the Daggett or the Hillhouse family should be able to verify so good an anecdote of Washington, and to put it on record beyond a question." Edouard René Lefebvre de Laboulaye ( 1 8 1 1 - 1 8 8 3 ) , French jurist, was the author of Histoire Politique des États-Unis (Paris, 1 8 5 5 - 1 8 6 6 ) , 3 vols.; David Daggett ( 1 7 6 4 - 1 8 5 1 ) , U . S . Senator, 1 8 1 3 - 1 8 1 9 , and Connecticut Supreme Court justice, 1 8 2 6 - 1 8 3 4 , was professor of law at Yale, 1 8 2 6 - 1 8 4 8 ; James Hillhouse ( 1 7 5 4 - 1 8 3 2 ) served as U . S . Senator from Connecticut, 1 7 9 6 - 1 8 1 0 . 2. William Charles Cleveland (b. 1 8 3 9 ) , professor of engineering at Cornell, had died on January 16, 1873, and was buried from his mother's residence at Winthrop Square, Cambridge, on January 20. President White's remarks are unrecovered. 3. Letter dated January 27, 1873.

3288.

T o Charles

Appleton

Longfellow C a m b . Feb. 17

1873.

M y Dear Charley, I h a v e B a r i n g Bros. a c [ c ] o u n t u p to D e c 3 1 .

1 8 7 2 . a n d there stands to

your Credit only £ 1 3 6 . 9 . 1 . T h i s m o n t h I h a v e m a d e a r e m i t t a n c e of $ 8 0 0 . T h e y i n f o r m m e that y o u h a v e d r a w n u p o n t h e m f o r £ 2 0 0 0 outside of y o u r n e w letter of credit. T h i s D r a f t w i l l h a v e to b e met at m a t u r i t y , a n d I shall h a v e to sell y o u r Stocks to do it. T h i s is a great pity. D o y o u not see that at this rate y o u w i l l soon h a v e n o t h i n g l e f t ? T a k e w a r n i n g f r o m N a t h a n , w h o . U n c l e T o m tells m e , is stripped of every dollar. I f e a r that m y letters do not r e a c h y o u , or that y o u r s d o not reach m e . W e have heard nothing for two months. C u r t a i l y o u r e x p e n s e s as m u c h as y o u c a n ; a n d c o m e h o m e as soon as possible. Y o u r affectionate father H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

3289.

Longfellow Trust Collection.

T o Edith

Longfellow C a m b . F e b 26

1873

M y Darling Edith, I m u s t w r i t e y o u o n e little w o r d in season f o r P e n n y to take it w h e n h e comes w i t h the e v e n i n g p a p e r . 652

CAMBRIDGE,

1873

Your two letters came this morning, and we are all delighted to hear, that you are enjoying your visit in town so very much.^ If the weather is as pleasant tomorrow as it is to-day, I mean to come in and dine with you at Uncle Tom's. That will do very well for my birthday. Mr Howells is coming to dine with us to-day; our Wednesday family party. He will take your place. We all send you much love, and also to all under the hospitable roof of No 44 Brimmer St. Always Your most affectionate Papa MANUSCBIPT:

Massachusetts Historical Society.

I. Edith was the guest in Boston of Samuel Eliot and his wife.

3290.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. March i 1873. My Dear Greene, The news you send distresses me.^ But how fortunate that the disaster comes at the end of your course and not at the beginning. This has been a severe winter for the eyes. I do not much wonder that yours have suffered. Let us hope it may not be for long. I thank your amanuensis for reminding you of my birthday. On that day I finished the Third Part of the "Wayside Inn," seven tales in all, with the "Interludes." With this Part, I close the whole, not wishing to be tempted to go further in that direction. I am now free to turn my mind to other things. As you cannot read, I feel as if I were writing to somebody else; and it is a very curious sensation. Have you heard any account of the "Haunted School-House at Newburyport"? It is altogether the most pathetic ghost story I ever heard; — as pathetic as Hamlet, if not more so. Yes, even more so to me. I hope it is all true, as a revindication of the Spiritual elements, now so submerged by the Materialistic elements of our day.^ Thanks for the little scrap on Dante,® which is very good. Write me again soon by the same fair hand. Yours always. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Greene's letter is missing, but trouble with his eyes had forced him to use an amanuensis named Lillie H. Peck, possibly a relation of Tracy Peck ( 1 8 3 8 - 1 9 2 1 ) , professor of Latin at Cornell, 1 8 7 1 - 1 8 8 0 . 2. See The Haunted School-House at Newburyport, Mass. (Boston, 1 8 7 3 ) . This work by an unknown author, published by A. K. Loring Company, came out in two double-columned, unbound pamphlets. 3. Unidentified.

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To Luigi Monti

Camb. March i. 1873. My Dear Mr Monti, I have long delayed answering your last letter, in the first place because the wine did not arrive till late in the Autumn, and in the second place, because I have had a trouble in one of my eyes, which rendered writing painful. But that is passed, and at length I can thank you for your great kindness in this matter, and all the trouble you have taken. The two quarter-casks arrived safely, but not in double-packages. Perhaps the outer ones were knocked off at the Custom House. My name was not upon them, nor my initials; only a blue label, marked "Palermo. S.O.M." and "Florio" branded on the head of the casks. But as Mr. Worthingtoni said that these were the only ones that came in the vessel besides his own Invoice, I suppose it is all right; though I have not yet tried the wine.^ Mr. Worthington further said that he was not authorized to receive payment for Mr. Florio. So thus far I have paid only the expenses of freight, duties &c. How shall I pay for the wine? If you will let me know the cost I will send you a draft.® This has been a very severe Winter, and I have busied myself in writing a third volume of the "Tales of a Wayside Inn." Did I ever send you the Second, published since I saw you? I called yesterday to see Dr. Parsons, but he is in the country somewhere, and his wife^ was out, so that I can send you no news of them. We are all well, and all longing to see Italy once more; but whether that day will ever come is very doubtful. With kindest regards to your wife and daughter. Always Yours Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Clifton W a l l e t Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. 1 . William Worthington ( 1 8 0 7 - 1 8 8 7 ) , merchant of 20 Central W h a r f , Boston. 2. Longfellow had ordered the wine in Letter N o . 3 1 9 3 and on September 30, 1 8 7 2 , Monti wrote: " I write to inform you that the two Quarter Casks of Florio's Marsala in a double case were shipped, as I had notified you in my last, on board the 'Horatio Sprague,' which vessel is consigned to Messrs: Worthington & C o of Central W h a r f . / But as there are on the same ship 1 5 0 Casks, 50 of which are Quarter Casks of wine of the same Factory, but of very inferior quality, you had better request the Messrs. Worthingtons to be careful about it, so that you may get your own. Your two Quarter Casks are double cased, and marked H . W . L . and it is of the S . O . M . brand, while all the rest of W . W . C , brand." 3. In a response of April 1 8 , Monti informed Longfellow that Florio had died and that he would eventually receive the bill through Worthington. 4. Thomas W i l l i a m Parsons had married A n n a M . Allen ( 1 8 2 1 - 1 8 8 1 ) of Boston in 1857.

654

CAMBRIDGE, 3292.

1873

To Catherine Porter Greene

Camb. March 3. 1873. My Dear Mrs Greene, I have just received your letter, and hasten to say in reply how sorry I am to hear of the condition of George's eyes.^ Otherv^dse, there seems to be no cause for apprehension in regard to his health. I had a letter from him two or three days ago, written by another hand. I send it to you, that you may see he is well and cheerful under his affliction, and is surrounded by kind friends. When I was connected with the College here I once went through the same trial that he is now going through, and had some one to read those parts of my Lectures which required eyesight. But I finally got over it, as I trust he will soon. This winter has been very bad for weak eyes; and he is suffering in common with others. That however is but small consolation. Only you must try not to be over anxious and troubled about this calamity, which, though very annoying, may not prove very serious. Before long he will be with you again, and you will not be tormented by the doubts and uncertainties inspired by distance and absence. I beg you to remember me kindly to the Governor and his family, and to believe me, with great sympathy Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. In an undated letter Mrs. Greene had written : " I turn in my great sorrow to you, knowing how you will feel for me. / I have heard through a friend of George's in Ithaca, his eyes have entirely broken down and I fear he is very ill. Do write to him."

3293.

To Charles Sumner

Private. Camb. Mch 3. 1873. My Dear Sumner, It is extremely unpleasant to write what follows, and yet I ought to do it for your guidance. Letters have come from England very damaging to the character of Mr. Louis. I have seen one from Tom Hughes, in which he says among other things; "I knorv that he married a Miss Anthony, who died leaving two children, and that he has married again. "I believe that he has left his wife and her step children here without any provision. This is told me by former friends of his, who have every means of information. Also that he behaved very badly to his wife and children before deserting them. "I know that he has borrowed money from myself and others, some cases

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being peculiarly cruel and wicked, and has never made the slightest sign of even a desire to pay. "In short I behave him to be a very worthless, bad fellow, and I am very sorry that he should have appeared in New England."^ I rejoice to hear by the papers, that you are better, but should like to have it confirmed by your own hand. Greene writes me from Ithaca, that his eyes have entirely given out, so that he can no longer use them for reading. Always affect [ionatel] y H.W.L. MANUSCBIPT: Harvard College Library. I. Despite certain irregularities in Alfred Hyman Louis's past, the charges in Thomas Hughes's letter have not been substantiated. See 3 1 9 1 . 2 .

3294.

T o Frances D. Bruen Perkins^

Camb. March 4 1873 My Dear Mrs Perkins, This is indeed most unlucky. I have myself guests tomorrow at dinner, and am forced to decline your most kind invitation, which I regret all the more, as I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Miss Faithfull.^ Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House). 1. Mrs. Perkins ( 1 8 2 5 - 1 9 0 9 ) was the wife of Charles Callahan Perkins (600.5). 2. Emily Faithfull ( 1 8 3 5 - 1 8 9 5 ) , English feminist, philanthropist, and writer, was to deliver, on March 5, the Parker Fraternity lecture at the Tremont Temple on the subject of " T h e Best Society" (Boston Transcript, X L V I , No. 14,064 [March 3, 1 8 7 3 ] ) .

3295.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. March 8 1873. My Dear Greene, That veracious chronicle of events, the Evening Paper, brings to-night this bit of news. It is rumored that Patience Island has been purchased by the Rhode Island Steamboat Company for $14,000.^ Is this true? and if true, will it bring anything into your exchequer? Is not Patience Island your island?^ 656

CAMBRIDGE,

1873

This morning I was cheered by your letter;® much longer, thanks to Miss Peck, than if you had undertaken to write it yourself. Even the chimney roared applause; and will roar louder when it hears your step in the "windy halls of Craigie House," as Ossian would say. That I am writing this by lamp light, is my answer to your question about my eyes. They were driven a little too hard in those short winter days; that is all. But I must not forget that sixty six is the number of my regiment. I send you to-day a paper with an account of the hearing on the Petitions to cancel the censure on Sumner. I was sorry to see the names of Garrison and Julia Ward Howe among those of the opponents to the Petitions.^ I send also another paper with a description of Sam Ward by Edmund Yates, which is very graphic.® From Sumner I get nothing but newspapers, and those dreary Public Documents, the necessity of whose existence in print I do not clearly see. Good night; and thank Miss Peck from me for the letters I am to receive. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. This clipping, from the Boston Transcript, XLVI, No. 14,069 (March 8, 1 8 7 3 ) , is pasted to the sheet at this point. 2. In a response dated May 5, 1873, Greene wrote: "Our tenant on Patience Island instead of coming to a final settlement has run off without paying a cent. As what was due from him amounts to more than half of what I was to have I find myself all adrift again." 3. Dated March 6, 1873. 4. See the Boston Advertiser, CXXI, No. 57 (March 7, 1 8 7 3 ) . The hearings were being conducted in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. 5. The description is unlocated.

3296.

To Rasmus Björn Anderson^

Cambridge March 10. 1873. My Dear Sir, I have had the pleasure of receiving your letter, and the proffered honor of the Dedication of your book on Northern M y t h o l o g y I beg you to accept my thanks for this mark of your regard, which I shall be very glad to receive. In regard to Pennock's work,® I think that Mr. Griggs or another bookseller could easily get it for you from New York, where it was published by Charles B. Norton. 71 Chambers Street, 1854. He may have changed his address, since then; but I am quite sure that A. Denham & Co 17 Murray St. would find the book for you. If you fail in this, I will see what I can do in Boston. With best wishes Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. 657

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MANUSCRIPT: Michael G . Shanahan, Seattle. 1 . Anderson ( 1 8 4 6 - 1 9 3 6 ) , Norwegian-American author, served as instructor and professor of Scandinavian languages at the University of Wisconsin, 1869-1884, and as U . S . minister to Denmark, 1 8 8 5 - 1 8 8 9 . 2. Norse Mythology; or, The Religion of our Forefathers, Containing All the Myths of the Eddas, Systematized and Interpreted (Chicago and London, 1 8 7 5 ) . 3. Barclay Pennock ( 1 8 2 1 - 1 8 5 9 ) , minor Pennsylvania author, was the translator of Rudolph Keyser's Religion of the Northmen ( N e w York, 1 8 5 4 ) .

3297.

T o Samuel

Hooper

Camb. March i о 1873 Dear M r Hooper, I hear some whisper of my friend M r Luigi Monti's being recalled from his consulate at Palermo. I hope there is no danger of this; and beg you, if you have an opportunity of saying a good word in his behalf, that you will do so. You could not help a better man, who though Italian by birth is half American by marriage and long residence. I am glad to hear that Sumner is better. H e will tell you about Monti if you care to enquire further. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

3298.

Library of Congress.

T o James Thomas

Fields

Camb. M c h i 6 1873 M y Dear Fields, I have just received your note by the morning post;^ and have only a moment to bid you good bye and say how sorry I am you could not come out yesterday. T h e fierce March wind makes one think of the "Ancient Mariner." "And now the Storm-Blast came . . . And chased us south along."^ I hope you will go as far as Washington and see Sumner. Of course Mrs F. goes with you. Farewell. Yours always H.W.L P.S. I return Owen's book, which you lent me, by Sawin with this. 658

CAMBRIDGE,

1873

MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. 1. In this note, dated "Sunday March i 6 " ( M S , Henry E. Huntington Library), Fields wrote: "I am thinking of a trip southward for a couple of weeks, and hope to be off on Tuesday morning." 2. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," Part I, 11. 41, 44.

3299.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. March 27. 1873. My Dear Greene, I have just received your letter,^ and I am delighted to know that you are safe at home again after your weary Winter, and that I am so soon to see you here. Let me know, if you can, the day and hour of your coming, so that I may not be out of the way, or entangled by any engagement to dine elsewhere than at home. And so the winter is over and the impossible — or what seemed so in November, — has been done! But I am sorry to hear, that your eyes still trouble you. Was it over-work, or anxiety, or the cold weather, or what was it, that brought on the attack? Sumner writes me, that within a fortnight he has had two severe returns of his malady in the night, and was obliged to get up and inject morphine into his veins. Agassiz is giving a course of Lectures, which would interest you much. He says that every animal comes from an egg, and that every egg produces always its like. You see the bearing of that. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Dated March 26, 1873, from East Greenwich.

3300.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Apr. 3. 1873. My Dear Sumner, I am glad to get so good a bulletin of your health, though not perfectly satisfactory. Your weakness is in part perhaps owing to the Spring weather, which everybody feels; but I wish you were stronger, and less sensitive to such influences. I am expecting Greene in a day or two, and wish you could be here with him. You now see what it is to have a house, and how hard it is to get out of it. Every man's house is not only his castle, but also his prison. I have always found it so, and never more than now. J[ohn] О [wen] was here to-day. He is always full of you; and has written 659

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you a long letter, which I saw him post with his own hand at one o'clock. He wants me to second his proposition, that all men are born, not only free and equal, but with equal rights to govern the Republic. I told him, that the manner in which the Republic is now governed led me to a different conclusion. I am happy to say that my eyes are well enough when I let them alone. When I use them they complain. This is the reason I do not write oftener. Scrivendo о tacendo [Writing or being quiet], Yours always H.W.L P.S. I have received from Germany two separate translations of the "Divine Tragedy."! MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. I. One of tbese translations, Ъу Karl Keck C 1 7 6 9 . 5 ) , remained unpublished. T h e other, by Hermann Simon ( 1 8 1 4 - 1 8 9 0 ) , appeared in his edition of Longfellow's Sämmtliche Poetische Werke (Leipzig, 1 8 8 3 ) , г vols.

3301.

To Ferdinand

Freiligrath

Cambridge April 5 1873. My Dear Freiligrath, I am deeply touched and grieved by the melancholy tidings you send me.^ These are the sorrows to which all others are as nothing. They change us. We can never be again what we were before; though we may seem so to the eyes of others. But we know that a part of ourselves is gone, and cannot come back again. I will not attempt to console you. That is useless. But I suffer with you, and share your affliction. Mrs. Dana and her daughters, to whom you have been so kind, and who are so grateful for all your kindness, write with the deepest sympathy, and speak of your son as "dear, sweet Otto Freiligrath."^ I never saw him; yet from this expression, and his photograph, and his brother Wolfgang,® I have a picture of him in my mind, and feel what your loss must be. All this will not comfort you. But I know you will be courageous and bear the inevitable with resignation. I beg you to give my tenderest sympathies to your wife, and to think of me always as Most affectionately Yours Henry W . Longfellow

660

CAMBRIDGE, MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, respondence," p. 1 2 9 1 .

1873

PUBLISHED: "Longfellow-Freiligrath Cor-

1. Freiligrath had sent Longfellow a formal announcement of the death of his second son, Georg Karl Otto Freiligrath (b. 1 8 5 1 ) . 2. See 3021.2. 3. Wilhelm Wolfgang Freiligrath (b. 1 8 4 7 ) , Freiligrath's eldest son.

3302.

To Anne Longfellow

Pierce

Camb. Ap. 5. 1873. Dear Annie The girls, assisted by Wad and Tom [Talbot], are having a merry time here, and fill the house with music and merriment. I am also expecting Mr. Greene to-day. He may not add to the mirth, but will help me maintain the dignity of the household. I enclose a cheque for $100. and all send you much love. Mary [Greenleaf] has gone to Middleton, and as Bessie is with us, Sam lives in solitude for the present. When are we to have the pleasure of seeing you? Always affect[ionatel]y H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection.

3303.

To Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

Camb. Apr. 6. 1873. My Dear Dana, I had already heard the melancholy news which you send me, having received from Freiligrath the printed form usual in Germany on such occasions. I am glad Mrs. Dana is in Stuttgart; for though she will feel it painfully, yet her presence will be a great comfort I am sure to the Freiligraths. Thanking you for your note. Yours always Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Massachusetts Historical Societv.

3304.

To William Dummer Northend^

Cambridge Apr. 6. 1873. My Dear Sir, You are quite right in supposing that I am a descendant of Wm. Longfellow and Ann Sewall of Byfield. 661

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Any information you can give me about the old homestead, and its present inhabitants will be very acceptable. Please accept my thanks in advance, and believe me Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Bowdoin College Library.

I. Northend ( 1 8 2 3 - 1 9 0 2 . ) , a Bowdoin graduate of 1843 and a Salem lawyer, had written Longfellow on April 4 on the subject of their common ancestor Henry Sewall (c. 1 5 7 6 - 1 6 5 7 ) of Newbury, father of Samuel Sewall. See 927.9.

3305.

Toan Unidentified

Correspondent

Cambridge Apr 7. 1873. M y Dear Sir, I have had the pleasure of receiving your letter, and have given its contents due consideration, with every wish to oblige you. But the conclusion I have come to is, that on such an occasion, when in a certain sense I must be present, whether I will or not, I had better not be present by letter, or communication of any kind, made directly to you or to the Society. You do not say when your meeting takes place. If I knew, and could in season get from the printer a poem, that is to appear in the May number of the Atlantic,^ perhaps that would answer your purpose equally well, and I should not feel it to be any breach of delicacy to let you have it a few days in advance of publication. At the same time, as publishers are particular on such points, I should have to stipulate, that it should not go out of your own hands before the day of publication. I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Frank O. Buda, Cambridge, Mass.

I. "Scanderbeg," Atlantic Monthly, X X X I ( M a y 1 8 7 3 ) , 6 1 8 - 6 2 1 .

3306.

To Karl Keck

Cambridge Apr. 18 1873. My Dear Sir, I have had the great pleasure of receiving your letter, and your admirable translations of the "Divine Tragedy" and "Miles Standish."' I am touched by this mark of your regard for me and my writings, and hardly know how to thank you enough. 662

CAMBRIDGE,

1873

Particularly am I struck by the version of the "Divine Tragedy"; in which you have followed so faithfully the change of metre, without adding or omitting anything. It is certainly a very marked success. T h i s poem, as perhaps you know, is the first part of "Christus"; of w h i c h the "Golden Legend" is the Second part, and the " N e w England Tragedies" the third. T h e three are connected by Interludes, and closed by a Finale, w h i c h corresponds to the Introitus of the first part. T h e whole work has been published here; and I shall send you a copy as soon as I find how it can be done without involving any expense to yourself. I sincerely hope that you will be moved to complete your work by adding the " N e w England Tragedies" and the Interludes. In this poem I have striven to exhibit the simplicity of Christianity in its origin; some of its Mediasval aspects, and some of the shapes it assumed under Protestantism. W i t h renewed and most cordial thanks, I am, my Dear Sir, Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Both translations remained unpublished.

3307.

T o George Harrison

Mifflin^ Camb. А р г 2 9

1873.

M y Dear M r Mifflin, I am much obliged to you for your kind invitation, and should accept it with great pleasure, but unfortunately have a business engagement at the very hour you mention, which will prevent me. W i t h many thanks Yours truly H e n r y W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collec-

tion (Longfellow House). I. Mifflin ( 1 8 4 5 - 1 9 2 1 ) , a partner in Hurd & Houghton, was president of the successor firm, Houghton Mifflin Company, from 1908 until his death.

3308.

T o Charles

Sumner C a m b . M a y 4 1873.^

M y Dear Sumner Yesterday came your letter and the case of wonderful wines.^ If I were Horace or Anacreon, I should send you my thanks in an Ode; but as I am not they must come to you in prose, which is often more sincere than verse. 663

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T h e case is unpacked; and the bottles arranged like books on a shelf; a famous array of old authors. But none as yet have been uncorked; for Greene, w h o is here, is not well enough to enjoy good wine, and contents himself with common claret. H e has had a sad visit, having suffered from an attack of Diphtheria, which, I confess, rather frightened me. T h a t is over now; but he is still distressingly weak and downcast. As soon as possible I shall administer one of your choisest bottles. Cypress [Cyprus] wine will do him good; for he says you first tasted Cypress at his house in Rome. So he will drink in it old memories of you, and of Rome. But I must not forget my heartiest thanks for this bountiful gift. I probably never had so much good wine in my cellar before nor ever shall again. Greene sends his love as do w e all. Charles is on his way home, and will be here in June. A l w a y s affectionately H.W.L P.S. I am sorry you do not get stronger. C o m e to me at N a h a n t , if not sooner. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. 1. T h e following clipping from the Cambridge Chronicle, X X V I I I , N o . i 8 ( M a y 3, 1 8 7 3 ) , is pasted to the top of the sheet: "MYSTERIOUS EVENT. — O n Friday evening of last week, Mrs. Charles Cushman, residing at 801 Main Street, suddenly left her home, — and has not yet been found. She was suffering at the time from a long illness w h i c h was accompanied with extreme nervous prostration and depression, causing great anxiety to the family . . . Mrs. Cushman was 34 years of age, and a daughter of John O w e n , a well known citizen of Cambridge." A week later the Chronicle reported the recovery of Mrs. Cushman's body from the Charles River ( X X V I I I ) , N o . 19 [May 10, 1873]. Frances O w e n Cushman was actually thirty-five at the time of her death. 2. Sumner's letter of May i describes his gift of sherry and claret.

3309.

To Alexander

Denham &

Company Cambridge

M a y 7. 1873.

Dear Sir, From your Catalogue of April and M a y , please send the following, care of Sawin's Express, Boston, as heretofore, and oblige Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow^ MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from photocopy, University of Washington Library. I. Longfellow has written "Horace" and "Homer" above two catalogue listings w h i c h are pasted to the third sheet of the letter:

664

CAMBRIDGE,

1873

"6 . Œuvres, en Latin et en Français, avec des Remarques critiques et historiques par Dacier. 10 vols. i2mo, cf. Amster. 1 7 2 7 . 4·οο The Latin text and French translation are on opposite pages. 16 . Odyssey, literally translated into English prose, with Notes. 2 vols. 8vo. bds. London. 1 8 2 3 . " T h e M S Letter Calendar reveals that he wrote again to Denham & Company on May ID, enclosing $7.75.

3310.

To Eugène Convoisier^

Cambridge près Boston le 17 Mai 1873. Monsieur, Je regrette infiniment que mon fils Charles ne soit pas encore de retour de son voyage au Japon. Il aurait été charmé de vous voir, et j'espère que son absence ne vous empêchera pas de venir à Boston et de m'accepter comme son tenant-bien et remplaçant. Veuillez bien agréer l'assurance de ma haute considération. H. W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

TRANSLATION:

Cambridge, near Boston, May 17, 1873. Dear Sir, I deeply regret that my son Charles is not hack yet from his journey to Japan. He would have heen delighted to see you, and I hope his absence will not deter you from coming to Boston and accepting me as his champion and substitute. Please believe me to be respectfully yours. H. W . Longfellow. I. A n unidentified friend of Charles Longfellow, established as Longfellow's correspondent by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana.

3 311.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. June 3. 1873. My Dear Greene, Here it is, the third of June, and I am sitting in my winter clothes, and with a fire in the grate. It was pleasant to light the evening lamp; and the flicker of the fire takes me back to winter. The season seems to have caught the general dishonesty and defrauds us by taking 'Ъаск pay," and other irregularities. Thanks for your letter, written in uncommonly handsome style, as if both eyes and hands were better. It is a good augury.^ 665

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I enclose Scudder's letter^ in answer to what I wrote him when you were here. Also the Advertisement of your book. It is a pity that you should have been hurried away from here so unnecessarily. You would have enjoyed Handel's music to the "Allegro and Pensieroso." It is very beautiful; but the poem suffers by being cut into small pieces, and then mixed together; — now a bit of the "Allegro," now of the "Pensieroso." This mutilation is required by the exigencies of music! So say the musicians one and all. I do not believe it.® H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Greene's letter of May 31 was written in his own hand. 2. Unrecovered. 3. A private concert was held at Mechanics' Hall, Boston, on May 31 in aid of a fund for Robert Franz ( 1 8 1 5 - 1 8 9 2 ) , German composer whose deafness and nervous disorder had forced his retirement in 1868. Handel's "L'Allegro, il Pensieroso ed il Moderato" constituted the first part of the program.

3312.

To George Washington

Greene

Câmb. June 4. 1873. My Dear Greene, I have just received yours of yesterday, written by your wife's hand, which alarmed me before I opened it.^ I am deeply grieved at what you write; but comforted somewhat to know that the lameness in your hand passed away so soon. It was a happy inspiration of yours to telegraph at once to Dr. Payne.^ I hope you have already heard from him, and have his remedy. Meanwhile I trust you have seen also your home physician; and that tomorrow I may hear, that all has passed over, and that you are as well as I thought you, when I wrote two days ago. Pray do not be unduly alarmed. I know people who have had attacks of the kind ten times as violent, and have recovered perfectly. Be as little troubled as possible, and all will go well. Ever affectionately H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. In his letter of lune 2 Greene informed Longfellow that " I had this morning a stroke of paralysis in the right forearm and hand." 2. Frederick William Payne ( 1 8 5 2 - 1 9 2 7 ) had recently begun practice as a homeopathic physician at 27 Concord Square, Boston.

666

CAMBRIDGE, 3313.

1873

To Mary Hannah French Wetr^

Camb. June 5. 1873. My Dear Mrs. Weir, Accept my warmest thanks for your kind remembrance, and for the portrait of your little darling.2 The sweet face, and the dimpled hands folded across each other, are very pleasant to look upon. They are moreover a reminder of your brief visit here, which I hope remains as agreeably in your memory as it does in ours. I beg you to give my kindest regards to your husband, and to believe me Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

1. Mrs. Weir ( 1 8 4 6 - 1 9 2 7 ) was the wife of John Ferguson Weir artist and director of the Yale School of Fine Arts, 1 8 6 9 - 1 9 1 3 . 2. Clara Louise Weir (d. 1 9 2 6 ) .

3314.

To George Washington

(1841-1926),

Greene

Camb. June 9. 1873. My Dear Greene, It is half past four o'clock, and I am expecting Launt Thompson and his wife,^ and Mr Aldrich and his, to dinner. Being fully arrayed in my regimentals, like Buffon I can sit down to write, with a clear conscience, and say, somewhat in his style, that the afternoon sunshine on the lilacs is lovely, and the view across the meadows enchanting! Saturday, as I came home from a walk, I found Ernest sitting under his white umbrella, painting this view. So we shall have it, after all, thanks to your "affettuoso grido" [affectionate outcry]. That is a very unpleasant bit of news about your agent.^ When will all this rascality come to an end? and what is to become of us if this sort of thing goes on? Evening. The guests have come and gone; and the dinner was very pleasant. It is Charley's birth day. I hope and trust that you are going on well, and that the uneasy feeling in the arm has left you. I have not seen Dr. Paine [Payne] since you were here. Have been as usual much interrupted; and as yet have not received the first proof of the new book® from the printer. H.W.L.

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MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Thompson ( 1 8 3 3 - 1 8 9 4 ) , Irish-born sculptor, had married Maria L . Potter, daughter of Alonzo Potter ( 1 8 0 0 - 1 8 6 5 ) , Episcopal bishop of Pennsylvania, in 1869. 2. T h a t is, Greene's tenant on Patience Island. See 3295.2. 3. Aftermath (Boston, 1 8 7 3 ) .

3315.

T o Robert Granfi

[Cambridge] June 10. 1873. Mr Longfellow accepts with much pleasure the kind invitation of Mr. Grant and his friends for Class Day. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. I. Grant ( 1 8 5 2 - 1 9 4 0 ) , a Harvard graduate of 1873, subsequently earned a reputation as a novelist and notoriety as a member of the commission that approved the verdict against Sacco and Vanzetti.

3315a.

T o Edmund Routledge^

Cambridge June 11. 1873. M y Dear Sir, W h e n your father was here a few weeks ago he was kind enough to say that he would do anything in his power to facilitate the purchase of books in England for me. I now avail myself of his offer, and will ask you to pay for me the enclosed bill, and pass the same to my account. I was very glad to see your father and mother.^ They were looking well; and started for San Francisco as gaily as a newly married couple on a wedding tour. I hope that their long journey will be prosperous, and that I shall have the pleasure of seeing them on their return. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Frank O . Buda, Cambridge, Mass. 1. Routledge ( 1 8 4 3 - 1 8 9 9 ) , editor and author of minor works, was the son of George Routledge ( 1 1 8 4 . 1 ) . 2. Routledge had married Mary Grace Bell (d. 1898, aged seventy-eight) of Newcastle-upon-Tyne on M a y 11, 1858. She was his second wife.

668

CAMBRIDGE, 3316.

To Denis Florence

1873

MacCarthy Camb. June 13, 1873.

Do you remember what Goethe says of Calderón? "Many a beam the Orient throws By distant waters caught; He alone who Hafiz knows Knows what Calderón has thought."! And that is what Mr. Hillard means by his "Oriental element shining through it, like the ruddy heart of an opal" . . . I was truly delighted with your new volume, as with the others . . MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from Carnegie Catalogue No. 292, Item 330 (December 1966). 1. See "Hikmet Nameh. Buch der Sprüche" in Goethe's Der West-östlichen Divan. The chief work of Hafiz (Shams ud-din Mohammed), the great Persian lyric poet of the 14th century, was Divan, a collection of short odes. 2. The "new" volume was MacCarthy's translation of Calderon's Dramas. The Wonder-Working Magician: Life is a Dream: The Purgatory of Saint Patrick (London, 1 8 7 3 ) . The quotation might have been from a review of the work by George Stillman Hillard.

3317.

T o Charles

Sumner Camb. June 13. 1873.

My Dear Sumner, I am sorry that you take away all hope of my seeing you before we go to Nahant; but as one is nowhere so comfortable as in one's own house, I do not much wonder at your delaying to move till the last moment. But you must come to me at Nahant as soon as you can, for I long to see with my own eyes how you really are. I am expecting Greene here tomorrow. He is coming to consult a Boston Physician. I am sorry to say he is in a poor way; having had the other day a slight stroke of paralysis, which disabled his right fore-arm for a while. I confess that I feel somewhat alarmed about him, his nervous system is so prostrated, and he has so little strength. The Physician evidently thinks his case pretty serious. Under this roof we are all as well as usual, which, as you know, means very well. Only my eyes still trouble me, and prevent me from writing to you as often as I wish. Always affect. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT; Harvard College Library.

669

EMBERS 3318.

THAT

STILL

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To John Forster

Camb. June 18. 1873. My Dear Forster, Charles Norton has arrived and has brought me your letter which touches me by its kindness. But I am grieved to hear that you have been so ill and suffering. Are you not over-worked? To write the life of a dear friend just gone, must be a task almost too painful. How fearlessly and well you have done yours I need not say. I have read the two volumes with deepest interest and sympathy. You give an exact portrait of Dickens; and have had the courage not to conceal some things, that others might have hidden, but which make the likeness true and life-like. How sad it is to think, that of all the group that used to meet in the happy days of Devonshire Terrace, so few remain! We will not think of it, or, at all e\'ents, not speak of it now.^ I can well imagine without your saying it, how bitter this last volume will be to you. If Dickens had been dead a hundred years the task would be easier. But your skill will carry you through triumphantly. My girls join me in kind remembrances to you and Mrs Forster, and I am always Affectionately Yours Henry W . Longfellow P.S. Please say to Carlyle how sorry I was and am that I did not see him, when last in London. MANUSCRIPT:

Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

I. In his letter of May 7 Forster had written : " I must add — that, ever since you were here, my health has become much broken. I have only lately risen from a sickness which kept me to my bed six weeks. I had passed three previous winter months with my old friend L[or]d Lytton at Torquay and had hardly left him when he was struck down. A terrible blow to me. And now there has lately another fallen in his death (though in ripe old age) of poor dear Macready. Prepare ourselves as we may the blow makes itself felt." Bulwer-Lytton had died on January 18, William Charles Macready on April 27, 1873. Dickens lived at No. i Devonshire Terrace from 1839 to 1853 and it was there that Longfellow stayed with him in October 1842. See 724.1.

3319.

To Annie Adams Fields

Camb. June. 20. 1873. Dear Mrs. Fields, I have just received your charming gift, your note and the stately lilies; but fear you may be gone from town before my thanks can reach you, and so shall direct this to Manchester, sure that it will find you there sooner or later.^ 670

CAMBRIDGE,

1873

H o w beautiful they are, these lilies of the field; and how like American women! Not because "they neither toil nor spin,"^ but because they are elegant and "born in the purple." I wish something would prompt you to come out to-day, in spite of the heat. It is Class Day; and the girls have all gone down to the College. I want to consult your husband. Sir James, about certain poems. Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

1 . In a letter of June 20 Annie Fields had de luce returns, I gather it in memory of that book which bears its name. W e chance to be cept one from my own garden-ground, bringing 2. C f . Matt. 6:28.

3320.

To Charles Afpleton

written; "Every season, when the flower exquisite flower of your genius, the little at home today and I can beg you to acthis thought of you."

Longfellow

Camb. June. 20. 1873. M y Dear Charlie, It is so uncertain whether this letter will ever reach you that I do not, or shall not make it very long. It is only a word, to say that we got your first letter from China, a month ago, or more, and since have heard nothing of your movements. It is Class Day, and the girls have all gone down to the chapel to hear Patrick Grant's Poem,^ and then to go through the regular program of the day. T h e weather is very hot; but with a fresh breeze blowing; and they will enjoy it. Uncle Tom has gone to Newport in his yacht, and I think I shall run down there for a day or two next week, before going to Nahant. Nathan's affairs look pretty dark. H e proposed to the creditors to pay fifty per cent of all the debts of the firm; but they refused the offer. He still has firm faith in Chs. Bowles,^ and all his grand schemes. This comes from his sanguine temperament, and his amiable nature. W e go to Nahant on the second of July; and all hope to see you there before the Summer is over. W e wish we knew where you are; and by which route you are coming home. Nothing has as yet been heard from boxes. It will be tough work getting them through the N . Y . Custom House. With much love from all Ever Yours affect. H.W.L.

671

EMBERS MANUSCRIPT:

T H A T

STILL

BURN

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Longfellow confuses Robert Grant with his father Patrick Grant (2974.2). For excerpts of the poem, see the Boston Advertiser, CXXI, No. 147 (June 21, 1873). 2. Charles Bowles, author of Cosmopolitan Views of American Finance (Philadelphia, 1869), was the senior partner of Bowles Brothers & Company and a personal friend of Nathan Appleton. See 3243.1.

3321.

T o Lawrence

Buckley

Thomas^ Camb. J u n e 2 2

1873.

M y D e a r Sir, I am sorry to say that I can give you no information upon the subject of your letter. I suppose that the books you mention are all out of print. I have not seen any of them for a long while, and cannot tell you where to look for them. If anywhere to be found, it must be at the old bookstalls. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Pennsylvania State University Library. I. Thomas ( 1 8 4 8 - 1 9 1 4 ) , Baltimore genealogist and versifier, had asked Longfellow on April 23 for "a full list of the large-paper editions of your poems and Prose works complete or in parts."

3322.

T o George

Loivell

Austin C a m b . J u n e 29. 1 8 7 3 .

M y Dear Sir, I should greatly prefer this without the second line, and have therefore taken the liberty to strike it out. It has always seemed to me that eulogy in a Dedication is out of place. T h e simple Dedication is enough.^ In great haste Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

I. In a letter of June 28 Austin had asked permission to inscribe his forthcoming biography of the Italian sculptor Antonio Canova ( 1 7 5 7 - 1 8 2 2 ) to Longfellow. The dedication, submitted with Austin's letter and returned by Longfellow, is missing, and the volume does not seem to have been published.

672

CAMBRIDGE, 3323.

T o George Washington

1873

Greene

Camb. June. 30. 1873. M y Dear Greene, I sent the Catalogue to the Governor yesterday and to you a Postal Card explaining the delay.^ To-day I send you a cheque for $50.00 but cannot write. T h e excessive heat affects my eyes so much, that I cannot use them, till we get rain, and the atmosphere changes. Besides I am in the hurry of getting everything ready for Nahant, whither we hope to go on Wednesday. And finally the Printers are terribly behind hand with my book [Aftermath], which causes me much inconvenience. You will be glad to know that the "Old Masters" — the house painters — having duly frescoed my walls, have departed with their paint-pots, and are as good as dead. Do you believe that Thorwaldsen ever said that Powers was "the greatest sculptor since Michael Angelo"?^ Always Yours H.W.L MANUSCBIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. T h e catalogue is unidentified and the postal card unrecovered. 2. Thorwaldsen's statement was reported by Charles Edwards Lester in The Artist, the Merchant, and the Statesman, of the Age of the Medici, and of our Times ( N e w York, 1 8 4 5 ) , I, 83. Greene responded in a letter of July i : " I am certain that Thorwaldsen never was guilty of the nonsense of saying that Powers was the greatest sculptor since Michael Angelo. N o one knew better than he that there is nothing in common between them whereon to found a comparison."

3324.

T o Thomas Gold

A-ppleton Camb. July 2. 1873.

W e go to Nahant tomorrow carrying pleasant memories of our visit to Newport. It remains like a dream in my mind. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: George Arms, Albuquerque, N . M . Catherine St / Newport R . L

ADDRESS: Thos. G . Appleton E s q /

POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS, J U L

673

2

E M B E R S 3325.

T o James

Thomas

T H A T

S T I L L

B U R N

Fields Nahant

July 5

1873.

M y D e a r Fields I send y o u to-day a f e w proof-sheets. P l e a s e r u n y o u r e y e over t h e m a n d tell m e w h a t c a n b e a m e n d e d , a n d w h a t omitted. If y o u like these lyrics half as w e l l as I like y o u r speech a n d y o u r w i f e ' s p o e m at P o r t s m o u t h , w h i c h I h a v e just read in the A d v e r t i s e r , I shall b e m o r e t h a n satisfied.^ E x c u s e m e f o r not w r i t i n g y o u a detailed description of N a h a n t , a n d believe m e Always Yours H.W.L P.S. W h a t are the n a m e s of the t w o y o u n g E n g l i s h m e n w h o c a m e to see me with M r . Towne?^ MANUSCRIPT: Henry E. Huntington Library. 1. See the Boston Advertiser, C X X I I , No. 5 (July 5, 1 8 7 3 ) for an account of the Fourth of July celebration in Portsmouth, Fields's birthplace. In responding to a toast to "the daughters of Portsmouth," Fields had read a poem composed for the occasion by his wife. 2. William Henry Towne ( 1 8 4 3 - 1 8 9 4 ) , Boston lawyer, was a summer neighbor of Fields in Manchester, Mass. On July 1 1 Annie Fields identified the two young Englishmen as "Messrs. Greville and Stirling" — possibly George Greville, aged twenty-three, and Arthur Frederick Gresley Stirling, aged twenty-six, both of whom had been members of Magdalen College, Oxford.

3326.

T o Charles

Sumner N a h a n t . J u l y 5. 1 8 7 3 . ^

A s y o u are t h e f r i e n d I w i s h p a r t i c u l a r l y to e n t e r t a i n , I h o p e y o u w i l l c o m e soon, b e f o r e the d a y s shorten, a n d the best w i n e is g o n e . H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. I. T h e following unidentified newspaper clipping follows the dateline: "BOSTON PEOPLE — WHERE THEY ARE. Longfellow is at his Nahant Cottage, where he will entertain several of his friends from Boston and Cambridge and devote only half his usual number of hours to study and composition."

674

NAHANT, 3327.

To George Washington

1873

Greene

Nahant. July. 7. 1873. My Dear Greene, I have a letter from Sumner, in which he says; "I wish I were on your seashore, tasting the salt air; but the sense of health has turned me to a little work, which I hope to do before my Northern pleasure. This will keep me here a week or ten days longer."^ Incorrigible youth! Well, the mystery of the foot is at last solved. As the matter grew worse instead of better, to-day I called in a surgeon. He said; "This looks as if you had run a splinter under the nail. Ah, I see. The nail is split, and one part of it driven under the other." So he drew out the splinter and the pain has ceased; and I have come to the conclusion that there are few pleasures equal to the cessation of pain. Only think of limping about for a month with a wedge thrust in between flesh and nail, and your friends looking wise and saying "Gout?" Now if I can only get the beam out of my eye, I shall be all right again, and you will stand a better chance for letters. Rejoicing in your steady improvement. Alwavs Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. Sumner to Longfellow, June 30, 1873.

3328.

To James Ripley Osgood

Nahant July. 1 1 . 1873. Dear Mr. Osgood, With your letter this morning came one from Mr. Routledge of the same tenor as his to you. His offer of £200 for the new book is satisfactory; and I have written to him to say so.^ As to the day of publication, I leave that to be arranged between you. For the reasons he mentions I should prefer October, and I hope you will be able to accommodate him. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow P.S. Please forward the sheets to Mr. R. so that he can take them with him. I should also like a copy to look over at my leisure. Please also have the N.A. Rev., Atlantic, and Every Saturday sent to me here instead of Camb. 675

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Has Rutherford's "Troubadours"^ been imported? I should much like a copy. MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. 1. George Routledge had written from N e w York on July 9 with his offer for Aftermath. Longfellow's letter to him is unrecovered. 2. John Rutherford, The Troubadours: Their Loves and Their Lyrics; with Remarks on Their Influence, Social and Literary (London, 1 8 7 3 ) .

3329.

T o George Washington

Greene

Nahant. July. 19. 1873. M y Dear Greene, O w e n ' s visit must have taken you somewhat by surprise. H e wrote to Sumner about it, and said; " O n the evening of the fourth I dropped in upon Greene at E. Greenwich, where I found him in his happy home, cosey and comfortable. I had to climb many a rood of dusty highway, but was well rewarded by the sight of his interesting surroundings, intellectual as well as physical. W a r w i c k light and a perfect panorama of fireworks illumined the distant scene. T h a t is a pleasant little picture of you. But he says nothing about Mary's ice-cream.^ She shall have it still, and I enclose it for her in the shape of a Treasury Note, with Mr. Spinner's ornate signature appended thereto.^ Sumner has not yet made his appearance in this region. I am not sorry, for the weather has been cold, and wet and windy. T h e uncertainty of the day of your going to Boston makes it impossible for me to meet you there. I wish you could run down here for a day, and bring me some medicines from our Doctor. Say to him; "Eyes no better; other symptoms alleviated." But do not run any risk. It might be bad for your complaint. Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. John O w e n to Sumner, July 11, 1873 ( M S , Harvard College Library). 2. In a letter of July 17 Greene had written: " H e was in high spirits and J.O. all over. W h a t sonnets are swarming in the bee hive of his busy brain. Poor little Mary will long remember him. Instead of a fourth of July dinner w e had resolved to celebrate the day by some ice cream in the evening. J.O. came just in time to eat Mary's share." 3. Francis Ehas Spinner ( 1 8 0 2 - 1 8 9 0 ) was Treasurer of the United States, 1875·

676

1861-

NAHANT, 3330.

1873

To James Thomas Fields

Nahant. July 24 1873. My Dear Fields, I shall not go up on Saturday,^ nor do I believe that Holmes will, as he is complaining of Asthma, and feels depressed in spirit. Sumner has not yet arrived. He writes that he cannot leave Washington before next week. I think him very unwise to linger there so long. The only possible place of residence in Summer is the seaside. I wonder at those who once being there immediately want to get away. I am hard to move, and cling to the rocks like a limpet, or whatever clings closest. Hoping to see you soon, and always with kindest regards to Mrs Fields, Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. That is, he would not go to Boston for the Saturday Club dinner on July 26.

3331.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant July 28. 1873. My Dear Greene, I have a great many letters to answer this morning, so if this is very short, you must not mind it. It is only meant as a cover for the enclosure. ^ Sumner does not yet appear; and I think he is lingering too long in Washington. But he will not listen to reason. Did you get to Boston last week? and what did the Doctor say? Are you better? Are you stronger? For my own part, I am doing pretty well in general; foot nearly sound, though sensitive; eyes, alas! no better. Has Mrs. Howard sent you her description of Revd. Mr. Murray's house at GuiIford?2 With kind remembrances to your household and the Governor's Always Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. A check for $50 ( M S Letter Calendar). 2. William Henry Harrison Murray ( 1 8 4 0 - 1 9 0 4 ) , a Yale graduate of 1862, was minister of the Park Street Congregational Church, Boston, 1 8 6 9 - 1 8 7 5 . Born in Guilford, Conn., he purchased a farmstead there in 1 8 7 2 and subsequently abandoned his pastoral duties to breed race horses.

677

EMBERS 3332.

T o Charles

THAT

STILL

BURN

Sumner

Nahant

Aug. i. 1873.

Do not linger in the hot town. Come down in the 2 : 2 0 boat, and you will be in season for dinner. All is ready for you. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library, House / Boston.

3333·

T^o Eàith

ADDRESS: Hon Charles Sumner / Coolidge

Longfellow

Nahant Aug. 4. 1873. M y Darling Edith, I am very sorry that I have not written to you sooner; as I see by your last letter that you are disappointed. But bad eyes, the heat, Mr. Sumner's arrival and the intervening Sunday, have all prevented. I am very penitent. Your nice long letter of Sunday 27th. came safely, and I was glad to hear of your safe arrival at Grand Isle; after the long journey, and the jolting and pounding over the rough roads. I hope you have enjoyed your visit; for I have missed you sadly. I followed you in thought, through heat and dust, and perhaps made it in imagination hotter and dustier than it really was.^ Miss [Katherine] Howe and Miss [Alice] Jones took their leave this morning, and Alice and Annie have gone to sail with Uncle Tom. Mr. Sumner lies stretched on the "Wicker of Wakefield," reading, but where Miss Davie is I do not know, unless she is taking her "deep-sea soundings." Annie starts tomorrow for Castine; so you must hurry back. But where will this letter find you? I think I must send it to Cambridge, to intercept you. And Lake George! Ah, that will be charming! I wish I could see it with you; and I wonder whether it will seem as beautiful as the Lago di Сошо.^ In Cambridge you will see poor, dear Delia.^ Give her my love, and tell her I wish we had her here by the sea-side. With love from all and kind remembrances to the Horsfords, always, my Darling, Your aifect. Papa. MANUSCRIPT: Massachusetts Historical Society. 1. Edith was visiting the family of her friend Rose Fay ( 2 3 6 1 . 2 ) on Grand Isle, Lake Champlain, Vt. 2. In her letter Edith revealed that she would return home via Lake George. 3. Delia Farley ( 1 8 5 6 - 1 8 7 3 ) , daughter of a Cambridge neighbor, was a close friend of Edith, whose forty letters to her are preserved in the Longfellow House. After she died on October 6, presumably of tuberculosis, Longfellow wrote a six-line poem, entitled "Delia," in her memory. See Works, III, 1 2 3 - 1 2 4 .

678

NAHANT, 3334.

T o Anne Allegra

1873

Longfellow

Nahant Aug 6 1873 M y Darling Pansie, When the pallid and silent boy had driven me back to Nahant, I got from the Post Office the enclosed letter^ for you. The day continued cloudless and beautiful to the end, and I hope your day was the same. At night the moon was splendid, and I thought of you standing on the deck of the steamer with your party, enjoying the dash and sparkle of the sea. And now I trust that you are safe in Castine, and find your lodgings comfortable. Tomorrow I shall look for Postal Cards. Mary Farley^ has just arrived, looking very handsome, and bringing the good news that Delia is better, and that she drives out every day. W e have no further news from Edith; and I shall hardly expect her home before the end of the week. She will find Lake George too attractive I fear, and will linger there as long as possible. Mr. Sumner has gone to Boston for the day, and Uncle Tom started at five this morning to fish, and has not yet returned. It is very still here. Nothing is heard but the wash of the sea, and the voices of our neighbor's children. With love to all Your affectionate Papa. MANUSCRIPT:

Alice Allegra Thorp Estate (on deposit, Longfellow House).

1 . Unidentified. 2. Miss Farley ( 1 8 5 0 - 1 8 8 6 ) was the sister of Delia.

3335·

To John

Owen

Nahant. Aug. 8. 1873. M y Dear Owen, I am delighted to know that you are enjoying yourself so much in the country, and should have answered your former letter without the reminder, which came this morning, but for the trouble in my eye; it must have rest, even at the expense of civility, and a good many letters have to remain unanswered. You would be delighted to see Sumner so wonderfully improved in health. He is quite his old self again, without a care on his brow, or a pain at his heart; vigorous and merry, and full of life. I hope he will stay here for the remainder of the season; and when you get back from the country you must run down and see him. W e dine at 3.30 so that you can easily get back to town by the evening boat. Yours truly H.W.L. 679

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P.S. Greene writes me that he is very feeble. He has been in Boston once to consult his doctor, but did not come to Nahant. MANUSCRIPT:

3336.

University of Washington Library.

To James Thomas Fields

Nahant. Aug. 10. 1873. My Dear Fields, I have taken such a strong aversion to writing letters, that I have not even answered yours of last week.^ Is this seaside indolence, or my lame left eye, or writer's cramp in my right hand? I know not. Probably a little of each, which makes a good deal of all. I was very sorry to miss you on Friday. There is so little dining out done here, that it is a hard fate to have it come on just that day. I shall be delighted to give you any hints about dates of poems, or anything else, that will help you in your lecture; but I cannot do it here, having none of my books at hand. At home I have some minutes of such matters, which may be of service; and in conversation could probably tell you much more. Can you wait till we get back in September? Holmes is here for the Summer, and a near neighbor; so that I see him every day, which is very pleasant. When will you and Mrs Fields come and dine with us? With kindest regards to her. Always Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

I. Fields's letter is unrecovered.

3337·

^^ Unidentified

Correspondent

Cambridge, 20 Aug. 1873 I think your best way will be to continue printing in the papers, as you have done heretofore . . . A poem in a paper or Magazine will penetrate everywhere, and find a hundred readers, where a volume would not reach or be read . . . < I do not know that I can say anything more except it be that> I understand and sympathize with you in the difficulty of beginning. I know no better way than the one I have suggested. unrecovered; text from Parke-Bernet Sale Catalogue No. 2 2 1 0 (October 8. 1 9 6 3 ) , Item 145, and bracketed excerpt from unidentified Goodspeeds Catalogue, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

MANUSCRIPT:

680

NAHANT, 3338.

1873

To James Thomas Fields

Nahant. Aug. 22. 1873. Very sorry to hear of your mishap; but trust it is nothing serious.^ H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Smith College Library, Mass.

ADDRESS: James T . Fields Esqre. / Manchester. /

P O S T M A R K : N A H A N T A U G \ \2г\\

1873

I. Fields explained his disability in a letter from Manchester of August 24: " I am laid up with a bad and obstinate aqueous knee; a knee so vile and watery that it makes me sea-sick every time I attempt to move" ( M S , Henry E. Huntington Library).

3339.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant Aug 29 1873. M y Dear Greene, I need not say how sorry we are that you have not felt strong enough to get to Nahant during Sumner's stay. I have not urged it. The weather has been too capricious; and I have felt all along that there might be some danger in the experiment. Sumner continues bright and well, but will not be idle a moment. He is working away at his book, preparing copy and correcting proofs. As soon as breakfast is over, and sometimes before breakfast, he sits down at his table in the corner, and is absorbed in his task. My chief occupation is to interrupt him, and lead him off into idle talk. Redpath the Lecture Agent, has been here tempting him; and Sumner is thinking of writing a new lecture, and starting off on a tour, before Congress comes together. What folly! And so I tell him constantly.^ He sends his love to you, and says you "must get well; that is the main thing." Enclosed you will find a souvenir^ for September. Let me hear that you are better. We stay here two or three weeks longer. Alice is in the primeval forests of Maine; and Annie at Castine. H.W.L P.S. I have no stamp. You must get one at the Bank. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Longfellow does not mention that James Redpath had also been tempting him to take to the lecture circuit. In a letter of August 25 Redpath had written: " I could safely guarantee you + 50 nights — 5 nights a week for 30 weeks: leaving you to rest on Sat[urda]ys and Sundays. This would get you, say $25,000. Out of this amount, you would have to pay your travelling expenses and the Bureau's commission of 10 per cent." Longfellow apparently suggested a trial reading or two before embarking on such a rigorous schedule, for Redpath offered two alternative plans: " I wd give you either half the gross receipts on $ 1 5 0 0 for three Readings . . . Or, I wd arrange another plan which wd enable you to make only one appearance with liberty to withdraw 681

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and lead to no suggestion that you considered that you had failed . . . wd succeed, and I urge you to try." Nothing came of these proposals. 2. A check tor $50 ( M S Letter Calendar).

3340.

I believe you

To James Thomas Fields

Nahant Sept 3 . 1 8 7 3 . My Dear Fields, You see what I have been doing, and why I did not write to you yesterday as I intended.^ But I did not forget to consult Holmes about your knee. He said; "It is not safe to advise without seeing the patient. All I can say is, that if the knee is hot and swollen, perfect rest is the first essential to a cure. If there be no heat, a little exercise may be allowed." From my limited knowledge of such things I should say that cold-water compresses with a dry bandage outside would do good. But I dare say you have remedies enough and to spare.^ Our visit yesterday was primarily to the quaint bicoque [shanty] of Benj. Perley Poor[e].® He met us at the station, and trotted us behind his little black mares, first to the old Longfellow homestead at Highfield, then to his own homestead, where we lunched sumptuously, and inspected all the wonders of this little Hôtel de Cluny, reprinted in an American edition. Then he drove us down the banks of the Merrimack to Whittier's, where we saw the poet and h'is nieces, and a lovely quakeress, Mrs. Courtland, with the face of an angel. Her husband is, or looked like, the late Earl of Derby.'' I ought not to have gone on this expedition without you; but could not help it. Get well; get well. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Henry E. Huntington Library, chester. / M a s s .

ADDRESS: James T . Fields Esq. / Man-

POSTMARK: NAHANT MASS. SEP ||з|| 1 8 7 3

.1. T h e following clipping from the Boston Advertiser, С Х Х П , No. 56 (September 3, 1 8 7 3 ) , is pasted at the top of the sheet: "Senator Sumner and Professor H. W . Longfellow took the cars on the Eastern Railroad yesterday forenoon at Lynn on their way to visit the poet Whittier at his home in Amesbury. At the station in Newburyport they were warmly greeted by personal friends." 2. In his letter of August 24 Fields had asked Longfellow to consult Ohver Wendell Holmes about his knee: "I am a kneeophyte in these matters and dont know what to do next. I kneed advice." 3. See 2 9 9 1 . 1 . 4. Gertrude Whittier Cartland ( 1 8 2 2 - 1 9 1 1 ) and her husband Joseph Cartland ( 1 8 1 0 - 1 8 9 8 ) were both cousins of Whittier. For "the late Earl of Derby" see 2260.1.

682

NAHANT, 3341.

1873

To Samuel Eliot

Nahant Sept. 4 1873. My Dear Eliot, Appleton and I will come with the greatest pleasure. Sumner went to Boston yesterday, but will be back to-day. I am sure he will also be with you, unless he has some other engagement. Yours afF[ectionatel]y H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Boston Athenaeum.

3342.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant Sept. 7. 1873. Let me know how you are. I have not heard from you for a long time. Did you receive my letter of Aug 29? We stay here till Wednesday the 17th. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow

East Greenwich / R.I.

3343.

Trust

Collection,

ADDRESS:

George

W.

Greene

Esqu. /

POSTMARK; NAHANT MASS, SEP 8 1 8 7 3

To an Unidentified

Correspondent

Nahant. Sept. 8. 1873. Dear Sir, I have this morning had the pleasure of receiving your letter, but the "Pioneer"^ I shall not receive till my return to Cambridge next week, as only letters are forwarded to me. I have no copy of "Three Books of Song" to send you. On my return I will ask Mr. Osgood to forward one. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: M c G i l l University Library. I . Unidentified.

3344.

To James Thomas Fields

Nahant Sept. 9. 1873. My Dear Fields, This morning is as mellow and sweet as a ripe pear. Let me divide it with you. Half of it is enough to reconcile me to staying here another week; and just one week longer is our limit. 683

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Mr and Mrs Beale^ have just been here, and given me the tempting invitation to drive over with them to Manchester to see you. I was very sorry not to go; but I had to see Sumner off in the Steamer at eleven; and moreover and mainly, am expecting Alice by the train from Portland, and do not wish to be out of the way when she arrives; as I find that daughters feel very sad to come home and find nobody to welcome them. So instead of coming to see you I send "my last load of hay," which I hope you will not find very dry. Pray try to keep quiet: and be not too much in haste to get well. Such troubles are tedious. So is the good advice of friends. Not so that of your wife. Therefore be good and mind her; and all will go well, and as speedily as possible. Yours always H.W.L P.S. A Life of Washington is issued by a Yeddo publisher. This literary novelty, says a correspondent, is brought out in no less than forty-four volumes in the Japanese characters, and is profusely illustrated in the highest style of art. Washington is represented in the clothes and fashion of the present day, and with a moustache, carrying a cane, and accompanied by a Skye terrier.^ MANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

1. Louisa Adams Beai ( 1 8 3 6 - 1 9 2 0 ) was the sister-in-law of James T . Fields. She and her husband, James H. Beai ( 1 8 2 3 - 1 9 0 4 ) , were Longfellow's neighbors at Nahant. See 3174-3· 2. T h e paragraph following " P . S . " is an unidentified newspaper clipping, pasted to the sheet. N o Japanese biography of Washington conforming fully to this description exists in the National Diet Library of Tokyo. A work entitled Popular Biography of Washington, translated by Kumataro Naganuma and illustrated by Eiyoku Seuzai, did appear in Tokyo, however, in 1873.

3345.

To Charles Sumner

Nahant. Sept 12. 1873. My Dear Sumner, Yours of Wednesday came safely. I am glad that you have seen Greene. J[ohn] О [wen] passed yesterday with us, and was very jubilant about the White Mountains and everything else. The enclosed I have just received from Mrs. Lieber.^ Please preserve, and return to me at your leisure. Mr and Mrs Wister, — Fanny Kemble's daughter — are here.^ Tomorrow the Admiral and Mrs. Lodge dine with us.® I wish you were here. Always Yours H.W.L. 684

CAMBRIDGE,

1873

P.S. Both Alice and Annie have returned; and the family is now au grand complet [all present], with the exception of Charley. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. 1 . Mrs. Lieber's letter is unrecovered. 2. Sarah Butler ( 1 6 1 4 . 4 ) had married Dr. Owen Jones Wister ( 1 8 2 5 - 1 8 9 6 ) of Philadelphia in 1859. 3. T h e admiral was Charles Henry Davis ( 6 1 0 . 7 ) , father of Anna Cabot Mills Davis ( 1 8 5 0 - 1 9 1 5 ) . Miss Davis had married Henry Cabot Lodge ( 1 6 1 4 . 2 ) in 1 8 7 1 .

3346.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Sept. 17. 1873. Returned home to-day. Shall hope to see you here soon. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, East Greenwich / R . L

3347.

ADDRESS: Professor Geo. W .

Greene/

POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS, SEP 1 7

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Sept. 21. 1873. My Dear Greene, I sent you several days ago a Postal Card to notify you of our return to Camb. and here we are all safe and sound in the lovely autumnal weather. But as the Spanish Poet sings "Apenas llego, cuando llego á penas"^ namely, to excessive Taxation, and my nephew's affairs all going to ruin, and involving me in more losses than I like. But I will not trouble you about such matters. Yesterday I ordered dinner expressly for you, thinking you might possibly come; but had to eat it without you. It consisted of a tomato soup, a curry of chicken, perdrix au chou [partridge with cabbage], and a bottle of St. Frélodie [?] claret. When you do come I hope you will get as good a dinner, but I do not believe it. Palfrey and Norton are both here. Howells is absent. Have you seen "Medora Leigh; a History and an Autobiography"?^ It is an answer to Mrs. Stowe's article on Byron, and will interest you. "Aftermath" seems to be received M'ith great favor. Always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Pedro Calderón de la Barca, La Vida es Sueño, L i, 20: " I barely arrive, when I arrive to trouble." T h e Spanish play on words is untranslatable. 2. Medora Leigh; A History and an Autobiography, ed. Charles Mackay. With an introduction, and a commentary on the charges brought against Lord Byron by Mrs. Beecher Stowe (London, 1869).

685

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To Charles Sumner

Camb. Sept. 22. 1873 W e came back on Wednesday to resume old ways and old hours. Dinner at 5 o'clock. Come to-day if you can, and tomorrow whether you can or not. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library, H o u s e / Boston

3349.

ADDRESS: Hon Charles Sumner / Coolidge

POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS. ||SEP|| 2 2

To Anne Allegra and Edith

Longfellow

Camb. Sept. 26 1873. My Darlings, I should have written this yesterday or the day before. Now I fear it is too late, unless you stay over till Monday. What a delightful week you must have had, in this golden weather! I know you have enjoyed every moment. You will come home saying; "It is the most beautiful sea-side place we ever saw, and Aunt Hattie and Uncle Greely [Stevenson Curtis] were so kind!"^ Two days ago I sent down a letter from Josie [Ames] to Edith: and here is one just come for Annie, post-marked "Luzern," which I think I had better not send. Wad has arrived, all alive from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet. Lucia, also, as bright as a button. She came this morning for the "Vicar of Wakefield," to read in school. Dear little Dilly [Delia Farley] remains the same. Two days ago I went with Rosa [Rose Fay] to call, and take her some "Baseler Leckerbissen," or Basle gingerbread, which being a novelty might please. You will be sorry to hear that we have a new Penny-Post-Boy. William is promoted to a place in the Post Office. Hardly room enough left to say how much I love you and miss you. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Massachusetts Historical Society. I. T h e Curtis summer cottage was at Manchester, Mass.

3350.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Sept 29. 1873. My Dear Greene, I hardly know yet what answer you should make to White. None, I should say at present. His letter does not imply that you are not wanted, but that you are not wanted till you are well.^ 686

CAMBRIDGE,

1873

W e will consider that whole subject when you come. Also my interview with the Governor, which I hope will not prove fruitless. I have not time to write about it. Sumner was here at dinner yesterday. He is not looking so well as at Nahant. T h e idea of lecturing worries him. I strongly urged him to throw the whole thing overboard; and as all his friends do the same, without a dissenting view, I think we shall prevail.^ I enclose you the customary cheque.® If you have any difficulty with it in tha present disturbed state of the Banks, bring it back with you, and I will manage it here. Always as ever H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Andrew Dickson White's letter is unrecovered. Greene had written: "How shall I answer it? Is it not equivalent to a dismissal?" (Letter of September 26). 2. Sumner canceled the lecture tour when Henry Lillie Pierce ( 1 8 2 5 - 1 8 9 6 ) , wealthy Boston cocoa manufacturer and Republican congressman, 1 8 7 3 - 1 8 7 7 , offered to meet his financial obligations for a promissory note. See Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man, p. 575. 3. For $50 ( M S Letter Calendar).

3351.

To George

Routledge

Camb. Oct. 3. 1873. Dear Mr. Routledge, Will you be kind enough to get for me this book from Quaritch's "Rough List" for September, and forward to your house in N e w York. I want this edition to complete my set of Borrow.^ May I also ask you to send " A f t e r m a t h , t o T h e Princess Louise The Duchess of Argyll Lady Herbert 38 Chesham PI. Robert Ferguson Miss Farrer John Forster. Palace Gate House. Kensington Mrs R. J. Mackintosh 38 Elvastone St. Kensington. And if you have a chance to send to Paris without charge to the recipient please send a copy to X. Marmier, i Rue St. Thomas d'Aquin 687

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Hoping that you and your family are all well, and with kind regards to Mrs Routledge Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCBiPT: Yale University Library. 1. In a letter of November 26, 1 8 7 3 , Joseph L . Blamire of Routledge & Sons, N e w York, identifies this work as George Sorrow's Lavengro; the Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest (London, 1 8 5 1 ) , 3 vols. 2. T h e British edition, BAL 1 2 1 6 4 .

3352.

To an Unidentified

Correspondent

Camb. Oct. 6 1873. Gentlemen, I hereby acknowledge the receipt of Account, with your two Notes^ of $1771.83 and $ 1 7 7 1 . 8 2 and am Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCBIPT: University of Washington Library. I. Presumably sent to Longfellow as guardian of his two minor children, Edith and Anne Allegra.

3353.

To James Ripley Osgood

Camb. Oct. 7. 1873 Dear Mr Osgood By some accident I have received no "Every Saturday" since Sept 20. N o 90. Please send missing Nos by bearer and oblige Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

688

CAMBRIDGE, 3354.

1873

To Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz

Camb. Oct 10 1873. My Dear Agassiz I am extremely sorry that I cannot accept your kind invitation to dine with you to-day, but I have invited Darley the artist to dine with me, and as he leaves town tomorrow I cannot put him off to another day. Regretfully and affectionately Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

3355.

Harvard College Library.

To Luigi Monti

Camb. Oct 13 1873. My Dear Mr Monti, As soon as I received your last letter, I sent it to our Representative Mr. Hooper, urging him through Mr Sumner, to interest himself in the matter of the Consulship, and to have you if possible restored to your post. I enclose Mr. Hooper's answer; and cannot tell you how sorry I am, that the matter stands as it does; for I do not see how anything can be done for your restoration till the present incumbent signifies to the Department his retirement. That impediment must first be removed; and if you are willing to act as Vice Consul till that is done, I do not see why you should not get the place again.^ If you were here it would doubtless be far easier; but if you come, you will let go your hold on what you now have. Therefore on this point I will not undertake to advise you. If Sumner had been in power, this never could have happened. He will do all he can for you by acting through others. But all influence is weakened by passing through too many hands. My girls send their love to Nelly, and with kind regards to Mrs Monti, I am Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow Frank O. Buda, Cambridge, Mass. p u b l i s h e d : John van Schaick, Jr., Characters in "Tales of a Wayside Inn" (Boston, 1 9 3 9 ) , p. 166.

MANUSCRIPT:

I. Monti had written on July 1 1 , 1 8 7 3 , that he had lost his consulship at Palermo "to the imperative demands of the South for offices." Longfellow's letter to Samuel Hooper is unrecovered, but it apparently had the effect of obtaining for Monti the viceconsulship under the new consul, William Simpson Pearson ( 1 8 4 9 - 1 9 1 9 ) of North Carolina. Monti accepted this demotion in the hope that he would be reappointed consul after Pearson, who was disenchanted with the emoluments of the office, resigned. When this hope failed, he returned to the United States late in 1874.

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To Charles Lanman

Camb. Oct. 18. 1873. My Dear Sir, I have had the pleasure of receiving your very friendly note, and the sketch of the old homestead at Newbury, for both of which I pray you to accept my most cordial thanks. Be assured that I value your gift highly, and appreciate the kindness, which prompted it and the trouble you took in making the portraits of the old house and tree. They are very exact; and will always remind me of that pleasant Summer day, and Mr. Poore's château, and his charming family, and yours. If things could ever be done twice over in this world, which they cannot, I should like to live that day over again.^ With kind regards to Mrs. Lanman,^ not forgetting a word and a kiss to your little Japanese ward,^ I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from photographic reproduction in The English Student (Eigaku Shimpo [Tokyo]), V , No. i (November 15, 1 9 0 1 ) . PUBLISHED: N e w York Tribune, X L I I , No. 12,936 (April 16, 1 8 8 2 ) . 1. On their excursion of September 2 (see Letter No. 3340), Longfellow and Sumner met Lanman at Indian Hill, where he and his family were the guests of Benjamin Parley Poore. Both Lanman and Poore accompanied Longfellow and Sumner on their visit to Whittier. On September 3 Lanman drew a sketch of the old William Longfellow homestead at Newbury, which he sent to Longfellow with a letter of October 6. 2. Lanman had married Adeline Dodge in 1849. She was the author of A Tour Down the River St. Lawrence (Washington, D.C., 1 8 5 2 ) . 3. Lanman's ward was Umeko Tsuda ( 1 8 6 4 - 1 9 2 4 ) , who had come to the United States in 1872 as one of five girls in the special Japanese delegation headed by Prince Tomomi Iwakura ( 1 8 3 5 - 1 8 8 3 ) . See 3058.1. She remained with the Lanmans until 1882. In 1900 she founded the English School for Women, now Tsuda College, Tokyo.

3357.

To Samuel Chapman Griggs

Camb. Oct 27 1873. My Dear Sir, I have this morning had the pleasure of receiving your letter and the handsome volume from your press, for both of which please accept my best acknowledgments. I am gratified to learn that my books have been so successful in Chicago; and thank you for mentioning the fact in your letter.* Mr. Taylor's "Old Time Pictures"- I shall read with much interest as

690

CAMBRIDGE,

1873

soon as I get a little leisure. Meanwhile I thank you in advance for your kindness in sending the volume, and am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow Longfellow Trust Collection, A D D R E S S : S . C . Griggs Esqre. / 335 Wabash Ave. / Chicago P O S T M A R K ; C A M B R I D G E M A S S , GOT 27

MANUSCRIPT:

1. In a letter of October 24 Griggs had written that his Chicago firm, S. C. Griggs & Company, had purchased and sold over 25,000 volumes of Longfellow's poetry. 2. Benjamin Franklin Taylor, Old-Time Pictures and Sheaves of Rhyme (Chicago, 1874).

3358.

To Walter

S.Perry^

Cambridge Oct 31 1 8 7 3 M y Dear Sir, I am sorry that it will not be in my power to accept your polite invitation received this morning. As I never appear in public as Poet or Orator, I am obliged to decline all such opportunities as this, which you so kindly offer. I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

I. Perry (d. 1900), a student at Georgetown University, B.A. 1874, had asked Longfellow in an unrecovered letter to read a poem before the Philodemic Society of that institution.

3359.

T o Abigail

DeWolf^

Cambridge N o v . 9 1 8 7 3 . Dear Madam, I have had the pleasure of receiving your note, and the poems you were kind enough to send me, and beg you to accept my thanks for this mark of your consideration. These poems I have read with interest and sympathy, and feel how great a comfort it must be to you to be able to occupy the leisure, which advancing years bring with them, with the exercise of your talent. If, as you say, you cannot hear the singing of the birds, you will enjoy all the more the sound of the voice that sings within. Hoping that this consolation may never fail you, I am. Dear Madam Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. 69

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Harvard College Library, P U B L I S H E D ; Helen Howe, The Gentle icans, 1864-1960: Biography of a Breed ( N e w York, 1 9 6 5 ) , pp. 9 - 1 0 .

MANUSCRIPT:

Amer-

I. Miss DeWolf ( 1 8 0 4 - 1 8 8 8 ) , a poetess of Bristol, R . L , had sent Longfellow some of her poems, presumably in manuscript.

3360.

To James Maurice Thompson^

Cambridge Nov. 9. 1873. My Dear Sir, I have read with much interest and pleasure the poem you were kind enough to send me; but want of time and eyesight prevent me from going into any detail of criticism on its merits or defects, as you request. You say that you "remain unknown." That should not discomfort nor discourage you. Perhaps it is the best thing that can happen to a poet not to attract attention too soo[n]. He is sure to write more naturally than if the eyes of the public were upon him; and he may be confident that no really good poem will be suffered to perish. Not knowing you personally, and only speaking in the dark, as it were, it is impossible for me to give advice. It might do more harm than good. I can only say, be true to your own individuahty. That is always safest and best. Wishing you all success, I am Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

unrecovered; text from photocopy. University of Washington Library.

I. Thompson ( 1 8 4 4 - 1 9 0 1 ) , Indiana lawyer, former Confederate soldier, and aspiring author, had sent Longfellow an unidentified manuscript poem for criticism. He later achieved considerable fame for his best-selling historical romance Alice of Old Vincennes (Indianapolis, 1900).

3361.

To Charles Eliot Norton

Camb. Nov. 16. 1873. My Dear Norton, I had just told my three damsels, that I should desert them on Tuesday and dine with you, when your note came, and drove me from Scylla to Charybdis. On Thursday Alice has her German Club with a play; and relies upon me to help her through, as everything has to be done in German. I am exceedingly sorry that it so happens; I should have liked so much to dine with you. Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

692

CAMBRIDGE, 3362.

To Charles Appleton

1873

Longfellow

Camb. Nov. 19. 1873. My Dear Charley, W e are all very much disappointed that you did not return with Arthur Clark, and I am very much troubled by your money matters. T o meet your drafts I have sent to Baring Bros, since January $18,225.00, and in answer to your telegram from Hong Kong have authorized Russell & Co to furnish the £500 sterling you asked for. T o meet the previous payments I have been obliged to sell all your Bonds, and borrow $5000. over, this being no time to dispose of stocks, everything being so depreciated. The repayment of this sum, and what you may use of the £500. will have to be met on your return. If you use it all, which I hope you will not, you will find yourself some $8000 behind hand. How much I lament that you have not limited yourself to your income, which was ample for your needs. Now your fortune is half gone, and consequently half your annual income. It is not pleasant to write such a disagreeable letter as this. But you must know the truth, and hasten home.^ All are well and send much love; and most of all Your affectionate father H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Charles responded to this "disagreeable letter" on January lo, 1 8 7 4 : " I have just received your note of Nov. 19th and feel very much ashamed of myself for having so overdrawn my account and will try [to] cut down my expenses and shal[l] come directly home instead of visiting Burma, Siam, Java and some other places on the way as I had hoped to do."

3363.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Nov. 19. 1873 I like your letter to the Cubans extremely. That is the way a Statesman should think and speak.^ H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library,

H o u s e / Boston

POSTMARK:

ADDRESS:

CAMBRIDGE

MASS,

Hon Charles Sumner / CooHdge NOV

19

PUBLISHED:

Sumner

Memoir and Letters, I V , 575. I. On October 3 1 Spanish authorities in Cuba had seized the Virginius, a ship carrying arms to Cuban insurgents, and shot fifty-three members of the crew, some of them Americans. T h e incident provoked a frenzy of indignation against the newly formed Spanish republic. In " T h e Case of the Virginius. Letter to the Cuban Mass Meeting in

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New York, November 15, 1873" (Sumner Works, XV, 284-285), Sumner argued against reprisals and for considerate treatment of the new republic. On November 29 Spain agreed to an indemnity of $80,000 for the families of the executed Americans.

3364.

To Thomas Russell

СатЪ. N O V 2 2 1873. My Dear Sir, Enclosed I send a list of the packages I am looking for.^ Invoice and Bill of Lading of those by the "Eliza Shaw" have been sent to W . L. Crane, Agent of Adams & Go's Express in New York. I am sorry to trouble you about this matter, but am anxious to have the goods forwarded to Boston in Bond, without examination in New York. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

The Carl H. Pforzheimer Library.

I. The list is unrecovered, but it itemized packages sent by Charles Longfellow.

3365.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Nov. 29. 1873. My Dear Greene, This is not a letter, but only a cover for the enclosed.^ We are just starting off to see Salvini in Hamlet,^ and wish you were here to go with us. He came out to see me a few days ago, and I found him an elegant and accomplished gentleman. You would have been delighted with his melodious voice and beautiful Tuscan speech. Thanks for your letter.® I am glad you are gaining, on the whole, but wish it were faster. For want of appetite, Owen, who always asks for you, recommends flowers of chamomile; five after every meal; and through the day ad libitum. Sumner has gone southward. He is in good spirits, seeing that the tide has turned, and he is again riding the topmost wave.^ Always Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. A check, presumably in the usual amount of $50. 2. Tommaso Salvini ( 1 8 2 9 - 1 9 1 6 ) , Italian tragedian, on the first of five tours of America, was performing at the Boston Theatre. 3. Dated November 25, 1873. 4. Sumner's optimism was misplaced. During the Congressional session that began on December i, his influence was negligible. 694

CAMBRIDGE, 3366.

1873

To Tommaso Salvini

CAMBRIDGE, November 30, 1873. Illustrious Sir: Permit me to thank you heartily for the pleasure you have given me by your invitation to your performance of yesterday. I say pleasure, but I should say delight. It was a magnificent representation, in which I can scarcely tell whether nature was superior to art, or art to nature; but together they formed an incognito indistinto which was admirable and left me surprised and astonished. I shall go to town tomorrow, so that I may thank you in person, and meanwhile I remain your devoted and obliged friend, HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.^ MANUSCRIPT:

unrecovered; text from Boston Advertiser,

C X X I I I , No. 1 3 (January 1 5 ,

1874)· I . T h i s letter, written in Italian, appeared in translation in several newspapers without Longfellow's consent.

3367.

To William Dean Howells

[Cambridge, December i, 1873]^ Signor Salvini dines with me on Wednesday next at 6. Will you do me the pleasure to join us? I have not read one line of the poem that lies so temptingly open here before me!^ MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

1. T h e date is which Longfellow 2. A reference Howells's recently

3368.

approximate. T h e note is written on the back of a calling card to has added " G e o W . Greene" above his own printed name. possibly to " T h e Pilot's Story," the first poem, in hexameters, in published Poems (Boston, 1 8 7 3 ) .

To West & Leel

Camb. Dec. 6. 1873. Gentlemen, The best photograph that has been made of me is that by Elliot & Fry, 55 Baker St. London, near Portman Square.^ If you have any agent or correspondent in England he could easily procure it for you, but I do not think it is for sale in this country, and I have none to send. As to a biography, I should not like to write my own, however short. You will find it in Allibone's "Dictionary of Authors"; and can select such points as may best suit your design. I am, Gentlemen, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow 695

E M B E R S

T H A T

S T I L L

B U R N

unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

MANUSCRIPT:

1. Publishers of Worcester, Mass. Their letter to Longfellow is unrecovered. 2. See 2668.2.

3369.

T o Eliza

Callahan

Cleveland^ C a m b . D e e r . 7. 1 8 7 3 .

M y Dear Lilly, I r e t u r n y o u r list, c o m p l e t e d as f a r as m e m o r y serves m e . I c a n n o t v o u c h f o r its a c c u r a c y , b u t o n l y repeat it as it w a s told to me.^ T h e r e is a d a u g h t e r of S t e r n d a l e B e n n e t t l i v i n g i n B o s t o n , u n d e r

her

artistic n a m e of D o r i a , w h o c o u l d tell us all about it.® I w i l l ask her w h e n I n e x t see her. M r s . F i e l d s also c o u l d tell us. S h e k n e w M i s s S h e p h a r d the authoress, p e r s o n a l l y , a n d m u s t doubtless b e w e l l i n f o r m e d u p o n the subject. P l e a s e g i v e m y k i n d regards to y o u r m o t h e r , a n d say to h e r that I h o p e to find t i m e to c o m e a n d see her b e f o r e y o u l e a v e W a l n u t St.^ Always Yours Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library.

1. Miss Cleveland (b. 1 8 3 9 ) , known as Lily, was the daughter of Sarah Perkins Cleveland ( 4 2 1 . i ) . See 7 0 1 . i . 2. Accompanying the manuscript is a list of characters from the novel Charles Auchester (London, 1 8 5 3 ) by the English author Elizabeth Sara Sheppard ( 1 8 3 0 1 8 6 2 ) , followed by another list providing a key to their identities: Charles Auchester Lenhart Davy Chevalier Seraphael Milans André Clara Bennette Laura [Lemark] Maria [Cerinthea]

T h e authoress, disguised (Miss Sheppard) Sir Sterndale Bennett Mendelssohn Moscelles Mendelssohn's wife a daughter? Vestris Fanny Mendelssohn

T h e identifications for Charles Auchester and Laura Lemark are in Longfellow's hand. William Sterndale Bennett ( 1 8 1 6 - 1 8 7 5 ) , English composer, was an intimate friend of Mendelssohn, as was Ignaz Moscheles ( 1 7 9 4 - 1 8 7 0 ) , Bohemian pianist, composer, and teacher. Lucia Elizabeth Mathews ( 1 7 9 7 - 1 8 5 6 ) , actress and singer known professionally as Madame Vestris, was the first wife of the English actor Charles James Mathews ( 1 6 6 3 . 2 ) . Mendelssohn's wife was Cécile Charlotte Sophie Jeanrenaud ( 1 8 1 7 - 1 8 5 3 ) and his sister Fanny Cacilia ( 1 8 0 5 - 1 8 4 7 ) , composer, pianist, and wife of the painter Wilhelm Hensel ( 1 7 9 4 - 1 8 6 1 ) . 3. Clara Kathleen Barnett ( 1 8 4 4 - 1 9 3 1 ) , English-born opera and concert soprano known professionally as Clara Doria, was the daughter, not of Sterndale Bennett, but of the British composer John Barnett ( 1 8 0 2 - 1 8 9 0 ) . 4. T h e home of Charles Callahan Perkins (600.5), brother of Sarah Perkins Cleveland. 696

CAMBRIDGE, 3370.

1873

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Decr. 9. 1873. My Dear Sumner, You will be grieved to hear of Agassiz' illness. He lectured last week at Fitchburg, and when he woke next morning did not know where he was, and remembered nothing about any lecture. On Saturday he was seized with paralysis of the throat, and lies helpless, not being able to swallow. Luckily Brown Sequard is here; and he and [Morrill] Wyman are doing all that can be done. But they consider the case very grave. Yesterday there was a slight improvement. To-day no change. Unless soon relieved he must die. Fatal gift of Penikese! Fatal imprudence of men who will not rest!^ Hilliard's illness is paralysis of the left hand and foot. It is not considered a dangerous case, except in so far as any paralysis is dangerous.^ How are you? Give yourself as much rest from labor as possible. How glad I am that you did not undertake those tempting lectures! Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. 1. lohn Anderson ( d .

1 8 8 1 , aged seventy), a wealthy tobacco merchant of

New

York, had donated Penikese Island, oflf N e w Bedford, for the site of a summer school of natural history, which Agassiz conducted with a strenuous exertion during the summer of 1 8 7 3 . T h e school died with Agassiz. 2. George S . Hillard had recently suffered a stroke of paralysis from which he never completely recovered. After a second stroke, he died on January 2 1 , 1 8 7 9 .

3371.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Decr. 12. 1873. My Dear Fields, Heinrich von Meissen was his name, and Frauenlob or Praise-the-Women, his nature.^ You will find ten words about him in Hyperion, page 45.^ There are no extracts from his writing in "Poets and Poetry of Europe," because I had none to put in. I send you Kroeger's "Minnesinger,"® the best book in English on the subject. See Index for Frauenlob. I send also Taylor's "Lays of the Minnesingers,"^ in which you will find a picture of his tomb, and on page 305. some notice of him. Yours always H.W.L. P.S. Agassiz is no better. Alas! alas! 697

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MANUSCRIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library. 1. Heinrich von Meissen ( 3 0 6 5 . 1 ) was called Frauenlob because he defended Frau (lady) instead of Weih ( w i f e ) as a word for woman. 2. See W o r b , VIII, 40. 3. Adolph Ernst Kroeger, The Minnesinger of Germany ( N e w York, 1 8 7 3 ) . 4. Edgar Taylor, ed.. Lays of the Minnesingers, or German Troubadours of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (London, 1 8 2 5 ) .

3372.

To George Washington

Greene

[Cambridge 13 Dec 1873] Professor Agassiz. The illness of Professor Agassiz, concerning which it was yesterday announced that it was assuming a more unfavorable form than had been expected, seems thus far to have confirmed his friends' worst fears. His symptoms, yesterday, were decidedly alarming, pointing, as they did, toward a paralysis of the muscular system, and his residence was besieged by anxious friends to inquire as to his condition. So numerous did these calls become that it was necessary to muffle the bell and attach bulletins to the pull to announce the latest phase of his illness, changing them as often as occasion required. Although the attending physicians are somewhat reticent, they do not deny their patient's danger, and one of them said he feared something worse than death, expressing the same sentiment as did one of Agassiz's most intimate associates in scientific labors, who said he could easier see him die than see him drag out the miserable existence of a hopeless paralytic. The immediate occasion of Mr. Agassiz's illness seems to have been given last Saturday, when he went to his museum and worked for some time in a very hot room, causing him to perspire freely. He was soon after taken ill and had to be carried to his home, about a quarter of a mile distant by one of his associates. Since that time he has grown rapidly worse, and his friend Dr. Brown-Séquard was summoned from New York on the same day of the beginning of the professor's illness. He intended to return the next morning, but the seriousness of the case induced him to remain, and he is still at the bedside of his patient. Dr. Wyman of Cambridge has also been in attendance, and all that medical skill can do will doubtless be done. It is a relief to be able to announce that at a late hour last evening the announcement of the bulletin on the professor's door was "more favorable."^ MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, East Greenwich / R.I.

ADDRESS: Professor Geo. W .

Greene/

POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS, DEC 1 3

I. This clipping from the Boston Advertiser, C X X I I , No. 142 (December 12, 1 8 7 3 ) , is pasted on the back of a one-penny U . S . postal card. Only the address is in Longfellow's hand.

698

CAMBRIDGE, 3373.

1873

To Pauline Agassiz Shaw^

Camb. Deer. 14. 1873. My Dear Mrs Shaw, I am very thankful to you for your letter, and have sent it, as you requested to Sumner. I have been almost daily at your door, but have not asked to see anyone, not wishing to disturb you; and have gone away with a heavy heart, seeing that things were no better. I am glad that you could all be with your father. I[t] must be an inexpressible joy to him, as it will be a tender memory to you always. I cannot tell you what a darkness the going out of such a light throws over us all. With deepest sympathy affectionately Yours Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: ?4useum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. I. Pauline Agassiz ( 1 8 4 1 - 1 9 1 7 ) , younger daughter of Louis Agassiz, had married Quincy Adi'i.is S h a w ( 1 8 2 5 - 1 9 0 8 ) in i 8 6 0 . In a letter to Longfellow of December 1 4 she had described her father's dying state.

3374.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Sunday Evening. Deer 14. 1873. My Dear Sumner, Enclosed you have the latest news of Agassiz, just received. Ah me! how sad it is! What a great shadow falls upon us all. Yours always H.W.L. P.S. Please return the letter.^ MANUSCRIPT; Harvard College Library. I. Of Mrs. S h a w .

3375.

To Georß,e Washington

Greene

Camb. 15. Dicembre 1873. Jernotte alle dieci mori il nostro caro Agassiz, о "quel che morir chiaman li sciocchi."^ "C'est la fin!" furono le ultime parole sue. H.W.L. 699

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ADDRESS: Professor Geo. W .

Greene/

POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS, DEC 1 5

TRANSLATION;

Camb. December 15. 1873. Last night at ten our beloved Agassiz died, or "what fools call dying."i "It is the end!" were his last words. H.W.L. I. Petrarch, "Triumphus Mortis," Part 1,1. 1 7 1 .

3376.

To William Dummer Northend

Camb. Deer. 16. 1873. My Dear Sir, I am extremely obliged to you for your kindness in sending me the extract from Henry Sewall's WilL^ Anything of this kind will always be very welcome to me. I thank you also for the "Salem Observer";^ and have already acted on your hint to send a copy of "Aftermath" to the old homestead. We are all in great affliction here on account of the death of Agassiz, which throws a dark shadow over everything. With renewed thanks, I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Bowdoin College Library. 1. Northend's letter and the extract are unrecovered. 2. An article entitled "Ould Newberry," containing a brief description of Longfellow's visit to his ancestral homestead (see Letter No. 3340), appeared in the Salem Observer, LI (December 6, 1 8 7 3 ) , 2.

3377.

To George Washington Greene

Camb. Deer 27. 1873 My Dear Greene, Sam Ward was breakfasting with me yesterday, and insisted upon leaving with me a Xmas present for you, which you will find as addition to my cheque. As this was of his own movement and not from any suggestion of mine, I did not feel at liberty to refuse his gift.^ I am so ill with a cold, and all that usually attends a cold, that I cannot write you much of a letter. Since you were here, I have been pretty busy. I have written two or three

700

CAMBRIDGE,

1873

new scenes for "[Michael] Angelo," and several poems, which I hope you will like. Wishing you all a Merry Xmas and Happy New Year, Always Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. T h e M S Letter Calendar reveals that Longfellow enclosed $80 with this letter.

3378.

T o Annie Adams Fields

Camb.DecraS 1873. My Dear Mrs Fields, Accept, I beg you, my best thanks for your kind remembrance at Xmas, and the gift of Keats' photograph.^ What a pathetic face! It is sad to see, and yet most interesting. I cannot understand the date, i860, as Keats died in 1821. Severn I saw in Rome in 1869, a prosperous gentleman with bufi waistcoat and bright buttons. I dare say you knew him; perhaps had the picture from him, and can explain the date. With all kinds of good wishes for endless Xmases and New Years, Yours always Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCBIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. A penciled note on the manuscript identifies the gift as a photograph of a copy of a Keats head by Joseph Severn С 1 7 9 3 - 1 8 7 9 ) , English portrait painter and close friend of the poet.

3379.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb.Decr 28. 1873. My Dear Fields, Your poem is excellent, and if I make any remarks upon it, remember they are only suggestions, not criticisms. It took me back to the Valley of the Orbe; where I wandered one Summer morning with the Gasparins, thinking and speaking of Agassiz, and feeling as you felt when recalling the impression of his presence on the scene. Preserve this pretty name of Orbe, and say in the first stanza "Vale of Orbe" instead of "Pays de Vaud"; and consequently in stanza third "valley green" instead of "vales of green." In stanza ninth "Master of the magic keyes" suggests a musician. I should prefer "Keeper"; as we call St. Peter Keeper of the Keyes that unlock Paradise. 70

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And finally and doubtfully, in the last line of all, does not "mourn" require some qualifying adverb? — as deepest or longest? Thus " W h o knew thee best, must love thee best, And longest mourn for thee." By this change you would avoid repeating the name, already mentioned three times.^ Above all things have your own way about it, and be not moved by any over-persuasion, to change what is good. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT; Henry E. Huntington Library. I. Fields's poem "Agassiz" was first collected in Verses for a Few Friends bridge, 1879), pp. 47-48. He adopted Longfellow's suggestions in all instances.

3380.

T o Samuel

(Cam-

Ward

Camb. Deer. 3 1 . 1873. M y Dear Semilasso, I enclose the second chapter of the "Roman du Parapluie Perdu," which promises to become interesting.^ As regards the "Tamer of Horses," I would not on any account enter into an agreement to furnish a series of papers; but I might perhaps lend him my Pegasus for a single heat, if he should make the offer you suggest.^ Since your charming visit, I have been shut up with a cold, that has quite upset me for the time. I am gradually working it off, however, and hope soon to be myself again. I see the Russia has arrived safely; and your young Lord^ has come to his own again. Yours always H.W.L A messenger rides up and down Through Beacon Street in Boston town. From Craigie Hall unto the Club Of Somerset there at the Hub. Where is my Umbrella! T h e n out and spake a blackamoor. Porter at the great front door; " W h y do you so loudly ring? And what means this bothering?" Where is my Umbrella! 702

C A M B R I D G E ,

1874

And out and spake an Alfagin, With his beard so white to see; "Stranger, thou art justly served, Stranger, this hast thou deserved." Where is my Umbrella! Bearded men and children small Weep their loss in Craigie Hall; Ladies, with dishevelled hair, W e e p what tears they have to spare. Where is my Umbrella! MANUSCRIPT: National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, PUBLISHED: A. R. C . Grant with Caroline Combe, eds., Lord Rosehery's North American Journal — 1 8 7 3 (London, 1 9 6 7 ) , pp. 1 4 3 - 1 4 4 . 1. T h e four-stanza doggerel that follows the signature alludes to an umbrella, borrowed from Longfellow by Sam Ward during a visit on December 26 and then lost or mislaid at the Somerset Club, Boston. The first "chapter" of the poem is unrecovered. 2. In a letter of December 27 Ward had written; " I do not know what your terms are with the Atlantic but I think my trotting friend Bonner of the N Y Ledger would pay 2 guineas a line. I make this suggestion in view of your charities and the constant demand upon your purse." Robert Bonner ( i 7 2 5 . 1 ) , to whom Longfellow lends the sobriquet of Hector, owned a stable of expensive trotting horses. 3. Archibald Philip Primrose ( 1 8 4 7 - 1 9 2 9 ) became fifth Earl of Rosebery in 1868. He had recently visited the United States, where he had formed a close friendship with Sam Ward. See Lately Thomas, Sam Ward: "King of the Lobby" (Boston, 1 9 6 5 ) , pp. 3 8 8 - 3 9 1 .

3381.

To Anne Allegra

Longfellow

Camb. Jan i. 1874. M y Darling Pansy, By dating back my letter one day, I am still in time to wish you a Happy N e w Year. It is too late for Merry Christmas; but I know that you had one, and that is enough. So many letters have been flying to and fro between Highfield and Cambridge that I thought it was a snow-storm, and took a cold, which has shut me up for a week. But I am all right again now; and have just been into town for Mr. Greene, who, you will be glad to know is better than when here last. I[t] would be in vain for me [to] try to send you any news. I can only send you my love, and that is anything but news. It is as old as you are. And I can tell you how much I have enjoyed your enjoyment, and how happy I am that you are so happy. 703

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Give my love to all the uncles and aunts and cousins, and to Sadie/ who is adding so much to your merriment. How glad I am she went with you. Good night, my darling. You will soon be hack again. Always most affect[ionatel]y Papa. MANUSCRIPT: Alice Allegra Thorp Estate (on deposit, Longfellow House). I. Presumably Sarah Weiss ( 3 1 6 8 . 0 .

3382.

To Robert Bonner

Cambridge Jan. 6. 1874 My Dear Sir, Before receiving Mr. Ward's letter, with your very liberal offer, I had already made another disposition of the poem he spoke to you about. I am extremely sorry for the misunderstanding. ^ Enclosed I return the cheque he forwarded to me, and am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library, Esqre. / N e w York.

ADDRESS: Robert Bonner

I. In a letter of December 30 Ward had written: " I could not resist the temptation of writing a note to Mr. Bonner ('without your knowledge') mentioning the loveliness of the 'Hanging [of] the Crane' and offering my mediation with you should he feel inclined to make a Bid for it . . . I feel quite sure he will pay $ 1 0 0 0 for the Hanging of the Crane — perhaps $2000 would not rebut a man who has paid $33,000 for a trotting horse." Ward had enclosed a note from Bonner (unrecovered), which mentioned a specific sum. Longfellow had not actually made "another disposition" of the poem at this time, but on lanuary 4 he had written in his journal: "Fields comes out, and I read to him 'The Hanging of the Crane.' He advises not to publish in any periodical, but to make a small illustrated volume of it" (Life, III, 220).

3383.

To John Gorham Palfrey

Camb. Jan. 6. 1874. My Dear Palfrey, I have Catlin, and he is quite at your service.^ I will leave him or it at Severs the bookseller,^ for you tomorrow morning. Can you send there for it? Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. 1. A reference presumably to George Catlin, Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians ( N e w York, 1 8 4 1 ) , 2 vols. 2. Charles W . Sever, aged thirty-four, was proprietor of a bookshop at Harvard Square.

704

C A M B R I D G E ,

3384.

To an Unidentified

1874

Correspondent

Cambridge Jan 9 1874. My Dear Sir, I hasten to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, and of the Stilton Cheese you were kind enough to forward.^ With many thanks Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

University of Washington Library.

I. T h e letter that would have identified Longfellow's correspondent is unrecovered. T h e cheese was a gift from Rev. William James, Unitarian minister of CHfton, England ( M S Journal, January 7, 1 8 7 4 ) , to whom Longfellow wrote on January 1 1 ( M S Letter Calendar).

3385.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Jan. 10. 1874. My Dear Sumner, If I had eyesight I would write you a letter. But I have not, and instead enclose you some words of "The Wise Master of Sentences," which you may like to see, and otherwise may not see.^ Owen tells me you have, or have had, a bad cold. I sympathize with you, having one myself, which makes my eyes weak, and renders writing difficult, particularly at night. So no more at present. Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

I. T h e following notice from an unidentified newspaper is pasted to the top of the sheet: "At the meeting of the Board of Overseers of Harvard College, i8th December, 1873, Ralph W . Emerson offered the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted: / T h e Board of Overseers deplore with the university, and indeed with all good men to whom he was known, the death of Louis John Rodolph Agassiz. They recall his rare endowments, his great heart, his social gifts, his ardent genius, the grandeur of his aims, and his inflexible adherence in their pursuit. He seemed to unite in his person the powers of several men. T o an iron will he added an ardor which warmed other men and made them friends and executors of his designs. As if born to carry forward the science and humanities of his country, he could persuade not only private men, but reluctant legislatures, to gifts to science unexampled before. His presence was a festival; his conversation genial and superior; his knowledge wise and exact. It was a privilege to be in his company and receive his inspirations. / This Board respectfully tender to the family of Professor Agassiz their deep sympathy under the bereavement by which this nation and the students of science everywhere also suffer." For the original of this resolution see Harvard Overseers Records, X I (December 18, 1 8 7 3 ) , 1 3 4 - 1 3 5 .

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To Elizabeth НаШ

Cambridge Jan 14 1874. Dear Mrs. Hall, I hasten to say, in reply to your note just received, that the kind letter of Euphrasia with its enclosure reached me safely. I thought I acknowledged it at the time; but your note makes me doubt. All summer I was absent from home, and since my return have had some trouble in one of my eyes, which has rendered writing painful, and thrown my correspondence into hopeless confusion. I often think I have answered a letter, when I have not; the remembered intention producing the effect of performance. All this by way of apology, and explanation; and if you write soon to Euphrasia, please say how much gratified I was by her kindness. I only regret that the photograph was not of herself. Accept my thanks for reminding me of my delinquency, and believe me Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCBIPT: University of Washington Library, ADDRESS (in another hand')·. Mrs F. C. Hall / 245 W . 4 8 Л St. / N e w York City POSTMARKS: CAMBRIDGE MASS. JAN 14 / JAN 1 5 [remainder illegible] ANNOTATION (ги another hand, on back of envelope): T h e leaf [accompanying the manuscript] is from the orange tree in Longfellow's study. Euphrasia was a greek girl at the "Hill School" in Athens. I. Mrs. Hall, aged fifty-two, was the wife of Francis C. Hall, aged fifty-nine, a N e w York importer.

3387.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Jan. 15. 1874. My Dear Greene, Read this and tremble. Tremble for the land of freedom, where the most trivial matters find their way into the newspapers, and no privacy is sacred.^ If this be not enough, then turn the page and blush at this garbled translation of my letter to Salvini, given as if written in English.^ Think of the vagabond, who turns "Chiarissimo Signore" into "Illustrious Sir!" Then the atrocity of publishing a private letter! Since you were here I have written the scene "In the Coliseum." Also the interview between "Michael Angelo and Titian." I have spun them from the cobwebs of my brain, having nothing else to make them of.® I am sorry to hear that you have been thrown back a little; you seemed to have gained so much ground.

706

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

I am better, but not quite well yet. Whenever I go out, I seem to take a fresh cold. I hear nothing from Sumner. Always Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. An unidentified newspaper clipping is pasted to the sheet at this point: "Robert Bonner sent the poet Longfellow a check for $ 1 0 0 0 as a Christmas gift, in return for some original verses. Lately he sent a check for $ 1 0 0 to the widow and children of the late T . W . Meighan." T h e check may represent the fee offered for " T h e Hanging of the Crane" (see 3 3 8 2 . 1 ) . T . W . Meighan is unidentified. 2. Letter No. 3366 is pasted to the sheet at this point. 3. See Michael Angelo: A Fragment in Works, VI, 1 4 8 - 1 5 2 and 1 2 2 - 1 2 9 .

3388.

To Xavier Marmier

Camb. Jan. 18. 1874. M y Dear Marmier, I am ashamed that so many months have gone by without my writing to you. Your last letter admonishes me of my delay. My only apology is, that since a year ago, when I received your former letter and the books, you were kind enough to send me, I have been suffering with a trouble in one of my eyes, which has rendered writing difficult and painful; and hoping from week to week that it would pass away, I have postponed all correspondence. Now I am well enough to thank you; and do so most cordially; and most of all for your "Esquisses Poétiques,"^ a charming little volume of your youth, which I associate with the young Marmier, whose photograph I have. Thank also your brave Bretonne for the votive tablet of the sorrows and sufferings of Paris during the siege.® I have it on the chimney-piece in my dining room, as a memento morì, and skeleton at the feast. And finally thanks for your admirable Discours on the reception of M. de Viel-Castel.® Your tableau of the Restoration is particularly interesting. Only I missed the name of Victor Hugo beside that of Lamartine. Were you thinking of what Sainte Beuve said to us when we went to see him? — "Charlatan pour charlatan, je préfère M. de Lamartine."^ My girls are well, and send their love to you. Alice told me of her pleasant interview with you, and made me envious. Shall I ever again meet you on the Quai Voltaire? Quien sabe! Ah, if it were not for the pitiless sea! Always Yours Henry W. Longfellow.

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Cornell University Library.

1 . Paris, 1830. 2. This "votive tablet" sent by Marmier's housekeeper is unidentified. 3. Discours prononcés dans la séance publique tenue par l'Académie française pour la réception de M. le baron de Viel-Castel, le zy novembre 1873 [par le récipiendaire et M. Xavier Marmier] (Paris, 1 8 7 3 ) . Charles Louis Gaspard Gabriel de Salviac, baron de Viel-Castel ( 1 8 0 0 - 1 8 8 7 ) , French diplomat, was the author of Histoire de la Restauration (Paris, 1 8 6 0 - 1 8 7 8 ) , 20 vols. 4. Sainte-Beuve's prejudice can be traced to his estrangement from Hugo, some thirty-five years earlier, after he had become the lover of Hugo's wife. Marmier's omission of Hugo from his Discours might have been in deference to Sainte-Beuve, a close friend. See Life, III, 3 7 0 - 3 7 1 .

3389.

To Karl Keck

Cambridge Jan 20. 1874. My Dear Sir, I am very sorry that I have no good news to send you in regard to the sale of your Herbarium. On receiving your letter last Spring^ I spoke at once to Dr. Gray,^ and also to Mr. James of Philadelphia,® who manifested a lively interest in the matter, and wrote to several gentlemen about it. The subject was also noticed in the "Journal of Botany" in New York.^ As yet no purchaser appears. Unfortunately we have had a financial panic here, as you have had in Austria. Meanwhile I hope that things have righted themselves with you, and that you will not be obliged to part with your collection. I deeply sympathize with you in this dire necessity. I feel what it must be to you; and trust that it may be averted. Let me thank you again most warmly for your admirable translation of the "Divine Tragedy."® I wish I could induce Tauchnitz of Leipzig to publish it, though I fear that he limits himself to English books. I hope he has sent you a copy of my last volume of Poems, "Aftermath." With best regards and good wishes for the New Year, I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

1. Dated May 2 1 , 1873. In it Keck revealed that because of great financial difficulties he hoped to sell his herbarium, collected over twenty years, for $2500. 2. Asa Gray ( i 8 1 0 - 1 8 8 8 ) , pioneer in the field of plant geography and professor of natural history at Harvard, 1 8 4 2 - 1 8 8 8 . 3. Thomas Potts James ( 1 8 0 3 - 1 8 8 2 ) , botanist, had moved from Philadelphia to Cambridge in 1867 in order to work with Gray and the Harvard botanical collections. 4. Longfellow might have erred with this statement. T h e Journal of Botany was a London publication. 5. See 3300.1.

708

CAMBRIDGE, 3390.

1874

To Samuel Wood Langmaid^ Camb. Jan 22. 1874.

Dear Sir, I regret extremely that it will not be in my power to accept the kind invitation of the Harvard Musical Association. I am confined to the house by a severe cold, and dare not promise myself that I shall be well enough to venture out on Monday. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow S. W . Langmaid Esqre MANUSCRIPT:

University

of

Washington Library.

I. Langmaid ( 1 8 3 7 - 1 9 1 5 ) , a Harvard graduate of 1859, was a Boston physician.

3390a.

To Elise Felicitas Friederike, Baroness Hohenhausen

Cambridge Jan 26. 1874. Dear Frau von Hohenhausen, I am greatly obliged to you for your friendly note, and for your flattering request in reference to my last volume of poems. I should be delighted to accede to it, if I had any voice in the matter. But in the absence of any treaty between Germany and the United States upon the subject of copyright, I have no control over my books in your country. Any one, who chooses may translate them; so that if you should undertake the task, I could give you no exclusive right, and you might be interfered with beyond my power to help you. Do not imagine that I wish to discourage you. Far from it. But I think it only just to you to state the danger of the undertaking before hand.^ I thank you cordially for your kind invitation to Berlin. If it were not for the vast sea that rolls between us, I should be most happy to accept it. But as the sea is there, and will be, I am forced to decline. With great regard. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Stadt und Landesbibliothek, Dortmund.

I. T h e Baroness Hohenhausen's letter on this subject is unrecovered, but there is no record of her having translated Aftermath.

709

3391.

EMBERS

THAT

To George Washington

Greene

STILL

BURN

Camb. J a n 2 9 1874. My Dear Greene, I have submitted the "Hanging of the Crane" to the microscopic eye of J[ohn] 0[wen]. The result is, that the sound of see — as in scene, celestial, Ceylon and so forth, occurs thirty two times; so that the production may be called "II bel poema là dove il sì suona."^ Since you were here I have dined only once a week. All the rest is bread and milk; a diet on which I thrive as if I were in my second childhood. I make the same apology for it, that Michael Angelo did for writing Sonnets in his old age; "Messer Giorgio, amico caro, λόϊ direte ben ch'io sia vecchio e pazzo a voler far sonetti; ma poiché molti dicono ch'io son rimbambito, ho voluto far ruf[f]icio mio."^ This reminds me that I have added a new scene to the "Angelo," namely Messer Michele in the street with Bindo Altoviti;® and interspersed se\'eral sonnets of M. A. in other parts, which I think has a good effect.^ How are you all this time that you do not write? Did you see a paragraph in the papers to this effect? "They tell us now that Senator Sumner is a good billiard player." Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. ' T h e fair poem there where the si doth sound." C f . Inferno, X X X I I I , 80. 2. T o Giorgio Vasari, September 19, 1 5 5 4 ; "Master Giorgio, dear friend, you will surely say I am old and crazy to want to produce sonnets, but since many say I am in my dotage, I wanted to act the part." Works, V I , 1 4 5 - 1 4 7 . 4. T h e sonnets were afterwards omitted.

3392.

To William Pitt Preble

Longfellow Camb. Jan 30 1874.

Dear William, Please read the accompanying documents,^ and let me know on Sunday what you think of them. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. Dealing presumably with family problems. 7 I о

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

Charles Sumner

3393·

Camb. Jan. 30. 1874. My Dear Sumner, Have you seen the enclosed? If not it will interest you. It is by Doctor Wyman.' I do not wonder that you are worn out with tedious delays. But do not despair. Persevere to the end of this good work, if it is to have any end. The work itself is a noble monument of your life and labors in the cause of Truth and Right. Win the game, О champion of the billiard table! H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

I. Accompanying the manuscript is a long clipping from the Boston Transcript, X L VII, No. 14,343 (January 27, 1874), entitled "The Autopsy of the Remains of Professor Agassiz." Dr. Morrill Wyman ( i 6 5 7 . 1 ) was present at the autopsy.

3394.

To Salvado Markaage^

Cambridge Jan. 30 1874 My Dear Sir, I am very much obliged to you for your friendly letter, and for your beautiful translation of "The Psalm of Life." It is very vigorous and faithful; and your critical interpretation or analysis of it pleases me greatly. I think that you make out a good case in behalf of Belgian literature. It is the same old story, that in some shape or other, has been constantly coming up between England and America. And after all, is not the Nationality, about which the critics are so clamorous, a kind of Provincialism on a larger scale? Does not all that is best in literature transcend such limitations? The chances of my visiting San Francisco are very small. I must rely on your coming here for the pleasure of seeing you. The Summer I always pass at Nahant. But that is only an hour by steamer from Boston. Any time that you may be here, should you not find me in Cambridge, I beg you to take this pleasant sail, and find me at the sea-side. I am, my Dear Sir, with great regard, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

I. Markaage is listed as Longfellow's correspondent in the M S Letter Calendar, but is otherwise unidentified.

7 I I

EMBERS 3395.

THAT

STILL

BURN

To Vincenzo Cesati^

Cambridge, Feb. 5,1874. My dear Sir I have had the pleasure of receiving your card with your friendly criticism on the word "Excelsior." In reply I would say by word of explanation that the device on the banner is not to be interpreted "ascende superius" but "scopus meus excelsior est." This will make it evident why I say "Excelsior" and not "Excelsius." With great regard, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT;

unrecovered; text from La Rassegna

Settimanale,

I V , N o . 80 ( J u l y

13,

1879)· I. Baron Cesati ( 1 8 0 6 - 1 8 8 3 ) was professor of botany in the University of Naples. In a letter of August 24, 1 8 7 3 , he had written that "in his quality of a Praeses to the Italian Alpine Club's Neapolitan Section [he] presents his sincere respects and best goodbyes to the renowned Author of 'Excelsior,' which the present writer, with author's kind permission would entitle adverbiahter 'Excelsius.' "

3396.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Feb. 8. 1874 My Dear Greene, Perhaps it is well that you postponed your coming. It has been very cold here; and with fire and furnace in full blast, I have not been able to keep my room above sixty. You would have suffered, unless you had brought your beloved "base-burner" with you. I enclose Houghton's account and cheque;^ just enough to pay your travelling expenses from East Greenwich to Boston. Let me know in season when to look for you; the day and hour, and minute of your arrival. Saturday I shall not be able to come in for you, on account of an engagement. So come sooner, if possible; and if I can meet you at the station I will. Otherwise you must take a carriage to Bowdoin Square, which will be almost as convenient to you. Remember that the cars which pass this door are the Watertovvn, on the hour, and the Mt Auburn, on the half-hour. Always Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. For $9.25 ( M S Letter Calendar).

7 1 2·

CAMBRIDGE, 3397.

1874

To Α. ЬатЫ

Camb. Feb. 10. 1874 My Dear Sir, In writing to the editor of the Cambridge Chronicle, nothing was farther from my thoughts than to reflect in any way on your articles in that paper.^ I read them with much interest, and was thankful to you for the friendly feeling, which prompted you to write them. The articles in the Tribune I have never seen and probably never shall see. In all likelihood I should never have heard of them even, but for the controversy they have called forth, and in v\'hich, let me say, you seem decidedly victorious. Accept my thanks for your kindness, and believe me Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Nothing is known of Lamb beyond his address, i Garden Street, Cambridge. 2. Longfellow's letter is unrecovered but referred to a controversy precipitated by three articles in the New York Weekly Tribune on November 19 and December 3, 1873, and on January 28, 1874, which criticized the inexactness of the ilower imagery in "Aftermath." Lamb had challenged these animadversions in a series of letters to the Cambridge Chronicle, XXVIII, No. 51 (December 20, 1873) and No. 52 (December 27, 1873), and XXIX, No. 6 (February 7, 1874). A fourth letter appeared in No. 7 (February 14, 1874).

3398.

To Charles Sumner

Camb. Feb. 15. 1874 My Dear Sumner, I have turned the matter over in my mind a thousand times and in a thousand ways, and am convinced that "Prophetic Voices concerning America" is the best title. That expresses the idea clearly. "Of America" is too ambiguous, although it may run a little smoother from the tongue. Greene, who is here, holds the same opinion.^ Owen is now very anxious to have this book of yours go through Nichols' mill at once, so that when you come to it in due course of time for the Works, it will be so much done. He thinks the present moment inopportune for publication, and wants to wait for the rising wind of the Centennial. I think this is a question for the Publisher to decide. The poem you ask about,^ and which Ward thinks so well of, shall be sent to you soon; but you must promise to keep it safe from all eyes but your own. Bonner has offered such an enormous price for it, that I am ashamed to

713

E M B E R S

T H A T

S T I L L

B U R N

say h o w m u c h it is. I h a v e sent it to h i m , b u t d o not k n o w w h e n it w i l l appear. B e of good c h e e r a b o u t y o u r w o r k . Yours always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

1 . T h e work was published as Prophetic Voices Concerning America. A Monograph (Boston and N e w York, 1 8 7 4 ) . See also Sumner Works, XII, 1 - 1 8 3 . It had originally appeared as "Prophetic Voices About America" in the Atlantic Monthly, X X (September 1 8 6 7 ) , 2 7 5 - 3 0 6 . 2. " T h e Hanging of the Crane." See 3 3 8 2 . 1 . 3399·

Samuel

Ward Camb. Feb. 15. 1874.

M y D e a r Semilasso, A l l s u d d e n emotions are p a i n f u l , i n c l u d i n g telegrams. L a s t w e e k I r e c e i v e d f r o m y o u three of these electric shocks, a n d sent y o u one. I d e s p a t c h e d at o n c e t h e p o e m b y express to M r . Bartlett^ as y o u r e q u e s t e d , a n d at the s a m e time sent h i m a telegram to that efFect. A s yet n o a n s w e r . I h a v e also r e c e i v e d y o u r letter, a n d y o u r c h e q u e , b u t to a v o i d entanglem e n t s h a v e not yet p r e s e n t e d it. T h e r e is n o reason w h y I s h o u l d p i l l a g e y o u r treasury. I c a n w a i t till I h e a r f r o m M r . Bartlett. I n e v e r s a w a m a n w i t h s u c h celerity of motion i n all t h i n g s as y o u are. Y o u take m y b r e a t h away.^ G r e e n e is still h e r e , e n j o y i n g h i m s e l f i n his q u i e t w a y . H e sends his l o v e to y o u . Addio. Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

University

of

Washington Library.

1. William O. Bartlett (d. 1 8 8 1 , aged sixty-one), N e w York journalist and agent of Robert Bonner. 2. In a letter of February 1 1 Ward had written: "In matters of fancy which touch women, horses or Lyrics I have had a livelier experience than you. I therefore telegraphed parceque, selon lui, il faut battre le fer tant qu'il est chaud [because, according to him, one must strike the iron while it is hot]. I telegraphed Bartlett. 'Have obtained the article for three thousand to appear in the W[eekly] L[edger] without illustrations and have conceded the right for the Publisher to announce book in September only to appear in October. T h e copyright to remain in author — are these terms acceptable. S.W.' / I just received from Bartlett the enclosed despatch [unrecovered] which settles the business. / Please telegraph tomorrow to W O Bartlett — New York Sun Building N Y — Ί write Mr Bonner today accepting his proposal through Ward as modified by me and agreed to by you. H . W . L . ' " Ward received $ 1 0 0 0 from Bonner as a fee for his "Lyrical Brokerage" (letter of February 27, 1 8 7 4 ) . " T h e Hanging of the Crane" appeared in the N e w York Ledger on March 28, 1874. See Longfellow's journal entry for February 22 (Life, III, 2 2 2 ) . 7 I 4

CAMBRIDGE, 3400.

To Robert

1874

Bonner Camb. Feb. 18. 1874.

M y Dear Sir, On Friday last I sent the promised poem for the Ledger to Mr. Bartlett at the Sun Buildings, and telegraphed to him to that effect. Not hearing from him in reply, I fear he may be out of town, and the poem lying at his office. Be kind enough to inquire for it, and to let me know if it has come safely to hand. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. Robert Bonner Esqre. MANUSCRIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library, Esqre / N e w York Ledger / N e w York

3401.

T o Charles Appleton

ADDRESS; Robert Bonner

POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS, FEB 1 8

Longfellow

Camb. Feb. 19. 1874 M y Dear Charley, I received yesterday your letter of Jan and am rejoiced to hear that you are quite well again. But you say nothing of coming home; and yet should come as soon as possible. As I have written in several letters, your finances are in a very bad way. T o meet your drafts I have been obliged to sell all your U . S . Bonds, and to borrow five thousand more. Last year you spent over $20,000. and this is eating terribly into your property. Your 5 cases of Personal effects by "Benefactor" were passed free. T h e 1 5 cases by "Eliza Shaw." came on in Bond and М'еге opened here, or some of them, the Appraiser giving up in despair, and putting on what he thought a fair average duty. W e are now opening the other cases, and taking the beautiful things out to keep them from the damp of the Billiard Room where they are stored. Last night the Library was gay with screens. As yet we have come upon no bronzes; but have found a few silks and two splendid bed-quilts. Also two cabinets, not yet unwrapped; and sundry strange little objects, which greatly delight Uncle Tom. T h e cases by "Morro Castle" have not yet come; nor those last announced by "Japan" via San Francisco.^ Your description of a trip up the Chinese canals we all greatly liked. Uncle T o m and Sumner insist upon having it published, and I think it ought to be, but dont know what you would say to it. 715

EMBERS

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W e are all well here, and all send much love to you. In this, Greene, who is making me a visit, joins cordially. Always Your affectionate Father. MANUSCRIPT: L o n g f e l l o w Trust Collection. 1 . From H o n g Kong. Charles had written earlier, on November 1 9 , 1 8 7 3 , that he had injured his leg while shooting in the Philippines and was laid up in H o n g Kong under the care of a physician. 2. Some indication of the amount shipped by Charles from Japan is contained in his letter of February 1 7 , 1 8 7 3 : " I think you will be rather astonished when my curios arrive, there being novi' . . . eighteen large cases waiting for shipment by sailing vessel to N e w York, enough to fill two or three large express wagons. W h e r e w e shal[l] stow them all w h e n they arrive I cant imagine, and such lots of rubbish among it too but I am fond of them as being thouroughly Japanese."

3402.

To ]ames Ripley

Osgood

Camb. Feb. 2 1 . 1874 Dear Mr. Osgood, Please take out copyright for new Poem in my name. Where can M r Ward find you on Sunday in case he should want to see you? Please send word by telegraph. Yours truly H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: C l i f t o n Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

3403.

T o John

Forster

Camb. Feb. 22. 1874. M y Dear Forster, Accept my warmest thanks for the third volume of your " L i f e of Dickens." I have read it with intense interest. I congratulate you on the completion of your difficult and delicate task. It is an admirable specimen of Biography; for if the object of biography is to present a man as he lived and moved and had his being here on earth, you have done it admirably. Through the whole your historic instinct has been a sure guide. M y friend Greene, who has also written biography and knows what the word means, and is now reading this book of yours here in my room, is frequent and loud in his applause. After this work I hope you vi'ill have rest for a season. It must have taken very deep hold of you, and tugged painfully at your heart-strings. 716

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

Norton is pretty well physically, but seems very, very sad and lonely. He bears up against his sorrow manfully. ^ With kind remembrances to Mrs. Forster, and to Carlyle, Always Yours affect [ionatel] y Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT;

Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

I. See 3100.2 and Letter No. 3 1 0 3 .

3404.

To A. Lamb

Camb. Feb. 22. 1874. My Dear Sir, I have again to thank you for coming to my rescue in the Chronicle. What you say is perfectly correct.^ I certainly thought that the passages in the Interludes were clear enough, and sufficiendy declared "The Mother's Ghost" to be an old Danish ballad; particularly after having spoken of this ballad in the "Poets and Poetry of Europe," page 60. as follows. "The dead mother in the grave hears her children cry; she comes back to earth to comfort them, and the dogs howl as she passes through the streets of the village." Careless reading seems to be the cause of half the ill-natured criticism one sees in the newspapers. If in your walks you should be passing this way of an afternoon I should be very happy to see you. I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow A. Lamb. Esq. MANUSCKIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

I. In the Cambridge Chronicle, X X I X , No. 8 (February 2 1 , 1 8 7 4 ) , Lamb had defended Longfellow against a charge that he should have disclaimed originality for " T h e Mother's Ghost" in Tales of a Wayside Inn (Works, IV, 2 4 8 - 2 5 1 ) .

3405.

To Robert Bonner

Cambridge Feb. 23 1874. Dear Sir, In consideration of the sum agreed upon between Mr Ward and Mr. Bartlett I contribute to the Ledger a poem called "The Hanging of the Crane," to appear there without illustrations; no other publication of the 7 I7

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same to be formally announced before September, or made before October next; the copyright and right of subsequent publication to belong to me. The M.S. of the poem I send herewith. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow P.S. The foregoing is based upon an understanding between Mr. Ward, acting for you, Mr. Osgood and myself. H.W.L Robert Bonner Esqre. MANUSCRIPT:

3406.

Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library.

To John Ferguson Weir

Camb. Feb. 23. 1874 My Dear Mr. Weir, Accept my warmest thanks for your friendly remembrance, and for the beautiful Portfolio of the Baptistry Gates of Florence, "il mio bel San Giovanni. How wonderful they are. Michael Angelo's expression hardly seems exaggerated, as one looks at them; and as you say, one can see them and study them better in these photographs than in the reality. You have given me a delight for the rest of my days. I am glad that you still cherish pleasant memories of Cambridge, as we do of your visit here. Tell my dear little [Clara] Louise that I have her picture, with its thoughtful face and folded hands always in view in my study. It has never been put away in a drawer or a portfolio, but stands where I can constantly see it. With kindest regards and remembrances to Mrs. Weir, Yours faithfully Henry W . LongfellowMANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

1. C f . Inferno, X I X , 17. 2. Longfellow's engraved calling card with the annotation "For Professor Weir / With many thanks" accompanies the manuscript.

3407.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Feb. 25. 1874 My Dear Greene, Do you remember my saying to you on Sunday last, that I wondered what annoyances the week would bring with it? 718

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

Well, they come from an unexpected quarter, proving the truth of the French proverb; "II n'y a rien de certain que l'imprévu [There is nothing certain but the unexpected]." A paper from London this morning informs me that Routledge has already published " T h e Hanging of the Crane"; and so down topples my threethousand-dollar house of cards! I consider this a serious breach of trust on the part of Routledge, as the proof-sheets were sent to him for the use of the artists, if he should wish to publish an illustrated edition. And now \A'hat a storm will come from N e w York, worse than that now raging out of doors! What a drenching rain of letters and telegrams! What accusations, and imprecations, and altercations! Pity me, and thank heaven that you are not the author of that unfortunate poem. Always Yours H.W.L P.S. Let me know by Postal Card if this come safely.^ MANUSCRIPT :

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. Longfellow had enclosed a check for $50 ( M S Letter Calendar).

3408.

T o James Rifley

Osgood

Camb. Feb. 26. 1874. M y Dear M r Osgood, I know nothing about the unpleasant business beyond the fact, that Routledge has published the book.^ This I learn from a London paper, " T h e Echo," which gives a notice of it, with long extracts.^ So there can be no doubt on that point. I sent Routledge a copy for the use of artists, in the desire of saving time. I did not authorize him to publish it in any shape, but only asked what terms he would offer for an illustrated edition. His son answered my letter, but stated no terms, as his father was out of town. H e gave no hint of his intention to publish, till he heard from you, though at the moment of writing the sheets must have been in the printer's hands. H e wrote on the 5th of Feb. and before the 12th the book was out. I enclose you his letter; and you will know all that I know. Any comment is useless. I send also the notice, which please return with the letter. Yours truly H.W.L.

719

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MANUSCRIPT: T h e Carl H . Pforzheimer Library. 1. In a letter of February 25 Osgood had written: "I am appalled to hear that Routledge has published the poem. Is it actually out, and cannot we stop it by telegraphing? I fear it will upset your arrangements with Mr Bonner . . . and may upset the copyright also." 2. See The Echo, No. 1 6 1 2 (February 12, 1 8 7 4 ) , 2. T h e notice, entitled " N e w Poem by Longfellow," occupies a full column of this elephant folio newspaper.

3409.

To Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Camb. Feb. 27. 1874. Dear Mr Aldrich, Mr Routledge in London has prematurely announced a new poem of mine, about which both Mr. Osgood and myself are, for particular reasons, anxious that nothing should be known at present. If you happen to see any notice or allusion in your English papers, will you be kind enough not to mention it in Every Saturday? Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow T . B. Aldrich Esqre. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library.

3410.

To Robert Bonner

Cambridge Feb 27 1874. My Dear Sir, I had yesterday the pleasure of receiving your letter, and this morning the proof-sheet of the poem, which I return enclosed. I am glad that you like the poem; for I should have been unwilling to receive so large a sum for it, and have you dissatisfied. Mr. Ward has sent me his cheque for $3000.00, and with many thanks I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library, E s q r e / O f f i c e of

"The

Ledger." / N e w

York,

ADDRESS: Robert Bonner

POSTMARK:

CAMBRIDGE

MASS.

FEB 27

3411.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Feb. 27. 1874. It was a false alarm. I telegraphed to Routledge, and he answers that he has not published. All may yet be well, and no harm done.^ Many happy returns! H.W.L. 720

CAMBRIDGE, MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, East Greenwich / R.I.

1874

ADDRESS: Professor Geo. W .

Greene./

POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS, FEB 2 7

I. Routledge's telegram, received at 7:43 A.M. in Boston on February 27, read: "Crane unpublished." In a letter of March lo he enlarged on the subject as follows: " I hope the telegraph we sent you — informing you that 'The Hanging of the Crane' has never been published — would enable you to complete your arrangements with Mr Bonner. / I was very much annoyed when I knew my son had sent the Poem to the 'Echo & the Atheneum' — we have had the copy back from the latter. I am exceedingly sorry that you should have had so much trouble about this matter. You may depend upon it, such an occurrence will never take place again."

3412.

To James Ripley

Osgood

Camb. Feb. 27. 1874. M y Dear Mr Osgood, I wrote to Routledge yesterday, telling him all the mischief he had done. If you think another telegram necessary, please send it; though I do not know what more he can need to stop him. You might perhaps send him a message not to publish till he hears from you; or write to him the imperative reasons for holding back. I do not expect to be in town to-day. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

3413.

To James Ripley

Osgood

Camb. Feb. 27. 1874. Dear M r Osgood, Routledge's message reHeves me greatly. But would it not be well to ask the Advertiser, the Transcript, Journal and Traveller not to copy any notice or announcement they may see in their English papers'? If you think so, will you do it? W e must do all we can to keep the secret. Probably Mr. Bonner means to print at once, as he has sent me a proofsheet. Yours truly H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

721

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To Robert Bonner

Camb. March, i. 1874. My Dear Sir, In sending back the proof of [the] poem I forgot to write over it the words; "Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1874 by Henry W . Longfellow, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington." And under the title the explanatory note; ["Pendre la crémaillère, to hang the crane, is the French expression for a house-warming, or the first party given in a new house."] ^ Please have these two passages inserted, and oblige. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

I. T h e brackets are Longfellow's.

3415.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. March. 3. 1874 My Dear Greene, I enclose you as pretty a piece of vituperation as one sees in a twelvemonth. If I had not ceased to wonder at anything in the newspapers, I should wonder, that such astounding language as this should have found its way into the columns of the Tribune.^ I grieve over the bad news which your letter brings me.^ I know how you suffer, when your children are ill, and am not astonished that you are made ill yourself by Anna's condition. I trust however to hear soon that all cause of anxiety has passed away. I have written the new scene, that you suggested for "Angelo." I am not dissatisfied with it, and yet do not want to add it.® It seems to me better to leave the close a little vague, than to give a tragic ending, though that may be the proper finis of the book. What a debilitating day this has been. It is enough to take away the strength of a whole family of athletes. Here is a gloomy paragraph for you. See what barbarism may exist in the midst of culture and civilization!^ Paddock who planted these elms was a Tory in the days of the Revolution. Could that have had anything to do with it? I know not. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. T h e newspaper clipping, once pasted to the top of the sheet and now missing, was presumably the editorial entitled " T h e Boston Unhappiness" from the N e w York Tribune, X X X I I I , No. 10,269 (March 2, 1 8 7 4 ) . It comments unsympathetically on

722

CAMBRIDGE,

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the outrage of Bostonians over President Grant's nomination of William A . Simmons, a henchman of Benjamin Butler ( 2 1 0 6 . 2 ) , as Collector of the Port of Boston. 2. Greene's letter is unrecovered. 3. Samuel Longfellow's note at this point: " T h e new scene was Angelo's Death, and was afterward rejected" ( L i f e , ΙΠ, 2 2 3 ) . 4. A clipping from the Boston Advertiser, C X X I I I , N o . 53 ( M a r c h 3, 1 8 7 4 ) , is pasted to the sheet following this sentence: " T h e last of the Paddock elms fell at a quarter past nine o'clock yesterday morning, and there are now no signs left of the old trees except the smoothly cut stumps which are on a level with the sidewalk." Samuel L o n g f e l l o w noted: " T h e Paddock elms were ancient English elms in front of the Granary Burying-ground in Tremont Street, whose pleasant greenness and shade were long missed. T h e y were cut down by the city authorities" (Life, III, 2 2 4 ) .

3416.

T o Mary Appleton

Mackintosh

Camb. March 3. 1874. Dearest Mary Pardon my long delay in answering your letter. I have had a bad cold, which affected my eyes, so that my correspondence was thrown into utter confusion. It is over now, and I begin to make some little impression on the pile of accumulated letters. First of all, let me thank you for the two beautiful volumes of "Holland House"; very fair to look upon and very pleasant to read. I remember the house well, and my agreeable afternoon there.^ W e are all thriving here in the Craigie House, in our usual quiet way. W e see most of the English who pass this way; — have had Wilkie Collins at dinner, and Canon Kingsley at dinner;^ and have had a call or two from Miss Florence Lees, a friend of Florence Nightingale, and like her a Protestant Sister of Charity and lover of hospitals; the most attractive philanthrophist I have ever known.® Charley we are looking for in a month or two. H e has been gone nearly three years; and has sent home from Japan and China screens without end and boxes without number. T w o of the girls have been breakfasting with Uncle T o m to-day. W h a t has become of Nathan [Appleton] I know not. H e still has faith in [Charles] Bowles; and all his schemes, which perhaps is a pity, though it shows a trustful and generous nature. All send much love to you, and to dear Eva, and wish you were both on this side of the sea. Always affectionately H.W.L

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MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. See Mary, Princess of Liechtenstein, Holland House (London, 1 8 7 4 ) , 2 vols. This celebrated house in London's West End, built in Tudor style in 1607, was associated with many eminent people, including Thomas Moore, Lord Byron, and Sir Walter Scott. 2. Charles Kingsley ( 2 6 6 5 . 1 ) became canon of Westminster in 1873. Longfellow entertained him at the Craigie House on February 19 and Wilkie Collins on February 21 ( M S Journal). 3. Florence Sarah Lees, later Mrs. Dacre Craven, was the author of Handbook for Hospital Sisters, ed. Henry W . Acland (London, 1 8 7 4 ) . Longfellow first met her on February 6 ( M S Journal).

3417.

To Edward Belknap

Haven

Camb. March. 7. 1874. M y Dear Sir, In opening some cases sent home by Charles from Japan, I find this box for you. If you are disengaged on Wednesday next, would you do me the favor to dine with me en famille at 5 o'clock? Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: University of Washington Library, Vernon St. / Boston.

3418.

T o James Rifley

ADDRESS: Mr. E. B. Haven / 97 Mt.

Osgood

Camb. Mch. 7. 1874. M y Dear Mr Osgood, W h e n the Household Edition of my Poems^ was published, by some inadvertence only a single copy was sent me. Please let me have a few more, as friends ask me for it. As yet I see in no paper any echo of the "Echo." I hope Mr. Bonner will publish soon, and then the danger will be over. He promises to insert notice of copyright in the words you sent. Yours truly H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. I. BAL

12140.

724

CAMBRIDGE, 3419.

T o Baroness Josephine

1874

Knorr^ Cambridge near Boston. March 8. 1874.

Dear Madam, I have been much gratified by the reception of your friendly and welcome letter, and most sincerely hope that this time my answer will not fail to reach you. M y former letter^ must have lost its way by misdirection; though I cannot now remember whether I sent it to the care of your publishers in Vienna, or to Schloss Thibou,^ as I read, and perhaps misread, the word in your first communication. But I will not regret the accident. It has this compensation, that it gives me the opportunity of telling you again how much I liked your volume of poems. T h e y have the charm of sincerity; of coming not from the brain only, but from the heart also; and sound like faithful records of your own emotions, thoughts, and moods of mind. I shall be most happy, when the time comes, to receive the promised new volume^ and to see your version of the "Legend Beautiful." Your excellent translations of " T h e Psalm of L i f e " and "[Walther von der] Volegweide" are a good promise of what this too will be. And now let me thank you particularly for page 103 of your volume, and say how much I am touched by the sympathetic words there written.® В [e] lieve me, Dear Madam, with greatest regard, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Library of Congress. I

Stock / Vienna / Austria,

ADDBESS: Baroness Josephine Knorr / I POSTMARKS:

CAMBRIDGE

DIRECTIONS MAR IO / WIEN 2 4 / 3 7 4 [remainder

MASS,

MAR

Wollzeile

9 / PAID

ALL

illegible]

1 . Baroness Knorr C 1 8 2 7 - 1 9 0 8 ) , Austrian poet, had sent Longfellow a copy of her Gedichte

( W i e n , 1 8 7 2 ) shortly after its publication.

2. Dated N o v e m b e r 1 2 , 1 8 7 2 ( M S Letter C a l e n d a r ) . 3 . In her acknowledgment of April 1 6 , 1 8 7 4 , Baroness Knorr corrects the name to Schloss Stiebar. 4. Nene

Gedichte

CWien,

5. A reference to " A n

1874). H e n r y L o n g f e l l o w , " a four-stanza poem subtitled " Z u

Uebersetzungen einiger von seinen Gedichten."

7 ^ 5

den

EMBERS 3420.

To Edward Belknap

THAT

STILL

BURN

Haven

Camb. Mch. 9. 1874. My Dear Sir, I am very glad that you can dine with us on Wednesday. I mentioned 5 o'clock as the dinner hour, but finding that some of my family are going to a concert in the afternoon and may not be able to get out of town so early as that, we will say 6 o'clock instead, if equally agreeable to you. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

3421.

University

of

Washington Library.

To Nahum Capen^

Camb. March 10. 1874. My Dear Sir, I have read with much interest your article in the Annals of Phrenology, written so many years ago.^ It gave me a peculiar sensation. It was like revisiting an old and familiar battlefield, and finding many bits of rusty armor, and bullets, and skulls bleaching in the sun. Of the other volume^ it is not so easy for me to speak. The subject is a vast one, and I think you Ьал'е treated it in a comprehensive, and one might say a panoramic style, unrolling the history of many ages and countries. But as I told you when I had the pleasure of seeing you here, not being familiar with the subject, I do not feel entitled to express any opinion upon it. I am confirmed in this conviction by what you say in your phrenological essay; "No man should be regarded as an authority worth quoting, unless he has given the subject in question a serious examination." I return the volumes with many thanks, and am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Maine Historical Society.

1. Capen ( 1 8 0 4 - 1 8 8 6 ) , editor and author of phrenological treatises, was a member of the Boston publishing firm of Marsh, Capen & Lyon and postmaster of Boston, 1857-1861. 2. This article is unidentified. Annals of Phrenology was published by Capen's firm. 3. Presumably Capen's History of Democracy; or, Political Progress, Historically Illustrated, From the Earliest to the Latest Periods (Hartford, 1 8 7 4 ) , Vol. L

726

CAMBRIDGE, 3422.

1874

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. March 1 1 . 1874. My Dear Fields, W e shall be delighted, — both Alice and myself, — to dine with you on Sunday [March 15], and celebrate your Harvest Home. I see you in imagination, riding through Charles Street in triumph, bearing your sheaves, and the German band playing the ancient melody of "Dulce Domum."^ We shall also be delighted to see again the Kingsleys,^ of whom we saw too little when they were in Cambridge, owing to their many occupations and flittings to and fro. I am alarmed this morning by a paragraph in the paper about Sumner,® who had last night another attack of his old enemy Angina -pectoris. I tremble for the result. Like Agassiz, he will not listen to the warning of friends, but labors on to the end. I say will not, and mean can not. It is his nature; and the voice of nature is more powerful than that of friends. With kind greetings to your wife and your guests, Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: University of Washington Library. 1 . In his letter of invitation from N e w York, dated March 1 0 ( M S , H e n r y E . Huntington L i b r a r y ) , Fields wrote that he and his w i f e were on their w a y home from Baltimore where " w e have had a most delectable time; great audiences; terrapin, and all other gratifying things." 2. Charles Kingsley was traveling in America with his eldest child. Rose Georgina Kingsley ( 1 8 4 4 - 1 9 2 5 ) , w h o was acting as his secretary. 3. Boston Advertiser, C X X I I I , N o . 60 ( M a r c h 1 1 , 1 8 7 4 ) : "Senator Sumner was late last night seized with a sudden illness, giving his friends some alarm, but at last accounts he was more comfortable and sleeping soundly."

3423.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Mch 1 1 . 1874. M y Dear Greene, The fatal news has come at last. You doubtless saw in your morning paper the mention of Sumner's attack last night. I had a telegram from Sam Ward saying he could not live through the day; and now comes another with the words; "Charles Sumner is dead." I thought I was prepared by his frequent attacks for this final one. But I was not. It is terribly sudden and unexpected to me as it will be to you. I cannot write more. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection.

727

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To Karl Keck

Cambridge Mch. 12. 1874. My Dear Sir, Your welcome letter of Feb. 22nd has just reached me, and I hasten to thank you for it, and to answer the several questions in it. I thought the easiest way νλ'οηΜ be to number these questions and the corresponding answers. I therefore return your list enclosed.i In regard to the photograph I beg a thousand pardons. The only good one ever taken of me was by Elliot and Fry of London. I have written to them^ for a supply, but as yet have no answer. You shall certainly have one. I will speak with Mr. [Thomas Potts] James and others touching the exchange of botanical specimens which you propose. I need not say that I am delighted that you have translated the "New England Tragedies." The work is now complete.® Many, many thanks. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. P.S. I know not why Tauchnitz has not sent you "Aftermath." I will write to him at once.^ He must have sent it to a wrong address. [Enclosure to Letter No. 3424.]® 1. The same. Lieutenant Governor; a substitute to act in Governor's name. [Deputy Governor. See Dramatis Personae] 2. Geistlicher, Pfarrer, Pastor [Minister of the Gospel. See Dramatis Personae] 3. Plutarch, Life of Themistocles : "Eurybiades lifting up his staff to strike, Themistocles said, 'Strike if you will, but hear.' " [Prologue, 1. 48] 4. Kirche; the Puritans called their churches Meeting-houses. [Meetinghouse. Act I, Scene i] 5. Jeremia IX. 21. [I, i, 28-31] 6. Hesekiel XXXIV. 8. 19. [I, i, 41-43] 7. The gallery in Puritan, and other churches, is a kind of balcony or Altan, running round three sides. The boys sat there on Sundays and were kept in order by the so-called Tithingman, or beadle. [I, ii, 41] 8. Hesekiel. XXIV. 6 "Von der Mörderischen Stadt": in the English ^'ersion, "Wo to the bloody city." Boston was called by early settlers "the Lost Town." I have forgotten why, but will look it up. [II, ii, 133] 9. Hiob XIV. 20. [II, iii, 105-106] ID. Title of Puritan Courts of Justice. [The Court of Assistants, Act III, Scene i] I I . Call me no reproachful names. To address a man as Sirrah, was like using Er in German. [Ill, i, 57]

728

CAMBRIDGE,

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12. N o t from the Scriptures, but in imitation of Scripture language. [Ill, i, 131] 13. Joel. II. 29 English Version. III. 2 in Luther's Bible. [Ill, i, 139-140] 14. Habakuk II. 11. 12. [Ill, i, 1 5 1 - 1 5 5 ] 15. Ev. Matthai V . 11. 12. [Ill, iii, 1 - 6 ] r6. C l e w , lower corner of a square sail; eased off, loosened. [IV, i, 22] 17. Close-handed, or sailing on the wind. [IV, i, 28] 18. Yaw, to go off your course; keep your luff, keep as close to the wind as possible. [IV, i, 37] 19. Hoisted as high as possible; the lower block of a tackle [IV, i, 45-46] 20. M e n in the starboard watch. [IV, i, 47] 21. Order given in tacking ship. T o swing the yards round you let go the sheets on one hand and haul on the other. [IV, i, 56] 22. Hard fate or destiny. [IV, i, 76] 23. T o run away. [IV, i, 81] 24. T h e same; prendre le clef des champs. [IV, i, 82] 25. Zephanja. II. 14. [IV, ii, 54-56] 26. Proceed; march forward. [IV, ii, 64] 27. II. Maccabees. IX. 10. [IV, ii, 65-67] 28. Simply a judge. [Magistrate. See Dramatis Personae] 29. 30. 31. leader

Bewitched; had an evil eye cast upon them. [II, ii, 42] T h e Devil's Book. [II, iii, 80] T h e story is told in the "Demonology" of K i n g James. Fian was the of the conspirators. [Ill, ii, 20-30]

32. So stated in Mather's "Wonders of the Invisible W o r l d . " It would seem that the spectre, or shape of Bishop haunted the Afflicted Children, and that other ghosts appeared to this spectre, and accused it of murder. [Ill, ii, 34-40] 33. I. B. d. Könige. X X I . Ï. et seq. [III, iii, 4 5 - 1 0 1 ] 34. H e would have added "your wife," — but remembers the discord between them. [V, ii, 39] 35. "Very lately in a part of England, where some of the neighborhood were quarrelling, a Raven from the top of a tree very articularly and unaccountably cry'd out, Read the Third of Colossians and the fifteenth." T h e Epistle to the Colossians III. 15. gives; " A n d let the peace of G o d rule in your hearts." [Ill, iv, l o - n ] MANUSCRIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library. Items 1 - 3 0 of Enclosure from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House). 1. Keek's letter of February 22, 1874, and his list of questions concerning The New England Tragedies are unrecovered. 2. O n March 11 ( M S Letter Calendar). 3. O f the three parts of Christus translated by Keck, only Die Goldene Legende ( W i e n , 1 8 5 9 ) was published. See Letter N o . 3306.

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4. There is no record of this letter having been written. 5. Answers 1 - 2 7 refer to Keek's questions concerning ]ohn Endicott, answers 2 8 - 3 5 to Giles Corey of the Salem Farms. Corresponding references in the poems are indicated within square brackets.

3425.

To James Ripley

Osgood

Camb. M c h i 5 1874. Dear M r Osgood, Please read and return to me these two letters.^ Routledge is waiting to hear from you. Yours truly H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Frances Gilmore Hilen, Seattle.

I. Routledge had written on March 3 that "we have secured our right in the publication of 'The Hanging of the Crane,' it being published in a periodical in the States" and again on March i о to the effect that the poem had not yet been published.

3426.

T o Caleb Lyon^

Camb. March. 16. 1874 M y Dear Sir, Accept my best thanks for your letter, for your kind remembrance of me, for your interesting sketch of an Evening with Sumner. Everything pertaining to him is precious. I thank you cordially.^ To-day, as you know, his funeral takes place; and before going to town to attend it, I write you these few lines. I need not tell you of the public grief here as elsewhere and everywhere. T h e mourning is universal, as well it may be; for the nation's loss is great and irreparable. Of what I feel, and you feel, and all his personal friends, I cannot speak, and will not attempt it. W e shall feel his loss more and more, as the days go on. With great regard Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1 . Identified as Longfellow's correspondent from the M S Letter Calendar. 2. Lyon's letter is unrecovered and the sketch unidentified. For Lyon's enthusiasm for Sumner, see Letter No. 2082.

730

CAMBRIDGE, 3427.

T o Alfred

1874

Austin^

Cambridge, March 17, 1874. You may be sure to find in me a sympathetic reader, not a carping critic. And yet I read slowly, and therefore do not postpone writing to you till I shall have finished the volumes,^ for fear of unintentional delay. I have read enough, however, to admire the spirit in which you write, and to foresee that I shall like these books. Thank heaven, they are not of the lurid kind! I have seen so much of that lately, that I am almost afraid to open a new book. unrecovered; text from Item 1 3 3 in unidentified sales catalogue, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House).

MANUSCRIPT;

1 . Austin ( 1 8 3 5 - 1 9 1 3 ) , prolific English versifier, became poet laureate in 1896. 2. Unidentified.

3428.

To Sarah Hunt Mills Peirce^

Camb. March 18. 1874. Dear Mrs Peirce, I am much obliged to you for your kind invitation, but unfortunately we are all engaged for Friday evening. I have heard much of Mr. Riddle's readings, and am sorry to lose this opportunity of hearing him, and at your house.^ I am. Dear Mrs. Peirce, with many regrets. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellov\' MANUSCRIPT:

Frank O. Buda, Cambridge, Mass.

1. Mrs. Peirce (d. 1887, aged eighty) was the wife of Professor Benjamin Peirce ( 5 5 3 - 2 ) , whom she had married in 1 8 3 3 . 2. George Peabody Riddle ( 1 8 5 1 - 1 9 1 0 ) , actor, reader, and director of Greek play revivals, served as instructor in elocution at Harvard, 1 8 7 8 - 1 8 8 1 .

3429.

T o William Dean

Howells

Camb. March 19. 1874. Dear M r Howells, Be good enough to dine with us on Friday at 5. You shall have maccaroni a la Napolitana, and Calabrian wine, and shut your eyes, and think yourself in Italy. If the subject of " T h e Hanging of the Crane" happens to come up in your hearing, please say nothing of the price paid for it. Mr. Bonner, I know not why, wishes that to be kept secret. Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

73 I

EMBERS 3430.

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To Samuel Crocker СоЪЫ

Cambridge Mch 20 1874. My Dear Sir, Want of time, and the great inconvenience of attending the meetings, on account of my Hving out of town, force me to decline serving on the Committee of Fifty for erecting a permanent memorial of Charles Sumner. I am, my Dear Sir, Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow Hon Samuel C. Cobb. Mayor of Boston. MANUSCRIPT: I.

Indiana University Library.

Cobb ( 1 8 2 6 - 1 8 9 1 )

343 r.

served

as

m a y o r of

Boston, 1 8 7 4 - 1 8 7 6 .

To ]ames Ripley Osgood

Camb. March 21. 1874. Dear Mr Osgood, I should like very well to have you buy the "Poets and Poetry of Europe"; but do not wish to take any part in the purchase. I wish to keep as clear as possible from all kinds of business entanglements and uncertainties, and this would be one, though a small one. Yours truly H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

3432.

Parkman D. Howe, Boston.

T o Francis james Child

Camb. Mch 25. 1874. My Dear Professor, An excellent plan.^ I will send my books, as soon as I can determine which edition to send; — one in many volumes, or one in few. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

I . When Iceland achieved home rule from Denmark in 1874, Daniel Willard Fiske ( 1 8 7 6 . 1 ) enlisted Child in a project to celebrate the event by collecting books for the national library in Reykjavik.

732

CAMBRIDGE, 3433.

T o George Washington

1874

Greene

Camb. March 27. 1874. M y Dear Greene, If you want to know where I now am, and where I am to be for the next five months, read the above paragraph and marvel at the imagination of the newspaper writers.^ I send you to-day Mrs Howard's account of Sumner's burial, which you did not read when here.^ Owen is getting better, so his brother says, and the doctor confirms the statement. I was there this morning, and found him asleep. I did not wake him, but sat a while musing in that strange attic. I am now going down again to cheer him up a little if I can. That confounded Neapolitan to whom I gave cinque scudi to help him on his way to Paris, now wants me to give him ten more, to enable him not to go, having promised his wife not to return "se non possessore della modesta somma di $200 [unless the owner of the modest sum of $200]." H e also wants me to give him letters of introduction to Montreal! H e is a character for Molière.® H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1 . T h i s newspaper paragraph, once pasted to the top of the sheet, is now missing. 2. According to her letter to Longfellow of March 2 1 , Mrs. H o w a r d had written her account for the Philadelphia Press, but it cannot be more specifically identified. 3. Longfellow's M S Account Book yields the information that in March 1 8 7 4 he had given $ 5 to a Signor Nobili, possibly Achilles Alexander Nobile ( b . 1 8 3 3 ) , a nomadic Italian scholar whose Miscellaneous Poems, translated from French and Italian authors into English prose, appeared in Montreal in 1 8 8 4 .

3434.

T o James Bou'en

Everhart

[Cambridge] March 3 1 , 1874. Many thanks for your beautiful poem,^ — beautiful notwithstanding its subject, for which I have no sympathy. I am so little of a sportsman that I rank fox-hunting with bull-fighting, and think them equally detestable. You will perhaps smile at this; but I never lose an opportunity of entering my protest against all pleasures that spring from the pain of dumb animals. But I meant to thank you, not to preach to you; and again beg you to accept my thanks for your kindness in sending me your book. MANUSCRIPT; unrecovered; text from Life, III, 2 2 5 . I. The Fox Chase (Philadelphia, 1 8 7 4 ) .

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To Lady Elizabeth Georgiana Campbell, Duchess of Argyll

СатЪ. April 5. 1874 Dear Duchess of Argyll, I thank you most cordially for your kind letter of sympathy. Sumner's death is indeed a very great sorrow to me; for he was more like a brother than a friend. I knew you would feel as I do. He always cherished an unabated affection for you and all your household. I hardly know what more to tell you of his death than what you have seen in the papers. Seized near midnight by angina pectoris, and the next afternoon at three, dead. Among his last words were; "Take care of my Civil Rights Bill." I send you to-day some papers, which may contain things you have not seen. In the unavoidable delay in forming the long funeral procession, the hearse stopped for half an hour in front of the door of his divorced wife.^ This, of course, was unintentional, but nevertheless to me very painful to think upon. Have you any letters of Sumner, which might with propriety be used in preparing his biography? and would you allow copies to be taken of them, or parts of them? With kindest regards to the Duke and your family circle, always Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow. unrecovered; text from facsimile in His Grace the Duke of Argyll, Passages from the Past (London, 1 9 0 7 ) , I, 220-223.

MANUSCRIPT:

I. An awkwardness that caused the former Mrs. Sumner to say: "That is just like Charles; he never did show tact." See Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man, p. 6.

3436.

To Marvin Henry Bovee

Cambridge Apr. 5. 1874. My Dear Sir, I deserve to be ordered out for immediate execution for having so long delayed thanking you for your very interesting and valuable work on Capital Punishment.! But having written this book, you cannot execute anybody, and I shall escape with a lesser penalty. I have no excuse to offer, save the perpetual claims upon my time, which render my correspondence very irregular and interrupted. Though late, accept, I beg of you, my cordial thanks. It is a work that ought to do a great deal of good in the world; and I hope you may live to

734

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

see tbe benevolent cause you advocate prevail throughout the land, and throughout all lands. With my best wishes for your triumphant success, I am, my Dear Sir, Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow. MANuscKiPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

I, Christ and the Gallows; ( N e w York, 1 8 7 0 ) .

3437.

or, Reasons for the Abolition

of Capital

Punishment

To John Bright

Cambridge Apr. 5 1874. My Dear Mr. Bright, I hardly need tell you why I write. You will know it by instinct. But it is neither to bury Caesar, nor to praise him. Knowing your long intimacy with Sumner, his affectionate admiration for you, and yours for him, I have thought that you may have many letters from him, which might be important for his biographer, and parts of which at least you might be willing to have used. Four writers are already at work on four separate lives of Sumner, on their own responsibility. No authorized biographer has yet been selected; but when that shall be done, I am anxious that he should have all the important documents. If, therefore, you have anything which might without impropriety be used in this way, would you allow copies to be taken? or would you entrust the letters to the Literary Trustees,^ for a season? I know that you will feel Sumner's loss almost as much as I do. I speak not of it; but am, with highest regard. Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Berg 6/27/742

Collection,

New

York

Public

Library,

ENDORSEMENT:

ansd.

1. T h e trustees were Longfellow, Francis Vergnies Balch, and Edward Lillie Pierce. See 1205.2. 2. In this reply Bright revealed that he had over fifty letters from Sumner, 'Witten from about the beginning of your Civil War." Excerpts from many of them are to be found in Sumner Memoir and Letters.

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EMBERS 3438.

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To John Owen Camb. Apr 5 1874.

Dear Owen, I have not been to see you because I am again ill with a bad cold. It will be your turn now to come and see me. H.W.L MANUSCBIPT: Harvard College Library.

3439.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Apr 8. 1874 My Dear Fields, I shall be delighted to come, if I am well enough. But at present I am shut up in the house by a cold of the worst kind, with all kinds of pains and discomforts. Therefore I am not "an ornament to society"^ and cannot be counted upon for any of the civilities. What a winter this has been, morally and physically! Do you not think, that, all things considered, Geo W . Curtis will be the best man for Sumner's biographer? Would Whittier be better? or Motley? or can you suggest anyone?^ Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. 1. Cf. Charles Lamb in Eliana: " H e might have proved a useful adjunct, if not an ornament to society." 2. Fields responded in a letter of April 9: "Curtis would do the memoirs admirably. Whittier is too slow and uncertain as to health. Motley is also pre-occupied, and remote from the scene. Parton could do it in a popular way, and really I believe loved Sumner's character" ( M S , Henry E. Huntington Library). James Parton ( 1 8 2 2 - 1 8 9 1 ) , English-born journalist of N e w York, had written biographies of Franklin, Aaron Burr, Andrew Jackson, Horace Greeley, and others.

3440.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Apr. 9. 1874. My Dear Fields, I am sorry to say that it is impossible; I cannot come. My cold has not left me, or only long enough to return with another demon worse than itself — one of the isms, — that makes me walk like Jefferson in the second act of Rip Van Winkle.^ No right-minded man would tolerate me at his dinner table. 736

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

If you happen to pass the Athenaeum or the Public Library, but do not go on purpose, will you ask if either has a book called, "Eccentricities of John Edwin. By J. Williams. London 1781." In it I am sure we shall find the long-sought lines; "Our entrance into the world" &cß H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Joseph JefFerson ( 1 8 2 9 - 1 9 0 5 ) , Philadelphia-born actor, was famous for his role as Rip Van Winkle in Dion Boucicault's dramatic version of Irving's tale. 2. See 3 1 9 1 . 1 .

3441.

To John Owen

Camb. Apr 9. 1874 My Dear Owen, Your note of yesterday has just reached me. I regret as much as you do the publication of Sumner's Suppressed Speech, just at this moment. And who has done this? All his papers are safely boxed up in Washington. He must have given a copy to someone of his political friends. I never heard him speak of it, nor knew of its existence. After all, is it a friend or a foe that has published it? Most inopportune — most injudicious! ' H.W.L P.S. I am very glad you [are] getting well so fast. But do not venture out too soon. Mr. Balch writes that he "hears from several quarters the publication of the S.S. is attributed to us, and is creating much unpleasant comment."^ MANUSCRIPT;

University of Washington Library.

1. Sumner had prepared a speech for delivery in the Senate in March 1871 on the subjects of his disagreement with President Grant and Secretary of State Hamilton Fish over the Santo Domingo affair (2899.1) and the recall of John Lothrop Motley from his ministerial post (2838.1). He suppressed the speech, however, circulating it only among a few friends with the admonition not to publish it. After his death, Francis William Bird (1809-1894), businessman, politician, and Sumner intimate, had it printed in the New York Tribune, XXXIII, No. 10,299 (April 6, 1874). See Sumner Works, XIV, 251-276. 2. Letter dated April 9.

737

EMBERS 3442.

T o George William

THAT

STILL

BURN

Curtis

C a m b . April 10 1874. M y Dear Curtis, I am happy to say, that the "Suppressed Speech" was not published by authority of the Literary Executors, or with their knowledge. O n the contrary they deeply regret its publication. It is a discordant [note] in Sumner's requiem. For my own part I never even heard of its existence, till I saw it in the papers. H o w it got there, I have not the slightest notion; and no one here seems to know any better than I do. In regard to making any public allusion to it, you shall do as you may judge best. I have neither desire for it, nor objection against it. It was pleasant to see once more your fluent and familiar hand-writing. I hear that you are perfectly well again, which is perfectly good news. Norton is well; but keeps very much at home, as is natural. H e has now a Lectureship in the University on the History of Art. W i t h kind remembrances to your w i f e and to Mr. and Mrs Shaw,^ A l w a y s Yours affect [ionatel] y H e n r y W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Francis George Shaw Sturgis Shaw С1469.1).

3443.

(1809-1882),

To George Washington

Curtis's

father-in-law,

and

Sarah

Blake

Greene, C a m b . Apr. 10. 1874.

M y Dear Greene, I sent you yesterday Sumner's "Suppressed Speech," in a newspaper. It was first published in the N . Y . Tribune. H o w it got there I do not know. It was not by authority or with the knowledge of the Executors. O n the contrary they deplore its publication, as you may well suppose. It is a great pity, and just at present, too, w h e n there was such a tender feeling towards Sumner. W h o e v e r did it, the act was most unfriendly. I am sorry to hear that you have so much illness under your roof. But you must not think that every sore-throat is dyptheria.^ I have not seen O w e n for a week, having been myself shut up with a cold since Sunday. T h i s formidable weather has much to answer for. I have amused myself by reading a work on Painting by a Frenchman named Blanc;^ also one on Wilkes, Sheridan and Fox, by an Englishman named Rae.^ I think you would like both. T h e y are very interesting. Y o u do not say how your w i f e is; from w h i c h I infer that she is better. H.W.L 738

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

P.S. I sent to town twice for the Journal containing "Sumner in Rome."^ But in vain. It was not in the Weekly which I got. The Nos you mentioned could not be found. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. On April 4 Greene had reported his daughter Anna "better; but my wife is confined to her bed with lung fever." On April 9 he wrote that "Nat has the measles and I have had an attack of dyptheria which has left me sleepless, nervous and very weak." 2. Auguste Alexandre Philippe Charles Blanc ( 1 8 1 3 - 1 8 8 2 ) , French art critic and brother of Jean Joseph Louis Blanc C987.7), was the author of several works on painting. 3. William Fraser Rae, Wiïkes, Sheridan, Fox: The Opposition under George the Third (London, 1 8 7 4 ) . 4. In a letter of March 26 Greene had reported that "there was a very pleasant account of my early intercourse with Sumner in the Boston journal for tuesday [March 24] or monday [March 23]," but no such account appears in the Boston Evening Journal.

3444.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Apr. 12. 1874. My Dear Greene, Mr [George] Nichols is in hot pursuit of a copy of Tremenhere's "Politics of the A n c i e n t s , a n d the book can not be found here. He understood you to say, that you owned it. If so, will you please send it to me by Express, care of Sawin, Court Square, as usual. Do not delay an hour. If necessary, get up in the night and do it! A Western poet indulges in the following very original rhyme. What do you think of it? A bridal veil of snow is laid Upon the brown earth, half afraid Of her old lover. Winter. Above it all the moonbeams throw Their long, slant arrows on the snow. The rare chiaro-oscuro Of nature's matchless tinter.^ Sumner's papers — five boxes of them — have arrived in Boston. Tomorrow I shall go in to look at them, and see what and how much work is to be done. W e have a room for the purpose at 32 Pemberton Square. My eyes are in no condition for any work of this kind. What a long session Winter makes of it this year! Instead of adjourning on the 4th of March, it is still in full blast with all its windy oratory. To-day

739

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I am obliged to keep snug by the fireside; and I dare say it is the same with you. I hope all your patients are doing well, and will soon be all right again. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Hugh Seymour Tremenheere, The Political Experience of the Ancients, in its Bearing upon Modern Times (London, 1 8 5 2 ) . 2. A clipping from an unidentified newspaper, pasted to the sheet at this point. Longfellow underlined "chiaro-oscuro."

3445.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Apr 18. 1874 My Dear Greene, You may be sure that the Governor shall have an honorable seat on the platform at Schurtz' Eulogy on Sumner, if it is in my power to procure it. As yet I know nothing of the arrangements, but I cannot imagine that there will be any difficulty about that.^ Who shall write the life of Sumner? That is the question that perplexes me. All his papers have arrived, and we have a room devoted to them in Pemberton Square. I am going in on Monday to examine them. I dread it; but it must be done. It seems strange that I must delegate to another the task of writing his life. But I feel that I cannot do it. Ah, if you were only well enough, and had eyes for the work! Motley, too, is incapacitated by ill-health, and has his own historic projects. The same may be said of Parkman. The circle seems to narrow itself down to Curtis and Dana, and I do not know whether either of them would undertake it. Meanwhile we shall have the materials arranged and ready for use. Annie is going away tomorrow with some friends to the Shenandoah valley. I do not half like it, but consent, as usual. H.W.L. P.S. Tremenheere is safe in the hands of the Indefatigable. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. A memorial service was held for Sumner in the Boston Music Hall on April 29. After a prayer by Rev. Phillips Brooks and a hymn by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Senator Carl Schurz delivered the eulogy. See Boston Advertiser, C X X I I I , No. 103 (April 30, 1 8 7 4 ) .

740

CAMBRIDGE, 3446.

1874

T o William Eliot Fette^

Camb. Apr. 20 1874. M y Dear Sir, I do not think the authorship of "Hüte dich" is known. In all the collections in which I have seen it, it appears anonymously. T h e author seems to be forgotten, if ever known. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Wellesley College Library, Boston

ADDRESS; W . Eliot F e t t e / 1 1 Walnut S t /

I. In a letter of April 18 Fette ( 1 8 3 9 - 1 8 9 9 ) , a Harvard graduate of 1858, had asked the name of the author of "Hüte dich," translated by Longfellow as "Beware" CWorks, V I , 2 6 5 - 2 6 6 ) .

3447.

T o George Henry

Witherle^

Cambridge Apr 23 1874 M y Dear Sir, I have received from my brother [Alexander], the photograph of the old inscription,- which you were kind enough to send me, and hasten to thank you for it. It is very quaint and curious, and I value it highly and shall preserve it with care. Accept, I beg you, my best acknowledgments for your kindness, and believe me Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House). 1. Witherle ( 1 8 3 1 - 1 9 0 6 ) was a conservationist and local historian of Castine, Me. 2. Unidentified.

3448.

T o George Washington

Greene

Camb. Apr. 26. 1874. M y Dear Greene, Have you and the Governor received tickets for the Schurtz Eulogy? If not, it is by no fault of mine. I lost no time in seeing the Lord Mayor of Boston, and he said, that though there was a great pressure on all sides, he would do what he could.^ Well, whether tickets have been sent you or not, all can be easily arranged. I have one platform ticket, and that shall be the Governor's; and you and I 74 I

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will sit in the gallery, which is a much better place. As you well know, I was never fond of platforms of any kind. Listen to my plan. I will be at the station at ten minutes before eleven; and bring you out to lunch at twelve. Then we will go in to the Eulogy, which is to be at three. I suppose the Governor will want to get home at night; but you must try to give me a day or two. After the Eulogy, I have promised to dine with the orator at a friend's. But you know the way [to] Cambridge, and need no guide. Let me know by telegraph if this arrangement is agreeable, and if your household is well enough to spare you. There is hardly time for me to get an answer by post. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. Mayor Cobb wrote on April 22 that he had "given the names of the Mess. Greene to the Clerk of Committees who has placed them on the list of invited guests. I think these gentlemen will receive invitations to seats upon the platform."

3449.

To Mary Elizabeth Fiske Sargent^

Camb. Apr 28 1874 Dear Mrs Sargent, My desire to accept your kind invitation for Thursday made me forget for the moment that I had already an engagement for that day, and at the very hour you mentioned. This will prevent my coming, unless I can disentangle myself in some way. If I should not be able to do so, please accept my apology and regrets. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Boston Public Library. I. Mrs. Sargent ( 1 8 2 7 - 1 9 0 4 ) , wife of Rev. John Turner Sargent ( 1 8 0 7 - 1 8 7 7 ) , Unitarian minister, was the founder and patron of the Radical Club of Boston.

3450.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Apr. 29. 1874. My Dear Greene, I have just been into town for you; saw the Providence train glide into the station; looked up and down, like Leonora in the German ballad, all in vain for William;^ for neither William nor George appeared. I had invited [Frederick Christian] Kölker to meet you at lunch at twelve o'clock. He alone came. 742

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

Ten at night. Have just returned from town, and find your letter of the 26th, postmarked the 27th, and delivered in Camb. on the evening of the 29th! What is the matter with the U.S. Postal Service? It is a great pity you were not here to hear Senator Shurtz, and see the crowded hall, and listen to the plaudits. It was an excellent performance. You will read it in the papers, and applaud silently. But I will say no more, as you may [be] coming tomorrow or next day, or some day before long; and I can tell you all far better than write it. Let me know if this comes safely to hand. Always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. See the translation of Gottfried August Bürger's ballad in the Poets and of Europe, pp. 2 7 5 - 2 7 7 .

3451.

To George Washington

Poetry

Greene

Camb. May. 3. 1874. My Dear Giorgio, I, who keep as sharp an eye on the thermometer as you do on the weathercock, am happy to announce to you, that it, that is, the thermometer, now stands in my study, without a fire, at sixty six! Spring has come, and it will be safe for you to come with it. But I never forget "i [tre] giorni della merla."^ I am sorry that you should be troubled about my bootless drive to town the other day. I was not in the least annoyed, only sorry that you and the Governor should miss the occasion, you would have enjoyed so much. Schurz did himself great honor, and Sumner great justice, except in saying, that his "was not a mind of the highest class," or something to that effect. Now in statesmanship Sumner had a mind of the highest order, clear and far-seeing. If not, who ever had? Certainly that must be a very limited first class, that excludes Sumner. Time will show. I hope that your History of Rhode Island,^ in spite of all drawbacks, advances steadily. I have two lines of Goethe constandy running in my mind; "What to-day is not a-doing Will tomorrow not be done."® My chief occupation is answering letters; and this is an answer to your Postal Card just received. H.W.L

743

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1. "the 2. 3.

THAT

STILL

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Longfellow Trast Collection.

A Lombardism meaning "the three coldest days of the year" or, more specifically, three last days of January." A Short History of Rhode Island (Providence, 1 8 7 7 ) . See 3 1 2 6 . 3 .

3452.

To Alice Mary Frere Clerk

Cambridge May 5. 1874. My Dear Mrs. Clerk, As I was sitting in the twilight feeling rather disconsolate, and wishing that something pleasant might happen, my desire was gratified by the arrival of your charming and most welcome letter. I am delighted to be remembered by you so far away; and delighted to know where you are, that I may send you a word of affectionate remembrance. It is not my fault that I have not been able to find you. I wrote to you at Suez, and you were gone; at Rome, and no answer came. You were somewhere else.^ And so I have followed your flying feet, from place to place, and almost fear that when this reaches Ambala "your regiment" will have marched away, or you yourself be in Kashmir or Thibet. But whether I write or not, I often think of you, and the happy days when you were here, and would not stay. I have your photograph before me, and refuse to believe that you are a year older now, or in any way changed. And so you remain always young and beautiful in my memory, and cannot grow old, whatever emphasis you may lay on your thirty-three years.^ Your "Arabian Tales"® were duly sent to me, and I read them last summer with great eagerness. They are a fit sequel to the "Arabian Nights." I envy you your knowledge of Arabia. Of your father's illness I had not heard. I hope and trust, that he is now quite well again, and will take care in future not to over-work himself. At our age — not yours, but his and mine, — one must be careful. Thanks, once more, for your kind letter; thanks for your kind remem brance, and wherever you are, think of me always as Yours with great affection Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

1. In her letter of February 24, 1874, Mrs. Clerk had written that after leaving Suez, she and her husband spent eighteen months in England before departing for India. 2. Mrs. Clerk had written: "On the 28th I begin my 33rd year, and feel that I have reached the time of life when one begins to look back instead of forwards — in other words, youth has past." 3. Muhammad Diyäh, Al-AtUdî. 'Ilâm-en-Nàs. Historical Tales and Anecdotes of the Time of the Early Khalifahs, translated from the Arabic and annotated by Mrs. G. Clerk (London, 1 8 7 3 ) . 744

CAMBRIDGE, 3453.

To George Washington

1874

Greene

Camb. 7 di Maggio [1874]. Venite Venerdi, se mai possible. Sabbato ho biglietti per Salvini.^ H.W.L MANUSCBIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, East Greenwich / R.I.

ADDRESS: Professor Geo. W .

Greene/

POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS, MAY 7

I. "Come Friday, if at all possible. Saturday I have tickets for Salvini." On May 9, at the Boston Theatre, Tommaso Salvini played the title role in Ingomar the Barbarian, a play by the English actress Maria Anne Lovell ( 1 8 0 3 - 1 8 7 7 ) , first produced at the Drury Lane Theatre, London, in 1 8 5 1 .

3454.

To Anne Allegra

Longfellow

Camb. May. 8. 1874. My Dearest Pansie, You will think me a cruel and unnatural parent, for not having yet written you a single letter. But the truth is the Recording Angels of Cambridge have been so busy with their pens, that they have left me nothing to write, except it be to tell you how much I have missed you, and that I do not want to tell you till you get safe home again. Yet, there is one thing more, and that is to thank Mrs. Morse^ for taking you on this journey, which you have enjoyed so much. Of course you have done it already, but you must not forget to give her my thanks with yours. Would it not be strange, if it should so happen, that you and Charlie should reach home on the same day? Yet it may happen. II n'y a rien de certain, que l'imprévu [There is nothing certain but the unexpected], say the French. Last evening I dined with Mme Rudersdorff^ at the Boylston hotel, to meet Salvini and his brother.® W e had an Italian dinner, cooked by an Italian; and it was very nice. Mme. R. was amiable and enthusiastic; Salvini, charming with his mellow voice and flowing conversation; and his brother, in whom I always see Iago, rather silent and sententious. We enjoyed ourselves greatly. I expect Mr. Greene on Saturday; and in the afternoon we are going to see Salvini in Ingomar. With kind regards to all your party, always affectionately. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Alice Allegra Thorp Estate (on deposit, Longfellow House). 1 . Harriet Jackson Lee Morse, wife of a Boston merchant and the mother of Henry Lee Morse (b. 1 8 5 2 ) , a Harvard senior and friend of the Longfellow girls, had taken Anne Allegra on the Shenandoah Valley journey mentioned in Letter No. 3445· 2. Erminia Rudersdorff ( 1 8 2 2 - 1 8 8 2 ) , Ukrainian-born dramatic soprano, came to Bos745

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ton in 1872 for the World's Peace Jubilee and International Music Festival and remained as a teacher of music. She was the mother of the celebrated actor Richard Mansfield (1857-1907). 3. Alessandro Salvini (d. 1886), a member of his brother's company, was known for his portrayal of Iago. 3455.

T o Robert

Stephen

Hawker^

Cambridge M a y 11. 1874. M y Dear Sir, I should have thanked you sooner for your kindness in sending me your "Cornish Ballads," but wished first to ascertain whether there were any chance of getting them republished here. I have made two or three attempts, and I am very sorry to say without success. T h e exceedingly depressed state of the book-trade makes publishers unwilling to undertake anything new. T h e merits of your book are very marked; and I have read it with great interest and pleasure. M a n y of the legends are strange and striking; and you have treated them all very artistically and successfully. T h i s only makes me regret the more the impossibility of having them republished on this side of the water. Accept, I beg you, my best thanks for the volume, and my regrets at not being able to carry out your wishes. I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: University of Washington Library. I. Hawker ( 1 8 0 3 - 1 8 7 5 ) , English poet, antiquary, and vicar of Morwenstow, had written to Longfellow on April 9, requesting his "favorable reception" of Comish Ballads and Other Poems (Oxford, 1869), which he hoped would be published in the United States.

3456.

T o Moody

Merrill·

Cambridge M a y 11. 1874. M y Dear Sir, I fully appreciate the compliment of your invitation to write a poem for the Commemoration of June 9. and if I had any gift for that kind of writing, I should gladly accept it. Unfortunately I have not, and have never written for public occasions. I must therefore beg you to excuse me. I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow Moody Merrill Esqre. 746

CAMBRIDGE, MANUSCRIPT: Hon

Clifton Waller

Moody

1874

Barrett Collection,

Merrill. / Senate

University

C h a m b e r . / Boston,

of

Virginia,

POSTMARK:

ADDRESS:

BOSTON

MASS.

MAY II 5 AM

I. Merrill C 1 8 3 6 - 1 9 0 3 ) ,

Boston lawyer and

financier

and member of the Massa-

chusetts State Senate, was chairman of a committee in charge of memorial services for Sumner. In later years he was charged with embezzlement and disappeared into N e w M e x i c o , w h e r e he died.

3457.

To George Barrell Emerson

Camb. May 13. 1874. M y Dear Mr Emerson, Accept my sincere thanks for your kindness in sending me your Address, "What we owe to Louis Agassiz.''^ I have read it with great interest and pleasure. It is excellent. And I am particularly obliged to you for advocating the cause of the Dead Languages in a land, where they seem destined to be not only dead but buried and forgotten. With best acknowledgments Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library. I. What W e Owe to Louis Agassiz, as a Teacher. A n Address by George B. Emerson, before the Boston Society of N a t u r a l History, Jan. 7 , 1 8 7 4 (Boston, 1 8 7 4 ) .

3458.

To Thomas Wentworth

Higginson

Camb. May 17. 1874. Dear M r Higginson, I have no further connexion with the Iceland project, than as a general friend and contributor of books.^ I am glad that you are moved to send yours. If you will forward them to Professor Child, he will do all the rest. Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: C a m b r i d g e Public Library. I. See 3 4 3 2 . 1 .

747

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T o Samuel Gridley Howe

Camb. May 18, 1874. M y Dear Howe, T h e bronzes which our dear Sumner had left to be divided between you and me, are all here. I have had them taken from the boxes and arranged, so as to be easily examined. As soon as you return I want you to come out and see them, and take some measures for their division.^ Yours always Henry W . Longfellow. P.S. I hope that your flight southward has proved both beneficial and pleasant to you.^ Such a bird of the tropics as you are could not have found it otherwise than pleasant. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House). 1. "Sumner left $500 to each of us H o w e girls and his collection of bronzes to my father and Longfellow. T h e y were sent to Craigie House where I went with my mother at the appointed time to divide the precious legacy. She and Longo drew lots for the first choice, w h i c h fell to him. H e chose the most important of the bronzes and she chose one of the least valuable, a quaint httle ebony table with an embossed bronze plate. Longo then chose the second most important piece whereupon L realizing that I had more commercial sense than my mother, put in my oar and took Michael Angelo's Lorenzo de' Medici. I helped with the subsequent drawings. As I write I see the warm flame of my fire through the fine bronze screen shaped like a fan, one of the best of the Sumner bronzes." Maud H o w e Elliott in Uncle Sam Ward and His Circle, pp· 527-528. 2. H o w e had been in Santo Domingo since March.

3460.

To ]acob G. Ascher^

Cambridge May 20 1874. M y Dear Sir, I am much obliged to you for your poem, which I have read with great interest and pleasure; and I hope your success will induce you to put into verse other Legends of the Talmud. In Germany this has already been done, as perhaps you are aware, by Ab[raham] M. Tendlau in "Das Buch der Sagen und Legenden jüdischer Vorzeit."^ A similar collection in English would be very interesting. I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow.

748

CAMBRIDGE, MANUSCRIPT: New-York Historical Society, treal / C a n a d a

1874

ADDRESS: Jacob G . Ascher Esq / Mon-

POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE MASS, M A Y 2 1

1. Ascher, Scottish-born jeweler and occasional poet of Montreal, was prominent in the Y o u n g Men's Hebrew Benevolent Society of that city. In a letter of M a y 7 he had enclosed a printed poem entitled "Jacob's Pillow," which he wrote was "partly inspired by reading your 'Sandolphin.' " 2. Stuttgart, 1842.

3461.

To Stephen

Bleecker

Luce

Cambridge M a y 20 1874. M y D e a r Sir, Werden is a Danish word signifying "the W o r l d . " W h e t h e r Admiral W e r d e n derives his name from this, I do not know.^ Is he of Danish origin? T h e German word werden, as you know, signifies "to become"; and as a noun means 'birth." I shall be most happy to see you on your return and am meanwhile Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: University of Washington Library. I. Capt. Luce's query, in a letter from Washington, D . C . , of M a y 20, concerned Commodore Reed W e r d e n ( 1 8 1 8 - 1 8 8 6 ) , w h o was promoted to rear-admiral on February 4, 1875.

3462.

To George Washington

Greene

C a m b . M a y . 31. 1874. M y Dear Greene, I have been wanting to write to you for some time, but have not found the happy moment. Between G . N . and J. O . — the upper and nether mill-stones — I have been ground to powder.^ Moreover I have given the bright mornings to the collection of "Poems of Places," of w h i c h I once spoke to you; and a pleasant occupation it is; — travelling in one's easy-chair, and making one's own poetic guide-book.^ It is amazing what an amount of second and third-rate poetry there is in the world. It would be more amazing if it were all first-rate! I have not the slightest scrap of news to send you. Charley has not yet arrived. H e should be here soon. M o d e y writes, that he cannot undertake the Life of Sumner. H e is too ill. H e says; " T h a t I should have been thought of by you co-trustees to write his life, I regard as the highest honour that could be conferred on me . . . Had

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I been able, however inadequately, to do this work, it would have been a high gratification to me, as well as a consolation in the grief I feel at his loss."3 I enclose cheque* and am as ever, H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. with 2. 3. 4.

An allusion to the editing of Sumner's Works, generally supervised by Longfellow the proof-reading aid of George Nichols and John Owen. This anthology of thirty-one volumes occupied Longfellow for the next five years. Motley's letter is dated May 16, 1874, from the Hotel Bristol, Paris. For $50 ( M S Letter Calendar).

3463.

To Edward Lillie Pierce

Camb. June. 3. 1874. My Dear Sir, I called at your office on Saturday and again on Monday, but was not so fortunate as to find you. As Motley cannot undertake the writing of Sumner's biography, I am strongly in favor of putting it into the hands of G. W. Curtis. Please read his notice of Sumner in the June No of Harper's Magazine,^ and I think you will agree with me, that he is the man. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCBIPT:

Harvard College Library.

I. Harper's New Monthly Magazine, XLIX (June 1874), 128-130.

3464.

To Earl Marble

Camb. June 4 1874. My Dear Sir, I am much obliged to you for your note of yesterday. I well remember your friendly visit, and think the obligation is on my side, rather than on yours. I am also obliged to you for the sketch of the old house, which you took the trouble to write. I do not see how anyone can object to such papers, in which no conversation is reported; and if I remember rightly, in this particular you were very discreet.^ Excuse this brief and hasty note, and believe me Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow.

750

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. Marble is listed as one of Longfellow's correspondents on this date ( M S Letter Calendar), and in a letter of March 1 1 , 1 8 7 3 , he revealed that he had been asked to furnish a sketch of Longfellow for "a prospective new critical art, literary, and theatrical journal." T h e sketch, however, is unidentified.

3465.

To Karl Knortz Camb. June6 1874.

My Dear Sir, I have had the pleasure of receiving the copy of your translation of "Miles Standish,"! which you have been kind enough to send me, and hasten to thank you for it. I have not yet had time to examine it; and must therefore beg you to accept my acknowledgments in advance for the great trouble you have taken. I send you by post with this a copy of "Christus," as you desire. It has been already translated, and in part published, in Germany, by Karl Keck.^ Hoping that it may reach you in safety, I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: University of Washington Library. 1. Die Brautwerbung des Miles Standish, übersetzt von Karl Knortz (Leipzig, n.d.), No. 540 in the Tauchnitz Universal-Bibliothek. 2. For the part published, see 1769.5.

3466.

To Nahum Capen

Camb. June 10. 1874. My Dear Sir, I have looked over the sheets. Nos 4 and 5. which you were kind enough to send me, and find them very interesting and instructive.^ I am sorry that it is not in my power to write something, as you desire, which might go into your Circular. But this I cannot do for two reasons. In the first place, I am not sufficiently acquainted with the subjects you discuss, to feel myself entitled to express any opinion. And in the second place, as [I] have always declined doing this for others, though often asked and urged to do so, I could not do it in the present instance without putting myself in a false position. I return the parcel with this to Messrs Capen and Sprague, and am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow Nahum Capen Esqre. 751

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MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. I. In a letter of June 9 Capen had requested that Longfellow give his impression of his History of Democracy ( 3 4 2 1 . 3 ) for an advertising circular "which will have the names of Dr Sparks, Hawthorne, and some of the first names in the nation — living and deceased."

3467.

To Sidney Woollett

Cambridge June 10. 1874. Dear Mr Woollett, I am much gratified to hear, that the new poemi ^^ greatly pleases you, and that you think it so well adapted to public recitation. When it comes to the trial I hope you will not be disappointed in your expectations. I have received from Mr. Sherman the case of Milton cider, you were kind enough to send me, but have not yet opened it. I think I shall keep it for the sea-side; but will not on that account postpone my thanks to you for your kindness. It will be a great pleasure in drinking it to think whence it comes, and that it is as Mr. Sherman himself assures me, "pure juice of the apple. Thanking you also for what you say of that charming artist Miss Hallock,® I am, with all good wishes Yours very truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Yale University Library. 1. " T h e Hanging of the Crane." 2. In a letter of June 3, J. & T . H . Sherman of Milton, N . Y . , reported shipping the cider by steamer to N e w York and from there by express to Cambridge. 3. Identified in Woollett's letter of June 2 as Mary Anna Hallock ( 1 8 4 7 - 1 9 3 8 ) , illustrator of The Hanging of the Crane (Boston, 1 8 7 5 ) . As Mary Hallock Foote, she achieved a contemporary reputation as an author of western novels and tales in the Howellsian manner.

3468.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. June. 14. 1874. My Dear Greene, The reason why I have not written to you for so long a time, is in part the "Entire Stranger," whose name is legion; in part the Poems of Places; and in part Sumner's proof-sheets, and endless discussions about his biographer. And now your letter notifies me of my negligence. How sorry I am that you have had illness again in your house, and that Anna's visit must be postponed till we get back from Nahant. Perhaps it is for the best, as we are all on the jump here just now, and she would have no quiet, with Class Day, and Commencement and Memorial Hall Dedication.i It would be too much excitement for her, and not satisfactory. 752

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

You would have been pleased with Curtis's Eulogy on Sumner.^ It was very fine; and electrified his audience. You will read it; and not suffer by the heat and crowd in the Music Hall, as I did. Sumner's sister writes; "I wish I could thank Senator [Henry Bowen] Anthony for his beautiful words. They seem to me exquisitely beautiful, and fall most soothingly in heart and ear."® I rejoice with you about the General's statue.* No more to-night. H.W.L. MANuscBiPT:

1. 2. 3. 4.

Longfellow Trust Collection.

On June 19, 23, and 24. At the Boston Music Hall, June 9, before the Massachusetts legislature. Julia Sumner Hastings's letter is dated from San Francisco, April 1 3 , 1874. See 2460.1.

3469.

To Richard Henry Dana, ]r.

Camb. June. 17. 1874. My Dear Dana, Have you ever thought of writing a Biography of Sumnet, and would you entertain any proposition to do so? If you will, the Literary Trustees, Mr. Balch, Mr Pierce and myself, are ready to put into your hands all the papers we have. We much desire that you should undertake the task; but I do not like to urge it upon you, not knowing whether you have leisure and inclination for it. Will you consider the subject, and oblige Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Massachusetts Historical Society.

3470.

To William Greene

Camb. June 23. 1874. My Dear Sir, I should be delighted to accept your kind invitation, but I see that it will be impossible. This week is crowded with College matters, and next week we go to Nahant, and I am so busy, that I cannot find or make a day of leisure. Please accept my best thanks, and my regrets, and believe me alw-ays, with kind regards to Mrs. Greene, Yours faithfully Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT;

Helen Roelker Kessler, Cambridge, Mass.

75 3

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To Edith

THAT

STILL

BURN

Longfellow

Camb. June 30. 1874. My Darling Edith, What a good girl you are to write me three such charming letters; and what a bad man I am not to have written you one. But I will make amends without delay; and you shall have one at least before we go to Nahant. I was just now making the reflection, that there [are] people in the world whom we like very well when we are with them, but whom we do not miss when they are gone. Others have the art of making themselves missed. That is the case with you, my child. I have just been to see Una; and she says how much she misses you. She is better, and limps about a little without a crutch or a cane. She has her foot starched instead of plastered, which seems to answer the same purpose.^ She promises to come to Nahant as soon as she is able to get there. I have just got your third letter, and am very glad you enjoyed so much your trip to the White Mountains. And Sebago, is it not a beautiful lake? You must thank Aunt Anne from me, for giving you so much pleasure. Tell her also that her bronze^ is nicely packed and will go tomorrow by Express. Yesterday the thermometer here stood at one hundred! and Mr. Greene went home in all the heat, quite faded and drooping. Annie wrote to you on Saturday. Una promises to write soon. Here comes Mr. Owen, so I must stop. Good night, darling. Much love from all, and most of all from Your affettuosissimo Papa MANUSCRIPT:

Massachusetts Historical Society.

1 . Eunice Whitney Farley ( 1 8 4 9 - 1 9 4 1 ) was the elder sister of Mary and Delia Farley. T h e nature of her accident is not known. 2. Presumably one of the Sumner bronzes. See Letter No. 3459.

3472.

To Edith

Longfellow

Camb. July i. 1874. My Darling, Mr. Nichols has just gone with his proofs of friendship; Charlie^ and Alice are looking at Japanese photographs in the library; Annie and Bessie [Elizabeth Porter Longfellow] are out rowing on the romantic Charles by moonlight with James and somebody,^ and I am alone, and give the last hour of the day to thee. We are all packed and ready for a start tomorrow. W e are going in a novel fashion, not in the fashion of novels; that is, not together, but each one when he or she pleases, each having some business in Boston, real or imaginary; but all to meet at the boat, at two o'clock. 754

NAHANT,

1874

I see already the hot Nahant wharf, and the sunshine of a July afternoon steeping the land and sea; and Sam,® with his red beard, smiling by a post. But let us not anticipate. It will be pleasant and cool enough in the house. Thanks for your long, nice letter about the White Mountains. I did not say enough about it in my last, and now have no room nor time to say anything more. I enclose you fifteen dollars, as you desire. The bronze went this morning, and I hope you will receive it before this reaches you. Love to Aunt Anne, and Good Night, my beloved. Your affectionate Papa. MANUSCRIPT:

Massachusetts Historical Society.

1. Charles had arrived back in Cambridge on June 22. 2. T h e identity of the two swains is not known. 3. Apparently a Nahant resident.

3473.

To George Washington Greene

Nahant July 5. 1874. My Dear Greene, I am glad to hear that your homeward journey on that hot monday did not kill you outright. Before starting you seemed so overcome by the heat, that it was almost inhuman to let you go. But there was no knowing what the next day might be, and you were wise in persevering. To-day we have a North-East storm. I need not describe it. Suffice it to say, that I should be more comfortable if I were in Cambridge. I dare say it is good for a man to have his books taken out of his hands now and then, and his study-door walled up, as Don Quixotte's was.^ But I confess, I grope for it still, as he did. Just before leaving home, to keep up my spirits, I had two manuscripts put into my hands for perusal and criticism. One was a story, which I have already disposed of. The other was a translation of Evangeline into Swedish,^ which I propose to read, as soon as I have finished this letter. This morning I have been reading the Book of Job; and could not help thinking what a grand Oratorio or Cantata it would make. It suggests music; and I wonder that no composer has attempted it. Perhaps some one has. Charlie has already furnished the house with another dog, by the name of Beer, of the race of Trap. Ernest's dog Boz came yesterday; and the two terriers smelt of each other, and then turned away, as if "the subsequent proceedings interested them no more."® The ways of dogs are amusing. H.W.L 755

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MANUSCBIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. See Part L Chap. vii. 2. Possibly the translation by Philip Svenson (Chicago, 1 8 7 5 ) . See also Letter N o .

3147· 3. Cf. Bret Harte, "The Society upon the Stanislaus," 1. 28.

3474.

To Samuel Ward Nahant

July 12. 1874.

My Dear Field-Marshall, I salute you. This photograph is admirable. You look as if you were ordering the battalions to advance, and quoting Horace on the field of batde. I like it extremely and thank you a thousand times. I have rarely seen a better photograph of anyone, and envy your success.^ This is a dreary day at Nahant. The air is full of fog, and thunder and rain. I have been reading Mitford's "Tales of Old Japan," a curious book,^ which I advise you to read. It will greatly interest you. We have not yet found a biographer for Sumner. The persons we have thought of are all too ill or too much occupied to undertake it. The report you may have seen in the papers, that I had agreed to do it, is without foundation. It is too much out of my line. His public career, — the most important part of his life, — I should be incompetent to manage. Are you in Washington or in New York? You are so well known, that this would reach you if I should throw it out of the window, marked U.S. Hoping there may be some chance of seeing you here this Summer, I am as always Yours H.W.L. P.S. You may be on board the Steamer, that is just piping through the fog. MANUSCRIPT: Library of Congress. 1. A reference, presumably, to the photograph taken in 1874 by Napoleon Sarony ( 2 9 8 8 . 1 ) of N e w York, reproduced in Uncle Sam Ward and His Circle, p. 509. 2. Algernon Bertram Mitford, Tales of Old Japan (London, 1 8 7 1 ) . In 1886 Mitford ( 1 8 3 7 - 1 9 1 6 ) assumed the name Freeman-Mitford w h e n he became ist Baron Redesdale, second creation.

3475.

To James Thomas Fields

Nahant July. 19. 1874. My Dear Fields, It is too hot to go to church. In vain the bell hammers at my heart, and pursues and threatens to cover me up, as it does the boy in Göthe's ballad ["Die Wandelnde Glocke"], the naughty [boy] that wandered in the fields. 756

NAHANT,

1874

It is also too hot to write letters. But I must in some fashion contrive to answer yours, and thank you for the beautiful poem. I like it very much. "When thunder speaks from the unapproachable hills" is a splendid line, and one of the best specimens of imitative harmony that I remember.^ I think of you as lord of yourself and many square feet of land, which imagination magnifies into acres or square miles; for you own the view of all the surrounding landscape, and landscape is as good as land, and considerably cheaper. You seem to me like Schiller's landed proprietor in the Song of the Bell, gazing with all-embracing glance over rising barn and building. But is it not rather warm for this kind of rhetoric? I have quoted two German poets, and one American. That is enough. I palpitate, I swoon; and nevertheless, am Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Henry E. Huntington Library. I. Annie Adams Fields, "A Memory of Interlachen," 1. 8. T h e poem was collected in her volume T h e Singing Shepherd, and Other Poems (Boston and N e w York, 1 8 9 5 ) , p. 47.

3476.

To Hannah E. Haskins^

Nahant July 21 1874 Dear Miss Haskins, I find the task more difficult than I thought; probably because I am here among comparative strangers. I therefore make a new proposition: namely to postpone the Reading till we return to Cambridge, and give it in my Library. Write me a line to say that you like this better, or at all events as well. Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow H o u s e ) , ADDRESS: Miss H . E. Haskins / 31 Seventh St. / N e w Bedford / Mass. I. Miss Haskins (c. 1 8 4 0 - 1 8 8 0 ) , an elocutionist, had apparently persuaded Longfellow to arrange a reading for her. In 1 8 7 9 - 1 8 8 0 , w h e n she lay incurably ill in Boston, he contributed $ 2 1 7 . 1 4 to her expenses over eleven months ( M S Book of Donations, 1 8 7 4 - 1 8 8 2 ) .

757

EMBERS 3477.

To George Washington

THAT

STILL

BURN

Greene

Nahant July 23 1874. M y Dear Greene, I know Laugel well enough, but do not know where he is. If I had his address I would write to him at once. Possibly I may have it in Cambridge, and will try to find it when I go up.^ In a late N o of the Revue des Deux Mondes, Laugel has a very good article on Sumner.^ Have you seen it? You will hardly be satisfied with it perhaps, when you come to the quarrel with the President, where he tries to hold the historic scales very evenly, but does not give weight enough to the provocation. I am glad you are getting steadily on with your history.® I want that Stone of Sysiphus rolled fairly over the hill, and thundering down the other side. I have been amusing myself with reading the Spectator. How musical and sweet Addison is. Steele is a little more sinewy in style, but far less charming. Good reading this for a Summer's day by the sea-side or a Winter's day by the fireside. I do not find the blaze and glare of sunshine here very good for the eyes. This I make an excuse for being very idle. Always Yours H.W.L P.S. Professor Brunetta of Verona wishes to write an interlinear translation of Evangeline to be used as a school-book.^ MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Greene's letter, to which this is a response, is unrecovered. In it, he might have suggested that Auguste Laugel possessed letters from Sumner. 2. XLIV, Troisième Période (June 15, 1874), 721-749. 3. See 3451.2. 4. See 2848.1. Brunetta had written to Longfellow about his translation on June 15, 1874·

3478.

To ]ohn Samuel Hill Fogg^

Nahant July 27. 1874. M y Dear Sir, It would give me great pleasure to comply with your request for an autograph of Hawthorne, if I had any at my disposal. Unfortunately I have not. I do not remember to have received more than one letter from him in my life, and that I wish to keep.^ Perhaps on my return to Cambridge, I may find some sc[r]ap of his writing, and will endeavor to remember your desire. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow 758

N A H A N T , MANUSCRIPT:

University

of

1874

Maine Library.

1. Fogg ( 1 8 2 6 - 1 8 9 3 ) , a Bowdoin graduate of 1846 and a Boston physician, had asked in an unrecovered letter for a Hawthorne autograph. 2. There are twenty-six letters from Hawthorne to Longfellow, 1837-1864, in the Longfellow Trust Collection.

3479.

T o Charles Colcock Jones,

]r. Nahant

July 28. 1 8 7 4 .

M y Dear Sir, I have had the pleasure of receiving your letter, and the handsome volume, " T h e Siege of Savannah,"^ which you have been kind enough to send me, and which I have read with great interest. T h e documents must prove, I should think, a valuable contribution to American History, or perhaps I should say, to the materials for American History. I have been struck by observing how the two accounts confirm each other, though written one on land and one at sea. Your note on Pulaski and the manner of his death is very interesting. I am, my Dear Sir, with many thanks. Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Duke University Library.

I. The Siege of Savannah, in 1779, as Described in Two Contemporaneous of French Officers in the Fleet of Count d'Estaing (Albany, N.Y., 1874).

3480.

T o Thomas Gold

Journals

Appleton Nahant

July 29. 1 8 7 4 .

M y Dear T o m , M a n y thanks for all your letters. T h e y are very welcome, warming and comfortable here on the windy piazzas, where life goes on as usual; perhaps a little slower than usual. Charley has just returned from a cruise to Castine and M o u n t Desert, with Arthur and M a r y Clark; Arthur so delighted with Castine, that he wants to buy a house there. H e thinks the sailing qualities of the Alice greatly improved by lengthening her, and would like to cross the ocean in her again. T h e amount of my dissipation thus far has been to dine with

Grant

(Patrick not President) to meet Admiral Steadman;i with S. Eliot, to meet Mrs M a r y [Eliot D w i g h t ] Parkman, and with [ H e n r y ] James [Sr.] to meet M r s Stackpole.2 A t present w e have no guest but Miss U n a Farley. To-day Clara Payson^ and Edith Prescott dine with us. Such is the brief and uneventful chronicle of our lives. I pass the time 759

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mostly in reading the Spectator, and such standard books, and in correcting the proof-sheets of Sumner's tenth volume. Who is to be his biographer is not yet settled. We are all so sorry it is not to be Motley. Remember me to him cordially and affectionately. Also to all the household in Elvaston Place.^ I believe I sent to Mary's care a letter for Mrs. Cobden.® I get no answer. Did she speed it on its way? Are you still in England, or are you in Iceland? Wherever you are. Always aff. Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Charles Steedman ( 1 8 1 1 - 1 8 9 0 ) had retired as a rear-admiral in 1873 after fortyfive years in the U . S . Navy. He had been in charge of the Boston navy yard, 1 8 6 9 1872. For Patrick Grant, see 2974.2. 2. Presumably Susan Margaret Stackpole ( 1 8 1 5 - 1 8 9 6 ) , widow of Joseph Lewis Stackpole ( 3 6 7 . 6 ) and sister of Park Benjamin (468.8). 3. Clara Payson (d. 1 9 1 4 , aged sixty-nine), a close friend of Edith Prescott, taught school for many years in Chelsea. 4· That is, to the family of Mary Appleton Mackintosh. 5. Catherine Anne Williams Cobden (d. 1 8 7 7 ) was the widow of the English statesman Richard Cobden ( 1 8 0 4 - 1 8 6 5 ) , the "Apostle of Free Trade" and a supporter of the North during the Civil War. Longfellow had written to her on April 5, 1874 ( M S Letter Calendar), presumably to inquire about Sumner's letters to her husband, but his letter is unrecovered.

3481.

To George Washington

Greene

Nahant July. 31. 1874. Dear Giorgio, I sent you the other day a poor specimen of American wit, in the attempt to travesty Evangeline.^ Another writer is doing me the same kind of favor in Lippincott's Magazine by travestying Hyperion.^ I suppose it best to take no notice of either. They will soonest die out of themselves. Yesterday I was in Camb. It was very pleasant, but the sensation is a very odd one, in visiting one's house as a stranger, or a ghost come back to earth. I was at work there all day upon Sumner's proof-sheets with Owen and Nichols. It is slow work, but necessary. I found on my table there two large and handsome octavos of "Canti e Prose" by Regaldi, an Improvisatore,® of whom I never heard before. I have as yet read only the Preface by another hand, written in the most florid style. On my way to the Steamer to return to Nahant, my eye was caught by a nice edition of Sparks's Am. Biography, at a shop window. Need I say that I yielded to the temptation? Let me know if the enclosed^ reaches you safely. Always H.W.L 760

NAHANT,

1874

MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Presumably a reference to a musical extravaganza entitled "Evangeline, or the Belle of Acadia," first performed at Niblo's Garden, N e w York, on July 2 7 and reviewed unsympathetically in the Boston Advertiser, C X X I V , No. 25 (July 29, 1 8 7 4 ) . 2. T h e writer was Earl Shinn ( 1 8 3 7 - 1 8 8 6 ) , writing under the pseudonym of Edward Strahan. His New Hyperion. From Paris to Marly by Way of the Rhine (Philadelphia, 1 8 7 5 ) first appeared in Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science in nineteen installments, X I I I - X V (June 1873-January 1 8 7 5 ) . 3. Giuseppe Regaldi, Canti e Prose (Torino, 1 8 6 1 - 1 8 6 2 ) . 4. A check for $ 5 0 ( M S Letter Calendar).

3482.

To Anne Allegra

Longfellow

Nahant July 31. 1874 Have just reed, your card, and am glad to hear of your safe arrival. We thought of you steaming away under that bright moon. Miss Davy is here. All well. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Alice Allegra Thorp Estate (on deposit, Longfellow House), Miss A . A , Longfellow / Castine / Me. POSTMARK; NAHANT AUG I

3483.

ADDRESS:

To ]ohn Owen

Nahant Aug. I. 1874. Dear Owen, If anybody asks you for my address, say it is No i. Milky Way. Add to this, that I have married a milk-maid and keep a dairy; and that my sign is, not the Spanish cry of "Bread and Bulls," but "Bread and Cows." This, I think, will fairly represent my present condition. I had a pleasant visit to Cambridge, and experienced the novel sensation of being a stranger in my own house. I thought the man who had such a house to live in ought to be happy. I came down in the last steamer, between seven and eight, and passed close by a burning ship, stranded on Apple Island; a splendid sight; the hull all ablaze within and fire running out of her scuppers. Above, a huge brown serpent of smoke writhed in the air. I forgot to give you the enclosed^ for your last trip to Nahant, and the next, whenever it may be. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT; University of Washington Library. I. Presumably a money draft.

761

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To Elhridge Henry Goss^

Nahant Aug. 3. 1874. Dear Sir, I have had the pleasure of receiving your monograph on the "Early Bells of Massachusetts"^ and have read it with much interest and satisfaction. The subject of Bells is always attractive, and I wish somebody would bring together all the best things that have been written upon them, both in prose and verse. Why will you not do it? Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Frank O. Buda, Cambridge, Mass. I. Goss ( 1 8 3 0 - 1 9 0 8 ) was a local historian of Melrose, Mass. z. Boston, 1 8 7 4 .

3484.

To Edward LilUe Pierce

Nahant. Aug. 3. 1874. Dear Mr Pierce, I have had a letter from Mr. Bright, in which he says he will himself make such extracts from Sumner's Letters, as he should be willing to have appear in any life of him. I have answered, that this will be perfectly satisfactory, so far as I am concerned; and it seems to me the best way, as the letters are more than fifty in number.^ No answer yet from Mrs. Cobden. I fear my letter never reached her. What will we do now that Dana declines to undertake the Biography? Shall we try Whittier?^ I am sorry to have missed you so many times, I do not know whether I shall get up to town this week or not. Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow. P.S. Many thanks for your articles on the "Battle Flags."® They are very interesting and for the first time bring the whole matter fully before the public. I am in favor of returning Mr. Bright's Letters to him, in exchange for Sumner's. He made no such suggestion to me. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. 1. Longfellow's letter to John Bright of July 29, 1 8 7 4 ( M S Letter Calendar), is unrecovered. 2. Pierce responded on August 4: "Please write to M r Whittier and urge him to be the biographer. If I had thought it possible to secure him, I should have preferred him

762

NAHANT,

1874

before all others." Longfellow's letter to Whittier, dated August 7 ( M S Letter Calendar), is unrecovered. 3. See 325Γ.2. Pierce had defended Sumner's action in a series of articles in the Boston Commonwealth, XII, Nos. 47, 48, 49 (July 25, August i, August 8, 1874).

3485.

To Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain^

Nahant. Aug. 4. 1874. My Dear Sir, Pardon me for my long delay in answering your kind note. I offer as my apology the Summer weather, the indolence of the seaside, the interruption of guests, and the running to and fro incident to the season. The tidings you send me are very pleasant. Whatever appertains to Bowdoin College interests me, and touches a fibre, that has not been rendered insensible by time. To me the name means youth and aspiration, and I fully appreciate the honor conferred by the Degree.^ Your friend, Miss Mary Clark, was here a few days ago, and went in a yacht to Castine and Mt. Desert. She spoke warmly of you, as she always does. With great regard, I am, my Dear Sir, Yours very truly Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Chamberlain ( 1 8 2 8 - 1 9 1 4 ) , Medal of Honor winner at Gettysburg and governor of Maine, 1866-1870, served as president of Bowdoin College, 1 8 7 1 - 1 8 8 3 . 2. Longfellow received an honorary LL.D. degree from Bowdoin in 1874.

3486.

To Charles Deane

Nahant. Aug. 5. 1874. My Dear Mr Deane, I am very glad to see this letter of Winthrop. He is in his element; which is only another way of saying he is enjoying himself. How wisely nature has arranged it that we shall do this in different ways. Some of us pick up jewels and wish they were grains of corn. Others pick up grains of corn and turn them into jewels.^ At last Nahant has got warmed up to the comfortable pitch; but it has taken a long while to do it. Hitherto this summer it has seemed to me rather an ingenious contrivance for getting rid of the pleasantest season of the year. I suppose you are away somewhere, and by this time have made up your mind that Cambridge is about as pleasant a place to be in as any.

763

E M B E R S

T H A T

STILL

B U R N

A t all events, I k n o w one individual, w h o looking into his house there, one d a y last w e e k , b e g a n to w o n d e r , w h e t h e r u p o n the w h o l e , — &c. &c. &c. W i t h thanks f o r W i n t h r o p ' s letter, w h i c h I h e r e w i t h return. Y o u r s truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. I. Winthrop's letters to Deane from Europe are printed in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, ist Series, XIII (September 1874), 329-332. The one in question is presumably the one dated July 1 1 , 1874 (pp. 3 2 9 - 3 3 0 ) .

3487.

T o James

Ripley

Osgood N a h a n t , A u g . 6, 1 8 7 4 .

D e a r M r . Osgood : I h a v e just received your notes, and hasten to a c k n o w l e d g e y o u r c h e q u e f o r $676.04.1 I see no possible objection to a n n o u n c i n g the n e w poem, w i t h o u t n a m i n g its title.^ I do not think that M r . B o n n e r could take u m b r a g e at that. Still, as he m a y be sensitive a n d tenacious on this point, I w i s h you w o u l d send h i m a proof sheet of y o u r a n n o u n c e m e n t , and ask h i m w h e t h e r he objects. T h a t w o u l d be courteous. If he should object, it w o u l d be better to say n o t h i n g about the matter.^ T h i s is the light in w h i c h I see the matter at first t h o u g h t of it. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from handwritten copy, Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. 1. Osgood wrote on July 30: "I enclose a statement of your account made up to July 1st, showing the sum of $676.04 to your credit." 2. In a letter of August 5, Osgood wrote that he wanted to announce "The Hanging of the Crane" in his autumn list as " A New Poem by Henry W . Longfellow. With Illustrations by Mary A. Hallock and Thomas Moran." Moran ( 1 8 3 7 - 1 9 2 6 ) , Englishborn landscape artist, won an award at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876 for "The Mountain of the Holy Cross," The painting, or a replica of it, presumably inspired Longfellow's sonnet "The Cross of Snow" ( 1 8 7 9 ) . 3. Osgood wrote to Bonner on August 7, telegraphed on August 14, and wrote again on August 25, finally eliciting this answer, dated August 27: "I am glad to see that you have a better sense of the legal right, and as I think of the proprieties of the case, than that shown by Mr. Longfellow in his note to you. He had agreed that there should be no announcement up to a certain time. After that I was surprised to see in his note which you enclosed to me the coolly expressed opinion that I could not take umbrage at an announcement of the poem without naming the title. / However, I consent to your announcing the poem without or with the title, just as you please. / I return Mr. Longfellow's sharp letter. I should have thought better of him if he had never written it" ( M S , Harvard College Library).

764

NAHANT, 3488.

1874

To William Dean Howells

Nahant Aug. 10. 1874. Dear Mr. Howells, I know of no Autobiography of Sumner; but among his papers I understand there is a Diary, though I have not seen it.^ Mr. Edward L. Pierce, 15 Old State House, Boston, has had the supervision and arrangement of these papers. He could tell you, whether this Diary, or any part of it, is in a condition to be printed now. Then the question would arise as to publishing at once, or keeping for the Biography; which question I am incompetent to settle alone, and should want to think about, before answering. You know that I desire to do everything I can for the Magazine; but the Biographer might prefer to have such valuable material kept fresh for his work, which will not be an easy one. The young people, who are all well and in full enio[y]ment of the Summer and the sea, send friendly greetings, and I am Always Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

I. In a letter of August 8 Howells had asked if the Sumner autobiography, supposedly in Longfellow's possession, could be made available for the Atlantic Monthly.

3489.

To Anne Allegra

Longfellow Nahant. Aug. 10. [1874]

My Darling Pansie, You are no doubt amazed that I have not written to you. If you are not, I am. But the days go by like waves. They are no sooner here, than they are gone; and you know the many interruptions of Nahant life. This morning, by the early boat, departed Miss Davie and Mr. [Charles Edwin] Stratton, who has been here to make Miss Davie's Will. By the return boat we are expecting Mardi[e]i and May [Mary Catherine Dixwell], Arria [Dixwell] is here and Rose [Fay], and Uncle Sam. So, you see, we are not alone. Mr. Roelker has been and gone. So has Una Farley. So has brother Charley, who is now at Newport. Uncle Tom writes still from London. Has had an invitation to go to Iceland, and is sorry he declined it. He praised and regrets Nahant. When a person can do just what he pleases, he often knows not what to do. It is better sometimes to be shoved along the groove, without the trouble of choosing. Charley and Arthur and Mary Clark came back perfectly fascinated with Castine. Arthur wants immediately to buy a house there. I suspect that half the 765

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charm of the landscape was borrowed from the company he was in. W h e n that is gone, what then? I dare say you are all as merry as larks, but not such early risers. I know several people, who think the night the better half of the day, particularly in Summer. From each to all, much love. Tell Sarah [Weiss] and W a d not to be as funny as they can. Your most affectionate lover and admirer H.W.L. P.S. Arrivals by Steamer Meta [from Boston]. A u g lo. Eliza May.^ N o other May, nor Mardi [e]. MANUSCRIPT:

Alice Allegra Thorp Estate (on deposit, Longfellow House).

1. Margaret Curry Wyman (1854-1936), known as Mardie, was a Cambridge neighbor and daughter of the late Rufus Wyman ( 1 8 1 1 - 1 8 7 0 ) , Boston merchant. 2. Possibly the Eliza of Letter No. 2712.

3490.

To Samuel Ward

Nahant A u g 13 1874. M y Dear Semilasso, How sweet and beautiful that side of you is, which is turned towards the sun! At the Feast of the Poets hereafter Apollo will give you a seat on the dais, far above some noisy people, who will have to sit below the salt. Your charming Nocturne I have sent at once to Howells; but as he may be wandering about in vacation, it may be some days before I hear from him. If he does not estimate the poem at its just value it will be from not knowing all the significance of scene and circumstance. Fully to understand it, one should see, as you and I do, the ghosts photographed behind.^ I still hope to have a glimpse of you this Summer; some Sunday avatar by steamer; your banner with the strange device; "II n'y a ríen de certain que l'imprévu [There is nothing certain but the unexpected]" waving in the wind. Miss Hallock of Milton-upon-Hudson, has made some beautiful illustrations for "The Hanging of the Crane." You will be pleased with them, unless they are spoiled in the printing. Always affect[ionatel]y H.W.L. P.S. T h e last two Sundays of this month — the 23rd and 30th. I shall be away from Nahant. Come before or after.

766

NAHANT, MANUSCRIPT:

1874

N e w York Public Library (Miscellaneous Papers).

I. In a letter of August i о Ward had described a nostalgic visit to the villa on Staten Island where, thirty-one years before, he had been married to Medora Grymes (see 7 6 9 . 1 ) . While there he had heard the young daughter of his host play a nocturne on the piano. " I returned to town jn the lo. oclock boat and on the water ma pensée s'est ainsi formulée [my thought formed itself in this way]. I hardly know what to think of it." For his "Nocturne" see the Atlantic Monthly, X X X I V (November 1874), 590-591·

3491.

To William Dean Howells

Nahant Aug. 16 1874 My Dear Mr Howells, I return the "Nocturne" with the last stanza lopped off, as you suggested.^ I think the poem improved by this painless operation; and feel quite sure that the author will not object to it. If you can find room for it in your next No. so much the better. I have just been reading the September instalment of your "Foregone Conclusion" and like it best of all.^ The characters develope themselves beautifully, and in fine contrast. The bits of scenery are charming. I think I can guess which lover the heroine marries, but am silent, fearing to make a mistake. I mean to bring you something for the Magazine when we return to Camb.3 Yours very truly Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

1. Howells had written on August 14 : "I'm very sorry indeed to return this poem — no! I don't reject it, but I think that in the last stanza it loses the wild, delicate grace of the preceding strains and becomes commonplace — alhumish. If Mr. Ward will have that off — it has as unpleasant a tang as a moral — I'll he glad to print the poem." 2. See the Atlantic Monthly, X X X I V (September 1 8 7 4 ) , 345-360. 3. A reference, possibly, to "Cadenabbia," which he had written on August 8 (Works, III, 8 5 - 8 6 ) . T h e poem appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, X X X I V (December 1 8 7 4 ) , 662-663.

3492.

To Edward Lillie Pierce

Nahant. Aug. 16. 1874. Dear Mr. Pierce, I enclose a note for Laugel, which should have been sent you sooner. Pardon the delay. Whittier declines absolutely; says he is incapable of any continued mental effort.^ Who next? I wish you would solve the difficulty by undertaking the 767

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work yourself. If you will not, shall James Freeman Clarke be applied to? and will you confer with him on the subject? M r . Howells wishes to get Sumner's Diary, or parts of it, for the Atlantic. I have not yet made u p my mind, whether it would be well to grant his request or not. Y o u w h o have seen the Diary can better judge than I can, w h o have not seen it. I am inclined to think that the publication now would be premature. M r . Howells will write to you. Before taking any further steps towards finding a biographer, I wish you would well consider whether you have not time to take upon yourself the friendly office. Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow. P.S. T h a n k s for the three papers on the Battle Flags. T h e subject has never before been handled so fully and fairly. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. I. In declining, Whittier wrote to Longfellow: "I wish, my dear friend, that thee would undertake the work thyself. N o man living could do it better: no one knows Sumner so thoroughly. It would rejoice all of Sumner's friends to hear that his life was to be written by one who, in addition to the highest literary qualifications, has the exceptional advantage of intimate personal relations, as his dearest friend. / I wish thee would think seriously of it" (letter dated August 8, 1 8 7 4 ) .

3493.

To Apphia Horner

Howard

N a h a n t A u g . 19. 1874. Dear Mrs. Howard, I am sorry to say that I have not seen your article on the Sumner family. D r Loring^ has not been here; at all events has not left the paper. I am very curious to see it, and am very glad you have written it. Mr. Chs. D e a n e of Camb. has written to me about it, wishing to know the writer; and adding; "I was particularly attracted by the notice of George Sumner, of w h o m hitherto litde seems to have found its way into print." M r Waterston is to prepare a Memoir of George S. for the Historic Society, but finds it difficult to procure materials.^ T h e old Longfellow house in Byfield was built two hundred years ago for W m . L. the first of the name w h o came to this country. H e married Anne, daughter of Judge Sewall, and was drowned on the shores of Anticosti, in the G u l f of St. Lawrence, having joined some expedi[ti]on against Canada. H e came from Yorkshire, not from Hampshire, as Coffin states.·' T h i s reminds me of the blunder of a German writer, w h o says that "Longfellow is a nom-deplume, the real name being Coffin." T h e house is a two-story house, now a one-story; in proof of which I can show you a painting by Chs. Lanman.^ 768

NAHANT,

1874

Greene writes me that he is far from well. He seldom writes at all with his own hand, and is very much depressed. If I were in Camb. I could give you more particulars, with dates. But perhaps this is enough. Yours truly H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Haverhill Public Library, ADDRESS: Mrs A . W . H. Howard / Georgetown, / Mass. POSTMARKS: NAHANT MASS AUG [date illegible] / [one postmark indecipherable] 1. Presumably George Bailey Loring ( 1 8 1 7 - 1 8 9 1 ) , physician, agriculturist, president of the Massachusetts senate, 1 8 7 3 - 1 8 7 7 , and subsequently Republican congressman, 1 8 7 6 - 1 8 8 1 , U . S . commissioner of agriculture, 1 8 8 1 - 1 8 8 5 , and minister to Portugal, 1 8 8 9 - 1 8 9 0 . Mrs. Howard's article is unidentified. 2. See Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, X V I I I ( i 8 8 0 - 1 8 8 1 ) , 189-223. 3. See 927.9 and Letter No. 1609. 4. See 3 3 5 6 . 1 .

3494.

To Samuel Ward

Nahant Aug. 19. 1874. My Dear S.W. I am delighted to think we may see you at Nahant. No one could be more welcome. But be careful not to come when I am away; that is to say next week. On Saturday I start with two of my daughters for Shelter Island in the Sound, not to return till Monday, the last day of the month. From the ist Sept. till the 15th. I shall be here. Then the Summer will be over, and we go back to Camb. Howells will publish the "Nocturne"; but like a clergyman, "omitting the last stanza." After due consideration, I assented, the poem being really complete without it. If you dissent, there is still time to save your property. I hope, however, that you will not recall it; and shall forward to-day the fresh copy for the printer. Postpone your Nahant visit till the beginning of September. I am afraid of missing you. How true is all you say of "the jar of the Transit Instruments."^ I feel it almost as much as you. It is incredible how much pains the world takes to prevent us from doing what we most want to do! Yours always H.W.L.

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MANUSCRIPT: University of Washington Library. I. Ward had fired a barrage of mixed metaphors in a letter of August 1 7 : ". . . my contemplations are jarred, as are the Transit Instruments of the Observatory, by the thunderous roll of practical life over the pavements that surround me, and I have to suppress the impulses in which I chiefly delight because I think a miscarriage worse than half a dozen parturitions and I know by experience that some thunder clap of a Cable or Tele-gram will sour my milk before it sets to cream and prevent the crystallization of fancy upon the window panes of thought."

3495.

T o Sidney

Woollen Nahant, A u g . 20, 1 8 7 4 .

In letting Mr. [B. W . ] Williams have the poem of ' T h e Hanging of the Crane' on condition that he should engage you to read it, I, of course, understood that this was to be the first reading and first announcement of it. Somehow or other it has been reported that you are to read it for another course. T h i s will be an injury to M r . Williams and go far to vitiate his agreement with me, if true.^ MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from Item 54 in unidentified sales catalogue, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House). I. The two rival lecture bureaus in Boston both announced on August 24 that Sidney Woollett would appear on their platforms: on October i he would recite "The Hanging of the Crane" for Williams's Old Bay State Lectures; and on October 6 he would read " A New Poem" by Longfellow for Redpath's Boston Lyceum. See the Boston Advertiser, C X X I V , No. 47 (August 24, 1874). The matter seems to have been settled amicably. Woollett opened the program of October i with the poem, followed by the Rev. W . H. H. Murray on "Poverty"; and he repeated his performance on October 6, after the audience had heard James T . Fields lecture on "Longfellow."

3496.

T o ]ames Thomas

Fields Nahant. A u g 2 3

1874.

M y Dear Fields, I received your note^ last night, and send you a swift reply, as tomorrow I am going with Edith and A n n i e to Shelter Island in the Sound, opposite N e w London, for a f e w days. Your wife's poem is beautiful. If my visit inspired such a song, it was in no sense a failure, though I did not find you. Thunderbolt Hill I saw and admired. From your windows — when you have any — you will look down into a gulf of verdure, reminding you of Shanklin Chine or some of the ravines on the Cornice Road. It is a lovely spot, and you are fortunate in possessing it. I congratulate you.^

770

NAHANT,

1874

The poem on Cadenabbia, Lake of Como, I have not time to copy for you. You shall see it when we meet.® Woollett's reading for Redpath is making a world of trouble, as I feared it would. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Henry E . Huntington Library. 1. Unrecovered. 2. Fields was building a country home, "Gambrel Cottage," at Manchester, Mass. 3. See 3 4 9 1 . 3 .

3497.

To George Washington Greene

Nahant. Sept i. 1874. My Dear Giorgio, Last night I got back from my week's ramble, and found your two letters; and like the spear of Achilles one end wounded and the other healed the wound. I am sorry you have been so ill — I am glad you are well again.^ I have been with Edith and Annie to Shelter Island, to visit the Horsfords. I went as escort, in the vague hope, that leaving them there, I might run over and see you. But this was impossible as my heels were tripped up by the same trouble, that laid you low. Yesterday afternoon we passed through Greenwich, and the trees on the hill-side glistened in the sun, and I wanted to stop, but could not, as we were obliged to be here by special engagement at a wedding.^ In the last No. of the Lit. World, you will find a notice of Bancroft's new Vol. For fear you may not see it I send you the enclosed extract, which will be to you a healing draught.® Always Yours H.W.L. P.S. I return Houghton's cheque duly endorsed. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Only one of Greene's letters, dated August 23, survives. In it he reports lugubriously that he is confined to his room with diarrhea and angina but that his "head is better." 2. Edith Prescott ( 3 1 8 9 . 1 ) married Roger Wolcott ( 1 8 4 7 - 1 9 0 0 ) , a Harvard graduate of 1 8 7 0 and subsequently governor of Massachusetts, 1 8 9 6 - 1 8 9 8 , on September 2 in King's Chapel, Boston. 3. See the Literary World, V (September i, 1 8 7 4 ) , 5 7 - 5 8 . In describing Vol. X of George Bancroft's History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent (Boston, 1 8 7 4 ) , the reviewer had written: "Gen. Greene is warmly praised . . . Critical readers will probably compare the encomiums on this officer with the frequent disparaging allusions to him in Vol. I X . "

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To Edward LilUe Pierce

Nahant Sept 5. 1874. Geo. W. Greene East Greenwich. R.L Dear Mr. Pierce. The above is Greene's address. I doubt if he has many letters from Sumner. H.W.L. P.S. I will ask Miss [Mary Sullivan] Felton about Sumner's letters to her father. MANUSCRIPT:

3498a.

Harvard College Library.

To Luigi Monti

Nahant Sept. 7. 1874. Dear Mr. Monti, I wrote to you last week begging you to come down to Nahant for a few days, and not hearing from you in reply, I fear my note may not have reached you. This week we are so crowded that I can not offer you a room; and I begin to fear that I shall not see you till we return to Cambridge on the 15th, unless some day you will run down and dine with us, which you can easily do by taking either the 9.45 steamer, or that at 2.20. I am sorry that things happen so awkwardly; but it cannot be helped. I dare say you have gone up into the country with Dr. Parsons, and are at Wayland or Sudbury. Yours always Henry W. Longfellow P.S. Come any day but Wednesday, when I am engaged. MANUSCRIPT:

3499.

University of Washington Library.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Sept 17. 1874. My Dear Giorgio, "What cheer?" Here I am once more in the Craigie; comparatively speaking, a happy man. But so many things lie in wait for me, that I have hardly time to write you these lines. In fact I had written only two of them last evening, when Nichols and 772

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

O w e n appeared with the Sumner proof-sheets, and we worked away at them till half-past ten. I am anxious to know how you are. W r i t e soon, if only a word or two; — your usual allowance. If in your reading you find any Poems of Places, do not fail to make a note of them for me. T h e printers are just beginning the " H a n g i n g of the Crane." Some of the illustrations are charming. It will be a pretty picture-book. O n the first of October the poem will be read by Mr. Woollett in the Bay State Course of Lectures, and published on the fifteenth by Osgood & Co.' T h i s is all the news I have to tell you; except that Sumner's tenth \'о1ите is out. It closes with the speech on "Art in the National Capitol."^ T h e last sentence is that pungent protest of [Hiram] Powers, on giving great national works to mere beginners.® Always Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. T h e poem was not actually published until November 18. See BAL· 1 2 1 6 6 . 2. 5н«гиег Worfes, X, 540-556. 3. " I suppose that you, as well as all other well-wishers for art in our country, have been mortified, if not really disgusted, at the success of the Vinnie Ream statue of our glorious old Lincoln. An additional five thousand dollars paid for this caricature! was bad enough; but this last act of Congress, in favor of a female lobby member, who has no more talent for art than the carver of weeping-willows on tombstones, really fills the mind of the genuine student of art (who thinks that years of profound study of art as a science are necessary) with despair." See pp. 5 5 5 - 5 5 6 . On July 27, 1866, Sumner had opposed a joint resolution of Congress authorizing a fee of $10,000 to Miss Vinnie Ream ( 1 8 4 7 - 1 9 1 4 ) , sculptor, for a marble statue of Lincoln to be placed in the Capitol.

3500.

To Sarah Bridges Stehhins^

Camb. Sept 18. 1874. Dear Madam, In reply to your letter I would say that personally I have no objection to your making use of the "Falcon of Ser Federigo," as you wish. N o r do I think that the Publishers, Messrs J. R. Osgood would object, though as a matter of courtesy it would be well to ask them. I am. Dear M a d a m Yours truly H e n r y W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT;

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

I. Mrs. Stebbins, an occasional poet and anthologist of N e w York City, had written on October 13 to thank Longfellow for his permission, granted earlier, "to include some of your poems in a compiled volume 'The Poetry of Pets.' " T h e anthology remained unpublished. 7 73

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To Hubert Howe Bancroft^

Cambridge, September 21, 1874. My Dear Sir : I have just received the first volume of your work on the "Native Races of the Pacific States," and hasten to thank you for your great kindness in sending it to me. Whittier was not mistaken in saying that I should take an interest in it. I am deeply interested in it. It seems to me a very noble contribution to ethnology; and I am amazed at your courage and perseverance in working your way through such a chaparral of authorities as you quote. Your labor is immense. As a maker of books I can appreciate it, and I congratulate you on having carried it forward so far and so successfully. I regret extremely that I should have been out of the way when you did me the favor to call upon me. Another time I trust I shall be more fortunate. With renewed thanks, I am, my dear sir. Yours faithfully, Henry W . Longfell ολν. Hubert Η. Bancroft, Esq. unrecovered; text from advertising pamphlet, p. 14, in Vol. i of Bancroft's Native Races of the Pacific States of North America in the Littauer Library, Harvard University.

MANUSCRIPT:

I. Bancroft C 1 8 3 2 - 1 9 1 8 ) , Ohio-born merchant and historian of San Francisco, was in the process of pubHshing The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America ( N e w York, 1 8 7 4 - 1 8 7 5 ) , 5 vols.

3502.

To Joseph Henry

Cambridge Sept 22. 1874. My Dear Sir, In reading some of the proof-sheets of Mr. Sumner's speech on "The Cession of Russian America,"^ I find the enclosed climatic table. There are evidently some typographical errors in it which I have no means of correcting, except by applying to you. Will you be kind enough to assist me in setting matters right? As they now stand there is a discrepancy between the figures, and the inference Mr. Sumner draws from them. On page 277 [278] which I also send, is Mr. Sumner right in putting the maximum heat of the Japanese Current at 8 1 ° . Fahr, and the minimum at I am very sorry to trouble you with this matter, but necessity compels me. I am, my Dear Sir, Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow. 774

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

MANUSCRIPT: Henry E . Huntington Library, ENDOBSEMENTS: I 127 Longfellow H . W . Cambr. Sept 23. 74 / Rei to the climatic table in M r Sumners speech on the "Cession of Russian America" ANNOTATIONS ( i n pencil): Refer to M r Schott·^ J H / Resp referred to M r Schott. JH S[mithsonian] institution] STAMP: 1874 SEPT 24

1. Swtnner Works, XI, 1 8 1 - 3 4 9 . 2. In his answer of October 26, 1874 ( M S copy, Smithsonian Institution), Henry supplied the corrections that Longfellow incorporated in the table on p. 281. T h e temperatures on p. 278 were not altered. 3. Charles Anthony Schott ( 1 8 2 6 - 1 9 0 1 ) , German-born geodesist and meteorological consultant of the Smithsonian Institution.

3503.

T o Edward Perkins

Clark} Camb. Sept26

1874.

M y Dear Sir, It would give me pleasure to comply with your request, but M r Osgood in whose hands the poem now is, and w h o will publish it in a f e w weeks, objects on the ground that it might invalidate his copyright. Regretting that I must decline your application, I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Smith College Library. I. Clark ( 1 8 4 7 - 1 9 0 3 ) , managing editor of the Springfield Republican, had asked Longfellow in a letter of September 26 for the proof sheets of " T h e Hanging of the Crane," so that his paper could publish it correctly after its public recital by Sidney Woollett on October i (see 3 4 9 5 . 1 ) .

3504.

T o George Washington

Greene

C a m b . Sept. 27. 1874. M y Dear Greene, W e shall all be delighted to see you and A n n a under the roof of Craigie Hall, or Craigie Castle, or Craigie House, as you may please to call it. I should have written sooner to say so, but have been unusually busy and bothered; and we have had painters in the house, — the real Old Masters, — so old that they paint very slowly. But that is over now; and the rooms are ready for you. Speaking of Old Masters, the Montpensier collection so long looked for, is open at last.^ I have not seen it; but the travelled critics say there are only half a dozen good pictures in it, and the rest rubbish. If this be true, it is a great pity, after all the trouble and expense the lovers of art have been put to in order to secure a good exhibition. So far as I can learn Bancroft's n e w volume is not yet out; only announced 775

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to appear soon. The notice I sent you must have been written from advance sheets.^ Tell me if this with its enclosure® reaches you safely, and let me know the day and hour of your coming. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1 . T h e art collection of the French ducal family of Montpensier went on exhibition at the Boston Athenaeum on September 22, under the sponsorship of the Museum of Fine Arts. It remained until June 3, 1876. 2. See 3497-3· 3. Presumably a check for $50.

3505.

To Francis Vergnies Boich

Camb. Sept 29. 1874 Dear Mr Balch, "Vu et approuvé [Considered and approved]," as used to be said in the good old days of Passports. I hope to see you and Mr. Pierce soon, and to discuss a litrie further the subject of the Biography. I want Mr. Pierce to undertake it. He is at the centre of things; is full of life and vigor, and his articles on the "Battle Flags" are a proof, if proof were wanting, of his power to do justice to the subject. Thus a difficult knot will be untied or cut.^ Yours very truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

I. Shortly after this letter, Longfellow and Balch persuaded Pierce to undertake the Sumner biography.

3506.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Oct. 2. 1874 My Dear Fields, Lowell dines with me tomorrow, Saturday, at 5 o'clock. I beg you to come. Wholly informal. N o uniform. Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection.

776

CAMBRIDGE, 3507.

1874

To Fanny Aikin Kortright^

Cambridge. Mass. Oct 5. 1874 Dear Miss Kortright Absence from home has prevented me from writing sooner; and now it is too late. Still I hope you acted on your good impulse, and put my name on the Committee, so that in some way I might show my .regard and good wishes for Mr. and Mrs [Samuel Carter] Hall. I am inclined to think you did; for I have just received their Golden Wedding Card, and the simple and touching lines that Mr. Hall wrote to his wife on the occasion. I shall soon write to thank and congratulate them,^ and in the mean time beg you to do both for me, when you see them. With great regard Yours very truly Henry W. Longfellow Miss Fanny Aiken Kortright. MANUSCRIPT- Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. 1. Miss Kc.r;right ( 1 8 2 1 - 1 9 0 0 ) , English novelist and editor, usually wrote under the pseudon\ m of Berkeley Aikin. 2. This lettev, unrecovered, was written on October 6 ( M S Letter Calendar).

3508.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Oct 6. 1874. I am very sorry to hear of your relapse, but trust it was only momentary. Come as soon as you can, and do not take the trouble of writing beforehand, as thereby you may lose a fine day for the journey. H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection, East Greenwich / R . L

3509.

ADDRESS: Professor Geo. W .

Greene/

P O S T M A R K : C A M B R I D G E S T A T I O N M A S S , ОСТ 6

To John Owen

Camb. Oct. 8. 1874. Dear Owen, I have written to Mr. Balch and he answers; "If the matter were one where he [J.O.]i could send a bill, I should pay it. Putting it on the footing of a gratuity, I could not without consent of College and Mrs Hastings. I will apply for this, if you think best."^ My opinion is that you had better send in a bill at once for $200, the usual sum received from Sumner.^ Mr. Balch's address is, "F. V. Balch, 39. Court St. Boston." 777

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I am afraid you have had a wet and uncomfortable time in the mountains.^ We have had dull and rainy weather since you went away. I am glad I am here, and not there. Pray don't send any proofs to me, which you wish to have sent back to you. We have not read beyond ρ 297! It is terribly slow work. G.N. says he never saw anything to compare with it. When we have passed Alaska,® we shall have plain sailing. But when will that be? Yours truly H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: H a r v a r d College Library. 1 . T h e brackets are L o n g f e l l o w ' s . 2. Balch's letter is unrecovered. H a r v a r d College and Julia S u m n e r Hastings w e r e the principal beneficiaries of S u m n e r ' s estate. 3. O w e n had written on September 8 to ask for $ 2 0 on account for his work on the S u m n e r volumes. 4 . O w e n h a d gone to see the fall colors in the W h i t e Mountains. 5. T h a t is, the S u m n e r speech on Alaska ( 3 5 0 2 . i ) .

3510.

To John Owen

Camb. Oct. 12. 1874. My Dear Owen, You must do things in the right way, or not do them at all. Mr Balch wants a Bill, not a receipt. If you cannot make one out, copy and sign the enclosed, and send it, not to me, but to Mr F. V. Balch 39 State [Court] St. Boston; at the same time requesting him to forward the amount to me.^ I will deposit it in the Chs. River Bank to your credit; and you can draw for any sums you please. To facilitate the operation I enclose a blank cheque. And now in the name of all the — White Mountains, why did you not do this before going away, and not leave it hanging and banging about in this loose way? You might have had the money with you long ago. Upon second thoughts, as you may be in immediate want of funds, instead of a cheque I enclose $20.00. the sum you specified, which you can repay on your return. Yours wrathfully H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: University of W a s h i n g t o n Library. I. In a letter of October 9 O w e n had repeated his request for $ 2 0 on account and enclosed a receipt for $ 2 0 0

dated

Madison,

N.H.,

October

9,

1874,

made

Francis V . Balch, Executor. L o n g f e l l o w ' s enclosure ( M S , Frank O . B u d a , M a s s . ) is as follows:

778

out

to

Cambridge,

CAMBRIDGE,

1874 "Cambridge

Oct 1 2 . 1 8 7 4 .

Estate of Charles Sumner to John O w e n , Dr. For Services rendered in reading proof-sheets of ' W o r k s of Charles

Sumner,'

T w o Hundred Dollars; for the year 1 8 7 3 . $200.00 Instead of the words 'for the year 1 8 7 3 . ' perhaps you had better say from such a month to such a month; making u p the year. I do not know when Sumner's las[t] payment was made."

3 511.

To George Peter Alexander

Healy

Cambridge October 19 th 1874 My dear Mr. Healy, Ever since my return from Europe I have had these books ready for you, waiting for some friend to say he would take them to you. I have waited in vain. At last I send them by Express to-day, and should have done so sooner, but for fear of people who know how to faire danser l'anse du panier [make a market penny] at both ends of the line: that is to say the fear of your having to pay something on your side of the water. I have endeavored to provide against this and if it happens it will not be my fault. I have heard of your beautiful hotel in the Rue de La Rochefoucauld. If I could find one like it I should be tempted to embark at once, and go "where the good Bostonians go, when they die."i I beg you to present my kindest remembrances to Mrs Healy and the rest of your family, and believe me Yours faithfully Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCBiPT: unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow T r u s t Collection ( L o n g f e l l o w H o u s e ) . I. A remark attributed to T h o m a s Gold Appleton.

3512.

To Edward LilUe Pierce

Camb. Oct. 19. 1874 Dear Mr Pierce, I do not send you Mrs. Cobden's letter,' as it contains other matters than those pertaining to Sumner's Letters. Of these she says; "I have gathered together a packet of letters — Mr. Sumner to Richard Cobden. But I have not yet come across one later than 1863. "Before I shall trust them over the waves of the Atlantic, I shall have them 779

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copied. Mr. Sumner did so with Mr. Cobden's, which he accompanied with a charming letter to me, regarding them. "On my return to Wales I will make further search among my papers there." Mrs. Cobden's address is "Mrs Catherine A. Cobden T h e Hurst, Dunford. Midhurst, Sussex." Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

I. Dated August 20, 1874.

3513.

To George Washington Greene

Camb. Oct 2 1 . 1874. M y Dear Greene, I have been looking all day for a line from East Greenwich, and hoping to hear some encouraging word from your bed of pain. I am deeply grieved at what has befallen you. It is so sudden and so strange; and I fear you must be suffering great torment. As I never had the misfortune to break any of my bones, I do not know how painful it may be, but I imagine it must be very tedious, to say the least.^ Tomorrow is Edith's twenty first birth day. W e felt sure of having you and Anna with us, and are greatly disappointed. But all that is swallowed up in your misfortune. I am very anxious to know how it happened. I wish I had some pleasant news to send you to cheer you. It is a misty, moon-lit night; and I have been hard at work all day with little business matters that are not enlivening.^ A misty, moonlit night; very romantic, and poetical, and yet I have tried in vain to write a poem on the Terra di Lavoro. I must wait a more auspicious moment.® Let me hear that all is going well with you soon. Always Yours H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. In a letter of October 18 Anna Maria Greene had reported that her father had broken his collarbone. 2. On October 22 Longfellow made over to Edith her share of her mother's estate, amounting to $ 1 3 6 , 5 3 3 . 0 5 5 . See M S Ledger, Longfellow Trust Estate. 3. According to Samuel Longfellow, the poem was written on October 30. See Works, III, 87-90.

7» о

CAMBRIDGE, 3514.

To George Washington

1874

Greene

Camb. Oct 22 1874 My Dear Greene, As I begin this letter the beautiful picture of East Greenwich rises before me, as I last saw it from the Railway station on a bright Summer afternoon. A hill-side covered with dense foliage, shining in the sun, and here and there a white wall, gleaming out from among the trees. It reminded me of the Côte d'Ingouville at Le Havre; only more rural and more quiet. If you must lie on your back for a week or two, you could not have a better place to do it in! Anna's letter^ came to-day, and assured me that you are doing it thoroughly. Pazienzal [Luther] Terry of Rome was here this morning. His artistic eye at once caught sight of Crawford's bust of you,^ which he recognized, and enquired particularly about you. Also to-day we have celebrated Edith's birth-day with a nice little dinner of young people. Two guests we missed and mourned over. You know who they were. I send you the Advertiser with a notice of Julia Howe in the West. How interesting it is to see an old friend through the eyes of others!® Good night, and sleep soundly, if you can. If not, then think of me. You cannot think of anybody out of your own house, who loves you better. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Dated October 2 1 . 2. See Vol. II, Plate I V . 3. T h e article in the Advertiser, Mrs. Howe's extemporaneous speech writer calls her manner of speaking hawked, sneezed, or otherwise violated

3514a.

C X X I V , No. 97 (October 22, 1 8 7 4 ) , describes before the Philosophical Society of Chicago. T h e "very peculiar" but adds that "nobody yawned, the rules of the Philosophical Society."

To Lorenz Rohr^

Cambridge Oct 23. 1874 My Dear Sir, I am much obliged to you for the honor you have done me in translating into German my poem of "The Hanging of the Crane."^ Your version is very faithful and flowing; and the only criticism I have to make is on the change of metre. This I regret; as the quiet movement of the Iambic is more in harmony with the spirit of the piece than the gallop of the Anapest.

781

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I feel the difficulty of the task, and yet I cannot help wishing that the whole were in Iambics as in the original. Accept, I beg you, my thanks for this mark of your regard, and believe me. Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Pennsylvania State University Library. 1. Rohr, a twenty-eight-year-old German immigrant, lived at this time in N e w York City. 2 . T h e manuscript of this translation accompanies Rohr's letter of October 2 2 .

3515.

To Edward Ahhott^ Camb. Oct 25 1874

My Dear Sir, I am much obliged to you for your kindness in sending me the "Congre [g]ationalist," with your notice of your Uncle,^ which I have read with great interest. I shall take an early opportunity of calling upon you and Mrs. Abbot,® and am meanwhile Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Bowdoin College Library, St. Brattle / C a m b r i d g e

ADDRESS:

Mr. Edward Abbott / Channing

P O S T M A R K : C A M B R I D G E S T A T I O N M A S S , ОСТ

2 6

1. Abbott C 1 8 4 1 - 1 9 0 8 ) , son of lacob Abbott С 1 3 1 8 . 3 ) , was associate editor of The Congregationalist and later rector of St. James Episcopal Church, North Cambridge. 2 . Abbott's obituary notice of Gorham Dummer Abbott C 3 2 3 . 3 ) appeared in The Congregationalist, X X V I (August 1 3 , 1 8 7 4 ) , 2 6 1 . 3 . Clara Davis Abbott (d. 1 8 8 2 , aged forty-two).

3516.

To Alice Mary

Longfellow

Camb. Oct 25. 1874. My Darling Alice, I was delighted to get your letter^ this morning, and hasten to answer it, for fear of being too late, if I wait a day or two. Still if you are enjoying your visit, there is no reason why you should not stay as long as this fine weather lasts. On Wednesday we celebrated Edith's birth-day, and the little dog in ice was a great success, and produced great merriment, to the disgust of the other litde dog — his namesake, who seemed to think we were laughing at him. Yesterday we had at dinner Mr. Warren, a very taciturn young Englishman, who brought me a letter of introduction from Mrs Cobden; very refined and shy, and unfamiliar with the world.® 782

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

To-day we had another EngHshman, Mr. Bonamy Price, Professor at Oxford;® a man of my age, very full of talk and fun and laughter. So in two days we have seen the two different poles of English character and manners. Next Wednesday we are to try the Italian type. Signor Bourgeois^ is coming with music; and so we fill up the time of your absence. Greene has not appeared. He has had a fall in his library, a trip in the carpet, and has broken his collarbone. Poor fellow! how manv misfortunes befall him! I enclose a letter from Uncle Tom, which will interest you and Aunt Anne.® Affectionately H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Dated October 24 from Portland. 2. Nothing is known of John Donald Warren beyond the fact that he was from Midhurst, Sussex, and died in 1 9 0 8 , aged fifty-eight. 3. Price ( 1 8 0 7 - 1 8 8 8 ) 1868-1888.

was Drummond Professor of Pohtical Economy at Oxford,

4. Luigi Bourgeois, an unknown Boston Highlands.

Italian whose address was

103

Warren

Street,

5. See Life, III, 2 3 0 - 2 3 2 .

3517.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Oct. 26. 1874. My Dear Greene, I wish you could have been here for the last few days. I have had some curious experiences in national character. On Saturday [October 24] came an English gentleman with a letter of introduction, and stayed to dinner. He was taciturn, reserved, fastidious, and seemed to take litde pleasure in anything. He seemed to have no power of enjoyment. On Sunday came another Englishman to dine, but of a very different type; expansive, hilarious, talking incessantly, laughing loud and long; pleased with everything. These were the two opposite poles of English character and manners. This afternoon came Parkman, asking for your address in order to send you his new book, "The Old Régime in Canada."^ He was very sorry to hear of your disaster, but said, that if a man must break his bones, the best one to break was the collar-bone, as it gave no trouble afterwards. I have just been reading Tasso's "Aminta" with Edith, who is delighted with it. I think of taking up now the "Pastor Fido" of Guarini, unless you can suggest something better.

783

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I was very glad to get your wife's letter to-day; and feel now as if I know pretty well how you are. Pain never kills anyone, but is a most uncomfortable bed-fellow. But that, I trust will soon be over, and you will enter soon that convalescent state, which is so pleasant and painless. The girls join me in kind remembrances. Always Yours H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: L o n g f e l l o w Trust Collection. I. Boston, 1 8 7 4 .

3518.

To Carl Wilhelm Ernst^

Camb. Oct 27. 1874 My Dear Sir, I hasten to fulfill my promise, and send you enclosed as complete a list of translations of my books, as I can make. There may be others unknown to me. These are all I have. I am much obliged to you for your kindness in sending me the "Calcutta University Calendar." After examining it, if I find nothing which I wish to preserve, I will present it in your name to the Harvard Library.^ With renewed good wishes for the success of your work, I am, my Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia. 1 . Ernst ( 1 8 4 5 - 1 9 1 9 ) , clergyman and miscellaneous writer, had written from Providence on October 26, requesting a list of translations of Longfellow's works for "a little catalogue of translations" that was apparently never published. 2. T h i s calendar is not in the Harvard College Library.

3519.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Oct. 29. 1874. My Dear Greene, I recei\'ed this evening your wife's letter, and was debating whether I should answer it at once, or finish first a poem on the Terra di Lavoro;^ and while I was debating a felicitous termination of my poem slid into my mind, and left me free to write to you without hindrance. I know how a man feels with tooth-ache, with rheumatism in the back, with neuralgia in the chest; — but how he feels with his collar-bone broken is to me a merciful mystery, which I hope I shall never comprehend. I am afraid that with all your morphine you will be in such a dreamy state 784

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

that all letters and newspapers will have a vague and far-off interest for you. Nevertheless I write this, and send you a paper, in which a poor, abused author makes his melancholy complaint.^ He quotes all the unhandsome epithets that have been applied to him; and if you are "sitting clothed and in your right mind,"® you will be interested in his story. But why do I write in this light vein, while I am suffering with you, and feeling deeply your distress? I know not; unless it be, that the ferment of the mind sends up bubbles to the surface. You, who know my rather effervescent nature, will not be pained by it, though it is like laughing in church. But get well as soon as you can, and let me hear good news of you. Always affectionately H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. See Works, III, 87-90. 2. T h e paper was the Boston Advertiser, C X X I V , No. 103 (October 29, 1 8 7 4 ) . In it appears a letter, reprinted from the New York Tribune, by Bronson Crocker Howard ( 1 8 4 2 - 1 9 0 8 ) , journalist and playwright, who complains at length of his mistreatment by the newspaper critics of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. ' 3. C f . Mark 5 : 1 5 .

3520.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Oct. 31. 1874. My Dear Greene, I am troubled to hear that you do not sleep. Better to sleep among the poppies than not to sleep at all. I think I had rather take the morphine, with all its consequences, than endure the pangs of sleeplessness, and the consequences of that. A disagreeable alternative. But when your shoulder is once strong again, you can more easily give up the narcotic. I had a call to-day from Miles Standish; not the old hero, but one of his descendents; a tall, handsome youth from New York, who had been last evening at the Music Hall to hear Mr. Woolet[t] recite the "Courtship" of his ancestor.! This afternoon Lord Dufferin dined with me at the Club. He is a charming person, and his wife more charming still.^ I wish you could have seen them. Old Mr. Dana was there, eighty six years old, and apparently good for ten years more, though that is saying a good deal.® But I cannot keep my thoughts from you. Are physicians powerless to bring help? In one of Dr. Holmes's Essays I find the enclosed prescription,"· which will amuse you. Always and more than ever Yours H.W.L 785

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MANUSCRIPT: L o n g f e l l o w T r u s t C o l l e c t i o n . 1. M y l e s Standish Standishes

(d.

of America

1 9 1 5 , aged sixty-six) s u b s e q u e n t l y p u b l i s h e d privately

(Boston,

1 8 9 5 ) . W o o l l e t t ' s recital w a s for the benefit of

The the

Standish M e m o r i a l Association. 2. Frederick T e m p l e

Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood,

Earl of D u f f e r i n

(1826-1902),

British diplomat and administrator, served as governor-general of C a n a d a ,

1872-1878.

H e h a d married H a r i o t G e o r g i n a R o w e n - H a m i l t o n ( 1 8 4 3 - 1 9 3 6 ) in 1862. 3. R i c h a r d H e n r y D a n a died on F e b r u a r y 2, 1 8 7 9 . 4.

Unrecovered.

3521.

T o Edward Lillie

Pierce C a m b . N o v 2. 1874.

M y Dear M r Pierce, N o t h i n g further as yet from M r Bright or Mrs. Cobden. I will send directly to you everything that comes to me. People in England have hardly got home yet from their Summer rambles and A u t u m n shooting. I asked Miss [Mary Sullivan] Felton more than a month ago for any letters of Sumner she might find among her father's papers. As yet no answer. I wall call in a day or two and remind her. Poor Greene has had a fall and broken his collar-bone. T h i s sufficiently accounts for any delay on his part. I expected him here a month ago, and he was to bring Sumner's letters with him. H e wrote to me that they were all ready for you. Mr. Terry is now in this country. If I can see him I will make inquiry about any letters his w i f e may have from Sumner to Crawford. As you say, it is very hard to hunt up old letters. People are too careless or too lazy to bestir themselves. I enclose one received this evening from Miss [Eliza Susan] Q u i n c y . Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: H a r v a r d C o l l e g e L i b r a r y .

3 522.

T o Thomas Gold

Appleton

C a m b . N o v 3. 1874. M y Dear T o m , W a i t i n g for dinner-guests to arrive, I begin a letter to you, knowing that once begun it will soon be finished. Your last from Cadenabbia^ charmed us all. I sent it to Alice in Portland, and A u n t A n n e was so delighted, that she sent me a special note of thanks. 786

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

I, too, was born in Cadenabbia, as you will see by the enclosed, written last Summer at Nahant. It will appear in the December "Atlantic."^ Lord and Lady Dufferin were here last week; both charming, as you know. Lord D. dined with me at the Club, and enjoyed it much. He came out Saturday, and was off again on Monday; only a flying visit. Pray tell me who Lady Dufferin was before her marriage. Your friend Bonamy Price was a great favorite here. He dined with us en famille, and kept us all in a roar of laughter, from the egg to the apple. I never saw a man who seemed· to enjoy life more. Everybody liked him, and he liked everybody. He is capable of infusing life into the dullest company. Yesterday Gaston, the quondam Mayor of Boston, was elected Governor of Massachusetts! The Democrats are in great glee. Other ||. . the National Debt will vanish in less than no time, by a process known as Repudiation. This is the prediction of an aged Federalist. Let me thank you once more for the Icelandic stores, which drifted safely to these shores, and were eagerly devoured by the savages. If this finds you in London give our love to Mrs. M. and Eva; if on the Nile the Sphinx will do. 11. . to you to-day. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Dated October 3, 1 8 7 4 ( L i f e , III, 2 3 0 - 2 3 2 ) . 2. See 3 4 9 1 - 3 · 3. About twent\'-five words are missing through mutilation of the manuscript. 4. About twenty words, including the signature and most of the postscript, are missing through mutilation.

3523.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Nov 3. 1874. My Dear Greene, I must write to yo[u] before going to bed, though it be only a line or two. Your wife's letter this morning told me of the dreadful night you had passed, but also that you were better in the morning, though very weak. This is the potent morphine. I fear it is too strong for your nerves, and produces worse effects upon you than upon others. No doubt your physician is judicious, and will not overdo the matter. It is all very mysterious to me. A broken bone ought not to give you such pain and distress; in fact, should be nearly knit together again by this time, I should think. I fear the morphine excites you more than it soothes you. It fires your imagination, and makes you see things magnified or distorted. Is it so, or am I groping in the dark? Never having been under its influence, I have no right to say anything about it. 787

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Yesterday we were voting for Governor, and I am sorry to say a Democrat was elected. Wo[e] to the country if that party comes into power! You see how strong the old Federal instinct or prejudice is in me. I shall hope to have cheering news of you tomorrow. Sleep well, dear George, to-night. Yours always H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection.

3524.

Charles Elkin

Mathews^

Cambridge Nov. 3. 1874. M y Dear Sir, I have written a good many books, but I fear that I have never written anything about books. T h e only thing I can recall, that comes near it, is this sentence; "If you borrow my books, do not mark them; for I shall not be able to distinguish your marks from my own, and the pages will become like the doors in Bagdad, marked by Morgiana's chalk. Sidney Smith in his Letters, N o 168 [169], to his son says: "Remember always, in books, keep the best company."® There is also a fine passage by Petrarca;^ and another by Richard de Bury.® But doubtless these you have already. There must also be something in the writings of R. W . Emerson.® I have not had the pleasure of seeing your Essays in " T h e Literary Mart." They must be curious and interesting. Regretting that I can remember at present nothing more, I am, my Dear Sir, Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Brown University Library, ADDRESS: Ch. Elkin Mathews Esqre. / T h e Poplars / Codford St Mary's / Wilts. England POSTMARKS : CAMBRIDGE STATION MASS. NOV [date

obscure]

/ BATH E NO 1 8

7 4 / CODFORD-ST-MARY A NO 1 9

74

1. Mathews, a self-styled bihliomaniac, had written on October 20 that he was "collecting short sentences on the love of books" for the London Literary Mart and Book Exchange and requested Longfellow's comments on the subject. 2. From "Table-Talk" (Works, VH, 4 0 3 ) . 3. See A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith, by his daughter. Lady Holland. With a Selection from his Letters, ed. Mrs. Austin ( N e w York, 1 8 5 5 ) , Π, 183. 4. In "On Fortune": "Books have brought some men to knowledge, and some to madness." 5. In Philobihlon ( 1 4 7 3 ) , Ch. 1 5 : "You, О Books, are the golden vessels of the temple . . . burning lamps to be held ever in the hand." 6. See especially " T h e American Scholar."

788

CAMBRIDGE, 3525.

T o James Ripley

1874

Osgood Dante Divina Commedia Royal 8vo Edit. vol. II. ρ 234 2nd Col. 4 lines from top For "is the same as" Read "followed close upon." Make the same correction in the I vol Edit. p. 370 2nd Col. 7 lines from bottom.

Camb. Nov 3. 1874 Dear Sir, Please have the above correction made in plates of Dante, and send me proof. ^ Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia.

I. T h e correction was not made in the one-volume edition; the passage had already been deleted from the three-volume edition.

3526.

To Robert

Carier

Camb. Nov. 4. 1874. M y Dear Sir, I am very sorry that it will not be in my power to write the article you propose. I have too much on hand already, and am unwilling to undertake anything more. Moreover I am not sufficiently conversant with public affairs to do the subject any kind of justice.^ Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT;

Harvard College Library.

I. Carter ( 1 7 5 7 . 1 ) , associate editor at this time for the revision of the American Cyclopxdia ( 1 6 5 1 . 9 ) , had apparently asked Longfellow for a contribution to this work. His letter is unrecovered.

789

EMBERS 3527.

To George Washington

THAT

STILL

BURN

Greene

Camb. Nov. 5. 1874. My Dear Greene, I am glad at last to get some good news from you. Your wife's postal card tells me of a better night and more tranquil sleep. I trust that now the stone of Sysiphus is fairly rolled over the top of the hill. But what a long and anxious time you have had of it, and how many rebounds there have been! I have been in town all day on business of various kinds, and have come home very tired; or as an English [man] called it the other day "very tarred." At first I did not know what he meant; but when he used the expression a second time, the meaning dawned upon me. Among other things I went to see Mrs [Cecilia Viets Dakin] Hamilton's portrait of Agassiz. She enquired particularly after you, and was very sorry to hear of your accident. In the afternoon I went to a Concert;^ and had the inevitable cold draught let in upon me before it was over, spoiling the effect of the beautiful Allegro of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. And finally here I am, where I have been wanting to be all day long. I really believe it will end in my never going out of sight of my own chimneypots. And now good night; and may the good physician Sleep comfort and console you. But such a sunrise as I saw two days ago was better than sleep to me! H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I . T h e Harvard Musical Association's first concert (tenth season) at the Boston Music Hall (Boston Advertiser, C X X I V , No. 109 [November 5, 1 8 7 4 ] ) .

3528.

To John Owen

Camb. Nov. 5 1874 My Dear Owen, I have just received your letter and hasten to send you the cheque you desire, wondering that you do not want more. In travelling, too much money is never enough. One always over-runs the amount, and gets into a dilemma, as you have done. In all your mountain rambles you never saw a more beautiful sun-rise than I saw yesterday from my chamber window; a round orb of fire, red and rayless, burning in a dense November fog, behind the leafless trees, behind the tall church spire. It was a scene for a painter. Colors only could render it, not words. The chimney sings to-night; the storm threatens. I hope you will enjoy it; 79°

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

perhaps you are enjoying it already. Where are now your red leaves? your battle-flags of Autumn? Do not commit yourself by making a speech about them, for the Democrats have triumphed, and you would get into trouble. There has been a silent revolution in the land. You will be grieved to hear, that our friend Greene has had a fall and broken his collarbone. He is still very ill from the effects of it. Nichols was here last night. We have finished Alaska. For a long time passed, I have been wishing that Russia had kept it to herself. Yours nevertheless H.W.L MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library.

3529.

To Rasmus Björn Anderson

Cambridge Nov 6 1874. My Dear Sir, It gives me pleasure to comply with your request. You may quote anything of mine, in your Norse Mythology, that may suit your purpose. I shall consider it a favor received, rather than one granted. I have an indistinct remembrance of a previous letter from you, and of my having answered it. If I did not, I beg you to pardon the oversight,^ and to believe me Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: unrecovered; text from typewritten transcript, Longfellow Trust Collection (Longfellow House). I. Anderson had written on August 2 7 and again on October 3, asking permission to quote from the Poets and Poetry of Europe and Tales of a Wayside Inn in his Norse Mythology (3296.2).

3530.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Nov 6. 1874. To-night I can send you only a greeting on a Postal Card instead of a letter. Not hearing from you, I infer that all is going well with you, or at all events no worse. Be of good cheer, and keep up your couragé. That is half the battle. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection,

East Greenwich / R.I.

ADDRESS:

Professor Geo. W .

P O S T M A R K : C A M B R I D G E S T A T I O N M A S S , NOV 7

791

Greene/

EMBERS 3531.

To George Washington

THAT

STILL

BURN

Greene

Camb. Nov. 7. 1874. My Dear Greene, Like Monsieur Jourdain in Molière's Comedy, who bought an almanac to find out when there was a moon,i I have bought a barometer, to find out when it rains. Hitherto I have trusted implicidy to an umbrella. Hereafter I shall trust to my barometer, and, no doubt, in time shall be able to come home drenched to the skin. Nevertheless it is a pretty toy, and an ornament to the hall, where it hangs. This is my latest folly. Laugh at it, if you will. Only laugh, and you will be well again. Excuse this nonsense; but your wife's letter, which has just come,- puts me in good spirits, by telling me, that you no longer suffer pain, but only weakness, which is to be expected after all you have gone through. With the extraordinary weather we are having, everybody is complaining of debility. So warm a November never was known; and there is something in the air that takes away strength, instead of giving it. Even Charley complains, that he feels his old wounds. No great wonder, then, that you are not feeling very strong. I confess, that to-day my legs give way under me. With this humiliating confession I say good night. Your affectionate H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. See Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, 2. Dated November 6.

3532.

Act II, Scene vi.

To Bernard Rölker

Camb. Nov. 7. 1874. My Dear Roelker, I suppose you think me a monster of ingratitude, that I have not sooner thanked you for your letter, and for the two poems you were kind enough to copy for me.^ But if you knew how I have been vexed and perplexed with interruptions of all kinds, business matters, letters, visits and so forth, you would pity and pardon me. I know not how it is, but the older I grow, the less time I seem to have for anything. The outer world crowds terribly upon one, and everybody thrusts his affairs in the way. Your brief visit to Nahant gave us all great pleasure, and the memory of it is still grateful. But that visit was so short, I think you ought to piece it out by coming to see us at Christmas. Endeavor to do so, if possible, and you will see how welcome you are among old Cambridge friends, 792

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

What do you think of the Democratic wave now sweeping over the land? Will it roll on, or subside again? Good-night and God bless you. Yours always Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: ADDRESS:

unrecovered; text from photocopy, University of Washington Library. Bernard Roelker Esqre. / 5 5 & 5 7 Pine St. / N e w York, P O S T M A R K :

CAMBRIDGE STATION [remainder

illegible]

I. Rölker's letter was dated October 27. T h e two poems, unidentified, were presumably for Poems of Places.

3533.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Nov. 10. 1874. My Dear Greene, Howells and his brother-in-law, Mr Mead, the sculptor have been dining with me to-day.^ After dinner we went to a neighbor's to hear Mr. James read an Essay on Carlyle.^ And now, at eleven o'clock, I am waiting for some people in the Library to go home, that I may go to bed, where I much desire to be. I only wish that you could sleep half as soundly as I do. On that point Katie's postal card of this morning does not give me as good account as I could wish. Has a copy of the "Memorial of Charles Sumner"® containing the Eulogies of Curtis and Schurtz been sent to you? If not, I have one for you. Also one for the Governor, if he would like one, and is not already provided. Last evening I wrote a Sonnet on the Ponte Vecchio of Florence* — which I think you will like. You are one of the few, who know what a Sonnet is. I also wrote last Summer a good many more. Among them a series of five entided "Three Friends of Mine," meaning Felton, Agassiz, and Sumner;'"' my small tribute to their memory. In the Atlantic for Jan. will be the poem on Sumner I read to you when you were last here." Pardon me for thinking that such small items will amuse you. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Larkin Goldsmith Mead ( 1 8 3 5 - 1 9 1 0 ) , sculptor in the pseudo-classic style, had recently completed the statue of Lincoln for the monument in Springfield, 111. 2. Possibly an early draft of the essay that became "Some Personal Reminiscences of Carlyle" in the Atlantic Monthly, XLVII (May 1881). 5 9 З - 6 0 9 . 3 . A Memorial of Charles Sumner (Boston, 1 8 7 4 ) . 4 . " T h e Old Bridge at Florence" (Works, III, 2 0 6 - 2 0 7 ) . 5 . Works, III, 1 9 7 - 2 0 0 . 6 . "Charles Sumner," Atlantic Monthly, XXXV (January 1 8 7 5 ) , 2 5 . 793

EMBERS 3534.

T o George Washington

THAT

STILL

BURN

Greene

Camb. Nov. 11. 1874 M y Dear Greene, T h e barometer is falling, but as yet there is no rain. Even the November wind has died away, and the stars are out. Can the new toy be an illusion and a deceit? If so, who shall hereafter put faith in those who sell barometers? I shall be a wretched and deluded man. I am curious to know what you do in the daytime. I know well enough what you do not do at night. But in the daytime, do you get up and dress? Can you read? Can you listen to reading? Can you eat and drink, and walk about your room, and go into your library? This is a long string of questions, and I should like to have them all answered. I have an image of you in the night, restless and sleepless, or drugged with morphine. But in the daylight you vanish quite away, and I cannot see what you are doing. Your dear wife, amid all her anxieties, has been very kind to write me so often, and so fully. Without her and the children, what would you be just now? T h e thought of them must give you courage, when your heart begins to fail. You must not let it fail, even for a moment. With love from all, H.W.L. MANUSCBIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection.

3535.

T o John T^eal

Camb. Nov. 11. 1874. M y Dear Neal, This morning I had the pleasure of receiving the copy of "Portland IIlustrated"^ which you were kind enough to send me, and for which I hasten to· return you my cordial thanks. T h e book interests me very much, and will be to me a constant source of pleasure. T o read it is as good as walking the streets of the town itself. You have illustrated Portland in more ways than one, and in my mind are always associated with it. And now I am very glad you have done it in this way, and so thoroughly, and as nobody else could. I beg you to present my best regards to Mrs. Neal,^ and to Mrs Sherwood·^ if she is with you, and to believe me always Sincerely Yours Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. 1. Portland Illustrated (Portland, 1 8 7 4 ) . 2. N e a l had married his cousin Eleanor Hall C 1 8 0 9 - 1 8 7 7 ) on October 12, 1828. 3. Mrs. Robert Sherwood was Neal's daughter Mary ( 1 8 2 9 - 1 9 1 4 ) .

794

CAMBRIDGE, 3536.

To George Washington

1874

Greene

Camb. Nov. 12. 1874. My Dear Greene, The barometer has redeemed its character, and risen to its old level; and this is the last you will ever hear of it. To-night a cold North wind is blowing, and the Indian Summer is ended. Will the change of weather bring you relief? Katie's card to-day tells me of dismal nights still, and sleep to be had only by means of morphine. But are the nights really worse than they used to be before your accident, or do they only seem so because of your weakness? Mr Nichols has just gone. This evening we have been over thirty six pages of Sumner's proofs, and you can imagine how much vivacity is left in me. Hardly enough to finish this letter with any credit to myself. John Neal sends me to-day his "Portland Illustrated," written in his peculiar style, and interesting to me, who am fond of local history. The portrait of the author in the volume is portentous. And this reminds me that at last I have succeeded in getting a pretty satisfactory photograph of myself, after these many years of caricature. Holmes has just brought out a new volume of poems,^ which I have not seen; and Lowell has in press a volume of Essays.^ "The Hanging of the Crane" appears on Saturday.® H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Songs of Many Seasons. 1 8 6 2 - 1 8 7 4 (Boston, 1 8 7 5 ) . See B A L 8895. 2. Among My Books. Second Series (Boston, 1 8 7 6 ) . 3. T h e publication date was postponed until November 18 ( B A L 1 2 1 6 6 ) .

3537.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Nov. 13. 1874. My Dear Greene, I send you by to-day's Parcel Post, a box of Rigollot's Moutarde en feuilles [mustard plasters], which I hope will allay some pain somewhere. I ought not to have kept you waiting so long, but could not help it. Do you know anything about the Revd. Carl W . Ernst of Providence? He is making a Bibliography of Translations; a Dictionary of all works, that have been translated from the English into other languages. Whether he carries it farther than this I do not know. Perhaps he means to make it universal. That would be very useful and interesting.^ A writer in the Evening Post^ accuses me of plagiarism in the first lines of the "Hanging of the Crane"; 795

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" T h e lights are out, and gone are all the guests T h a t thronging came with merriment and jests." &c His proof is; "The crowds are gone, the revellers at rest T h e courteous host and all-approving guest" : &c Byron. Lara. [I, xxix, 1 - 2 ] This is about as much of a plagiarism as "Good night" or "Good morning." It is now six o'clock; and I am debating in my mind whether I shall accept Mr. Daniel Dougherty's invitation to hear his Lecture on Oratory at Cambridgeport.® It is a cold night, and I remember last Autumn, and my evening at Howells', to meet Mr. [James Α.] Garfield; — and the open window at my back, and all its consequences. I hesitate. I ought not to go. H.W.L. P.S. I did not go to the Lecture. And now comes a pleasant episode, that was near proving tragic. I told Alice at breakfast that I would have some partridges and a sallad for Mr. Dougherty after his Lecture. I ordered the oysters myself, and brought up the Liebfraumilch. Making up my mind not to go out, I wrote the gentleman, who had sent me tickets, asking him to come to supper with the orator, when the performances were over. Happening to mention this at dinner, the report came from the cook, that neither partridges nor sallad had come; whereupon there was great merriment all round the table. Luckily my invitation had not been sent; so I wrote new notes, expressing my regret at not being able to attend the Lecture, and sent them to the Hall, with no intimation of the Barmecide feast. I remain with the Providence River oysters on the half-shell, and no appetite. What shall I do? If you were here, I should know very well. But the girls have gone out with Charley to a party, and to sup alone is too solitary. I wait the result. Perhaps somebody will come in. J.O. for instance. Nobody else has time to stop five minutes. By this time Mr. Dougherty is thundering away at his audience, all unconscious of his lost supper. I am sorry, and he is not. So he is better off than I am; and I am better off than if I had gone out this cold night. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1 . See 3 5 1 8 . 1 . 2. Possibly the N e w York Evening Post, but the writer is unidentified. 3. Dougherty ( 1 8 2 6 - 1 8 9 2 ) , Philadelphia lawyer, enjoyed a considerable reputation as a lecturer and humorist. His "Orators and Oratory" was much admired.

796

CAMBRIDGE, 3538.

To George Washington

1874

Greene

Camb. Nov. 14. 1874. My Dear Greene, When one is hungry and waiting for dinner, there is no better way of shortening the time than by writing letters. So I have just written one to Mr. Trowbridge on his volume of poems,' and will write you one on — nothing in particular. Your wife's letter^ this morning was very encouraging. You will come through triumphanriy. But now that you sit in your library again, I must not write you any more nonsense. When you were morphined out of half your wits, anything might pass. Now that you are in your right mind I can no longer impose upon you. I saw to-day for the first time the Life and Letters of Coggswell, by Miss Ticknor,^ It is a large and handsome octavo, privately printed. I am sorry I have not a copy. I think it must be a very interesting book. The young woman who writes the literary notices for the Advertiser informs me this morning, that the "Hanging of the Crane" will not add to my reputation.'' I am sorry for that. I thought perhaps it might! I hope the mustard leaves reached you safely. You will find them very potent. The dinner-bell rings. Farewell. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. John Townsend Trowbridge, The Emigrant's Story, and Other Poems (Boston, 1875). 2. Dated November 1 3 . 3. Anna Eliot Ticknor, George Ticknor's daughter, edited the Life of ]oseph Green Cogswell as Sketched in His Letters (Cambridge, 1 8 7 4 ) . 4. See the review in the Boston Advertiser, C X X I V , No. 1 1 7 (November 14, 1 8 7 4 ) .

3539.

To Samuel Page Benson^

Camb. Nov. 15. 1874. Dear Mr Benson In looking over the names of those of our classmates, whose stars have not yet risen in the Catalogue, my first choise for the Oration would be [George Barrell] Cheever; the gentle St. John in College, and Boanerges in the pulpit. As to the Poem, I think that had better be dispensed with altogether. It is always a mere appendage, and often an impe[r]tinence. So far as I am personally concerned, no consideration whatsoever would induce me to undertake it. I have no gift at all for such kind of writing and the attempt would only result in general dissatisfaction. 797

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In my opinion the Anniversary will be a greater success without a poem than with one. In haste, but always with kind regard and remembrance Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library. I. A college classmate of Longfellow and a member of Congress, 1 8 5 3 - 1 8 5 7 , Benson С 1 8 0 4 - 1 8 7 6 ) served on the Bowdoin board of overseers (of which he was president, 1 8 6 0 - 1 8 7 6 ) from 1 8 3 9 until his death.

3540.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Nov. 15. 1874. My Dear Greene, Mindful of the French saying, "II n'y a rien de certain, que l'imprévu," I often wonder what will be my next annoyance; for annoyances are as sure to come as the world is to tum round. And last evening the unforeseen appeared in the shape of a letter from a German Professor in Innsbruck,^ requesting me to act as agent for collecting funds to raise a bronze statue to Walther von der Vogelweide in Bozen! Good Heavens! have we not enough to do in erecting equestrian statues of General Jackson, and in making the perpendicular steed stand on the tip of his tail? Have we not enough to do in adorning our streets with wooden Indians at the doors of tobacconists, and our ships with figure-heads of Hebe and Poccahontas? I do not believe there are a hundred men in the United States, — except Germans — who ever heard of Vogelweid the Minnesinger; and not ten, who would give ten cents towards raising a statue to him at Bozen.^ I promised to write you no more nonsense; and lo! here are three pages of it, besides the enclosure,® which is nonsense or not, as you please to regard it. Meanwhile get well as fast as you can; and do not be depressed by gloom of weather, or anything else. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. Identified in Longfellow's journal entry for November 14 (Life, III, 2 3 6 ) as Ignaz Vinzenz Zingerle ( 1 8 2 5 - 1 8 9 2 ) , Austrian poet, writer, and philologist. 2. A monument to Walther von der Vogelweide by the Austrian sculptor Heinrich Natter С 1 8 4 6 - 1 8 9 2 ) was erected in Bozen in 1889. 3. Unrecovered.

798

CAMBRIDGE, 3541.

To George Washington

1874

Greene

Camb. Nov. 17. 1874. My Dear Greene, What would you say, if a lady should come to you with three imperial folio volumes of Birds, copied and colored by her own hand from Wilson's Ornithology,^ and should ask you to find some rich man, who would give her three thousand dollars for them? What would you say if College Classmates, whom you had not seen for fifty years, should urge you to write a poem for the fiftieth anniversary of the class? What would you say if a gentleman should send you a message by another gentleman, requesting you to see a third gentleman and tell him that his intemperate habits were leading him to perdition? О ye who bind heavy burdens for other men's shoulders, where do you think you will go to when you die? To-day I took a Turkish bath. To lie in a state of innocence in a room, with the thermometer at 160°, is pleasant; but to lie on a marble table afterwards and be rubbed down by an Irishman, who has just been rubbing down somebody else, is anything but pleasant. Tomorrow appears the "Hanging of the Crane," postponed from Saturday. I will send you a copy forthwith. Thank your wife for her yesterday's letter. All seems to be going well with you, though slowly of course. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. Alexander Wilson, American Ornithology; or, The Natural of the United States (Philadelphia, 1 8 0 8 - 1 8 1 4 ) , 9 vols.

3542.

History of the Birds

To James Ripley Osgood

Camb. Nov. 18. 1874. Dear Mr. Osgood, The suggestion is not worth anything. The leaves change in Europe as they do here, only the colors are not so bright.^ Yours truly H.W.L MANUSCBIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

I. Osgood's letter is unrecovered and his suggestion elusive.

799

EMBERS 3543.

To George Washington

THAT

STILL

BURN

Greene

Camb. Nov. 21. 1874. My Dear Greene, The other night, lying restless, sleepless and uncomfortable, I suddenly remembered that on the table was a box of chamomile flowers, the celebrated Dr. Owen's^ remedy for all the ills of life. I stretched forth my hand, and took three of them, and ate them; and the next thing I knew, it was seven o'clock in the morning. Now you ought to try this simple remedy, and try it thoroughly. Take three or four of these flowers every night, on going to bed; and during the day take as many after every meal. At all events take them regularly at night for a week. The experiment is worth trying. It can do no harm. That you may begin at once, I send you a small quantity enclosed, fearing you may have none, and will not take the trouble to send for any. "Così all' egro fanciul As to your being tired of books, I do not much wonder at that. I fancy everybody is at times. Even the hungriest book-worm must cease gnawing occasionally. I wish I had some good news to send you. Having none, I send you the "Hanging of the Crane." H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT;

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. John Owen. 2. Tasso, Gerusalemme

3 544.

Liberata, I, 3: ' T h u s to the sick young girl &c."

To Robert N. Stanley''·

Cambridge Nov 23. 1874. My Dear Sir, I have had the pleasure of receiving the volume you were kind enough to send me, and hasten to thank you for it. I should be pleased to write you the letter you desire concerning it, if I ever wrote letters of that kind. Owing to the numerous applications of the same nature, which 1 receive, and want of time to attend to them, I have been forced to decline all. Trusting that you will not take it amiss if I make no exception in this case, I am Yours truly Henry W. Longfellov\' 800

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

MANUSCRIPT: Clifton Waller Barrett Collection, University of Virginia, ADDRESS: Mr R. N . Stanley / 368 Washington St. / Boston, POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE STATION M A S S . NOV 2 3

I. A book and periodicals agent of Boston, Stanley had asked Longfellow in a letter of November 2 to write a recommendation for Olive Thome's Little Folks in Feathers and Fur, and Others in Neither (Hartford and Cincinnati, ' 8 7 5 ) . Olive Thorne was the pseudonym of Mrs. Harriet Mann Miller ( 1 8 3 1 - 1 9 1 8 ) , ornithologist and writer of children's books.

3545.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Nov. 25. 1874. My Dear Greene, I am rejoiced to know that after a fashion you are on your feet again. If you have not got back all that you lost, you have at least got back enough to be thankful for tomorrow, over your turkey and claret. Yesterday I had a visit from Mrs Howard. Her first question was: "How is Mr. Greene?" I showed her your postal-card just received, and she was comforted a litde. After telling my classmates that I could not write a poem for 'heir Fiftieth Anniversary, I have gone to work and written one; some two or three hundred lines in all, and quite long enough.1 Whether I shall have the courage to read it in public, when the time comes, is another question. The Arcadian Club of New York wants to give me a Reception on my next birth-day. I have declined. I do not like such things. I hope you have received safely the "Hanging of the Crane." Osgood seems well satisfied with its success. I have not yet had a chance to ask Lowell about the Russian Mission. I am inclined to think he has been asked whether he would accept it if offered. It will be a temptation, but I fancy he prefers Cambridge to St. Petersburg.^ I shall be very glad when you feel strong and well enough to come to us. H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. "Morituri Salutamus" ÇWorks, III, 1 8 7 - 1 9 6 ) . 2. Lowell was offered the post but declined. See Martin Duberman, James Lowell (Boston, 1966), p. 281.

3546.

To George William

Russell

Childs

Cambridge Nov. 26 1874. Dear Mr Childs, Two days ago I had the pleasure of receiving your letter, and last night came the chest of tea. I have not yet tasted it, but have no doubts of its excellence. Please accept my thanks in advance of the many fragrant cups I am 8оI

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to enjoy. When the odor greets me in the morning as I come down stairs to breakfast, I shall gratefully remember the donor.^ I send by mail to-day a copy of "The Hanging of the Crane," which I beg Mrs Childs to accept with my best regards. Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT;

Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

I. Childs had written in a letter of November 23 : "Mr. Fields has been staying with us for some days and he admired some tea we had, and as I learn you are a tea drinker I have presumed on sending you a chest as a 'Thanksgiving' offering."

3547.

To James Ripley Osgood Camb. Nov. 26 1874.

Dear Mr Osgood, In "The Hanging of the Crane," I notice that the illustration on p. 48 should be on p. 56. If you have occasion to print again, I think it would be well to have the change made.^ Yours truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT;

University

of

Texas Library.

I. In the second edition ( B A L 1 2 5 3 8 ) the illustration was simply deleted.

3548.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Nov. 29. 1874. My Dear Greene, I am afraid you will get tired of my letters, and say they are too many. Nevertheless I will wind up the month with another, though I have nothing in the world to tell you. I am not Baron Grimm,^ nor Mme de Sévigné. Yesterday, under the arch-way of the Marlborough, I found and bought a copy of Guicciardini,2 ten volumes in five, half-calf, 8 vo. for the moderate price of fifty cents per volume. I beg your pardon. I forgot. You take no further interest in books. Still, I would not trust you alone under the arch-way, for any len[g]th of time, nor down in the depths below with the tempter Lovering.^ The passion for buying books must be one of the last to leave us. As to the reading of books, that is another matter. I am afraid, that long ago I became an impatient reader. Perhaps I always was one. I early felt the despair that comes over the soul at the sight of a large library. I am very restless under the infliction of a diffuse style, and want e\'erything said in as few words as possible. 802

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

I am sorry about your sleep. If you were here I would read to you my last poem. That would do the business efFectually. H.W.L. P.S. I send you the report of a Lecture"· by J.T.F. Read and burn. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Friedrich Melchior von Grimm ( 1 7 2 3 - 1 8 0 7 ) , noted for his Correspondance Littéraire, Philosophique et Critique (Paris, 1 8 1 2 - 1 8 1 4 ) , 1 7 vols. 2. That is, of Storia d'Italia, a principal historical work by Francesco Guicciardini ( 1 4 8 3 - 1 5 4 0 ) , Florentine statesman and historian. 3. Albert W . Lovering (d. 1907, aged eighty-five), bookdealer of 233 Washington Street, Boston. 4. Unidentified.

3549.

To Edward Lillie Pierce

Camb. Nov. 29. 1874. Dear Mr Pierce, I have at last heard from Mr Lau gel. He says; "I have asked the Comte de Paris if he could send you copies of the letters of Sumner which he has received. He has answered me that unfortunately all his correspondence is still in England, and that he has not access to it at present."^ Nothing further either from Mr Bright or Mrs. Cobden. Yours truly H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

I. Letter dated November 1 3 , 1874. Louis Philippe Albert d'Orléans, Comte de Paris ( 1 8 3 8 - 1 8 9 4 ) , French Pretender, had served as a captain of volunteers in the Civil War. He had rehnquished his claim to the French throne in 1873.

3550.

To Elizabeth Cary Agassiz

Camb. Nov. 30. 1874 Dear Mrs Agassiz, Among some old letters I find the enclosed.^ It is perhaps of no great value, but I thought you might like to place it among the materials for the Life of our dear Agassiz. Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCRIPT:

Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University.

I. Unidentified. T h e name " ( H . Edwards)" appears on the manuscript, in another hand, over the words "old letters." 803

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To ]ames Thomas

THAT

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BURN

Fields

Camb. Nov. 30. 1874. M y Dear Fields, Never take anything for granted, and never say, It is of no use. By not following this maxim I missed seeing you on Saturday. I said; Of course he will be at the [Saturday] Club, and it is of no use to call at his house. Had I not said this to myself, I should have stopped at your door on my way. You need not think that you have a monopoly of the Influenza — I have a good deal of it myself, and have not been out of doors to-day. I take it for granted — no, that will never do, — I suppose or imagine you will be glad to know that Howells was elected at our last meeting. It is of no use for you to pretend that you have not enjoyed your triumphal march through the South.^ It must have been very pleasant, and I am curious to hear of it from your own bearded lips. One good result it has had. It has brought me a chest of tea from our friend Childs, of a kind which he says had your approval. Also a message of remembrance from the Patersons,^ whom I greatly like, and should greatly like to see. T h e y were delightful on ship-board. What must they be on land? I shall come to see you as soon as I can. If you get well first, come to see me. It is of no use to say that I am Yours as always H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Henry E. Huntington Library.

1. Fields had been on a lecture tour. 2. T h e family of Joseph Patterson ( 1 8 0 8 - 1 8 8 7 ) , Philadelphia merchant and banker. Longfellow had apparently met them on his voyage to or from Europe in 1 8 6 8 - 1 8 6 9 .

3552.

T o Charlotte Fiske Bates

Camb. Deer 2 1874 Dear Miss Bates, I am very glad to hear that you have passed out of the dark shadow. It was an illusion, but had nevertheless all the weight of a reality, and while it lasted was a reality. Dreams are realities, though what we dream may not be. N o w that yours is over, I hope it may never return.^ I also hope it may leave something behind it, in the shape of a poem. With congratulations and good wishes Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow.

804

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. I. In a letter of December i Miss Bates had written cryptically of a debilitating emotional experience; "Although I have come out, for a season at least, from the shadow which seemed overhanging me . . . I am quite sure that what I have passed through has been or will be a beneficial experience, and I do not regret its pain."

3553.

To James Thomas Fields

Camb. Deer. 3. 1874 My Dear Fields, In my opinion the enclosed autographs are excellent. They were written in a moment of inspiration brought on by the March of Lachner and the Scherzo of Mendelsohn, heard in the afternoon.^ Hoping that they may prove as satisfactory to you as they are to me, I am, with great consideration Yours faithfully H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Henry E . Huntington Library. I. T h e "enclosed autographs" are unrecovered. On the afternoon of this day Longfellow and Fields had attended the concert of the Harvard Musical Association in the Boston Music Hall ( M S Journal). T h e program included "Suite for Orchestra, in D minor" by Franz Lachner C 1 8 0 3 - 1 8 9 0 ) and "Scherzo from the 'Reformation Symp h o n y ' " by Mendelssohn. See the Boston Advertiser, C X X I V , No. 1 3 2 (December 3, 1874)·

3554.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Deer. 6. 1874 My Dear Greene, I send you to-day a number of the Overland Magazine, containing two articles, which I think will interest you. One is on Stuart Mill; the other on Hubert Bancroft,^ the first volume of whose work on the Native Tribes of the Pacific Coast has just appeared. You will admire, as I do, his devotion to his work. It is a noble example. Thus are great things achieved. Happy the man who has the will and the way to accomplish them. You did not tell me whether you would accept a copy of the Sumner Memorial. I shall send it however, and if you do not care for it, you can give it to your Public Library. An amiable critic in a New York paper^ says of the "Hanging of the Crane," that everybody connected with the book "has done his duty except one, and that is the author himself." Among other equally flattering remarks, 805

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he repeats that old, old formula; "If this poem had been sent anonymously to any Magazine in the country, it would have been instantly rejected." Howells says he wishes somebody would try the experiment on him. So we drift along, buffeted by side winds and sudden flaws. H.W.L. MANUSCKIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. See the Overland Monthly, X I I I (December 1 8 7 4 ) , 5 1 6 - 5 2 3 and 5 5 1 - 5 6 0 . 2. Unidentified.

3555.

To Edward LilUe Pierce

Camb. Deer. 6. 1874 Dear Mr. Pierce, ||. . .I husband. Evidently Mrs. Felton did the like; as none can be found. How strange and inconsiderate. Why were they not returned to the writer? Deeply regretting these disasters, I am II Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow] [ MANUSCRIPT:

Harvard College Library.

I. Approximately fifteen words are lost as a result of the complimentary closing and the signature being cut away. In a letter of December 5 Pierce had asked Longfellow to interview the widow of Thomas Hopkinson ( 1 8 0 4 - 1 8 5 6 ) , Sumner's college classmate, concerning the correspondence between the two. This interview might have been the subject of the missing paragraph.

3556.

To George Washington

Greene

Camb. Deer. 7. 1874 My Dear Greene, I sent you yesterday an Essay in the Overland Monthly on Stuart Mill, which I thought might have some interest for you. There is nothing new in it, but it may reawaken your slumbering love of reading. Stuart Mill is a kind of Petrarca in prose, and Mrs Taylor a modern Laura de Sade. How strange it is that after five centuries Avignon and Vaucluse should again become the scene of a romantic passion. Stranger still, but characteristic of the two different ages and nations, that the part of the Italian troubadour should be played by an English philosopher, and Sonnets give place to Essays on Political Economy.^ Yet the sweet, old passion was the same, and as powerful in the philosopher as in the poet, and perhaps more sincere and lasting. Who knows? 806

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

I have had rather a rough week of it, this last. One evening finding my room oppressively hot I opened the window to breathe, and in two minutes \\'as shot through and through by the arrows of the heavenly maid. Influenza. Good heavens! what kind of style is this? Am I John Lilly writing "Euphues"? Have you seen Howells' new novel "A Foregone Conclusion"? T h e scene is in Venice, and the character of the priest Don Ippolito is very powerfully drawn. In that respect this book is a stride forward. Howells is now busy on some chapters of a History of Venice, which he means to write. It is a fascinating theme. As he goes on, I suppose we shall have passages of the work in the Atlantic.2 H.W.L MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Mrs. Harriet Hardy Taylor ( 1 8 0 7 - 1 8 5 8 ) became the wife of John Stuart Mill in 1 8 5 1 and played an important role in his inner life both before and during their marriage. She died in Avignon, where Mill spent the rest of his life. The identity of Laura, the beloved of Petrarca, is not definitely known; she might have been the wife of Hugues de Sade, of Avignon. 2. Longfellow had written on December 4: "Went to see Howells, and found him at work on T h e Venitians in the Crusades'" ( M S Journal). T h e "History of Venice" was not published.

3557.

To Samuel

Tvckehnav}

Camb. Dec. 7. 1874. Dear Sir, I have duly received your note and the Tickets for the Fair, which you were good enough to send me, and hasten to thank you for your kind attention. I should be glad to see Healy's copy from Spagnoletto,^ but am confined to the house by influenza, and can not venture out. With many thanks I am. Dear Sir, Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Berg Collection, N e w York Public Library.

1. Tuckelman, about whom nothing is known (Longfellow lists S. Tuckerman in the M S Letter Calendar), had written on December i, enclosing tickets to a Grand Fair in aid of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Washington Street, Boston. 2. José Ribera ( 1 5 8 8 - 1 6 5 2 ) , Spanish-born painter known in Italy as Lo Spagnoletto, was a prominent member of the Neapolitan school. Healy's copy is unidentified.

807

EMBERS 3562.

THAT

STILL

BURN

To Ehenezer Rockwood Hoar

Camb. Deer. 14. 1874. My Dear Sir, I shall not wait till the first of April to accept the invitation of the "Inhabitants of Concord," but accept it now, and with great pleasure.^ There is a friend of mine, whom I hope you have also thought of; — Professor Geo. W . Greene of East Greenwich, R. I. He is a grandson of General Greene of the Revolution, whose biography he has written, and is not only conversant with, but takes a deep interest in all the events of American history. If it is not an indiscretion, let me remind you of him. I enclose a more formal acceptance of your kind invitation^ and am. Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow MANUSCBIPT: Concord Free Public Library, PUBLISHED: Arthur E. Bestor, Ir., "Concord Summons the Poets," New England Quarterly^ V I (September 1 9 3 3 ) , 609. 1. Hoar was a member of a committee, with Emerson and George Heywood ( 1 8 2 6 1897)1 president of the Concord National Bank, to invite distinguished guests to the centennial celebration of the Concord Battle of April 19, 1 7 7 5 . 2. T h e enclosure reads as follows: " M r Longfellow accepts with great pleasure the invitation of the Inhabitants of Concord, to be present at their celebration of the Nineteenth of April. 1875. Cambridge Deer. 14. 1874."

3563.

To Edward Lillie Pierce

Camb. Deer. 16. 1874. Dear Mr Pierce, Your old friend Greene is here and will be delighted to see you at the hour you mention tomorrow. We dine at six; and if you can stay and dine with us I shall be much gratified. Yours very truly Henry W. Longfellow MANUSCRIPT: Harvard College Library.

3564.

To Samuel Ward

Camb. Deer. 16. 1874. My Dear Semilasso, I should have answered your letter and acknowledged its enclosure at once, but had all my thoughts drawn away by the illness of son Charles, who is suffering from pneumonia. He is not at home, but with a friend in town; and as I am there every day, my time is fully taken up.^ 8Iо

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

I am glad to say he is better; but it is a terrible disease, and I have been very anxious. Greene is here, and I have given him the proceeds of the "Nocturne" as you desired. How kind and though [t]ful you always are. Always some graceful act, and at the right moment. Greene accepts your gift, and thanks you cordially.^ He sends kindest remembrances. The Publishers of the Atlantic were not very generous certainly in their remuneration for so sweet a poem. I think they judge by length more than by merit. I hope to send you better news in a few days. Always affect[ionatel] ν H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT: Longfellow Trust Collection. 1. In a letter of December 1 1 William Sumner Appleton provides some details of Charles's illness; "Charley left us last Saturday [December 5], neither feeling nor looking well, and since then has been really laid up at the Fays' [William Pickman Fa)']. Last evening I saw his physician Dr. Borland, and we agreed that you ought to know about Charley, which Dr В. thought you did not. T h e Doctor says he is suffering with pneumonia." lohn Nelson Borland ( 1 8 2 8 - 1 8 9 0 ) , a Yale graduate of 1848, was a physician of 229 Beacon Street, Boston. 2. Ward had written from Washington, D.C., on December 8: " I enclose for Poor George a check I reed in Mobile from Houghton for my 'Nocturne' the only money my pen has brought me since 1 8 3 2 . . . If I glean some fees I will try and do something more for George when I see you at Christmas."

3565.

To Edward Lillie Pierce Camb. Deer 20. 1874

Ms. duly received last evening.^ H.W.L. MANUSCRIPT; Harvard College Library, State House / Boston,

ADDRESS; Edward L. Pierce E s q / 1 5

Old

POSTMARK; CAMBRIDGE STATION MASS, DEC 2 1

I. T h e manuscript is identified in Pierce's letter of December 19 as "the Journal of Mr Sumners life in Paris."

3 566.

To Amelia M. Calkins^ Cambridge

Dec 23 1874

Dear Madam, You will think me very negligent in not sooner thanking you for your friendly letter, and the photograph of your beautiful boy; but the truth is I did not receive them till two days ago. This must be my apology if any is needed. 8 I I

EMBERS

THAT

STILL

BURN

Did you ever see a poem by Miss Mulock, now Mrs Craik,^ entitled "Philip my King"? T h e moment I saw your boy's face that poem came back to my mind. I dare say it is familiar to you. If not, do hunt it up and read it. You will find it in Dana's "Household Book of Poetry" p. 125.^ W i t h many thanks, I am, Dear Madam, Yours very truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. Mrs. Calkins, aged thirty-four, whom Longfellow had apparently met in lune, had written in a letter dated "St. Louis, Nov. 1 8 7 4 " : "I send you this picture of my boy — because to me it is sweeter than aught else in the world, and in no other way could I repay your offering of June's dear roses. I am glad Kate told you how much I love you — for it is true, and it makes me very happy when singing or reading words you were inspired to utter, and to believe you are my friend — in that you are hers." Her boy was Freddie, aged five. Kate was Katharine Sherwood Bonner McDowell C 1 8 4 9 - 1 8 8 3 ) , short story writer and novelist of Holly Springs, Miss., whose fifty-four letters to Longfellow between 1 8 7 3 and 1881 made her one of his principal correspondents of the period. Mrs. Calkins, Michigan-born, had met her during a residence in Holly Springs, where Mr. Calkins had served on radical boards during the carpetbag regimes of the Reconstruction government. 2 . In 1 8 6 4 Dinah Maria Mulock ( 1 8 2 6 - 1 8 8 7 ) , English author, married George Lillie Craik ( 1 8 3 7 - 1 9 0 5 ) , a partner in Macmillan & Company. 3 . Charles A. Dana, ed., The Household Book of Poetry (New York, 1 8 5 9 ) .

3567.

T o Ralph Waldo

Emerson Camb. Deer. 23. 1874.

M y Dear Emerson, M a n y thanks for your kind remembrance and present of "Parnassus."^ I have read your Preface with great interest and pleasure, but the book itself not yet. T h a t requires more leisure. I hope and believe that I shall find in it many things not to be found easily elsewhere. Writing to Judge Hoar the other day,^ I ventured to suggest the name of Geo. W . Greene, author of the L i f e of G e n [era] 1 Greene, as one to be included in the list of invited guests at the Concord celebration in April. If you approve of this, will you be kind enough to see it is not forgotten? M r . Greene takes a livelier interest in our history than any one I know, and therefore I have taken this liberty. Yours faithfully Henry W . Longfellow Ralph Waldo Emerson Memorial Association, Emerson, VI, 2 6 8 .

MANUSCRIPT:

PUBLISHED:

Letters of

1. An anthology of Emerson's favorite poems by miscellaneous writers, published by James R. Osgood & Company in 1 8 7 5 . 2 . See Letter No. 3 5 6 2 . 8 I2

CAMBRIDGE, 3568.

To Asakel Clark

1874

Kendrick}

Camb. Decr 28. 1874. Dear Sir, As my copyrights are in the hands of Mr. Osgood of Boston, he is the proper person to answer your question. I fear there would be serious objections to publishing in your Collection any of the longer poems, but am willing to refer the whole matter to him. The style of his firm is J. R. Osgood & Co. 131 Franklin St, Boston. I am. Dear Sir Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. MANUSCRIPT:

University

of

Rochester Library.

I. In an unrecovered letter Kendrick ( 2 8 8 3 . 1 ) had asked permission to include some of Longfellow's poems in his anthology Our Poetical Favorites ( N e w York, 1 8 7 5 ) .

3569.

To James Ripley Osgood

Camb. Dec. 28, 1874. Dear Mr. Osgood I did not receive your letter till this morning, which will account for the tardiness of my answer. I should hardly be willing to accept your proposition regarding payments on copies of T h e Crane'; but will take your note on three months for any copies published after date, which will perhaps accommodate you equally well. I like the plan of a cheaper edition, if you are willing to undertake it on the same terms as above.^ Yours truly Henry W . Longfellow. unrecovered; text from Item 532 in catalogue of Chamberlain Sale, February 16 and 17, 1909. I. Osgood's letter containing his "proposition" regarding royalties for The Hanging of the Crane is unrecovered, but on December 29 he wrote as follows: "Under the circumstances I shall not dare to print more than 1000 copies of the large edition of 'Hanging of the Crane.' As to the smaller edition it will be either 3000 or 5000, on which the copyright will be i 5 cents per copy. I shall then propose to give you a note at 3 months from the day the printing is ordered for MANUscRrPT:

1000 3000

a a

50^ 15«*

$500. 450

$950. (or 5000 if we decide on that number

$750)."

On January 1 1 , 1875, he sent Longfellow a statement of sales, a check for $862.50, and "a note at three months for $ i 100. — being copyright on

813

EMBERS

THAT

STILL

BURN

I ООО Crane, large edn 4000 " popular edn." For the editions referred to, see BAL 1 2 1 6 6 and 12538.

3570.

To Edward LilUe Pierce

Camb. Deer. 29. 1874 Dear Mr Pierce, Greene is still here and will be for the rest of the week. We shall be glad to see you on Thursday. Yours in haste H.W.L P.S. Remember that our dinner hour is 6 o'clock. MANUSCMPT: Harvard College Library.

3571.

To Isaac McLellan

[Cambridge] | ¡December, 1874II1 My Dear McLellan, I hope you will pardon me for so long delaying to answer your kind and friendly letter.^ Since receiving it all my time and thoughts have been occupied by my son, who has been ill with pneumonia in Boston, and my constant going in and out, and my anxiety of mind have put everything else out of my head. I am happy ||to say that he is|| better, and ||that I hope soon to|| get him home. It was as great a disappointment to me as it was to you to be in your region and not to see you. What a charming, quiet region it is! I was delighted with it; and envy you its seclusion and repose. Life here is too much interrupted and ground to dust. The next best thing to seeing you was to see your niece.·'' I beg you to present to her and her husband my warm felicitations on their marriage. I have every reason to thank the skilful physician, who set me on my feet so soon, and shall alw||ays remem||ber his kind atten||tions.|| You recall the ||past very|| pleasantly; but it ||all seems|| so far away, that ||I begin toll think it was some||one else|| and not I, that ||used to|| ramble with you Ijthrough the|| pine groves of B||owdoin.|| I do not think it probable that I shall visit Shelter Island next Summer. So I must rely upon your coming to Boston again for my hope of seeing ||you.|| l'Mani |y thanks for the poems | |you sen| |t me. I read them | |all wit| |h great 8 I 4

CAMBRIDGE,

1874

interest and ||pleasure||, and hardly know ||which I|| like best, though ||the persi|onal interest I take in ||some of t||hem turns perhaps ||my preferen||ce. 11 Aiwa I lys with affectionate || greetings Henry W . Longfellowjl MANUSCRIPT:

Longfellow Trust Collection.

1. The manuscript is mutilated and the restorations conjectural. 2. McLellan had written from Greenport, Long Island, on December 6, regretting that he had not seen Longfellow during his visit to Shelter Island, August 22-31, and indulging in a rambling discourse on Bowdoin College days. 3. Identified in McLellan's letter as "Miss Page inow Mrs Dr Ireland)." Ella Wingate Page had married Dr. Treadwell Lewis Ireland (b. 1825) of Greenport on October 29, 1874.

815

SHORT TITLES I N D E X OF

OF W O R K S

CITED

RECIPIENTS

S H O R T T I T L E S OF WORKS C I T E D BAL

Letters of Emerson

Life

Longfellow

and

Scandinavia

"Longfellow-Freiligrath Correspondence"

Poems of Places

Poets and Poetry of Europe

Sumner Memoir and Letters

Sumner and the Rights of Man Sumner Works Uncle Sam Ward and His Circle

Bibliography of American Literature, compiled by Jacob Blanck for the Bibliographical Society of America ( N e w Haven, Yale University Press, 1 9 5 5 - 1 9 7 3 ) - 6 vols. Ralph L. Rusk, ed., The Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson ( N e w York, Columbia University Press, 1 9 3 9 } , 6 vols. Samuel Longfellow, ed.. Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow with Extracts from His Journals and Correspondence (Boston and N e w York, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1 8 9 1 ) . Standdard Library Edition, 3 vols. Andrew Hilen, Longfellow and Scandinavia: A Study of the Poet's Relationship with the Northern Languages and Literature ( N e w Haven, Yale University Press, 1 9 4 7 ) . James T a f t Hatfield, " T h e Longfellow-Freiligrath Correspondence," Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, X L V I I I (December 1 9 3 3 ) , 1 2 2 3 - 1 2 9 2 . Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed.. Poems of Places (Boston, James R. Osgood and Company; Houghton, Osgood and Company, 1 8 7 6 - 1 8 7 9 ) , 3 1 vols. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed.. The Poets and Poetry of Europe, with Introductions and Biographical Notices (Philadelphia, Porter and Coates, 1 8 7 1 ) . Edward L . Pierce, ed.. Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner (Boston, Roberts Brothers, 1 8 7 7 1 8 9 4 ) , 4 vols. David Donald, Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man ( N e w York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1 9 7 0 ) . The Works of Charles Sumner (Boston, Lee and Shepard, 1 8 7 0 - 1 8 8 3 ) , 1 5 vols. Maud Howe Elliott, Uncle Sam Ward and His Circle ( N e w York, Macmillan Co., 1 9 3 8 ) .

8 I 9

SHORT Works

TITLES

OF W O R K S

CITED

Samuel Longfellow, ed., The Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow with Biographical and Critical Notes (Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1886), Standard Library Edition, 11 vols.

82(

I N D E X OF R E C I P I E N T S (References are to letter numbers)

Abbott, Edward, 3 5 1 5 Abbott, Jane Maria, 3236 Adami, Hermann Heinrich, 2 7 1 1 Adams, Anne Rebecca Bridge, 3049 Addeman, Joshua Melancthon, 3 1 2 7 Agassiz, Elizabeth Gary, 2426, 2 9 1 5 , 3 1 7 1 . 3550 Agassiz, Jean Louis Rodolphe, 2353, 2486, 2 5 1 6 , 2592, 2699, 2746, 2993, 3354 Akers, Benjamin Paul, 2 5 1 7 Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 2417, 2 5 1 2 , 2749, 3084, 3409 Alexander, Lucia Gray Swett, 2359 Andersen, Hans Christian, 2 3 3 1 Anderson, James, 2663 Anderson, Rasmus Björn, 3296, 3529 Angel, Isaac, 3 1 0 5 Appleton, Edith Stuart, 3274 Appleton, Thomas Gold, 3095, 3 1 6 8 , 3 1 7 5 , 3324, 3480, 3522 Appleton, William Sumner, 2445, 2619, 2628, 2764 Argyll, Lady Elizabeth Georgiana Campbell, Duchess of, 3435 Asay, Edward G., 2780 Ascher, Jacob G., 3460 Ashburner, Grace, 2544 Atkinson, Edward, 2332 Atkinson, William Blake, 2670, 2725, 3126 Austin, Alfred, 3427 Austin, George Lowell, 2867, 3322 Babbage, Charles, 2675 Baird, James, 3 1 4 6 Balch, Francis Vergnies, 3505 Bancroft, George, 2580 Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 3501 Bangs, Edward, 2839 Bates, Charlotte Fiske, 2404, 3552 Benson, Samuel Page, 3539 Bigsby, Robert, 2755 Blamire, Joseph Liddell, 2506 Bliss, Maria Lindsay, 2672 Bloede, Gertrude, 2438

Board of Management, Governesses' Benevolent Institution, 2666 B0lling, j0rgen, 2333 Bone, John Herbert Aloysius, 2491 Bonner, Robert, 3382, 3400, 3405· 34 ю , 3414 Botta, Vincenzo, 2885 Bovee, Marvin Henry, 3050, 3436 Bowditch, Henry Ingersoll, 2340 Bradford, Charles Frederick, 2482 Bright, Henry Arthur, 2581 Bright, John, 3437 Brimmer, Martin, 2435 Brooks, Sarah Warner, 2807 Brown, David Paul, 2768 Bryant, William Gullen, 2386 Buck, Dudley, 3247 Burritt, Elihu, 2 5 0 1 , 2654, 3030 Butler, Hebron Vincent, 2781 Byron, George Gordon de Luna, 2336 Calkins, Amelia M., 3566 Cameron, Juha Margaret, 2681 Cantagalh, Romeo, 2 4 1 5 Capen, Nahum, 3 4 2 1 , 3466 Carpenter, Matthew Hale, 2377 Carter, Robert, 2756, 3526 Gary, Emma Forbes, 2363 Gary, Thomas Graves, 3096 Cesati, Vincenzo, 3395 Chamberlain, Joshua Lawrence, 3485 Chandler, Peleg Whitman, 2724, 2740, 2742 Chapman, Henry Leland, 2785 Chapman, Maria Weston, 2472 Cheney, Theseus Apoleon, 2794 Child, Francis James, 2548, 2557, 2616, 2914, 3432 Childs, George William, 2503, 2 6 5 1 , 2703, 3 1 6 9 , 3546 Clark, Edward Perkins, 3503 Clark, Eudora, 2905, 2907, 3 1 0 8 Clarke, James Freeman, 2790, 3270 Clarke, Sarah Anne, 3 1 4 2 , 3 1 4 3 Clerk, Alice Mary Frere. See Frere, Alice Mary

821

I N D E X OF Cleveland, Eliza Callahan, 3369 Cleveland, Sarah Perkins, 2451 Clifford, John Henry, 2872 Cobb, Samuel Crocker, 3430 Colt, James Benjamin, 3035 Committee of the Boston Board of Trade, 3182 Convoisier, Eugène, 3 3 1 0 Conway, Moncure Daniel, 2656 Couper, James, 2660 Cowan, James, 2379 Crane, Thomas Frederick, 3 2 1 7 Curtis, George William, 2 5 1 1 , 2 7 3 1 , 2882, 3 1 0 0 , 3203, 3 2 1 6 , 3442 Curtis, Harriot Appleton, 2518, 2594 Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 3061 Dall, Carohne Wells Healey, 2500, 2630 Dana, Richard Henry, Jr., 2320, 3 0 2 1 , 3303. 3469 Dana, Samuel Turner, 2733 Dana, Sarah Watson, 2454, 2552, 2880 Darley, Felix Octavius Carr, 2578 Davidson, Thomas, 2550, 2568 Davy, Richard Boyd, 3024, 3069 Deane, Charles, 3486 Deblois, Thomas Amory, 2408 Denham & Company, Alexander, 3209, 3309 Depret, Louis Pierre Frédéric, 2771 De Wolf, Abigail, 3359 Dixon, William Hepworth, 2463 Dodge, Robert, 2338, 2997 Dorr, Mary Gray Ward, 2623 Drake, Francis Samuel, 3 1 2 4 Edgren, August Hjalmar, 3 1 4 7 Eggleston, Edward, 2904 Eliot, Emily Marshall Otis, 2363 Eliot, Samuel, 2360, 2878, 3 1 2 2 , 3 1 2 3 , 3341 Eliza, 2 7 1 2 Ellis, George Edward, 2769 Elze, Karl, 2625 Emerson, George Barrell, 3457 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 2732, 3567 Ernst, Carl Wilhelm, 3 5 1 8 Everhart, James Bowen, 3434 Fabbrini, Giuseppa, 2799, 3 1 0 4 Farrer, Frances, 2596 Fay, Amy, 2358, 3052 Ferguson, Elizabeth, 2664 Ferguson, Robert, 2326, 2488, 2655, 2658, 2736 Fette, William Eliot, 3446 Field, Cyrus West, 2952

RECIPIENTS Fields, Annie Adams, 2464, 2673, 2 7 1 3 , 2 7 1 6 , 2808, 2916, 2944, 3 1 3 0 , 3196, 3253, 3 3 1 9 , 3378 Fields, James Thomas, 2 3 1 6 , 2344, 2352, 2369, 2380, 2394, 2 4 1 2 , 2416, 2 4 2 1 , 2422, 2 4 4 1 , 2444, 2461, 2466, 2477, 2484, 2487, 2498, 2 5 2 1 , 2532, 2536, 2554, 2576, 2577, 2586, 2587, 2599, 2602, 2606, 2648, 2653, 2676, 2688, 2690, 2694, 2708, 2 7 1 3 , 2 7 2 1 , 2748, 2750, 2760, 2775, 2797, 2801, 2804, 2 8 1 1 , 28Г4, 2825, 2836, 2847, 2849, 2853, 2854, 2884, 2893, 2898, 2 9 1 7 , 2923, 2924, 2928, 2948, 2954, 2959, 29757 2978, 2991, 3023, 3026, 3038, 3059, 3065, 3077, 3 1 0 2 , 3 1 3 4 , 3 1 4 0 , 3149, 3 1 9 1 , 3205, 3 2 1 2 , 3 2 3 3 , 3264, 3298, 3325, 3330, 3336, 3338, 3340, 3344, 337i> 3379. 34^2, 3439, 3440. 3475, 3496, 3506, 3 5 5 1 , 3553 Fields, Osgood & Company, 2833, 2871 Finotti, Gustavus Adolphus Giuseppe Maria, 3 1 8 5 Fletcher, Mrs. Edmund, 2585 Fogg, John Samuel Hill, 3478 Foot, Charles P., 2453 Forster, John, 2579, 2669, 2677, 2684, 2691, 2693, 2827, 3 3 1 8 , 3403 Francis, Charles S., 2495, 2502 Freiligrath, Ferdinand, 2496, 2543, 2682, 2683, 3022, 3301 Freihgrath, Kate, 2547 Frere, Alice Mary, 2475, 2478, 2479, 2492, 2526, 2 5 9 1 , 2692, 3452 Furness, William Henry, 2 8 6 ; Gannett, Ezra Stiles, 2549 Gay, Winckworth Allan, 2852 Girard, Louis, 3201 Goss, Elbridge Henry, 3483a Graham, James Lorimer, Jr., 2527 Grant, Robert, 3 3 1 5 Greene, Anna Maria, 2890 Greene, Catherine Porter, 2705, 3292 Greene, George Washington, 2308, 2 3 1 0 , 2 3 1 3 , 2 3 2 1 , 2323, 2335, 2337, 2339, 2342, 2343, 2355, 2357, 2366, 2367, 2368, 2374, 2 3 8 1 , 2384, 2403, 2405, 2409, 2 4 1 3 , 2420, 2423, 2424, 2429, 2 4 3 1 , 2433, 2434, 2436, 2439, 2442, 2446, 2448, 2450, 2455, 2459, 2460, 2469, 2470, 2473, 2489, 2499, 2 5 1 4 , 2522, 2525, 2528, 2530, 2533, 2534, 2537, 2540, 2545, 2555, 2556, 2558, 2560, 2564, 2565, 2583, 2588, 2597, 2600, 260Г, 2605, 2607, 2 6 1 3 , 2629, 263 r, 2634, 2636, 2644, 2678, 2704, 2706, 2726, 2730, 2735, 2 7 4 1 , 2 7 5 1 ,

822

I N D E X OF 2 7 6 1 , 2770, 2773, 1 7 7 6 , 2778, 2779. 2782, 2783, 2786, 2 7 9 1 , 2795, 2796, 2798, 2800, 2 8 1 2 , 2 8 1 3 , 2816, 2818, 2 8 2 1 , 2823, 2826, 2 8 3 1 , 2835, 2841, 2844, 2 8 5 1 , 2855, 2859, 2864, 2876, 2879, 2887, 2895, 2897, 2909, 2 9 1 2 , 2919, 2929, 2932, 2933, 2937, 2938, 2940, 2941, 2953, 2955, 2960, 2961, 2962, 2965, 2970, 2972, 2977, 2980, 2983, 2987, 2992, 2994, 2996, 2999, 3000, 3001, 3003, 3004, 3005, 3007, 3008, 3009, 3010, 3 0 1 3 , 3040, 3041, 3044, 3 0 5 1 , 3060, 3062, 3066, 3067, 3070, 3081, 3083, 3085, 3086, 3088, 3089, 3091, 3093, 3098, 3 1 0 1 , 3 1 0 7 , 3 1 0 9 , 31 I I , 3 1 1 2 , 3 1 1 4 , 31 I 5, 3 1 1 6 , 3 1 1 8 , 3120, 3128, 3 1 3 1 , 3135, 3137, 3 1 4 1 , 3 1 4 4 , 3148, 3 1 5 1 , 3 1 5 7 , 3 1 5 9 , 3160, 3 1 6 1 , 3 1 6 2 , 3 1 6 4 , 3 1 6 5 , 3 1 6 7 , 3 1 7 0 , 3 1 7 2 , 3 1 7 9 , 3 1 9 2 , 3 1 9 7 , 3202, 3 2 1 0 , 3 2 1 9 , 3220, 3 2 2 1 , 3222, 3223, 3226, 3228, 3230, 3234, 3237, 3^38, 3239, 3242, 3245, 3250, 3 2 5 1 , 3252, 3256, 3260, 3265, 3 2 7 1 , 3275, 3280, 3285, 3287, 3290, 3295, 32.99, 3 3 " . 3312,3314,3323,3327,3329,3331, 3339, 3342, 3346, 3347, 3350, 3365, 3372, 3375, 3377, 3387, 3 3 9 1 , 3396, 3407, 3 4 1 1 , 3415, 3423, 3433, 3443, 3444, 3445, 3448, 3450, 3 4 5 1 , 3453, 3462, 3468, 3473, 3477, 3481, 3497, 3499, 3504, 3508, 3 5 1 3 , 3 5 1 4 , 3 5 1 7 , 3 5 1 9 , 3520, 3523, 3527, 3530, 3 5 3 1 , 3533, 3534, 3536, 3537, З538, 354°, 3 5 4 1 , 3543, 3545, 3548, 3554, 3556, 3558 Greene, William, 2356, 2468, 2 5 3 1 , 2535, 2546, 2589, 2595, 2617, 2641, 2645, 2729, 2734, 2925, 2963, 2966, 2998, 3034, 3 1 9 5 , 3 2 1 1 , 3470 Greenleaf, Mary Longfellow, 3 1 8 3 Griggs, Samuel Chapman, 3180, 3 3 5 7 Groom, Thomas, 3 1 2 5 Hale, Edward Everett, 2787 Haliburton, Robert Grant, 3002, 3014, 3027 Hall, Elizabeth, 3386 Hamilton, Cecilia Viets Dakin, 2877, 2936, 2988, 3057 Harvard Club of N e w York, 3075 Haskell, Daniel Noyes, 3235 Haskins, Hannah E., 3476 Hastings, Julia Sumner, 2949 Haven, Edward Belknap, 3 4 1 7 , 3420 Hawker, Robert Stephen, 3455 Hawkins, Dexter Arnold, 2896 Hawthorne, Sophia Peabody, 2400

RECIPIENTS Hayden, Ferdinand Vandiveer, 2635 Hayne, Paul Hamilton, 3071 Healy, George Peter Alexander, 2698, 3511 Henry, Joseph, 3502 Herschel, Sir John Frederick William, 2538 Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 3458 Hill, Herbert, 2637 Hill, Rosa Fanny, 2341 Hoar, Ebenezer Rockwood, 3562 Hogarth, Georgina, 2828 Hohenhausen, Baroness Elise Fehcitas Friederike, 2580a, зз9са Holmes, John Williams, 2626 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 2 5 7 1 , 2573 Hooper, Lucy Hamilton, 2622 Hooper, Samuel, 3297 Horsford, Phoebe Dayton Gardiner, 2327 Howard, Apphia Horner, 2752, 2840, 3493 Howe, Julia Ward, 2575 Howe, Samuel Gridley, 3019, 3 2 3 1 , 3459 Howells, William Dean, 2396, 2480, 2507, 2 6 1 2 , 2640, 2822, 2848, 2868, 2886, 3 2 1 4 , 3367, 3429, 3488, 3 4 9 1 , 3560 Hurd & Houghton, 3 1 8 6 Ingelow, Jean, 2328 James, Henry, Sr., 2638 James, Isabella Batchelder, 2759, 2837, 3006 Jones, Charles Colcock, Jr., 2608, 2850, 3479 Keck, Karl, 3306, 3389, 3424 Kendrick, Asahel Clark, 2883, 3568 Kingsley, Charles, 2665 Knorr, Baroness Josephine, 3 4 1 9 Knortz, Karl, 2758, 3 1 3 3 , 3465 Kohl, Johann Georg, 2427 Kortright, Fanny Aikin, 3507 Lamb, Α., 3397, 3404 Langmaid, Samuel Wood, 3390 Lanman, Charles, 2762, 3032, 3 1 7 7 , 3356 Laugel, Elizabeth Bates Chapman, 2661, 2802 Lawrence, Edward Arthur, 3200 Lawrence, Elizabeth, 3 1 7 3 Lee, Albert, 2 3 5 1 , 2354 Lemay, Léon Pamphile, 2889 Lieber, Francis, 2440, 3016, 3 1 1 3 , 3 1 3 8 , 3204, 3 2 1 3 Liszt, Franz, 3224 Little, Abigail Wheaton, 2509

823

INDEX

OF

Longfellow, Alexander Wadsworth, 2373, 2737, 2832, 2869, 2900, 2906, 3232, 3273, 3276 Longfellow, Alexander Wadsworth, Jr., 2738 Longfellow, Alice Mary, 2383, 2387, 2390, 3i74> 3207, 3 5 1 6 Longfellow, Anne Allegra, 2372, 2559, 2561, 2728, 2842, 2845, Ì 9 7 1 . 2976, 3166, 3254, 3257, 3 1 5 8 , 3266, 3267, 3268, 3269, 3272, 3334, 3349, 3 3 8 1 , 3454, 3482, 3489 Longfellow, Charles Appleton, 2385, 2388, 2398, 2401, 2432, 2452, 2508, 2689, 2701, 2 7 1 7 , 2763, 2862, 2939, 1947. 2950, 2964, 2995, 3058, 3 1 5 2 , 3 1 7 6 , 3206, 3225, 3243, 3244, 3277, 3288, 3320, 3362, 3401 Longfellow, Edith, 2 3 7 1 , 2553, 2559, 2728, 2842, 2845, 2969, 2973, 2974, 3254, 3257, 3258, 3259, 3261, 3267, 3268, 3269, 3272, 3289, 3333. 3349. 3 4 7 1 . 3472 Longfellow, Ernest Wadsworth, 2 3 1 1 , 2334, 2365, 2378, 2392, 2399, 2402 Longfellow, Richard King, 2754 Longfellow, William Pitt Preble, 2 3 9 1 , 3392 Lowell, James Russell, 2309, 2 3 1 7 , 2685, 2697, 2767, 2784, 2985 Lowell, Mabel, 3 1 1 0 Luce, Stephen Bleecker, 3461 Lukens, Henry Clay, 2863 Lyon, Caleb, 3426 McCarthy, Charlotte Allman, 2956 MacCarthy, Denis Florence, 2541, 3 3 1 6 Mackenzie, Colin Grant, 2567 Mackintosh, Mary Appleton, 3416 McLellan, Isaac, 3571 McMichael, Clayton, 3054 Maltchycé, Mathilde de, 3282 Mann, Mary Tyler Peabody, 2481, 2627 Manning, John Burgess, 2662 Marble, Earl, 2903, 3464 Markaage, Salvado, 3394 Markens, Isaac, 2753 Marmier, Xavier, 2700, 2723, 2901, 3388 Marsh, Caroline Crane, 2820 Marsh, Juliet C., 3078 Massett, Stephen C., 2951 Masson, Henry, 2324 Mathews, Charles Elkin, 3524 Mayer, Alfred Marshall, 3278 Mayer, Brantz, 2375, 2490 Merrill, Moody, 3456 Messedaglia, Angelo, 2604 Mifflin, Charles Henry, 2598

RECIPIENTS Mifflin, George Harrison, 3307 Milburn, Cornelia Ann Wilmot, 2 3 1 5 Milman, Henry Hart, 2476, 2671 Monti, Luigi, 2397, 2709, 2710, 2 7 1 4 , 2803, 3 1 9 3 , 3 2 9 1 , 3355, 3498a Moran, Benjamin, 2659 Mountford, William, 3283 Muspratt, James Sheridan, 2 8 1 7 Nason, Elias, 2610 Neal, John, 2419, 2539, 2739, 3535 Nichol, John, 2569, 2718, 3248 Northend, William Dummer, 3304, 3376 Norton, Catherine Jane, 2570 Norton, Charles Eliot, 2 3 1 8 , 2370, 2483, 2524, 2529, 2 5 5 1 , 2620, 2686, 2696, 2722, 2857, 3087, 3 1 0 3 , 3150, 3361 Osgood, James Ripley, 2493, 2510, 2894, 2922, 2979, 3015, 3033, 3048, 3056, 3076, 3099, 3158, 3184, 3 2 1 5 , 3240. 3328, 3353. 3402, 3408, 3 4 1 2 , 3 4 1 3 , 3418, 3425, 3 4 3 1 . 3487. 3525. 3542, 3547, 3569 Osgood & Company, James R., 2942, 3042, 3092 Owen, John, 2393, 2633, 2902, 3 0 1 7 , 3262, 3335. 3438, 3441, 3483. 3509, 3 5 1 0 , 3528, 3559 Oxnard, Charlotte Farnham, 2766 Packard, Alpheus Spring, 2744 Palfrey, John Gorham, 2350, 3383 Palfrey, Mary Ann Hammond, 2 5 1 5 Palfrey, Sarah Hammond, 2 3 1 4 Palmer, John Williamson, 2329 Parkman, Mary Eliot Dwight, 2347 Patten, George Evans, 2789 Peirce, Harriet Melusina Fay, 2361 Peirce, Sarah Hunt Mills, 3428 Penington, Edward, 3286 Perabo, Johann Ernst, 2642 Perkins, Frances D. Bruen, 3294 Perry, Thomas Sergeant, 2389 Perry, Walter S., 3358 Piatt, John James, 2348, 2926 Pierce, Anne Longfellow, 3302 Pierce, Edward Lillie, 3463, 3484, 3492, 3498, 3 5 1 2 , 3 5 2 1 , 3549, 3555, 3563, 3565, 3570 Pierce, Josiah, 2407 Pombo, Rafael, 2934, 3072, 3079, 3080 Porter & Coates, 2805, 2810, 2873, 2927 Potter, Thomas Ashton, 3063 Preble, George Henry, 2765 President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2843 Putnam, George Palmer, 2931 824

I N D E X OF Rae, William Fraser, 2881 Ralston, William Ralston Shedden, 2967 Richardson, William T . , 2 6 5 2 Roberts Brothers, 2 3 3 0 Rohr, Lorenz, 3 5 1 4 a Rölker, Bernard, 2349, 2603, 2647, 3 5 3 2 Routledge, Edmund, 3 3 1 5 3 Routledge, George, 2 4 : 8 , 2474, 2497, 2687, 2695, 3 3 5 1 Routledge & Sons, George, 2467 Russell, Thomas, 2745, 2747, 3 0 1 8 , 3364 Salvini, Tommaso, 3366 Sargeant, Lulie В., 3 5 6 1 Sargent, Epes, 2406 Sargent, Mary Elizabeth Fiske, 3449 Saunders, William Augustus, 2307 Schaad, John Christian, 2 3 2 5 Schlesinger, Sebastian Benson, 2 6 1 8 , 2870, 3 1 2 1 Scudder, Horace Ehsha, 2743 Sermoneta, Michelangelo Caetani di, 3284 Sewell, Elizabeth Missing, 2680 Shaw, Pauline Agassiz, 3 3 7 3 Sperry, M . G., 2 7 1 5 Spooner, Charles Wiley, 2834 Stanfield, Mark Merrill, 2395 Stanley, Robert N., 3544 Stebbins, Sarah Bridges, 3500 Stoddard, Richard Henry, 3025, 3 1 0 6 Stone, William Leete, 2566 Strahan, Alexander, 3 2 4 1 Stuart, William Whitewright, 3 1 5 5 Sturgis, Russell, 3068 Sumner, Charles, 2 3 1 2 , 2 3 1 9 , 2 3 2 2 , 2 3 4 5 , 2346, 2 3 7 6 , 2 4 1 1 , 2 4 1 4 , 2425, 2 4 3 7 , 2447, 2449, 2456, 2458, 2 4 7 1 , 2485, 2505, 2542, 2562, 2 5 7 2 , 2574, 2582, 2590, 2 5 9 3 , 2 6 1 4 , 2 6 2 1 , 2639, 2643, 2649, 2650, 2679, 2 7 5 7 , 2 7 7 2 , 2774, 2788, 2792, 2 7 9 3 , 2809, 2829, 2838, 2846, 2860, 2874, 2 8 9 J , 2899, 2908, 2 9 1 0 , 2 9 1 3 , 2920, 2 9 2 1 , 2930, 2943, 2945, 2 9 8 1 , 2984, 2989, 3036, 3045, 3047, 3 0 5 5 . 3082, 3090, 3094. 3097. 3129, 3132, 3145, 3153, 3156, 3163, 3 1 7 8 , 3 1 8 1 , 3188, 3189, 3194, 3198, 3 1 9 9 , 3 2 1 8 , 3 2 2 7 , 3246, 3249, 3 2 5 5 , 3 2 6 3 , 3279, 3 2 9 3 , 3300, 3308, 33i7> 3 3 2 6 , 3 3 3 2 , 3 3 4 5 , 3348, 3 3 6 3 . 3 3 7 0 , 3374. 3385, 3393, 3398 Synge, William W e b b Follett, 2443, 3046 Taylor, Bayard, 2 8 1 5 , 2 8 1 9 , 2888, 3 0 3 1 , 3039. 3 4 7

RECIPIENTS Tennyson, Alfred, 2494, 2667 Tennyson, Emily, 2674 Terry, Louisa Ward, 2707 Thomas, Lawrence Buckley, 3 3 2 1 Thompson, James Maurice, 3360 Ticknor, George, 2 5 1 9 Tobey, Edward Silas, 2858 Torrey, Benjamin Barstow, 2946 Torrey, Henry Warren, 2364 Townsend, Henry Clay, 3281 Traub, Fanny, 2428 Tuckelman, Samuel, 3 5 5 7 Twisleton, Edward Turner Boyd, 2957 Underwood, Francis Henry, 2 9 1 8 , 2982, 3074 Unidentified Correspondent, 2465, 2520, 2 5 2 3 , 2609, 2 6 1 1 , 2 6 1 5 , 2 7 1 9 , 2797a, 2824, 2 8 6 1 , 2 9 3 5 , 2958, 2968, 2990, 3 0 1 2 , 3028, 3029, 3 1 8 7 , 3 3 0 5 , 3 3 3 7 , 3343. 3352, 3384 Union League of Philadelphia, 3043 Usher, Thomas, 2 9 1 1 Vere, Aubrey Thomas de, 2856 Vicuña, Carlos Moria, 3 0 1 1 Volck, John, 3208 Ward, Anna Hazard Barker, 2702 Ward, Samuel, 3380, 3399, 3474. 3 4 9 ° , 3494, 3564 Waring, George Edwin, 3 1 9 0 Washburne, Elihu Benjamin, 2720 Watt, Robert, 3 1 1 9 Weir, John Ferguson, 3406 Weir, Mary Hannah French, 3 3 1 3 Wells, Thomas, 2563 West & Lee, 3368 Whelpley, Albert W . , 3064, 3073 Whipple, Edwin Percy, 2 4 1 0 , 2 5 1 3 , 2 7 2 7 Whitney, Benjamin White, 2830 Whitney, William Lambert, 2806 Wilson, James Grant, 2624, 2892, 3 0 5 3 , 3229 Winter, William, 2 3 8 2 Winthrop, Frances Maria, 2584 Winthrop, Robert Charles, 2430, 2504, 2 6 3 2 , 2646, 2657, 2668, 2 7 7 7 , 2866, 3020, 3 0 3 7 Wireman, Henry Druke, 2875 Witherle, George Henry, 3 4 4 7 Witte, Karl, 3 1 3 9 Woodman, Horatio, 2 3 6 2 , 2457, 2462 Woodward, Annie Aubertine, 2986 Woollett, Sidney, 3136, 3154. З467. 3495

825