prefa ce. the m aterials for a life of willis are rich enough to be embarrassing. most of his writ...

k

c o c e e

Copyr igh t, 1885,

Br HENRY A . BEERS.

A ll r igh ts r eserved.

Th e River s ide Pr ess , Ca m br idge, Ma ss ., U.

E lectr otyped an d Pr in ted by H. O . Hough ton Com pany .

PREFA CE .

THE m aterials for a life of W ill is are rich

enough to be embarrassing . Most of h is writ

ings are, in a greater or less degree, autob io

graphical ; and it would be possible to make a

very tolerable life of him, by arranging passages

from these in the right order, and linking them

together with a few paragraphs of cold facts .

Then,he lived very much in the world’s eye,

and was constantly talked an d written about,

so that there is abundant mention of him in

newspaper fil es, and in volumes of Recollec

tions,”etc., by his contemporaries . In addition

to these printed sources, I have been furnished,by the kindness of Mrs . N. P. Willis, Miss Ju

lia Willis, and Mrs . imogen Will is E ddy, with

private letters, journals , and other MS . memo

randa by Willis, which extend from his school

days at A ndover down to a few weeks before

vi PREFA CE .

his death— of course not without la cun ae. A l

though I have not quoted very freely from these

letters , they have been of the greatest service,by supplying facts which I have incorporated

with the body of the narrative , and by cor

r ecting or verifying data otherwise obtained.

A biography of Will is could have been written

without them , but this part icul ar biography

could not ; and I take occasion hereby to ao

knowledge my debt to the ladies whose courtesy

gave me access to this material.

There are many others who have helped my

der taking in various ways too m any for me

to thank them all by name . But I cannot with

hold mention o f my obligations to Mr. Richard

S . Willis and to Mr. Morris Phillips, the editor

of the Home Jour nal .”

HENRY A . BEERS.

CONTENTS.

CHA PTER I .

A NCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS

CHA PTER II .

COLLEGE L IFE

CHA PTER III.

BOSTON AND THE A MERICAN MONTHLY

CHA PTER IV .

LIFE A BROAD

CHA PTER V .

L IFE A BROAD CONTINUED

CHA PTER V I .

GLENMARY THE CORSA IR THE NEW MIRROR

CHA PTER V II.

THIRD V IS IT To ENGLA ND—THE HOME JOURNAL .

viii CONTENTS.

CHA PTER V III.

IDLEW ILD AND LAST DA Y S

BIBLIOGRA PHY

INDEX

NA THA N IEL PA RK ER WILLIS.

CHA PTER I .

1806—1823.

A NCE STRY A ND E A RLY YE A RS .

WILLIS was born January 20, 1806 , in thelittle old seaport city of Portland, Maine, celeb r ated by the A utocrat for its great squaremansions

,the homes of retired sea-captains . The

town h ad already made some noise in literature,as the residence of that wild genius , John Neal ;and on February 27, 1807, little more than ayear after the date with which this biographybegins, it witnessed the birth of its most illustr ious citizen, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

A comparison at once suggests itself betweenthe subsequent fortunes in the republic of lettersof these two infant poets, fellow townsmen forsome five years . Willis was the earlier in thefield. In 1832, when Lon gfellow, then a youngprofessor at Bowdoin College, began to contrib

2 NATHANIE L PARKER WILLIS .

ute scholarly articles to the North A m ericanReview

,

” the former h ad been five years beforethe public

,and was already well known as a

poet,a magazine editor, an d a foreign corre

spon den t. When Outre-Mer ” was issued in1835, Will is h ad won a reputation as a prosewriter on both sides O f the A tlantic by his Pencillings in the “ New York Mirror ; and by1839 , when Longfellow published his first volume of original poetry,

“ Voices of the Night,his senior by a year h ad printed five books ofverse . But there is no question as to which hasproved the better continuer. Longfellow is stillthe favorite poet of two peoples ; a singer dearer,perhaps

,to the general heart than any other who

has sun g in the E n glish ton gue . His brilliantcontemporary, after being for about fifteen yearsthe most popular magazinist in A merica, hassunk into comparative oblivion .

1 This is the

1 Th is statem en t n eeds, h owever , som e qualifica tion . Mr .

Cla rk, o f Cla r k Mayn a rd, wh o publish Will is’

s poem s,tells

m e th at th ere is a steady sa le f or th ese of about two h un

dr ed copies an nually. Fif ty yea r s a f ter date th is is n ot b ad.

How m any COpies o f S omething a nd Other P oem s,issued in

1884 , will be a sked f or a t th e bookseller s ’ in the yea r o f g r ace

1934 Th e Copy r igh t o f m ost o f Willis’s poem s h av ing la telv

expir ed, a ch eap r epr in t o f th em h as just been put f or th , bea ring da te 1884 an d f orm in g No . 352 of “ Lov ell’s Libr a ry.

”

Th is seem s to poin t to a con tinued popula r dem and. His

pr ose wr itings a r e a t pr esen t out of pr in t. The f our th vol

um e o f S tor ies by A mer ican A uthor s con ta ins h is TWO Buck

ANCE STR Y A ND E ARL Y YE ARS. 3

fate of all fashionable literature . E very generation begin s by imitating the literary fashions ofthe last, and en ds with a reaction again st them .

A t present realism has the floor, sentimentis at a discount, an d W illis

’

s glittering , high-colored pictures of society, with their easy optimismand their unlikeness to hard fact, have little tosay to the readers of Z ola an d Henry James .Without presumin g any native equality between Willis and the Cambridge poet, it is fairto add that the former never found opportunityto deepen an d ripen such gift as was in him .

His life was passed not “ in the quiet and stillair of delightful studies, but in the rush O f the

gay world and the daily drudgery of the pen ;in the toil of journali sm, that most exhaustingof mental occupations, whi ch is forever givingforth an d never bringing in . His best workall of his work which claims remembrancewas done before he was forty . His earlier writings are not on ly hi s freshest, but his strongestand most carefully executed.

Willi s is a glaring instance of inherited tenden cies, being the third journalist in successionin his line O f descent. "

The founder of the family in this country, and the progenitor of our

ets in a Well,” an d it is under stood th at th e publish er s of th a tser ies h ave in m ind th e publication of a volum e o f selections

f r om Willie’s pr ose.

4 NATHANIE L PARKER WILLIS.

subject in the seventh generation, was a certainGeorge Willis, born in E ngland in 1602, whoarrived in New E ngland probably about 1630.

He was a brickmaker an d builder by trade, and

is described as a Puritan of considerable distinction,

” who resided in Cambr idge, Ma ssachu

setts , some sixty years, having been admitted tothe Freeman’s Oath in 1638 and elected a deputy to the General Court. Probably the mostnoteworthy of the poet’s forbears, at least uponthe father’s side

,was the Rev. John Bailey

,his

ancestor in the fifth generation , a non-conformin g Independent minister in Lancashire , who,having been silenced an d afterwards imprisoned

,

escaped to Massachusetts in 1684, an d was settled, first as minister over the church in Watertown

, and later as associate minister over theFirst Church in Boston , where he died in 1697 .

Increase Mather preached hi s funeral sermon.

His tomb is in the Granary Burying Groun d,adjoinin g Park Street Church, and his portraitin the cabinet of the Massachusetts HistoricalSociety. What more could a man ask for in anancestor ! No New E ngland pedigree which r e

spects itself is without one or more fine old Puritan divines of this kind. A ccordingly, whenWillis began to take that m ild, retrospective inter est in his own genealogy which f oretokens theon coming of age, wh en new twigs upon the

A NCE STR Y A ND E ARL Y YE ARS. 5

family tree give an unthought-o f importance tothe roots ,— h e bestowed the name of this particular forefather upon his youngest boy, BaileyWillis .Th e poet’s great-grandmother Will is , born

A bigail Belknap, was granddaughter to thisRev. John Bailey, a nd h ad some traits whichcropped out in her posterity . A t the time of thedestruction of the tea in Boston harbor, she cannily saved a little for private use . She used tosay

,I have got some Belknap pride in me yet ;

and among her favorite maxims were, Never

go into the back door when you can go into thefront, and “ Never eat brown bread when youcan get white . Th e husband of this lady wasCharles Willis

,a sail-maker and patriot

,who

was present on the occasion when tar and f eathers and hot tea were administered to his Majesty’s tax-collector in Boston . His position an d ac

tion in the af fair were represented in an ancientengraving, bought long afterwards by his grandson, Deacon Nathaniel Will is, our W illis

’

s f a

ther. A copy of the same is now in possessionof the Massachusetts Historical Society. Th e

son of Charles and A bigailWillis was Nathaniel,the third, though by no means the last, Williswith that baptismal name the first literary manin the family, an d the poet

’s grandfather. He

conducted in Boston, during the Revolutionary

6 NATHANIE L PARKE R WILLIS.

War,the Independent Chronicle, a Whig

newspaper,published from the same building in

which Franklin h ad worked as a printer. ThisNathaniel senior

,as we may call h im

,was an

active man . He was a fine horseman,took part

in the Boston tea-party, and wa s‘

adjutan t of theBoston regiment sent on an expedition to RhodeIsland under General Sullivan . In 1784 hesold his interest in the Independent Chrouicle, and became one of the pioneer journalistsof the unsettled West . He removed first toWinchester, Virgin ia, where he published a paper for a Short time ; then to Sh epa r dstown ,

where he also published a paper ; an d thencein 1790 to lVIar tin Sburg, Virginia, where hefounded the Potomac Guardian an d edited ittill 1796 . In that year he wen t to Chillicothe,Ohio

,an d established the Scioto Gazette ,

” thefirst newspaper in what was then known as theNorthwestern Territory. He was printer to the

government of the territory, and afterwards heldan agency in the Post O ffi ce Department. Hebought and cultivated a farm near Chill icothe,on which he ended his days A pril 1, 1831. His

wife was Lucy Douglas, of New London, Con

n ecticut .

His son and the poet’s father, Nathaniel VV illis

,Jun ior

, th e fourth Nathaniel in the family,—was born at Boston in 1780, and remained

A NCE STR Y A ND E A RL Y YE ARS .

there until 1787, when.

he joined his father atWinchester and was employed in his newspaperO f fice, an d subsequently at Martinsburg on thePotomac Guardian .

”In the infancy of A mer

ican journalism,the editor an d publisher of a

paper was usually a practical printer. Youn gNathaniel was put to work at once in foldingpapers an d setting types . A t Martinsburg heused to ride post

,with tin horn an d saddle-bags ,

delivering papers to scattered subscribers in thethinly settled country. N. P. Willis himselfserved a year’s apprenticeship at his father’spress in Boston, in an interval of his schoolin g ;and in his letters home from E ngland alludedtriumphantly to his having once been destinedby his parents to the trade of a printer. Hisparticular duty was to ink the types. We r emember ba lling an edition of

‘Watts’

s Psalmsand Hymns,

’

and there are lines in that goodbook that, to this day, go to the tune we playedwith the ink-balls, while conning them over.A sketch of the old of fice of the “ PotomacGuardian ,

”m ade by Porte Crayon , is in the

possession of Mr. Richard Storrs Willis of Detr oit.

A t the age of fifteen young Nathaniel returnedto Boston and entered th e ofii ce of his father’sold paper, the Independent Chronicle , work«

ing in the same press-room in Court Street

8 NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS.

where his father h ad once worked, and the greatFranklin before him . He also found time , whilein Boston

,to drill with the Fusili ers.” In

1803, invited by a Maine congressman and

other gentlemen of the Republican party, hewent to Portlan d and established the “ E asternA rgus in opposition to the Federalists . Herethe subject of this biography was born threeyears later. “Well do I remember that day,

”

his father wrote to him fi f ty-seven years after

the event , an d the driving snow-storm in whichI h ad to go , in an open sleigh , to bring in thenurse from the country. Francis Douglasboarded with us at that time . He was a verypleasant young man , an d h ad a half promise (ifit was a boy) it should be called .Fr a n ci s . Butyour mother soon overruled that, and decidedthat you Should have both of our names

,for fear

she Should never have another son ! You was afine fat baby, with a face as round as an apple.

”

Party spirit ran high at this time, and political articles were acrimonious . Libel suits werebrought against the publisher of the A rgus,

”

which involved him in trouble and expense ; an dsix years after its establishment it was sold forfour thousand dollars to the same Francis Douglas who h ad come so near imposing h is Christian name on the infant Willis . A t PortlandNathaniel Will is came under the ministrations

ANCE STR Y A ND E ARL Y YE ARS . 9

and influen ce of the Rev. Edward Payson, D . D. ,

—ou Whose death , many years after, his soncomposed some rather perfun ctory verses, and

began henceforth to devote himself to the causeof religion . From 1810 to 1812 he sought toestablish a religious newspaper in Portlan d, butmet with no substantial encouragemen t . A t thelatter date he returned to Boston , where , afteryears of e f fort, during which he supported himself by publishing tracts and devotional books

,

he started,in January

,1816 , the “ Boston Re

corder,” which he asserted to be the first relig

ious newspaper in the world. It was in thisperiodical that the earliest lispings of W illis

’

s

muse reached the ear of the public. Th e Re

corder was conducted by his father down to1844, in which year it was sold to the Rev.Martin Moore . It still lives as the “ Congre

gation ali st an d Boston Recorder.”

Nathaniel Willis also originated the idea ofa religious paper for children . The Youth’sCompanion, which he commenced in 1827 an d

edited for about thirty years, was the first, an d

remains one of the best, publication s of th e kindin existence . In a letter to his son he gave thefollowing account of its inception :

“He was inthe habit of teaching his children, statedly, theA ssembly’s Catechism , and to encourage them tocommit to memory the answers

,he rewarded


them by telling them stories from Scripture history without givin g names . Th e resul t was thatthe Catechism was all committed to memory bythe children , an d th e idea occurred of a child ren’s departmen t in the ‘Recorder. ’ This de

pa r tm en t bein g much sought for by children , itsuggested the experiment of having a paper exclusively for children .

”A roun d the fireplace

where Mr. Willis sa t with his children weresome old - fashioned Dutch tiles, representingscenes from the New Testamen t, an d it was inanswer to their questions about these th at hebegan his narrations . One sees in this littledomestic picture the beginnings of the youn gNathan iel’s literary train in g and the germ of hisScripture Sketch es .” Years after, a college lad,when Shaping into smooth blank verse the storyof the widow of Nain or the healing of Ja ir us

’

s

daughter, his memory must have gone back totheir rude

.

figures about his father’s hearth,

seeming tOmove a nd stir in the flickerin g lightof th e wood fire ; an d th e recollection of h isfather’s voice and th e listening group of brother s and sisters gave tenderness to the strain.

He was on ly six when th e fam ily removedfrom Portland to Boston , an d he appears to havekept little remembran ce of his birthplace . Th e

noble harbor,with its islands, which were the

Hesperides of Longfellow’s boyish dreams, the

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

12 NATHANIEL PARKE R WILLIS.

My recollection of a particular occasion,says

an old member of that society, when, at a conference meeting in the church , he, as presider,was expoun din g John xv.

,is that I regarded it

as a memorable illustration of a man’s attemptin g to expoun d without ideas . I hear him sayin g, more than fifty years ago, v . 4. A bidein me . A bide is to dwell

,

’ in a most monoton ouston e, and the rest in the same manner of appr e

ciation .

” His rigidity was , perhaps, more in hisprinciples than in his character

,and his auster

ity was tempered by two qualities which haven ot seldom been found to consist with the diacon ate, namely, a sense of humor “ dry,

” ofcourse , to th e correct degree — an d an admiration for pretty women , or, in th e dialect of thatday, for

“ female lovelin ess . These tastes hebequeathed to his son, as also a certain tenacityof will

,wh ich , latent th roughout the latter

’s career

,came to th e surface in an astonishing way

during the trials of his last years . This trait isamusingly illustrated in the senior W ill is

’

s cor

respon dence with his son by his al lusion s to aninterminable litigation that he was carryin g onin his eighty-fourth year. I should have written you sooner

,

” he says,

“ but that Irishman ,

C arbrey,has sued me the four th time about

tha t old drain which be dug up before my frontdoor

,in A tkinson Street, that we never knew

AN CE STR Y A ND E ARL Y YE ARS . 13

before was there . He has lost his case in threedif f erent courts, and now sends to the SupremeCourt a Bill of Exceptions,

’ whi ch all my friendsthin k he cannot recover. It has been a greattrouble an d expen se to me . But I have carriedthe case in prayer to God, constantly, an d He

has three times defeated the extortioner.” Willisalways retained a cordial afi ection and respectfor his father

,but between two such difi er en t

natures and divergent lives there could be little

gen ial sympathy or real intell ectual intimacy.

Th e tough old deacon outlived the inheritor ofhi s name and calling by some three years, anddied May 26 , 1870, at the age of ninety.

For his mother Willis cherished, as boy andman

,

‘ a devotion that may well be called passionate

, an d which found utterance in many of hismost heartfelt poems, such as his “ Birth-DayVerses

,

” Lines on Leavin g E urope ,”and To

my Mother from the A pennines .” Her maidenname was Hannah Parker. She was born atHoll iston, Massachusetts, an d was two yearsyoun ger th an her husband. She was a womanwhose strong character an d fervent piety weremingled wi th a playful afi ection aten ess whichmade her to her childr en the object of that perfeet love which casteth out fear. Like manyanother poet’s mother

,—like Goeth e’s, for ex

ample, she supplied to her son those elements

14 NA THA NIE L PARKE R WILLIS.

of gayety an d softness which were wanting inthe stif f er composition of the father :

V on Mutter ch en die FrOh n atur ,

Die Lust zu f abulir en .

”

He inherited from her the emotional, impulsivepart of his nature as well as his physical constitution ,

his light complexion,full face, and ten

deney, in youth, to a plethoric habit. “ Myvein s ,

” he wrote,are teeming with the quick

silver spirit which my mother gave me . Whatever I accomplish must be gained by ardor, andnot by patience . She was his con fidant, hissympathizer

,h is elder sister. The testimony to

her worth an d her sweetness is universal. Th e

Rev. Dr. Storrs of Brain tree,in an obituary

notice written on her death,in 1844, at th e age

of sixty-two,spoke of her as the light and joy

of every circle in which Sh e moved ; the f dol ofher family ; the faithful companion , the t endermother, the af fectionate sister, the fast and as

siduous friend.

”

Willis was the second in a family of ninechildren , all of whom reached maturity, and twoof whom

,besides himself, achieved literary rep

utation . These were Sarah Payson Willis, a f

terwar ds famous,under the n om de p lum e of

Fanny Fern,

” as a prolific and successfulwriter for children, an d Richard Storrs Willis,his youngest brother, formerly editor of the

ANCE STRY A ND EARL Y YE ARS . 15

. Musical World, the author of Our ChurchMusic

,

”and known both as a musical composer

an d a poet . Julia Willis, his favorite sister a ndconstant correspondent, was also a woman ofremarkable talent , with a

'

gif t of tongues and asounder scholarship than h er more showy brother.

Sh e wrote many of the book reviews in theHome Journal, but always declined to r e

nounce her anonymity.

Such were the influen ces which surroundedW illis’s early years . A n d if

,at the first touch

O f the world, the youthful members of the household flew o f f like th e dry seeds of the Imp a tien s ,it need not therefore be hastily concluded thatthe home train in g , though perhaps too repressive and severe , was without lasting ef f ect for

good. A mong the children an d grandchildrenof Nathaniel Will is are Ca tholics , E piscopal ians,Unitarians, an d representatives of other shadesof belief an d unbelief. But this is the historyof man y a New E nglan d Puritan family, and

such are the disintegrating forces of A mericanlife . In the case of the eldest brother

,it may

be af firmed that, from a career which was certainly worldly, an d in some of its aspects by nomean s edifying, the light that shone from hismother’s face uplifted in prayer for him neveraltogether faded away.

Will is began school life under the tuition O f


the Rev. Dr. McFa r land, of Concord, NewHampshire . I have forgotten every circumstance,

” he wrote long after, of a year or twothat I was at school at Con cord, New Hampshire , when a boy, except the natural scenery ofthe place . Th e faces of my teacher and myplaymates have long ago faded from my memory , while I remember the rocks an d eddies ofthe Merrimac, the forms of the trees on themeadow opposite the town

, and every bend ofthe river’s current.” Later he was broughthome an d sent to the Boston Latin School

,then

under “ its well-remembered Pythagoras, BenGould. A f ew reminiscences of his slate-andsatchel days are scattered here and therethrough his writings . Thus he vaguely recalledRalph Wal do Emerson as one of the boyswhose fathers were Unitarians ,

”and he was

greatly impressed by Edward E verett , then ayoungHarvard professor, whose stylishly dressedfigure used to appear occasionally in A tkinsonStreet

,at No . 31, in which thoroughf are the

W illises dwelt . He remembered the r ousingsbefore daylight, on May-day, to go to Dorchester Heights, and the shivering search afternever foun d green leaves an d flowers ; the buttoning up of boy-jacket to keep out the coldwind

, and pull ing out of penknife to cut ofi thebare stems of the sweet-brier in search of the

ANCE S TRY A ND E A RL Y YE ARS. 17

hidden odor of the belated bud. In Th e

Pharisee and the Barber, one of the two orthree stories of Willis whose scenes are laid inBoston, the description of Sh ea f e Lane is eviden tly from the life . ThePharisee of that tale,Mr. Flint, an active member of a church famedfor its zeal,

” who dressed in black, as all religious men must (in Boston) , was doubtless asketch from memory of some pious familiar ofhi s father’s house

,whose black eyes an d formal

talk left upon the lad a mixed impression of aweand distrust.Harvard was the natural destination of a

Boston Latin School boy intending coll ege . Butthe line between the Or thodox and the Unitarians was drawn more sharply in 1820 than in1884. E ven now stray youths from Boston arefound at other colleges than Harvard, attractedelsewhere by family ties or theological af finities .But at that time the cleavage made by theschi sm in E astern Massachusetts was still raw,an d Deacon Willis would almost as soon havesent his boy into the jaws of hell as into sucha hot-bed of Unitarianism as the Cambridgecoll ege .

Larry’s fath er, wrote Will is in “Th e Lun ati c sSkate,

” “ was a disciple of th e gr eat Ch a r ming, andmin e a Tr in itarian of un comm on zeal ; and th e two in

stitution s o f Yal e and Harvard were in th e h ands of

2


most em in en t m en o f eith er per sua sion , and f ew a r e

th e m inds th a t could r esist a f our yea r s ’ ordeal ineith er . A studen t was a s certa in to come f orth a

Un ita r ian fr om on e a s a Ca lvin ist fr om th e other ;and in th e New E n gla nd States th ese two sects a r e

bitter ly hostile . So to th e glitterin g a tm osph er e o f

Ch a r ming and Ever ett wen t poor Lar ry, lon ely an d

dispir ited ; an d I wa s committed to th e sin cere zealots of Conn ecticut, some two hundr ed m iles o f f , to

lea r n La tin an d Gr eek, if it plea sed Heaven , but th em yster ies of election and fr ee gr ace,

’whether or n o.

”

Of the two great fittin g-schools founded bySamuel an d John Phillips respectively at A n

dover and at E xeter, the latter h ad been cap

tur ed by the Unitarians . But the A ndoveracademy

,under the sheltering wing of the

famed theological seminary in the same town ,though barely thirty miles from Boston, r e

mained an insoluble lump of Calvinism , awedge of defiant Orthodoxy in pa r tibus infidelium . To A ndover, accordingly, young Will iswas sen t, after a course in the Latin School, tocomplete his preparation for Yale . Th e academ y was then un der the headship of that soundclassical master, John A dams, who was principal from 1810 to 1833. It gave an excellen tfit in the classics , in somuch that Willis , thoughthe reverse of diligen t in college , was carrieda long a good way, with little study, by the im


cions record shared in the final and glorious conflagr ation of Latin themes, grammars , graduses,and old shirts, on leaving academy for college .

”

Th e Lunatic’s Skate Opens with some remin iscen ces of school life at A ndover

In th e days when I carr ied a satchel on th e

banks of th e Sh awsheen (a r iver wh ose h alf -lovely,half-wild scen ery is tied like a silver th r ead about m yhea r t), La r ry Wyn n and myself wer e the f ar th est

boarder s fr om school, in a solita ry fa rmh ouse on th e

edge of a lake of some miles squa r e, ca lled by th e nu

dign ifi ed title of Pom p’

s Pond. A n old n egr o, wh o

was believed by th e boys to h ave come over withChristoph er Colum bus, wa s th e on ly oth er human being within anything like a n eighbor h ood of th e lake

(it took its n am e f r om him ) , and th e only appr oach esto its waters, girded in a s it was by an a lm ost im penetr able forest, were th e path thr ough old Pom p

’

s

clea r ing and that by our own door . Out o f schoolLarry and I were in sepa r able . We built wigwam s

together in th e woods, h ad our tomah awks made inth e same f ashion , un ited our pr oper ty in f ox-tr aps,and played Indian s W i th perfect con ten tmen t in each

other ’s appr obation .

”

On e of his school-fellows here was Isaac Mc

Lellan , who afterwards became a contributor toW illis’s “ A merican Monthly.

” He publisheda long poem,

“ Th e Fall of the Indian,” which

Willis reviewed in the same periodical, referring

ANCE STR Y A ND E ARL Y YEARS. 21

to the poet as “ the very boy that has trackedthe woods with us, and called us by our nickname Over a hedge , an d cracked nuts wi th usby the fire in the win ter evenings . Which ofus dreamed, as we read in our blotted classic,Quam sit magnum dare aliquid in manus hominum ,

’

that he should ever be guilty of a book !How it would have swell ed our idle veins

,as we

lay half asleep,bobbin g our lin es over the bank

of the Shawsheen on those long Saturday afternoons , that we should ever play for each otherthe gentle of fice of critic !In after years the rice fields of Georgia, withtheir embankments an d green surfaces, remindedWillis of the gooseberry pies which formed partof my early education at A ndover, and whichare among the warmest of my recollections ofthat classic academy.

” We have fin e timespicking berries here ,

” he wrote to his Sister Julia .

“ E very kind gr ows in profusion in A n

dover,— raspberries, black, blue , thimble, an d

whortle berries . Th e woods are crowded withthem . A fter tea we generally start, and afterwe have eat enough go an d bathe in the Shawsheen

,our A ndover river.”

This Indian Ilyssus was the scene of an ad

venture recorded in certain “Téte-a-téte Con f es

sion s ” in the “ A merican Monthly,”doubtless

with some exaggerations for literary ef f ect and


with a dén ozim en t suspiciously dramatic. Th e

pa ssage may be given, however, for wh at it isworth

Cyth er ean Ven us ! How I did love Miss PollyD. Low

, th e pr ide o f th e f actory on th e r om an ticSh awsh een ! I saw h er fir st in th e tender est twi

ligh t o f a Satur day even in g , wa shin g h er f eet in th e

r iver . I wa s a lad of som e im puden ce, and I sat

down on a ston e beside h er , and by th e time it was

da rk we wer e th e best f r iends possib le. Sh e was beautiful . I th ink so n ow . Sh e wa s about eigh teen , an d,th ough f our yea r s older th an I

,m y educa tion h ad

mor e th an equa lized us . A t least, i f n ot th e wiser o f

th e two, I wa s th e m ost skilled in th e subtlety of love,and pr acticed with gr eat success les p eti tes V ases .

Sh e wa s a tall brun ette, an d I som etim es f an cied,

wh en h er eye exh ibited mor e th an or din a ry f eeling ,th at th er e was Indian blood under th at da rk and

glowing skin . Th e va lley o f th e Sh awsh een , justbelow th e village wh er e I wa s at sch ool, is a gem of

solita ry and r ich scen ery, an d th e over h anging woodsand lon g meadows a f f or ded th e m ost pictur esque and

desir able h aun ts f or r am bler s wh o did n ot ca r e to be

m et. Th er e on Sun day a f ter n oon s, wh en sh e wa s

r eleased f r om h er Shuttle a n d I f r om m y Sch r evelius,

did we m eet and str oll till th e n in e o’

clock b ell of th ef actory sum m on ed h er unw illin gly h om e. I could

go W ith out m y supper in those days, th ough I doubti f I would n ow on such sligh t occa sion . By th e tim e

vaca tion cam e, I found m yself ser iously in love, de

ANCE STR Y A ND E ARL Y YE ARS . 23

cla r ed m y passion , an d lef t h er w ith my h ea r t ha lfbr oken . We wer e gon e f our weeks, an d wh en I r etur n ed th e butch er ’s boy wa s en gaged to Miss Low ,

and I was wa r n ed to avoid th e f actory a t th e per il o fa floggin g.

”

In his last year at A ndover Willis experiencedreligion an d joined the church . A ny one whohas wi tnessed on e of those spiritual epidemics,called “ revivals

,

” in some school or college needsno description of th e kind of pressure broughtto bear on the thoughtless but eas ily excitedyoun g consciences there assembled. A t the firstrumor of an unwonted seriousn ess abroad

,

occasioned perhaps by the death of a fellowstudent, by a general Sickness, or the depr ession of gloomy weather in a win ter term , themachinery is set in motion . Daily prayer-meetings are held, in wh ich the elders play part,the movemen t at A n dover was taken in hand bythe Semin arian s,

” that is,the studen ts of the

Divinity School the unregenerate are visitedin their rooms by classmates who are alreadychurch members

, and are prayed with an d urgedto attend the meetings an d submit themselves tothe outpourin gs of the Spirit. Un der this kindof stimulus there follows a great awakening .

Many are under con viction , the air becomeselectric, an d there is a strange spiritual tensionwhich is felt even by the resisting . Momentous

24 NATHANIEL PARKE R WILLIS.

choices are made in an in stant an d un der thestress of contagious emotions . The awful issuesof etern ity are set before a roomful of boys inth e midst of prayers and sobs and eloquen twords

,exhorting the sinner not to let pass this

opportunity of salvation,perhaps h is la st.

A n d then the movement subsides,leavin g an im

pression which en dures with some, an d with oth

ers quickly wears o f f . Those who believe thatthe Christian character an d th e Christian lifeare the result of n urture an d Slow en deavor lookwith distrust upon these sudden conversions .Th e harden ed sinn er may need some such violent call to repentance, but there is a sort of indecency in this premature forcing open of thesimple and healthful heart of a boy, substitutin gmorbid self-questionin gs , exaggerated remorse ,and the terrors of perdition for his natural braveoutlook on a wor ld of h0pe an d enjoyment. Th e

story of W illis’s conversion is fully told in hisletters home, and it reads like a chapter ofDoctor Johns .”

In 1821, being then fif teen years of age, heh ad written to his father

I can pla in ly see an an swer to prayer in th e de

lay o f my adm ission to th e chur ch . I prayed th at

God would, if I was in danger of making a h astystep, by som e m ean s or oth er pr ev en t it. I doubted,till it became a lmost a cer tain ty, wh eth er it was

A ND

proper. I doub tee:

my pf eten sion s to a

ch an ge o f hea r t ; a nd m y very heart s“

eem ed to sinkunder m e every tim e I th ough t o f th e solem n en gage

m en t. I was un h appy, extr em ely unh appy, wh en inBoston , an d h a v e been , I migh t say, m iser able everS i n ce .

”

A nd again in 1822

A s to becom in g a Chr istian , it is mor a lly beyondm y p ower . I h a ve n ot an objection aga in st it th at

would weigh a fea th er , and yet I feel n o m or e solicitude th an I ever did about m y eter n al welf a r e.

”

In a letter of the same year to his mother,Wh o h ad his conversion much a t heart, he says

I do h ave tim es wh en th e tea r s o f r egr et flow ,

and I make th e resolution o f atten din g to th e subjecto f religion . But m y ligh t h ead an d still ligh ter h ear tdism isses th e sub ject a s soon a s a n oth er object a r r estsm y a tten tion , and m y r esolution s a n d regr ets a r e

soon lost in th e m a zes o f pleasur e an d folly.

It is curious to reflect that these mazes ofpleasure an d folly mean t nothin g more thaninnocent school-boy diversion s , such as bla ckberrying and swimmin g parties, or at worst ajuven ile flirtation with some rural bell e . The

oldn ess and gravity Of the phrase, in con trastwith the boyish ton e of other parts of h is letters,illustrate well that moral precocity precocityof the conscience as distinguished from the m ind

NATHANIEL PARK ER WILLIS.

developed in NEW England boys of the last

generation by the Puritan tr a inm g .

In Jan uary, 1823, the great revival which h adbeen in progress a t Boston struck the A ndoveracademy. Mr. Willis made his son a visit, andurged him to join the church . A fter his returnto Boston he received th e following letter

A NDO V ER, MA SS ., Ja nua r y 12 , 1823.

Sn ndav a f tern oon .

DE A R FA THE R , I r eceived your package la steven ing, w ith m y Testam en t, etc.

,in closed. A s th e

word o f God I pr ize it, and a s th e gi f t o f my a f f ec

tion ate father I love it, and sh all always look upon ita s a r em em bran ce o f an er a in my f eelin gs whi ch Ihope I Sh all a lways be th ankf ul f or . You can n ot im

agi n e h ow much your v isit a n d advice str en gth en ed

m e in m y resolution s, an d spur red m e forwa r d in th e

good work I h ad begun . I h ope I h ave now th e a s

sur an ce of bein g an h eir o f life and a r ecipien t o f th e

pr o tection wh ich th e w ings o f a Saviour ’s mer cy musta f f ord to th ose wh o a r e ga th ered un der th em . Myh ope is som etim es sh aken wh en I find my though tswan dering to oth er subjects wh ile th e or din an ces of

God a r e admin ister in g befor e m y eyes. But th e m o

men t that I get upon my kn ees and pr ay f or str en gth

I f eel my a ssuran ce ren ewed, a nd r ise h appier a nd

happier f rom every ren ewa l of m y supplica tion s.

Saturday even ing I a ttended our usua l m eetin g in th e

academy f or th e fi r st tim e since I h ave been in A n

dover . It is conducted by th e pious sch olars o f th e

28 NA THANIE L PARKE R WILL IS .

of the principal of the academy, an d was afterwardsW illis’s classmate at Yale . Louis Dwightwas a th eological studen t, who a year later wasmarried to W illi s’s second sister, Louisa . Th e

subsequen t progress of the revival is related inthe following letter, written two or three dayslater :

A NDO V E R ,MA SS .

,Ja n ua r y 15.

\V edn esday ev en ing , 12 o’

clock .

MY DE A R FA THER ,My hea r t is so overflowin g

with joy and gr a titude and h appin ess th at I couldn ot r est till I h ad sat down and told you a ll . We

have h ad a meetin g in A llen’

s r oom to-n igh t. Mr .

Styles wa s th er e, an d ta lked so th at I though t I coulda lm ost see a h a lo round h is h ead, an d expected h imto tur n in to St. Paul come down aga in f r om h eaven .

A f ter m eetin g Mr . S. told th em th e m eetin g wa s

closed, but if any wish ed to conver se with h im or th e

oth er pr ofessor s o f r eligion in th e r oom , th ey migh ttarry. Th e r oom wa s cr owded, body and a ll

, so th at

you could n ot h ave got th r ough , but n o on e stir red.

Sobbing a nd weeping wa s h ea rd a ll r ound th e room.

William A dams, A llen , Styles , and I th en wen t r oundand conver sed with th em. Th ey a ll bur st in to tear simmediately, an d listen edwith th e gr ea test eager n ess,and wh en I got up to go to th e n ext on e, th ey h eldon to m e a s th ough sa lva tion depen ded on m y talkin gwith th em . I sa a c S tua r t sobbed a loud th e wh olem eetin g tim e. Josep h Jenkins wa s in tea r s , an d

cam e down to m y r oom after m eeting an d a sked m e

to pr ay f or andwith h im . He said h e co uld n ot pray

ANCESTR Y A ND E ARL Y YE ARS.

h im sel f ; h e da r ed n ot. I gave h im th e best adviceI could an d pr ayed w ith h im

, an d h e is n ow in h is

room ,a s I h op ep r a ying f or h im self . I ta lked with

little Joshua Hun tin gdon , a n d told h im about h isf ath er . He wept , a nd pr om ised to go h om e and pr ay.

J . C . A lvor d, a m em ber o f m y class an d a fi nef ellow,

wa s in th e gr ea test m isery. He could n ot sit uponh is ch a ir , an d took m e out of th e meeting to go to myroom and pr ay with h im . Jn o . Tappan o f Boston

wa s very deeply a f f ected. I conver sed with Da r r ach

o f Ph iladelph ia , Ca r ter o f Vir gin ia , K in g of Conver s ,and sever a l oth er s . Th ey a ll seem ed to f eel verydeeply, and a ll begged m e ea r n estly to pr ay f or th em.

We could n ot get th em away. Th ey stood r oundweeping and lookin g f or some on e to say someth ingto them . Oh , m y dea r fath er , wh a t ca n we r ender to

God f or a ll h is m er cies 1 A ll en h a s been down in myroom several tim es to pr ay f or som e p a r ticula r on e.

Th er e wer e so many to pr ay f or th at we h ave beenon our kn ees f r om seven o

’

clock til l n ow a lmost a ll

th e tim e. K en n ett, m y r oom -m ate, is very much a f

f ected. He fea r s to delay repen tan ce, but says h isfath er won ’

t like it wh en h e goes back to Russia , andth a t th er e a r e n o Ch r istian s in Russia . Pr ayer a s

cends con tinua lly, sin n er s a r e r epen ting, and I am a s

pr oud a s Lucifer . I f eel a s i f I wa s going to do a ll

myself ; a s i f I coul d conver t a th ousandwith out God,if I on ly told th em th e tr uth . Oh , pr ay th a t I m ay

hav e hum ility I It is and must be th e burden of mysupplication s.


Of the names mentioned in this letter ofIsaac Stuart is n ot unknown to fame . JosephJenkins afterwards became W illis’s brother- inlaw

,marrying his sister Mary in 1831. He was

from Boston ,an d was graduated at Yale the

year after Will is .

CHA PTER II.

1823—1827 .

COLLEGE LIFE .

IN the fall of 1823, Willis entered Yale .Commencement was then held in Septemberand first term open ed late in October. Collegelife left a more endurin g impress upon Willisthan upon almost any other A merican writer.It furnished him with a fun d of literary mater ial . It brought him into the sunshine , and

changed the homely school-boy Chrysalis into abutterfly of uncommon splen dor an d Spread ofwin g . Durin g freshman year be lodged in thefamily of Mr. Townsend

,opposite South Col

lege, with other members of the A ndover con

tingent. One of these wa s Henry Durant, whowas W illis ’s chum all through the four yearsof the course . He was a serious-minded lad,a hard student

,who took high rank in the ap

poin tment list , and his influence over his lesssteady room-mate was always for good. He

became in time th e founder an d first president o f the University of California, and a man

32 NA THANIE L PARKE R WILLIS.

of wide influence in educational an d religiousmatters on the Pacific coast. A mon g W illis

’

s

other intimates in his own class were JosephHQTowne, also a Boston boy, and afterwards adoctor of divin ity ; an d “ Bob ” Richards, ofNew York

,who took him home with him in

vacations, an d in troduced h im to the gayeties

of the metropolis . C la ss lin es were not drawnvery sharply then , an d on e of his best frien dsin college was George J . Pum pelly of Owego,New York . Their friendship was con tin uedor resumed in later life

,when Willis bought

from Pum pelly the little doma in of Glenmary ;an d settled in hi s neighborhood on OwegoCreek .

Next after Willis himself,the most distin

guish ed member of th e class of 1827 was Hor

ace Bushnell . In sen ior year the two roomedin the same hall— the n orth entry of NorthCollege ; and in 1848, on the occasion of Bushnell’s preaching a sermon at Boston to the Un i

ta r ian s , which excited much public comment,Willis gave some reminiscen ces of his quondamclassmate in the Home Journ al ,

” telling, amon gother things , how Bushn ell once came into hisroom an d taught him h ow to hon e a razor. He

described him as a “ black-haired, earnest-eyed,sturdy, carelessly dressed, athletic, a nd indepen dent good fellow,

popular in spite of bein g both

COLLE GE LIFE . 33

blunt a nd exemplary . Bushn ell was a leaderin his class ; Willis decidedly not . They belon ged to dif f erent sets, and there wa s little incommon between the elegan t youn g poet an dladies’ man an d the rough , strong farmer ladfrom the L itchfi eld hills . They met once morein after years

,— in 1845, on the Rhine , both in

pursuit of health .

Henry Wiko f f of Philadelphia — afterwards,

with the titular em bellist en t of “ Chevalier,”

a familiar, not to say flamboyan t,figure in sev

eral E uropean capitals, an d the winn er of fame

at home as the importer of Fanny E lssler an d

founder of the “ New York Republic ”— h ap

pened to be in New Haven durin g th e summerO f 1827 . He was preparing to en ter college ,which he did wi th the class of ’31

,but was

prematurely graduated by reason of sundryirregularities . In his amusing

“ Reminiscen cesof an Idler,

” published in 1880, he gave the following description o f two undergraduates withwhom he was subsequently more nearly associated

I a lso r emem ber two m en wh o gradua ted in the

class of 1827 , th at werex

f r equen tly poin ted out to

m e a s its m ost con spicuous member s . On e wa s th e

son of a very pr om in en t statesm an , wh ich , in f act, ex

plain ed th e n otice h e attr acted ; but th er e wa s en oughof individua lity about John V an Buren to command

3

34 NATHANIE L PARKE R WILL IS .

a tten tion . He h ad alr eady revea led th e traits whichdistin guish ed h im in after li f e, easy and carelessin m an n er , bold in cha r acter , an d o f an aggr essivetur n o f m ind. His r ival in n otor iety h ad n o h er ed

ita ry claim s to suppor t h im , but h e was gifted witha r a r e poetica l talen t th at h ad alr eady secur ed h imdistin ction both in and out of college. His ton e and

bea r in g were ar istocr atic, n ot unmixed with h auteur ,a nd th ough admir ed f or h is abilities h e n ever com

m anded th e sympathi es o f h is comr ades. Such wasN . P. Willi s, and such h e rem a in ed to th e end of hi s

lif e. Neither o f these gr aduates, i f I r em ember ,bor e o f f ‘hon ors ; ’ but Willis was r equested by h isclass, with th e appr ova l of the f aculty, to deliver a

poem at th e Com m en cem en t o f 1827 . I wa s too

young to appr oach th ese Tita n s , a s I rega r ded th em,

and was con ten t to ga ze on th em with deferen ce as

they swept by m e in th e str eet. In after years Ibecame i n tim ate with them both .

Th e genial chevalier’s memory misled h im

slightly in placing“ Prince John ,

” as he wascal led, in the same class with Willis . He wasa member of ’

28, which he joined in jun ioryear

,and like Willis was a great wit and a

great beau. These three contemporaries, senior

,junior

, and sub-freshman , were strangelyjuggled together again by Time , the conjurer.They met in the famous Forrest trial, whereVan B uren figured as th e defendant

’s coun sel ,andWill is as a p a r ticep s cr im in is and witness

36 NA TE A NIEL PA RKE R WILLIS .

Silliman . He visited the apartmen t, an d afterin specting it gravely said, with a frown , to itsabashed occupant

,A ll this love of externals,

youn g m an,argues indif f erence to the m ore

necessary furniture of the brain,which is your

spiritual business here .” Th e time honoredparagraph in the catalogue on necessary expenses gave the annual maximum as two hundred dollars . That paragraph has always beenoversan guine , but probably four or five hundred a year was the average cost of a collegeeducation in 1825. During each of his lasttwo years Will is spent about Six hun dred. Lifein college was n ot only pla in , but decidedlyrough . It was the era of “ Bully C lubs,

” townand gown rows,

“ Bread an d Butter Rebellions, etc . It was the thing to pain t thepresident’s horse r ed, white , a nd blue , an d toput a cow in the belfry. In 1824 a mob threatened the Medical School because a body h adbeen dug up by resurrectionists . Th e Souther n er s, then a large element at Yale, were particular ly wild an d turbulent. Christmas, whichthe Puritan college refused to make a holidayof, was their recogn ized Saturnalia.

Th e day, wr ote Willis in a fr eshm an letter toh is fath er , “ is th e gr eatest o f th e year a t th e South ,an d our South er n studen ts seem disposed to b e r est

less under th e restriction of a lesson on playday.

COLLE GE LIFE . 37

Th ere wer e many of th em drunk la st even ing, and

still m or e to-day. Ch r istm a s h a s a lways been , eversin ce th e estab lishm en t o f th e college, em ph a tica lly a

clay of tr icks windows br oken , b ell-r ope cut, fr eshm en squi r ted, and every im agin ab le scen e o f dissipa

tion acted.

out in f ull . La st n igh t th ey ba r r ed th e

en try door s of th e South College, to exclude th e gover nm en t, and th en illumin ated th e buildin g . Th ismorn ing th e recitation -room door s wer e locked and

th e key stolen , and we wer e obliged to kn ock downth e door s to get in ; and th en we wer e n ot muchbetter of f , f or th e lamps wer e f ull o f water and th e

wicks gon e. However , we pr ocured oth er s, and

wen t on w ith th e lesson .

”

Wiko f f tells of a fight in a college room inwhich a dirk was used, between a South Carolina student n amed A lbert Smith and anotherSoutherner

,which resulted in th e expulsion of

both . Smith , wh o stood at the head of his class,afterwards changed his name to Rhett, an d became a member of his state’s legislature , butdied prematurely.

New Haven in 1823—27 was not the considerable manufacturing city of to-day, but a ruraltown with a population of about n in e thousand.

West of the college yard only two streets werelaid out . Beyond these , alon g the Derby turn !

pike,stretched a level of sandy pastures , alive

with grasshoppers, where the youn g orators,practicing for debates in L in on ia or Broth

38 NATHANIE L PARKE R WILLIS .

ers,or for declamations before the Professor

of Rhetoric,used to go to

“ explode the elements .” Down by the bay, in a region nowoccupied by great factories , stood the old “ Pa

vilion,

”a famous seaside hotel m uch resorted

to by Southern families . Th e fi r st railroadfrom New Haven was laid in 1839 . A s yeteven the Farmington Canal was only projected.

Willis an d the Boston contingen t used to comeall the way . by stage-coach , passing throughFr am ingh am ,

Worcester, and Hartford, in

which last he h ad acquaintances, with whom hesometimes spent a day on r oute. A nthracitecoal was not in use in New Haven before 1827.

C itizens and students alike depended on wood,the latter buying theirs at the regular woodstand near South College , an d having it cut inthe yard behind the colleges, wood-saws notbein g in general vogue . Th e habits of the col

legian s , from a hygienic poin t of view, wereusually bad. They sat up late drinking strongcofiee in their rooms, rose very early perforce,prayed and recited on an em pty stomach, an dtook little regular exercise . Dyspepsia was natur al ly rife .But en r ev a n che New Haven was a beautifullittle city

,with a homogeneous population and a

charming society, an d better fitted in some r e

spects for the seat of a university than it is

COLLE GE LIFE . 39

to-day. It was already, thanks to the publicSpirit of Governor Hillhouse , the C ity of E lms ;an d it is hard to walk through Temple Street ofa moon light evening without a regretful r ecollection of W illis’s “ Rosa Matilda description , inEdith Linsey

,of a place that m ust have

been all Temple Streets, a dream-city ofshaded squares an d white - piazzaed mansionsshinin g among cool green gardens . In Th e

Cherokee’s Threat he has recorded his firsteager impressions of th e new community thath e was entering , as he stood an d looked abouthim in the side aisle of the old chapel on theopening day of the term :

“ It was the onlyrepublic I have ever known , that class offreshmen . It was a fair arena. Of thefeelin gs that stir the heart in our youth

,of

the few,the very few, that have no recoil an d

leave no repen tance, this leaping from thestarting post of min d, this first spread of theencouraged wing in the free heaven of thoughtand knowledge, is recorded in my own slenderexperience as the most joyous an d the most unmingled.

”

This was in the retrospect. He did not employ such fine lan guage in 1823. His first letters from college are like those of any otherfreshman

,simple in style

,filled with aff ectionate

messages to th e folks at home , thanks for bun


dles, etc., received, requests to mother touchin g

Shirts a n d suspen ders,an d deta ils of his daily

routin e . They describe the prayers a t earlycan dlelight an d the meals in Com mon s Hall ,with its twenty long tables, its b ig dumb-waiter

,

an d its too abstemious tutor, who, from the vantage-groun d of a raised platform ,

returns thankswhen th e dinn er is only half done . You maysit down afterwards if you wi sh , but it is not

generally th e case . There is an old woman whohas been in the college kitchen twenty years,a nd in all this time done nothing but make pies .We have them Sundays

,Wednesdays, and Fri

days ; the worst o f it is we can on ly get onepiece . I have fared ra ther better than the rest

generally, for Durant seldom eats pie , an d mostalways sends me his piece .” Then there was theround of study an d recitation : Livy in th e morning , mathematics a t eleven , and Roman antiquities a t four . “ A t recitation I have on e of th edescendants of the Dutch settlers in New Yorkon each side of me . Their ancestors are mention ed by Knickerbocker in his history of New

York .

”These were doubtless Cor tlandt Van

Rensselaer of A lbany, and Washington Van

Z andt from Long Islan d. Between study hoursthere is foot-ball on the green in front of thecolleges,

“ which game is not generally very cd

if yin g to the shin s of the freshmen .

”These last

COLLE GE LIFE . 41

have subscribed twen ty -five cents apiece -“ to

support the lamps in the entry,

” a venerabletrick of the sophomores , who collected in thisway five or Six dollars , an d h ad a scrape uponit, and the conclusion of the matter was their

getting so intoxicated as to be un able to reachhome . The freshmen have likewise h ad theirwin dows broken , an d W illis ’s chum has beensmoked out

,durin g the former

’s absence fromhis room , by cigars in serted in the keyhole . A

somewhat distan t and impersonal form of thepersecution this will seem to modern freshmen .

But Sophomore Kn eelan d,from Georgia, having

been collared by Tutor Stoddard,r ed-handed,

in the act O f breakin g windows , an d havi ngkn ocked down the tutor an d run

,has been pub

licly expelled, the president reading out his mittimus in chapel to the whole college . Willishas joined the L in on ian Society, Calhoun , thecandidate for the presidency, was once a member of it (an ancient campaign

” argument)also a freshman debating club, the o ffi cers ofwhich “ are almost all professors of religion ,

”

and in which he has been chosen,in his ah

sence , “critic on composition and speaking .

”

He has drunk tea at Miss Dunn ing’s . He has

called upon Mrs . Daggett an d Mrs . T. Dwight,finding the former of these two ladies to be avery p ious woman, and a woman of uncommon

42 NA THANIE L PARKE R WILLIS .

understanding , an d the la tter a woman ofnoble mind, though plain in person .

” He hastaken a walk to the Cave of the Regi cides onWest Rock , time out of min d the goal of thefreshman ’s first pilgrimage . He has been ap

pointed one o f the committee to solicit sub scr iptions in his own class for the Greeks

, an d isalso one of the man agers of the Bible Society,and active at the Friday evening prayer-meetings, there being just at present considerableengagedness among professors in the several classes . Meanwhile Tutor Twin in g has beenhissed an d scraped at While conducting servicesin chapel. Th e government are growin g moreand more rigorous . A lmost every member ofthe freshman class is called up an d questioned.

Many are di smissed, and an examination is madeof everything, from the stealing of a sugar-bowlout of the hall to the prostration of a tutor.Tutor Woolsey was smoked the other eveningby two fellows who were too drunk to maketheir escape , an d were caught without an y dif fi

culty. They did it at twelve o’clock at n ight,wrapped in sheets, and are both dismissed.

”Th e

disturbances between the sophomores an d freshmen culminated for Willis in a short suspensionin the winter of 1823—24 for honorably refusingto disclose the names of sophomores by whomhe h ad been smoked and squirted, or the names


of mann ers or feeling, - fresh f r om th e coun try,whose piety ren der s th em r espectab le, and wh o without it would be but boor s . But th er e a r e a f ew stu

den ts wh o have both piety an d refin em en t, an d som e

wh o, th ough n ot pr o f essor s o f religion , r espect it, andwh o a r e m or a l in th eir outwa r d conduct, wh atever beth e sta te o f th eir h ea r ts . Th ese I can gen er a lly as

sociate with , but wh en th ey a r e a ll out o f th e w ay,

an d I am in n eed of som eth in g to b r igh ten my feelings , I can fin d in th e flow o f f an cy a forgetf uln esso f th e da rker side. I h ave wr itten a gr eat dea l inth is way sin ce my college life com m en ced, an d mywr itin g will a lways depend on th e th erm om eter o f

my feelin gs .

A S the youthful scribe ga ined readier powerof expression his home correspondence becam efuller an d more e f fusive. He wrote with muchminuteness a narrative of an even ing Spent at acountry parsonage in IV est Haven , of a walk tothe light-house, a visit to the cave of th e hermit of E ast Rock

,and of a trip by steamboat to

New York. He dwelt at length upon all theimpressions which the varying season s an d hisdaily experien ces made upon his mind. Thereis

,of course , no literary art in most of these

juvenile con fiden ces . Th e lan guage is apt to besophomorical, an d the letters , as a whole, willseldom repay quotation

,but an extract may be

given here an d there as a specimen of his epistolary style Th e following is from a letter of

COLLE GE LIFE . 45

July 11, 1824, to his Sister Julia,with whom

he was always particularly unreserved :

I Wish you were h ere to wa lk with m e these

beautif ul moon ligh t even in gs. I h ave seldom gon e

to bed a nd lef t th e m ild Queen o f th e Nigh t r iding

in th e h eaven s, f or it seem s a waste o f n oble feelings .

Wh en I am wa lkin g on such even ings a s we haveh ad this week pa st, and amidst such scen ery a s New

Haven presen ts , ch asten ed and sof ten ed in its beautyby th e pur e and quiet ligh t of th e moon , I have an

elevation o f th ough t a nd sen timen t wh ich I cann ot

dr own in sleep wi th out reluctan ce. I r ea lly thi nk weh ad better lay it down a s a rule n ever to go to sleepwh ile th e moon is shin ing . In f act, Julia , I suspect

(f or I find n o on e wh o sympa th izes with m e in th isfeeling) th at I am someth ing o f a lun atic, a f f ected

by th e r ays o f th at beautiful plan et with a kind of

h appin ess whi ch is th e result of a heated imagin ation ,an dwh ich is n ot felt by th e gen er a lity o f th e comm on

sen se people o f th e wor ld. Last Fr iday even ing , youkn ow, was beautif ul . I a tten ded a meetin g o f th e

prof essor s of religion , sta tedly h eld on th at even ingin th e th eologica l ch amber , and wh en it was out

wen t a lon e to wa lk. I strolled a lon g upon th e shoreo f th e b ay towa r ds th e ligh t-h ouse a m ile or mor e,and n ever did I meet with so deligh tf ul a scen e.

Th ere was n o wind stirr ing, or n ot en ough to make a

ripple on th e wave, an d th e h ardly per ceptible swellof th e tide cast its water s upon th e pebb les with out asoun d. You kn ow th e appea r an ce o f a bay wh en th elight is shed obliquely upon it looking like on e im

46 NATHANIE L PARKER WILL IS .

men se sh eet o f liquid silver, an d if you have everseen a boa t pass acr oss it a t such a m om en t, an d seen

th at beautif ul ph en om en a o f th e ph osph orus dr ippinglike fi r e f r om th e ca r s an d gilding th e f oam bef or eth e pr ow, you can h ave som e idea o f th e scen e I th enwitn essed. Now an d th en a sloop stole lan guidlyacr oss th e bay, h a r dly appear in g to m ove, and pr e

eutin g an a lter n ate ligh t an d Sh ade a s th e m oon

struck upon th e flappin g sail or th e h elm sm an tackedto take advan tage o f th e h a rdly per ceptible br eezewh ich swept him slowly fr om th e lan d. I declare itdid seem like en ch an tmen t. Th e clock struck on e,

but I f elt n o disposition to go h om e, and, a s th e a ir

wa s pur e and ba lmy, th e th ough t struck m e th at it

would be a plea san t hour to b a th e. A ccor dingly Iun dr essed, and swam a long th e sh or e slowly f or ab outhalf a m ile in th e cool , r efr esh ing wa ter s, with sen sar

tion s wh ich must be f elt to be under stood. A f ter th isdeligh tful exer cise I wa lked h ome, an d, seatin g m y

self by th e w indow Wh ere I could look a t th e m oon ,

f ell a sleep, and did n ot wake till n ear morn ing.

”

This fancy, that he was peculiarly af f ected bythe light of the moon, was the first suggestionof his wild tale, Th e Lunatic’s Skate,

” one ofhis most imagin ative stories, and not unworthyof comparison with the weird fictions of E dgarPoe .In th e summer term of his sophomore yearWillis was again suspended for a f ew weeks,this time in common with a majority of his

C OLLE GE LIFE . 47

class and in consequence of what was knownas “ the Conic Sections Rebellion . Th e classh ad been assured by th e tutors that they wouldnot have to learn the corollaries to the proposition s in that bran ch of mathematics, an d

when the objectionable corollaries were , n otwithstan ding, imposed upon them, the m ercurythen standing at 90° an d the annual exam i

nation s at hand, eighty-four members boundthemselves by a solemn pledge not to recitethem . Th e government were firm

, an d therecalcitrant sophomores were suspended in platoons

,day after day. Horace Bushnell was a

ring-leader in this revolt, which included theprofessors equally with the worldly. A ll thesuspended men were taken back at the en d ofthe term .

In some recollections of Will is by his classmate, Hugh Blair Grigsby, published in thelatter’s journal , th e “ Norfolk Beacon , in theautumn of 1834

,he says :

Th e fir st n otice th at th e public h ad of hi s bud

din g genius wa s a little poem in six ver ses, th e twofirst lin es of th e fir st ver se bein g

Th e lea f floats -by upon th e stream

Un h eeded in i ts silen t way.

’

We cann ot reca ll th e whole stan za ; but our fair reader s m ay remem ber that th eir album s conta in ed, sometime sin ce, a beautif ul vign ette repr esen ting a lady

48 NA THANIE L PARKER WILLIS.

r esting in h er bower , listen ing to th e n otes o f a

pretty son gster per ch ed above h er . Th is en gr avi ng

was taken f rom th ese lin es in th is poem

Th e b ird th at sings in lady’s bower ,

To -m or r ow w ill sh e th ink o f h im

Grigsby says that this poem took the prize o f

f er ed by the New York Mirror. He also recalls a division-room composition

,of a humor

ous character,read by Willis in the winter O f

1824- 25, about an old m an plantin g a cabbageon his wife’s grave , which produced great merriment in the class . In the same year versessign ed Roy,

” mainly on scriptural subjects,began to appear in the poet

’s corn er of th eBoston Recorder,

” where they jostled the selections from Watts or origin al contributionsfrom the pens of Maro ,

”E liza,

”an d The

Green Mountain Bard.

” Some of these j uven i li a were too imperfect to merit preservin g,an d were never put between covers . Others,like “ A bsalom

,

” “ Th e Sacrifice of A braham ,

”

and Th e Burial of A rnold, were among hismost successful things . They were widely quoted and admired

, copied about in the newspapers

,inserted in readers an d collections of

verse, and have don e as much to upbear his

memory as any of his later writings . Theywere not all contributed to the RecorderSome came out in “Th e Christian E xaminer,

C OLLE GE L IFE . 49

Th e Memorial,”

Th e Connecticut Journal ,Th e Youth’s Companion ,

”an d Th e Tele

graph . It was customary for the editors ofweekly and mon thly periodicals , who ordinarilypaid their contributors nothing , to stimulateColumbia’s infan t muse by an an n ual burst O f

generosity in the shape of a prize for the bestpoem printed in their columns during the year,—a device n ow relegated to the juvenile and

coll ege press . Several of these honors fell toW illis’s Share . Lockwood, th e publisher of anannual gift-book, Th e A lbum ,

” paid him fif tydollars for a prize poem , an d he got unknownsums for his “ A bsalom ,

” “ prize poem desig

nated by the judges of original poetry in theChristian Watchman , as announced in theissue of that paper for March 30, 1827 ; and

for “Th e Sacrifice of A braham , Similarly design ated by the judges in the Boston Recorder for 1826 . He was also invited to writefor the A tlantic Souven ir,

” published in Philadelphia, Goodrich

’s Token , an d Hill’s Lyceum in Boston , Bryant

’s new magazine inNew York

,an d a paper recently started in the

same city and edited by a brother of ProfessorSilliman ; for the Bristol Reporter, a newspaper in Rhode Island,

”and other publications.

A ll this literary glory gave the young under

graduate great écla t in New Haven . He r e

50 NATHANIE L PARKE R WJLLI S .

ceived many invitations out, an d was teased forverses by the owners of countless albums. Hebegan to frequent the society of th e town , wherehis rapidly developing socia l gifts soon madehim a favorite . He was at this time a tall,han dsome stripling, with an easy assurance ofmann er an d a good deal of th e dan dy in hisdress . His portrait

,painted by Miss Stuart of

Boston, a daughter of the famous portrait-painter

,Gilbert Stuart

,shows him with a rosy face,

very fair hair hanging in natural curls over theforehead

,a r etr oussé nose, long upper lip, pale

gray eye with uncommonly full lid (a familytrait) , an d a confident and joyous expression .

He carried himself with an airy, jaunty grace,an d there was somethin g particularly spiritedand eif about th e poise an d movement of h ishead, a something which no portrait couldreproduce . With naturally elegant tastes , anexpansive temper, an d an eagerness to see themore brilliant Side of life, Willis could at alltimes make himself agreeable to those whom hecared to please . But he was quick to feel th echill of a hostile presence, and toward any one,in especial

,who seemed to disapprove of him he

could be curt an d defiant. He h ad a winningway with women , who were flattered by his r ecogn ition of their influence over him an d grateful for les p eti ts soin s which he never neglected.

52 NA THA NIE L PARKE R WILLIS .

in some Cofi ee Club or Studio,

” or otherA mbrosial experiment of the kind

I sunk som e pocket m on ey in a blank bookon reading Wil son

’

s‘Noctes.

’

Celestia l n igh ts Ith ough t we h ad of it, at old black Stanley’s f or b idden oyster h ouse in New Haven ; and it struck m e

it was r obbery of poster ity (n o less !) n ot to r ecor d

th e brill ian t ef f lor escen ce o f our conviviality. Reg

ular ly on r each ing m y ch am ber s (or as soon a f termor n ing pr ayer s a s my h ead becam e pellucid), I a ttempted to r educe to dia logue th e wit of our Ch r istoph er North , Sh eph er d and ‘Tickler ; but ala sit became wh at m ay be called ‘

pr oductive labor.’

E ith er my memory did n ot serve m e, or wit (Ish oul d n

’

t be sur pr ised) reads cold by r epen tan t day

ligh t . It wa s h eavy work, a s reluctan t a s a collegeexer cise, and after using up f or ciga r

-ligh ters th e

sh ort-lived Noctes,’ I devoted th e r emainder o f th e

book to outl in es o f th e an tique (tha t is to say, o f old

sh oes) , my passion just th en being a collection of

Fr en ch slipper s f rom th e prettiest feet in th e kn ownwor ld kn own

,

’

to

A m ong the uncollected Recorder verses isa series of three divertin gly Byr onic performauces, Misanthropic Hours , from which itwould seem that the poet, in his junior year,h ad a momentary attack of cynicism

,produced

by his discovery of the soullessness of “ woman .

Most boys who tag lines have gone through thisspecies of measles .

COLLE GE LIFE . 53

I do n ot h a te,but I h ave f elt

Indif f eren t to wom an longI bow n ot wh er e I on ce h ave kn elt

,

I lisp n ot wh at I pour ed in song .

Th ey a r e too beautif ully m ade

For th ei r tam e ea r th lin ess o f though t ;A y, th eir im m or tal m inds degr adeTh e m ean er wor k His h an ds h ave wrough t .

Th e specifications of this painful charge wereseveral . He h ad been walking with a beautiful

girl one glorious night, with his soul uplifted bythe influences of the hour

,when Sh e rudely

jarred upon his mood by remarking that“ their

kitchen chimney smoked again . A n otheryoung woman , with whom he was viewing aCrucifixion in a picture gallery, h ad coldlycurled her lip and praised the high priest

’s garment. A third h ad profaned one O f his religious hours .

I tur ned m e at th e slow A m en

A n d wiped m y dr own ing eyes, and m et

A t r ifling sm ile ! Th ink ye O f men !

I tell you m a n h ath h ear t —no, no,

I t wa s a wom an’s sm ile. Th ey tell

Of h er br igh t r uby lip, and eye

Tha t sh am es th e A r abic gazelle

Th ey tell o f h er ch eek’

s glowing dye,O f h er a r ch look a nd

g

witch ing spellBut there is n ot th a t m an on ea r th

Wh o a t th at h our h ad f elt like m ir th .

”

Worse than all, he h ad been watching by acorpse , in company with a young lady of his ac

quaintance , when

54 NATHANIE L PA RKE R WILLIS .

Sh e tr ifled, ay, th at a ngel m aid,

Sh e tr ifled wh er e th e dead wa s la id !

These misogynistic musings called forth a r emonstrance, Woman to Roy by on e

of the Recorder’s poetesses , who Signed herself Rob .

” Ye know her not,she sang,

A n idle n am e

Ye g ive to toys of f ash ion’

s m ould,

A n d well ye scor n th ose guilty on es

W ho cur l th eir sm iles o f pr ide to h eaven .

O h , seek h er n ot in h all s o f m ir th,

But in th ose calm dwellings o f ea r th,

”etc.

Meanwhile,rumors of his idlen ess an d dissi

patiou began to reach Boston ,an d caused his

family much distress . These reports were ab

surdly exaggerated, an d were warmly den ied byh is friends

,who asserted that the head and front

of his O f fen ding were an occasion al moonlightdrive to the Lake an d a supper, with a glassO f ale at Barney’s Willis was gay in college,but very far from dissipated. In the select circles where he was made at home n othing likedissipation was tolerated. Th e society of thelittle university town was as Simple as it was r efined. He was cordial ly welcomed in such families as the Whitin gs, th e Bishops, the Hubbards,an d th e en tire Woolsey, Devereux, and Johnsonconn ection in New Haven , Stratford, and New

York. His win ter holidays were spent partlya t New York with his classmates Rankin and

COLLE GE LIFE . 55

Richards, partly at Stratford with the Joh n son s,once at New London among the kinsfolk of his

grandmother, Lucy Douglas ; an d once he travcled as far as Philadelphi a. His dissipationsin New Haven were picnics to E ast Rock , r e

h ea r sa ls of Th e Lady of the Lake at a seminary for youn g ladies, pie-b anquets in Thanks

gi ving week, paid for wi th verses, and New

Year’s calls with their accompaniments of acooky an d a glass of win e .That his head was a little turned by his literary and socia l successes is not wonderful . Heh ad hi s share of vanity, an d in his confidentialletters to his parents an d sisters he made no effort to con ceal his elation . A passage from oneO f these, dated January 7 , 1827, will give a goodidea of his occupation s an d his frame of mindat thi s point in his senior year

“ I stayed in Str atfor d till Fr iday, an d th en th e Joh n

son s o f f er ed m e a sea t in th e ca r r iage to New York.

Th is, o f cour se, wa s ir r esistible and Fr iday n igh t atten o

’

clock I wa s pr esen ted to th e m ayor o f th e city,a t a splendid levee. It was h is la st bef or e leavingh is o f fice, and I n ever saw such magn ificen ce. Th e

fashion an d beauty and ta len t o f th e city wer e a ll

th er e, cr owding h is im m en se r oom s to Show th eir r e

spect f or h is services . I found m any old ac

qua in tan ces th er e an d m ade som e n ew on es, am on g

the latter , a Mr s . Brun son , a s beautiful a wom an as I

56 NA THANIE L PARKER WILLIS.

ever saw, and h er sister , Miss Catherin e Bailey, alsoa m ost beautif ul woman . I m et th e very aecom

plish ed A dela ide Richa r ds th er e, wh o patr on ized m e

and played m y diction a ry, and fr om wh ose fath era n d m oth er I r eceived an in vita tion to din e on New

Yea r ’s day. A t two or th ree o ’

clock I wen t h om e to

Mr . W illiam John son ’

s (wh o m ar r ied Miss Woolsey’ssister ), an d in a glor ious bed, w ith a good coa l fi r e bymy side, slept o f f th e f a tigues o f a sixty m iles’ rideand f our h our s ’ dissipation .

On Satur day even ing I wen t to a genuin e soi r e’

e at

th e gr eat Dr . Hosack’

s . Th is m an is th e m ost luxur ious liver in th e city, an d h is h ouse is a per f ect pala ce. You could n ot lay your h a nd on th e wa ll f orcostly pa in tings , an d th e f ur n itur e exceeds everythin gI h ave seen . I m et a ll th e liter a ry ch a r a cter s o f th e

day th er e, and Halleck , th e poet, am on g th em . W ithh im I became quite acqua in ted, and h e is a m ost glo

r ion s f ell ow . Mor e o f h im wh en we meet. You

kn ow on New Yea r ’s day in New York all th e gen tlem en call on a ll th eir a cqua in tan ces . I began at

twelve o’

clock a t th e Battery, a n d wen t up to St.

Joh n ’

s Pa rk, m er ely run ni ng in an d r igh t out aga intill four, th e dinn er h our . I called on everybody.

William NV oolsey wen t with m e, an d, by appoin tin ga rendezvous in every str eet, we kept a long togeth er.A t f our I wen t to Mr . Geor ge Rich a r ds

’

s to din e.

He is n o r elative o f Rober t ’s, an d lives in th e beststyle in a la r ge h ouse on St. Joh n ’

s Pa rk. We sat

down to din n er between five an d six, and sa t sever al

h ours with a very la r ge pa r ty. I got a seat n ext

COLLE GE LIFE . 57

to the beautiful Miss A delaide, and en joyed it much .

Th ey live in th e Fr en ch style, and th e last cour sewas suga r -plum s I

In another letter he says

I wa s m uch flattered in v‘

acation by th e atten tiono f litera ry m en and women ; th e latter mor e pa r

‘

ular ly, wh o seemed to con sider it quite th e th ingfind a poet wh o wa s n ot a bea r , and wh o could stoopso m uch f r om th e excelsa o f h is pr o f ession a s

‘

to dr ess

fash ion ably a nd pay com plim en ts like a lawyer. Ih ea r d o f a very blue youn g lady wh o said, La , h ow

I Sh ould love to see Mr . W illis I am sur e I sh ouldfa ll in love with a m an wh o w r ites such sweet poetry.

’

Sh e 18 both belle and bluestocking , they say.

”

O n e of the families in which Willis was anh a bitue

’ was the household of Mrs . A pthorp,a

widow with four lovely daughters , who conductedone of the seminaries for young ladies for whichNew Haven was fam ous . This was the origin alof Mrs . Ilf r ington

’

s school in Th e Cherokee’sThreat . Willis was much ridiculed by the r ev iewers for his very high-colored description ofthis educational establishment, an d in particularfor declaring that

“ in th e united pictures ofPaul V eronese and Raphael ” he h ad scarcelyfound so many lovely women , of so dif f erentmodels and so perfect, as were assembled in mysophomore year,

” in this Conn ecticut sugar-r efinery.

” His lin es On the Death of a Young


Girl were written on the occasion of the deathof one of thi s family

,some years after. Th e

Lines to Laura W Two Years of A geone of two selection s from Willis in Emerson’sParnassus were addressed to a little NewHaven girl, the Sister an d biographer of Theodore Winthrop . A nother friend O f Willis’s wasa Mr s . De Forest, widow of the A merican con

sul at Buenos A yres, a lady of fortune, who cameto New Haven , an d bought a house facing the

green , where she gave fa shion able parties . Shewas herself a beautiful woman

, an d her daughters, Julia an d Pastora — m a tr e p ulch r a fi lioe

pulch r ior eS— were great belles amon g the stu

dents in Cheva lier W iko f f ’s day, who describesone of them as a perfect blon de

,

”and the other

as a matchless brun ette .Th e religious impressions which h ad beenstamped upon W illis’s m ind by the A ndover r ev iv a l were gradually obliterated by the pr eoccu

pation s of un dergraduate life. He did not defin itely ren ounce his profession , an d remain ed till

graduation in commun ion with th e college church .

But the state of his soul gave deep anxiety to his

good parents , who looked upon him , as he didupon himself

,as a backslider. In a letter to his

father durin g a season of in gathering in thecollege, stimulated by the eloquen t preachin g of

Professor Fitch, he wrote as follows

60 NA THANIE L PARKE R WILLIS .

class champion , and first printed in the Con

n ecticut Journ al .”

Willis spent the senior vacation a halcyonperiod of six weeks that formerly in terven edbetween Class Day and Commencement - in atrip through New York State an d Can ada ; takin g what is now known as the grand tour, and

gatherin g impressions which he ul timatelyworked into th e texture of his vivid Sketchesof “ Niagara, Lake On tario , an d the St. Lawrence .

” He traveled by the E rie Canal, thennewly opened through an almost un broken wilderness , dotted here an d there with striplin gcities

,Utica

,Palmyra, Rochester, the last

only a few years old.

“Th e burn t stumps of th e fir st settler s a r e all overth e town : you find th em close by th e door s and in

th e ya rds of th e people, a nd you m ay look betweenelegan t b locks o f ston e and br ick buildings and see th e

n a tur a l f or est withi n five minutes’

walk. I t is com

plete m ush r oom. We saw Colon el Roch ester, wh ofirst settled it. He and h is wif e wer e sitting at th eir

fr on t door, en joying th e even in g under tr ees wh ich

twelve year s ago wer e th e depth of th e wilder n ess .

”

There was a perpetual novelty in these con !

tr a sts . He saw the country, as it were , in themaking . Th e canal-boa t went only four milesan hour

,an d the voyager could get out , when so

minded, to stretch his legs an d pick the wild

COLLE GE LIFE . 61

flowers along the tow-path . Odd experiences r elieved the monoton y of this quiet sail along theamber Mohawk

,bonniest stream that ever

dimpled One Sun day,at the request of old

General Wadsworth of Geneseo,who happened

to be aboard and took a great fancy to Willis,the latter p reached a sermon to the passengersassembled in the cabin , an d pa ssed among them ,

in consequen ce , as a youn g minister who“ h ad

geten h im yet no ben efice.

”A n d here is a little

idyl perhaps worth recordin g

On Sunday mor n in g I saw a gir l on a h illside inth e wildest pa r t of th e Moh awk Val ley, milkin g. So

I leaped a sh or e, to th e gr eat amusem en t of th e pa s

sen ger s, and r an up to give h er a lectur e. Sh e wa s

qui te pr etty, an d blush ed when I a sked h er if sh ekn ew it wa s wicked to milk on Sunday. Sh e h ad

‘

a

pr etty little clean foot, probably wa shed by th e wet

gr a ss, and h eld up th e milkin g-pail f or m e to drinkwith con sider able grace. I sh ould h ave begged a

kiss if th e boat h ad n ot been in sigh t. I have justbeen called up to look a t Palm yr a . It is cur ious tosail th r ough th e cen tre o f a town , and see people inth e wi ndows above you and on the steps o f th e

houses, crowding to see th e str an ge f aces on boa r d.

They look so much at hbm e and you come so n earth em that you can h a r dly believe you sh all be in t enm inutes in th e depth of th e forest again .

”

A t Utica he found a host of friends, was r e


ceived with Western hospitality, and h ad twentyor thirty in vitations to dinners and parties . A

Utica belle whom he h ad kn own in New Havenmade up a picnic in his behoof to Trenton Falls ,the scen ery of which he described so admirablyin E dith Linsey.

”It was his hap to visit

Trenton on the very day when a Miss Suydam,

a young lady from New York,fell over the falls

an d was killed. From A uburn he drove out ona vi sit to another fair acquaintance , Miss A deleLivingston , whose country house on Skan eatelesLake he found to be a “ little palace of cultivation an d refinement dropped down un expectedly in the wilderness. This was FlemingFarm ”

in Edith Linsey, though it wouldprobably be a mistake to identify the heroine ofthat tale with Willi s’s hostess . With her hetook a horseback ride round the head of the lake,and then he returned to his canal . A t Niagarahe encountered a pleasant party of Boston an d

Salem people, an d was asked to attach himself to

their train on the way up On tario and down theSt. Lawrence . A mong them was a

“Miss E .

M (Emily Marshall a famous beauty,

who figures in W illis’

s“ Niagara

” sketch in aromantic and perilous adventure behind the fal l.“ I am sorry I may not mention her name

,he

says,

“ for in more chivalrous times she wouldhave been a character of history . E verybody

COLLE GE LIFE . 63

who has been in A merica, however, will knowwhom I am describin g .

”A t Montreal he fell

in with Chester Harding, the artist, with whomhe afterwards became intimate at Boston, an dwho pain ted an excellent portrait of Willis, n owowned by Mr. Charles A . Dana . In Septemberhe went back to New Haven to take his degreean d say good-by, an d then coll ege life was overan d th e world before him .

Willis always looked back with tenderness tohis college days . Years after, in his Slin gsby

”

papers,contributed to an E n glish magazine, he

made New Haven an d the un iversity the sceneor background of some of his best stories an d

sketches of A merican life, such as E dith Linsey,

” F. Smith,” “ Scenes of Fear

,

” “ Larksin Vacation ,

”an d The Cherokee’s Threat.”

These , however, are not college stories in the common meaning of th e term . Th e heroes of theseamusin g an d often incredible adventures are nuder gr adua tes , b ut they have the easy saooi r f a ir eof men of the world, an d the incidents of thenarrative are mainly enacted outside the collegefence, an d consist for the most part of love-makin g, driving stanhope, an d touring about thecountry in an independent manner. Th e aca

demic life of the time offered but a meagre fieldto the romancer, nor indeed is the case much alter ed since. There hav e been loud calls, at pres


ent subsidin g , for an“ A merican Tom Br own .

A few patriotic Harvard graduates have r e

spon ded, but their success has been such thatthe alumni of other colleges have congratulatedthemselves that n o one has been moved to perform the same of f i ce for their own A lm oe M a

tr eS . It may be doubted whether the four yearsof a coll ege course are a broad en ough base tosupport a full-length novel . A man is n ot bornin college, and he seldom dies or marries th ere .Th e struggle which decides his fin al success orfailure is fought on other fields . A S to the lifeitself

,though en grossing enough to those who

lead it, as stufi for fiction it is scant,— a life O f

pleasant mon oton y,varied by contests for honors

and prizes which seem paltry to the man, and

made exciting by that most fatuous of pursuits ,college politics . Nevertheless, it has uniquefeatures of its own , peculiar developments ofsentiment an d humor which appeal to the im ag

imation . To these, the man who has lived it andfound it sweet will often attempt to give shape ,as he looks back upon it in less happy years ,even though he m ay un derstand well enough thatsuch fragmen tary experiences want the unityand importance required in a continuous fiction. A s experiments of this nature,Willis

’

s col

lege stories shoul d be regarded. Itmust be confessed that he idealized a good deal. His geese

COLLE GE LIFE . 65

were always swans, an d he practiced an airy ex

aggeration provoking to the statistician or theliteral minded. He speaks, for example, in ano f f -hand way of “ the thousand students of theun iversity

,

” though the number never reachedhalf a th ousand at an y time when he was a student. But in the incidental glimpses of the lifewhich he described, in the atmosphere which heflun g aroun d it, he was true to the spirit of thatlife, the gay, irrespon sible existence of halfidle, half-earnest youth , whose friendships arewarm an d unquestioning, to whom the world isnew, the future full of promise , an d every girl aVenus . There is a glamour over it all

“ the

golden exhalations of the dawn an d romanceis the proper medium in which to present it.

“ Br igh t as seem s to m e th is seat o f m y A lmaMater , however ,

” wr ote Willis in “ E dith Lin sey,”

and gayly a s I describe it, it is to m e a picture of

m emory, glazed and put away ; if I see it ever aga in

it will be but to wa lk th r ough its embowered str eetsby a midn igh t m oon . I t is va in and hea r tbr eaking to

go back after absen ce to any spot of ea r th , o f wh ichth e in terest wa s th e hum an love wh ose h om e and

cr adle it h ad been . Th er e is n othi n g on earth so

mourn f ul and un ava iling , a s to retur n to th e scen es

which a r e un ch an ged, and look to retur n to our selvesan d oth er s as we wer e when we thus kn ew them .

”

On leaving coll ege , Will is signalized his eu5

66 NA THA NIE L PARKER WILLIS.

tr ance upon a literary career of forty years bycollecting an d publishing a score of his juvenilepoems

,in a thin volume entitled “ Sketches,

”

and dedicated to h is father. It contain ed, amon gother things, four of the scriptural pieces whichh ad done more than anything else to give himreputation . This vein he contin ued to cul tivate ,a nd added others in later volumes till they reachedthe number of eighteen . E ven in his last yearshe wrote one more scriptural poem for the NewYork Ledger,

” at the persuasion of the enterprisin g Mr . Bon ner

,reinforced by th e prof fer of

a hun dred dollars. A S there is little difi er en cein value between the earliest and latest of these,it may be well to speak of them here colleetively. It is not

,

hard to explain the voguewhich they Obtained, or the reason why m anypeople at this day, who know nothing else ofWillis, have read his Scripture poems . One stillencounters , here an d there, a good old coun trylady who reads little poetry, but who can quotefrom A bsalom ” or “ Jeph th ah

’

s Daughter”

and thinks them quite the best product O f the

A merican Parn assus. They made good Sundayreading . They appealed to an in ten sely b iblical an d not very literary constituen cy ; to a public familiar with the O ld an d New Testamentsalike

, an d familiarized also with the life and

scenery of the E ast through Bible commentaries

68 N A THA N IEL PARKER WILLIS .

very much can be said. They were certainlyremarkably mature work for a college boy, purein taste

,delicate an d correct in execution . But

there is a slightly hollow ring to them,as of

verse exercises on set themes . Th e inspirationis at secon d hand, from books an d not from life .A s other juvenile poets have gone to their cla ssics for a subject, Willis wen t to his Bible . He

dran k at Siloa’s fount instead of Helicon, an dtun ed the psaltery instead of th e lyre . We haveevidently not reached the real Willis yet. In

general the experimen t of paraphrasin g the narr ative portion s of the Scriptures h a s not beensuccessful . Something is lost when the impressive s1m plicity of the original is blown

‘

out in towordy an d sen timen tal verse . This process ofSpinning rhetorica l common places from brieftexts is well illustrated in the following passagefrom Lazarus an d Mary

But to th e m igh ty h eart

Th at i n Geth sem an e sweat drops o f blood,Taking f or us th e cup th at m igh t n ot pass

Th e h ea r t wh ose b r eakin g ch or d upon th e cr oss

Made the ea r th t r em ble a n d th e sun a f r a id

To look upon h is agony th e h ea r t

O f a lost wor ld’s Redeem er overflowed,

Touch ed by a m our n er’s sor r ow ! Jesus wept !

”

This is what Lowell called inspiration an d wa

ter .” A lfred de Vigny, a fine spirit and goodnoet, has tried the same thing in French and

COLLE GE L IFE . 69

succeeded little , if at all, better than the Yankee

collegian . Th e in adequacy of W illi s’s Scriptureren derings is made more apparent by the factthat his blan k verse is n ot a good vehicle forstrong feeling. It is correct an d flowing, sometimes musical, but seldom energetic. It favored

his tendency to difiusen ess an d it often degen

er a tes into a kind of accentless or a tio soluta ,

which is only verse because it scans, an d onlyblank verse because it does not rhyme .Upon the whole the most gen uine expressionof W illis’s talent in this early volume was in thepiece entitled Better Moments

,

” which remainson e of his best, because one of his most spon tan eous poems .It makes one realize the startling growth ofthe United States in the last fifty years, to r e

member that Willis h ad already won a nation al reputation by his poetry when he leftcollege . Th e air was much thinner then

, A merican literature much scantier

,the population so

small an d so comparatively homogeneous, thatthe suf frages of a few hun dreds of readers inNew York, Boston , New Haven , and Ph il adelphia, and the praises of a few dozen journalswere enough to bestow fame . What undergraduate nowadays , however clever or precocious,could hope to make his voice heard beyond thelimits of the college yard !

70 N A THA N IE L P A RKER WILL IS .

It remains only to mention that the presencein New Haven

,of the two poets Percival an d

Hillhouse,when Willis was a studen t there, was

not without influence on his literary development. Percival went to West Point as Prof essor of Chemistry in 1824 an d did not comeback to New Haven un til 1827 , but Hillhouseresided constan tly at his beautiful home in theoutskirts of the city, “ Sachem

’s Wood.

” HisMaster’s Oration, “ Th e E ducation of a Poet,

”

and his Phi Beta Kappa poem,

“ Th e Judgment

,

”h ad given him great fame in th e univer

sity as an orator and poet. Hadad was publish ed in wrote Will is , during my sec

ond year in college , and to me it was the openingof a new heaven of imagination . Th e leadingcharacters possessed me for months, an d thebright, clear, harmonious lan guage was, for alon g time, constantly in my ears .

” Of its authorhe said

,In no part of th e world have I seen a

man of more distinguished mien . Thoughmy acquaintance with him was slight, be con

fided to me, in a casual con versation, the plan ofa series of dramas, di f f erent from all he h ad at

tempted, upon which he designed to work withthe first mood an d leisure he could command.

”

CHA PTER III .

1827—1831 .

BO STON A ND THE A MERICA N MONTHLY .

THE profession of letters was W illis ’s manifest destin y. Family tradition ,

his in born tastesand talents, the course of his studies

,and his

ach ievements hitherto,all pointed that way. Yet

in the then state of the A merican press it tookn o sm all amount of self-con fiden ce to decline apaying profession an d launch upon the un cer

tain currents of literary life . His next fouryears were spent in Boston and were years ofapprenticeship in his life-work as an editor an djournalist . He continued to write an d publishverses

,but his hand was acquiring cun ning,

through constant practice and frequent failure,in the production of that light, brillian t prosewhich made him the favorite periodical writer ofhis day ; and he was also learn ing h ow to con

duct a magazine . He still made occasional contr ibution s to the Recorder ” among othersthe New Year’s verses

,then essential to every

well-regulated paper— for 1828 and 1829 . But

72 NA THA NIE L PARKER WILLIS .

hi s first editorial en gagemen t was with SamuelCr . Goodrich , the well-kn own bookseller an d publish er

,who h ad removed from Hartford to Bos

ton in 1826 . One of th e first books which heh ad published in Boston wasW illis ’s Sketches,

”

and he now employed the author of it to editTh e Legendary for 1828 and Th e Tokenfor 1829 . Goodrich was a fine example of Yankee enterprise an d versatility. He was one ofth e pion eers of “ the trade in A merica, enterin g the field at the same time with the Harpers .Under the pen-n ame of Peter Parley,

” hewrote or edited a long list of books for theyoun g , histories, travels, biographies , tales , worksof natural history, school text—books, etc. He

h ad himself some preten sions as a poet, by virtue of Th e Outcast an d Other Poems

,1841.

He was an exten sive traveler, a nd he became in1851 United States consul at Paris . It wasth e fashion among a certain set in Boston toabuse Peter Parley an d laugh at his literaryclaims . But he was a very successful publisher

,

an d in selecting his editoria l assistan ts , he h ad akeen eye for the kind of talen t that takes

,and

the kin d of work that pays . In his interestingRecollections of a L if etirn e he gives con

tr a sted sketches of the two principal con tr ibutors to his ann uals— Willis an d Hawthorne .Goodrich’s perceptions were

,perhaps

,not of the

BOSTON A ND THE A ME RI CA N M ON THL Y. 73

finest,but he was a shrewd observer of matters

within his ken , and h is recollections of Willisare worth repeating .

Th e most pr om in en t wr iter f or Th e Token was

N . P. Willi s . His articles wer e th e most read, th emost adm ir ed, th e m ost abused, and th e most advan

tageous to th e work. In 1827 I published h is v ol

um e en titled Sketch es .

’

It br ough t out quite a

sh ower o f cr iticism , in wh ich pr aise and blam e wer eabout equally dispen sed : at th e sam e tim e th e worksold with a readin ess quite unusua l f or a book of po

etry a t th at per iod. On e thi ng is cer tain , everybodyth ough t Willi s worth cr iticising. He h a s been , I sus

pect, m or e wr itten about than any oth er liter ary m an

in our h istory. Som e o f th e a ttacks upon h im pr o

ceeded, n o doubt, f r om a conviction th at h e wa s a

m an of extr aordin a ry gifts and yet o f extr aordin a rya f f ecta tion s , and th e lash wa s applied in kindn ess , asth at o f a sch ool-m aster to a loved pupil

’

s back. Som e

of th em wer e di cta ted by envy, f or we have h ad n o

oth er exam ple o f liter a ry success so ea r ly, so gen er a l,an d so flatter ing. Th at Mr . Willis m ade m istakes inliter atur e an d life, at th e outset, m ay b e adm itted by

h is best fr iends f or it m ust be r em em b er ed th at be

for e h e was five-an d-twen ty h e wa s mor e r ead th an

any oth er A m er ican poet -

o f h is time ; and besides,bein g possessed o f an ea sy and captivatin g addr ess ,

h e became th e pet o f society an d especia lly of th e

f air er por tion of it. A s to h is per son a l ch a r acter , In eed on ly say th a t, fr om th e begin n ing, h e h as h ad a

74 NA THA N I EL PARKER WILLIS.

la r ger cir cle of steadf a st f r iends th an a lmost any

m an with in m y kn owledge. I t is cur ious to r em a rkth at ever yth in g Willis wr ote attr acted immedia te a t

ten tion a nd excited r eady pr a ise, wh ile th e pr oduction s o f Hawth or n e wer e alm ost en tir ely un n oticed.

Willi s wa s slen der , h is h a ir sun ny an d silken , h isch eek ruddy, his a spect ch eer f ul a nd con fiden t. He

m et society with a r eady an d welcom e h an d an d wa s

r eceived readily an d with welcom e.

”

It is needless to pursue the contrast which th ewriter goes on to draw between Will is an d theother an d greater Nathan iel, who wa s then th e

obscurest man of letters in A merica .

”Th e pub

li sh er’

s sympathies were obviously with his morelively an d popular contributor, an d he 1s puzzledto un derstand why such articles as Sights froma Steeple,

” Sketches ben eath an Umbrella,”

Th e Wives of the Dead,”

an d “ Th e Pro

ph etic Pictures,” should have extorted hardly

a word of either praise or blame when origin a lly published in

“ Th e Token ,

” while nowuniversally ackn owledged to be production s ofextraordin ary depth

,meanin g , an d power He

is inclin ed to attribute it to a n ew sen se in aportion of the reading world obtain ed unluckily too late to profit the publisher of Th e TO

ken which led them to study the mystica l .”

To Goodrich’s person al description of Willismay be added the following little portrait by

76 NA THA N IE L PARKER WILLIS .

Poetry,” Unwritten Philosophy, an d “ Leaves

from a Colleger’s A lbum These last were

very juvenile an d he never reprinted them . Th e

first two were tales with a moral, one depictin gthe restorative influences of nature on a heartcrushed by bereavement, the other describing ascholarly recluse, who lived alone with natureand his books, an d finally educated and marriedhis landlady’s daughter. Th e story in bothinstances is very slight, overladen with sentiment

,descriptive digressions, an d philosophy

,

that might better have stayed“ unwritten .

”In

short,they are tedious which Willis in his

later work never was . Unwr itten Poetryincluded, however, a description of TrentonFall s and a fine rhapsody about water which berehabilitated afterwards an d incorporated withE dith Lin sey. Both of these h ad the hon orin th e then paucity of our literature to

be selected by Mary Russell Mitford for herStories of A merican Life by A merican A uthors .” Leaves from a Colleger

’s A l bumwas a first experiment of another kind

,a hu

m or ous sketch of a trip on the E rie Canal,

utilizing the experiences of his senior vacation,an d, in particular, th e incident of his readinga sermon in th e cabin of the can al boat on

Sunday. It con ta ins, in the person of JobC lark, the nucleus of Forbearance Smith in the

BOSTON A ND THE AMERICAN M ONTHL Y. 77

Slingsby papers— th e'

n ea r est approach thatWillis ever m ade to the genuine creation of acharacter. He was always thus economical ofhis material, repeatedly working over the sam estu f f into n ew shapes .

Th e Token ” belonged to the class of illustr ated publications known as A n n uals . It wasthe age of A nnuals , Gift Books, Boudoir Books,Books of Beauty, Flowers of Loveliness , an d

Leaflets of Memory. Th e taste for these or

nate combinations of literature and art was imported from E n gland, where the A ckermans h adpublished Th e Forget-Me-Not,

” the earliestspecimen of the kind, in 1823. Carey Leaof Philadelphia brought out the first A mericanA n nual

,Th e A tlantic Souvenir,

” for whichWillis h ad been asked to write

,when in college,

an d to which he actually did contribute a copyof birth-day verses,

“ I’

m twenty-two w - I’

m

twenty-two,” in the volume for 1829 . These

were written, he affirmed, “ in a blan k leafof a barber’s Testament, whi le waiting to beshaved.

”They were also inserted in the “Lon

don Literary Souvenir ” for the same year, byA l aric A . Watts, a copious editor of A nn uals,whose middle initial was cruelly asserted byLockhart to stand for A tti la . Th e rage forA nnuals soon became general and lasted forabout twenty years . Goodrich enumerates some

78 NA THA NIEL PARKER WILLIS.

forty of them , bearin g such fantastic titles asTh e Gem ,

Th e Opal, Th e Wreath, Th e Casket,Th e Rose, Th e A mulet, Th e Keepsake , Pearlsof the West

,Frien dship’s O f ferin g . A n d these

are probably n ot ha lf the list . There werereligious A nn ua ls , juvenile A n n uals

,orien tal,

lan dscape, botanic A n nuals . Most rum magersamong the upper shelves of an old library havetaken down two or three of them ,

blown thedust from their gilt edges , ruf fled the tissuepapers that veil Th e Bride ,

”Th e Nun ,

”

The Sisters ,”an d “ Th e Fair Peniten t, and

wondered in what age of the world these r e

markable embellishmen ts an d the still moreremarkable letter press which they embellishcoul d have reflected A merican life . There isa faded elegance about them ,

as of an old balldress : a faint aroma, as of withered roses ,breathes from the page Those steel-en gravedbeauties

,languishing , simperin g , insipid as fash

ion plates , wi th high-arched marble brows , pearlnecklaces , an d glossy ringlets— not a lin e intheir faces or a bone in their bodies : thatHighland Chieftain , that Young Buccaneer,that Bandit’s Child, all in smoothest m ezzotin t,— what kind of a world did they masqueradein ! It was a needlework world, a world inwhich there was always moonlight on the lakeand twilight in the vale ; where drooped the wil

BOSTON AND THE AMERICAN M ONTHL Y. 79

low an d bloomed the eglantine, and j essamineembowered the cot of the village maid ; whereth e lark warbled in the heavens an d the nightin gale chan ted in the grove

’neath the mouldering ivy-mantled tower ; -where vesper chimesand the echoes of the merry bugle-ugle-uglehorn were borne upon the zephyr across theyellow corn where Isabella san g to the harp

(with her hair down ) and the tinkling guitar ofthe serenader under her balcony made response ;a world in which there were fairy isles, en

ch anted grottoes, peris, gondolas , an d gazell es .A ll its pleasan tly TOCOCO landscape has vanish ed, brushed rudely away by realism an d asincere art an d an earn est literature .In these Gems an d A l bums , the gemmy an d

albuminous illustrations alternated with romantic tales o f mediaeval or eastern life an d with“Lines on Seeing or Stanzas occasionedby something . Th e May-Flowers of Life,for example , suggested by th e author

’s havingfound a branch of May in a volume of poemswhich a friend h ad left there several years ago .

”

In the A nnual dialect a ship was a “ bark,” a

bed was a “ couch,

” a window was a “ casement,”

a shoe was a boat was a shallop ,an d a book was a “ tome . Certain propertiesbecame gemmy by force of association , as seashells, lattices, and o lian harps . In E ngland


L. E . L . an d in A merica Percival an d Mrs .Sigourney were perhaps the gemmiest poets .But much of W ill is’s poetry was album verse

,

with an air of th e boudoir an d the ball-roomabout it

, a silky elegance an d an exotic perfum ethat smack of that very sentimental an d a r tifi

cial school . This passage from“ Th e Declara

tion is in poin t

T was la te and th e gay com pany wa s gon e,

A n d ligh t lay so f t on th e deser ted room

From alabaster va ses , a nd a scen t

O f or ange leaves a nd sweet v er ben a cam e

Fr om th e un sh utter ed win dow on the a ir ,

A nd th e r ich pictur es , with th eir da rk old tin ts,

Hung like a twiligh t lan dscape, and a ll th ings

Seem ed h ushed in to a slum ber . Isabelle,”

Th e da rk eyed, spir itual Isabelle,Wa s lean ing on h er h ar p .

”

Th e Token , begun in 1828 and continuedto 1842, was edited by Goodrich every year except 1829, when Willis h ad charge of it. Likeother A nnuals it contained, in spots, some goodart an d good writin g . There were delicatelydesigned an d en graved vignette titles or presen tation plates by Cheney, the Hartford artist.There was an occasional contribution ,

in prose ,from Lon gfellow or Mrs . Child then MissFrancis

,an d likewise a contributor to Th e Leg

en da ry.

” Many of Hawthorn e’s Twice-Told

Tales came out 111 “Th e Token .

” Mrs . Sigour «

B OS TON A ND THE AMERICAN M ONTHL Y. 81

ney’s Connecticut River divided with Willis ’s “ Th e Soldier’s Widow ”

th e $5100 prizeof f ered by the publisher for 1828. A mong thecon tributors to W illis’s volume (1829) wereJohn Neal, Colon el William L . Stone

,Mrs . Si

gourney, Mrs . Hale, the Rev. T. H. Gallaudet,

Willis’s A lbany friend, J . B . Van Sch a ick, andGoodrich himself. Th e Rev. G. W . Doaneafterward Bishop Doane gave his well knownverses

,What is that, Mother ! Willis gave

five poems of his own,the only noteworthy

one among which was Saturday A fternoon,written to accompany the fron tispiece , en gravedby E llis from a painting by Fisher, and r epr e

senting children swinging in a barn . This h admore the character of a sim ple, popular balladthan anything else which he h ad written, an d

was liked by many readers who cared littleabout his more elaborate verse . A nother poemin Th e Token,

” “Psyche before the Tribunal ofVen us ,

” he wrote for the engravin g by Cheneyfrom a drawing of Fragonard. A college tale ,Th e Ruse,

” was a slight advance on the experim en ts in Th e Legendary the dialogue washandl ed more freely, but the story was weak asa whole

,hardly worth mentioning, certainly not

worth preserving . Will is continued to contribute verses to Th e Token” after he h ad resignedits edi torship . To a C ity Pigeon,

”On a

6


Picture of a Girl leading h er Blind Motherthrough th e Woods , and doubtless other pieceswere printed in subsequent n umbers . He wrotefor other A n n uals

,at various times Th e

Power of an Injured Look,

” for Th e Gift,”

a Christmas book, 1845 an article OnDress

,

” for “Th e Opal, 1848, and edited “Th e

Thought Blossom, a memorial volume, as lateas 1854. Th e Torn Hat was contributedto “ Th e Youth’s Keepsake ” for 1829, an d“ Contemplation was written in 1828 to ao

compan y an en graving in“ Remember Me

,

” areligious A nnual published in Philadelphia . Buthe h ad no very high Opinion of the class of liter atur e that they cultivated

, and spoke of themas yearly flotilla s of trash .

”

In the Sprin g of 1829 he entered upon hisfirst serious venture as a journalist

,by start

in g the A merican Mon thly Magazine, whi chran two years an d a half— from A pril

,1829,

to A ugust, 1831 . Mr. Thomas Gold A ppleton describes W illis’s undertakin g as a slimmonthly, written chiefly by himself, but with thetrue magazine flav or.” A ppleton an d his frien dMotley, then students in Harvard, were bothcontributors. For a youn g li tte

’

r a teur , only ayear an d a hal f out of college, without capital,without backing , alm ost without experien ce , th eestablishment of a monthly magazine was cer

84 NA THA N IE L PARKER WILL IS .

afterwards the A rkansas poet an d fi r e-eater,

an d Rufus Dawes, then a budding genius,subsequently a preacher of erratic doctrines,J . O . Rockwell, Mrs . Sigourney, and otherswhose names have fallen silent . Next to theeditor’s own graceful work, the most notablethings given to the public through the columnsof the A merican Monthly were Pike’sHymns to the Gods,

” poems of a richly classical inspiration

,which have often provoked

comparison with Keats’s odes ; and which, iftheir workmanship were equal to their im ag

in ative fervor, would justify the comparison .

Willis led OK in the opening number witha carefully wr itten , but not very characteristic,essay on Unwritten Music.

”It was thought

monstrous fine by his friends, but suggests , itmust be confessed, that dreariest product of thehuman mind, a prize composition . A s astudy of the harmonies of nature , it was muchtoo general in its reflections an d descr iptions toplease a modern taste

,wonted to the sharp and

full detail of Thoreau and his successors . Th e

editorial articles, prose and verse , in the A m erican Monthly were too many to be mentionedhere individually. There were stories , Th e

Fancy Ball,

” “ Th e E lopement ,” P. Calamus,

E sq. , an d others which their author never r ecogn ized so far as to give them any place in his


coll ected writings. Others, as Baron von Raf flo f f ,

”Captain Thompson,

” “ Incidents in theLife of a Quiet Man ,

”etc. , were the rough

drafts of later tales , such as “ Pedlar Karl,

Larks in Vacation,”

an d “ Scenes of Fear.A l bina M ’

Lush was the best of these . “The

Death of the Gentle Usher contained an eloquent passage on the night heavens, which oh

ta in ed a better setting in“ E dith Linsey.

”A n

Inklin g of A dventure” lent its name an d noth

in g else to the first published collection of Willis’s Slingsby stories . Then there weresketches of travel in New York State an d Canada , partly reminiscences of senior vacation and

partly memorials of holidays from the editorialdesk

,Spent at Saratoga, Lebanon Springs , or

elsewhere : “ Notes upon “ a Ramble ,” Letters

ofHorace Fritz, an d Pencill ings by theWay,

” a title afterward used to better adv antage . Parts of these were similarly refurbishedfor later employment. Th e secret of that skillful blending of gayety and sentiment, the quick,light transitions , which make much of the charmof W illis’s best stories and sketches

,like F.

Smith,or Pasquali

,

” he h ad not yet learned.

In these earlier e f forts the serious parts dragan d the humorous parts a r e flashy an d thin . Be

sides the monthly table ” there were editorialarticles of that rambling , chatty description pe

86 NATHANIEL PARKER WILL IS .

culia r to the period, and which the Noctes h ad

don e as much as anything to introduce : Seribblin gs ,

” “ Th e Scrap Book,” “ Th e Idle Man ,

Tete-a-téte Confession s,”etc. , in which the ed

itor takes the reader into his confidence an d

his sanctum ,makes him sit down in his r ed mo

rocco dorm euse, reads him bits of verse from hisold scrap-books and his favorite authors , call sattention to his japonica, his smokin g pastille ,his scarlet South A merican tr ulian (a most f amiliar bird with Wil lis he gets it in again inLady Ravelgold an d his two dogs Ugolino

and L . E . L . , whose lair is in the rejected MSS .

basket . He fosters an agreeable fiction that hewrites with a bottle of Rudesheimer and a plateof olives at his elbow, and he says now an d thenin a hospitable aside Take another olive

,or

“Pass the Joh an n isb ergh”

; this to his imaginary interlocutor, Cousin Florence, or Tom Lascelles, or Th e Idle Man, an epicure and dandy,“ who eats in summer with an amber-handledfork to keep his palm cool .These amiable coxcombries of Willis gave

dire of f ense to the critics, an d especially to Joseph T. Buckingham ,

the veteran of the Bostonpress and editor of the Courier, then themost influential Whig newspaper in Massach u

setts . He published epigrams on Willis , withvery blunt points

,administered fatherly rebukes

BOSTON A ND THE AMERICAN M ON THL Y. 87

to him for his af f ected E nglish , and objectedstrongly to Ugolino , L . E . L . , and th e tr ulian .

Willis retorted in kind, an d a good-natured warraged between th e Courier ” and the A merican Monthly,

” though their editors were privately the best of friends . In his Specimensof Newspaper Literature,

” Buckingham paid a

glowin g and,indeed, extravagant compliment to

the talents of his young adversary. W illis’s ex

per ien ce in editing the“ A merican Mon thly

was of great advan tage to him . He h ad a natural instinct for journalism , and he soon acquiredby practice that person al, sympathetic attitudetoward his readers, an d that ready adjustmentof himself to the public taste , which made himthe most popular magazinist of his day and de

fin ed at once his success an d hi s limitations .For its purposes Will is ’s crisp prose was admirable : delicate an d brief like a white jacket,transparent like a lump of ice in champagn e ,soft-tempered like the sea-breeze at n ight .

”

It h ad an easy, conversational gr ace , the air of“ the town ,

” the tone of good society. In hisreview of Lady Morgan

’s “ Book of the Boudoir ,

” he made a plea for that n egligé stylewhich he practiced so daintily himself. Welove this ramblin g, familiar gossip . It is theundress of the mind. There are few peoplewho possess the talent of graceful triflin g, either


in writing or conversation . Study may make

ythin g but this . It is like n aw eté in character

,nature let alon e . There was a great

deal of good wr iting in W illis’

s“ A merican

Monthly articles ; bright thoughts expressedin exquisite E nglish, here and there a pagewhich Charles Lamb or Leigh Hunt might havebeen glad to claim . Some of these be rescuedfrom the old fil es of the magazine an d insertedin his later work . Th e chapter on MinutePhilosophies

,

” “ A Morning in the Library,”

an d “ Th e Substan ce of a Diary of Sicknesswere used again in Edith Linsey,

”and a Spir

ited description of Nahant in on e of the tables did duty in “F. Smith .

” But many anice bit was too small for resetting and remainedlost in the ephemeral context, — many such ascrap as thi s little picture of summer in town

Wa s ever such in ten se, unmitiga ted Sun sh in e PTh er e is n oth in g on th e h a rd, opaque sky but a mer er ag of a cloud, like a handker chief on a tablet o f

blue ma r ble, an d th e edge of th e sh adow o f th a t tall

c h imn ey is a s defin ite a s a ha ir , and th e youn g elm

th at lean s over th e fen ce is copied in per f ect a n d m o

tion less leaves like a very pa in tin g on th e br oad sidewa lk.

”

Th e “New England Galaxy, which was alsounder Buckingham

’s managemen t, was editedfor a time by one William Joseph Snelling , who

‘

OS TON A ND THE AMERICAN MONTHL Y. 89

made quite a sti r in Boston newspaper circles .

He h ad been an under-of ficer in th e army andstationed somewhere in the Northwest, but cameto Boston about 1830 a nd devoted himself tosensation al journalism an d in particul ar to acrusade again st gamblers . His life was threaten ed for this, and he converted his office into asort of arsenal . In 1831 he published a slashin g lampoon , Truth : a New Year’s Gift forScribblers,

” in which he blackguarded A mericanwriters in general and paid his respects to Willis as follows

Muse, sh a ll we not a f ew b r ief lin es a f f ordTo give poor Na tty P . h is m eet r ewa rd

”.

l

W h a t h as h e done to be despised by a ll

W ith in wh ose h a nds h is h a rm less scr ibblings f all’

.

l

Why, a s in ba nd-box tr im h e wa lks th e st reets,

Tur n s up th e n ose o f every m a n h e m eets,

A s i f it scen ted ca r r ion’

.

l W hy o f lateDo a ll th e cr itics claw h is sh a llow pa te !

True he’

s a f ool — if th a t’

s a h ang ing th ing ,

Let P r en tice, Wh ittier , Mellen al so swing .

”

Some of this delicate banter was exhumed and

quoted a few years later by Captain.

Marryat,

in the article in the Metropolitan which ledto the af fair of hon or between that warrior and

Willi s Th e latter an swered Snelling“con

tem ptuously but e f fectively,” Goodrich reports

,

in some half dozen verses inserted in the Statesm an ,

’

and addressed to Sm elling Joseph. Th e


lines stuck to poor Smelling for the rem ainderof his life . Th e pasquin ader himself afterwards wen t to New York an d conducted a meataxe publication

, Th e C en sor.” Goodrich adds,that he fell into habits of dissipation ,

whichled from one degradation to another, till hismiserable career was en ded

,

” a victim , nodoubt, to the angry muse . Willis also con trivedto oflen d Mrs . Lydia Maria Child by a satiricalreview of her Fruga l Housewife an d by harpin g on a sentence from that authority,

“ hard

gin ger-bread is nice.

” She took this very muchto heart, an d when she afterwards h ad chargeof the literary department of the Travellershowed an abidin g hostility toward her whilomcritic . He early attain ed to the dign ity of par!

ody. Th e A nnoyer was travestied in the“A mateur and a hum orous imitation of “A lbinaM ’

Lush was also prin ted. Mere literary cr iti e

cism ,however unfa ir, need not greatly di sturb

a ny on e. But Willis was subjected, in Boston,to personalities of a v ery annoyin g character.He was constan tly in receipt of anonym ous letters calling him a puppy, a rake , etc. He wasattacked in the newspapers for his frivolity, hi sdan dyism , an d hi s conceit. Private scandal,circulated by word of mouth, con cerning hisdebts an d his alleged immoralities, sometimes

got into print . It would not be ea sy to explain


anything at all for verse . During these earlyyears of journalistic life Willis sojourn ed awhilein the pleasant land of Bohemia. He was amember of a supper club , which included tworepresentatives of each profession . WashingtonA l lston an d Chester Harding were the artists ;Willis an d Dawes th e men of letters ; HoraceMan n and five or six more completed the tal e .Willis was a frequent loun ger in Harding

’s studio, and some years after he was delighted tocome across his tracks at Gordon and Dalhousiecastles, where Harding was kn own . Willis wasfond of fast horses , and used to drive his friendsout to Nahan t

,for a spin on the hard beach

alon g th e edge of the surf. This was the sceneof “ F. Smith,

” one of his most perfect an d

characteristic stories . With Dawes an d othershe resorted, not seldom , for a game supper, toa n ancien t an d on ce somewhat stately hostelry,kn own as the “ Stackpole House

,

” where thewin es were excellen t an d the lan dlord good-hu

mored an d disposed to trust,the original

doubtless, of Gallagher in Th e Female Ward,a story written long afterwards, but whose in cidents an d descriptions are assign able to thisperiod.

W illis’s position in Boston was in some r e

spects a difficult one . His family connectionwere plain

, good folks, not“ in society,

” not,

BOSTON A ND THE AMERICAN M ON THL Y. 93

at least,in the literary society, which was Un i

tarian,or in the so-ca lled aristocratic society,

which was mainly either Unitarian or Episcopalian . He himself was socially ambitious, an dthese were the circles which he wished to f r e

quent. Th e pale of Un itarianism,he wrote,

is the limit of gentility .

” He was a great f avor ite with Mrs . Harrison Gray Otis, th e “ ladyautocrat ” and leader of the tan in the Puritancapital for many years . He was constantly ather house when she was in town

, an d was invitedto be one of her party when she went to Saratoga in the summer. Nor was thi s a passin gfancy with Mrs . Otis

,but stood the test of time

an d separation . She made him a long visit atIdlewild during the latter years of his life . Butthe Park Street Church people, among whom heh ad been brought up, looked askance upon hisfashionable associations . Th e old stories of hiscollege dissipations were revived, while rumorsof his Boston irregul arities reached the ears ofhis New Haven acquaintances . Will is himselftook no notice of these Slanders

,but they were

warmly resented by his friends . His brother-inlaw

,Joseph Jenkins, wrote to Mr. D . W . Whit

in g of New Haven :“ Nat is a good fellow. He

is not dissipated in any way ; n o r traveling th e

Tartarean turnpike , as the good NewHaven people suppose . He is attending to his magazine,


a nd doin g his duty as well as any of us .Though Willis did not make the impression ofa man of very scrupulous morality, he was cer

ta in ly n ot given to any serious dissipations . It

wa s not in his temperament to run into physi calexcesses . His senses were delicate, and he alu

ways respected them . He never, for example,used tobacco he was never a hard drinker. In

youth he aff ected a moderate conviviality and

h ad an aesthetic liking for champagn e . In m id

dle age he was accustomed to mix a little Spiritwith his water

,expressing a horror for the pure

element,on the whimsical ground that it tasted

of sinners ever since the flood. In this Bostonperiod

,his oflen ses were probably limited to

running up bills at livery stables an d inns, witha too sanguine expectation of bein g able to paythem from the proceeds of his literary work.

Edward Beecher, who h ad been a tutor at Yaleduring his college course, was at this time pastorof the Park Street Church . Finding himselfunwill in g to conform his life to the strict rul esof that society, Willis called on Mr. Beecherand stated the manner of his supposed con version in a revival at A ndover, an d the influencesthat h ad induced him to join the church . He

said that he was sincere in the act, but was conv in ced afterward th at he was mistaken in hisconviction, and that he h ad not experienced the


sign ifica v i t always afterwards thought and spokewith some bitterness of “ the charity of a sectin religion . He never renounced defi n itely hisC hristian belief. He never beca me skeptical

,

was not at any time, in fact, a thinker on suchthemes an d subject to th e specul ative doubtswh ich beset the thinker. He remained throughlife easily impressible in his reli gious emotion s.Worldl ing as I am,

” he wrote many years after,and hardly as I

,dare claim any virtue as a

Christian , there is that with in me which sin and

folly n ever reached or tain ted.

”But this ended

his connection with organized Christianity, an dhe ceased for a long time to be a church-goer.His position in Bo ston was also m ade painfulby an unsuccessful love affair. He h ad paidcourt to Mary Benjamin , a woman of uncommonbeauty of person an d graces of mind and character

,the sister of Park Benjamin and after

wards the wife o f the historian Motley. Sh e

returned his feeling and the two were engagedto be married, but the engagement was brokenthrough the determined opposition of the lady

’s

guardian, Mr. Savage . Willis carried this thornin hi s side for years

, an d it gave him manyhours of bitter homesickness while abroad. In

a letter written a few days after landing in E ng

land, in the summer of 1834, he said

I loved Ma ry B ., and n ever th ink o f h er without


emotion ; but w ith a ll th e wor ld in Fr an ce, Ita ly, andE ngland tr ea ting m e like a son or a br oth er , I am n ot

comin g h om e to figh t m y way to h er th r ough bitterrelatives an d slan der and opposition . Th ey n ea r lycr ush ed m e on ce, a nd I sh a ll take care h ow th ey geta n oth er oppor tun ity. Still , a f ter thr ee years

’

separ a

tion , I th ink I n ever loved any on e so well , an d if

my way wer e n ot so hedged up, it would dr aw m e

h om e n ow .

”

To Mary Benjamin was addr essed the lovelylittle poem , To M from A broad, with itsmotto from Metastasio

,

“ L’alm a

, quel ch e n on h a,sogn a et figur a .

By 1829 Willis h ad accumulated verses enoughto fill another slender volume of Fugitive Poetry. Of th e forty-three pieces in this , the“ Dedication Hymn

,

” written to be sung at theconsecration of th e Hanover Street Church inBoston

,has the best title to remembrance . It

possesses a brief en ergy seldom attained byWillis . A s late as 1856 , his old E n glish friend,Dr. William Beattie , wr ote to him :

“ Your beautiful Hymn was sung in one of our cathedraltowns

,at the consecration of a n ew church, by an

overflowing congr egation . Surely this is a factworth noting. Miss Rogers was the first whotold me of it, and often have I repeated ‘Th e

perfect world by A dam trod,’

etc.

” “ Th e A n

98 NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS .

noyer and Saturday A fternoon have beenalready mention ed. C ontemplation

They a r e al l up,th e in n um er able s ta r s

h ad the feeling , though not the artistic touch, ofTennyson ’s St. A gn es,

”an d came near to being

a fi n e poem . There were five son n ets,one of

them an acrostic to Emily Mar shall with a

good closing couplet ,Li f e in thy presen ce wer e a th ing to keep,Like a gay dream er cling ing to h is sleep.

”

A Por tr a it, also , which Willis did not republish

,contained an e f f ective passage, beginningI go away like one wh o

’s h ear d,

In som e fine scene,the p rom pter

’

s word,

etc.

There were two more scriptural pieces, and theremainder of the book was of no importance .Many of its conten ts were written before thoseof the earlier volume of Sketches.”

Th e Am erican Monthly proved a failurefinancially, owing , doubtless , to a lack of theright busin ess management , for which Willish ad no facul ty, an d with which , in truth , he h adnothing to do . A t the close of the summer of1831 the magazine suspen ded publication, an d

its editor,shaking ofl the dust of his feet against

the New Englan d metropolis, fled to more genialclimes . He left behind him the squibs of hisbrother journ alists

,the cackle of the tea-tables

,


letters from Sara toga, written by Willis in A n

gust, an d contain in g some characteristic verses,The Strin g that tied my Lady’s Shoe

,

”an d

TO3,

T is m idn igh t deep : I cam e but n ow

Fr om th e b r igh t a ir o f ligh ted h a lls

as a lso a “ Pencillin g by the Way, descriptiveof Providen ce an d Brown University, where heh ad just beendeliverin g a Commencement poem .

On September 25th th e editorial page for th efirst time bore the heading ,

“ E dited by GeorgeP . Morris

, Theodore S . Fay, and Nathaniel P .

Th e journal with which he h ad now conn ectedhimself— an d with whose successors , un der diff er en t names , he continued to be identified un tilhis death, thirty-six years later— was a weeklypaper

,published on Saturdays

,and “ devoted

to literature a nd the fine arts .” It h ad beenfoun ded in 1823by Samuel Woodworth , authorof Th e O ld Oaken Bucket,

”an d General

George P . Morris,but Woodworth h ad with

drawn some time before Willis joined it . Morris

,with whom Willis now began a business

partnership that lasted, with slight interruption s,for the rest of their lives , an d a personal friendship almost roman tic in its ten dern ess an d fidel

ity, was the most popular son g writer of his

B OSTON A ND THE AMERICAN MONTHL Y. 101

generation in A merica, a sort of cis-A tlanticTom Moore, whose songs, adapted to th e piano ,were on all the music-racks in the land. Nearthe Lake where droops the Willow was a universal favorite in the days of gem -book minstr elsy. My Mother’s Bible was dear to the

great heart of the people, an d the air of Woodman, spare that Tree was heard by wanderingA merican s ground out from every h urdy-

gurdyin the Lon don streets . Unless a clever letterin the “Mirr or of March 2, 1839 , is wholly ahoax

,this last-mention ed son g compared in popu

la r itywith Home Sweet Home ,” havin g suf fered

translation into French Bfich er on ,épa rgn emon

arbre German (“Haue nicht die alte E iche

nieder Spanish,Portuguese, an d Dutch ; the

German version bein g even introduced by anessay, “ Ueber Morris’s E ntwickelung , Denkenun d VV irken .

”The A maranth for 1840, an

an nual, edited by Nathan iel Brooks an d dedicated to Morris , con tain s Greek an d Latin render ings of his Woodm an

,

” as well as of Wilde ’salmost equally familiar an d far better lyric

,My

Life is like the Summer Rose .” Morris was abustling, af f able little man , with a shrewd, praotical side to him . He was a good busin ess manager, an d as Willis h ad no talent in that kind, theas sociation was mutually advan tageous . Mo r ris

’sintellectual stature was not great, and Willis,

02 N A THAN IE L PARKER WILLIS.

who loved the man , was unable to admire thepoet. He praised his songs in prin t, but therewas more of friendship than critical sincerity inhis praise . He h ad been in corresponden ce withMorris before

,an d h ad contributed occasion ally

to th e “Mirror,” having sent it a poem in com

petition for a twen ty-dollar prize when he wasstill in college . He now began to decant in to itscolumn s a number of his A merican Monthlyarticles , a circum stance which not only showsh ow local the circula tion of th e latter must havebeen , but Sheds a curious light on the methodsof journ alism at that epoch . Th e old “ NewYork Mirror h ad a reputation for brightnessin its time an d a circulation then consideredlarge , but as compared with the great magazin esof to-day it seems a very primitive af f air, withits Origin al E ssays,

” its Popular MoralTa les ,

” “ Desultory Selection s, an d “ E xtracts

from an Un published Tragedy, its poems Forthe Mirror

,

’ by Isidora an d Iolan the,an d its

solemn A nswers to Corresponden ts . Now an d

then there is a con tribution of more pron oun cedindividuality, a poem by Halleck, a story byPauldin g or Fay. Theodore S . Fay, the oth ereditor

,was a m an of parts . He was th e author

of several once popular novels , “ The Coun tessIda and Hoboken ,

”ten den z romances aga inst

dueling , Ulric,” a poetical romance, and Nor

104 NA TIIA NIE L PARKER WILLIS .

a nd means . A t length 8500were scraped to

gether as c ia ticum , an d it was agreed that Willis was to write weekly letters at ten dollars th eletter. Th e in vestmen t proved a good one bothfor the “ Mirror ” and for its travelin g editor .With this slender capital in his pocket he embarked a t Philadelphia October l0th

,the only

passen ger on the merchant brig Pacific, boun dfor Havre . He was young, san guine, eager tosee life

,but in his most hopeful mood he could

hardly have foreseen the dazzlin g experiences ofhis next four years

,or the far-reaching con se

quen ces which th e trip thus lightly undertakenwere to have for him .

Before sa iling he h ad foun d time to visit Philadelphia, Ba ltimore , Washington an d Moun tVernon

, a nd make a “ Pencilling of them forthe Mirror. A nother letter gave his impression s of New York

,now become his A merican

address . He h ad also put to press the poem delivered before th e Society of United Brothers,

”

at Brown University,on September 6th , the day

before Commencement, together with a f ew otherpieces written since 1829 . Th e dedication wasTo on e of whom ,

in this momen t of departurefor a foreign land, I thin k sadly an d only —tomy Th e n ame-poem was one of thoseconven tional performan ces with which unluckyrecipients of in vitation s to speak a piece be


fore Phi Beta Kappas,United Brothers, or other

such academic bodies, a r e wont to dazzle th eyoung alumni . It was in blan k verse, of course ,and deal t with the usual commonplaces aboutambition

,content, the beauty of human love, and

the folly of skepticism an d contempt . It showedmore maturity than the poem delivered beforehis own A lma Mater four years before , but itwas much the same sort of thing . Of the r e

main ing contents of the book two were Scripturesketches and four were of a more ambitious description than Willis h ad previously attempted.

These were “ Pa r r h a sius,” “ Th e Dying A lche

mist,

”Th e Scholar of Th eb et Ben Ghorat,

”an d

Th eWife’s A ppeal ” to her husband to awaketo fame .” The theme of a ll these an d the central thought of this whole volume is the vanityof an inordin ate thirst for knowledge , power, orfame . Pa r r h asius,

” the story of an old O lyn

thian captive who was tortured to death by theA thenian pain ter that he might catch the expression of his last agony for his picture ofPrometheus, comes the nearest to success . Willis h ad read the tale in Burton ’s A natomy ofMelanch oly. Th e Scholar of Th ebet BenCh or at was the story of a young Bedouin who

grew m ad an d died from too close application toastrology, on which science Willis seems to havecrammed up for the nonce , if one may judge

106 NATHAN IEL PARKER WILLIS.

from the profusion of his foot-notes . But intruth these poems were little better thanwork. Th e sweet and natural lines

, To a C ityPigeon,

” were worth all the rest of the book.


these are not quite free of their surroundings .To all but sworn Em er son ian s E nglish Traitsis probably the most intelligible an d satisfactoryof Emerson’s writings . Th e Marble Faun isnot Hawthorn e ’s greatest romance , but there isa richness about it, a body, th at comes Simplyfrom its material, an d is not to be foun d inTh e Scarlet Letter or “ Th e House of theSeven Gables.A s for Willis, his genius, such as it was, wasfrankly external . His bright fancy played overthe surface of things . His curiosity and hissenses demanded gratification . He needed stir,change , adventure . He was always turning hisown experiences to account, an d the more crowdedhis life was with impressions from outside , themore vivid his page . He h ad the artist’s cr aving for luxury, and was fond of quotin g a sayingof Godwin “ A judicious an d limited voluptu

ousn ess is necessary to the cultivation of themind, to the polishing of the manners, to therefining of the sen timent, and to the development of the understanding .

”This taste for the

sumptuous h ad been starved in Will is at home .Not only were literature an d society in A mericafar more provincial then than now,

but life wasplainer in every way . The rapid growth ofwealth has obliterated the most striking con

tr a sts between cities like New York an d Boston,

LIFE ABROAD . 109

on the one hand, an d cities like London an d

Paris,on the other. In every foreign capita l

nowadays on e fin ds his simple republican com

patriots grumbling at the absen ce of A mericancon veniences , cursing the

“ steamboats, the railway carriages, the hotels , the luggage system ,

the portable baths and bed-room can dles, an d

proclaiming loudly that the A mericans are themost luxurious people on the face of the earth .

In E urope, an d especially in E ngland, circum

stances threw Willis into a n ew world. He

shared for a time in the life of the titled a r istoc

racy an d the idle rich, an d he took to it like oneto the manner born . He was at home at onceamid all that gay ease an d leisure . Th e London clubs

,the parks, the great country houses,

A lm ack’

s an d the Row,the beautiful haughty

women, th e grace , indolence, and refinement,hereditary for generations , seemed no m ore thanthe birthright of this New E n gland printer

’

son,from which some envious fairy h ad hi th erto

shut him out.

I h ave n ow and th en a fit o f low spir its , h e says,in a letter f r om Ma r seilles, A pr il 28 , 1832 , “ th ough

gen er a lly th e excessive excitem en t of n ew scen es and

con stan t in terest occupies m e quite. It is like an in

toxication to tr avel in Eur ope'

. I f eel n o an n oyan ce,grum ble at n o im position , am n ever out o f tem per.Fatigue is th e on ly th ing th at bears m e down ; I


wa n t leisur e an d m on ey. I sh all come back, I think,to A m er ica a f ter m y en gagem en t w ith Mor r is is over ,an d marry a nd com e out aga in . A s to settling downf or th ese ten yea r s , I can n ot th ink o f it with out a

sickn ess a t my hear t. I wish to h eaven I could keepa jour n a l a n d publish a f ter I got hom e. Thi s wr itin g and sen din g of f un r evised is th e worst th ing inth e wor ld f or on e

’

s reputation . Howev er , I see a

wor ld o f th in gs th at I can n ot put in to letters , and Ifeel every day th at my m ind is ripen in g and layin gup mater ial wh ich I could get n owh er e else. You

can have n o idea of th e stir r in g, vivid habit on e’

s

m ind gets in to abr oad. Living at home forever wouldn ever be o f h alf th e use to m e.

”

Willis arrived at Havre November 3d, and

went on by diligence to Paris , where he spen tbetween five and six months . He h ad taken outwith him a number of good letters , some fromMartin Van Buren among the rest . Th e A merican colony in Paris was then Small and select .It was under the wing of Lafayette, who wasv ery polite to Willis during his stay. Cooperwas there an d his p r ote

’

g é , Horatio Greenough ,the sculptor, who h ad come from Florence toexecute a bust of Lafayette . Morse, the artist ,too

,who

,on his return trip to A merica in a

Havre packet, in the year following , was to hitupon his in vention of the electric telegraph .

A n d lastly,W illis

’

s fellow-townsman , Dr. Howe ,

112 NA THANIEL PARKER WILLIS.

Napoleon at St . Helen a ; an d with th e CountessGuiccioli

,who presented him with a sonnet by

herself, and an autograph note from Shelley.

The glamour of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimagewas still over E urope, and everywhere the A merican traveler looked eagerly for his footprin ts .Mr . Rives, the min ister of the United S tates a tParis

,was very attentive to his young country

man,and presented him to the king , with two

other A merican gen tlemen , Mr. Ritchie and Mr.C arr. Th e latter was A merican consul at Tan

gier s . He took a great liking to Willis, madehim a number of presents

, and of f ered to appointhim his secretary, and take him to Morocco.This ofler Willis was at first inclined to accept.It was a tempting one in man y particulars, an din a birthday letter to h is mother, January 20,1832 , he thus explained its advantages

Mr . Ca r r takes m e in to h is fam ily and pays allmy expen ses . We go to th e old pal aces o f the A bencer r ages, per h aps th e m ost roman tic coun try in hi story, an d on e very little written about, and it willdouble th e va lue of my jour n ey to Mor r is a t th e sam e

tim e th a t it secur es m e fr om a ny reverse of for tun e.

He mean s to spend h is summer s in Spa in , wh ich isrigh t opposite Tan gier s at two h our s’ sa il, an d n ext

f all h e will r un down to Ita ly a nd th e Sicil ies, thus

giving m e every opportun ity I wa n t. I h ave letter sf r om Lord Jam es Hay to h is br oth er -in -law , th e gov

LIFE ABROAD . 113

cruor of Gibr altar, and on e f r om Lord Fif e to th e

govern or o f th e Ion ian Islan ds .

”

Why he did n ot embrace this golden chanceremain s un certain, though he hin ts a t a possibledif ficul ty in the fact that his friend, the consul,was a notorious duelist, who h ad shot seven oreight men an d h ad a very pretty wife . How

ever , before he left Paris , Mr. Rives attachedhim to his own emba ssy, a courtesy which provedof the greatest service to him . It entitled h imto wear the un iform of a secretary of legation ,

and th e diplomatic button gave him the en tr ée

to the court circles of every country he visited.

Willis saw Paris at an interesting moment.Th e Polish revolution h ad just failed, and th e

city swarmed with refugees . Louis Philippewas already growing unpopular, and there werecontin ual small ém eutes on the Boul evard Mon tmartre, at the Porte Saint Denis, an d in otherquarters, led by Polytechnic students an d putdown without much trouble by the troops. It

was a cholera year and people were dying by thehundreds daily. Meanwhile the gay world wenton much as ever. Carnival was kept with th eusual elaborate follies . T here were masked ballsat the palace . Malibran and Taglion i were on

the stage . Paris , with its novelties an d splendors, exercised the same fascination over Willisthat it exercises proverbially over his compa

8

114 NATHANIEL 'PARKER WILLIS.

tr iots . He was never tired of promenadingan d Sight-Seein g . His lodgin gs were in the RueRivoli

,facing the Tuileries. Sismondi, the his

torian ,h ad the apartment under him . In a pri

vate letter he thus describes his daily occupations

I h ave bough t a cof f ee maker and cups, and a

loaf o f suga r an d a pan , etc ., etc.

, and my hostess’

s

daugh ter , Ch r istin e , br ings m e m y br ead and butter ,a nd I br eakf as t glor iously a lon e, th e doctor (Howe)bein g a lways a t th e hospita ls in th e mor n ing. Ibreakfa st an d wr ite al l a lon g th e for en oon till twelve,a nd th en see sigh ts and hear lectur es till da rk, din ea t five or six, an d eith er go to som e pa r ty in th e evening, or stay at hom e and study with Z elie.

”

He h ad no fear of the cholera and firmly believed that it was not con tagious . He was ad

vised that good livin g , frequent bathing, a cheerf ul frame of mind, and regular habits were thebest preventives . He even went boldly throughthe cholera wards of th e H6tel Dieu , an d sent aharrowing description of them to the Mirror.

”

But towards spring the pestilence gained more

an d more . Th e theatres were shut, all gayetiessuspended

,and thousands fled the city daily.

Th e upper classes, who h ad thus far escaped,began to be attacked. Th e streets were almostdeserted

,people went about holding camphor

bags to their nostrils , and the panic became uni!


Sible . But by reason of irregular postal facilities

,they averaged less than on e a for tnight,

an d sometimes a month or more elapsed betweentwo of them . They were read with eagernessin A merica , an d Morris asserted that they werecopied into fi ve hun dred newspapers. Theirpopularity is expla ined in part by the fact th atE urope was much farther ofi from us in thosedays than it is now. Th e voyage by sailin g-vessel was tedious , an d few A mericans wen t abroadfor pleasure. Willis, to be sure, professed himself astonished by the numbers o f his countrymen whom he m et in Italy an d elsewhere, butthese were but a handful compared with the annual horde of tourists who rush back an d forthin the steamers, an d do Great Britain and thecon tinent in thr ee mon ths . It i s also true thatth e literature of travel was not then so abundant.Th e time has gone by for first impressions ofcoun tries. Th e reader now deman ds a moreminute and authoritative study of some singlecorner of th e m ap. Yet this does not serve toaccount a ltogether for W illis

’

s success in hisPencillings .

”There were a lready plenty of

books by A merican travelers in E urope , such asthey were

,which have lon g been obsolete . Who

ever hears nowadays of James’s “ Travels,” for

in stan ce,published in 1820; or of A ustin

’s Let!

ters from London,

”1804 or of A Journal of

LIFE ABROAD . 17

a Tour 111 Italy by an A merican ,1824 ; to say

nothing of in n umerable A mericans in Paris,”

an d “ A mericans in London ,” of later dates !

The truth is that W illi s ’s rapid Sketches werecapital writing of their kind, and th e work of aborn foreign correspondent.” He was a quicka nd sympathetic, though not a subtle observer,h ad an eye for ef fect, and a journalist

’s instinctf or seizing the characteristic features of a scen eand leaving out the lumber. Few of his lettersar e in the least guide-bookish . His raptures instated places for admiration, such as galleries,palaces

, an d cathedrals, are sometimes con ven

tion al , and doubtless his passing judgments onfam ous works of art are often either at secondhand or incorrect. His education h ad not prepared him to pronounce on these , an d he h adnot the patience to cul tivate a critical appr eciation of them . But in the crowd an d out ofdoors—whither he gladly escapes he is alwayshappy, and there are many pictures

,scattered

here an d there through these excell en t letters ,which for sharpness of line an d brightness

'

o f

color have n ot been excelled either by Haw

thorne, in his Note-Books,” or by Bayard Tay

lor,in his numerous views

,afoot or otherwise

,or

by Henry James,in his more penetrating an d

far more careful ly fin ished studies .Willis did not sit down in Europe

,like Long


fell ow, and become the interpreter to the New

World of the O ld World’s roman tic past. Hewas never much of a scholar . Th e literaturean d legen ds of the coun tries he traveled h ad little to give him ,

though he possessed just enoughof the historic imagination for the proper equipment of a picturesque tourist. In general it wasthe present that interested h im all this stirringmodern life, the strange mann ers and dresses,the chan ging landscapes , the gay throngs in th estreets, the pretty women an d notable men atthe drive or the ball . Nor was his attitude thatof criticism

,but rather of in ten se person al enjoy

ment. He h ad gone out ready to be pleased,a nd he was pleased. He gave , in consequen ce,a somewhat rose-colored view of E urope to hisreaders at home . Not that the disagreeableside escaped his notice, but he was having hisholiday an d he gave a holiday account of it, an dhis engagin g egotism lent a personal interest tohis description s . Th e E din burgh Review,

”

in a just but rather heavy notice of Pen cillings, complain ed of the scantiness of useful information in them . Useful in formation was athing which Willis eschewed. He took smallinterest in politics

,public institutions

,in dustrial

condition s,etc. ; an d he knew that they would

bore nine out of ten am ong his readers . He

lumped them jauntily under the head of sta!


among others , to the Marquis Borromeo , whoowned the Isola Bella ” in Lake Maggiore .Porro assured Will is that Borromeo would

give him th e use of one of his palazzos, “ ashe has five or six an d is happy when peoplehe kn ows occupy his servants . Th e nominalposition of a tta ch é to the A merican legationat Paris obtain ed for him a private presentation to the Grand Duke of Tuscany

, an d aninvitation to the ducal ball s an d the reception s at the Casino , both of which were gi venweekly. Th e Florentines did not en tertainmuch at their houses, but the foreign residen tsdid, and especially the E n glish . Will is wasdined by Jerome Bonaparte , the ex-King ofWestphalia, who was living at the Tuscan cap

ital with the title of Prince “ Montfort, and giv

ing very exclusive part ies. He resorted to theSaturday soi r ées of Prince Poniatowski

,who

professed love for A mericans, and whose augustname was afterwards born e by the favorite ponyof the Willis children at Idl ewild. In short

,he

was freely admitted to Florentine society and

took part in its fashion able intrigues an d dissi

pation s . He secured lodgin gs in Florence in thesame palazzo with Green ough , in the apartmentjust vacated by Cole , the A merican lan dscapepainter. Through Greenough he saw a greatdeal of artist life in Italy. A t Rome Green

LIFE ABROAD . 121

ough subsequently introduced him to Gibson ,the E n glish scul ptor, who presen ted him with acast of his h a s-relief, Cupid and Psyche . Un

der the guidan ce of the two, Willis amusedhimself by tryin g his han d, in an amateurishfashion

,at moulding in clay. He was flattered

by their assurances that he h ad a good touch ,an d felt half inclined, for a momen t, to exchan ge his dilettantish pursuit of letters for anequally dilettan tish pursuit of art. His dreamsof the possibilities of such a career took shapelon g after in the n ovel of Paul Fan e .

” Greenough h ad moulded a bust of Willis at Florence ,a nd some years after he cut it in marble an d

gave it to him . There is a story about thiswhich is authentic, and too pretty to leave n u

told. Mr. Joseph Grinn ell of New Bedfordhappen ed to be in Florence in the sprin g of1830 an d h ad employed Green ough to makehim a statue of his niece Cornelia, —then achild of five years

,who became in time Wil

lis’s second wife . It was from a remnant ofthe same block used for her statue that th e

sculptor,un conscious of the omen

,afterwards

carved the bust of her future husband. Th e

two fragmen ts thus strangely reunited stan dn ow in the same drawin g-room

,the head of

th e youthful poet,with its Hyperion curls

,

and the ful l-len gth figure of the demure little


Quaker maiden,holding in one hand a drinking

cup an d in the other a bird. From this portraitbust of Will is is taken the engraving by Hal

pin in th e illustrated edition of W illis’s poemspublished by Clark, A ustin Smith

,1859 . It

was a fair liken ess , but somewhat heavy and

unideal. Its origin al h ad grown quite f at

abroad. His inherited tenden cy to em bonp oin t

was coun teracted in later life by the emaciationof lon g illness . E ven as a youn g man hisheight gave him a look of slendern ess, thoughhis face was full . Th e “ A utocrat,

” aproposof dandies whose jaws could not fill out theircollars, af firms that Willis touched this lastpoint in on e of his earlier ambrotypes.A ugust found him at th e Baths of Lucca ,Th e Saratoga of Italy, flirting, an d recuperating from the exhaustin g e f f ects of an Italiansummer. In a private letter dated on the 20th ,he announces h is in tention of starting for E n g

land to-morrow by way of Switzerland and theRhine

,returning to Italy in a f ew m onths in

time for the Roman season .

In London I mean to make a r r an gem en ts withth e m agazin es , and th en live abr oad a ltogeth er . I t

costs so little h er e and on e lives so luxur iously too,an d th er e is so much to fill on e

’

s m ind and eye, th at

I thi nk o f r etur n in g to n aked A mer ica with da ilyin cr ea sing r epugn an ce. I love my country, but th e

124 NATHAN IEL PARKER WILL IS .

which he made it a religion to write his motheron each recurrin g birthday— this on e dated atFlorence

,January 20

,1833 he relates some

of his experiences of the kind“ I have din ed with a pr in ce on e day an d a lon e

f or a sh illing in a cook-sh op th e n ext. I h ave twicebeen en tir ely destitute o f m on ey in places wh er e Ih ad n ot a n acqua in tan ce, an d th e in stan t bef or e th elast coin was out of m y pocket, ch an ces too im pr obable f or a dr eam h ave pr ovided f or m e. On e was

a t Ma r seilles . I h ad r elied on r eceivin g a letter o f

cr edit wh en I got th er e. I wa s disappoin ted and

was at th e h otel a week , wonder in g wh ether I sh ouldfind f a te workin g its usua l m ir acle f or m e. I h adon ly two f r an cs r em a in ing, wh en a gen tlem an ly m a n ,

wh o h ad commen ced conver sa tion with m e a t tab le,a sked m e to hi s r oom and ended with o f f er ing m e a

seat in h is ca r r iage to Nice. Th e qua r an tin e dr oveh im back, but h e h ad br ough t m e two hundr ed m ileson m y r oute, an d kn owin g m y disappoin tm en t by myin quir ies a t th e post o f fice, h e o f f er ed m e th e use o f

h is ban ker to any amoun t a nd took dr a f ts f or th e

m on ey on my pa r tn er in New York. Th is n ow is a

th in g th at does n ot occur on ce in a cen tury. I h avecor r espon ded with Doyn e (th at wa s h is n ame) eversin ce. I fin d th a t h e is a r eligiOus m a n

,and f r om on e

o f th e fir st f am ilies in Dublin .

”

With all his taste for luxury, Willis kn ew howto make econ omies

, and livin g was much cheaperthen . He never af f ected a mystery, an d in one

LIFE ABROAD . 25

of his letters to th e Mirror he explainedh ow it was that he could live in Floren ce onthree hun dred dollars a year exclusive of postage a nd pleasure,

” paying four dollars a mon thfor his apartmen t an d attendan ce

,breakfasting

f or six cents, an d din in g quite magn ificentlyfor twen ty-five. Meanwhile a dea l of gossipabout him was in circulation in A merica

,an d

the editor of the “Mirror h ad to contradict,

in ter a lia,a rumor that his foreign collabora tor

h ad married th e widow of a British noblemanan d was farin g sumptuously in Rome .Having been invited by the of ficers of thefrigate Un ited States to join them in a sixmonths’ cruise up th e Mediterranean

,be r e

paired to Leghorn , from which port the UnitedStates , with her consort the Constellation ,

setsail on the 3d of June

, 1833. CommodorePatterson of Baltimore commanded the formership an d Captain Reed of Philadelphia the latter. Both gentlemen were accompanied by theirwives and the commodore by his three beautiful daughters . These were all old f r ien ds ofWillis, an d he h ad made acquaintan ce with th eother offi cers of th e squadron in Italy. He

could not have seen the E ast under pleasanterauspices , an d the next half yea r was the richestin literary fruit of his entire sojourn upon thecontinent. Th e squadron loitered along like a


pair of pleasure yachts , touching at all themore interesting ports . Th e bright shores ofthe Mediterra n ean and the Levant passed in amagic panorama before th e eyes of th e pas!

sen ger s , who sailed an d dan ced an d ate the lotusday after day. E lba , Naples, and Sicily ; Triestean dVien na ; the Ionian Islands, Greece, an d theshores of th e Dardanelles were vi sited in turn ,

an d at length in October the frigate droppedanchor in the Golden Horn . W illis’s “ Pen cillings of Constantinople are among the best inhis portfolio, among the best, indeed, that haveever been made of the surface of Oriental life .Italy was hackneyed : the Rialto an d Sain tMark’s, the Coliseum and the Vatican

,Pompeii

an d the Bay of Naples,h ad been described a

thousan d times . But here he was o f f the trackof common tourists. His nature reveled in thebarbaric riches of the E ast a n d cheerfullyblinked the discomforts and the dirt. Th e myster ies of th e seraglio an d the slave market an dthe veiled wom en in the bazaars piqued hiscuriosity, and th e poetry of the Turkish cemeter ies and mosques appealed to his sentimen t .He was never weary of wan dering through the

grand bazaar.“ I have idled up an d down in th e

dim light an d fingered the soft henna, and

bought small parcels of incense wood for mypastille lamp, studying the remarkable faces of


that the E n glish artist Bartlett, who was his collobor ator in A merican Scen ery,

” en counteredold Mustaph a in Con stantinople , and that thelatter showed him W illis’s card “ stain ed to adeep oran ge with the fingerin g of his fat hand,unctuous from bath hour to bath hour with th eprecious oils he tr a f fics in . He questionedBartlett about A merica, a coun try which toMustaph a

’

s fancy is as far beyond th e moon asthe moon is beyond the g ilt tip of th e scraglio , a nd finally gave him a jar of attar of jasmine to send to Willis . Th e small gilt bottle ,with its cubical edge an d cap of parchment, liesbreathing before me .

”Then there was th e street

of the booksellers , where the small brown reedstood in every clotted inkstand,

”an d the bearded

old A rmenian bookworm , interrupted in eatingrice from a wooden bowl , took down an illum in ated Hafiz , “

and opening it with a carefulthumb , read a line in m ellifluous Persian .

” Willis also struck up an acquain tance with Dr. Millingen, the Sultan

’s physician , who h ad attendedByron in his last illn ess . He spent two daysw ith him

,by invitation, at his house on the Bos

ph orus, an d picked up a smattering of Romaicfrom Mrs . Millin gen ,

who was’

a Greek .

A fter five weeks at Constan tinople,the frigate

weighed anchor for Sm yrna. There he foundan old schoolmate , Octavus Langdon , a Smyr

LIFE ABROAD . 129

n iote merchant, who entertain ed him very hos

pitably, an d invited him to join a party for afew days ’ tour in A sia Minor. Th e party con

sisted of Willis an d his host, an A merican mission a ry named Brewer, an d two other gentlemen,an d their adventures included a night in a realOriental khan at Magnesia, and a v isit to thesite of ancient Sardis . A beautiful girl, ofwhom NV illis caught a glimpse , through a tentdoor, in a gypsy encampment on the plain ofHadj l la r , was the original of his Gypsy ofSardis .” A t Smyrna he said good-by to Comm odor e Patterson and his other friends on theUnited States ; and the ship which h ad been hishome for more than six months sailed away towinter at Minorca

,leaving him

“ waiting for avessel to go I care not where . I rather leantoward Palestine and Egypt , but there are novessels for Jaffa or A lexandria.

”

By this time W illis’s literary reputation h adpenetrated to the London press, though not as yetto the London public, possibly through scatteredcopies of his “Mirror letters ; an d while stayin g at Smyrna he received

“ an o f fer of a thousand dollars a year to write for the LondonMorning Herald.

’ But the articles were to be

p oli tica l, and that I h ad modesty enough tothink beyond my calibre . I was to live abroad,however, and go wherever there was a war or

9


the prospect of one . I would much rather wr iteabout pictures an d green fields .” Th e not unpleasant hesitation as to his next move wasended at last by the departure from Smyrna ofthe Yankee brig Metamora, bound for his nativePortland with a cargo of figs and opium . The

skipper, a Down-E aster, agreed to take him as apassenger, and land him at Malta. A t Malta,accordingly, he arrived late in December, afterbeing nearly shipwrecked in a Levanter, and

was put ashore through a heavy sea in the brig’s

long boat, narrowly escaping being carried allthe way to A merica. Th e letter to the Mirrorin which this part of h is travels was recordedwas lost, and the “ Pencillings

” leap at oncefrom Smyrna to Milan . He afterwards rewrotethe episode, turn ing it into a capital story (

“ A

Lost Letter Rewritten,” in the Mirror for

May 14 and June 11, which figures inhis collected writings as A Log in the A rchipelago .

”Th e startling conjunction of E ast and

Down E ast on board the Metamora suggested,no doubt, some of the incidents in Th e Widowby Brevet

,

” a tale which moves between thepoles of Constantinople an d Salem ,

Massachu

setts .From Malta he made his way v i a Italy, Switzerland, and France to E ngland, arriving atDover on the 1st of June, 1834.


with my MS . o f th e sixth , unpublished. He wrote tom e on h is a r r iva l in E n gland, tellin g m e th at th eywer e already on th eir voyage to th eir destin ation .

It seems from W illis’s public explanation inLetters from un der a Bridge ,

” that he receivedthe volumes , which were in a dilapidated con

dition,at the momen t of starting , an d not know

ing how to add them to hi s baggage be —rathercarelessly, perhaps sent them with a note toTheodore Fay

,wh o was then in Florence, r e

questin g him to forward them to A merica byShip from Leghorn .

” Fay accordingly committedthem to a Mr. Miles , an A merican straw-bon netmaker, who did sen d them to New York, whereWillis expected to follow in the course of thesummer and take charge of them . Instead ofdoing this, he spent the next two years in E n g

land, an d meanwhile wrote to Landor that the

package h ad been left with Miles, to forward itto A merica. Landor cal led in consequence atthe shop of this person

,who denied any knowl

edge of the books .”

These, however, after abrief stay in New York

,were consigned to Wil

li s at London,

and Fay an d Mr. Landor bothhappening there together, the explanation wasmade , and the books an d man uscripts restoredun harmed to the author,

”but n ot in time to keep

Willis from goin g down “ to posterity astridethe fin is of Pericles an d A spasia.

’

I trust,” he

LIFE ABROAD . 133

continues, “ that his [Landor’

s] biographer willeither let me Slip o f f at Lethe’s wharf, by expur

ga t ing th e book of me,or do me justice i n a

note .” In Spite of which trust the biographershave been a little hard on Willis in the matter . Sidney Colvin, heartened, probably, by th eQuarterly’s onslaught, denoun ces him as thatmost assiduous of flatter er s an d least delicate of

gossips ,”an d says that he gave Landor occasion

to repent of his hospitality by consignin g hisbooks to A merica an d then basely lingering onin E n gland

“ in obsequious en joyment of the

great company amon g whom he found himselfinvited : whil e Forster

,after declaring that

W illi s ’s “ fuss an d fury of boundless hero-worship found in Landor an

’

easy victim ,

” adds that“ Landor will perhaps be thought not wi thoutexcuse for the way in which he always afterwards spoke of Mr. N . P. Willis .” But whatever incon venien ce the latter may have causedin this busin ess, he certainly made the am ende

h on or a ble in the letter to Landor from whichMr. Forster quotes

I have to beg, h e wr ites, “ th at you will lay toth e ch a r ge o f E n gland a pa r t o f th e an n oyan ce youwill feel about your books and m anuscr ipts . I wasn ever m ore flatter ed by a comm ission and I h ave n everf ulfil led on e so i ll . Th ey wen t to A merica v ia Leg

h or n , and I expected ful ly to have arr ived in New

York a mon th or two a f ter them.

”


Landor was a man of noble courtesy an d most

generous nature , although, to put it mildly, oftenunreason able. Th e delay and uncertain ty abouthis precious manuscripts were certainly vexatiousan d may

,very likely, as his biographer implies,

have influenced the way in which he alwaysafterwards spoke of the man who

,innocen tly

enough , made him the trouble . But up to thetime of this little misun derstanding , his feelingstoward Will is, as expressed in their correspondence, were exceedin gly cordial ; as will suf ficien tly appear from the following letter, undated, butwritten , probably, during the win ter of 183435

MY DE A R SIR , By a singular and str ange co

in ciden ce, I wr ote th is mor n ing and put in to th e posto f fice a letter dir ected to you at New York. A nd

n ow com es Mr . Macquay, br inging m e on e fr om you,delightful in all r espects. I kn ow n ot a ny m an in

whose fame a nd for tun es I f eel a deeper in ter est th anin your s. Pardon m e i f I am wr iting al l th is illegibly in some degree, f or cer tain ly I sh a ll sca r cely bein tim e f or th e post with a ll th e agili ty both of h and

an d legs. For I am r esolved to tr an scr ibe an ode to

your Pr esiden t in spite of th e resistan ce h is [MS.

illegible] h a s m et w ith, - indeed, th e m or e am I r e

solved f or this very r ea son . I en vy you th e evenings you pass with th e most accom plish ed an d gr a ce

f ul o f a ll our fashi on able wor ld, my excellen t f r iend,Lady Blessington . Do n ot believe that I h ave writ


A mericans, and though well received in the n ative society of Floren ce by virtue of his diplomatic credentials, he h ad remain ed, after all, astranger an d a looke r -on . A foreign lan guageimperfectly learned is a barrier to complete inter cour se even in the most cosmopolitan society.

In France an d Italy he h ad m ade acquaintances ;in England he made friends an d formed do

m estic ties which bound him to the coun try aslong as he lived. He did not fancy the Frencha nd Italians

,though he found their cities inter

esting to visit ; but he liked th e English an d

they treated him well . No A merican author except Irving and Cooper h ad received from thema tithe of the atten tions which they accorded toWillis ; a n d Cooper, though personally wellliked, h ad o f fen ded British prejudices by hispugnacious writings and was more popular inParis than in London . Th e next two years ofW illis’s life were perhaps the acme of his socialand literary career, an d he always looked backto them as the brightest spot in his memory.

Th e experience was n ot altogether healthy forhim

,though it was stimulatin g at the time . He

was not spoiled by success, but he was naturallya little in toxicated by it, an d a little dazzled bythe courtly splen dors of the circles to which hewas now admitted. When he wen t back toA merica, he did so reluctantly, and with the

LIFE ABROAD. 137

hope of returning soon to make his home inEngland. He found ' the change to the plainerconditions of A merican life a chilling one, an dhe h ad acquired habits and standards which didnot fit in easily with th e requirements of a journ alist

’

s career in a new country.

A s soon as he reached Dover he began to havethat feeling of bein g at home once more whichis familiar to A merican travelers who make theirfirst entrance to E ngland by way of th e Channel . E verything was new, an d yet nothing wasstran ge . Th e blazin g coal fires it was Junethe warm carpets

,the quiet co f f ee-room with the

London newspapers on the table , the subdued,respectful servants , the mother - tongue again ,the plain richness of the furnishings, the snugness an d comfort, the A nglo-Saxon knows bythese that he is once more in A nglo-Saxondom .

A rrived at London, he lost no time in deliveringhis note of introduction from Landor to LadyBlessington, who immediately asked him to dinner an d presented him to the beam : esp r i ts whofrequented Seam or e Place . For this charmingwoman her young p r otege conceived at once thestrongest admiration ,

tinctured, it may be , by aten derer sentiment . Her wit an d beauty, hercordiality an d social graces, h ad drawn about hera court of statesmen , authors, and notabilities ofall kinds, over whom she presided like the queen


of a Parisian sa lon . It was natural that Willisshould have formed, or at least should have politely expressed, an exaggerated estimate of herliterary gifts . To posterity, who have not theadvantage of her personal acquaintance, LadyBlessington

’s writings seem of very little importance

,with the possible exception of her Con

ver sation s with Lord Byron,” whose subject

lends it a certain claim to remembrance. A t

her house Willis met Bulwer, Moore , Lord Durham , Disraeli , James Smith, Galt, Procter, Fonblanque of the E xamin er, and many otherdistinguished men whose portraits he has givenin the Pencillings with a sharpness of outline which makes them increasingly valuable astheir figures recede into history . It is not atall strange that an enthusiastic and fancifulyoung A merican, without antecedents, usheredall at once into a roomful of people about whomall the world was talking, should have been alittle imposed upon by these exalted personages .He was not in a critical mood, an d it may befreely conceded that he h ad too high an opinionof Barry Cornwall’s poetry, an d of the electroplated novels of th e authors of “ Pelham and

Vivian Grey ; and that he exclaimed morethan was necessary over the varied accomplishments of that gorgeous dandy Byron’s Cup idon de

’

ch a ine the Count d’

O r say.


sister Julia , three days after h is landin g in E ngland.

A ll th e best society o f Lon don exclusives is n ow

open to m e— m e/ a sometim e appr en tice at settin g

types m e without a sou in th e wor ld beyond wh atm y pen br in gs m e, an d with n ot on ly n o influen cef rom fr iends a t home, but a world of en vy and slander a t my ba ck. Th ank heaven , ther e is n ot a coun

trym an o f min e, except Wa shington Irving, wh o h a seven th e standing in E n glan d which I h ave got inth r ee days on ly. I Sh oul d n ot boast o f it if I h adn ot been wounded and stung to th e qui ck by th e

calumn ies an d falseh oods of every description whichcome to m e fr om A m er ica . But let it pass ! It r ec

on ciles m e to my exile at lea st, and m ay drive m e to

adopt th e mother coun try f or m y own . In a literaryway, I have h ad a lr eady o f f er s fr om th e ‘Cour tMagazin e,

’

th e Metr opolitan Mon thly,’

an d th e

New Mon th ly o f th e fir st pr ice f or my a r ticles .

I sen t a sh or t ta le, wr itten in on e day, to th e CourtMagazin e yesterday, and th e publi shers gave meeigh t guin ea s f or it a t on ce. Th ey all pay in th ispr oportion , and you can ea sily see, with my pr esen tresour ces o f ma tter , h ow well I can live. I lodge inCavendish Square, th e most fash ion able pa r t o f th e

town ,payin g a guin ea a week f or m y lodgings , and am

a s well o f f a s i f I h ad been th e son o f th e Pr esiden t,

with a s much a s I could spend in th e yea r . E xceptm y f amily n ow , I h ave f or gotten everybody in A m er

ica . [Her e f ollows th e pa ssage about Mary Ben jam in already quoted in ch apter III .] I n ever can

return , however, till I can pay my debts, and it will

LIFE ABROAD. 141

take m e long to lay up thr ee th ousand dollar s. Wh enI can do it, I Sh a ll, and make A m er ica a fa r ewellvisit f or yea r s .

”

Willis followed up hi s advan tages assiduously.

He went constantly to Lady Blessington’s, ex

changed calls with Moore , breakfasted withProcter and also with that entertaining diarist,Hen ry Crabb Robinson, to whom he brought aletter from Landor

,and in whose rooms in the

Temple he met Charles and Mary Lamb . HisParisian acquaintance, Dr. Bowring , was backin London an d introduced him to a number ofpeople . A t an evenin g party at the Bulwers

’

he met Sir Leicester Stanhope, who h ad beenwith Byron in Greece

, and with whose beautifulwife Willis became qui te a favorite

,composing

his verses “ Upon the Portrait of the Hon . Mrs .Stanhope to accompany an engraving of herin Lady Blessington

’s “ Book of Beauty.

”A t

the S tanhopes ’ he met that famous pair of beauties, the Sheridan girls,

” Mrs . Norton an d hersister, Lady Duf ferin, to the former of whom heh ad addressed a poem written at Paris in 1832and printed in the Mirror of July 7 , 1834.

It was the height"

of the London season, and

the opera was in full blast, with Grisi Singingand Fanny E lssler in the ballet . Willis wasadmitted to the A l fred Club, and invitations todinners and parties began to pour in upon him .


A ll these gayeties he described in his letters toMorris

,which, losing somewhat, it may be , in

picturesquen ess, gain ed greatly in personal inter est during his stay in E ngland. It was inthe course of this first summer in Lon don thathe got acquain ted with Mary Russell Mitford,who invi ted him to spend a week at Reading,an d with whom he maintained for some time afriendly correspon dence . A letter to Miss Jephson

,July 23, 1834, gives her first impression of

h lm

I a lso liked very much Mr . Willis , an A m ericanauth or , wh ose Unwr itten Poetry an d ‘Unwr ittenPh ilosophy ’

you m ay rem em ber in m y A mer icanbook,1 and wh o is n ow under stood to be h er e to pub

lish h is accoun t of E n gland. He is a very elegan tyoung m an , and m ore like on e o f th e best of our

peer s’

son s th an a rough republican .

Th e generally agreeable impression whichWillis made in E nglish society was not withoutits exceptions. During this same summer inLondon he h ad been taken by a friend to seeMiss Harriet Martineau . She was then on thepoint of embarking for that trip in A merica, her1 Th e book h er e m en tion ed was h er com pilation , S tor ies of

A mer ica n Lif e by A mer ica n A uthor s, pr in ted in 1830, to wh ichr ef er ence was m ade in ch apter III. A num ber o f W illis ’s

letter s to Miss M itf ord a r e publish ed in The Fr iendsh ips ofMa ry Russell M itf ord, f rom one of wh ich the above pa ssage

is taken .


m en and coun trywomen , a nd decla r ed h e sh ould send

m e letter s to th em a ll. Thi s o f f er of in terven tionwen t so very f a r th at I said (wh a t I h ave ever sin cesaid in th e ca se of in tr oduction s o f f er ed by str an ger s),wh ile th anking h im f or h is in ten ded good o f fices, th atI wa s suf f icien tly un certain in my plan s to beg f orexcuse befor eh and, in case I sh ould find m yself un able to use th e letters. It appear ed a f terwa r ds th at

to supply th em and n ot to h ave th em used suited Mr .

W illis’s conven ien ce exactly. It m ade h im appearto have th e fr iendships h e boasted o f w ith out puttin gth e boa st to th e pr oof. It was immediately befor e a

late din n er th at th e gen tlem an called ; an d I f oundon th e br eakf ast-table n ext mor n in g a gr eat pa r cel o fMr . Willis’s letter s, in closed in a pr odigious on e to

myself , in which h e o f f er ed advice. A m on g oth erth in gs , h e desir ed m e n ot to use h is letter to Dr .

Ch a r ming if I h ad other s f r om person s mor e in timatewith him a nd h e proceeded to wa r n m e again st twof r iends of Dr . and Mr s . Chann ing

’

s , wh ose n am es Ih ad n ever heard and whom Mr . Willis repr esen teda s bad an d danger ous people. This gratuitous defam ation o f str anger s whom I was likely to m eet con

firmed th e suspicion s my moth er and I h ad confidedto each other about th e qua lity of Mr . Willis ’s in tr o

duction s . It seem ed un gra tef ul to be so suspicious :but we could n ot see any good r ea son f or such pr odigious ef f or ts on my beh a lf, n or f or h is n am in g any

coun trywom en o f hi s to m e in a way so spon tan eouslyslander ous . So I resolved to use th at packet of letter s very cautiously, and to begin with on e which

LIFE ABROAD . 145

should be well accompan ied. In New York ha rborn ewspaper s wer e br ough t on boa r d, in on e o f wh ichwas an extr act fr om an article tr an smitted by Mr .

Willis to th e ‘New York Mir r or ,’

con ta in ing a mostaudacious accoun t o f m e a s

.

an in tim a te f r iend o f th e

wr iter . Th e f r iendsh ip wa s n ot sta ted a s a m atter off act

,but so conveyed th at it cost m e much trouble to

make it under stood and believed, even by Mr . Wil

lis ’s own f am ily, th a t I h ad n ever seen h im but on ce,

and th en with out h aving pr eviously h ea r d so m uch a s

h is n am e. On my r eturn th e acquain tan ce wh o

br ough t h im wa s anxious to a sk pa r don i f h e h ad

don e misch ief , even ts h aving by th at time made Mr .

Willis ’s ways pr etty well kn own . His pa r tn er in th e

pr oper ty an d editor sh ip o f th e ‘New York Mir r or ’

called on m e atWest Poin t, and ofi er ed and render edsuch extraor din a ry cour tesy th a t I wa s a t fir st a lm ost

a s much perplexed a s h e and h is w ife wer e whenth ey lear n ed th at I h ad n ever seen Mr . Willis buton ce. Th ey pon der ed, th ey con sulted, they crossquestion ed m e, th ey in quir ed wh eth er I h ad any n o

tion wh a t Mr . Will is could h ave mean t by wr iting o f

m e as in a state o f close in tim acy with h im . In likeman n er , wh en , som e tim e after , I wa s in a ca r r iage

with som e mem bers of a picn ic pa r ty to Monumen tMoun ta in , a little girl seated a t my feet cla sped mykn ees fondly, looked up in my face, and sa id, O

Miss Ma r tin eau ! You ar e such a f r iend of myUn cle Nath an iel’s I Her fa th er was presen t ; and Itried to get o f f with out explan ation . But it was im

possible, they all knew h ow very in timate I was10


with Nath an iel ; and th ere wa s a ren ewal of the

am azem en t a t m y h aving seen h im on ly on ce. Itr ied th r ee o f h is letter s ; and th e r eception was in

each ca se much th e sam e, a th r owing down of th e

letter with an a ir n ot to be m istaken . In each ca se

th e r eply wa s th e sam e, wh en I subsequen tly f oundmyself at liber ty to ask what th is migh t mean . Mr .

Willis is n ot en titled to write to m e : h e is n o a c

quain ta n ce o f m in e .

’

A s f or th e two ladies of wh omI wa s especially to beware, I becam e exceedingly wellacqua in ted with th em, to my own advan tage and

plea sur e ; and, as a n atur a l con sequen ce, I discover edMr . Will ie’s r ea son s f or desirin g to keep us apa r t. Ih ar dly n eed add th at I bur n ed th e rest o f hi s letter s .

He h ad better have spa r ed h im self th e tr ouble of so

much m an tnuv r in g, by wh ich h e lost a good deal,and could h ardly have ga in ed anyth in g. I h ave sim

ply stated th e fa cts, because, in th e fir st place, I don ot wish to be con sider ed on e o f Mr . Willis’s fr ien ds ;an d, in th e n ext, it m ay be useful, and conducive to

justice, to Sh ow, by a practica l in stan ce, wh at Mr .

W illi s’s pr eten sion s to in tim acy a r e wor th. His countrym en an d coun trywomen accept, in simplicity, h isa ccoun ts o f our a r istocr acy as fr om th e pen o f on e

o f their own coter ie ; and th ey m ay a s well have th eoppor tun ity o f judging f or th emselves wh eth er th eirn otor ious ‘Pen ciller is qua lified to wr ite of Scotchdukes a nd E n glish ma r quises and Eur opean celebr ities o f a ll kin ds in th e way h e h a s don e .

”

The simple A merican reader will have a

148 NA THANIEL PARKER WILLIS .

A ny one who kn ew Willis would have felt surethat his “ prodigious e f f orts on Miss Martineau’s behalf sprang from his always good-naturedan d sometimes even o f ficious eagerness to be ofservice . A n d most who knew him would probably have admitted that there was some mixtureof a desire to in crease his consequence in hiso f fer of introductions . Motives are usuallymixed in this bad world an d Will is was seldomin di f f erent to opportun ities for ingratiating h imself with people worth kn owin g . But even so

,

it would have been more gracious in the lady if,after accepting his of f ers and the atten tions ofhis partner at West Point

,Sh e h ad taken his

professions for what they were worth,and omit

ted this spiteful mention o f h im in h er book .

Had he lived to read the passage, he wouldprobably have consoled himself with the r e

flection that it was better to win smiles frombeauty than approbation from a strong-mindedUnitarian female with an ear-trumpet, or, as hepolitely paraphrased it in his letter to Morris ,a pliable

,acoustic tube .”

Th e last fortn ight in A ugust he was ill of abilious fever

, during which his new friends provedvery kind . Lady Blessin gton called daily inher carriage at his lodgin gs (over the shop of abaker, who gratifiedWill is by being overwhelmedat her ladyship’s condescension) , andDr.William

LIFE ABROAD . 149

Beattie,the king

’s physician,attended his inter

estin g patient devotedly an d refused to takeany fee . This excellen t gen tleman ,

who was theanonymous author of Heliotrope an d a prolific contributor to the A nnuals, became a firmfriend of Willis an d his correspon dent for manyyears after his return to A merica. He was anintimate of Samuel Rogers and of Thomas Campbell

,whose life he afterwards wrote, an d he in

tr oducedWillis to both of them .

By September the latter was suf f i ciently conv a lescen t to be ordered into the coun try. He

h ad received an invitation from the E arl of Dalhousie

,whom he h ad met in Italy, to make h im

a visit at Dalhousie Castle , near E dinburgh, an daccordingly he set out for Scotland on the secondof the month Lady Charlotte Bury, a scr ib

bling woman ,h ad given him a letter to her

b r oth er ,'

th e Duke of A rgyle, an d he carried ascore beside to other people in Scotland. A t

Dalhousie, the feudal castle of the Ramsays, nobly situated on a branch of the E sk

,Will is was

heartily welcomed, an d passed a most agreeablefortn ight. Th e earl h ad been governor of theCanadas in 1831 ; Lady Dalhousie was an invalid, an d both of them were quiet

,domestic

people, kindly an d simple, living with the profuse and even splendid hospital ity proper to theirrank, but without ostentation of fashi on or gay


ety. The house was full of guests, among themthe countess’s niece, Lady Mon cr iefl

, a lovelywidow of twen ty-five, who was very polite toWill is during his n ext winter in London . Th e

earl’s son,Lord Ramsay, was home from Oxford

an d initiated Will is into the mysteries of shooting over the Stubble . This young gentlemansucceeded to his father’s title in 1838, was a member of Sir Robert Peel’s ministry from 1843to1847, and in the latter year was made GovernorGeneral of India . It was during his viceroyaltythat the Burmese war was fought, the Pun jaubannexed, an d th e railway begun from Calcutta toBombay.

A fter leaving Dalhousie , Willis spent a fewdays in E din burgh, where he breakfasted withProfessorWilson

,dined with Je f frey, and danced

till three o’clock in the morn ing at the Whigball given in honor of Lord Grey . A n attackof scrofula in his left leg , which he chose to describe in his correspondence with his E nglishfriends as gout,

” was aggravated by this lastdissipation , and after two or three days more ofpoultices and plasters at Edinburgh , he tooksteamer to A berdeen . The loss of a weddingin Perthshire

,by the way

,a week’s deer-shoot

in g in the forest of A thol, and a week’s fishing

with a noble friend at Kinvara (long standingengagements all) , I lay at the door of the


thy for as is possible,with a very handsome face

for an apology.

”Th e same letter gives his opin

ion o f his host an d hostess more unreservedl ythan he could venture to do in “ Pencillings .Th e duke he describes as a delightful, heartyold fellow full of fun an d conversa tion .

” W illis’s letters from Gordon Castle were perhapsmore criticised than any other part of his Pencillin gs

” for their alleged violation of the sanctities of private life They are , nevertheless,among the very best pa ssages in his correspondence an d, taken together, they present a brilliant picture of what is , doubtless , so far as mater ial conditions go , the most perfect life livedby man ; the life , n amely, of a chosen party of

guests, in late September, at the country seat ofa great British noble .From this pleasant prov ince in the land of

C ockayne, Willis departed toward the last ofthe mon th an d, after a tour of the Highlands,returned October 6th to Dalhousie, where hepassed a f ew days more and then set out forEngland. He h ad meant, on his way back toLondon

,to call upon Wordsworth an d Surrey,

havin g letters to both of them,and to pass some

days by appointment with Miss Mitford at Readin g . But con tinued trouble with his ankle alteredhis plans

,an d

,after spending a few weeks at the

country house of a friend in Lancashire whose

LIFE ABROAD . 153

acquaintance he h ad made in Italy and ofanother in Cheshi re , he returned hastily to London by way o f Liverpool an d

°

Man chester, an don the 1st of November toOk up his quartersthere for the winter. A t this stage of his journ eyin gs Pencillings by the Way come to anen d. A number of supplementary letters descriptive of London life, of the Isle of Wight,of Stratford-upon-A von, Charlecote ,Kenilworth,Warwick Castle , etc. ,

were published at ir r egular intervals in the Mirror under the generalheading Loiterings of Travel .

” With lettersfrom Washington an d the paper on Th e FourRivers ,

” they m ake up the Sketches of Travel ”

in their author’s collected works .

CHA PTER V

1834—1836 .

LIFE A BRO A D (CONTINUED) .

WILLIS took lodgi ngs at No . 2 Vigo Street.During the next ten mon ths , which he spent inLondon an d its vicin ity

,he found himself some

thing o f a lion . His articles in the E nglishmagazines h ad begun to be talked about in theclubs , and society people who h ad known himabroad or in London only as a dandy a tta ch é

were surprised to learn that “ that nice , agr eeable Mr. Willis was identical wi th Slin gsby,

”

th e brilliant A merican r a con teur of the NewMon thly.

” He h ad contributed in the summeran d autumn of 1834 a num ber of sketches“ By a Here an d Th er eian to th e CourtMagazine Love an d Diplomacy,

” Niagara

an d So On ; to Captain Marryat’s Metropol

itan an episode of Italian travel, “ Th e Mad

house of Palermo ; and to Colburn’s “NewMonthly Incidents on the Hudson ,

”Tom

Fan e and I ,” “ Pedlar Karl,

” “ Th e Lunatic,”

and MyHobby Rather ” (the same as Th e


Lady Blessington’s kin dness contin ued after

his return to London, and he was taken upby other fashion able bluestockings, dined an d

win ed,f éted an d caressed to a degree that may

well have made him giddy. Th e two rival sa lon sto Lady Blessington

’s were Hollan d House andthe residence of the Dowager Lady Charlevillein Caven dish Square . It does not appear th atWillis was invited to the former

,but he wen t to

the reunions at Charleville House, though notso constantly as to Seam or e Place . ThroughLady Blessin gton

’s influen ce he was admitted tothe Travellers’ Club, wh ich was the resort ofthe ultra fashionable an d

,on Sir George Staun

ton’s n omin ation, to the A thenaeum ,which h ad

more of a literary tin ge than the A lfred or theTravellers’. Sir George Staunton also presentedhim at court , a favor which Mr. Vail, the A merican minister, who dislikedWillis for some reason

,h ad declined to render. A nother friend gave

him a perpetual ticket to the opera . A mon g hispatronesses were the Countess of A run del andLady Stepney

,wh o wrote bad novels but gave

good dinners . Lady Blessington’s biographer,

Madden,who saw a great deal of him in those

days,has recorded h is recollections of him as

follows

I h ad th e plea sur e o f meetin g Mr . Willis on manyoccasion s at Gor e House, to wh ich refer en ce is made

LIFE ABROAD . 157

in th e r ath er too celebr ated Pen cil lin gs by th e Way,’

and a lso a t th e soi r ées o f th e late Lady Ch a r lev illein Caven dish Squa r e . Mr . W illis wa s an extr em elyagr eeable young m an in society, som ewh a t overdr essed an d a little too demon str a tij ; but aboundingin good spir its, plea sin g remin iscen ces o f E a ster n a ndCon tin en tal tr avel and o f hi s r esiden ce ther e f or

som e time a s a tta ch é to a for eign legation . He wa s

obser va n t an d commun icative, lively and clever inconver sation ,

h avin g th e peculia r a r t o f m akin g h imself agr eeab le to ladies, old a s well a s young, de

’

gage’

in h is m an n er , and on exceedingly good term s withh im self an d w ith th e eli te o f th e best society, wh erever h e wen t.”

Th e secret o f Wil ks S agreeableness to ladieslay in his unfailing deference . It is extr a ordinary how man y women much older than himselfch erished a warm a f fection for him . He h ad

con sidered the meanin g of Bacon’s saying , N0

Youth can be comely, but by Pardon , and several of his stories are studies on the thesis thatthere is a beauty in age which may in spire passion . One l n particular

,not found among his

collected writin gs , deals with this speculationPoyn tz

’

s A unt ,” published in Th e Ladies’

Compan ion of December, 1842 , where the herofalls violen tly in love with a woman of sixty

,to

whose niece the family expected him to pay hiscourt .


Willis saw more “ life in Lon don than wasquite good for him ,

and went in to companieswhich were less select than the Gore House ccter ie, although , to say truth , Lady Blessingtonherself was looked upon by the best people ” asa trifle o f f color . Her house was frequented bymen who were entirely irreproachable

,but th e

E nglish ladies were shy of visiting there Thiswas due mainly to her rather un usual relationswith the Count d’O r say. In obedience to thewishes of the E arl of Blessington , his daughterby a former marriage h ad been compelled towed the count under penalty of forfeiting her inheritance . Th e poor girl reluctantly espousedthe brilliant stra n ger provided for her by herfather’s eccentric caprice ; but the match wasunhappy, an d was almost immediately followedby a separation ; notwithstandin g which , D

’

O r

say continued to live in the closest in timacy withhis wife’s stepm oth er

’

a f ter the earl’s death , an d intime under the same roof with her. This last arrangement, which was , to say the least, odd, andcaused much scandal in British society, h ad not,however, gone into e f f ect when Willis first cameto London . Lady Blessington h ad not as yetmoved to Gore House, but was living in Seam or e

Place,while D’

O r say h ad lodgings in CurzonStreet. Nor did the latter’s formal separationf rom his wife take place till 1838. A nother

160 N A THA NI E L PARKER WILLIS.

more of his stay in England. These were Shiro

ley Park,near C roydon in Surrey, the residen ce

of the Skinner family,an d the Manor House of

the Shaws at Lee, in Kent, only a ten miles’

drive across country from Shirley Park . Th e

Hon . Mrs . Fanny Shaw was a daughter to LordE rskine and a sworn friend of Willis . Mrs .Mary Skinner was wife to an Indian nabob

,a

leader of fashion, and a woman of intellectual

tastes,who patronized letters and enter tain ed

literary people , a kind of Mrs . Leo Hunter, inshort. Willis was introduced to her at LadySimpkins’s by Sir John Franklin

,in February

,

1835, and m et her again at a dinner given byLongman , the publisher, a t Hampstead, wherewere present, among others , Moore , Joanna Baillie

,Jane Porter, an d Miss Pardoe . Th e last

was a very pretty woman , author of Beauties ofthe Bosphorus

,an d other books more remark

able for their sumptuous illustrations than fortheir literary quality. She was a poetess

'

,too,

after her fashion, a nd once addressed a tribute

in verse To the A uthor of Melanie ,” which was

printed in the “ Mirror of October 17, 1835.

Both Mr s. Shaw and Mrs . Skinner treated theiryoung guest with th e most delicate an d considerate kindness . They made him o f f ers of pecuniary help

,of which, fortunately, he h ad no

need to avail himself, as his letters to the Mir

LIFE ABROAD. 161

ror and his New Monthly stories (whichadded fifteen or twen ty guin eas a mon th to his“ poor two hundred a year brought him in r e

turns which were ample for his occasions . Th e

Skinners h ad a town house in Portlan d Place,an d their carriage in London was always atW illis ’s service . Both of these ladies regardedhim as a son or a youn ger brother. Bruce Skinner

,a son of W illis ’s hostess , named one

i

o f hischildren after him . A t Shirley Park an d at theShaws’ he met a n umber of very charmin g people

,and his time there was spent in drives , lawn

parties,etc. In the library at Shirley Park two

nieces of Walter Scott, th e Misses Swinton,copied for him Melan ie an d “ Love in the Lib r a r y,

” which he was preparing for the“

press .A n extract from a very confidential letter fromWillis to Mrs . Skinner may be worth tr an scr ibin g, to Show the terms of frank and cordial f am ilia r ity on which he lived with these excellen tpeople: A fter a brief history of his life an d astatement of his financial situation

,the letter

concludes as follows

Th er e is a passage in your n ote wh ich plea sedm e. You say i f you h ad a daugh ter you w

’

ould giveh er to m e. If you h ad on e I cer ta in ly would take

you at your wor d, provided thi s exp ose’

o f m y pov

er ty did n ot chan ge your f an cy. I sh ould like to

mar ry in E n gland, and I feel every day (more and

11

162 N A THA NIE L PARKER WILLIS .

mor e) th at m y b est yea r s a nd best a f f ection s ar e r un

n ing to wa ste. I am pr oud to be an A m er ican, but

a s a liter a ry m an , I would r a th er live in E n gland.

So i f you kn ow any a f f ection ate and good gir l wh owould be con ten t to live r ath er a quiet lif e, and could

love your h um ble ser van t, you h ave f ull power o f a t

tor n ey to dispose o f m e, pr ov ided sh e h asfi ve hundr ed

a yea r , or a s much mor e a s sh e likes . I kn ow en ougho f th e wor ld to cut my thr oat soon er th an br ing a

delica te wom an down to a dependen ce on m y br a in sf or suppor t, th ough in a ca se o f exigen cy I could a l

w ays r etr eat to A mer ica , and live com f or tably by m ylabor s . Mean time I am th e on ly suf f er er by m y

poverty, an d am n ot poor , f or n o m an is so wh o livesupon h is in com e. Comp r ends

-tu My dear fr iend,I h ave told you wh a t I h ave told n o oth er per son in

th e wor ld. Most m en an d wom en would th ink it incr edib le th at an a tta ch e

'

to a legation could keep up

appea r an ces on two hundr ed a yea r, or pity h im i f h e

could an d I n ever th ough t a nybody wor th th e con

fiden ce save on ly your self. I would tell‘

Miss Por

ter just th e sam e, or Mr . Swin ton , but wh o elseNo on e ! so ga r dez cela

“ I en joyed th e ba ll at th e Rav en sh aws’

exceedingly,an d am so much obliged to you f or in tr oducin g m e to

P r aed, wh om I like.

”

“ I h ave on e or two h om es in E n gland, wr oteW illis to h is m oth er , July 22 , 1835, wh er e I am lovedlike a ch ild. I h ad a letter th e oth er day f r om Hon

or able Mr s . Sh aw, wh o f an cied I looked low-spir ited

at the Opera .

‘Young m en have but two causes of

164 NA THA N IE L PARKER WILLI S .

For the authoress of Th e Scottish Chiefs , es

pecially, h e formed an en durin g attachmen t, an dshe regarded him with an almost motherly a f f ec

tion . A lifelon g correspon den ce was kept up between them , an d at the death of A dmiral RobertKer Porter a t St . Petersburg in 1842, am ong th eMSS . foun d in his sea -chests were nin ety lettersfrom Willis to his sister. Th e letters from MissPorter

,among Willis

’

s priva te papers,show that

she was an equally in defatigable, though a notvery legible correspondent . Willis en coun teredA da Byron at an even in g party in Lon don, an dthought her earnest an d sweet .

” Lady Byron,

who was a Unitarian,was much interested by

the Spirited sketch of Dr. Char ming in a seriesof papers on A merican literature which W illish ad con tributed to the “A then aeum ,

”an d she ex

pressed h er favorable opin ion of them in a letterto Miss Baillie

,as also her pleasure that her

daughter h ad made the author’s acquain tan ce.

Miss Ba ill ie gave this note to Willis for his autogr aph book. Byron’s sister, A ugusta Leigh ,he also met in Lon don society . She gave himan autograph letter of Byron , and on the appearan ce of Melan ie an d Other Poem s,

” in March1835, he sent h er a copy

, an d received an ao

kn owledgm en t in which she sa id that the bookcon ta in ed “ some of the most touchin g an d ex

quisite lines I ever read.

”Th e venerable Joanna

LIFE ABROAD. 165

Baillie wrote him , on the same occasion , a letterfil led with the most graceful complimen ts .A mong other London acquaintances of Willis ’s at this time were John Leech , th e artist, andMartin Farquhar Tupper, the proverbial philosopher

,who afterwards visited him in A merica.

A few extracts from a manuscript diary ir r egula r ly kept by Willis from Jun e, 1835, to March,1836

,will serve to Show the nature of his daily

en gagemen ts an d occupations

Jun e 30. Br eakf astedwith Sam uel Roger s . Met

Dr . Dela n cey, of Ph iladelph ia , an d Cor bin , ditto.

Ta lked o f Mr s . Butler ’s book, a n d Roger s gave us sup

pr essed passages . Ta lked o f cr itics, an d sa id th at a s

lon g a s you ca st a sh adow, you wer e sur e you pos

sessed substa n ce.

’

Coler idge said of South ey : ‘In ever think o f h im but a s m ending a pen .

’

South eysa id of Coler idge :

‘Wh en ever anyth in g pr esen ts itself to h im in th e sh ape o f a duty, th at m om en t h e

finds h imself in capable o f lookin g a t it .’

Wen t to th e Oper a with Hon . Mr s . Shaw and

hea r d Gr isi in ‘ I Puritan i,’

an d saw Taglion i : bothdiv in e. Visited Lady Blessington

’

s box and LadyVin cen t.

“ A fter to a pa r ty a t Mr s . Leicester Stan h ope’

s .

Saw Guiccioli , and was stuf f ed to th e eyelids byLady Ma ry Shepar d about my sh or ter an d scriptur al

poems .

“ July 1 . Mr s. Skin n er dr ove Jan e Porter and

myself to Ha r r ow to hear th e speech es .

166 N A THA N IEL PARKER WILL IS .

In th e even in g to a pa r ty a t Lady Cork’s , anda f ter to Lady Vin cen t’s soi r e’e.

”

Lady Cork was the aged but still beautifulDowager Coun tess of Cork a nd Derry ; who inher youth , a s Miss Moncton, h ad been a f avOr iteof Dr. Johnson , and whose soi r e

’

es in New Burlin gtou Street, between 1820 an d 1840, werecrowded with talent an d fashion .

2 . Sat to Rand f or my picture . Wen t to LadyDundon ald

’

s f éte ch a mp étr e at h er b eauti f ul villa inRegen t

’

s Pa rk. D’

or say and al l th e wor ld th er e.

“ 3. Din ed with Tyndale an d Gr eenfield at th e

Wyndh am Club. Took tea with Jan e Por ter and

wen t to a ball a t th e Lon gm an s’

,Ham pstead.

“ 4 . Wen t to Lee on a visit to Hon . M r s . Sh aw.

5. Dr ove to Lady Hislop’

s to tea .

6 . Duke de Regin a , Va il, Gen . and Mr s . Tal

madge din ed with th e Sh aws.

7 . Retur n ed to town . Din ed with Mr s . Chann on . Lady D. Stua r t, Coun ts Battaglia . V odiski , De

Gr ogn on , an d Miss Cocka in e pr esen t.’

Cam e h om e ill.“ 8 . Din ed with Mr s . S .

, and wen t to Lady Dudley Stua r t

’

s soir e’

e.

9 . Din ed with Dr . Bea ttie an d m et Th omasCam pbell. Pr a ised m y poetry to th e skies a nd quotedfr om ‘Melan ie,

’

Sh e died

Wi th h er la st sun sh in e in h er eyes .

’

Spoke o f Scott’

s slavishn ess to m en 'o f r ank, an d aftersa id it did n ot in ter fer e with h is gen ius. Sa id it sank

168 NA THA NIE L PARKER WILL IS .

A da Byron . Sa id th at h er husband, Lor d K ing, washated by h is own f ath er and moth er and o f ten in

wan t of m on ey, but a n excellen t per son and belovedby hi s own second br oth er , wh o h ad r eceived f r omth e f a th er all th at wa s n ot en tailed. O n th e death

o f th e f a th er , Lor d K . h ad n in e th ousand a yea r . Mr s .

Bailli e sa id th a t Lady Byr on h ad given to th e pr esen tLor d B . h er wh ole join tur e wh en h e cam e to th e

title.

Wen t to Lady Blessin gton a t ten , a nd h ad a longtalk with Coun tess Guiccioli, wh o sa id sh e wish edn evermor e to be spoken o f in good or ill . Th e evilwa s r em em ber ed and th e good f or gotten . Sh e madea poin t o f n ever r eadin g th e paper s .

Th en ce to Ch a r les K em ble’

s soir e’

e. Coun tessd’

O r say th er e.

”

A nd thus the journal proceeds with its dailycount of dinners, balls, soi r ées , garden parties,and opera-going , the diarist finally recordinghimself as fatigued to death with dinners an ddissipations . In fact the pace began to tellupon him . Followin g the last entry that I havecopied here

,for July 12th , comes the first draft

of a poem, Thoughts on the Balcony of Devon

shire House at Sunrise after a Splendid Ball :

Mor n in th e E a st How coldly f a i rIt b r eaks upon m y f ever ed eye !

How ch ides th e calm a nd dewy a ir ;

How ch ides th e pur e a n d pea r ly sky

Th e star s m elt in a br igh ter fire,

The dew in sun sh in e leaves the flower s,

LIFE A BROA D. 169

They f rom their watch in ligh t retire,Wh ile we in sadness pass f rom our s .

This is one of W illis’s most genuine utterances .Th e same revulsion of feeling is expressed inBetter Moments and “ She was not There .”

There were two men in him , the worldling and

the poet ; and when worn wi th fashionable dissipation he was sensitive to the rebuke of themidnight heaven or of that

“ awful . rose ofdawn which God makes for h imself in theVision of Sin .

” But the mood, though sincere

,was not lasting . Recovered my spirits,

”

runs the entry for July 15th , “ after a causelessdepression for a week .

Toward the end of July he escaped to thecountry and “ passed a month at Shirley Parkand the Manor, Lee, alternately reading an d lyin g on the grass in delightful idleness, with thekindest frien ds an d the greatest contentment.

”

A t Shirley Park there were archery f é tes , theA rchbishope

'

ss of Canterbury, “ lords and ladiesin abundance, an d poets an d travelers ad l ibi

tum .

‘

It is midsummer,”

continues the letterfrom which I quote (A ugust 5th ) , in cool andbreezy England, five o’clock in the afternoon

,

and a beautiful day. Th e house is in the m iddle of a park (n othing but grass an d trees) aslarge as the Common in Boston, the soft velvet

greensward closely shaven all around the house ,

170 NA THA N IE L P A RK E R WILLIS .

an d a lovely archery ground on the edge of thelake just beneath my window, with r ed an d goldtargets , an d a dozen youn g girls a n d beaux withbeautiful bows an d quivers shootin g with all th emerriment con ceivable . There is a beautifuldaughter of Sir Henry Brydges beatin g everybody

, an d my friend Mrs . Shaw,an d Lady E n

combe, and quan tities of nice people .”

A t Shirley Park he h ad a letter from JanePorter

,in closing an invitation to him from Sir

Charles Throckmorton ,a Catholic gen tleman in

VVa rwicksh ir e, at whose coun try seat she was

staying . Wil lis joined her there on Septemberl 0th

,but meanwhile something else of great

importance to him h ad happened. WV h ile visitin g at the Skinners

’ he h ad met his fate inthe person of Miss Mary Stace , a daughter ofGeneral W

'

illiam Stace of Woolwich . He sawher first at a picnic on the grounds of Lord London der ry, at North Cray, an d thought her theloveliest girl he h ad ever seen . A t ShirleyPark— wh ither she came as a guest— h e wasthrown much in her company, an d after a week

’sacqua in tan ce m ade her a pr Oposal of marriage ,an d was accepted. On the 1st of Septemberhe went to Woolwich on a visit to th e Staces ,an d in the course of a day or two asked the

gen eral for his daughter’s hand. It was agreed

that the engagement should be short, like the

172 N A THA NIE L P A RKE R WILL IS .

the sons were in the army, and afterwards therewere three Colon els Stace . Th e gen era l agreedto give his daughter £300 a year, which , withthe £300 or £400which Willis coun ted uponmaking by literary work , would ,

do , wrote thelatter to Mrs . Skinner, for a poet. Having com

pleted th e arrangements for his m arriage , he setout from Lon don

,September l0th

,by the Tan

tivy coach for Sir Charles Throckmorton’s seatof Coughton Court . This was a fin e old E lizabethan mansion near A lcester

,and Willis spent

ten days there very agreeably, visiting, in com

pany with Miss Porter an d h is host, WarwickCastle , Kenilworth , Stratford, and other pointsof in terest in the n eighborhood. Of these jauntsan ample n arrative is given in Sketches ofTravel, originally communicated to th e Mirror.” Thence h e returned to Woolwich, r eceiving on his departure an in vitation from the hos

pitable baronet to bring his wife an d stay afortnight with him . A t Woolwich he was againjoined by Miss Porter, on the 25th , who came f ora week’s visit to the Staces and to be present atthe weddin g . From Coughton Court th e expectant groom h ad written to his friends an n oun c

in g his engagement, an d received in reply manyexpressions of good wishes . A mong oth ers, LadyBlessington wrote as follows

L IFE A BROA D. 173

A NGLESEY-NEA R—GO SPORT, Sep tem ber 19 , 1835.

MY DE A R MR . WILL Is,—Your s o f th e l 6th h a s

been f orwa rded to m e h er e, and I lose n ot an h ourin r eplying to it. I congr atulate you with m y wh olehea r t on your appr oa ching ma r r iage, an d wish youall th e happin ess you so well deserve, an d which a

ma r r iage well a ssorted w ill a lon e bestow. I pr edictth e happin ess I wish you, f or you would n ot, I am

sure, m ake an unwor thy ch oice, an d th e dista ste wh ichth e scen es you h ave gon e th r ough dur ing th e la styear must h ave engender ed in your mind will h avetaugh t you still m or e highly to apprecia te th e societyand a f f ection of a pure-minded an d am iable wom an ,

on whom your futur e happin ess will depend. I th ink

you h ave a cted most wisely, and am sur e th at th e

ration a l plan s you have laid down will in sur e yourfelicity. A residen ce n ea r Lon don , wh ich gives youth e opportun ity of en joying its num er ous advan tages,with out weaken ing your m in d by a too f r equen t contact with its dissipation s, is, o f a ll oth er s, th e on e I

would select f or a liter ary m an , and I sh all look f orward with plea sur e to seeing you a t Seam or e Placein your n ew and mor e respectable ch ar acter o f a

Dom estic Man , wh ich , be assur ed, will bestow m or e

happin ess on you th an a ll th e f utile successes evera cquir ed in th e h ear tless m aze of f a sh ion an d f olly,in wh ose vor tex you have been wh ir led dur in g so

many mon th s. A Man o f Gen ius is out of hi s n atur al spher e in such a cir cle ; h e loses h is iden tity and

blun ts th e fin e edge o f h is sen sibility. You h ave r e

tir ed in tim e, and will, I am persuaded, h ave reason

174 NA THA N IE L P A RKER WILLIS .

to bless th e gen tle an d ben ign influen ce th at h as at

t r acted you f r om it to th e pur e a nd h ea lthy a tmos

ph er e o f dom estic li f e . Be a ssur ed, my dear Mr .

W illis, th a t out o f th e cir cle o f your im m ediate f am

ily you h ave n o f r iend m or e truly in ter ested in yourwelf a r e or m or e anxious to pr omote it th an I am ,

o f

wh ich n o pr oof in m y power sh all ever be wan tin g.

I sh a ll be in Lon don on th e 22d, and sh all h ave

gr eat plea sur e in seein g you. Your secr et sh all besa f e with m e, you m ay be sur e. I h ope th e little talewill be sen t f or your cor r ection in a day or two .

Pr ay h ave “ Ion lef t at my h ouse. Mr . Talf our d

requested th at it m ight n ot leave m y possession ,so

th at in lendin g it to you I disobeyed hi s request.

Th e old E arl of Dalhousie wrote a letter ofhearty congratulation .

“Wh er ever you go or sit down at last, it said,thi nk o f us a s being with you in our m inds’ eye a t

lea st, and if it sha ll plea se God th at, in th e cour se o f

tim e, we ever meet again ,it will b e truly a day o f

joy her e, f or f r om hen ce I m ove n o m or e.

”

His son , the young Lord Ramsay, h ad j estingly promised to be W ill is

’

s groomsman someday at Niagara, an d the former now remindedhim of it

,an d asked him to stand up with him

,

an d Ramsay sent the following excuses somethree weeks after the wedding :

YE STER , October 23, 1835.

I pr omised to play m y pa r t a s best m an,m y dear

Will is, a t N iaga r a , and to h ave descended fr om th at

176 NA THA N I EL P A RKER WILLIS .

Mrs . Skinner wrote , in a letter to Jane Por!ter :

Ma ry Stace is a sweet, gen tle, a f f ection ate, lively

gir l,— n a tur a l , so th a t you m ay see at on ce th er e is

n o deceit in h er an d n o guile. Sh e is r eligious, accom plish ed, sings sweetly, is pr etty, and will m ake

W illis mor e h appy th an a ny oth er wom an I kn ow.

He will have n o h ea r t-bur n in gs, n o m isgivin gs withh er , f or sh e is true and sin cer e . You will love h er .

Sh e wa s so r eligious, good, and depend-on -able th at I

told h er sh e sh ould be m y daugh ter -in -law .

”

In his letters to his folks at home an nouncinghis betrothal , Willis insisted a good dea l on thispoin t of his fi a n cée

’

s religiousn ess , and he ev i

den tly sh ared the belief common ly held and

proclaimed among men of the world, that religion

,like a low voice , is an excellen t thin g in

woman ; a theory which some women resent as acovert insult to their un derstandings , an d somemen as an open insult to their religion , and

which may be described as the converse of theproposition that a reformed rake makes the besthusband.

I sh ould n ever have wish ed to m a r ry you, h e

wr ote to h is b etr othed, about a f or tn igh t b ef or e th ewedding , “ i f you h ad n ot been religious, f or I h aveconfiden ce in n o woman wh o is n ot so . I on ly th inkth er e is som etimes an excess in th e osten ta tion of

religious san ctity, an d o f th a t I h ave a dr ead, a s you

L IFE A BR OA D. 177

h ave yourself, n o doubt. Miss Porter, h e adds ,“ is

sin cer e and refin ed a s f ew pr ofessedly religious peo

ple a r e .

”

In another; letter he says

Min e is n ot a love such a s I have fan cied and

written about. It is more sober , mor e min gled withesteem and r espect, and more fitted f or every-daylife. It h ad well n eed be, indeed, f or I have takenit in lieu o f wh at h a s h ith er to been th e pr in cipa loccupation o f my life. I am to live f or you, dearMa ry, an d you f or m e

,— i f you like ! Th at is to

say, h en cef or th dissipation (i f we in dulge in it) willbe your plea sur e, n ot min e. I h ave lived th e last tenyea r s in gay society, and I am sick a t hea r t o f it. I

wan t an apology to try somethi ng else. I am madef or som eth in g better , and I f eel sin cer ely th a t th is isth e tur n ing-poin t o f both m i nd an d heart, both of

which ar e in jured in th eir best qua lities with th e kindo f lif e I h ave been leadin g. Do n ot under stand m e

th at I am to m ake a h er m it o f m yself, however, ora pr ison er o f you. You w ill h ave always friendsen ough , and society en ough , an d ch an ge o f place and

scen e en ough . In sh or t, I sh a ll exact but on e th in g,— four or five hour s in m y study in th e mor n in g, and

you m ay do wh at you like with th e rest .”

They were married in Plumstead Church, bythe Rev. Mr. Shackleton , on the 1st of October.“ It was a kind of A pril day,

” writes Will is,

half sunshine,half rain

,

” recall ing , somehow,the coincidence in Julia Mil ls’s diary between

12

178 N A THA N I E L P A RKE R WILL IS .

the checker-board tavern-sign and checkered human existence on a similar occasion in DavidCopper field

’

s life , “ but everybody was kind,the villagers strewed flowers in the way

,the

church was half full of people , and my heartand eyes were more than ful l of tears . Th e

bridal pair were driven in Mr. Stace’s carriageto Rochester, posted next day to Dover, an d

crossed the Channel on the 3d. They passed afortnight at the H6tel Castiglione in Paris, an dthen return ed to England, where they spent thewin ter

,partly in London an d partly a t Wool

wich, an d in visits to the Shaws , Skinn ers, and

other friends. Willis was busy in getting outthe first and secon d E n glish edition s of Pencillings an d the “ Inklings of A dventure . He

presented his bride to his swell ” acquaintancesin Lon don , and was himself introduced by hisbrothers-in—law to numbers of military people ,dined at the A rtillery Mess

, and was given thefreedom of the A rmy and Navy C lub . He setup an “ establishment,

” a cabriolet and a graycab-horse , “

tall, showy, an d magnificent .” He

h ad taken into service a young fellow namedWill iam Michell

,the son of his landlady

,a

bright an d handsome lad, who now made a verypresentable tiger. William went to A mericawith his master in th e spring, remained in hisservice during his residence at Glenmary, and

180 N A THA NIE L P A RKER WILL IS .

volumes of verse published in A merica, but n ufamiliar to the British public, besides some halfdozen new poems , dated, said the author, in hisprefatory note , from the corner of a club [theTravellers’] in the un genial m onth of January.

”

It was introduced by Barry Cornwall , whospeaks of the poet as “ a man of high talent andsensibility, an d then goes on with some r eflection s of a friendly n ature on A merican literature and th e desirableness of cultivatin g kinderfeelings between E ngland an d A merica. Wilson

,who reviewed Melanie very favorably in

Blackwood’s,

” made Procter ’s in troduction toit the theme of much elaborate ridicul e, in thewell-known style of “ Maga,

” when rending acockney author. He af f ected to have gatheredan impression from the title-page ,— which described the poems as edited by Barry Cornwall

,that Willis was dead, and that Procter

was performing the of fice of literary undert akerfor “ poor Willis’s rem ains . “ A las ! thoughtwe, on reading this title-page ; is Willis dead !Then A merica has lost one of the most promising of her young poets . We h ad seen him n ot

many months before in high health an d spiritsand h ad much enjoyed his various an d vivaciousconversation . But why weep for h im , theaccomplished acquaintance of a n hour !” He

goes out on the street an d tells the first friend

L IFE A BROA D. 181

he meets that Will is i s dead.

“ Impossible,

an swers the friend ; “ day before yesterday hewas sitting very much alive in the A thenaeumC lub : here is a letter from him franked Mahon

, etc. A nother Scotch professor— A ytoun

—who belonged, like Wilson , to the Tory lightartillery

,was moved to write a parody of Me

lan ie .” Th e same humorist also paid his r e

spects to Willis in one of his Ballads of BonGaultier

,— a strenuous piece of North British

playfuln ess, in which Willis an d Bryant arerepresen ted as sallying forth like knights er

rant ou the Quest of the Snappin g Turtle :

Have you heard o f Ph ilip SlingsbySlin gsby of th e m an ly ch est

How h e slew the sn apping tur tle

In the r eg ion s o f th e‘

west”9

Th e two longest an d most ambitious poems inthis volume were “Melanie and “ Lord Ivonand his Daughter. Th e first is the story “ tolddurin g a walk aroun d the cascatelles of Tivoli

,

of an E n glish girl, the last of the De Br ever nrace ,

” who betroths herself in Italy to a youngpainter of un known parentage ; but at theirbridal at St . Mona’s altar a nun Shrieks throughthe lattice of the chapel :

Th e br idegr oom is thy blood—thy b r oth er !

Rudolph de Br evern wr onged h is m oth er,

”

an d the bride thereupon sunk and died, with

182 N A THA N IEL P A RKER WILLIS .

out a sign or word. Th e stanza and style aretaken from Byron’s and Scott’s metrical r o

manees. Th e very first lineI stood on yon der r ocky b row

is a rem ini scen ce of “ Th e Isles of Greece .Th e second poem , which is equally m elodr a

matic in its catastrophe,is in blan k verse an d

in the form of a dialogue between the Lady Isidore an d her father, Lord Ivon . He tells hisdaughter (with a few interruptions from her,such as Impossible ! and “ Nay

,dear father !

Was ’t so indeed ! how he h ad in vain wooedh er grandmother with min strelsy and feats ofarms, an d then her mother more successfullywith gold : marryin g whom, he h ad begotten Isidore , an d afterwards

,in remorse for having

dragged his young bride to the altar, h ad beenon the point of draining a poisoned chalice

,

when she h ad anticipated him by running awaywith a younger lover, leaving to his care thebabe

,now grown to a woman , who dutiful ly con

cludes the dia logue with , Thank God ! ThankGod ! Both of these poems were imitative an dartificial , an d the last not a little absurd. V

Vil

lis h ad no genius for narrative or dramatic poetry, an d when he tried to be impersonal an d“ objective,

” he wrought against the grain . Th e

lyrical pieces in the book were almost all ofthem graceful an d sweet . He himself thought

184 NA THA NIE L P A RKE R WILLIS .

poetry of the A nn ual or Gem m if er ous period,and is seen at its extreme in the unsubstantialprolixity of Percival an d the drab diflusen ess ofMrs . Sigourney. It was the reflection on thisside the water from Shelley, from Byron

’s earlier manner, from Wordsworth

’s most didacticpassages , and from the imitations of all theseby secondary poets , like Mrs . Norton an d L . E .

L . W ill is’s verses were much better than Percival’s or Mrs . Sigourney

’s defter, briefer, morepointed. But they h ad a certain poverty of imagery an d allusion which belonged to the school,a recurrence of stock properties , such as rosesstars

, an d bells . He was ridiculed by the criticsin particular

,for his constancy to the Pleiades

,

which would almost seem to have been the onlyconstellation in his horizon .

Toward the last of November, 1835, the firstedition of Pencillings by the Way was publish ed. It was an imperfect one , made up hastily for the London market from a broken set ofthe Mirror

,

”and gave only seventy-nine o ut of

the one hundred an d thir ty-nine letters sinceprinted in the complete editions . From thisimperfect copy the first A merican impression

(1886) was taken, and all in fact down to 1844.

Th e book reached a second E nglish edition inMarch , 1836 , an d a seventh in 1863. For thisfirst edi tion Will is received £250. He after

L IFE A BROA D. 185

wards testified, that from the republication ofthe origi n al Pencillin gs,

” for which Morris hadpaid him 38500 a year , he h ad made , all told

,

about Their appea r en ce in book formh ad been anticipated by a

'

severe criticism of theoriginal Mirror letters , written by Lockhartfor the Lon don Quarterly of September, 1835.

This was echoed by the Tory press general ly, andit was their a ttacks which led to the issue of theLondon edition and greatly stimulated its sale.There were several reasons why the Tory paperswere down on Wil lis . In the first place hewas an A merican . In the next place he h ad beenadmitted an d made much of in E n glish socialcircles, where English men of letters , who weremerely men of letters

,did not often go . A n d,

finally,he h ad spoken disr espectq y in these

letters of th e editor of the Quarterly himself.Do you know Lockhart ! Wilson is made toask in W illis’s report of their conversation atE din burgh .

“ No , I do not,” replies his inter

locutor. He is almost the only literary man inLondon I have n ot met ; an d I must say

,as the

editor of the Quarterly,’

an d the most unfairand unprin cipled critic of the day, I have nowish to know him . I never heard him wellspoken of. I probably have met a hundred ofhis acquaintan ces , but I have not yet seen onewho pretended to be his frien d.

”

186 N A THA N IE L P A RKER WILLIS .

This paragraph was enough to account for theQuarterly article ; but the personal grievancewas kept well out of sight, an dWill is was takento task for his alleged abuse of the rights ofhospitality in reporting for a public journal private con versations at gentlemen

’s tables . Th e

article was a very of f ensive one,written with

abili ty an d with that air o f cold contempt ofwhich Lockhart was master. It sneered at Willis as a Yan kee poeta ster

,an d a sonnet

eer of the most ultr a sen tim en tal delicacy ; in

timated that his surprise a n d delight at themanners of the E n glish aristocracy came fromhis not having been familiar with the usages ofthe best society at home, an d accused him of“conceited vulgarity an d cockneyism ”

(anawful word, un der which the Scotch Tories connoted all possible ofi en ses against sound politicsan d good literature) . Th e passages that seemto have given most of f en se to the critic were thereport of the conversation with Lord A berdeenat Gordon Castle and the remarks of Mooreabout O ’

Con n ell at Lady Blessin gt on’s . It is

fortunate in this particular case , wrote Lockhart

,

“ that what Lord A berdeen said to Mr.Willis might be repeated in print without paining any of the persons his lordship talked of ;but what he did say, he said under the impressionthat the g uest of the Duke of Gordon was a gen

188 N A THA N I E L P A RKE R WILL IS .

obscurity of periodical correspondence, he h adnever expected that the Mirror letters wouldreach E n gland ; nor Would they have done so,h ad not th e “Quarterly ” “made a lon g arm overthe water,

”and reprin ted all the of f en ding por

tions thereby forcin g the author’s hand and

compellin g him to publish th e entire collectionin justification of himself. Secondly, that hissketches of distin guished people were neitherill -natured nor un true ; that he h ad said nothingin them which could in jure the feelin gs of thosewho h ad admitted h im to their confidence orhospitality. There a r e passages,

” he allowsI would n ot rewrite , an d some remarks on in

di v iduals which I would recall at some cost,

”

but I may state as a fact that the only instance in which a quotation by me from the conversation of distinguished men gave the least o ff en se in E ngland was the one remark made byMoore , the poet, at a dinn er party, on the sub

ject of O’

Con n ell . It would have been harmless,as it was designed to be, but for the unexpectedcelebrity of my Pencillings ; yet with all myheart I wish it unwritten .

”A nd fin ally, that

whatever violations of delicacy and good tastemight have been committed in the Pencillings,

”

the author of Peter’s Letters to his Kinsfolkwa s not the one . to throw a stone at them . Th e

fir st plea in this defense was sincerely made , as

L IFE A BROA D. 189

might be easily proved from W illis’

s privateletters . It w a s a disagreeable surprise to himwhen the Quarterly ” reprin ted passages fromthe “Mirror letters . A n d it is true that A merica was much farther away from E ngland thanEnglan d was from A merica . Still, if Willis h adpublished anything that he should not have publish ed, it was not a perfect excuse to say that heh ad done it in a corner. A s the event showed,foreign correspondence in an A merican newspaper might reach E ngland. But this apologywas not needed, for his second plea covered the

groun d. There was,in truth, nothing malicious

o r slanderous in Pencillings almost nothingthat could give pain even to the most sensitive.The people described were , nearly all of them ,

in a sense,public characters, accustomed to see

ing themselves gossiped about in print. In oneor two instances Willis h ad been indiscreet, ashe freely admitted. But it is hard for one living in these times of society journ als and interviewers to understand why the papers shouldhave made such a pother over a comparativelytrifling trespass upon the reserves of private life .The best proof of W illis’s inn ocence in the matter is that the people whose hospitality and con

fiden ce he was charged with abusing took nokind of umbrage at the liberty. On the con

tr a ry, Lord A berdeen , Wilson , Dalhousie, and

190 NA THA NIE L PA RKER WILLIS .

others wrote to him in warm approval of hisbook. With what feelings,

” said the Quarter ly article, apropos of the description ofGordon Castle, the whole may have been perused by the generous lord and lady of the ca stle themselves , it is no business of ours to con

jectur e Thi s point, however, need not be leftto conjecture , as it is amply answered in the following letter to Will is from the E arl of Dalhousie , dated February 25, 1836

In th e long even in gs of win ter we have beguiledth e time with Pen cill ings by th e Way,

”and wh at

ever critics and reviewer s m ay say, I take pleasure inassuring you that we all agr ee in on e sen tim en t, th at

a more am using or more delightful production was

n ever issued by th e press. In wh at we kn ow o f it, it

is true and graphic, a nd th erefor e in what is foreignto us, we thi nk, must be so also. Th e Duke a nd

Duch ess of Gor don wer e her e la tely a nd exp r essed

them selves in sim ila r term s .

Lady D desires m e to say that th e reviewscould n ot have don e m ore f or its success by th eir am

plest pr aises, f or it is n ow in every h and.

Our fam ily h a s been m uch occupied by Ramsay’

s

m a r r iage this win ter, h e f ollowing your steps so

closely. He h a s added gr eatly to h is par en ts’

h ap

pin ess , and, I h ope, to h is own in life. Lady SusanHay is a h an dsom e woman , and an amiable, pr ettycr eatur e. Th ey h ave settled th emselves a t Coa ls

town , un til called in to a more active life, wh ich I

192 NA THA N IEL PA RKE R WILLIS .

Moore an d O’

Con n ell , in which Willis ackn owledged an d regretted his imprudence .

“ Thispublication, to m y kn owledge ,

” says Madden inhis Life of the Countess of Blessin gton ,

” wasattended with results which I cannot think Mr.Willis contemplated when he tran smitted hishasty notes to A merica, — to estrangements ofpersons who, previously to the prin ted reports oftheir private conversations

,h ad been on terms

of intimate acquain tance . This was the casewith respect to O ’

Con n ell an d Moore . Moore’sreported remarks on O ’

Con n ell gave oflen se tothe latter, and aroused bad feelin gs betweenthem which h ad never previously existed, andwh ich , I believe, never ceased to exist.

”

It also appears from a letter from Willis toLady Blessington , and an unsign ed note from

a friend of hers to Willis, both of whi ch areprinted in Madden ’s Life

,that Fon blan que

resented the description of himself in Pencillings ,

”and h ad written the author a note in

terms which the latter thought very un justifiable .” Fon b lan que was an able an d estimableman

, and W illis’

s portrait,or caricature , of him,

though not unkindly meant an d applying merelyto his personal appearance, was certainly notpleasant for the subject of it to ‘ see in print.

I n ever saw ,

”it run s, a m uch worse face sallow

,

seamed, an d hollow, h is teeth irregula r, his skin livid,

L IFE A BROA D. 93

h is str aight black h a ir un combed and stragglin g overh is f oreh ead h e looked as if h e m igh t be th e gen tlem an

‘wh ose coa t wa s r ed and wh ose br eech es wer eblue .

’

A h ollow, cr oaking voice, and a sm a ll, fieryblack eye, with a sm ile like a skeleton ’

s, cer ta inly didn ot im pr ove h is physiogn omy. He sa t upon h is ch a ir

very awkwa r dly, an d wa s very ill dr essed, but everywor d h e utter ed sh owed h im to be a m an o f cla im svery super ior to exter ior a ttr action .

”

With the exception of Lockhart, Moore, Fonblan que

, an d Captain Marryat , whose case willbe mention ed presen tly

,it does not appear that

any one took o f fen se a t anythin g in Pen cill ings .”

A s to Lady Blessington , Lockhart’s misgiving

as to whether she would ever again admit toher table the animal who has prin ted what ensues ” Was needless . It was she who saw thebook through the press while Willis was inFrance on his weddin g journey. He went tosee her frequen tly durin g the remain der of hisstay in London , an d called upon her on his twosubsequent vi sits to E n glan d an d their frien dship an d corresponden ce con tin ued unbroken tillher death in 1849 . His poem , To a Face Beloved,

” originally printed in the Mirror ofNovember 14

, 1835, was addressed to her. It

may well have been ,however

,that the noise made

about the book,and the cause for compla int given

to a few of the h a bitue’ s of Gore House, put a13

194 N A THA NIE L P A RKE R WILL IS .

certain constrain t upon his visits there, and he

probably absen ted himself from the dinn ers an dreception s given by the mistress of the mansion ,

and which it h ad formerly been his chief pleasure to atten d. In a letter to her from Dublin ,January 25, 1840, he says : “ I have

,I assure

you, no deeper regret than that my in discretion

(in‘Pencill ings

’

) should have checked the freedom of my approach to you . Still my attachment an d adm iration (so unhappily recorded)are always on the alert for some trace that I amstill remembered by you . My first pleasurewhen I return to town will be to avail myself ofyour kin d in vitation

,an d call at Gore House .

In spite of the Quarterly ’s attack - partlyno doubt in con sequen ce of it Pencillin gs bythe Way met, on the whole, with a gen erousreception from the E n glish public, an d evenfrom the E n glish press . Literary criticism inthose days was largely in fluen ced by politicalprejudice . It was useless for a Whig , a Cockney,

” or an A merican , to hope for justice fromthe Tory reviews. Th e Westminster (Rad

ical) was edited byW ill is’

s friend,Dr. Bowrin g

th e Edinburgh (Whig) , by his acquaintance ,Lord Je f frey. Th e former accordingly greetedhis book with warm approval , an d th e latterpraised it with faint damns . On the other hand,Fraser’s

,

” the lightest an d brightest of the

196 NA THA NIEL P A RKER WILLIS .

writin g is characterized as chamber-maid gabble ,

” small beer,

” pen n y-trumpet eloquen ce ,W ill is ’s bray,

”an d Niagara in a jordan .

Presiden t Jackson , whom Maginn supposes tohave appoin tedWillis a tta ch é to the French embassy, is that most open -throated of flum m ery

gulpers , O ld Hickory.

”A lluding to a passage

in W illis’

s slimy preface,

” the reviewer says,

that Willis should literally set his foot onLockhart’s head is wh at we think no one imagin es the silly man to have meant. The probabilities are that if th e imposition of feet shouldtake place between them

,the toe of Lockh art

would fin d itself in disgustin g contact with apart of Willis which is considerably removedfrom his head

,an d deemed to be the quarter

in which the honor of such person s is most peculia r ly called in to action . Such were th e

amen ities of criticism half a century ago . Ofcourse this animated billin gsga te could not hurtWillis in anybody’s esteem ,

and called for noreply. Magin n was a wretched creature and noon e minded what he said ; though , to be sure,the Hon . Gran tley Berkeley thought it n eces

sary,in th is same year

, 1836 , to call him out

for a scurrilous attack upon himself an d h is

cousin,Lady E uston, in a notice of Berkeley

’s

theM a clise P or tr a it Ga llery to descr ibe W illis as a sum ph

and“ N(am by) P(am by) W illis .

”

L IFE A BROA D. 197

novel , Castle Berkeley. Th e latter, in hi s

very diverting Life and Recollection s,

”

g ivesa circumstantial history of this duel an d of theflogging which he administered to Fraser forpublishing the article, and of Magin n

’

s shameful treatmen t of poor Miss Landon .

But one of the notices provoked by Pencillings

”came near having serious consequen ces

for Willis . In a letter in the “ Mirror ” ofA pril 18

,1835, he h ad in serted a postscript,

after his signature , as he claimed, an d meantonly for Morris ’s private eye

, giving some information about th e sales of books in London .

In thi s occurred,among other things, the sen

tence following : Captain Marryat’s gross trashsells immensely about Wapping and Portsmouth,and brings him five or six hundred the book,but that can scarce be called literature .”

Morris printed it with the rest of the letter, an dwhen it reached E n gland the gallan t captainwas naturally displeased by it . His reven ge wasto publish in his magazine, the Metropolitanfor January

,1836

,a review of “ Pencillings ,

or rather a grossly personal review of the authorof Pencillings .

”The article was less telling

than the Quarterly’s,

” simply because Marryatdid not drive so sharp a quill as the editor of theQuarterly .

” But the latter kn ew his businessas a reviewer and confined himself to the book

198 NA THA N IE L P A RKER WILL IS .

in hand. Marryat, on the con trary, traveledoutside the record an d helplessly allowed h is

private grievan ce to appear. He declared thatWilli s was a spurious a tta che,

” who h ad madehis way into E nglish society under false colors .

He m akes invidious, un cha r itable, and ill -n atur edrem a rks upon auth or s a n d th eir works ; a ll o f wh ichh e dispatch es f or th e ben efit of th e readin g pub lico f A m er ica , and, at th e sam e tim e that h e h as thusstabbed th em beh ind th eir ba cks, h e is requesting tobe in tr oduced to th em—bowing , sm iling, a nd sim pering .

” “ A lth ough we a r e well acqua in ted with th e

bir th , pa r en tage, and h istory o f Mr . W illi s , pr eviousto h is making h is con tin en ta l tour , we will pa ss th emover in silen ce ; a nd we th ink th at Mr . Willis willackn owledge th at we a r e gen er ous in so doing .

”

I t is eviden t th at Mr . Willis h a s n ever , till lately,been in good society, either in E n gland or A m er ica .

”

Finally he exhum ed from some quarter the pas

quin ade of poor Joe Snelling, referred to in ourthird chapter, from which he printed the followin g lines by way of showing W illis

’

s standing at

home

Th en Na tty filled th e S tatesm an’

s r ibald pageW ith th e r an k b r eath ings o f h is pr ur ien t age,A nd told the wor ld h ow m any a h alf -bred Miss,L ike Sh aksper e

’

s f a i ry, gave an a ss a kissLong did h e try th e a r t of sinkin g on

Th e m uddy pool h e took f or Helicon ;Long did h e delve an d g rub with fins of lead

200 NA THA NIE L PA RKE R WILL IS .

merits of my book,Will is wrote

,I have noth

ing to say . You were a t liberty, as a critic, todeal with it as you pleased. You have transcended the limits of criticism , however, to makean attack on my character, an d your absencecompels me to represent, by my own letter, thoseclaims for reparation which I should have intrusted to a friend, h ad you been in England.

”

Th e letter then proceeds to answer, in detail, thecharges a n d in nuendoes of the

“Metropolitan .

”

A s to his seeking introductions, Willis declares,I have never, since my arrival in E n gland

requested an introduction to a ny m a n . In

the single interview which I h ad with yourself,I was informed by the lady who was the mediumof the introduction , tha t you w ished to kn owme . Th e letter con cludes , apropos of Marryat

’

s slur on W illis’s birth and parentage,You will readily admit that this dark insinuation must be completely withdrawn . My literary reputation an d my position in society arethings I could outlive . My honesty as a criticis a point on which the world may decide . Butmy own honor and that of my family are sacred,an d while I live

,no breath of calumny shall

nest on either. I trust to receive , at your ear liest convenience , that explan ation which you cannot but ackn owledge is due to me on this point,and which is most imperatively required by my

LIFE A BROA D. 201

own character and the feelings of my friends .A s to the remark which h ad drawn the Metropolitan article upon h im

,Willis confesses that

it was an unjust one, but says that “ it occurredin a private communication to the editor of theMirror and was never intended for publication .

”

Will is h ad this letter lithographed and sentcopies to seven of his particular friends, to clearhis character, as he said, in h is own immediatecircle, of the aspersions in Marryat

’s article .Th e reply to this demand was a long letter, underdate of January 21st

,declining to make any apol

ogy until Willis h ad publi cly withdrawn his r emark in the Mirror about Marryat’s grosstrash selling about Wapping, etc. , which , said thelatter, amounted by implication to an attack onhis private character denying, furthermore,that he h ad attacked Wi lli s ’s private character.“Th e observations made by you upon my writings must be considered as more or less injuriousin proportion to the rank in society and estim m

tion of the person who made them . It wastherefore necessary, in this instan ce , to point outthat the critic h ad not been accustomed to goodsociety. Now this , if true, is no crime , an dtherefore the remark can b e n o attack upon private character.” Willis accepted this explanation, in a second letter to Marryat, and then

202 NA THA NIEL P A RK ER WILLIS .

sent the entire correspondence to the Timesfor publication . Marryat was furious at this

,

an d wrote at once to Willis , I refuse all explanation insist upon immediate satisfactionan d that you forthwi th repair to Ostend to meetme .” If the captain thought that his opponentwas a dandy poet, who would be afraid to facehis pistol , he mistook his man . Th e puppieswill fight , said the Duke . Willis was no shot,a nd the only weapon that he knew how to handlewas his pen , but he never showed any want ofpersonal courage . Th e correspondence th at followed this challenge was long and tedious . The

documents in the case are a score in number andneed not be reproduced here . Th e substance ofthese various protocols and formalities was asfollows . Willis answered Marryat’s letter

,ex

plaining why he h ad thought right to publishthe first three letters that h ad passed betweenthem

,accepting his challenge , in case he found

this explanation insuf ficient, but claiming h is

privilege, as the challenged party, to name someplace in E n gland for the meeting . Meanwhilea duplicate of Marryat

’s challenge h ad beenhanded to Willi s by the former’s “ friend,

” aMr F. Mills, an d Willis h ad referred him tohis friend, Captain Walker, an d h ad agreed towaive his right to name a place , and to meetMarryat at Ostend. Mr. Mills and Captain

204 NA THA NI E L PA RKER WILL IS .

to fight, not to negotiate, but on a little discussion Captain Belcher found his principal in th e

wrong, and made him concede what was n eces

sary, the followin g pronunciamento being signedby both seconds

CHA THA M .

Captain Marrya t and Mr . Willis havin g placed th ea r r a n gem en t o f th e dispute between th em in our

h an ds, an d both par ties having r epa ir ed h ith er withth e in ten t o f a hostile meeting ; we have, previouslyto perm ittin g such to take place, ca r ef ully gon e

thr ough th e origin a l gr ounds o f quarr el, which do n ot

appear to us o f sufficien t impor tan ce to call f or a

m eeting o f such a n atur e.

We a r e per f ectly bor n e out in th is opin ion by th ea r r an gem en t of th e 8th of Febr ua ry en ter ed in to byth e mutua l fr iends of th e pa r ties, an d on wh ich weth ink Captain Ma r ryat ought to h ave withdrawn hi s

challen ge o f th e 4th in st.

Th at th e n ew qua r r el arises fr om th e publication of

th e ch a llen ge and subsequen t letter s, in wh ich , in our

opin ion , Captain Ma r rya t was n ot justified. We a r e

fur th er of opin ion th a t both parties sh ould mutuallywi thdr aw th e o f f en sive cor r esponden ce, th e terms on

eith er side being un justifiable, a nd we con ceive th at

they mor e hon orably act in so doing than in m eeting

in th e field. E DWA RD BELCHE R .

F. G . WA LK E R .

Thus peacefully ended this tempest in a tea

pot. VV illis h ad carried hi s point an d h ad acted

L IFE A BROA D. 205

throughout in a high - spirited an d creditablemanner barrin g the folly of entering into“ an affair of honor

,

” in the first place. Hisletters to Marryat are those of a gentleman ,

while his adversary’s language is invariablyhectoring an d coarse . Th e quarrel, of course,made a great deal of noise at th e time in London literary an d social circles . Th e UnitedService Gazette

, th e organ of the BritishA rmy an d Navy, took Willis

’

s side in a long ed

itor ial in which much of th e correspondence wasreprinted from th e “ Times .” Th e latter journal

,however

,probably voiced the true sen ti

ment of the community when it said :“We

con fess that we have a great distaste for thissort of squabbling, which exhibits, to say theleast

,an extraordinary want of judgment in the

disputing parties .”

From Chatham Wil lis posted at once toWoolwich

,thirty miles away, where he found h is

wife in convulsions . He h ad left a farewellletter for her, fully expecting to be killed in aduel with Marryat, wh o was reputed a crackshot . Two days later Willis went to Londonand call ed out Mr.

"

F Mills, who h ad acted asMarryat’s “mediator, for an of f en sive letter inthe Times .” Mr . Mills named W . F. Campbell o f Islay and Willis named John Tyndale ,between whom this subsidiary quarrel was soon


patched up , in a man ner hon orable to both . Th e

assaults in th e E nglish magazin es an d the ru

mors of th eMarryat af f air of course found theirway speedily to A merica, an d were circulatedan d commen ted upon in the A merican periodical s according to their various prepossessions .Th e cul tivated old clergymen of the

‘NorthA m erican Review,

’ as Poe used to call them,

len t th e support of that influential quarterly toWill is in an article by C . C . Felton, a veryfriendly review of the Pencillings ,

”and a de

f en se of their author a favor which Willis

gratefully appreciated.

In March, 1836 , he published in LondonInklings of A dven ture, consisting of thirteenstories and sketches of A merican and E uropeanlife

,reprin ted from the “New Monthly

,

”Th e

Metropolitan ,”an d the Court Magazine, to

gether with“Min ute Philosophies ” (from the

A merican Monthly an d A Log in the A rchipelago ,

” from the “ Mirror. Th e book washandsomely published in three volumes, an d

dedicated to E dward E verett . For an editionof copies Willis was paid £300, reservingto himself the copyright ; an d as he h ad receiveda guinea a page for the origin al articles, besideswhat Morris gave him for their republication inthe Mirror,

” they may be said to have beenfairly profitable .

208 NA THA N IE L P A RKE R WILL IS .

are of course misleadin g and false . Their airis the air of every day, but their happenin gs arethose of the wi ldest romance . Their charman d they have for many old-fashioned readers aquite decided charm— does not lie in truth tolife, but in the vivacious movement of the narr ative, the glimpses of scenery by the way, thealternations of sentiment an d gayety, neithervery profound, but each for the time sincerean d passin g quickly into one another ; and

finally in th e style , always gr aceful , and in passages really exquisite . It has recen tly beenannounced that style is increasingly unimportant

,

” but can this be true Not surely,

unless fiction is to become h ereafter a branchof social science an d valuable only for its aocurate report o f life . It will then be the novelist

’

s duty to obliterate himself in his message,and any intrusion of his personal ity betweenthe reader an d the subject wi ll be an im per tin en ce. But it is hard to believe that the personal elemen t is to lose its place in fiction an d

be banished to the realm of autobiography an dlyric poetry. Style may be a purely externalpart of an artist’s equipment

,but it is a n ec

essary part a ll the same . A bad man or a weakman may have it

,but th at does not make it

any the less indispen sable for the good manintendin g literature . Willis was born with it ;

LIFE A BROA D. 209

it showed in his manners , in his dress , in hiswriting . Whatever he did was done with anair.Th e A merican parts of Inklings, writtenfor the E nglish reader, are th e best . Theyreproduce for us th e life of gay society, whensociety was, or seemed, gayer, or at least fresherthan at present. It was the era of expansion andhope before the finan cial panic of 1837 . Th e

great waterway lately opened through th e stateof New York h ad set people traveling . Th e

beauties of A merican lakes,forests, a n d rivers

were bein g discovered, but were as yet un backn eyed. Lake George , Th e Thousand Isles, an dthe St. Lawrence, did not swarm with tourists .Nah an t was still a fashionable seaside resortand Niagara a watering-place, where peopleactually went to spend months , and not a fleeting show for bridal couples an d a mill-race formanufacturers . Saratoga, and Ballston , an d

Lebanon were rival spas, the first a mushroom village merely, the work of a lathan d plaster A laddin ,

” when Congress Hall,with its big wooden colon n ades, was in its glory.

“ A relic or two of the still astonished foresttowers above the chimneys , in the shape of amelan choly grove of firs

,an d five minutes’ walk

from the door, th e dim old wilderness standslooking down on the village . In which wilder

14

210 NA THA NIE L P A RKER WILL IS .

ness was embosomed Ba r hydt’

s once famoushermitage, with its ear-shaped tarn and columnarpin e shafts, whither on e resorted for trout dinners

, an d where the lon g , soft mornings, quietas a shadowy elysium , on the rim of that ebonlake were as solitary as a melancholy man coulddesire .”

This newness in life at the Springs, this back

ground o f primitive W ilderness against whichthe drives an d dances and piazza promenadesof the fashionable frequenters were projected,has long since disappeared, and with it has gonea certain old school exclusiveness which on cemarked the society at A merican baths. Thatsociety, if not more aristocratic than at present

,was at all events more select, simply by

vi rtue of being smaller. Fewer people were inthe habit of going into the country in summer

,

an d fashion able circles in the cities were not solarge but that the best people from all overth e States might know each other at least byname . A reigning belle or a distinguished beauh ad a national reputation . Southern plantersbrought their families to Northern resorts an dsupplied an element which has been missedsince the war.

In th e f ourteen m illion s o f in h abitan ts in the

Un ited States,” W ill is explain s,

“ th ere a r e preciselyfour auth en ticated and undisputed aristocratic fa rm

212 NA THA NIE L P A RKER WILL IS .

pressed upon A merican life, books, an d societyof that date are reflected from Willis ’s sparkling

-

pages an d give them even a sort of histor ica l interest, apart from their claims as literature . There is a breath of morning wind inthem . With the homelier side of life he h adlittle concern , an d his writing lacks gravity and

simplicity . Whenever he grows serious, it is to

grow sentimental . F. Smith ” is perhaps themost artistic of these sketches, and the mostrepresentative of its author’s talent

,in its quick

interchange of poetic description , bright dialogue , light, malicious humor, and natural sentiment ; neither mood in excess, nor dwelt on lon genough to fatigue . It is a trifling episodethe caprice of a sum mer belle at Nahant . Its

hero is the same “gentle monster

” who reappears in many of the Inklings in E dithLinsey

,

” “Th e Gypsy of Sardis , an d “Niagara

,

”a Green Mountain Frankenstein and Qui

xote in one,absent-minded an d uncouth of

aspect, but with a soul filled with enthusiasmfor beauty and a delicate , chivalrous devotion towomen . He is half hero and half butt, and

introduced as a constant foil to Slingsby, thedandy exquisite and man of the world.

Edith Linsey ” was the most ambitious ofthe A merican sketches . It was a novel in outline , and h ad an original plot, the intellectual

L IFE A BROA D. 213

passion of a young student for a girl who isthought to be dyin g of con sumption ,

and whosedisea se has imparted an exalta tion to her feelings, and a n ervous, spiritual intensity to herthoughts . Th e anti-climax comes when she unexpectedly recovers her health, an d with it herworldly ambitions, an d coolly j ilts her quondamlover. There are passages in

“ Edith Lin sey ”

particularly in the scenes between the loversin the library— of un usual thoughtfulness, elo

quen ce, an d emotion al depth, but th e story isloosely put together, an d interrupted by digr essions

,an d in the latter part of it the author

seemed more con cerned to deliver himself ofcollege remin iscen ces and descriptions of scenerythan to carry on his n arrative with a firm hand.

“ Th e Gypsy of Sardis ” was the best of theE uropean sketches

,an d h ad a very moving,

though slightly melodramatic, conclusion . It

was a more highly finished study of E asternscenery an d life than Willis h ad h ad leisure to

give in his Pencillings .”A comparison of the

two shows from what slight hints h e worked upthe romance , a momentary glimpse of a gypsy

girl at a tent door, and of an A rab in the slavemarket at Stamboul

,a ride up the Valley of

Sweet Waters,an d a morn in g in the shop of

old Mustaph a h th e perfum er. Love an d Diplo

macy and Th e Revenge of'

the Signor Basil”

214 NA THA N IE L PA RKER WILL IS .

were less successful, because more remote fromtheir author’s experien ce . He h ad not the kin dof imagination necessary to transport him intoalien characters and situation s . His fan cy r e

quired some contact with its object before itwould take OR the electric spark.

W illis’s E nglish h ad many excellent qualities .It was crisp, clean cut, pointed, nimble on theturn . He was good at a quotation, deftlybrought in , unhackneyed, an d never too muchof it, a single phrase or sentence or half a lin eof verse maybe . There is a perpetual twinkleor ripple over his style

,like a quaver in m usic,

which sometimes fatigues . Is the man never

going to forget himself an d say a thin g plainly !the reader asks . But the verbal prettinesses an dafi ecta tion s which disfigured his later prose donot abound in his earlier an d better work. He

h ad at all times , however, a femin in e fondnessfor italics an d exclamations

, and his figures h ada dain tin ess which displeased severe critics .Thus : “ Th e gold of th e sunset h ad glided upthe dark pine-tops and disappeared, like a ringtaken slowly from an E thiop’s fin ger.

” “ A s

much salt as could be tied up in th e cup of alarge water-lily is an instan ce of his superfin eway of putting thin gs . He likened Daniel Webster

’

s forehead, amon g the heads at a Jen nyLin d concert, to a

‘

m a ssivemagnolia blossom , too

216 NA THA N IE L PA RKER WILL IS .

from a Scrap Book an d “ Fragments of Ram

bling Impression s,” portions of which h e after

wards republished in E phemera ” A l so a shortta le of n o value

,

“ Th e Dilemma, from whichhe rescued the verses To E rmengarde

” forhis collected poems He contributed to theLon don “ A then aeum for January an d February, 1835, a series of four articles on A m ericanliterature , which do n ot appear in his CompleteWorks .” That pioneer of literature in the West

,

the Rev. Timothy Flint , some time editor of theC incinnati Monthly Review, author of a n ovel

called “ Francis Berrian ,

”an d of a work on the

Mississippi Va lley,h ad agreed to supply th e

required papers , but he havin g left New Yorkfor Louisiana Territory, and fail ed to come totime

,Willis was invited to take his place . He

wrote the articles hastily, though he assertedthat he h ad “ read the productions of two hundred poets an d seventy-two prose writers whoseworks have been prin ted in A merica since thesettlement of New E nglan d.

” He made no approach to an exhaustive treatmen t of the subject,but gave a number of graphic personal sketchesof A merican authors , on e in particular, of Channing as a pulpit orator, which excited LadyByron’s interest

,as has been m en tion ed, and

another of Cooper, whom he indignan tly defended against the slan ders o f a portion of the

L IFE A BROA D. 217

A merican press. Th e literary judgments arenot a lways sound (Poe said that Willis h ad

good taste, but was not a good critic) , but theywere the current opin ions of the day rather thanof Willis individually . They were in the air.Thus he pronounces Bryant’s E vening Windthe best thing he h ad written , an d prefers Perciva l to Bryant, sayin g that he is the

.

mostinteresting man in A merica . He has n o t written anything equal to the E vening Wind ofBryant

,but his birthright lies a thousand leagues

higher up Parnassus . Timothy Flint afterwards supplemented these papers by a dozen ofhis own

,which amply made up in heaviness for

any want of ballast in W illi s ’s , and were fullof “

general views ,” whi ch, if not correct, were

harmless because unreadable . W illis ’s “ A th e

n aeum art icles first introduced the E nglish publie to The Culprit Fay,

” long passages of whichhe gave from a manuscript in his possession , thepoem having not as yet appeared in print. MissMitford, who took a warm interest in A mericanliterature, wrote him a note of thanks on thepublication of this series , praising it in the highest terms .It appears by a letter to Willis from Carl

A ugust, Freiherr von Killinger, dated Carlsruhe,A pril 13, 1836 , that some of the “ Inklings

”

h ad already attained to the honors of translation .

218 NA THA NIE L P A RKER WILLIS .

Th e Freiherr, it seems, was engaged in tr an slating Pencillings a lso, and wanted material fora biographical notice .

To th e auth or o f th e Slin gsby Paper s, h e wr ote,“ I t is, per h aps, flatter ing to h ea r th at h is Lun a tic,

’

hi s ‘ In ciden ts on th e Hudson ,’ ‘A dv en tur es on th e

Gr een Moun tain s,’ 1 hi s ‘Niagar a an d So For th ,

’

etc. ,

etc.,wh ich I h ad tr an slated in to a little per iodica l of

min e, or , rath er , a ch oice collection o f in ter estin g a r

ticles fr om E n glish per iodi cals an d ann ua ls, have beenread with much in terest, and repeatedly been r e

prin ted in Germany. I could wish to be favor edby you with som e biogr aphica l n otices Of your own

in token , as it wer e, of your con sen tmen t to my tran sla tory attempt.”

1 Not wr itten by Willis.


to that country, h ad promised the place to akinsman . Later, in a letter to Mrs . Willis atGlenmary

,written from Boston where he h ad

just met Sumner a n d Lon gfellow and was aboutto dine with th e latter

,he speaks of a letter

from a frien d who says that th e Presiden t h adtold him that no young man in Washin gtonh ad impressed him so favorably. It looks like

going abroad,” he adds, an d not for six or

nine months merely.

”This letter is dated sim

ply February,” but was written

,probably

,in

1842, durin g Tyler’s administration . To thesame year, doubtless, may be referred another,dated at New York, July 9th , in which he speaksof having made the roun ds of the m en -o f -war inthe harbor with John Tyler, the President

’s son ,

who seems very much my fri en d,”and of bein g

invited to dinner by Dakin , to meet Tyler, Hal

leck, an d Bryan t. “ A politician,” he says , tells

him that he will be appointed abroad soon .

These hopes were all doomed to disappoin tment,

an d to the en d of his career his pen was destinedto be his best reliance .Th e first few mon ths after his return to A mer

ica were spen t in vi siting his home and friends,and in presen tin g his young E n glish bride to h ern ew relatives . He stayed some time a t th e A storHouse, in New York, then newly opened underthe hosting of th e genial Stetson, and regarded

GLENM A RY. 221

as the greatest wonder on the continent in theway of metropolitan caravan saries . On September 20th he signed an agreement with the agentof George Virtue , the London publisher, to furnish the letterpress for a b ig illustrated work onA merican scenery, the drawings for which wereto be supplied by Bartlett, the E nglish artist, whowas then in A merica for the purpose . Th e workwas to come out in monthly numbers , each con

tainin g four plates an d eight pages of letterpress

, an d Willis was to receive fifteen guineasa number. Th e first in sta llment

, containin g descr iption s of twen ty drawings, was to be readyNovember l st. It was in pursuance of thisagreemen t that Willis went to Niagara in theautumn of 1836

,retracingground which he h ad

visited eight years before . A part of the winterof 1836—37 an d the early spring of 1837 hepassed in Washington, when ce he con tributedto the Mirror the four letters afterwardsincluded in “ Sketches of Travel .” He foundWashin gton society agreeable , and Mr s . Williswas greatly admired an d became an especialfavorite with Henry Clay . But the nationalcapital was then a raw, straggling town , built,said Willis , “ to please nobody on earth but ahackney coachman .

”It h ad not begun to grow

up to the ambitious plan on which it was pro

jected, an d there was a ludicrous contrast be!

222 NA THA N IE L P A RKE R WILLIS .

tween the wide, radiating avenues, with theirim posing public buildings scattered here and

there, an d the wastes between , dotted at inter

vals with n aked brick houses or mean negrocabins . Th e large shiftin g population , whichfled as soon as Congress rose, lodged uncomfortably in hotels and boarding-houses. In shortWashington was a di smal place to live in. Willis set hi s practiced observation at work to describe the picturesque and humorous social aspeets of this unfinished city. He never tookmore than the most casual in terest in politics ,but he lounged about the rotunda and lobbies ofthe Capitol, climbed up into the stiflin g galleriesof the old House an d Senate chambers, whencethe ladies’ toilets could be observed, though thevoices of speakers on the floor

,owing to the

acoustic defects in the building , reached the earas articulate as water from a narrow-neckedbottle .” He was present at Van Buren’s inau

gur ation , went to a levee at the WhiteHouse, andto a dinner with Power the comedian ,

at whichseveral In dian chiefs were present who behavedin an extraordinary manner. In the sum mer of1837 he traveled about with Bartlett, who wasmaking his sketches for

“ A merican Scenery.

”

In the course of these peregrin ation s he found alovely spot on the banks of Owego Creek nearits junction with the Susquehanna, which so


ror as Letters from under a Bridge , thefirst one appearin g July 7 , 1838 . This is Willis’s happiest book

,an d reflects the happiest par t

of his life . There wa s a side of him whichturned gladly to rural repose an d simple household pleasures . He imagined it to be the kindof life best suited to his disposition as well as tohis better nature,

”an d it h ad at the time the

zest of novelty. For the last five years he h adbeen a vagabon d

“ in the gayest circles of the

gayest cities in the world.

”

There is a cur ious fact, h e writes, “ I havelearn ed f or th e fir st time in th is wild coun try ; th at,a s th e for est is clea r ed, n ew spr in gs r ise to th e sur

f ace o f th e gr oun d, as if at th e touch of th e sun

sh in e. You h ave yourself been in your day, deardoctor ,

‘a warped slip o f wilder n ess,

’

and wi ll see

a t on ce th at th er e lies in th is or din an ce o f n ature a

beautif ul an a logy to certain mor al ch anges th at comein upon th e h eels o f more cultivated and th oughtf ulm anhood. Th er e is n o divin in g-r od wh ose dip sh all !

tell us at twen ty what we sh a ll most r elish at th irty.

You can sca r ce under sta nd with what plea sureI find th is n ew spr in g in m y path , th e con ten t withwh ich I admit th e conviction th a t, with out ef f or t or

self-den ia l, th e mindwill slake its th ir st and th e h ea r tbe satisfied with but th e wa ste o f wh at lies so n ea r

us.

”

Th e dear doctor to whom these letters were

GLENMA R Y. 225

addressed was Dr. T. O . Porter, with whom theirauthor afterwards formed a li terary partnership .

Th e little bridge un der which they were written,with its stone seat, its “ floor of runnin g water,

”

its nest of swa llows, and.

its diminutive freshwater lobster whi ch reminded Willis of Talleyr an d deserves remembering with Pope

’sfamous grotto at Twicken ham . Like Cowley,Willis acknowledged himself fond of littlethings . He disliked the ocean an d great rivers ,—though he finally came to live on the banksof one . He loved small streams an d narrowvalleys . Th e lawny, homelike scenery of theOwego was just suited to h is taste . A bove allthings in nature , he delighted in running water,whi ch h ad an af f inity with hi s own lively and

sparklin g temper. A l’A b r i was , and r em am s,

a thoroughly enjoyable book, chatty, pleasantlydigressive, an d filled with sunshine an d the airof out-doors . It must be confessed that Williswas something of a cockney in the presence of

great Nature . He viewed her more as a landscape gardener than as a naturalist. He h ad notthe intense passion for her, the rapt communionwith her

,of elect spirits like Wordsworth and

Thoreau . She furnished him rather with a hundred pretty an d playful analogies , a hundredtexts for little sermons on cheerfulness and con

tent, in which he rode his fancy sometimes too15

226 NA THA NIEL P A RKE R WILLIS .

far an d let his sentiment answer too quickly totrifling provocations . He must have been but anamateurish farmer, too, ordering hi s breakfastserved under a balsam fir, and selling his crops“ for the oddity of the sensation .

” Naturally, except in literary harvests, his farm did not pay,though he was always exclaiming wi th gratefulsurprise at th e bounty of nature in yielding himactual buckwheat, in addition to the health ,amusement , an d moral lessons derived in theprocess of cul tivating that interesting grain . Onesuspects that he grew more flowers of speechthan any grosser product from hi s two hundredacres. I f the crows ate his corn in the blade, hemerely philosophized, Think what times we livein

,when even th e crows are obliged to anticipate

their income ! I f the r ed heifer chewed up alace cape bleaching on the lawn , he humorouslyexcused the heifer on account of the drought.If the boys reported that the deer were browsingin troops on his buckwheat, by the light of themoon, he answered, Let them !

” One is r eminded by thi s last discouragement to agricul tur ethat Owego was still in the backwoods. Someof the most interesting passages in the lettersdescribe the wi ld life of the lumbermen, whoserafts glided past the Glenmary meadows

“ like asinging and swearing phan tom of an unfinishedbarn,

”and whose fires by night lit up the bends

228 N A THA N IE L P A RKE R WILLIS .

champagne , an d French bonnets . R.« H. Stod

dard, the poet, who visited Glenmary in the fallof 1841, with Mr. Mackay, a congressman fromNew York, has given a pleasan t remin iscen ce ofhis pilgrim age, from which I quote the followinginterior :

Th e cottage, h e says, “ h ad with in it and aboutit th e eviden ces o f a sub tle, n ice, clea r r efin emen t ; of

a though t tha t, even out o f th e solitude o f a rur a l lif e,could fr am e th e plea san t th ings th at make th e f ouran d twen ty hour s tur n to sof t an d kin dly ways.

Mr . W ill is open ed th e door , received us cordially ;and we foun d

,in hi s conversation and in such ob ser

vation o f a ll ar ound us a s a guest m igh t in pr opr ietym ake

,th e h our s of th e even in g a s br illian t in—door s

a s with out. Th at thoroughly well-br ed lady, so un

pr etending and gen tle, wa s at th e table ; at h er feet,a lar ge gr eyhoun d. On th e side table stood a la r getulip-sh aped vase o f stain ed glass, wh ose bur den wa s,of cour se, br ight flowers. Th er e wa s everywh erecopious eviden ce that it was a h om e f or liter ature.

Th e books were abundan t and wer e gayly set.A nd th er e w a s a min ia tur e o f lovely Mr s . Willis . It

wa s pain ted by Saunder s , wh o h ad been a pet o f th e

K in g of Han over . His exquisite work deserved th e

smile of roya lty and, wh a t is better, of beauty.

A m idst such scen es an d th e conver sation wh ich cam e

of such a ssociation s, our n igh t wen t on . We lef t th elawn of Glenmary w ith th e mem or ies of a n ight of

roman ce. M r . Willis belonged to a past school

GLENM A R r . 229

of m en . He h ad th e ways and ta stes o f a m oreisola ted a nd r estr icted society th an belongs to our

day, wh en f or tun es a r e fusing m en and m an n ersin to on e gr eat glittering ba ll th at rolls th r ough th e

yea r , bef or e us and over us but M r .Willis whetherin h is ea r ly days, wh en th e pr in ce r egen t ruled, or

in our day, wh en we a ll rule, m on a r ch s o f eph em er a

wa s an auth or wh ose wr itings h ave added to wh a tDoctor Joh n son calls ‘th e gayety o f mankind.

’ He

believed th em better and h igher and mor e ph ilosophica l th an thi s ; and I believe th ere wa s truth and

righ t in h is th ough t.

Th e “ Letters from Under a Bridge are soheartsome in feeling an d so much mellower andmore leisurely in style than W illis ’s later work,that one naturally speculates, in reading them ,

as to what might have been the e f f ect upon hisliterary product h ad fortune granted his wish,to be allowed to en d his days at Glenmary.

Would study and the quiet of nature have ripened it to something deeper and richer thananythin g that he has left ! Or would he have

grown rusty with absence from the stir of citiesand the gay society that h ad hitherto seemedhis congenial element ! It IS impossible to an

swer this question with confidence . Un doubtedlyhis later work would have been other an d betterthan it was if he h ad h ad the time to selectand condense . He would have written more

230 NA THA NIEL P A RKE R WILLI S .

and scribbled less. But whether he would everhave excelled the best parts of his earlier writings is doubtful . His talent was of the kindwhich discipline does not always improve . It

was the expression of his tem perament,fresh

,

facile, spontaneous, but impatient of continuance . He was best at a dash— a sketch

,or a

short tale . His gift was of the sort that showsmore gracefully in youth than age. I dem m a

n eba t n eque idem deceba t. It is not improbable that, even under th e most favoring conditions , he would have kept on writing Jottings,Lo iterings, Hur rygr aph s, etc. , lacking , as heevidently did, the power of construction r e

quired for a large an d serious work. But thisspecul ation is perhaps an idle one . Whetheror not it lay in his nature to sing or to saytha t something of which Ben Jon son tells

,

that must an d shall be sung high and al oof,

”

fate denied him the proof. His necessitiesdrove him back to the city and the editor’schair, to write hastily an d incessantly for ali velih ood. Possibly the fin er work might haveshaped itself in Silence

,but n ot in these

noises.” Meanwhile his present content foundutterance in hi s Reverie at Glenmary,

”— a

single breath of gratitude to God, the mostsin cerely devout of all his religious poems , an d

pa thetic wh en one reflects how soon the shel

232 N A THA NIE L P A RKE R WILLIS .

first representation , Willis felt suf ficiently en

cour aged to persevere in his dramatic exper i

ments . In a pri vate letter from New York,

December 15, 1838, he said that Colman h adjust gi ven him $300 for an edition of “ Bianca ,

” which he considered a good price , as E pesSargent h ad sold hi s Vela sco for $60. Wallack, he contin ues, who man aged the National,the rival theatre to the Park, was full of ad

m ir ation of it,an d was comin g to see th e whole

play rehearsed. Willis was going to chargehim for th e use of it

, and a ben efitwhich

,he calculated, would be equal to from

$500 to $700 more . O n the 1st of September

,1837 , just after the first represen tation of

Bianca ” at the Park, Will is en tered into anagreement w ith its manager, Turn er Merritt, bywhich the latter agreed to pay him oneyear from date , provided he should write acomedy for Miss Clifton, pronounced successfulby her after three months’ acting . In pursuan ce of this agreement, he h ad ready in twomonths “Th e Betrothal,

” a comedy, which wasann oun ced in the Mirror of November 25thas to be acted at the Park on the Mon day following . Th e notice added that the play wouldprobably take with the public, as it h ad pleasedthe actors , a good criterion . Th e Betrothal ,

” however,was unequivocally dam ned, much

GLENMA RY. 233

to W illis’s m or tification ,though not to his per

man ent discouragement . Th e text of this playwas never published

,nor was that of another

com edy,

“ Imei,the Jew, wi th which he was

busy in Jan uary, 1839, and of which he seems

to have fin ished only a few scenes . Rumorswere in circulation that Willis h ad sued MissC lifton for failing to complete the engagementin the matter of “ Th e Betrothal,

” but thesewere of ficially contradicted in the Mirror.”

He h ad better luck with another comedy, suc

cessively en titled Dyin g for Him ,

”Th e

Usurer Matched, an d Tor tesa the Usurer,”

based on the Florentine story of Genevrad’

A m or i an d written with more care thanhis two previous attempts. He prepared theway for its representation by printing four installm en ts of it in the Mirror and about ayear after the first of these appeared it wasput on at th e National

,A pril 8, 1839, wi th

Wallack cast for Tor tesa , the principal character. It ran four times the fir st week

, and

kept the stage to the 20th , being received,said the “ Mirror,

” “ with acclamations by oneof the most crowded an d fashionable audiencesever assembled within the walls of a theatreIn spite of this glowing language ,

“ Tor tesa

seems to have h ad a succes d’

es tim e merely.

Wallack h ad agreed to pay the author one half


the proceeds of the fourth , ninth , thirteenth , andeighteen th nights, after deducting $300 eachnight for expen ses . I f it was produced in E n g

land,Willis was to have one third of the pro

ceeds of the fourth , eighth, and twelfth perf orm an ces there . Wallack did bring it outat the Surrey Theatre in London

,in A ugust of

this same year. Willis was in E n gland at thetime and wrote to Dr. Porter that it h ad h ada splendid run crammed houses every night .It shared the honors of the fir st night withWillis’s old adversary, Captain Marryat, whosePhantom Ship was the afterpiece . A ll thisbrought the author nothing but empty glory, asWallack was distressed for money and couldnot af ford to pay him his one third share of theprofits . So I gave it up,

” wrote Wil lis, an d

he pocketed the whole . By the way, he adds,I have two more nights at the National which

I authorize you to look after and receive for me .Th e thirteenth and eighteenth representa tionsremain for me . Will you see if you can get

Kean or V an den h ofi in for A ngelo on thosen ights ! I have seen a great deal of Keansince I have been here , an d he is truly a goodfellow and a great actor. He breakfasted withus a day or two ago an d Mary wa s very muchinterested that he shoul d do well in A merica.

I have given V anden h ofi Bianca ’ for himself


picture, like Hermione in Winter’s Tale,

though with a difi er en t purpose .W ill is’s of ficial connection with the “NewYork Mirror h ad stopped with the terminationof his Pencillin gs,

”a nd after January 16

, 1836 ,his name ceased to appear at the head of theeditorial column . His contributions

,however

,

as we have seen , went on , an d in cluded not on lyLetters from Under a Bridge ,

” but poems andmiscellan eous correspondence

,besides a half

dozen of stories,afterwards collected in Ro

mance of Travel .” Th e verse contributionswere added to the A merican edition of “Melanie ,

”1837 , which con tained a number of thin gs

written since the appearance of the E nglishedition two years previous . Notable amongthese were Lin es on Leaving E urope ,

”To a

Face Beloved,

” both of which have been mention ed, To E rmengarde,

”an d a song-like

little piece entitled Sprin g,” the opening lines

of which are especially W illi sy

Th e Spr ing is h er e, the delica te f ooted May,

W i th its sligh t finger s f ull of leaves an d flower sA nd w ith it com es a th ir st to be away,

Wa sting in wood-

pa th s i ts voluptuous h our s .

There are evidences in W illis’s private correspon den ce, about this time , of some coolness between himself an dGeneral Morris,which appearsto have originated, or perhaps to have found

GLENMA RY. 237

expression in a series of three letters signedVeritas

,

” written from London and printed inthe Mirror

,

” in the fall of 1838. These letters,

after taking the Mirror to task for misleadin g the A merican public by the false pictures ofLondon society given in the Pencilling s ,

” proceeded to set its readers right, in a series of thecoarsest an d most slanderous little biographiesof E nglish men and women of letters, retailingwith unction all the gossip of the clubs aboutLady Blessingt on , Coun t d

’

O r say, the Bulwers,Disraeli, Mrs . Norton, Miss Lan don , Fra ser, a ndman y others . Some of these h ad been W ill is’sfriends ; others he h ad never met but he wrotean indignant rejoinder to the

“ Mirror of Novem ber l0th , denying, out an d out, many of thelies in “ V er ita s

’

s communication, an d explain

in g away some of th e misrepresentations an d exagger ation s . This letter Morris prefaced with aneditorial note in which he said that he h ad beenmuch censured on account of the Pencillings ,

”

and, therefore , the object of these letters was todisabuse the public mind in this country of whatseemed to the author a wrong an d in jurious impression with regard to the position in E nglishsociety of certain distinguished but unworthycharacters , whose example an d many of whosewritings are of a pernicious tendency . Withone or two exceptions, we believe that our corre

238 NA THA N IEL P A RKE R WILL IS .

sponden t has merely stated well attested facts .O n e of these exceptions was the slander uponMiss Landon

,for printing which Morris apol

ogized. This partial in dorsement of Veritasby the editor n aturally displeased Willis ; andnaturally

,too

, he was pleased by an answer toit by Dr. Porter, in the Spirit of the Times,

”

which was then edited by his brother,William

T. Porter, “ the tall son of York,

”an d with

which Dr. Porter himself was editorially con

n ected. Th e Skylight letter,”Willis writes to

the latter,was capitally done, and the ‘Mir

ror was touched on a ll its sore places to acharm . My brother was in New York just afterand called at the o f fice , an d the fury the General was in will amuse him for the next sixmonths . Morris called you a gallipot, said itwas a poor article , an d will hurt your paper, andall that ; but sits down an d writes m e a mostaf f ectionate letter of four foolscap pages , denying all possible thought of me in th e Londonmatter

, an d swearin g he was my defender and

best friend.

”E lsewhere in his correspondence

with Dr. Porter, Willis expresses some doubtsas to the sincerity of Morris’s friendship, an d

seems to suspect that it was more than half policy an d a desire to exploit him . It does not appear that this little misunderstanding ever cameto a breach . Th e “ Mirror continued most

240 N A THA NIE L PA RKE R WILLIS .

and take reprisals wherever they could find

them . In a letter to his intending partner, datedat Owego, Christmas eve , 1838, he proposed tocall their ven ture the “ Pirate , an d sent thefollowing draft of a prospectus

THE PIRA TE ,

A GA Z E TTE OF L ITE RA TURE , FA SHION , A ND NOV E LTY .

T. O . Porter and N . P. Willi s propose to issueweekly, in th e city of New York, a paper o f th e abovedesign ation a nd cha r acter . I t is th eir design , a s cditor s , to pr esen t a s am using a paper a s can be madefr om th e cur ren t wit, humor, and litera tur e o f th e

world ; to give dr amatic cr iticisms with out fear or f a

v or ; to h old up th e age in its f ashion s, its eccen tr icities, and its amusem en ts ; to take advan tage, in sh or t,

O f th e privilege a ssur ed to us by our pir a tical law o f

copyr igh t ; and in th e n am e o f A mer ican auth ors

(f or our own ben efit) “ convey to our column s, f orth e amusemen t o f our reader s, th e cr eam a nd spirito f everythin g th at ven tur es to light in Fr an ce, E ngland, and Germ any. A s to origin al A mer ican pr o

duction s, we shall, as th e publish ers do, take what we

can get f or n oth ing (th at is good), holding, a s th e

publisher s do, th at wh ile we can get Boz an d Bul

wer f or a th ank-ye or less, it is n ot pocket-wise to

pay much f or Ha lleck and Irvin g.

If anybody says th e n am e is undign ified, wr itesWillis, “ tell th em th er e a r e very f ew dign ified peoplein th ewor ld, and still f ewer lover s of dign ity, and by

THE C ORSA IR . 241

th e Lord, we must live by th e m a ny. Th en again wewan t a r oot, a r eason , a r a il, a r un n er to sta r t upon ,

an d th is bloody copyr igh t will an swer th e purpose.

People will say, Why, damme, Willis can’

t get pa idf or h is books because th e law won ’

t pr otect h im , so

h e h as h auled h is wind, and join ed th e people th atr obbed h im .

’

W illis felt very bitterly the absence of an international copyright. By the a ct of 1838, theE nglish Parliament, actin g in self-defense , h adrefused to protect any lon ger the literary proper ty of A merican authors, until A merica shouldhave the decency to reciprocate . This cut doubleupon the A merican author. It deprived him ofany gain from the circulation of his writings inE ngland, an d it discouraged native literatureby flooding this country with cheap reprints ofE nglish books , for the copy of which the A merican publisher paid nothing. Th e former losswould not have been serious to many A mericanwriters at that date , possibly not to so veryman y even now. But E ngland h adbeenWillis

’

s

best market,literary work in A merica was

wretchedly paid, and he saw starvation staringhim in the face .Th e Pirate was finally toned down intothe Corsair,

”an d a prospectus which was a

modification of the one drafted by Will is in theabove letter was printed and circulated in Jan

16

242 N A THA NI EL P A RKER WILL IS .

uary,1839 . He sent on e to Henry Clay

, and

begged him to mention the Corsair ” in hisargument on the copyright, as a good commenton the state of the law. Mr. Clay replied in avery polite letter, giving his views upon the copyright question, and inclosing his subscription .

Th e of fice of the Corsair was in the A storHouse, No . 8 Barclay Street. Th e first numberwas published March 15, 1839 , an d the last

(No . 52) March 7 , 1840. A t the head of thesheet was a rakish looking craft under full sail,an d Willis led o f f with a truculent editorial,Th e Quarter Deck proclaimin g the policy ofthe new paper. To the earlier numbers he contributed art notes and miscellaneous chat, Th e

Pencil,” “ Th e Gallery,

”Th e Divan ,

”etc. ;

two papers on autographs a Letter from Un

der a Bridge ,” a generic name that he gave to

much correspondence about this time , not comprised in the original Letters some r em in iscences of Miss Landon as Th e Departed Im

pr ov isatr ice,”and a very harsh review,Pauld

in g the A uthor Disinterred. This last wasunlike Willis

,who was almost always kind in

his notices of brother authors , an d it provokedmuch unfavorable comment, particularly a r e

joinder in th e Courier and E nquirer,” by C01

on el James Watson Webb , a gentleman who a f

ter wa r ds fell foul of Willis in various ways. In


their stay in England, which was protracted toA pril

,1840, a sad one in many respects , and of

course a quiet one . They passed most of thetime with relatives of Mrs . Willis at O ld Charlton

,Kent

,after a short visit to her sister A nne,

who was married to the Rev. IV illiam Vincent,son of the vicar of Bolney Priory

,in Sussex.

Will is h ad his hands full of literary businesswhi ch required his presen ce frequently in London , Irelan d, an d elsewhere. A mong otherthings, he h ad contracted with Virtue to furnishthe letterpress for an illustrated work on Can

ada , an d another on Irelan d, uniform with theA merican Scenery. He was to write 240pages for each, an d to be paid in all £950. Bysome five or six weeks of hard work he fin ishedthe Canadian book in A ugust, an d then startedfor a tour in Ireland preparatory to writin g upits scenery. He left Mr s . Willis at Dublin ,while he recrossed to Scotland, an d took in thefamous tournament at E glin toun Castle, whichfilled the land for months with its noise of preparation

,and ended in fizzle an d rain-water. Of

this he gave a capital description in his letter tothe Corsair,

” My A dventures at the Tournament. Mrs . Willis remain ed with some kinsfolk of her mother

,at Bor rm oun t Lodge, near

Enniscorthy, County Wexford, while her husband

spent a fortnight in doing the Lakes of Killar

THE CORSA IR . 245

ney and other show places in the south of theisland. He wrote to her there from Tarbert-onthe-Shannon , September 13th

Th e pover ty on thi s side Ir eland makes m e sicka t th e stom a ch . Such a God-and-m a n -abandon ed col

lection o f disease an d m isery I n ever beli eved possible. Death a nd disease seem clutch ing th eir victim s

away in your very sigh t, and you see th em struggleand go th r ough th eir la st agony in th e str eets un

pitied. How people can ride in car r iages and wearwh ite gloves and sm ile and look h appy, in th is gr eatlazar-h ouse, is beyon d m y con ception . I keep my

gr eat cloak pocket f ull o f pen ce, an d shut m y eyeswhile I give th em in to th eir skin ny h an ds, — poordevils !

Madden sings the wr ath’

of Campbell over thisliterary un dertaking of W illis : What couldhe know of Ireland How could any A m ericanknow anything about it ! Fourteen days A ll

the knowledge he possesses of Ireland mighthave been acquired in fourteen hours .” Willismight have retorted by asking what a Scotchmancould know about the Valley of Wyoming . Orhe might have pointed out that, even as early as1839, A mericans h ad fuller sources of information about Irelan d than they found altogethercomfortable . A fter three weeks more of touring in that ragged commonwealth, he returnedwith his wife to E ngland.

246 NA THA NIE L PA RKER WILLIS .

Bolney was but twelve miles from Brighton ,where the Wallacks were stayin g , an d whilevisiting at th e former place Willis h ad run acrosscountry an d taken din n er with them . In Nov em ber he spent a few days at Brighton , wherehe lodged at the Ship Hotel, found several oldacquaintances , —Lady Stepney and Lady Geor

giana Fan e amon g them ,an d made some new

on es . A t a din ner at Lady Macdonald’s he metCharles Kemble , th e actor, an dHorace Smith, ofthe Rejected A ddresses,

” whose brother Jameshe had kn own at Lady Blessington

’s four yearsago . One of W illi s’s cherished plans h ad beento spend the winter in Spain , a country rich inmatter for future pencillings , but this schemehe h ad to forego, Irelan d provin g a longer jobthan he h ad an ticipated. Th e last day of 1839found him still at Charlton , working four hoursa day on the book, an d in January and Feb ruary he h ad to make another trip to Ireland,visitin g the Gian t

’s Causeway an d other celeb r ated bits of scenery in th e north . LadyGeor

giana Fane h ad procured him a letter from herfather

,the old E arl of Westmoreland, to Lord

E brin gton , the lord lieutenant of Irelan d, inwhich Willi s was described as a gen tleman offortun e

,likely to attain to the presidency ” !

He dined with Lord E brington at Dublin, and,happening to be there at the time of the ball


Heriot, Hodgson, Murray, Talbot, Cockburn ,

a nd other travelers and historians of coursewith ample acknowledgments . It was not sopurely descriptive as the A merican book

,but

contained chapters on the native Indians,the

history of the settlement of the country,the

present condition of the inhabitan ts, sporting ,

im migration, etc. In fact, there is very littleO f Willi s in the book. In “ Th e Scen ery and

A ntiquities of Ireland he h ad the assistanceof Mr. J. Sterlin g Coyne , who prepared thewhole of the second volume an d a part of thefirst

,W illis

’

s share consisting only of descr iptions of the North of Ireland, a portion of Connemara, the Shannon, Limerick, and Waterford.

Before leaving A merica he h ad arranged withColman for the publication of Th e TentPitched ” (

“ A l ’A b r i “ Tales of Five Lands”

Romance of Travel and The UsurerMatched.

” He was to have twenty per cent.on sales

, an d received on account in ad

vance . Meanwhile the Lon gm an s offered him£200for Romance of Travel,

” if published inadvance of the A merican edition . Willis wroteto Dr. Porter

,July 26 , 1839, to delay the Col

man publication . I f it is printed in A m ericabefore I get the sheets here , I lose exactly

I trust in Heaven you have not forgot

THE CORSA IR. 249

ten my earnest injunctions on thi s subject. A

London publisher will buy it if a published

copy has not come over, else he may have it fornothing .

”The book was accordingly published

fir st in London, in January, 1840, in three vol

umes , with the title Loiterings of Travel,”an d,

later in the same year, in A merica, as Romanceof Travel,

” in a single volume, very shabbilyprinted. Virtue also paid him £50for an E n glish edition of A l’A br i,

” with il lustrations byBartlett . A fourth London edi tion

'

of Pencillings,

” with four illustrations , was coming out,an d, finally

, Cunningham, Macr on e’

s successor,printed an E nglish edition of Bianca Viscontiand “ Tor tesa

” as “ Two Ways of Dying for aHusband.

”This was published on half profits ,

andWillis expected to make about £50from it.Serjeant Tal f our d, the author of Ion ,

” wroteh im a complimentary letter on its appearance.My literary receipts in E ngland this year,

”

wrote Willis to Dr. Porter,on the last day of

1839,

“will amount to all gone for expenses, back debts , etc.

Romance of Travel was a collection ofseven stories contributed to the Mirror

,

” theNewMonthly,

”an d the Corsair. They were

crowded with duels , intrigues, disguises, escapades, assassinations, masked balls, lost heirs ,and all the stock properties of the romancer’s

250 NA THA NIE L P A RKE R WILL IS .

art. Th e view of life which they presentedwas un real to th e verge of th e fan tastic

,but

they abounded in descriptions of great elegancean d even beauty, an d the narrative went trip

pin gly al ong . Willi s h ad many of the gi fts ofthe born r a con teur . He lacked a large con

structiven ess , but in the minor graces of thestory-teller he was always happy. He was skillful in managing the ca llida j un ctur a , good a t

a start, a transition, or a fin ish. One must notlook in these artificial fictions for truthful delineation of character, or expect to have hisemotions deeply stirred. Th e tragic incidents,specially, fail in the time-hon ored A ristotelianrequirement . They are exciting enough , in away, but move neither pity nor terror. Th e highspirits of the narrator carry his readers buoyan tly along over the bloodiest passages withscarcely an abatement of their cheerfulness .W illis did not take room enough to developcharacter an d motive to the extent required inorder to g ive his thick-coming events an air ofDr a i sem bla n ce.

“ This tale of many tails ,” he

said of Violanta Cesa r in i ,” should have been

a novel . You have in brief what should havebeen well elaborated, embarrassed with dflr

’

ficul

ties,relieved by digressions, tipped with a moral,

an d bound in two volumes , with a portrait ofthe author.” From this defect and from the


the story takes place. “ Lady Ravelgold is atale of E n glish high life . Th e hero is a youngLon don banker, who proves in the end to be acount of the Russian Empire , an d the in heritorof vast possessions in that con venien tly in definite country. Three high-born beauties are des

per ately en amored of him, among them a motheran d daugh ter, the latter of whom ul timately getshim . A s in “ E rnest Clay,

”and, in fact, in

nearly all W illis’s stories of high life , it is thewomen who make love to the men . Th e sceneof the garden party at

“ Rose Eden was sug

gested by a f é te-ch ampetr e at Gore House, andthe delicious picture of Lady Ravelgold

’

s boudoirwas doubtless borrowed from the same mansion .

Th e high-piled luxuriance of the upholstery inthese “ Romances of Travel, their n on ch a la n t

young heroes, their jeweled an d embroideredheroines

,with A laddin-like resources in the way

of palaces , gardens, retainers, and stalactite caverns

,point to “ Vivian Grey ” a nd the other

expensive fictions of the youthful Disraeli asWillis ’s nearest models. Upon the whole, thebest story in the book is Pasquali, the Tailorof Venice,

” which was more within the naturalcompass of W illis’s talen t. It has a maliciousirony that reminds one of Beppo and the Decameron , an d it is not without an undercurrentof pathos .

THE CORSA IR . 253

In spite of his other literary preoccupation she found time to write a series of weekly orfortn ightly letters to the Corsair,

” “ Jottin gsdown in London ,

” a portion of which stand inhi s collected writings as

“ Passages from anEpistolary Journ al.” They are naturally not asfresh as the earlier Pencillin gs,

” though very

good foreign correspondence of an ephemeralsort . In search of matter for these letters,Will is wen t about a good deal in London . He

visited the theatres and the House of Comm ons,looked up his old acquaintances of 1835, waspresent at a reception to the Persian ambassadors at Lady Morgan

’s,— where he saw Mrs .Norton again, dined with theNawaub of Oude

,

went to a public dinner given to Macready atthe Freemason s’ Tavern,— where he sat nextSamuel Lover, — to a ball at A l m ack

’

s, and

a tournament in St . John’s Wood. Disraeliwalked home with him from a ball and saidhe was going to Niagara on his wedding trip .

Willis noted some changes in E n gland sincehis first visit. A mong other things William IV .

was dead an d Victoria on the thr one, and the

London shops h ad increased greatly in splendor.One of the most in teresting results of thissecond stay in E ngland was his meetin g withThackeray then a young and comparativelyunknown writer and hi s engaging him as a


contributor to the Corsair,” a stroke of jour

n a listic enterprise which ought to have prolonged the life of that piratical journal, butdid not. In a private letter to Dr. Porter,dated July 26th , Willis wrote

“ I have en gaged a con tr ibutor to the ‘Cor sa ir .

’

Wh o do you th ink ! Th e author o f Yellowplush’

and Ma jor Gah agan .

’ I h ave m en tion ed it in m y

jottin gs , that our r eaders m ay kn ow a ll about it. He

h as gon e to Pa r is , and will write letter s fr om ther e,and a f terwa r ds f r om London , f or a guin ea a close

colum n of th e Cor sair cheaper tha n I everdid anything in m y life. I will see th a t h e is paidf or a wh ile to see h ow you like him . For myself , Ithink h im th e very best periodica l writer alive. He

is a roya l , da r in g , fin e cr eatur e, too . I take th e r e

spon sibility of it . You will h ear f r om h im soon .

”

Th e mention in the jottin gs here referred toappeared in the “Corsair of A ugust 24th .

On e o f my fir st in quir ies in Lon don wa s touchin g th e author sh ip o f ‘ Th e Yellowplush Papersan d th e ‘ Rem in iscen ces o f Ma jor Gah agan ,

’

th e

only things in periodical literatur e, except th e ‘Pickwick Paper s,

’

f or wh ich I looked with any in

ter est or eager n ess. Th e auth or , Mr . Th acker ay,br eakf asted with m e yester day, and th e ‘ Cor sa ir

will b e deligh ted, I am sur e, to h ea r th at I h ave en

gaged thi s clever est and most gifted of th e magazin ewriters of London to become a r egula r cor r esp ond

256 NA THA N IE L PA RKER WILLIS .

of them,with a few changes, in Th e Student s

Quar ter ; or Paris Five an d Thirty Years sin ce ,”

publ ished by Hotten after Thackeray’s death.

Thackeray humorously alludes to this episodein his early literary struggles in his novel ofPhilip

,

” the hero of which contributes a weekly letter, signed Ph ila leth es

,

” to a fashionableNew York journal entitled Th e Gazette of theUpper Ten Thousand. Political treatises

,

”

writes the excellent Dr. Firmin to h is son , “ arenot so much wanted as personal news

,regardin g

the notabilities of London .

”This description

of the Mir r oi' pointed, of course,at W illis’s

authorship of the phr ase, Th e Upper TenThousand.

”

It may be n ot unin teresting to compareThackeray’s opinion of Willis with W illis’simpressions of Thackeray. Th e author of theBook of Snobs paid his respects twice , a t

least, in print to the author of Pencillings byth e Way : ” once in a review of “ Dashes atLife in the Edinburgh for October, 1845,and again in an article On an A mericanTraveler,

” bein g the sixth number of“ Th e

Proser,”

contributed to the nineteenth volumeof Punch an d occasioned byW illis ’sPeople I have Met .” In both of these paper she quizzes Willis

,though not unkindly. He

laughs especially at his fashion in “ Ernest

THE CORS A IR . 257

Clay, of representing the aristocratic Englishdames as all throwing themselves at the head ofthe conquering young genius who writes for themagazines .

Th e gr eat character istic o f high society in E ng

land, Mr . Willis assures us, is admi r ation of li ter a ryta len t . A s som e capta in o f fr ee lan cer s o f f ormerdays elbowed h is way thr ough royal pa laces with th eeyes of a ll wom ankin d after him , so in th e pr esen t

time, a m an by bein g a famous Fr ee P encil m ay

a ch ieve a sim ila r distin ction . Thi s tr uly surprisingtr uth form s th e text o f alm ost every on e of Mr . Wil

lis’s ‘Da sh es at E nglish an d Con tin en ta l life.

”

“ Tha t famous and clever N . P. Willis o f formerdays, wh ose rem in iscen ces h ave delighted so many o f

us, and in wh ose company on e is always sur e to findam usem en t of on e sor t or th e oth er. Sometimes itis amusem en t at th e writer ’s wit and sma r tn ess, h isbrillian t descr iption s and wondr ous flow and r attle of

spir its, and som etimes it is wicked amusemen t, and,it must b e con f essed, at Will is

’

s own expen se.

To kn ow a duch ess, f or in stan ce, is given to veryf ew o f us . He sees things th at a r e n ot given to us

to see. We see th e duch ess pa ss by in h er ca r r iage

and gaze with much r ever en ce on th e str awber ryleaves on th e pan els and h er Gr ace within ; wh er ea sth e odds a r e th a t th e lovely duch ess h as h ad, a t on etime or th e oth er , a desperate flirtation with Will isth e con quer or . He must h ave wh ole m attr esses

stuf f ed wi th th e blonde or raven or aubur n memor ies17

258 NA THA N IEL P A RKER WILL IS .

of E n gland’

s f a ir est daugh ter s . Wh en th e f emaleE nglish a r istocr acy reads th is title o f People Ihave Met,

’ I can fan cy th e whole f emale peer age of

Willis ’s tim e in a shudder and th e melan ch oly m ar

ch ion ess, and th e abandon ed coun tess, a nd th e h eart

str icken ba r on ess tr em blin g, a s each gets th e volum e,

an d a skin g o f h er guilty con scien ce, Gr acious goodn ess Is th e m on ster goin g to sh ow up m e

E specially does he chaf f Willis about his storyof Brown’s Day with the Mim pson s,

” thehero of which adventure

,an A merican who is

hand in glove with noble dukes, etc.,is asked

home to dinner by Mim pson , a plain , bluntBritish m erchant

,whose wife snubs Mr. Brown

,

m istaking him for a plebeian person . Th e latter avenges himself by a somewhat cavalier deportment

,an d by obtain ing , through his dear

friend Lady X .,a ticket to A lm ack

’

s for Mrs.M .

’

s companion, the pretty Miss Bell amy ; whilethe matron herself an d her haughty daughter,who are dying for a ticket, are left out in thecold. Thackeray remonstrates as follows withMr . Brown , under whose modest mask he fanciesthat he sees the features of an N. P. W. him

self

Th ere ’

s a r a sca l f or you He en ter s a house, isr eceived coolly by th e m istr ess, wa lks in to ch ickenfixin gs in a side room , and, n ot con ten t with Mim pson

’

s Sh erry, calls f or a bottle of champagn e n ot

260 NA THA N IE L P A RKER WILLI S .

forming him of the Corsair’s suspension,ex

pressing a warm admiration for his talents, an d

inviting him to write th e“ Brother Jonathan a

weekly letter, a column in len gth, for which hepromised to pay him at the highest current rates .To this paper Willis contributed about a yearan d a half, or up to September, 1841. His hum or ous poem,

“ Lady Jane,

” was published ininstallmen ts in the “ Dollar

,the monthly edi

tion of Brother Jonathan . With both ofthese periodicals he h ad a qua si editorial conn ection , though the real editor was Mr. H. Ha s

tings Weld. He received similar invitations fromthe two monthlies , Graham

’s Magazine”

and

Godey’s Lady’s Book, which were payingtheir contributors amon g whom were n earlyall the principal writers in the country priceshitherto unknown to A merican periodicals . V V illis was paid at the rate of $50for an article offour printed pages of the

“ Lady’s Book,

”

less,no doubt, than a writer of equal reputa

tion could comman d n ow, but regarded as wildlym un ificen t in 1841. Twelve dollars a page werethe regular rates of both these magazines . Th e

burst on author-lan d of Graham’s an d Godey’sliberal prices,

” said Willis, was like a sunrisewithout a dawn .

” Mr. CharlesT. Congdon,inhis interesting Reminiscences of a Journalist

,

”

says that “Mr. Willi s was the first magazine

THE CORSA IR . 261

writer who was tolerably well paid. A t one time,

about 1842, he was writing four articles monthlyfor four magazines, and receiving $100 each .

This mean s an income of a year,but the

strain required to keep up such a rate of production must tax the powers of the readiest writer

,

an d it was no wonder if th e product was of veryun even excellence . Th e four magazines here r eferred to were undoubtedly the Mirror,

” Graham’s

,

” Godey’s,

”an d Th e Ladies’ Com

panion,of which Mrs . Sigourney was for a

time the editor, and to which Willis contributed

in 1842 and 1843a ha lf dozen stories an d a few“ Passages from Correspondence and Leavesfrom a Table Book.

”Two of these stories

are not found among h is collected writingsPoyn tz

’

s A unt,

” a Saratoga tale , which hasbeen men tioned before

, an d “ Fitz Powys an d

the Nun , or Diplomacy in High Life ,” a very

impossible fiction ,an d not worth describin g.

Such of the “ Leaves ” an d “ Scraps ” as deserved preserving found their way into Eph em

era.

” His contributions to Godey’s beganwith the January number for 1842 , and con

tinned,though with greatly diminished f r e

queney,till January

, 1850. Durin g th e firstyear he h ad an article in nearly every number,most of them stories . For “ Graham’s ” he be

gan to write in January, 1843, and contributed

262 N A THA NIE L P A RKE R WIL LIS .

occasionally as late as 1851. Th e Marquis inPetticoats ” an d “ Broadway ; A Sketch werepublished in 1843in E pes Sargent

’s short-livedmagazin e ; Th e Power of an Injured Look inthe “ Gift for 1845, an annual issued in Philadelphia . He edited an other annual

,the Opal ”

for 1844, an d wrote articles of various kinds forother periodicals . During the two years and ahalf from January, 1842 , to June, 1844, he publish ed, all in all, some forty stories, collected

,

with two or three exceptions,in Dashes at Life

with a Free Pencil.” Willis was at this time,

beyond a doubt,the most popular

,best paid, and

in every way most successful magazinist thatA merica h ad yet seen . He commanded the sympathy of his readers more than any other periodical writer of his day, and his reputation almostamoun ted to fame . Colonel Higgin son tells astory

,illustrating his vogue, about a solid com

m er cial gentleman in Boston , who, finding himself by chance a t some literary dinner or tea, isreported to have entered into the spirit of theoccasion by sayin g that

“ he guessed Gfi-ethewas the N. P. Willis of Germany.

”

Willis lived at Owego till 1842, and continued to date his letters to “ Brother Jonathan ,

”

Graham’s ,”

etc., from un der a bridge .

” He

h ad expected somethin g like from General Stace ’s estate, but it yielded him nothing .

264 N A THA N I EL P A RKE R WILLIS .

found a voice in on e of the most naturally and

simply written of his poems,

Thoughts whilemaking the Grave of a New - Born Child.

”

O n June 20, 1842, a second daughter, Imogen,was born , his only surviving child by his firstwife . Later in the same summer he broke up hishome at Glenmary an d removed to New York .

For a while he pitched his uprooted tent inBrooklyn lodgings then he went to housekeepin g for a time , an d afterwards took rooms at theA stor . When in London in 1836

,Willis h ad

accompanied his publisher, Macr on e,on a visit

to Dickens,then “ a young paragraphist for the

Mornin g Chronicle,’ living in lodgin gs at Fur

n iva ll’

s In n . This visit he afterwards describedin his E phemera,

”and Forster says that he and

Dickens “ laughed heartily at the description ,hardly a word of which is true . Be this as itm ay, when Mr. an dMrs. Dickens

’

came to A merica in 1842, Willis ran down to New York tobe present at the Boz ball . He wrote to hiswife at Glem n a ry that he h ad spent an afternoon in showing Mrs . Dickens th e splen dors ofBroadway, an d h ad dan ced with her a t the ball ,where

,encoun tering Halleck, the two poets

“ slipped down about midn ight to the‘Cornu

copia an d h ad rum toddy an d broiled oysters .”

A mongW illis’

s private papers is a cordial letterfrom Dickens , dated at Niagara, A pril 30, 1842,

THE NE W M IRROR . 265

regretting that he should not have time to accepthis invitation to make h im a visit at Owego .A r app r ochem en t now took place betweenWillis an d his former associate General Morris .Th e New York Mirror ” of December 31, 1842,an nounced that

,expenditures having largely ex

ceeded receipts,the paper would henceforth be

discontin ued, but that a new series would beginin a few weeks . Th e issue of the 17th of thesame mon th h ad contain ed two short sketches

,

Imogen an d Cymbelin e an d A CharmingWidow of Sixty,

” which were afterwards joinedin to one an d worked up into Poyn tz

’

s A unt .These were of no importance except as being hisfirst direct contributions to the Mirror sincethe establishmen t of the Corsair,

” over twoyears an d a half before . On Saturday, A pril 81843, the first number of the New Mirrorwas issued under the joint editorship of Morrisan dWillis . Th e latter h ad now entered uponan active career of journalism which lasted

,with

a single brief interruption, for nearly a quarterof a century, till his death in 1867 . With theNew Mirror he resumed the duties of an ed

itor , which he h ad laid down when he sold out the“ A merican Mon thly ” in 1831. He h ad been

,

it is true,a nomin al editor of the old New York

Mirror an d of the Corsair,” but virtually he

was merely a contributor and foreign correspond


ent of both these papers , and h ad felt n o realresponsibil ity for their conduct . In the threeperiodicals which Morris an dWillis now editedsuccessively, the “ New Mirror,

” the “ E veningMirror,

”and the Home Journal

,

” the businessm anagement remained in the h ands of the former, but the literary policy was largely shapedby Willis, and almost the entire time and ener

gies of both partners were given to their enterprises. Th e o f fice of th e new journal was at No .4 A n n Street, and its title in full ran as follows

Th e New Mi rror o f Literatur e, A musemen t, andIn str uction : Con ta in ing Or igi n al Paper s, Tales of

Rom an ce, Sketch es o f Society, Man n er s, and E veryday Life ; Dom estic an d For eign Cor r esponden ce ;

Wit and Humor ; Fa sh ion an d Gossip th e Fin e A rtsand Litera ry, Musical, and Dr am atic Cr iticism ; ex

tracts f rom New Works ; Poetry, Or igin al and Se

lected ; th e Spirit o f th e Public Jour n a ls, etc., etc.,

etc.

”

Willis coul d not af ford to give up all the otherstrings to h is bow until he saw how th e new venture wa s going to succeed. He retained hisposition as New York correspondent to the Nation al In telligencer,

”an d hi s Daguerreotype

Sketches of New York,” published in that paper,

were regularly reprinted in the New Mirror.”

His stories in Graham’s and Godey’s went

268 NA THA NIE L P A RKE R WILL IS .

short of that perfect workmanship an d finenessof taste which float man y a trifle of P r aed orDobson . W illis’s city poems are flimsy a nd

sometimes a little vulgar, an d their place is m idway between really artistic society verse and

such metropolitan ballads as Walking DownBroadway ” an d “ Tassels on the Boots

,which

Lingard used to sing . Th e best of them , per

h aps, is “ Love in a Cottage ,” a charmingly

frank expression of a preferen ce for the artificial , a quatrain from which has got into com

mon quotation

But g ive m e a sly flir tationBy th e ligh t o f a ch an delier ,W ith m usic to play in th e pauses,A nd n obody very n ea r .

”

These C ity Lyrics were not all humorous,however. Th e bitter contrasts which forcedthemselves upon Bryant walking slowly throughthe crowded street appealed also to th e DownTown Bard,

” who expressed them in Th e Pityof the Park Fountain ,

”and more successfully

in Un seen Spirits ,” first prin ted in the “New

Mirror of July 29, 1843. This little poemsuggested, perhaps, in some mood of abstraetion when th e poet was strolling listlessly upBroadway

,his spirits low an d his eternal watch

fulness for ef f ects asleep— has, for that veryreason doubtless

,the sudden touch of genius, the

THE N E W M IRROR.

unconsciousness and careless felicity which seemlikely to keep it alive and to make it, possibly,the only work of Willis destined to reach poster ity. It was a favorite , with E dgar Poe , whoused to recite it at reading clubs an d the like

,

a nd who said that, in his Opinion an d that ofnearly a ll his friends , it was “ the truest poemever written by Mr. Willis There is about thislittle poem ,

” he continues, (eviden tly written

in haste and through impulse) a true imagination . Its grace, dignity, an d pathos are impressive

,an d there is more in it of earnestn ess of

soul than in anything I have seen from the penof its author.” 1

Will is took advantage of his new facilities tobecome his own publisher, issuing successively,as shilling extras in the Mirror Library,

” hisSacred Poems ,

” Poems of Passion, an d

Lady Jane an d Humorous Poems followingthese up with the first complete editions

,from

the “ Mirror ” press, of “ Letters from Undera Bridge,

”an d Pencill in gs by the Way. Th e

1 In a late an th ology, th is poem of W illis is included under

th e m elodr am a tic ti tle Two Wom en . A n auth or’

s ch oice o f

a title is alm ost a s m uch to b e r espected as h is text . In

th is in stan ce, W illis’

s own selection was n ot only m uch the

better , but i t is in ter esting as pr obably suggested to h im by

lin es th a t wer e f avor ites o f h is in Long f ellow’s t r an slation

f r om Uhland

For , inv isibly to th ee,Spir its twain h ave cr ossed with m e.

”


poems conta ined few notable additions to “Melan ie an d earlier volumes , except those justmentioned as printed in the New Mirror,

”and

the lines on the death of President Harrison,

which were much admired at the tim c. Theywere in anapestics , an unusual metre with him ,

but one which he handled not without fire inthis excellent elegy. Lady Jane was a societypoem in some two hundred “ Don Juan stanza s an d was by no means the worst of the manyimitations of Byron ’s inimitable masterpieceif the bull may be pardoned. Th e hero wasthe inevitable dandy poet, —this time he was

twenty-two , and the heroine who doted on himwith a half motherly af fection was a well preserved E n gli sh countess o f forty

,wedded to a

decrepit but accommodating earl . Th e noblepair go traveling , with the boyish poet in theirtrain

,an d coming to Rome, the latter becomes

enamored of an Italian marchi oness an d cutsloose from Lady Jane

,who

,having loved too

late to dream of love again , grows old as bestshe may. This. is al l, but the poet has caught,as successfully as was possible for him , the a l

ternate irony an d sentimen t, the rattling digr essiven ess , an d the eccen tric rhymin g an d audacious punning of his origin al . There is a delicatesuggestion of Lady Blessington in the heroine ;but W illis ’s E nglish acquaintances could hardly

272 NA THA N IE L PA RKE R WILLIS .

the time to consider whether there could be

such a thin g as an efi ective Sp oken poem . I

am satisfied now, that my style depends so muchon those light shades which would be lost onmore ears than two at a time

,that I should

make an utter failure .” In 1843 he lecturedon the formation of character before the Mercan tile Library A ssociation of Baltimore

, an d

the audience a large one was disappointedby the serious nature of the address . A Lec

ture on Fashion given before the New YorkLyceum an d published in 1844 was more character istic, at least in subject. He lectured alsoin Boston an d A lbany, perhaps in other places,but without marked success , being an indi f f erentorator and not at home on the platform . Th e

callin g on a hen for an egg, while she stands onthe fence , would seem to me reasonable,

” saidhe

,

“ in comparison with asking for my sentiments

,to be delivered on my legs.

In the issue of the New Mirror for September 28 , 1844, the editors announced thatthey h ad been driven out of the field of weeklyjournalism by th e United States Post Off i ce .Th e Mirror

,

” being sti tched, could not go atnewspaper rates

,but was taxed, at the caprice

of postmasters,from two to fifteen cents a copy.

This more than doubled the price to countryreaders an d kill ed the mail subscription . Re

THE NE W M IRROR. 273

monstrances addressed to the authorities atWashin gton only brought, in reply, a letter ofsesquipedalian flum m ery.

”A ccordingly the

editors decided to chan ge th e shape of th e paperan d publish it as a daily. The first n umber ofthe “ E ven ing Mirror cam e out October 7,1844. It was published every day in the weekbut Sunday, and ran till the close of the following year, under the joint conduct of Morris

,

Willis, an d Hi ram Fuller. Th e last was ayoun g m an , and a far-away cousin of MargaretFuller. He con tin ued the paper

,under the

same name , for years after his partn ers h ad lefthim . It was of Fuller that Benn ett said

,We

saw the editor of the E vening Mirror,’ the

other day, treating his subscribers to an excursion ; he drove them all down Broadway to theBattery in an omnibus . Edgar Poe was eu

gaged upon the E vening Mirror as critic an d

sub-editor in the autumn of 1844, and remained

upon it about six months . His relations withWillis were of the pleasantest . Th e latter triedto befriend him in various ways an d lent himthe hearty support of his paper. His r ecollec

tions of his former associate were given in theHome Journal ” for October 13, 1849, shortlyafter Poe’s death

,in an article bearing generous

testimony to his perfect regularity, reason ableness, and courtesy, while engaged upon th e

18

74 N A THA N IE L P A RKE R WILL IS .

Mirror. Poe ’s own estimate of Willis is

given at some length in his series of papers onTh e Literati of New York.

” 1 It is friendlyin tone , b ut quite impartial an d discrimin ating .

Its literary criticism n eed not be here repeated,but Poe ’s personal impressions of Willis areworth giving :

Mr . Will is’s career , h e writes, “ h a s n aturallymade him en emies among th e envious host of dun ceswh om h e h a s outstr ipped in th e ra ce f or fam e an d

th ese h is per son a l man n er (a little tin ctur ed withr eserve, br usquer ie, or even haugh tin ess) is by n o

mean s adapted to con ciliate. He h as in numer ablewa rm fr iends, h owever , and is h im self a warm fr iend.

He is impul sive, gen er ous, bold, im petuous, v acilla ting , ir r egularly en er getic, apt to be hur r ied in toerr or, but in capable of deliber a te w r ong . He is yet

young and, with out bein g han dsome in th e or din a rysen se, is a r em a rkably well-looking m an . In h eigh t

h e is per h aps five feet eleven and justly pr oportion ed.

His figur e is put in th e best ligh t by th e ea se and a s

sur ed gr ace o f h is ca r r iage. His wh ole person and

per son al demean or bear about th em th e tr aces of

‘

good society.

’ His face is som ewhat too full or

ra th er heavy in its lower pr oportion s. Neith er h isn ose n or h is for ehead can be defen ded. Th e latterwould puzzle ph r en ology. His eyes a r e a dull bluish

1 See also h is paper on The A m er ica n Dr am a,f or an elabo

r a te r ev iew oi Tor tesa , wh ich , wi th all its def ects, he though t

th e best A m er ican play.

276 N A THA N IE L P A RKER WI LL IS .

a stay an d an in spiration . His youngest sister,E llen , h ad died th e month before . A n d a yearlater

,March 25, 1845, at the A stor House,

his wife died in childbirth . A n angel withoutfault or foible is th e comment which th e

broken-hearted husband wrote against the r ec

or d of her death in his note-book . Th e child,a girl, for whom he h ad chosen the nameof Blan che, was born dead. Th e labor of editing a daily paper h ad proved unexpectedly burden som e an d

,added to th e gr ief of his bereave

ment, left him greatly exhausted an d under theneed of breaking away from work for a time .In the early summer of 1845 he sailed on theBritan n ic for Liverpool, takin g with him hislittle daughter Imogen , and the faithful coloredwoman

,Harriet Jacobs , who h ad been th e child

’snurse during Mrs . W illis

’

s lifetime . Beforestarting for England he h ad gathered up hisrecent story contribution s to the magazines an dpublished them ,

together with In klin gs of A dven ture

,an d “ Romance of Travel,

”in a sin gle

large volume , Dashes at Life with a Free Pencil .

”This was divided into three parts : “High

Life in E urope an d A merican Life ,” In klings

of A dven ture,

”and Loiterin gs of Travel .

”

A fourth part,

E phemera,

” was added in1854. Th e tales which he h ad written since1840, an d which now appeared for the first time

THE NE W M IRROR . 277

in book form , exhibited more range and varietyof subject than his two previous collections, buta decided falling o f f in literary quality. Thosewho h ad seen promise in some of the earlierstories such as E dith Lin sey,

”Th e Picker

an d Piler,”and The Lunatic’s Skate of a

capacity for stronger and graver work were disappointed by these later Dashes .” None ofthem was without clever strokes , but they were,as a whole , very light. Th e High Lifestori es were mostly repetition s of W illis’s favorite plot. Sometimes the hero is a spoiled childof genius, as in Countess Nysch r iem and theHandsome A rtist, and “ Leaves from the HeartBook of E rnest Clay. Sometimes , as in Th e

Reven ge of the Signor Basil,” he is a designing

villa in . A gain , as in“ Love an d Diplomacy,

he turns out to be a very great person in dis

guise , who flin gs of f his cloak in the dén ouem en t and confounds his adversaries . In Getting to Win dward,

” he is a French adventurer,for whom three E nglish peeresses con tend— likethe Goddesses on Ida . In Flirtation an d FoxChasing ,

” he is a Kentucky lady-killer, sojourning at an English country house . In “ LadyRachel,

” he is nobody in particular. But ineach an d all of these protean shapes, he isequally fascinating an d invincible . In Bewareof Dogs and Waltzing,

” the author entered the

278 N A THA N IE L P A RKE R WILL IS .

confessional with even less precaution thanusual . It is quite plain to one readin g betweenthe lin es

,that the hero , Mr. Lindsay Maud,

with his r etr ouss é nose, sanguineous tint, curlyhair

,an d dimpled chin , is no other than Willis

himself ; that the Surrey manor where the scen eis laid is Shirley Park ; that its hospitable oc

cupan ts , the Beckton s, are in truth the Skinnerfamily ; that Mabel Brown, the heroine , is identical with Miss Mary Stace ; a nd, lastly, thatMiss Blaken ey, the dazzling but heartless heiress , whose han d Mr. Maud

’s hostess kindly destines for her young p r ote

’

gé , but whom ,yield

ing to his better an gel, he flings overboard infavor of the gen tler and sweeter Mabel, is acertain bell e of fortune , who figures in W illis

’

s

private correspondence as “ trotted out byMrs . Skin n er for his in spection with a view tohis making a rich marriage .In A Revelation of a Previous Life and

Th e Phantom Head upon the Table ,” the su

per n atur al is in troduced, but not with success .Willis h ad not the weird, haunting imaginationof Hawthorn e or Poe . He does not prepare thereader’s belief by creatin g the atmosphere of mystery required for il lusion . In the midst of thefashionable

,real life where they are set, his su

per n atur al incidents lose their e f f ect, and have novr a isem blan ce. Nor was he more at home in


maids by the name oi Buggins or Blidgin s, representing the sca n . m ag . of Florence .” Th e

story caused a good deal of scandal. Th e victims

(whose names were thinly disguised) were highin Knickerbocker social circles

, an d the doorsof many of the best houses in A l bany and NewYork were closed forever against Willis, as aconsequence of this indiscretion . There waseven some rumor in the A l ban y newspapers tothe ef f ect that he h ad been challenged by a friendof the injured ladies , an d h ad declined the chal!

lenge , but this he den ied. Kate C r edi f or d ”

is a clever specimen of an ti-climax . Th e writersees an old love at the theatre and, fancyingthat she looks unhappy, his flame revives, an dhe goes home an d writes her an impassioned decla r ation . His letter is an swered by th e lady’shusban d

,who informs him of her recent mar

r iage, an d explains her pensiveness by the factthat she h ad eaten too hearti ly of unripe fruitbefore goin g to the play. In “ Th e Poet and

the Mandarin ”an d Th e Inlet of Peach Blos

soms,

” the descr iptions are richly fanciful . Butthe most truly imaginative of al l these tales is“ Th e Ghost Ball at Congress Hall . Th e

theme is one that would have delighted Haw

thorne, an d though he might have treated itmore meaningly, he could not have improvedupon its wild, half-eerie gayety, with its under

THE N E W M IRROR. 281

current of regret the old Horatian regret forthe shortness of life an d vanished youth . A su

per an n uated beau, lin gerin g in the empty col

on n ade of Con gress Hall after the close of theSaratoga season, sees a spectral procession ofcoaches drive up to the door and deposit, oneafter another

,their loads of ladies with escorts

and baggage . Later in the evening, peering inthrough the ball-room windows, his brain reelsas he beholds the well -remembered belles and

dandies— apparently grown no older of the

golden age of the springs, the days of theA lbany regen cy. They dan ce to the same oldwaltz music

,played by the same old n egro fid

dler s , by the light of spermaceti tapers that floodsthe dusty evergreens wi th a weird mysteriousn ess

,an atmosphere of magic, even in the burning

of the candles,”and drin k

”

champag ne of theexploded color, rosy wine suited to the brightdays when all things were tinted rose .It is needless to say that there is an abun

dan ce of pretty and clever things scatteredthrough these tales of Willis . Flirtation”

as an instance of his epigrams“ is a cir cula t

ing library in which we seldom a sk twice for thesame volume .” His politeness ,

” he says of oneof his characters , h ad superseded his character altogether.

” He tells of a person of excellent family

,after the fashion of a hill of pota

282 N A THA NIEL P A RKER WILLIS .

toes,the best part of it under ground ; an d of

the Frenchman who could trace his lineage backto the man who spoke Fren ch in the confusionof Babel.” Mr. Potts’s income was a net answer to his morning prayer it provided hisdaily bread. Wigwam c s . A lm acks, whichfollows out the suggestions of a true story toldin A l’A b r i ,

” is not very satisfactory as a fiction but is worth noticing for the lovely descr iption, with which it opens, of a wayside Spring inthe valley of the Chemung.


Pencillings . This determin ed him to shapehis course for the capital of A ustria

,takin g in

Germany,which was new to him , on th e way.

Leavin g h is daughter at Steventon , he crossedthe Channel, wen t up the Rhine , an d joined hisbrother Richard, who was studying music atLeipsic. Here he passed a month, an d then ,

ac

companied by his brother,went on to Dresden .

There the two parted, an d Willis traveled alon e

to Berlin , where he wa s again seriously ill , andwas kindly ministered to by his old friend and

associate on the New York Mirror,”T. S . Fay,

at that time secretary of legation at Berlin .

Mr. Henry Wheaton,th e A merican minister, at

tach ed Willis also to the Prussian mission .

But of these appointments an d the opportun itiesthey promised he was unable to avail himself.Continued ill health forced him to aban don hisjourney to Vienna

,and to make his way back to

E nglan d, whence he sailed for home in theSprin g of 1846 . He h ad meant to leave Im o

gen with her mother’s family for a time, to be

put to school in E n gland. But his heart failedhim at the last

, an d he brought her back withhim to A merica, sending her, still in charge ofher nurse

,to live with his sister

,Mrs . Louis

Dwight, in Boston . He himself took rooms inNew York until other arran gements could bemade . His child’s nurse, Harriet Jacobs, who

THIRD V IS I T TO E NGL A N D. 285

was in his employ from 1842 to 1861, was aremarkable woman , whose career, if fully told,would form an interesting chapter in the historyof A merican slavery . She was an escaped slavefrom a plantation near Edenton

,North Caro

lin a. She h ad r un away from her ma ster whena youn g woman, and taken refuge with a familyof free negroes , her kin sfolk . They kept her h idden for five years in a cubby under the roof

,dur

ing which time she supported herself by fineneedle-work which her friends sold for her In

town . A t last she escaped to the North, and wasengaged by Willis as a house servant when hewent to Glenmary. Her attachmen t to the inter ests of the family durin g the whole period ofher service was a beautiful in stan ce of the fidelity and af fection which sometimes, but not often ,distin guish the relation of master and servan teven in this lan d of chan ge . Mrs . Jacob s

’

s

former owners, having got win d in some way ofher whereabouts , came North in quest of her, an dspared no pains to reclaim the run away. Several times she h ad to leave the W ill ises an d gointo hidi ng at Boston and elsewhere . A t last

,

tired of these alarms, Willis sacrificed whateverscruples he might have h ad against such a step ,an d bought her freedom out an d out . Whenthe civil war began she went to Washington , an d

employed her practical abilities, which were of


a high order, in the post of matron to a soldiers’

hospital . In that city she is still living, at anadvanced age.

Though ill nearly all the time of thi s his thirdtrip abroad, Willis ma n aged to write a numberO f In valid Letters to the E vening Mirror,

”

which were collected in Famous Persons and

Places an d in Rural Letters .” They werescarcely worth preserv ing . E n gland was now atwi ce-told tale , and in German y

,which was a

pasture new,be was too tired an d sick an d borne

down by his recent bereavement to take muchinterest in anythin g . His articles about the

great fair at Leipsic“What I saw at the

Fair,” in Godey’s for October, 1847 ; an d

On Dress,in “ Th e Opal ” for 1848, an d

Godey’s for June, 1849 were the most con

sider ab le literary results of the journey. Healso superin tended the publication of an E nglishedition of “ Dashes at Life ,

”in three volumes

,

and came home un der engagement to write forthe Lon don Morning Chron icle .

”

Meanwhile the editorial corps of the E venin g Mirror

”h ad tapered down to Hiram Ful

ler. Will is h ad practically retired from anyactive share in its man agement when he left thecountry in the sprin g of 1845. He was stillabroad when Morris withdrew from it and

started a new paper, the “ National Press, to

288 NA THA N IE L PA RKE R WILLIS .

sentence from Goethe , which still stands as themotto of the paper

,and would have served well

enough as the motto of W illis’

s own career :We should do our utmost to encourage thebeautiful , for the useful en courages itself.

”It

was not a very solid type of literature which wasfostered by the Home Journal,

” but it madefor itself a pecul iar constituency, and a place inthe world of letters which it still successfully oc

cupies, under the editorship of Morris Phillips,General Morris’s adopted son, who has carriedout the traditions of the paper as established byhis predecessors . It was and is the organ of

japon icadom ,

” the journal of society an d ga

zette of fashionable news an d fashionable literature

,addressin g itself with assiduous gallantry

to “ the ladies.”

Willis set him self more especially in both theNew Mirror ” and the Home Journal ” toportray the town . He became a sort of Knicker bocker Spectator

,and his E phemera, pub

lish ed in 1854, is a running record of the n otabilities of New York for a dozen years . He chronicled the operas an d theatres : Ole Bull, JennyLind, an d Macready the shops , the omnibuses,the endl ess procession of Broadway

,the museum,

the art galleries , the Tombs, the A lhambra, theFive Points

,the Croton water, the cafés, the

hotels,the balls and receptions, the changes in

THE HOME JOURNA L . 289

equipages, customs, dress . He grew to be arecognized a r bi ter elega n tia r um ,

and his correspon den ce columns were crowded with appealson knotty points of etiquette or costume . Hisdecisions of these social problems were alwaysmarked by good sense an d good taste . Thereare man y ni ce bits in E phemera

,

’

and somelittle wholes, —like the letter from Saratoga,To the Julia of Some Years A go, which

deserve to be rescued from the oblivion of abook of scraps and tr ifles . He was a skillfulparagrapher ; he h ad unfailing tact an d kn ewwhen to stop . A bove all

,he was eminently h u

man ; his gregariousn ess an d his cheerful philosophy ca st a gleam of their own on this looking

-

glass of urban life . He imported a ruralair into the city ; watched how A pril greenedthe grass in the public squares, and Jun e Spreadthe leaves in Trinity Churchyard ; stopped topick a clover top or an aggravating dandelion’twixt post of fice and city hall and discoveredeven in the stream that washed the curbstone ,a clear brook a brook with a son g ,

trippin gas musically (when the carts are not goin g by)as the beloved brook ” in Glenmary. Pa n , wekn ow,

has been found in Wall Street an dWillis contrived to fin d somethin g like a nymph inthe waste of the Park fountain . When hiswork kept him at the desk all through the hot

19


summer,he borrowed a breeze from “ the outer

most bastion o f Castle Garden ,”and made the

Jersey ferryboat his substitute for a privateyacht .”

When he came to New York to live,in

,1842,

an d during h is continued residence there formore than ten years from that date

,Man hattan

was by no means the metropolis that it is today, though it h ad begun to assume already thatcosmopolitan an d intensely commercial character which distinguishes it from all other A merican cities . It h ad a considerable an d swiftly

growing foreign population , and its society wasmarked by a liveliness an d extravagance whichcontrasted with the plainer an d more earnesttone prevailing in Boston , and with the somewhat provincial cast of Philadelphia life . Th e

Battery was still the fashionable promenade,

Can al Street was up town ,” Hoboken , a rural

suburb,Pine

, A n n,an d William Streets

, and

the Bowlin g Green were gen teel residence quarters . Th e old Park Th eatre was after theburning of the National the only respectableplayhouse

,until Niblo’s was Opened in what was

then the outskirt of the town . New York prideditself, moreover, on being a literary centre . Th e

term Kn ickerbocker School, which has beenin ven ted to describe a group of metropolitanwriters who owed their in spiration , in some sort,

292 N A THA NIE L P A RKER WILLIS .

was abroad, fill ing diplomatic posts in Germanyand Switzerlan d. Years after , on his return toA merica, he visited Willis at Idlewild, and thelatter found him greatly aged and saddenedsin ce the days when he wrote mild town satiresa n d humorous sketch es for the “ New YorkMirror.” E astburn , Sands, and Drake wereall dead

,a nd Paulding h ad signalized the close

of his literary career by publishing a collectionof his works in numerous volumes . He too h adbeen a contributor to the old “Mirror

,

”and so

h ad another of the Knickerbockers, CharlesFenno Ho f f m an

,who h ad once edited the paper

for a month,before Willis h ad any conn ection

with it . Hof f man, who died just the other day,is known to this generation almost solely by hisstill popular song, Sparkling an d Bright, and

his hardly less popular “Monterey. Th e formeris sung by collegians an d the latter declaimedby school-boys. He was the first edi tor of theKnickerbocker Magazine .

” His “Winter inthe West and his novel , Gr eyslaer ,

” foundedon the famous Beauchamp tragedy in North Ca rolin a

,h ad wide currency in their tim e, and his

amusin g story, Th e Man in the Reservoir,”

may still be read with en joym ent . He was am an of many friends , greatly beloved for hisfran k an d cordial nature. By 1846 he h ad al

ready begun to show symptoms of the mental

THE HOME JOURN A L . 293

disease which issued in his chronic insanity.

He kept on writin g up to 1850, when it wasfoun d necessary to sen d him to an asylum

,in

which confin emen t he lived for over thirty years .Hoffman once said of W ill is ’s eyes that they“ always seemed to have nothin g but cold specul ation in them , to be two holes

,looking out

through a stone wall. Then there were Verplanck, the editor of Shakespeare, andDuyckin ck

the compiler of the “ Cyclopaedia of A mericanLitera ture

,

”an d many forgotten worthies, whose

names may be read in such limbos of departedfame as Poe’s Literati of New York . Manyof these literati used to meet each other in f ormally at the weekly receptions given by MissA n n e Lynch (n ow Mrs . Botta) the poetess , an dauthor of the Han dbook of Universal Literature,

” whose hospitable parlors have been forforty years a rallyin g place for interesting an d

distinguished people . With this lady Mr. an d

Mrs . Willis formed a close and lasting frien dship . Willis used to go often to Horace Greeley’s

,where he got interested for a time in

spirit rappings , an d wrote some papers on th esubject in the “Home Journ al.” Greeley onceurged him in a letter (November 18, 1854) topublish a volume of selection s from his lifelon gwritings . I want such a one,

” he wrote, formy boy

,so that

,should I live to see him sixteen

,


I m ay try Unwritten Music’ on him and see

if it impresses him as it did me at about thatage, when it appeared.

”

During the first winter an d spring after theirmarriage , Willi s an d his wife lived in lodgings .In the autumn of 1847 they went to housekeepin g a t No . 19 Ludlow Place

,where their

eldest son,Grin nell , was born, A pril 28, 1848.

In the fall of that year they bought the houseNo . 198 Fourth Street, where they remainedtill the fall of 1852 . A daughter, Lilian, wasborn A pril 27 , 1850.

For ten years W ill is’s tall and elegantlydressed figure was a familiar sight on Broadway ,an d was often pointed out to strangers at publicassemblages , or in private society, where hisagreeable manners made him a general favorite. He was never what is called a brilliantconversationalist, but he was an easy talker andquick at an impromptu , many of hi s “

goodthin gs

” in which kin d are remembered and

quoted by his contemporaries. Thus, on oneoccasion, at a dinner party in Washington, ayoung lady who sat between Willi s and a gentlem an named Campbell was rather too partialin her attention to th e former. Her mothersitting opposite , an d considering Mr. Campbella desirable p a r ti , slipped her a note a

cross thetable

,Pay more attention to your other neigh


the stage, a t the Commencement of RutgersFemale College , as the author of A bsaloman d Hagar,

’ he wrote, I shall try to havethe air of the O ld Testament

,but have my

doubts as to success .Th e easy déyagé air of his writing was, as isusually the case with seemin gly ready writers,the result of laborious care . It appears fromthe testimony of Poe

,Parton

,Phillips

,an d others

who were his associates on th e “Mirror orHome Journal ” and knew his habits of composition, that his manuscript was full of erasuresa nd interlineations. He blotted, on an average,one line out of every thr ee, but his copy was soneatly and legibly prepared that the compositorspreferred it to reprint,

” even his erasures havin g a certain wavy elegance . He was likewise very particular about having his articlesprin ted just as he wrote them My copy m ustbe followed

,

” he wrote to an ofien ding foreman.

I f I insert a comma in the middle of a worddo you place it there an d ask no questions .Once a slight alteration by Morris in the wording of a paragraph in W illis

’

s manuscript camenear causing a quarrel between the two old

friends , “ probably the on ly misunderstandingor disagreemen t, says Mr. Phillips, which oc

curred during the whole of their literary lifeand business association .

”I would not stay


one week a partner with a m an who ventured toalter a word of my copy an d send it to presswithout my knowledge,

” wrote Willis in hisan gry note to Morris on this° occasion . Mr. Phillips adds that General Morris proved his lovefor Mr. Willis by not replying to this letter, butsim ply wrote on the back of it , ‘ I would havereceived this from no other man living .

’ Fromsimilar testimony it appears that Will is took noshare in the business management of the paper,never examined the books , nor asked any question s as to the circulation . He felt or af f ecteda horror of figures, a nd confided the matter ofreceipts an d expenditures entirely to GeneralMorris

,between whom and himself, during the

entire period of their partnership,no statement

of account was ever rendered. In money matters Willi s was liberal ,— not to say reckless,an d his hospitality knew no lim it . Nor was itonly his roof an d his table that were at hisfriends’ service ; his literary latch-string was always out to every new-comer in the field of letters . It was an honorable trait in his character,an d should never be forgotten in casting his aocount, that, whatever may have been his foibles,the jealousy which is the besetting sin of authorsand artists was not among them . He was per

petually on the lookout for young writers ofpromise

, and was the first to pr aise them, an d


to gi ve circulation to their good things by copyin g them in to his column s . He was th e in troducer an d literary sponsor of many reputa tion snow fa llen silent, and of some which have surv ived. A mong the last were Mr . T. B. A ldrichwho succeeded James Parton as assistan t editor

of the “Home Journal fi—and Bayard Taylor.Th e latter was greatly in W illis

’

s debt. Hisdesire for travel was first awakened by readingthe Pen cillings by the Way when he was alad of sixteen . A nd afterwards when he cameto New York to seek the means for foreigntravel he applied at once to the author whosebrilliant pictures of E uropean life h ad rousedhis young en thusiasm . Willis befrien ded himin every way ; gave him letters to wealthy gentlem en in New York, an d bestirred himself tointerest people in his adventure an d raise thesum necessary to start him on his journ ey. Onhis departure he gave him a letter to his brotherRichard, in Frankfort, with whom the youngh a ndwer lesbur sch tarried for a time, while he waspickin g up the German lan guage . His ViewsA foot the fruits of this venture were dedicated to Willis, who contributed the preface .This patron age was un kin dly referred to in Da

gan n e’s Parnassus in Pillory

,

” a little Dunciadof the old downright E n glish Bards and ScotchRevi ewers variety, which made some noise inNew York in the year 1851

300 NA THA NIE L PA RKE R WILL IS .

Why so sever e on W illis ! Julia cr ies

(Who r eads De Tr obr ia nd in an E nglish guise).Why so severe

’

.

l Because m y m use m ust m akeE xam ple ster n f or in jur ed Poesy

’

s sake.

Not th at Na t W i llis cur ls h is yellow h a irNot th a t h is sen se can b r ea th e but per f um ed a ir

Not th at h e plays th e ape o r a ss I m ourn,

For ape an d a ss a re wort h n ot even m y scorn .

But th a t,with m ind

,an d soul

,a nd h aply h ea r t,

He yet h a th stooped to act th e f opling’

s par t ;

Tr ifled with a ll h e m igh t h ave been to be

Th e bla se’

editor a t f or ty-th r ee

Flung O f f th e ch aplet wh ich h is boyh ood won ,To wea r th e f ool’s cap o f a m an o f ton .

’

I lash n ot W illis even f or th is h is cr im e

Th r ough h im I s tr ike th e basta rd tr ibe o f r hym e ;

Th e r a ce o’er wh om

,in h is own n ative power ,

Jove-like m id satyr s m igh t th is Willis tower !”

A nother young poet whose career Williswatched with interest was J . R . Lowell. Therewas a friendly correspondence between th e twoin 1843—44, the youn ger writer thanking th e

Older for his encouragement, sendin g him hisnew volume of verse

, and promising to contribute to the Mirror

,

” but remonstrating withhim upon his declared intention— in a very appr ecia tive review of Lowell

’s poems in the “Mirror ” —to omit the Jam es from hi s musicalsurname an d call him simply Russell Lowell

Suppose I , droppin g th e sh ould call you byth at m yster ious middle letter—wh ose s1gn 1fication ,

with out r eferen ce to th e Pari sh Register (or perh aps

THE HOME JOURNA L. 301

Griswold’s equally en ter tain ing bead-r oll) n o m an can

fath om and call you P . W ill is .

’ Under suchpainful cir cumstan ces you could imagin e h ow I f eel,wh en you am putate on e sound lim b o f m y n am e.

However , it is too cold to say any’

mor e about it.Wha t I h ave left un sa id sh all be f r ozen up in m e

like th e tun e in Mun ch ausen ’

s bugle, and th aw out

eloquen tly and startlin gly wh en I meet you in th e

wa rm er a tmosph er e of New York a s I sh all bef or elong.

” 1

In poin t of fact— i f the item is not b elowthe dignity of biogr aphy— this threat of Lowell’s to mind W illis ’s P ’s for him was withoutterror for the latter

,wh o favored his middl e

initial at the expen se of his scriptural an d baptism al p r oen om en , an d used to figure on the titlepages of his later books as N. Parker Willis.He disliked to be called Nathaniel ; respectingwhich prejudice , his wife a n d brothers an d sisters

,as well as his intimate frien ds, were accus

tom ed to address him simply as Will is . “Trulyone’s spon sors

,

” said he, have much to answerfor.” In Lowell’s smart pasquin ade , A Fablefor Critics,

” published in 1848, which con tain snot only headlong fun, but good poetry an d justcriticism ,

there is a passage on Willis , fromwhich I venture to quote a few lin es , in spiteof its familiarity to many readers, -because its

1 Cam b r idge, Ja nua ry 13, 1844 .

302 N A THA N I EL P A RKER WILLIS .

spirit is kindly and it is one of the best estimatesof Will is ever written“ Ther e

’s W illis so na tty an d j aun ty and gay ,

Wh o says h is best th ings in so f oppish a way,

W ith con ceits a nd pet ph r a ses so th ickly O’

er laying’em ,

Th at on e h ar dly kn ows wh eth er to thank h im f or saying’

em .

His pr ose h ad a n atur a l gr ace o f its own,

A n d en ough o f it,too

,i f h e

’d let it alon e

,

But h e twitch es an d jer ks so one f a ir ly gets tir ed,A n d is f or ced to f 01give where h e m igh t h ave adm ired.

Yet wh en ever i t slips away f r ee and un laced

It run s like a s tream w i th a m usical wa ste,

A nd gur gles along with th e liquidest sweep.

’T is n ot deep as a r iver , but wh o

’

d h a ve it deep!

No v olum e I kn ow to r ead under a tr ee

Mor e truly del icious th an h is A l’

A b r i,

With th e sh adows o f lea ves flow in g over your book,Like r ipple

-sh ades n ettin g th e bed o f a b r ook ;W ith Jun e com ing sof tly your sh oulder to look ov er

,

B r eezes wa iting to turn every lea f o f your book over,

A n d Natur e to cr i ticise still as you r ead

Th e page th a t bear s th a t is a r ar e on e indeed.

His n a tur e ’s a g la ss of ch am pagne with th e f oam on

’t,

A s ten der as Fletch er , as witty a s Beaum on t

So h is best th ings a re don e in th e flush o f th e m om en t

I f h e wa it, a ll is spoiled h e m ay s tir it an d shake it,

But , th e fixed a ir on ce gon e, h e ca n n ev er r em ake it .

He ’

d h ave been just the f ellow to sup a t th e Merm a id,

C r acking jokes a t r a r e Ben ,with a n eye to th e b a r

-m a id,

His wit r un n ing up a s can ary r an down ,

The topm ost b r igh t bubble on th e wave of Th e Town .

One proof of popularity is parody. Un til astatesman’s face is so familiar to th e public thatits caricature in the comic papers n eeds no


The requested poem is annexed a scripturalpoem

,Th e Fishwom an

’

s Son

Nigh t on the m a rket. Th r ough th e colon n ade

O f r ed-b r ick pilla rs n ot a sound was h ea r d,

Save o f som e w h is tling ur ch in a s h e s trode

W i th stam ping f oot f a lls , lis ten ing to th e n oise

Wh ich wor e h is shoe-soles and th e h ear er’

s pa tience

O r th e low m utter o f th e dr unken m an,

A s h is w ild song , pr oclaim ing fix’

d r esolveNot to go h om e till m or n ing , sank to lowA n d n ea r ly inar ticula te m urm urs .

”

Th e fishwom an’

s son sings a song , whose firststanza runs

I will n ot go ,

Like a wh ipt dog , un to th e public sch ool,To wea r the cap and token s of a f ool

,

Wh ile Mexico

Inv ites m e on to glory and to f am e,

O r a cr acked crown , wh ich a f ter a ll’s the sam e.

Willis was forty when the Home Journalwas begun an age at which writers who havethought and studied deeply are often no morethan ripe

, and have their.

most productive yearsbefore them . But his best work was alreadydone . A fter 1846 he wrote hardly any morestories or poems— none at all of any value .His pen was devoted more and more steadily toeditorial duties, to ephemerae an d paragraphsan d fragments of a ll kinds, and his well-wisherslamented that wit and fancy whi ch , if properlydirected, might have produced something that


would live and delight future generations , werewasted in dissertation s upon the cut of a beardor the fashion of a coat. To a ll remonstrances ofhis friends over his literary trifling and theirexhortations to write for posterity

,his invariable

answer,in a n d out of print, was that the public

liked tr ifles, a nd that posterity would not pay hisbills — that he must go on buttering curiositywith the ooze of his brains . That this answersatisfied himself, or that he was without thoseaspirations after a more enduring fame whichare natural to all, cannot be believed. It isprobable that he sadly ackn owledged in his inner consciousness that the best part of hi s ca

reer was over . His talent, as has been saidbefore, was the result of, or was closely dependent upon

,his physical temperament. When

health began to decay, an d youth was over, an dhis animal spirits h ad e f f ervesced, life com

m en ced to have a flat taste . Th e bloom wa s o f f .

His writing, too, as we have seen , was alwaysclosely related to his personal experiences ; andas these grew tamer, he h ad less and less toreport

,an d his writing grew tame in proportion .

With some , mere study and contemplation supply

,to a degree , the ravages which time m akes

upon the freshness of young impressions . Butit h ad been W illis’s misfortune in youth that apremature success h ad deprived him of the dis

20


ciplin e of early r ebufi s , and h ad m ade a painful self-culture needless . He n ever drew muchinspiration from books , an d in later life he readvery little . He said that he could not af fordto r ead, partly for want of time, partly from anotion that much readi ng woul d be fatal tooriginality. Neither was it his privilege to command, at this or at any time, the stimulatingand bracing association with men of high serions intellects and strenuous aims

,such as he

might, perhaps, have h ad if he h ad remained inBoston . Th e occasional hasty meetings withmen of brains and literary tastes in general so

ciety did not at all take the place of that intimate communion with a circle of gifted spiritswhich has been so stimulating to others . Moreover it sh ould be borne in mind

,as accountin g

largely for the mediocrity of his later work,that for the last fifteen years of his life Will iswas a chronic invalid. Indeed, he was neverreally a well man after his illness of 1845.

Next to Cooper, Willis was the best abusedman of letters in A merica. It is easy to understand how the former, who was pugnacious an dstruck hard

,should have been always in hot

water. But why a man of Will is ’s urbanityshoul d have been a target for the newspapercritics is more dif ficult of explan ation . Colonel ” W illiam L . Stone of the Commercial


rest and his wife . He h ad known Forrest asearly as 1836 , admired his acting , an d praised itconstantly in the “ Mirror ” an d “Home Journal

,

” preferrin g it to the more studied performan ces of h is E n glish rival, Macready. He h ad

seen little of Forrest for a number of years ; butafter his return to New York

,in 1846

,the

two families grew quite intimate, exchangingvisits an d dinners. Mrs . Willis an d Mrs . Forrest especially became fast friends

, and on oneoccasion , when the former was seriously ill, shesent for Mrs . Forrest to come an d stay with her.Mrs . Forrest was the daughter of Sinclair, the

great E nglish singer. She was a lady of refin em en t , beauty, an d social accomplishments .Her sister Mrs . Voorhies , who lived with herfor a time , h ad inh erited her father

’s musicaltalents

, an d Mrs . Forrest soon got about her apleasan t circle of friends, which included manyperson s of literary and artistic ta stes , editors,authors

,professors

,clergymen , an d their wives .

Th e Bryants,the Godwins, Dr. Dewey, Henry

Wikof f,and Sam uel Raymond, the actor, were

among the frequenters of the house . WhenRichardWilli s returned from his musical studiesin Germany in 1848, his brother in troducedhim there , an d he found so much enthusiasm forhis art, that he called repeatedly

,to practice his

compositions with Mrs . Voorhies .


Edwin Forrest was a tragedian of great natural force and gen ius, endowed with a wonderf ul voice an d a magnificent physique . But hewas a man of passion ate and overbearing temper ; his education was defective, his languagean d manners sometimes o f f en sively coarse

, and

he h ad little relish for intellectual society . He

does not appear, however, to have felt any ob

jection to his wife’s hospitalities , or to have sus

pected any impropriety in her receiving herfriends, during his frequent absences from homeon professional engagements , until long afterother causes of estran gement h ad arisen betweenthem . A t C incinnati, in the spring of 1848, hethought that he h ad discovered evidence of a

guilty intimacy between Mrs . Forrest and an ao

tor named Jam ieson and although she solemnlyprotested her innocence and her husband agreedto accept h er oath, his jealousy smouldered and

occasionally broke out in scenes of violence . A t

length , in A pr il, 1849 , they agreed to separate .Mrs. Forrest made her home for a time withMr. and Mrs . Parke Godwin , and Forrest tookup his residence in Philadelphia, where in Febr ua ry, 1850, he made an application for divorceto the Pennsylvania legislature, based upon a f fi

davits,charging his wife with adultery. This

application was ultimately denied, but mean.

while the lady’s friends in New York h ad taken

310 NA THA N I E L P A RKER WILL IS .

the matter up . She h ad the sympathy and

moral support of such men as Will iam C . Bryant and his son -in -law

,Mr. Parke Godwin , an d

Dr. Orville Dewey, the eminent Unitarian divin e . Up to this time Forrest h ad n ot im pli

catedWillis in his charges , but hearin g that hewas amon g those who were taking sides withMrs . Forrest , he h ad stopped him in the streeton e day in January, 1850, an d warned himagainst intermeddling between him and his wife ,denouncin g her un faithful ness in the strongestterms . W illis replied that he did not believea word of the slanders against her. Th e nextday Mrs. Willis received an anonymous letter,accusing her husband of criminal relations withMrs . Forrest" On March 28th the Heraldpublished extracts from the evidence on whichForrest h ad based his application to the Pennsylvan ia legislature, which compromised, amongothers

,Mr. Richard Will is . This drew from

his brother a letter of explan ation, printed in theHerald ” of the following day.

“ It wa s n ot m y in ten tion ,

” wr ote Willis, “ to say

a wor d in th is letter upon th e mer its o f th e ca se to

whi ch th is eviden ce belongs . To r escue th e good

n am e o f a n absen t br oth er , wh o, in m or a l conduct isir r epr oach ab ly cor r ect, wa s m y on ly object. A cour to f justice will soon sif t th e testim ony, and better inform th e public a s to its cr edibility on other poin ts.


nine co-respondents , among them a clergyman,Mrs . Forrest’s family doctor, an d Forrest

’s old

friend an d traveling companion , Chevalier W ikof f . Th e last three were afterwards droppedfrom the case. Mrs . Forrest, having been servedwith a copy of the application an d the processissued by the Pennsylvania legislature , filed abill in the New York Supreme Court in September

, 1850, an d obtained an injun ction to restrainher husband from proceeding with his suit inPhiladelphia. She then began suit against himin New York for a divorce on the ground ofadultery, which he defended with cross-accusations ; and in New York the case was finallytried and decided. Meanwhile Forrest wasprowling about his wife

’s lodgings in New York,threatening people who went in or out, and

stopping others in the street to warn themagain st interference .On the 17th of June , while Will is was walk

in g in Washington Square , near his own residence in Fourth Street, Forrest came up to himquickly an d knocked him down with a b low fromhis fist . He then stood over him

,an d, holding

him down by the coat collar with one hand, beathim with a gutta-percha whip till the police cameup an d interfered. To the group of spectatorswhich h ad rapidly assembled, he said, That isthe seducer of my wife .” Willis would at no


time have been physically the equal of his an tagon ist , who was a man of powerful frame ; butwhen this assaul t was made it was doubly safefrom the fact that the victim of it h ad been ill formonths with a rheumatic f ever, and was in anunusually feeble condition of body. Two daysafter this heroic action, Forrest met Bryant an d

Godwin walking down Broadway an d furiouslydemanded who h ad put the account of it into theE vening Post,

” in which he was represented ashavin g struck Willi s from behind.

I told him , said Mr . Godwin , in h is testim ony,I wa s r espon sible f or th e a r ticle. He th en tur n edround to m e in a very fer ocious way, and sa id th er e

wer e sever a l thi ngs th a t h e wa s goin g to h old m e r e

spon sible f or ; h e said th e a r ticle was a damn ed liefrom begin n in g to en d ; h e said h e mean t to a ttackMr . Willis, and h e believed th at h e h ad told m e so

f or m er ly. I r eplied th at th ese wer e n ot just th e ter m sth at h e us ed, and th a t h e told m e former ly th at h em ean t to cut h is dam n ed h ea r t out ; to whi ch Mr .

For rest muttered someth in g in r eply—I don’t kn ow

wh a t it was di stin ctly ; I thi nk h e said som eth ing

about wh at h e woul d h ave don e i f th ey h ad n ot takenh im o f f .

Willis brought an action against Forrest forthis assault, in the superior court of the city ofNew York, an d secured a verdict in March ,1852, for and costs . Th e case was ap'


pealed on exception s , an d, upon the n ew trialwhich was ordered, the damages were reduced toon e dollar. Forrest sued Willi s for libel inthe Home Journ al ” article, an d got $500damages. But in the mean time the suit for divorce h ad come to trial , in December, 1851,an d h ad been decided in Mrs . Forrest’s favor.Th e jury found the defendant guilty of adultery,found the plainti f f in n ocent , and gran ted her th edecree prayed for with a year al imony.

Thi s was one of the causes célébr es of the last

generation . Th e trial occupied the then extr aor

din a r ily long period of six weeks, and the prin tedtestimony fills two large volumes . CharlesO

’

Con or , who was Mrs . Forrest’s coun sel

, datedhis great reputation as an advocate from hisconduct of this case . For eighteen years hefought the battle for his fair client relen tlesslyan d triumphantly. Th e case was appeal ed fivetimes , an d judgment af firmed every time wi than in crease of alimony. It was n ot till 1868that the defendan t tired of resistance , and paidover to the plaintif f the sum of His

costs an d expen ses of litigation , addition al tothis

,were of course en ormous . It is un n eces

sary to review th e evidence given at th e trial, bywhich it was sought to in crimin ate Willis in thisafi a ir , further than to say that it consisted al

most solely oi the testimony of servants, who


necessary to go so far as this in order to assert the inn ocence of Mrs . Forrest a nd of thosewho were made parties to the accusation s again sther. A lger, in his b ig Life of E dwin Forrest

,after acknowledgi n g that

“ the in nocen ceof Mrs . Forrest is publicly accredited, and isn ot here impugned

: that she was believedby her intimate an d most hon ored friends to beinnocen t

,was vin dicated by a jury after a most

searching trial , an d is now livin g in modestand blameless retiremen t

,

” simply urges in Forrest’s behalf that he honestly believed himself awronged man, and acted with h is usual fury an d

unforgivingness upon that conviction . Willisan d h is brother were both amon g th e witnessesfor the plain tif f on the trial, an d both , of course,den ied peremptorily the charges against them.

But the one circumstance which more than allelse influenced the decision of the jury was theconstant presence in court of Mrs . N. P . Willis

,

side by side with Mrs . Forrest, an d the brave,clear, and simple way in which she testified inher friend’s behalf. N0 one could bel ieve that aspirited and refined lady

,like Mrs .Willis, would

have consented, for an instant , to put herselfinto such a position , without a full assurance ofher husband’s innocen ce ; an d no on e who listened to her testimon y could have thought her awoman likely to be deceived. John Van Buren,


who was Forrest’s lawyer in all these cases , wasquite generally censured for the needlessly abusive way in which he handl ed the witnesses forthe other side . In the trial of the assault andbattery case, Willis c . Forrest

,his personal

ities went so far beyond the limits usually set tothe licensed insolence of th e bar, that on thetermination of the suit Willis, who was aboutstarting on a trip to the South , and h ad learnedfrom an item in the Herald that Van Burenwas goin g South too, sent him a letter demanding an apology. In case he should decline tomake such apology, the letter proposed a hostilemeeting at Charleston or any other convenientpoint in the Southern States . This note the r ecipien t returned (after carefully making a copyof it) with a short reply, describing it as a sillyand scurrilous communication .

”Thi s it cer

tainly was not, but, on the other hand, a verydignified and gentlemanly letter ; rather toolong, it must be owned, for on these occasionsW illis ’s pen generally ran away with him.

However, on the receipt of this answer to it,which was forwarded to him at the South

,he r e

plied with suf ficien t brevity : I now pronounce

yOu a coward, as well as a proper companion forthe blackguards whose attorneyship constitutesyour career.”

This challenge was something of a flourish on


W ill is ’s part, and his experience with Marryatmight have taught h im the folly of such attemptsto get

“ th e satisfaction of a gentleman fromrailing editors an d attorneys . He took little byhis motion, which simply gave Van Buren anopportunity to publish the correspondence in aNew York morning paper with comments of hisown

,characteristically ugly an d ch ar acter isti

cally smart. Th e fact remained, however, thatVan Buren h ad been challen ged to fight and

h ad declined, and the general note made uponthe af f air by a venal press was to the e f fect that“ Prince John h ad shown the white f eather.”

Of the many letters of sympathy an d con gr atu

lation received by Mr . an d Mrs . Willis afterthe Forrest verdict

,th e following, from Mr. J.

P. Kennedy, the author of Swallow Barn,

”

will serve as an example

BA LTIMORE, Febr ua ry 2 , 1852 .

MY DE A R WILL IS , I have often r esolved duringth e wa r th e la te wa r , I h ope I m ay call it—to as

sum e th e pr ivilege of a fr iend a nd sen d you th e on lysuccor I coul d supply, a wor d o f com for t an d a cheeror two, to let you see th a t th er e wa s som e sympathyab r oad f or your suf f er ings , which I kn ow were pun

gen t en ough to make a very r espectable sa in t, if youram b ition lay in th at way. Now that you have gotth r ough cer ta in ly th e wor st pa r t o f your Ili ad in th eterm in ation of th at horrible trial, I th ink it a good


nothing beyond inference an d suspicion . Hencethe uncertainty which survives the judicial decision of the cause an d works injustice to thein nocent who have been unlucky enough to bedrawn into compromisin g situations. A n im

pression has always obtained in many quartersthat Willis was pr ofligate in his relations withwomen . Rumors to this efi ect were in dustriously circulated by his ill-wish ers, and, in oneinstance , they got into print in the shape of anaccusation publicly brought again st him by hisancient foe , Colonel James Watson Webb of the“ Courier an d E nquirer.” It is needless to r e

vive this venerable scandal or any of the lesstangible , miscellaneous gossip once afloat on thecurrent of New York society. It is no part ofa biographer

’s duty to “ vin dicate his subjectfrom any an d all charges of th e kind. I haveread the published documents in the WebbWillis af f air with a sincere e f fort to be impartial

, and they left upon my mind no impressionof anything worse on W illis

’

s part than vanityan d indiscretion in permitting himself to bedr a wn into a hal f literary, half sentimental cor

respon dence with a very roman tic youn g woman,without h er parents’ kn owledge . He was easilyflattered by a ttentions from female worshipersof genius. He maintained in prin t an d m person a constant a ttitude of gallantry toward the

THE HOME JOURNA L. 321

sex,which doubtless stimulated the rumor of his

immoralities,a nd. led the reader to identify him

with the Lotharios of his tales . Moreover, itis not to be denied that when a youn g man inItaly

, an d in the fast set of his London acquaintan ces , he was exposed to temptations which hedid not always resist, an d probably h ad hisshare of those adventures which the French in

dulgen tly call bon n es for tun es , but less liberalshepherds of A nglo-Saxon race give a grossername ; and which always turn out the reverseof good fortun es for everybody concern ed. A s

to his later life,one who knew him well but h ad

quarreled with him an d h ad small cause to likehim

,writes : “ My belief is that N. P . Willis

was,as he said

,perfectly free from fault in that

busin ess [th e Forrest af f air] , and h ad n o ih

tr igues with women after his marriage .”

Th e spring of 1852 foun d him much brokenin health . He h ad a wearing cough , and it wasthought that his lungs were diseased. He waitedonly the termination of his assault an d batterycase in March , to start on a journey to the Southwith his father-in -law

,Mr. Grin nell . Th e trip

included a cruise to Bermuda an d the WestIn dies

,a short stay in Charleston, Savannah,

an d New Orleans, a visit to the Mammoth Cave,an d a sojourn at the neighboring waterin g-placeof Harr odsburg Springs . His letters to the

21


Home Journal from these and other pointsin the South were reissued in book form as A

Health Trip to th e Tropics .” Durin g the yearscovered by this chapter he published a numberof volumes similarly made up of periodical corresponden ce and miscell aneous contributions tohis paper. Rural Letters contained his In

valid Letters from Germany ; a reprint of Letters from under a B r idge,

” with two additionalto those in the earlier editions Open A irMusings in the C ity letters from SharonSprin gs an d Trenton Falls in the summer of1848 ; and one story

,

“ A Plain Man’s Love.”

Hur rygr aph s comprised a series of lettersfrom Plymouth

,New Bedford, Cape Cod, and

places on the Delaware an d Hudson rivers ; besides sketches often very acute pieces of mental portraiture of public men

,authors, an d

other celebrities, and a good deal of chit-chatabout society, the opera, etc. , from the columnsof th e “Home Jour n aA ll that can be said of these traveler’s lettersis that they are fairly good reporting . Theyhardly attain the ran k of literature, an d were asa whole not worth putting between covers . ButWillis sold well an d, therefore , found his accountin continued book-making , bringing out, usually

,simultaneous editions in London and New

York. It is instructive to compare his letters


curs a startlin g an ticipation of the most admiredfigure in Ten n yson

’s Queen Mary

A s we stood ga zin g at thi s, last n igh t, a little a f

ter midn igh t, th e m oon th r ew th e sh adow o f th e r ockslan twise a cr oss th e face o f th e f a ll. I f ound m yselfin sen sibly wa tch in g to see wheth er th e delicate out

lin e o f th e sh adow would n ot va ry. Th ere it lay, stilla s th e sh ade o f a church window a cr oss a ma rble slabon th e wa ll, dr awi n g its fin e lin e over th e m ost frenzied tum ult of th e la sh ed and agon ized water s, anddividin gwh a tever leapt acr oss it, foam , spr ay, or dr iving mist, with in va r iable truth f ul n ess to th e r ock th atlay beh ind. Now

,m y son g

-m aker , if you ever h avea gr eat m an to m ake f am ous a h er o wh o unflin ch

ingly r epr esen ts a gr eat pr in ciple am id th e r aging op

position , h a tr ed, and ma lice o f mankind— th er e is

your sim ilitude Ca lm a s th e sh adow of a r ock a cr oss

th e f oam of a ca ta r a ct.”

Willis was induced by Mr. Moore , the pro

pr ietor and landlord, to edit a small illustrated

guide-book to Tren ton Falls ; his own con tr ibu

tions to which consisted of description s reproduced from these letters and from “ E dith Linsey,

”an d a short biography of the Rev. John

Sherman , the first settler and a grandson ofRoger Sherman . In th e same way an d in th esame year (1851) he put together a little Lifeof Jenny Lin d,

” for whom h e h ad an ardent admiration, an d whom he h ad been privileged to meet


often and familiarly durin g her first visit toA merica. This was

,of course , not a formal b i

ogr aphy, but was made up from articles that heh ad written about her from time to time for theHome Journal

,

”a nd extracts from the E n glish

papers . He also issued selections from his former volumes under new names . Such werePeople I have Met

,

”an d Life Here and

There ,” which were stories from Dashes at

Life ,”and contained little or nothing n ew

, and

A Summer Cruise in the Mediterranean,which was a mere reprint of a part of Pencillings by the Way.

”

CHA PTER VIII.

1853—1867 .

IDLEWILD A ND LA ST DA YS.

MR . an d. Mrs . Willi s , with their children , h adpassed the summer of 1850at Cornwall, in thehigh lands of the Hudson , boardin g at the farmhouse o f a Mrs . Sutherland. They grew so at

tach ed to the beautiful neighborhood that theyresolved to make it their home some day, and

with this in view,in the fall of the same year,

they h ad bought the fifty acres of land whichafterwards became widely known as Idl ewild.

This little domain lay upon a shelf or terrace onthe western bank of the Hudson, lifted sometwo hundred feet above the level of the river,at the poin t where its waters received the slen

der tribute of Moodn a Creek . Behind the sitechosen for the house was a wild ravine, shadedby hemlocks

,at the bottom of which a brook,

swollen to sizable rapids an d cascades by theSpring freshets, but a mere trickle in m idsum

mer,ran down to join the creek. Th e location

seemed destined by nature for a gen tleman’s


cided that autumn to begin building at once, andto take up his perman en t abode in the country.

Durin g the win ter an d spring he remained withhis family a t th e Sutherlan ds’, and busied himself in superintending the erection of his house,laying out roads an d paths, cutting vistas throughhis trees

,

“building ston e wall s, constructin g adam for his brook, an d reporting progress in

gossipy letters to the Home Journal .” In thesprin g of 1853 the New York house wa s sold,an d on th e 26th of July Idlewild received itstenants .Willis h ad a happy knack at inventing names,

and if everything that he wrote should becomeobsolete

,h e wil l still have left his sign man ual

on the A merican landscape and the E n glishton gue . Idlewild was an apt and beautifuln ame

,an d like Sunnyside, the place became and

remains one of the historic points of the sceneryof the Hudson . Th e story that Willi s tells ofthe origin of the word is this : Th e old farmera nd fisherman wh o owned the land uncle ofth e Ward boys,

” of aquatic fame was showing h im over the property, andWillis, inquiringthe price of this particular piece, was answeredthat it h ad little value , being an idle wild ofwhich nothing could ever be made . I fancythat this little anecdote is in part a myth, invented after the fact to give the name a history

IDLEWILD AND LAST DAYS. 329

an d a justification . Willis was particular, notto say fussy, in such matters, an d the title finallychosen was obtained by a process of eliminationfrom a list that I have seen, of several hundredpretty

,fon d, adoption s christendoms,

” such asEverwild, Mieux-ici , Lodore, Loudwater, Idlebrook , Wan derw ild, Up

-the-brook, Sh adywild,Loiterwild, Demijour-brook, etc.

Thus ten years after the break-up of his homeat Glenmary

,he h ad aga in pitched his pavilion

th is time for good by green pastures an d

runn ing waters . Henceforth he abjured fashion able life an d devoted himself to the domesticities to the care of his health and his grounds,the entertainmen t of his guests, an d the preparation of his weekly letter to the “ Hom e Journa There was little left in him of that dandyism which h ad distressed his critics . But theold coats an d hats which he loved to wear wereworn with a certain grace peculiar to the man .

He could n ot put on the seediest garment without straightway imparting to it an air of jan utiness . He was fond of pets an d was a most playful and af fectionate companion to his children

,

the number of whom gradually in creased to fiveby the birth of a third daughter, Edith, on September 28

,1853, an d a second son , Bailey, on

May 31, 1857 . A l l of these survive , but hislast child

,a daughter, born October 31, 1860,

lived only a few minutes .


From early spring till after Christmas thefamily at Idlewild kept open house, having al

most always company stayin g with them , and insummer constan tly receivin g transient guests .Th e place h ad become celebrated through Willis’s descriptions in the Home Journal .” Cornwall was growing to be a summer resort, an d

there were daily visits to the glen and to thehouse from all manner of people . W illis’shabit was to breakfast in his own room an d

write till noon . Sometimes he would take astroll to the post of fice or th e glen before dinner.A fter dinner he would write letters or do scissors work before the aftern oon drive or ride .Th e evening was spent with his guests , or, if thefamily were alone, he would write again and

come down to a nine o’clock supper.From the trivial incidents of this daily life hewove his correspondence ; enough of it, at last,to fill two volumes, Out Doors at Idl ewildand Th e Convalescent the former dedicatedto Mr. Grinnell , the latter to Doctors Will iamBeattie and John F. Gray

,his physicians, and

both books addressed more particularly to theauthor’s parish of invalids .” These lettershave by no means the literary merit of the Letters from under a Bridge ,

”and it was, perhaps ,

presuming too far on their claim to even con

temporary respect to bind them up at all after


Charles A . Dana, De Trobriand, of the Courrier des Etats -Un is ; Hicks and Kensett

,the

painters,came up from New York at various

times,and rambled, bathed, or otherwise dis

ported themselves in th e glen . Whipple and

Fields ran across from Boston an d made a pleasan t visit o f two or three days, of which both a f

terwa rds gave reminiscences . Fields loved torecall an anecdote that Willis told him

,of his

watching a little ragged girl, one day in London,who was peering through an area railing. A

window of a comfortable eating-house gave uponthis area, and a man sat at th e window takinga good din ner. Th e child watched his everymovement, saw him take a beefsteak and get allthings in readiness to begin ; then he stopped and

looked round. Now a per taty,’ murmured the

child.

In th e summer of 1854, Willis h ad a callfrom his down-river neighbor, Washington I rving, and repaid it at Sunnyside in 1859 , in company with J . P. Kennedy an d Lieutenant Wise ,the author of Los Gringos, who h ad bothbeen passing a day or two with him at Idlewi ld.

Irving drove them through Sleepy Hollow, asrecounted in Th e Convalescent,

” in which thisvisit fil ls an agreeable chapter an dWillis char

f or h is illustr a ted a r ticle in Ha rper’s Magazine f or January,

1858, q. v . f or a f ull descr iption of th e place.

IDLEWILD AND LAST DA YS . 333

acter istically begged his host to give him hisblottin g-sheet for memorabilia

,as bein g th e

door-mat on which the thoughts of Irvin g’s last

book h ad wiped their sandals as they went in .

”

Th e Convalescen t (1859) was the last bookwhich Willis published, if we except some lateeditions of his poems, but there are gleams in it,here and there, of the wit an d fancy that neverquite forsook him . There was, for instance , along and very dark covered bridge over Moodn a

Creek, which he always en tered with dread,

when on horseback, and which he described as

giving a promise of emergen ce to light on th e

other side,which required th e faith of a gimlet.

”

Upon th e whole, it would be a very dif ficul treader

‘who should refuse to admit the pleawhich the author urges in behal f of books ofTh e Convalescent kind. I learn ed also, tomy comfort, that Nature publishes some volumeswith many leaves, which are not intended to beof any posthumous value the white poplar n otlastin g three moon light n ights after it is cut

down . E ven with such speedy decay, however,it throws a pleasant shade while it flourishes ;an d so, white poplar literature recognized as aclass in literature , should have 1ts brief summerof in dulgence .

”

Willis found that his best medicine was horseback riding, and spent as many hours as he could

334 N A THA N IE L PARKER WILLIS.

in the saddl e . His horses an d dogs were a greatsource of amusement to him . O n e of his special pets was Cmsa r , a superb Newfoundland,that h ad been with Dr. Kane on one of his A r c

tic voyages , and was afterwards presented toWillis . When it died its grave at Idl ewild wasmarked by a marble slab , the gift of Brown ,

thefamous Grace Church sexton

,with an epitaph of

his own composition . Th e slab wa s on exh ib i

tion for a time , in July, 1862 , at Barnum’s m u

seum , and the inscription on it ran as follows

CIS SA R,

WHO MA DE THE V O YA GE TO THE A RCTICR EGIONS W ITH DR . K A NE

,

A ND W A S A FTERW A RDS THE FA V O RI TE DOG OF THE CHILDREN OF IDLEW I LD

,

L IES BUR I ED BENEA TH TH I S STONE .

Died Decem ber 7 , 186 1 , aged th ir teen year s.

Thy m aster ’s r ecor d of th y wor th m ade th ee of gr eat r enown,

A nd caused th is tr ibute to th y m em ory from Sexton Brown .

In 1854 a book was published which becamethe occasion of many heart-burn ings , an d of accusation s against Willis that have not yet ceasedto go th e roun ds of the newspapers . This wasRuth Hal l, a Domestic Tale of the Present

Time, by Fanny Fern . Th e lady who wroteunder this pen name was his younger sister, Sarah

,the author of much cleverish literature

Fern Leaves,

”and the like which once en


of the Home Journal, and Mr. Parton retiredfrom the paper, his place being supplied by Mr.T. B . A ldrich . Smarting under a sense of n eglect by her kinsfolk, Fann y Fern wrote and

prin ted this novel of Ruth Hall,in which

,

under a very thin mask of fiction , she washeda deal of family linen in public. Willis figurestherein as Hyacin th

,a heartless puppy

,

” whoworships social position

,has married an heiress,

inhabits a villa on the Hudson, and is the pros

perons editor of the Irving Magazine WhenRuth asks him to help her byprinting her piecesin this periodical, he coldly assures her that shehas no talent

,and advises her to seek some

unobtrusive employment.” But when she becomes famous and begin s to get letters fromcollege presiden ts, begging her for her auto

graph , an d from grateful readers , saying, I

am a better son , a better brother, a better husband, an d a better father than I was before Icommenced reading your articles . God blessyou !” then

, un der these triumphant circumstances, Hyacinth , who h ad given 38100 for avase when Ruth was starvin g , is proud to poin tout to a friend, as they sit together in the porchof his coun try seat, a beautiful schooner tackin g up stream with Floy,

” his sister’s Rom -cle

p lum e, painted on the bows .A gainst this caricature of himself Willis made


no public protest . When a man is wounded inthe house of his frien ds

,his on ly refuge is si

len ce . But in priva te an d to his in timates heasserted that the attack ,

upon him in “ RuthHall ” was most unfa ir ; that he had helped h issister in th e early days of h er widowhood, butthat after h er second marriage and divorce heh ad ceased to have any communication with her

,

a n d felt justified in letting her alone . Williswas doubtless a man who took his r espon sib ili

ties lightly. But h ad he felt ca lled upon to dohis utmost for Fanny Fe rn

,even to the end, it is

easy to see how his hands were tied in variousways . He h ad an expensive family of his own ,whose support depen ded upon his pen . Hishome on the Hudson h ad been purchased withhis wife ’s in heritan ce . A s to payin g

-his sisterfor articles in the “ Home Journal

,supposing

them to have been otherwise acceptable,the

editors were con stan tly reiterating that th e paper did not, as a rule, pay its contributors a ny

thin g , an d could not afi or d to do so . It paid itsown editoria l staf f , an d that was all . Con tr ibu

tors were glad to write for it for th e pleasureof seeing themselves in print .Willis continued to put forth permutations

an d combinations of old matter under new titles ,as lon g as his books would sell. Fun Jottin gs,

”

Ephemera,” Famous Persons an d Places

338 NA THA N IE L PARKER WILLIS.

and Th e Rag-Bag were a ll made up from the

contents of previous volumes , or the teemingsheets of the Mirror an d Home Journal.But in 1857 he published something new, PaulFane ,

”hi s only novel, an d the only book which

he wrote a s a book, an d not as one or more contr ibution s to periodicals. So exclusively afeui lletom

’

ste h ad he made himself, that any talentfor construction on a larger scale which he mayonce have h ad was quite frittered away.

“ I t h as been with difficult subm ission to m a rketablen ess ,

”h e h ad wr itten in h is pr ef ace to Da sh es

a t Life,” “

that th e auth or h as br oken up h is sta tuesat th e join ts an d fur n ish ed each fr agm en t with h eadan d legs to wa lk al on e. Con tinua lly accum ulatin gm a ter ia l, with th e desir e to pr oduce a work o f fiction ,h e was a s con tinua lly tem pted by extr avagan t pr icesto shape th ese sepa r a te f orm s of society and ch a r a cterin to ta les f or per iodica ls and between two per suad

er s— th e law o f copyr igh t, on th e on e h and, pr ov id

ing th at A m erican books a t f a ir pr ices sh ould com pete

with books to be h ad f or n othing ; an d n ecessity, onth e oth er h and, pleadin g m uch more poten tly th an th eambition f or an adul t statur e in liter a ry fam e h e

h as gon e on a cquir in g a h ab it of da sh in g o f f f or a

m aga zin e any ch an ce view of lif e th a t tur n ed up to

h im, and sellin g in f ragm en tary ch apter s what Sh ould

have been kept togeth er , and moulded in to a pr oportion ate work o f imagin ation .

If Paul Fane , or Parts of a Life E lse Un

340 NATHA N1EL PARKER WILLIS.

equipped f or success in this field. He could n ot

keep his fancy in check ; there must be a dash ofromance

,of exaggeration in his tale . A n d he

was a quick observer rather than a patient student o f man n ers , as of other things . He lackedth e sober

,truthful vigi lance of James an d How

ells . Miss Firkin ,in this book

,an overdone

Daisy Miller, an d Bliv in s,an A m erican type

once rumored to have existed, but inconceivableat this distan ce of time

,show how far his exe

cution fell below th e fin e an d solid work of ourcontemporary realists . There are passages ofvulgarity in Paul Fane which are a surprisein any book of W illis’s , but which came ratherfrom the weakness an d failure of his hand in itsattempt to execute scen es of broad hum or, thanfrom any crudity of feeling . This kin d of violent a nd assumed indelicacy on the part of natur ally refin ed writers , when they are trying toput on th e healthy coarsen ess of a Hogarth orTeniers

,is a not uncommon phenomenon da in ti

ness mistakin g coarseness for the strength ofwhich it is often a sign or an accompaniment.In Th e Convalescen t were included narra

tives of a trip to the Rappah an n ock, to Nantucket

,an d to th e h or se fair at Springfield, Mas

sachusetts . In July, 1860, W illis accompaniedMr. Grinnell on a journey to the West,— r e

ported for the Home Jour n a as a “ Three


Weeks’ Trip to the West, goin g to YellowSprin gs, Ohio , an d Chicago, and as far as Mad

ison,Wisconsin ; then descendin g the Mississippi

in a steamboat to St. Louis, and return in g E astby way of C incinnati an d Pittsburgh .

In W illis’s later writings his verbal af f ectations gained upon him to an in tolerable extent.Mr. N. P. Willis,

” says Bartlett in his Dic

tion a ry of A merican isms,” has the reputation

of inventin g many new words, some of which ,though not yet embodied in our dictionaries , aremuch used in familiar lan guage .

” One of thephrases whi ch Bartlett accredits to him is, theupper ten

,originally and in full, the upper

ten thousand of New York city.

”This seems

likely to keep its place in the language. Ja

pon icadom took at the time,but has n ow gone

out. He h ad a fondn ess for agglutinations .Com elat-able is a convenien t word whi ch istraced to his min t ; and Professor George P.

Marsh,in his Origin an d History of the E n g

lish Lan guage , lends the weight of his authority to W illis’s Stay-at-home-itiven ess,

" as asyn onym for the Greek o ZK ovpc

’

a, an d the early

E n glish studestap elvestn es se. But such philological monsters as r e-June-ven escen ce, worthwhile - ativen ess , fif ty - per - cen tity, with whichsome of his books a r e strewn , have a painfullyforced efi ect, and the trick became , from repeti«


tion,a tedious mann erism . Punning , likewise,

was a habit which grew upon him, though both ofthese of fenses are commoner in his private correspondence than in his published work.

A t the outbreak of th e civil war in the sprin gof 1861, there was a rush of newspaper mento Washin gton . It was decided that the HomeJourn al

,

” too, should have its wa r correspondent,a nd accordingly Willi s, bidding good-by to Idlewild, flun g himself into the tide of journ alistssoldiers, politicians, o f f ice-seekers, contractors,and specul ators of all sorts

,settin g toward th e

seat of government. A t Baltimore he stayed overa day with his friend Kennedy, who was promiuently men tioned for the secretaryship of thenavy, an d who wen t on to Washington with Willis

,where the latter in troduced him an d Reverdy

Johnson to Mrs . Lincoln . Th e feedin g of theHome Journal ” p r ess wi th Lookings-on atthe War proved a lon ger job than Willis h adanticipated. It kept him in Washington forover a year

,with occasional furloughs for a hur

ried visit home . He h ad always been curiouslyin di f feren t to politics . His opinions h ad beenWhiggish , a nd he was , of course, a Union man.

But be retain ed a secret sympathy with th e

South,and a likin g for those chivalrous, poly

syllabic Southern ers,in capable of a short word or

a mean action,” whom he h ad known at Saratoga

344 N A THA N IEL PARKER WILLIS.

was introduced to Gen eral McClellan an d to thecabinet officers, an d th e numerous congressmenan d brigadiers wh o swarmed Pennsylvan ia A v e

nue an d crowded th e lobbies at Will ard’s . He

wen t out to all manner of receptions an d dinnerparties , an d became quite a favorite with Mrs.Lin coln , who drove him out frequently in herbarouche, h ad him to dine en fam i lle at th eWhite House

,sen t him flowers

,and promised

him a va se presented to the President by theEmperor of China . In one of his letters to theHome Journal

,

” he h ad described her as havin g a motherly expression ,

” whereupon she addressed him the following note

EXECUTI V E MA NS1ON , July 24th .

MR . N . P. W ILLIS

Dea r S ir ,— I t will a f f or d m e much pleasur e to

r eceive your self and ladies 1 th is even ing. O f cour seanyth ing Mr . Wi llis writes is in ter esting, yet, pa r donm y weakn ess, I obj ect to th e moth er ly expr ession .

”

I f you va lue my fr iendsh ip, h a sten to have it cor

r ected bef or e th e publ ic is a ssur ed th at I am an old

lady with Sp ecta cles . Wh en I am f or ty, four yea r sh en ce, I will w illingly yield to th e decr ees of tim e and

f a te.

Rath er an in dica tion , is it n ot, that year s have n ot

pa ssed a s ligh tly by ! I r ely on you f or ch angi ng

th at expr ession bef or e m y age is p ublicly procla im ed.

1 Lady G. Fan e a nd Mr s . Clif f ord.

IDLE WILD AND LAST DA YS . 345

Quite a m orm ng lectur e, yet you certa in ly deserve it.Be kind en ough to accept thi s modest bouquet f r om

Your sincere friend,MA RY LINCOLN .

A sudden fit of sickness h ad hinderedW illis’splan to follow the army to Bull Run f or tu

n ately, no doubt, as the correspondent who tookhis place was made prisoner. He afterwardstook horseback rides into the enemy’s country,once narrowly escaping capture near MountVernon

, and made excursions to Fortress Mon

roe , Manassas, O ld Point Comfort, etc. OnMarch 15, 1862, he was of the party which visited Harper’s Ferry at the invitation of thepresident of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

Hawthorne, too , was of the party an d reportedthe occasion in his article, Ch iefly about WarMatters ,

” in the July A tlantic of that year.Hawthorn e is shy and reserved, wrote Willi sin one of his letters to his wife

,

“ but I foundhe was a lover of mine, an d we enjoyed our ao

quaintance very much .

”Emerson an d Curtis

lectured in Washin gton while Willis was there,an d Greeley dined with him in Jan uary, 1862.

Th e novelty and excitement of life at the capital were agreeable at first, but he soon grewhomesick an d pined for his beloved Idlewild.

In consequence of the war, the circulation of

346 N A THA NIE L PARKER WILLIS.

the Home Journal,a large proportion of

Whose subscribers were in th e South,h ad fallen

ofi seriously. Willis found himself greatlystraitened, an d was obliged to close h is coun tryhouse for a time . Mrs . Willis an d the childrenh ad spent the winter an d spring of 1861—62 atNew Bedford, with her fa ther. In A pril sheren ted Idlewild an d went wi th her family to passthe summer at Campton , near Plymouth , NewHampshire . In June Willis left Washington andjoined her at Campton for a few days

,and then

return ed to New York and took lodgin gs forhimself. Morris’s health h ad grown so feebletha t it became necessary for his partn er to applyhimself more closely to the man agemen t of thepaper an d do double work . He h ad been muchopposed to the ren ting of Idlewild, an d it troubled h im to think of the place in the hands ofstrangers . He paid it a vi sit in A ugust, by l nv itation of his ten an t

,a Mr. Dennis , an d was

very hospitably treated. In the autumn of thefollowing year (1863) Mrs . Willis opened atIdlewild a little school for girls, in the hope ofpersuading her husband to leave New York an d

come home for life . He appreciated her en ergyan d devotion ,

shown through lon g years offailing health an d fortun e, - but he doomedhimself to homeless exile

, an d refused to abandon h is post. ! He was opposed to the school


rowing fates . He h ad long borne up against illhealth with the gay courage of a cavalier. Hispen faltered, but nothin g that it wrote gavesigns of bitterness or discouragement. Towardthe last his temper

,which h ad been uniformly

sweet, sometimes grew irritable and morbid,though nothing of this appeared in his writing .

A s early as 1852 he h ad fancied that he h adconsumption, but his cough turned out to bemerely sympathetic,

’

and his lungs were pron oun ced sound. His disease finally declared itself as epilepsy

, an d resulted at the last in par alysis an d softening of the brain . He wassubject for years to epileptic fits , occurrin g per iodically, usually on the tenth day. Duringthese attacks, so long as his strengt h lasted, hewas extremely violen t, but as he grew weaker,they sim ply made him unconscious, leaving him

greatly prostrated when the fit was over. Th e

tr ue nature of his malady was, for some years ,known only to his wife and his physician , Dr.Gray

,who feared that it might injure Willis

’

s

business an d literary interests if it were publiclyunderstood that his brain was af f ected, or indan ger of being af f ected. Willis was himselfvery sensitive on this poin t

, an d begged that n ostranger might see him during his attacks . A o

cordingly, th e matter was kept secret as long aspossible. A fter W illis’s death , one of his phy

IDLE WILD AND LAST DA YS . 349

sician s, Dr. J. B. F. Walker, printed someMedical Reminiscences of N. P. Willis,

” inthe course of which he said : Not only was he amartyr to the agonies of sharp and sudden at

tacks, bn t he suf f ered all the languors of chronicdisease . With the exception of Henry Heine,there has hardly been a man of letters doomedto such protracted torments from bodily disea sef

’

Under these trying circumstan ces he exhibiteda persistence in his work whi ch astonished hisfriends . They h ad not thought that such endurance was in the man. But from some underlyin g stratum of character, some strain of toughness inherent in his Puritan stock, he broughtup resources of will and stubbornness which r e

sisted all appeals . Though complaining sometimes in his letters that he was pitilessly overworked

,

” he declared his intention of dyin g inharness

, and clung to his desk and his lonelylodgings till the doctors pronounced him a dyingm an . A part of the summers of 1865 an d 1866

he spent at Idlewild, but the autumn of the latter year foun d him still at work in the city. He

was now so weak that he often fainted in thestreet and h ad to be carried to his rooms . Hispartner

,Morris Phillips

,was untiring in his at

tentions and finally, early in November, hebrought him home to Idlewild,Willi s yielding


at last to the united en treaties of his wife,his

father,and his sisters, an d the imperative com

mand of his doctor,to stop work . But he h ad

come home on ly to die. He kept his room an d

seldom went down-stairs . During the first mon thhe h ad some en joymen t of the home associations ,taking pleasure in the daily visit of his children ,an d listening to the reading of poetry, more forits soothing efi ect than for any in tell ectual apprehension of it. He soon became helpless andslept much of the time , an d when waking lived incon tinual visions an d hallucinations . His r ec

ogn ition of his family was fitf ul during the lastsix or eight weeks of his life . He was watchedan d cared for by his wife and faithful Harriet

,

and no strange hand ministered to him ormarked his failing consciousness . He died onthe aftern oon of the 20th of January, 1867,his sixty-fir st birthday, - so quietly that the sin

gle watcher could not say when . He was takento Boston

, and buried in Mount A uburn . Th e

funeral service of the E piscopal Church wasread over his body in St. Paul’s Church, by theRev. F. D . Huntington, the bookstores of thecity being closed, in token of respect, whilethe service lasted. His pall was borne by Lon gfellow

,Dan a

,Holm es, Lowell, Fields, Whipple,

Edmund Quincy, Dr. Howe, Merritt Trimble ,and A ldrich . I took the flower which lies be


But,laying aside all question of appeal to that

formidable tribunal, posterity the many contem

por a r ies who have owed hours of refined enjoyment to his graceful talent will join heartilywith Thackeray in his assertion It is comfortable that there should have been a Willis.”

A PPENDIX.

BIBLIOGRA PHY .

THE following is a list o f th e first edition s of Willis’s books. In a f ew in sta n ces these were publishedfirst in E ngland. In such cases th e London edi tionon ly is given . Most o f h is later works were publish edsimultan eously, or n ea r ly so, in E ngland a nd A m er ica .

In such cases on ly th e fir st A mer ican edition is given .

Of th e various collective edition s o f his ver se, publish ed sin ce 1844, on ly th e fin al an d most com plete ismen tion ed, viz. , th e Cla rk Mayn ard edition of

1868 (No . No rea lly complete edition of Willis’s writin gs h a s ever been prin ted. Th e first colleetive edition which laid claim to bein g complete wasen titled : Th e Complete Works of N . P. Willis. 1

vol ., 895 pp. New York : J. S . Redfield, 1846 .

Th e thir teen volum es in un if orm style, issued byCh arles Scribn er f r om 1849 to 1859 , form as n earlya com plete edition of Willis’s prose sin ce 1846 as isever likely to be made.

1 . Sketch es . 96 pp. Boston : S. G. Goodr ich , 1827 .

2 . Fugi tive Poetry. 91 pp. Boston : Peir ce 85 William s, 1829 .

23

854 A PPENDIX.

3.

10.

Poem deliver ed bef or e th e Society of United Br oth er s,

at Br own Uni ver sity, on th e Day pr ecedin g Com

m en cem en t, Septem ber 6 , 1831 , with oth er poem s .

76 pp . New Yor k J. 85J. Ha r per , 1831 .

Melan ie and O th er Poem s . E dited by Ba r ry Cor n

wall . 231 pp . London Saunder s O tley, 1835.

Th e fir st A m er ican edition wa s publish ed by Saunder s O tley, a t New Yor k

,in 1837, and con ta in ed

som e addition a l pieces . 242 pp .

Pencillings by th eWay. 3vols . London : Macr one,

1835.

Th is was an im per f ect edition . Th e fir st com pleteedition wa s publish ed by Mor r is Willis, in th e

Mir r or Libr a r y,”New Yor k , 1844 .

Inklings o f A dven tur e . 3v ols . London : Saunder s

O tley, 1836 .

Bian ca V iscon ti or,Th e Hea r t O ver ta sked. A Tr ag

edy in Fiv e A cts . New Yor k : Sam uel Colm an ,

1839 .

Tor tesa or , Th e Usur er Match ed. A Play by N . P.

W illis . New Yor k Sam uel Colm an ,1839 .

Nos . 7 and 8 wer e publish ed in on e v olum e in E ng

land. Two Ways o f Dying f or a Husband. 1 .

Dying to keep Him or,Tor tesa th e Usur er . 2 .

Dying to lose Him or , Bian ca V iscon ti . 245 pp .

London Hugh Cun n ingh am ,1839 .

21 1’ A br i ; or , Th e Ten t Pitch ed. New Yor k : Sam

uel Colm an,1839 .

Th is wa s pub lish ed as Letter s f r om under a

Br idge, togeth er with poem s, by Geor ge V ir tue ,in London , 1840; and under th e sam e title, withth e addition o f th e “ Letter to th e Pur ch aser of

Glenm a r y,”by Mor r is Willis in th e “Mir r or

Lib r a r y,”New Yor k , 1844 .

Loiter ings o f Tr avel . 3vols . London : Longm an ,

1840.

356 A PPENDIX.

The Conva lescen t . New Yor k : Ch ar les Scr ibner ,1859 .

Th e Poem s, Sacr ed, Pa ssion ate, and Hum or ous of

N . P. W illis. Comp lete edition . 380 pp. New

Yor k Clar k 85Mayn ar d, 1868.

The followin g list in cludes th e works edited, compiled, and partly wri tten by W illis, but n ot th e va r ious jour n als and magazin es o f wh ich h e wa s editor.

1. Th e Legenda ry . Edited by N . P. Willis. 2 vols .

Boston Sam uel G. Goodr ich , 1828 .

2 . Th e Token . A Ch r istm a s and New Yea r ’s Pr esen t.Edited by N . P. Willis. Boston S . G . Goodr ich ,1829 .

3. A m er ican Scen ery. Fr om Dr awings byW . H. Bar t

lett . Th e Liter a ry Depa r tm en t by N . P. Willi s,E sq. 2 v ols . London Geor ge V ir tue, 1840.

4. Can adi an Scen ery. Fr om Dr awings by W . H. Ba r t

lett. Th e Liter a ry Depa r tm en t by N . P. W illis,E sq. 2 vols . London Geor ge V ir tue, 1842 .

5. Th e Scen ery and A n tiquities o f Ir eland . Illustr atedby Dr awings f r om W . H. Ba r tlett . Th e Liter a ry

Por t ion o f th e Wor k by N . P. Willis and J. Ster

lin g Coyn e, E sqs . London Geor ge V ir tue, 1842 .

The Opa l . New Yor k J. C . Riker , 1844 .

7 . Tr en ton Falls . E dited by N . Pa r ker Willis. 90pp .

New Yor k Geor ge P. Putn am ,1851 .

8 . Mem or anda of th e Lif e o f Jenny Lin d. By N . Pa r

ker Willis . 238 pp . Ph iladelphia Rober t E .

Peter son , 1851 .

9 . Th e Th ough t Blossom . A Mem en to. New YorkLeavitt 85 A llen , 1854 .

O!

INDEX .

A BERDEEN , LORD, 151 , 186 , 189 .

A dam s , Joh n , pr in cipa l of Ph il lipsA cadem y, 18 , 27 .

A dam s , W illiam ,27 , 28.

A lbum ,Th e

,49 .

A ldr ich ,T. B 298 , 336 , 350.

A lger ’s Life of For rest , 316 .

A llston , Wash in gton ,91.

A m ar an th , Th e, 101.

A m ateur , Th e , t r a vest ies Willis , 90A m er ican Mon th ly Magaz in e

,Th e

20, 21, 51 ; establish ed by Willis82 ; con t r ibutor s to, 83, 84 ; Willi s ’s con tr ibution s to, 84—88 dis

con tinuan ce oi , 98 , 99 ; 206 , 207265.

A m er ican Rev iew,Th e

,275.

A ndover,sch ool life a t , 18

—20.

A n nua ls , Th e , 77—80.

A n tr obus’s , Lady , a Supper a t , 159.

A ppleton,T. G.

,82 .

A pth or p , Mr s .,h er sem in a ry at New

Haven , 57A th en aeum ,

Th e , Will is’s con tr ibu

tion s to ,164

,216

,217 .

A tlan t ic Mon th ly , Th e , 345 ; r em i

n iscen ces o f Wi ll is in , 351.

A tlan t ic Souven ir , Th e, 49 , 77 .

A yton n , W. E .,h is par ody of Me

lan ie, 181.

BA ILEY, JOHN , an an cestor of Willis,

4

Ba illie, Joan n a , Willis’s a cqua in tan ce w ith , 160, 163

—165, 167 271.

Bar ry Cor nwa ll . See P r octer .

Bar tlett , W . H. ,128

,221

,222

, 249 .

Ba r tlett ’s Dict ion ary o f A m er ican

ism s quotes Willis , 341 .

Beattie, Dr . Wm .

,97 , 149 , 166 , 330.

Beech er , E dwa r d, 35, 94 , 95.

Belkn ap, A biga il , 5.

Ben jam in , Ma ry , Wil lis’s en gage

m en t to , 96 , 97 , 140; poem to,97

183.

Ben jam in , Pa rk , 83, 96 .

Ber keley , Gr an t ley, h is duel withMaginn

,196 , 197 .

Ber m uda , v isit to , 321.

B lackwood ’s Magazin e,180, 195.

Blessin gton,Ma r gar et , Coun tess of ,

Will is ’s in tr oduction to,131

,134

,

135 ; h er r eception s at Seam or e

Place, 137—139 ; h er position in

liter atur e and society, 137 , 138 ,158

,159 ; h er kindness to Willis,

141,148, 156 , 16

5

,168 ; letter to

Willis , from ,173, 174 ; 151 , 186 ,

192,193

,237

,246

,251

,270, 283.

Boln ey Pr ior y, 283.

Bon apa r te, Jer om e, en ter tain s Will is at Flor en ce

,120.

Bon apar te, Lucien ,159 .

Boston , Will is’s r esiden ce in

,10, 16 ,

17 , 7 1—99 ; l iter atur e and

'society

in, 83, 92 , 93; Wi llie’s feelin gs

towa r d,99 .

Boston Cour ibr , 86 , 87 .

Boston La tin Sch ool , 16 , 17 .

Boston Recor der , establish ed byWill is ’s fath er , 9 ; h is con tr ibution s to , 48, 49 , 52, 71.

Boston Statesm an , 89 , 91.

Boston Tr a vel ler , 90.

Botta, Mr s . Vin cen zo, 293.

Bow r in g, S ir Joh n , 111, 119, 141,Br istol Repor ter , 49 .

Br oth er Jon ath an, Th e, Wi llis a

con t r ibutor to, 259 , 260, 262 , 263;239 .

Br own, Sexton , h is epitaph on Cae

sa r , 332.

Br own Un iver sity,Wil lis’s poem b e

for e,100

,104.

B ryan t , W. C . ,49

,217 , 220, 291, 308 ,

310,313.

Buckin gh am,J . T. ,

86 - 88 .

Bulwer , E . L . ,138

,141

, 237 .

Bush n ell , Hor ace , 32 , 33

, 47 .

358 INDEX.

Byr on , A da , 164, 168.

Byr on , Lady, 164 , 168, 216.

C/ESA R,Dr . Kan e’s dog , 334.

Cam pbell , Th om a s , a dinn er with

166,167 149

,245.

Cape Cod , letter s fr om , 322 , 323.

Ca r r,Mr . , otter s Willis Secr eta rysh ip

a t Tan gier s , 112.

Cen sor , Th e , 90.

Ch ann in g, W. E .

,144

,216 ; Willis

’s

Sketch _o f , 164 .

Ch ar lev ille,Lady , 156 , 157 .

Ch en ey, J.

,80, 81.

Ch ild , Mr s . L . M., 80, 90, 199 .

Ch oler a in Pa r is , th e, 114, 115.

Ch r ist ian E xam iner , Th e , 48 .

C h r istian Watch m an,Th e, 49 .

Ch r istoph er Nor th . See lV l lSOTt.

C inc in n a ti Mon th ly Rev iew ,216 .

C ita tion an d E xam in at ion o f William Sh akespea r e

,MS . o f given to

W1llis , 131.

C lass Day poem ,59 .

C lay , Hen ry , 221, 242 .

C lifton , Joseph in e , plays in Bian caViscon t i, 231—233.

Colv in,Sidn ey , on Willis , 133.

Con cor d,N . H sch ool l ife a t

,16.

Con gdon , C . T.,h is Rem in isccn ces

of a Jour n a l ist quoted, 260.

Con ic Sect ion s Rebellion,47 .

Con n ecticut Jour n a l,49 .

Con stantin ople, v isit to , 126—128.

C ooper , J . F en ter ta in s W illis inPa r is, 110, 111 W ill is’s defen seof , 216 ; 136 , 216 , 306

,351.

Cork , Dowager Coun tess o f , 166 .

Cor sa ir , Th e , 227 ; establ ish ed byPor ter and Willis , 239—242 ; Will is’s con tr ibution s to , 243, 244 , 247 ,249 , 253; Th acker ay ’s letter s to ,253—256 ; s uspends publi cation ,

259 , 260; 265.

Cough ton Court , v i sit at , 172 .

Cour t Magaz in e, Th e ,W ill is ’s con

tr ibut ion s to ,140

,154

,206 .

Cox,William ,

103.

Culpr it Fay, Th e , 217 .

DA LHOUSIE,E A RL or , Will is

’s v isit

to , 149 , 150, 152 ; letter s fr om ,

174 , 190; 189 .

Dal h ousie, Lady , 149 , 190; letterfr om ,191.

Dan a , C . A .,63, 332 .

Dan a , R . H. , 350.

Dawes , Rufus , 84 , 91, 92 .

Day , Jer em iah ,35.

De For est , Mr s ,58 .

Dewey , Dr . 0. P . , 308 , 310Dia r y ,

Passages fr om Wil l is ’s, 165169 .

Dicken s,Ch a r les ,Wil lis’s acqua in t

an ce with , 264 .

Disr aeli, Ben jam in , 138, 237, 252,

Doan e , G . W . , 81.

Dolla r Magazin e, Th e, Willi s’s editor sh ip o f , 260.

D’O r say , Coun t A lfr ed, 75, 138 , 158,166

, 237 , 251 .

Douglas , Fr an cis , 8 .

Douglas , Luc 6, 55.

Down Town a r d,lyr ics by, 267 .

Dr ake, J . R .,217 , 292 .

Dugann e , A . J . H. , h is Parn a ssus inPi llor y, 298

Dur an t , Hen r y, Willie’s r oom -m ate

a t Ya le , 31 , 40.

Duyckin ck, E ver t A .,293.

Dwigh t,Louis

,27 , 28 .

Dwigh t , Louisa . See Louisa Wi llis .

E A STERN A RGUS,THE , 8.

E din bur gh,v isit to

,150.

E dinbur gh Rev iew ,Th e , 118, 194.

E gl in ton n Tour n am en t , 244.

E m er son,R . W.

,16 , 345.

E n gland, Willis ’s a r r iva l in,130;

r esiden ce in,135—179 ; l ik in g f or ,

135—137 ; secon d v isit to . 243—259 ;th ird v isit to

, 276 , 283—286 .

E n glish,T. D.

,275.

E r ie Can a l , th e t r ip al on g , 60, 61.

E ur ope , Will is ’s lite in , 107- 179 ; ihfluen ce o f , on h is ch a r acter an dw r it in gs

,107—110.

E ver ett , Edwa r d ,16 , Ink

lin gs dedicated to,206 .

FA BLE FOR CRITICS , A ,passage fr om ,

302 .

Fan e , Lady Geor gian a , 246 , 343,

“ Fann y Fer n .

” See S a r a h P . IV i ll is .

Fay, T. S ., edits th e Mir r or

,100;

h is w r itin gs,102 , 103; 132 , 284 ,

29 1.

Felton,C . C . ,

206 .

Fields,J . T .

,271

,332

,350.

Fishwom an’s Son , Th e, a pa r ody o f

Wi l li s, 304 .

Flin t , Rev . Tim oth y , 216 , 217 .

Flor en ce,Wil l is ’s r es iden ce a t , 119

125.

Fon b lan que , A . W 138 ; o f f en dedby Pen cill in gs , 192 , 193.

Fo r get -Me-Not,Th e

, 77 .

360

Ledger , Th e, 66 .

Leech,Joh n ,

165.

Legen da ry , Th e , edited by Will i s,72 , 75, 80, 81 .

Leigh , A ugusta , 164 .

Leipsic , Th e gr eat fai r a t , 286.

Lenn ox,Lady Soph ia , 151.

Lin coln,Mr s. A br ah am

,342 , 343;letter fr om , 344 .

Lin on ian Society, Th e, 37 , 41, 51 ;poem befor e 271 .

Liter at i o f New York , Th e , 274, 293.

Liv in gston,Miss A dele

,vi sit to a t

Ska n ea teles , 62 .

Lockh a r t , J . G. , 77 ; h is atta ck on

Pen cillin gs, 185 190, 193, 196 , 199 .

London , r esiden ce in ,137- 149 , 154

169 .

London Liter a r y Souven ir , 77 .

Lon don Mor n in g Her ald, 129 .

London Mor n in g Ch r on icle, 286, 287 .

London Tim es , on th e Willis and

Ma r r ya t a ffa ir , 202, 203, 205.

Longfellow , H . W . ,a fellow town s

m an of Willis , 1—3; 10, 117 , 220,269 n ote, 350.

Lover , Sam uel , 253.

Lowell , J . R .

,cor r esponden ce w ith

Willis, 300, 301 ; h i s estim a te o f

W illis , 66 , 302 ; 350.

Lucca , Bath s o f , 122.

Lun t , Geor ge, 75, 83, 91.

Lyceum , Th e , 49 .

Lyn ch , Miss A n n e. See Mr s .

cenzo B otta .

V in

MCLELLA N , ISA A C , 20, 83.

Macl ise Por t r a it Ga llery, 196 note.

Macr eady , W . C .,253

,308 .

Madden , R . R . , h is Life o f LadyB lessin gton quoted , 151 , 192 ,

245

im pr ess ion s o f Willis , 156 , 157 .

Magin n ,Dr . W illiam ,

r ev iews Pen

cill in gs , 195, 196 , 199 h is duelw ith Berkeley, 196 , 197 .

Ma lta,sojour n at , 130.

Mar ryat, Fr eder ick , 89 , 154 , 193;h is quar r el w ith Willis , 197—206 ;234 .

Ma r se illes, letter fr om ,109 ; adven

tur e at , 124.

Mar sh,G . P . , 341.

Mar sh all, E m ily, 62 ; acr ost ic to,98.

Ma r t in eau ,Ha r r iet , h er im pr ession s

of W illis , 142—148Mediter r an ean , C ruise up th e, 125

129 .

Mem or ial , Th e , 49 .

Metr opolitan Magazine , Th e ,Wil l is’s

INDEX.

con tr ibution s to, itsr ev iew of Pen cillin gs , 201 .

Mich ell, Wi lliam ,

178,

Mi r r or Libr ar y, Th e, 269 .

Mitford ,Ma ry R .

, 76 , 142 , 152.

Mon cr ief f, Lady, 150, 159 .

Moore, Th om as

,141

,160

, 171 ; h isr em a r ks ab out O ’Conn ell

,186 , 188 ,

Mor gan , Lady Sydney,Mor r is

, G . P . , edi tor of th e Mir r or ,100 ; h is ch a r acter an d talen ts,100—102 ; 110, 112 , 155, 197 , 206 ;cooln ess between , an dWilli s , 236239 ; establish es Th e New Mi r r or ,265 ; E ven in g Mir r or , 273; Nat ion al Pr ess and Hom e Jour n a l286- 88 Wi llis’s affection f or , 296297

,347 303

,327 .

Mor se , S . F . B . , 110.

Motley, J . L .,82, 96 .

Musica l Wor ld,Th e, 15.

Maig

aph a , th e per fum er , 127 , 128,

NA HA NT,88

,92

,209

,212 .

Na t ion al Pr ess,Th e, star ted byMor

r is, 286 , 287 .

Nea l , Joh n ,1,81, 303.

New E n glan d Ga laxy, Th e, 88.

New Haven in 1827 , 37—39 .

New Mi r r or , Th e , establish ed, 265,266 Will is’s con tr ibut ion s to, 266

308,338 ; suspends pub

lication ,272 296

,299

,300.

New Mon th ly Magaz ine, Th e, Willis’s con t r ibution s to,140, 154 ,

155, 161 , 206 , 227 . 249 .

New Wor ld , Th e, 239 .

New York A lbion ,259 .

New York Com m er cia l A dver tiser,

New Yor k Cour r ier and E n quir er ,New York Cour ier des Etats Un is ,332 .

New Yor k Even in g Mir r or , edited

b y Mor r is and W illis , 266 , 273,275, 286 .

New Yor k E ven ing Post , 291, 313.

New York Her a ld. on th e For r esttestim ony. 310, 311.

New Yor k M ir r or ; Willis becom es

editor of , 99 ; descr ibed 102 , 103;Willis’s for eign cor r esponden ce in ,103

,104

,114

,115—119 , 129 , 130

153,172 , 184 , 185, 188 , 189 , 197,

201 , 206 , 237 ; Willis ceases to

edit , 236 ; discon tinuan ce of , 265;

INDEX. 361

m iscellaneous con tr ibut ion s to, 48141 , 155, 193, 215, 221, 223, 231233, 236 , 249 , 261 ; 145, 232, 238,256 ,

New York , liter atu r e and society- 294 ; Wil lis ’s r esidence in ,

288- 290, 294.

New York Spir it of th e Tim es, 238 .

Niaga r a , 62 , 219 , 221.

Nor folk Beacon , 47 .

Nor ton ,Car olin e

,141

, 184, 237 , 253.

Nor th A m er ican Rev iew,Th e, 2

O ’CONNELL , DA NIEL, 186 , 188, 192 .

O ’Con or , Ch ar les , 314O pal

,Th e, 82 , 262, 286 .

Ot is, Mr s . H . G .

Owego, N . Y . , 32 , 222 , 223, 225

- 227

PA RDOE , MISS, 160, 163.

Par is, r esiden ce in,110—115; wed

din g tr ip to, 178 .

Pa r k Street Chur ch ,4,11

, 35, 93,94 ; excom m un icates Willi s , 95.

Pa rnassus in Pi llory, passages fr om ,

298-300.

Par ton ,Jam es , 296

—298,335, 336.

Par ton , Mr s . Jam es. See S a r a h P

Patter son , Comm odor e , 125, 129 .

Paulding, J . K .

,102

,243

,292 .

Payson ,Rev . E dwar d , 9 .

Per cival , J . G. , 70, 80, 184 , 217 .

“ Peter Par ley.

” See S . G. Goodr ich .

Ph illips, Mor r i s , 288 , 296 , 297 , 347

349 .

Pier pon t , Rev . Joh n , 343.

Pike, A lber t , 83, 84.

Pir ate , Th e, pr ospectus of , 240.

Placide, Ha r r y, 231.

Poe , Edgar A . , h is r elation s withWill is , 273; im pr ession s of Wi llis ,274, 275; 206 , 217 , 269 , 293, 295296 , 303.

Pon iatowski , Pr in ce, 120.

Por ter,A dm i r a l K er , 164 .

Por ter , Jan e, Will is’s fr iendsh ipw ith , 160, 163

—166,170, 172 , 176 ,

177.

Por ter , Dr . T. C . , letter s to 225,234

,238 , 248 , 249 ; associatedwitli

Willis on th e Cor sair ,254, 259 .

Por tlan d,Ma ine,Willie’s bir th place,

9

Potom ac Gua rdian , 6 , 7 .

Pr aed , W. M. ,163

Procter , Bryan Wal ler , 138 °

edi ts

Me lan ie, 180.

Pum pelly , Geo. J. , 32 , 223.

QUA RTERLY REvmw, THE , abusesPen cillin gs, 133, 185—191, 194, 197.

Quin cy, Edm un d, 350.

RA MSA Y,Lord

,150, 190; letter fr om ,

174 , 175.

Rand , th e port r ait pa in ter ,Raym ond , H . J . 307 .

Rem em ber Me, 82.

Republic , Th e, 33.

Ri

yps, Mr . , appoin ts Willis a ttach é ,3

Robinson , H. C . , a br eakfast w ith ,141

Rogef s , Sam uel , 149 , 165.

Roy,” Willi s’s n om de

plum e, 48

Ruth Ha ll , car ica tur e o Willis in ,

SAR A TOGA , letter s fr om , 100; descr ibed in Inklin gs , 209—211 281.

ar gen t ’s Magaz ine , 262 .

cioto Gazette, 6 .

cotlan d,v isit to, 149

- 152.

Scr iptur a l poem s, or igin of

,10 esti

m ate of , 66-6 9 .

Seam or e Place, 137 , 156 .

Sh ar on Spr in gs , letter s fr om , 322 .

Sh aw, Mr s . Fan ny, h er fr iendsh i p

with Wi llis, 160—162 , 165, 166 , 170.

Sh awsh een River , th e, at A ndover ,20—22 .

Sh ir ley Pa rk , at Cr oyden , 160, 161,169

,170, 278.

Sigour n ey , Mr s . L . H. , 75, 80, 81, 84,184

,261.

Sill im an , Ben jam in ,35

, 36 , 49 .

Skan eateles,v isit to, 62 .

Skin n er , Mr s Ma ry, h er in tim acywith Wil lis , 160; letter to, fr omWillis, 161- 163; letter from ,

to

Jan e Por ter , 176 ; 165, 219 , 278 .

Slingsby Paper s , th e,Sm i tli, For bear an ce, 76 .

Sm ith , Hor ace an d Jam es , 138, 246 .

Sm yr n a , v isit to, 128 , 129 .

Sn ellin g, W. J. , lam poons Wi llis,88—90,

Sta ce, Ma ry . See Ma ry S tace Wi llisStace , Gen . Wm . ,

170,Stan h ope, Sir Leicester and Mr s .

Staun ton , Sir Geo . , 156 .

Stepney , In dy, 156 , 246 .

Steven ton , V 1ca r age , 283, 284.

36 2 INDEX.

St

ggiglard , R . H.

, v is its Glenm ary ,

Ston e, W . L . , 81, 306 .

Stor i

l

n Kin g, n am ed by Will is, 32733

Stor r s , Dr . R . S.,351 .

Stuar t , Isaa c, 28, 30.

Stuar t,Lady Dudley, 159 .

Sum n er , Ch ar les , 220, 343.

Susqueh ann a , r aftin g on th e , 227 .

TA LFOURD, Ser jean t , 174, 249 .

Taylor , Bayar d , 117 119 ; befr iendedb y Willis , 298 ; 299 , 331.

Telegr aph , Th e , 49 .

Th acker ay, W. M.

, 215; wr ites f or

th e Cor sa ir , 253—256 ; h is notices

of Wil li s, 256- 259 ; 352 .

Th ough t B lossom , Th e, 82 .

Th r ockm or ton , Sir Ch as ,vi sit to,

170, 172 .

Token ,Th e, 49 edited by Willis ,

72—74, 77 80, 81 .

Tr en ton Fa lls , fi r st v isit to , 62 de

sc

zriib ed, 76 ; letter s fr om ,

3223

Truth a New Year ’s Gift f or Scr ibb ler s

,lam poon in g Wil li s , 89 .

Tuppe r , M. F.,165.

UNDERCLIFF,247

Un itar ian s , 11 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 32, 93.

Uni ted B r oth er s , Society of,poem

befor e , 104 .

Un ited Ser vice Gazette, Th e, 205.

Ur

iitd States , th e , cr uise of , 125,

Uppei° ten th ousand, th e , 256 , 341.

Utica , N. Y . , v isi t to, 61.

V A 1L , Min ister , 156 .

V an Bur en ,Joh n

,33,34 ; en gag ed in

For r est suit , 34, 316 ; ch allen gedby Wil li s , 317 , 318.

V an Bur en , Mar t in , 110, 222 .

Ver itas ,” letter s to th e Mir r or ,237 238 .

Ver plan ck, G. C . 293.

Vienn a , pr ojected v isit to,284 .

Vin cen t , Wm .,244, 283.

Vir tue , Geo.,221, 244 .

Voor h ies, Mr s,308.

WA LK ER,Dr . J . B . F. ,

m edica l r emini scen ces o f Will is , 349 .

Wa llack , Jam es , plays Tor tesa , 232234

,246 .

Washi n gton , cor r esponden ce fr om ,

221, 222 , 287 dur in g th e wa r,

Wash in gton Nation a l In telligen cer ,263, 266 .

Watts,A lar ic A .

, 77 .

Webb , J . W . , h is attacks on Willi s,242

, 307 , 320.

Webster , Dan iel , com m ends Pen cillin gs , 119 ; 214 .

Weld, H . H.,260.

Westm in ster Rev iew , Th e, 111, 194.

Wh eaton,Hen r y, 284

Wh ipp le,E . P . ,

332, 350.

Wikoff,Hen ry , r ecollections of

Wi lli s, 33, 34 ; 35, 37 , 58, 239 ;h is par t in th e Forr est case

,34,

308, 312 .

Will is,Ba iley, 5, 329.

Willis,Ch ar les , 5.

Willis,Cor n elia Gr inn ell , 121 , 287

308, 310, 316 , 318 , 319 , 326 , 343,

Wi llis,E dith , 329 .

Wi llis , Geor ge , 4 .

Willis, Gr inn ell , 294 .

Willis,Hann ah Parker , h er ch a r

acter and influen ce, 13, 14 h er

death , 275.

W illi s , Im ogen , 264, 276 , 284, 288.

Willis , Julia , 15, 45, 140.

Will is , Lilian , 294.

Willis , Louisa , 28 , 284 .

Willis,Lucy, 19 .

Willi s,Mary, 30.

Willis,Mar y Stace , h er en gagem en t

an d m ar r iage, 170, 171 , 176 , 177letter to,from Willis , 176 , 177 '

219- 221, 228 , 243, 244 h er death

276 ; 278 .

Wi llis, Nath an iel , Sr . , 5, 6 .

Willis , Nath ani el , Jr . , h is educa tion

an d ch a r acter , 5, 7 , 8 , 11—13; cd

it

5

s th r ee n ewspa per s , 8—10;9

Willis , Nath an iel Pa rker , bor n at

Por t lan d, 1 an cestry , 6—10; h om e

an d sch ool life , 11- 17 ; at A n dover ,18-30; at Ya le College, 31- 70; begin s h is liter ary ca r eer in Bos

ton,71- 82 edits th e A m er ican

Mon th ly ,82- 100; goes abr oad as

for eign cor r espon den t of th e NewYork Mir r or , 100—106 ; spen ds fivem on th s in Pa r is , 110—115; a yea rin Ita ly , 119- 125 h alf a year in a

cr uise up th e Mediter r an ean ,125

130; four m on th s m or e in Italy,Switzer land ,

an d Fr an ce, 130 two

year s in E nglan d, 130—179 ; m a r

r ies , 177 r etur n s to A m er ica and

tr avels an d cor r esponds f or th e

Mir r or , 219—222 ; settles at Owe

364 INDEX.

fr om th e Hear t Book of E r nest

C lay , 252 , 256 , 277 , 279 . LECTUREON FA SHION , 272 . LETTERS FROMUNDER A BRIDGE

,127 , 132 , 207 ,

223; estim ate of , 224—231 ; 236 ,242

,248

,249

, 263, 269 , 282 , 302 ,322

,330. Letter s of Hor ace Fr itz ,

E sq ., 85 . Letter to th e Un

kn own Pur ch aser an d Next Occupan t of G lenm a r y , 263. LIFEHERE A ND THE RE

,325. Lin es on

leav in g Eur ope , 13,179

,236 .

Lin es to Laur a W 58 . Login th e A r ch ipelago

,A

,130

,206 .

LoiTERINcs or TRA VEL See RoMA NCE or TRA VEL. LoIter in gs o f

Tr a vel,153. Lookin gs on at th e

Wa r,342

,343. Lor d Ir on

,

182 . Lost Letter Rewr itten,A ,

130. Love an d Diplom acy , 154 ,213

,277 . Love in 9. Cottage , 268 .

Love in th e Libr ar y . See E di thLin sey. Lun at ic’s Skate , th e , 17 ,20

,46 , 154 , 218 , 277 . Madh ouse

of Palerm o ,th e , 154 . Mad Sen ior ,

th e, 155. Mar quis in Petticoats,

th e , 262 . Meen a Dim ity , 279 .

MELA NIE A ND O THER POEMS, 161 ,164

,166

,179—181 ; estim ate of ,

181- 184 ; 236 , 270. MEMORA NDAOF THE L IFE OF JENN Y LIND , 324 .

Min ute Ph ilosoph ies, 88 , 206 . Misan th r opic Hour s

,52. Miss Jon es ’s

Son ,279 . Mor e Par ticula r ly, 267 .

Mor n in g in th e L ibr a ry , A ,88.

My A dv en tur es at th e Tour n a

m en t,244 . My Hobby—Rath er ,

154. New Yea r ’s Ver ses , 71 . Ni

agar a , Lake On tar io , and th e St .

Lawr en ce, 60, 62, 154 , 212 , 218 .

Nor a Meh idy , 279 . Notes fr om a

Scr ap Book , 215. Notes upon a

Ram ble, 85. On a Pictur e of a

Gi r l , 81. On Dr ess,82

,286 . On

th e Death o f a Youn g Lady , 57 .

Open A i r Musin gs in th e C ity322 . OUT DOORS A T IDLEWIL D330

,Paletto’s Br ide , 251. Pa r

r h as ius , 105. Pa squal i , th e Tail oro f Ven ice , 85, 252 . Pa ssa ges fr oman E pistola ry Jour na l , 253. Pas

sa ges fr om Cor r espon den ce ,261

Pauldin g th e A uth or di sin ter r ed242

,243. PA UL FA NE , 121 , 151

estim a te of,338—340. P. Calam us

E sq . , 84. Pedlar K ar l, 85, 154

207 . Pencil, th e, 242 . NCIL

LINGS BY THE WA Y ,85, 1 104

estim ate o f , 115—119 ; 126 , 130, 138

152, 153, 157 , 178 ; pr ofits fr om

184 , 185 ; r eception of , by B ri tishpr ess , 185—199 ; 193, 206 , 207 , 213;tr an sla tion of

,218 ; 236 , 237 249 ,

253, 269 , 325. PEOPLE IHA VE MET

,256

,325. Ph an tom

Head upon th e Table, th e , 278.

P h ar isee an d th e Ba r ber , th e , 17 .

Picker an d Piler,th e, 155, 227 ,

277 . Pity of th e Pa rk Foun ta in ,

th e,268 . P lai n Man

’s Lov e, A ,

322 . POEM DELIVERED BEFORE THESOCIETY or UNITED BROTHERS, 104.

POEMS or PA SSION , 269 , 275. Poet

an d th e Man da r in , th e , 280. Por

t r a it,A

,98. Power of an In jur ed

Look , th e , 82 , 262 . Poyntz’s A un t ,

157 , Psych e befor e th eTr ibun a l o f Ven us , 81. Qua r terDeck , th e

,242 . RA G—BA G, THE ,

338. Rev elation of a Pr evious

Life,A , 278 . Reven ge of th e

Sign or Bas i l th e ,155

,213

,277 .

Rever ie at Glenm ar y, 230. R0

MANCE or TRA VEL , 236 , 248 ; esti

m ate of , 249—252 276 . RURA LLETTE RS

,286

,322 . Ruse , th e , 81.

SA CRED POEMS , 269 . Sacr ifice of

A br ah am, th e , 48, 49 . Satur day

A fter n oon , 81, 98. SCENERY A NDA NTIQUITIES or IRELAND , 244 , 247 ,248. Scen es of Fea r , 63, 85, 155.

Sch ola r o f Th eb et Ben Gh or at,

th e,105. Scr ap Book , th e, 86 .

Scr ibblin gs,86. Sh e was n ot

Th er e , 169 . SK ETCHES , 66 , 72 , 73,98. Sketch es of Tr avel , 153, 172 ,221

,247 . Sl ipsh oddities , 267 . Sol

dier ’s W idow , th e ,81 . Spa rklin gs

of Ten th Wa ves,215. Spi r it Love

of Ion e S th e , 279. Spr in g ,236 . Stor y wr it f or th e Beaut i

f ul , A , 243. Str in g th at t ied m yLady

’s Sh oe, th e , 100. Substan ce

of 8. Diary of Sickn ess , th e , 88 .

SUMME R CRUISE IN THE MEDITER

RA NRAN ,A

, 325. Tales o f FiveLan ds . See ROMANCE or TRA VEL ,Ten t Pitch ed, th e. See LETTERSFROM UNDER A BRIDGE . Tete-a-teteCon fession s , 86 . Th ose Ungr ate

f ul Blidgin ses , 279 . Th ough ts ina Bal con y at Daybr eak , 155, 168 .

Th ough ts wh ile m akin g th e Gr aveo f a New-Bor n Ch ild

,264 . Th r ee

Weeks ’ Tr ip to th e West , 341 —To100. To 155. To a

C ity Pigeon ,81

,106 . To a Face

Be loved, 193, 236 . To Edith , fr om

th e North . See To M fr omA br oad. To Erm en gar de, 216,

INDEX.

236 . To M from A br oad ,97

,

183. To m y Moth er fr om th e

A penn in es , 13, 183. To th e Juliao f Som e Yea r s A go, 289 . Tom

Fan e and I , 154, 207 . Tom Hat,

th e,82 . TORTESA THE USURER,

233—235, 248 , n ote. TREN

TON FA LLS , 324. Two Buckets ina Well , 2 , n ote. Two Ways of

Dyin g f or a Husban d. See BI

A NCA VISCONTI an d TORTE SA THEUSURER. Un seen Spir its, 269 . Unwr i tten Music, 84, 294 . Unwr itten Ph i losoph y, 76 , 142. Unw r itten Poetr y, 76 , 142. Upon th e

Por tr ai t of th e Hon . Mr s . Stanh ope, 141 . Usur er Match ed , th e.

See TORTESA THE USURER . V io

lan ta Cesa r in i,250, 251. Wh at I

saw at th e Fair,286 . Wh i le We

h old You by th e Button , 267 .

365

Widow by Br evet , th e , 130. Wife ’sA ppea l , th e , 105. Wigwam A 1m acks , 282 .

Willis , R ich ard Stor r s, 7 , 14, 284,298, 308, 310, 316 .

Willi s Sar ah P . , Fanny Fern ,

” 14 ;w r ites Ruth Hall , 334-337 .

Wilson , Joh n , 52 ; br eakfast with150; r eviews Melan ie, 180, 181185

,189 .

Win th r op , Th eodore, 58 , 343.

Woodworth , Sam uel, 100.

Woolwi ch , 170, 172 .

Woolsey , T. D., 35, 42 .

YA LE COLLEGE, 17 ; Willis ’s car eer

at , 31- 70; condition of,in 1827 ,

35—37 ; poem befor e, 27 1.

Youth’

s Com pan ion , Th e, establish ed by Nath an i elWillis , 9 ; 49 .

Youth ’s K eepsake, Th e, 82 .

Mr . Wa r n er h a s n ot on ly w r itten with sym pa thy, m l

nute kn owledge o f h is subject, fin e liter a ry ta s te, and th atea sy, f a scin a ting s tyle wh ich a lways puts h im on such

good term s with h is r eader s , but h e h a s sh own a tact,

cr itical s agacity, a n d sen se o f propo r tion f ull o f prom isef or th e r es t o f th e s er ies wh ich is to pas s under h is

super v is ion .-

.New York Tr ioun e.

It is a very ch a rm ing piece o f li ter a ry wo rk , a nd pree

scn ts th e r eader with a n excellen t pictur e o f Ir v ing a s a

m an and o f h is m eth ods a s a n auth or , togeth er w ith an

accur a te a nd discr im in a ting ch a r acter iza tion o f h is works“ Boston yon r n a l .It would h a rdly be poss ible to produce a f a ir er or m ore

candid book o f its kin d.—L i ter czry Wor /a

’

(London).

NO A H WE BSTE R .

Mr . Scudder’s b iography o f Web ster is alike h onor ab le

to h im self and its subject . Fin ely discr im in a ting in a ll

th a t r ela tes to per son a l a nd in tellectua l ch a racter , sch ola r ly and jus t in its liter a ry cr iticism s

,an alys es , a nd

es tim a tes , i t is bes ides so kindly an d m an ly in its ton e, itsn a r ra tive is so spir ited a nd en th r alling , its descr iption sare so qua in tly g r aph ic, so v a r ied an d ch eer f ul in th eir

color ing, a nd its pictur es so teem with th e bus tle, th em ovem en t, and th e activ ities o f th e r ea l lif e o f a byg one

but m os t in ter es ting age, th a t th e a tten tion o f th e r eader

is never tem pted to wan der , and h e lays down th e bookwith a s igh o f r egr et f or its b rev ity.

Mag a z in e.

It f ills com pletely its place in th e purpose o f th is se

ries of volum es . Th e Cr i tic (New York) .

HENRY D. THO RE A U .

Mr . Sanbor n’s book is th orough ly A m er ican and tr uly

f ascin ating . Its litera ry skill is exception ally good, andth ere is a r acy flavor in its pages and an am oun t O f exactknowledge O f in teres ting people th a t on e seldom m eets

with in cur r en t liter a tur e. Mr . S a n bor n h a s don e Th or eau

’s gen ius a n im per ish ab le service.

—A m er icczn C/zur c/z

Rev iew (N ew Yo r k).Mr . Sanbor n h a s wr itten a ca r e f ul book about a cur ious

m an,wh om h e h a s s tudied a s im pa r tially a s pos s ible

wh om h e adm ir es wa rm ly but with discretion ; an d th e

story o f wh ose li f e h e h a s told with com m endable f r an kness a nd s im plicity —N ew York M a i l a n d E xpr ess .

It is undoub ted] th e bes t lif e o f Tho r eau extant.

m oder a tion , delica te ta s te . a nd fin i sh ed liter a rc

y skill. It

is a beautif ul tr ibute to th e h igh-b red sch olar a nd gen ere

ous -h ea r ted m a n ,wh o se f r iend h e h a s so wor th ily por

n eyed.—Rev . I/V i/Ziczm H . C/l a n n ing (London) .

JA ME S FE N IMO RE CO OPE R .

W e h a ve h er e a m odel b iog r aph y. Th e book is ch a rm ! !

ingly wr itten , with a f elicity a nd v igor o f diction tha t ar e

nota ble, and with a h um or spa rkling , r acy, a nd n ever

ob tr us ive. Th e s to ry o f th e lif e will h ave som eth ing o fth e f a scin a tion of on e o f th e auth or

’

s own r om an ces .

New Yor k Tr z'

oun e.

P r o f . Lcun sbury’

s book is an adm irab le specim en o f

litera ry b iogr aph y. W e can r eca ll n o r ecen t addition

to A m er ican b iography in any depa r tm en t wh ich is super ior to it . It g iv es th e reader n ot m erely a f ull accoun tof Cooper

’

s litera ry ca reer , but th er e is m ingled with th isa su f ficien t accoun t o f th e m an h im self apa r t f rom h is

books , a nd O f th e per iod in wh ich h e liv ed, to keepalive th e in ter es t f rom th e fi r s t word to th e la s t.Yor k E v en ing P ost .

MA RGA RE T FULLE R O S SO LI .

Her e a t las t we h ave a b iogr aph y o f on e o f th e n ob lestand th e m os t in tellectual o f A m er ica n wom en , wh ich does

f ull jus tice to its subject . Th e auth or h as h ad am plem a ter ial f or h is wo rk , —a ll th e m a ter ial n ow av a ilableperh aps ,

—a nd h a s sh own th e skill O f a m a s ter in h is

us e o f it . It is a f res h V iew O f th e sub ject, and adds

im por tan t in f o rm a tion to th a t alr eady giv en to th e public.

RE V . DR . F. H. HEDGE ,in Boston A dv er tiser .

RA LPH W A LDO EME RSON .

Dr . Holm es h a s w r itten on e o f th e m os t deligh tf ulbiogr aph ies th a t h a s eve r a ppea r ed . E v ery page spa rkles

with gen ius . His cr iticism s a r e tr en ch an t, h is a n a lys is

clea r,h is s en se o f propor tion delica te, and h is sym pa

th ies b road an d deep . P r ess .

E DGA R A LLA N PO E .

”

Mr . Woodb er ry h a s con tr ived w ith v a s t lab or to con

struct wh a t m us t h er ea f ter b e called th e auth or i ta tiveb iog raphy o f Poe, a b iog r aphy wh ich co r r ects a ll o th er s ,supplem en ts a ll o th er s , a nd sup er sedes a ll oth er s . T/zeCr itic (New Yo rk).

NA THA N IE L PA RK E R W ILLIS .

Pr o f . Beer s h as don e h is wor k sym pa th etically yet candidly and f a ir ly and in a ph ilosoph ic m a n n er , in dica tingth e s ta tus occupied by W illis in th e r epub lic o f letter s ,a nd sketch ing g r aph ically h is liter a ry envir onm en t and

th e m a in spr ings o f h is succes s . It is -

on e o f th e best

books o f an excellen t ser ies .— a f a lo Tim es .

BE NJA M IN FR A N K LIN .

”

O ne o f th e m os t in ter es ting and in structiv e volum es

o f th e s er ies . Th e pictur es wh ich a r e g iven o f th e

m om en tous per iod in wh ich h e lived a r e f ull o f v igor ,a nd b etr ay a n a s ton ish ing am oun t o f r esea r ch in m anydir ection s . B os ton Ga zette.

We h av e h ad m a ny liv es o f Fr anklin,but n one so ab

solutely im pa r tial a s th is , a n d alth ough it is sh or t it om its

n o im po r ta n t f a ct th at ca n h elp to r ev eal th e m an

M r . McMaster tells h is s to ry with extrem e ch a rm o f

n a r r ation . Ha r tf or d Con r a n t .

W ILLIA M CULLE N BRYA NT.

”

Th er e wer e m any a spects in wh ich Mr . B ryan t pre

sen ted h im self a s a sub j ect f or b iog r aphy. He wa s a ch ief

in th e depa r tm en t o f A m er ican jour n alism . He was a

con trolling power in A m er ican politics . He wa s also a

m an o f letter s in th e pur e an d s im ple sen se o f th e term .

O ne m igh t h av e kn own h im well in eith er o f th ese r elat ion s a nd yet h ad n o th ough t o f the oth er s . Mr . Bige

low h a s,it seem s to us

, don e justice to a ll. T/ze Ckn r clz

m a n (New Yor k).

W ILLI A M GILMORE S IMMS .

A s a b iog r aphy i t w ill r an k with th e best in th e ser ies .

It is clea r in s tyle, f ull in s tatem en t o f f act, im par tial,discr im inating a nd cr i tical, and at th e s am e tim e gen er

ous and sym pa th etic. P ro f essor Tr en t h a s per f orm ed a

di fficult task with r ar e discr etion and good ta s te. Ckr is

tia n Un ion (N ew York) .958“ For sa le by a ll B ookseller s . S en t, post-pa id, on r eceipt

of pr ice o) , tlze P ublislzer s ,

HOUGHTON ,MIFFLIN A ND COMPA NY,

BO STON A ND NEW YO RK .

prefa ce. the m aterials for a life of willis are rich enough to be embarrassing. most of his writ...

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