No More Learning

So farre, so fast the eygre drave,
The heart had hardly time to beat,
Before a shallow seething wave
Sobbed in the grasses at oure feet:
The feet had hardly time to flee
Before it brake against the knee,
And all the world was in the sea.
Upon the roofe we sate that night,
The noise of bells went sweeping by;
I marked the lofty beacon light
Stream from the church tower, red and high —
A lurid mark and dread to see;
And awesome bells they were to mee,
That in the dark rang 'Enderby. '
They rang the sailor lads to guide,
From roofe to roofe who fearless rowed;
And I — my sonne was at my side,
And yet the ruddy beacon glowed:
And yet he moaned beneath his breath,
« O come in life, or come in death!
O lost! my love, Elizabeth. ”
And didst thou visit him no more ?
Thou didst, thou didst, my daughter deare!
The waters laid thee at his doore,
Ere yet the early dawn was clear.
Thy pretty bairns in fast embrace,
The lifted sun shone on thy face,
Downe drifted to thy dwelling-place.
That flow strewed wrecks about the grass,
That ebbe swept out the flocks to sea;
A fatal ebbe and flow, alas!
To manye more than myne and mee:
But each will mourn his own (she saith),
And sweeter woman ne'er drew breath
Than my sonne's wife, Elizabeth.


## p. 7978 (#170) ###########################################

7978
JEAN INGELOW
I shall never hear her more
By the reedy Lindis shore,
« Cusha, Cusha, Cusha! ” calling,
Ere the early dews be falling;
I shall never hear her song,
«Cusha, Cusha! » all along,
Where the sunny Lindis floweth,
Goeth, floweth;
From the meads where melick groweth,
When the water winding down
Onward floweth to the town.
(
I shall never see her more,
Where the reeds and rushes quiver,
Shiver, quiver,
Stand beside the sobbing river,
Sobbing, throbbing, in its falling,
To the sandy lonesome shore;
I shall never hear her calling,
“Leave your meadow grasses mellow,
Mellow, mellow;
Quit your cowslips, cowslips yellow;
Come uppe Whitefoot, come uppe Lightfoot;
Quit your pipes of parsley hollow,
Hollow, hollow;
Come uppe Lightfoot, rise and follow;
Lightfoot, Whitefoot,
From your clovers lift the head;
Come uppe Jetty, follow, follow,
Jetty, to the milking-shed. ”
COLD AND QUIET
Cº
OLD, my dear, - cold and quiet.
In their cups on yonder lea,
Cowslips fold the brown bee's diet;
So the moss enfoldeth thee.
“Plant me, plant me, O love, a lily flower -
Plant at my head, I pray you, a green tree;
And when our children sleep,” she sighed, “at the dusk hour,
And when the lily blossoms, o come out to me! ”
Lost, my dear? Lost! nay, deepest
Love is that which loseth least;


## p. 7979 (#171) ###########################################

JEAN INGELOW
7979
Through the night-time while thou sleepest,
Still I watch the shrouded east.
Near thee, near thee, my wife that aye liveth,
“Lost” is no word for such a love as mine;
Love from her past to me a present giveth,
And love itself doth comfort, making pain divine.
Rest, my dear, rest. Fair showeth
That which was, and not in vain
Sacred have I kept, God knoweth,
Love's last words atween us twain.
«Hold by our past, my only love, my lover;
Fall not, but rise, O love, by loss of me! ”
Boughs from our garden, white with bloom hang over.
Love, now the children slumber, I come out to thee.
LETTICE WHITE
From (Supper at the Mill)
M
Y NEIGHBOR White — we met to-day-
He always had a cheerful way,
As if he breathed at ease;
My neighbor White lives down the glade,
And I live higher, in the shade
Of my old walnut-trees.
So many lads and lasses small,
To feed them all, to clothe them all,
Must surely tax his wit:
I see his thatch when I look out;
His branching roses creep about,
And vines half smother it.
There white-haired urchins climb his eaves,
And little watch-fires heap with leaves,
And milky filberts hoard;
And there his oldest daughter stands
With downcast eyes and skillful hands
Before her ironing-board.
She comforts all her mother's days,
And with her sweet obedient ways
She makes her labor light;


## p. 7980 (#172) ###########################################

7980
JEAN INGELOW
So sweet to hear, so fair to see!
O, she is much too good for me,
That lovely Lettice White !
'Tis hard to feel one's self a fool!
With that same lass I went to school-
I then was great and wise;
She read upon an easier book,
And I-I never cared to look
Into her shy blue eyes.
And now I know they must be there,
Sweet eyes, behind those lashes fair
That will not raise their rim:
If maids be shy, he cures who can;
But if a man be shy - a man -
Why then, the worse for him!
.
a
My mother cries, “For such a lad
A wife is easy to be had,
And always to be found;
A finer scholar scarce can be,
And for a foot and leg,” says she,
«He beats the country round!
»
«My handsome boy must stoop his head
To clear her door whom he would wed. ”
Weak praise, but fondly sung!
« O mother! scholars sometimes fail
And what can foot and leg avail
To him that wants a tongue ?
When by her ironing-board I sit,
Her little sisters round me flit,
And bring me forth their store;
Dark cluster grapes of dusty blue,
And small sweet apples, bright of hue
And crimson to the core.
But she abideth silent, fair;
All shaded by her flaxen hair
The blushes come and go:
I look, and I no more can speak
Than the red sun that on her cheek
Smiles as he lieth low.


## p. 7981 (#173) ###########################################

JEAN INGELOW
7981
Sometimes the roses by the latch
Or scarlet vine-leaves from her thatch
Come sailing down like birds;
When from their drifts her board I clear,
She thanks me, but I scarce can hear
The shyly uttered words.
Oft have I wooed sweet Lettice White
By daylight and by candlelight
When we two were apart.
Some better day come on apace,
And let me tell her face to face,
«Maiden, thou hast my heart. ”
How gently rock yon poplars high
Against the reach of primrose sky
With heaven's pale candles stored!
She sees them all, sweet Lettice White:
I'll e'en go sit again to-night
Beside her ironing-board!


## p. 7982 (#174) ###########################################

7982
BERNHARD SEVERIN INGEMANN
1789-1862
a
NGEMANN was born in his father's parsonage on the little
island of Falster, Denmark, the 28th of May, 1789. He was
the youngest of nine children, an impressionable, sensitive
child, craving and needing the love lavished on him in his home. A
happy childhood, passed in beautiful country surroundings in close
touch with nature, developed in him a winning sympathetic temper-
ament, a sometimes almost womanly tenderness. Harshness or mis-
understanding wounded him deeply, and left,
as he himself said, “a shadow which even
the most radiant light of love and joy have
found it difficult to efface. ” The intensity
of the child's feelings showed itself in his
love for every living thing. When he was
given a present of a bird he “trembled
with excitement; as he put out his hands
for it he screamed with joy; when he held
the bird in his hand he dreamt of his
happiness; and his first thought when he
awoke in the morning was the happy cer-
tainty, I have my bird! He never found
another expression which more truly and
INGEMANN
strongly painted his joy at having con-
sciously awakened to the highest happi-
ness of his life than the childish words, I have my bird. ">
With a temperament like this, and growing into manhood at a
time when romanticism found its first and full expression in Oehlen-
schläger's tragedies, in the poetry of Heiberg, Hauch, and Hertz, it
is no wonder that Ingemann found it impossible to finish his law
course, and gave himself up unreservedly to his literary work. His
father had died when the boy was about ten years old, his mother
died before his University course was finished, he himself was not
strong in his early youth: his first collection of poems, published 1811,
is touched with the consequent depression, which found voice in
dreamy love and religious devotion. About this time he became
engaged to his future wife, Lucie Marie Mandix. In 1813 he published
Procne,' in 1814 The Black Knights, and in 1815 the tragedy

(


## p. 7983 (#175) ###########################################

BERNHARD SEVERIN INGEMANN
7983
Blanca,' which took all sensitive hearts by storm. Heiberg, who had
a strong sense of humor, found the sentiment of Blanca' dangerously
near sentimentality, and made many a good joke over it.
In 1818 the government granted Ingemann a traveling stipend;
and during the year he spent abroad he seems to have awakened to
a fresher, fuller life and a more healthily balanced state of mind,
through which his warm heart suffered no loss, for he wrote home in
an outburst of enthusiasm: “God be praised that there is so much I
love. ” A collection of (Stories and Fairy Tales' (1820) showed great
intellectual development in him, and a decided talent as story-teller;
(Magnetism in the Barber Shop' (1821), a comedy after the manner of
Holberg, is among his best works.
He was made lecturer on the Danish language and literature at
the Academy of Sorö in 1822, and married that same year after an
eleven-years' engagement. In the quiet little academic town, with its
many historic memories of the past when Denmark was in the flush
of its power, Ingemann's impressionable temperament found its right
material. During the next twelve years he worked incessantly on his
historic poems and novels, the latter of which have given him his
importance in Danish literature. (Waldemar the Victorious' (1826),
(Erik Menved's Childhood' (1828), 'King Erik and the Outlaws) (1833),
Prince Otto of Denmark and his Time) (1835), are strong books.
Some of the historians shook their heads at this manner of turn-
ing history into romance, but to Ingemann it was no product of the
imagination; he wished them taken in full earnest, and he wrote
them in a natural, easy style, giving himself up altogether to what
he considered undoubtedly the life of the person he was depicting.
While he was planning one of these novels he wrote, “I wish I were
head over ears in the writing of it; only so am I happy. ” To him
his room stood full of knights and noble ladies who wished to speak
with him, and he gives himself fully to them, living with them, lov-
ing them, hating them, absorbed in the smallest details of their lives.
And the fact that behind the mighty armors of his brave knights,
and the sumptuous court gowns of his beautiful ladies, we always
recognize the author's own childlike smile, makes them perhaps all
the more sympathetic and dear to us. In much the same spirit he
wrote his Evening and Morning Songs, most of them embodied in
'
the Danish collection of church hymns. They were the simple, nat-
ural expression of the thoughts that might come to any child in the
early morning and evening hours, and there is hardly a Danish child
in city or country to whom they are not among the earliest inefface-
able memories.
After the death of Oehlenschläger (1850) Ingemann was decidedly
the favorite of the people, although none was more conscious than he
>


## p. 7984 (#176) ###########################################

7984
BERNHARD SEVERIN INGEMANN
that the place of the great departed could not be filled. In 1852
he published “The Village Children, a novel in four parts. During
the last ten years of his life he wrote almost exclusively religious
poetry.
Those that made a pilgrimage to Sorö to see him generally found
him in his study, a large room on the ground floor opening directly
out into the garden; among the portraits on the wall were De la
Motte Fouqué (to whom he bore a strong intellectual resemblance),
Hoffmann, Schiller, etc. The host himself was of average height; a
cheerful genial man with a humorous twinkle in his eye, generally
puffing his study-pipe with evident enjoyment.
Ingemann is of course repeatedly called “the Danish Walter
Scott”; but unlike Scott, he always laid the weight on the leading
historic character of his novels. If Ingemann's novels should be
weighed in the scales of history and literature and found too light,
they will nevertheless always possess great importance as landmarks
in the progress of Danish culture.
CARL OF RISÉ AND THE KOHLMAN
From (Waldemar the Victorious)
T
I
WAS a clear starlight winter's night, when Carl of Risé
stopped his foaming steed at the foot of the Kohl. He had
asked in a neighboring village whether they knew the knight
Thord Knudsön, who also went by the name of Thord Knudsön
the peasant; but no one seemed to know him, and Carl began to
fear he was dead. When at length he asked with anxiety whether
any one had ever known the Kohlman, or whether it was long
since he was dead, the peasants stared at him with surprise, and
crossed themselves as they pointed to the top of the mountain.
« That fellow will never die,” they said: "he is either a goblin
or a wizard, and dwells in an enchanted tower on the top of the
Kohl. It was a godless deed,” they said, “to come near him,
especially at night, when he was wont to hold talk with witches
and all the devils in hell. ” Carl found that no money could pre-
vail on any of his informants to act the part of guide; he there-
fore pursued the way which the peasants had with some difficulty
been persuaded to point out, alone.
He soon came in sight of the dark round rock, which rose
proud and majestic out of the ocean.
He could not proceed
further on horseback, and looked in vain for a tree or bush to


## p. 7985 (#177) ###########################################

BERNHARD SEVERIN INGEMANN
7985
a
c
which he might tie his charger; at last he spied a post on
heathery hill near the shore, to which he rode up and fastened
him. As Carl hastened up the steep he looked back at his horse,
and felt as though he had separated from a trusty companion;
and now for the first time it occurred to him that the post to
which he had tied his horse must have been a gibbet, for he
fancied he saw on the top of it a fleshless skull. An involuntary
shudder thrilled him, and he proceeded, now with slackened pace,
up the steep ascent towards a dark mass of stone, which on his
nearer approach he found to be a round tower, built of frag-
ments of the rock. « That must be the Seer's dwelling,” said
he, and called to mind the tower of Sæbygaard, and the figure
which he had seen gathering up papers from the flames. This
figure he had long identified in his own mind with the Bjerg-
*mand, who had appeared to him at Father Saxo's grave; and he
doubted not that this mysterious man was also the famous Seer
of the Kohl. He was now about to visit the singular being by
whom he had been menaced both awake and in his dreams; and
all the tales he had ever heard of wizards and enchanters now
revived in his memory. “Not for all the riches in the world
would I go on this errand for any other,” said he to himself.
“Yes, for my Rigmor,” he added; and as he uttered this beloved
name a sudden ray of hope flashed across his soul, and all his
anxiety vanished. "If she yet live,” he burst forth, "may not
this wonderful man be able to relieve my agony? He may tell
me where she is, and what I ought to do. ”
Carl redoubled his speed, and presently stood before a small
strongly secured door in the north side of the tower. He took
his sword, and knocked with the hilt against it. The sound was
echoed in the still night, but it was long before he saw any sign
of the tower being the abode of the living. At length he heard
a hoarse voice from above his head, which seemed to come from
an aperture in the wall. “Who art thou, presumptuous man? ”
croaked forth the voice. “What wouldst thou here, where death
sits on the threshold and hell gapes for its prey ? "
"Open the door, Sir Thord Knudsön; open the door, Sir
Knight,” said Carl. "I am a messenger from King Waldemar
the Victorious. ” "At last, at last,” said the hoarse voice. “Thou
comest late, Carl of Rise: the star is extinguished in the lion's
eye; the name of Waldemar the Victorious and his fortunes have
vanished like a meteor, and dimmed the Northern crown. ”
XIV-500


## p. 7986 (#178) ###########################################

7986
BERNHARD SEVERIN INGEMANN
(
»
« Thou
Open the door, wise master Thord,” said Carl. “I have a
secret message for you from my lord the King, and must speak
with you in private. ”
“When I see the North Star over thine head must I open to
thee,” said the voice: “but if thou wilt hearken to my counsel,
Carl of Risé, hie thee hence: thou art come in an evil hour.
Death stands at thy side, and seeks his prey under my roof. He
asks not if we be old or young"
The hoarse voice was hushed, and Carl presently heard a
shrill female voice apparently in dispute with the old man in the
tower; and after a burst of wild laughter the same voice began
to sing a song, which froze the blood in the veins of the pious
knight. Carl understood only some few fearful words; but the
wild heart-rending tones seemed to come from a despairing and
distracted spirit, bidding defiance to Heaven and the Eternal
Judge. Carl now looked up at the sky, and perceived the North
Star directly over the tower. He seized his sword again, and
knocked with all his might against the door.
"I come, I come,” said the hoarse voice from above.
constrainest me, mighty Star! ”
It was not long ere Carl heard the rattling of bolts and bars,
and the door was opened.
Enter then, presumptuous knight: thy follower hath passed
my threshold; it is now thine own fault if thou come not alive
out of these walls. "
Carl entered the gloomy dwelling with his sword in his hand,
and hastily crossed himself as he beheld the terrific form which,
clad in the black Bjergmand's dress, stood with a lighted horn lan-
tern in his hand on the steps of the tower. He seemed to have
outlived a century of years, and had a long white beard which
descended far below his belt. His face was withered and wrin-
kled and of an earth-gray color, like dusty oak bark.
His eyes
were blear and dim, and his back was bent like a bow. In this
attitude his form appeared almost dwarfish; but could he have
unbent his back, he must have been almost taller than the stately
knight before him. His long arms reached nearly to the ground;
he wore on his head a round leather hat without a brim. His
leathern apron reached nearly to his feet; and at the thong
by which it was tied round the waist, hung a small unlighted
lantern. In his right hand he held a crutch or staff which was
thickly inscribed with runic letters and unknown characters.
-


## p. 7987 (#179) ###########################################

BERNHARD SEVERIN INGEMANN
7987
(
>
“Follow me,” said the Bjergmand, beginning to ascend the
narrow winding stair. Carl followed him with a beating heart.
After mounting sixty steps they stopped before a door; the Bjerg-
mand pushed it open with his staff, and they entered a spacious
vaulted chamber, paneled with wood, and having four large
shutters placed opposite the four points of the compass. The
chamber was in other respects fitted up almost precisely like the
observatory at Sæbygaard. There was a fireplace, before which
were many singularly shaped vessels and empty flasks; some large
metal pipes near the shutters; and in the middle of the floor a
large chair before a stone table, on which lay a heap of singed
parchments inscribed with red letters. The old man seated him-
self quietly in his chair without seeming to notice his guest, and
held a large polished lens up to his dim eyes, while he turned
over the papers and drew the iron lamp nearer.
Carl did not venture to disturb him, but occupied himself in
the mean time in observing the objects around. A large heap of
stones and raw metal which lay on the hearth seemed to indi-
cate that the old man did not wear his Bjergmand's habit in
vain: but Carl's eye rested not long on the shining treasure; he
turned from them to look for the woman whose shrill voice and
wild song had just before filled him with horror. At length he
observed a recess in the paneling; and peering forth from it, a
deadly pale and wrinkled female face, propped upon two shrunken
arms and half hidden by black tangled locks, with flashing eyes
and an insane smile.
Carl involuntarily stepped back a few paces; but instantly
recovered himself, and contemplated with deep interest the traces
of beauty and feminine grace which still lingered on that un-
happy countenance, and which the more he examined the more
he seemed to identify with the features of the once beautiful
Lady Helena. "It is she! ” said he to himself, looking at her
with heartfelt compassion. She nodded to him with a ghastly
smile, while a tear trickled down her furrowed cheek; but she
neither altered her posture nor uttered a word. She seemed from
time to time to cast a timid and anxious glance at the old
Bjergmand, but presently again fixed her gleaming eyes on the
knight; and her keen despairing look filled him with the same
horror which her piercing tones had before awakened.
At last the Bjergmand rose and took up the lantern which
stood at his feet. He made a sign to Carl to follow him, and
opened a secret door in the wall, which discovered a stair leading


## p. 7988 (#180) ###########################################

7988
BERNHARD SEVERIN INGEMANN
apparently to the top of the tower. As Carl quitted the chamber
he cast a glance towards the recess, and saw such an expression
of frantic joy on the countenance of the unhappy Helena, that he
breathed more freely when his long-armed conductor shut the
door, and drew a massy iron bolt on the outside.
When they had mounted a few steps, Carl heard the sound of
shrill laughter below, and the same fearful song which had before
horrified him. The old man seemed not to heed it, but calmly
ascended the stair, which wound narrower and narrower toward
the top. At last they stood on the top of the tower, on a narrow
open platform without a railing, with the bright starry heavens
above their heads, and on almost every side within two steps of
the dizzy abyss beneath; for the tower was perched on the sum-
mit of the rock, and seemed to rise with it in a perpendicular
line above the sea. A mist came over Carl's eyes, and he was
forced to lean on his sword to prevent himself from falling over
the precipice. He endeavored to overcome his dizziness by fixing
his eyes steadily on his companion. The Seer unbent his back,
rose to a great height before the eyes of Carl, and looked on
him with a wild and threatening aspect. «Here we are alone,”
said he, looking fixedly on the knight. «Here am I the strong-
est, however old I may be. Tell me here, between the heaven
and yon abyss, what wouldst thou know ? »
Carl summoned up all his strength, and was prepared to
defend his life to the last, and contest the platform with the
dark giant the instant he approached too near with his long
arms; but the Seer stirred not, and seemed desirous to give him
time for recollection. Carl then called to mind his King's behest,
and forgot his own dangerous position. He leaned yet more
heavily on his sword, and asked whether the Seer knew what
his sovereign was thinking of, the day he fell into a revery with
his foot in the stirrup; and if he did, what he said thereto?
The old man was silent, and contemplated the heavens for a
considerable time. His dim eyes at last lighted up with singular
fire, and he half spoke, half chanted:
« Thy Liege and Sovereign thought upon
The fate his children would befall,
When he himself was dead and gone!
Then tell him this for truth: They all
Shall civil strife and carnage see;
But each at last shall crowned be! »


## p. 7989 (#181) ###########################################

BERNHARD SEVERIN INGEMANN
7989
>>
Carl treasured up every word in his memory which concerned
the welfare of his King and country, without being able however
to comprehend how this answer could console the King, for it
seemed to him rather to contain an evil prophecy.
Wouldst thou know more ? ) asked the Seer.
« Make haste,
then, for an evil star is above our heads. "
Alas! Rigmor, Rigmor,” said Carl with a sigh; and inquired
of the old man in his own name if he knew where his wife was,
and if he could tell him (without having recourse to any sinful
arts) whether he should ever again behold her in this world.
“Goest thou hence alive," muttered the old man, thou wilt
soon know where she is; but if love be not mightier than hate
thou wilt know it to thy cost.
Carl pondered over these mysterious words, and tried to find
comfort in them for the disquietude of his heart. The old man
was about to say more, but at this moment a piercing shriek was
heard within the tower, and the Seer turned pale. “The lamp! ”
he shouted; “make way: » and he rushed down to the winding
stairs, pushing Carl aside with such force that he lost his bal-
ance on the platform and fell with his head resting on the edge
of the tower. Carl looked down upon the unfathomable abyss
beneath; but fortunately was able to recover himself and creep
back on his hands and knees to the staircase, and in a moment
overtook the old man. When the secret door was thrown open
a bright flame burst forth; the panels and shutters were burn-
ing, and a faded female form was seated on the stone table
amidst the smoldering papers, shouting and singing as she
watched the progress of the flames. Carl seized her in his arms,
and rushed with her through fire and smoke down to the last
flight of stairs; while the old man thought only of rescuing his
papers and instruments from the Alames. Carl reached the last
step of the stair, succeeded in drawing the bolt from the door,
and made his escape from the tower without sustaining any
injury; but the unhappy Lady Helena lay scorched and half dead
in his arms.
“”
"Waldemar, Waldemar! ” she groaned. "Thou hast cost me
my soul's salvation. ”
Carl laid her on the ground, and would have endeavored to
rescue, if possible, the unfortunate Seer: but he saw with horror
that the flames now burst forth from every side of the tower,
and that the old man was standing on the platform with a bun-
dle of burning papers, which he scattered around him on the


## p. 7990 (#182) ###########################################

7990
BERNHARD SEVERIN INGEMANN
air, while he muttered incantations and wielded his staff as if he
thought he could control the flames; but they presently reached
him: he plunged in desperation into the burning tower and dis-
appeared.
“Burn, burn, thou black Satan! I burn already,” cried the
dying Helena
“I shall no more disturb the peace of King
Waldemar till Doomsday. I am the Queen of the Black Seer.
I must plunge with him into the gulf. Ha! the millstone, the
millstone! it will hang around my neck to all eternity. Where
are now thy queens, Waldemar? alas!
Dagmar, Dagmar, pray
for me: proud Beengièrd strangles me with her bloody kerchief. ”
After uttering these broken and fearful sentences, the miserable
Helena wrung her hands in agony and expired. Carl uttered a
hasty prayer, then looked up at the burning tower; the flame
had shot over its summit, and a black forin was thrown down at
his feet. It was the unhappy Seer, whose corse lay crushed and
burned among the stones.
MORNING SONG
T"
WHEY'RE gazing at each other, the flowers fair and small,
The blithesome birds unto their mates are talking;
Now open wide their eyes earth's children all;
And, house on back, the snail goes walking.
The tiniest worm is minded by God the maker here;
He feeds the birds and decks the lily flower:
But children holds he dearest of the dear;
On weeping eyes God's blessings shower.
God's Son was once a little one, on manger straw he lay,
His cradle here on earth stood, fashioned meanly;
God promises the children heavenly play
And blooms in meadows queenly.
God's Son holds us so dear, great child-friend is his name:
He bears the bairns to God, his arms supporting:
Though conquering sea and sky what time he came,
Babes at his breast were sporting:
O Thou who blessest us and didst caress the small,
Some morn in Paradise we shall behold thee;
Thou raisest up our eyes to God,- let all
Praises and prayers enfold thee!
Translated for (A Library of the World's Best Literature) by Richard Burton.


## p. 7990 (#183) ###########################################



## p. 7990 (#184) ###########################################


WASHINGTON IRVING,


## p. 7990 (#185) ###########################################

1
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ciri12. 0" To the pro
T,
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## p. 7990 (#186) ###########################################



## p. 7991 (#187) ###########################################

7991
WASHINGTON IRVING
(1783-1859)
BY EDWIN W. MORSE
0 WASHINGTON IRVING belongs the title of the Founder of
American Literature. Born while the British troops were
still in possession of his native city, New York, and over-
taken by death a year before Abraham Lincoln was elected President
of the United States, he represents a span of life from Revolutionary
days to a period well remembered by men now of middle age. Be-
fore his day American literature was theological and political, — the
outgrowth of the great questions of Church and State which the
settlement of the colonies and the rupture with the mother country
gave rise to. The only considerable venture in belles-lettres had been
made by Charles Brockden Brown, whose romances published in the
turn of the century were highly praised in their day, but are now
unread.
Irving loved literature for its own sake, and not as a means to the
attainment of some social, moral, or political end; and this trait differ-
entiates him sharply from his predecessors. When he began to write,
the field of letters was unoccupied. His first book had been published
eight years when Bryant's 'Thanatopsis appeared in the North Amer-
ican Review; and it was three years later before Cooper's first novel,
Precaution, was published. His position in American literature is
thus unique, and will always remain so.
The qualities which were most characteristic of his work were sen-
timent and humor; and these acquired a high literary value through
the graceful, varied, and finished form in which they were cast. The
source of the keen literary sense that revealed itself in him in early
life, and that was highly developed even before he attained his
majority, is not easily traced. It was however a powerful impulse,
and persisted in shaping his character and in controlling his destiny,
despite his half-hearted efforts to acquire a taste for the law, and later
for commercial pursuits. To its influence moreover is attributable
his aloofness from the political and other public life of his time,
which seems somewhat singular in a man of his imaginative, emo-
tional temperament, when one remembers the stormy period in which
his youth and early manhood were passed. When he was beguiled


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7992
WASHINGTON IRVING
(
-
against his inclination to take some part in local politics, he spent
the first day, true to his real nature, in hunting for “whim, character,
and absurdity” in the crowd in which he found himself. From this
early time onward, whatever was eccentric or strongly individual in
human nature had a remarkable fascination for his alert, observing
mind. Apparently however the politics of the day did not yield
the material that he sought, nor were the associations of political
life agreeable to one of his fastidious tastes. For after a brief experi-
ence he writes: “Truly this saving one's country is a nauseous piece
of business; and if patriotism is such a dirty virtue — prythee, no
more of it. ” This sentiment had its spring in no lack of loyalty to
his country, but rather in his physical repugnance to the unwashed
political “workers” of his day and to familiar intercourse with them.
Irving's detachment from the public affairs of his time was fur-
ther illustrated in a somewhat amusing manner during his first visit
to Europe. When he reached France, Napoleon's conquest of Italy
and his assumption of the title of Emperor were on every tongue.
Contemporary greatness, however, which subsequent events were to
bring to a much more striking perspective than was within the scope
of his vision at this time, had no attraction for the young American
traveler. His sole anxiety was to see, not Napoleon, but the tomb
of Laura at Avignon; and great was his disappointment to find that
the monument had been destroyed in the Revolution. Never,” he
breaks out, « did the Revolution and its authors and its consequences
receive a more hearty and sincere execration than at that moment.
Throughout the whole of my journey I had found reason to exclaim
against it, for depriving me of some valuable curiosity or celebrated
monument; but this was the severest disappointment it had yet
occasioned. ” This purely literary view of the greatest event of
modern times is significant of Irving's attitude of mind towards the
political and social forces which were changing the boundaries of
kingdoms and revolutionizing society. He had reached his majority;
but the literary associations of the Old World were of infinitely
more moment to him than the overthrow of kings and the warrings
of nations.
A partial, but only a partial, explanation of this literary sense
which young Irving possessed can be found in his ancestry. It did
not, one may be sure, come from the side of his father, who was a
worthy Scotchman of good family, a native of one of the Orkney
Islands. William Irving had passed his life on or near the sea, and
was a petty officer on an armed packet when he met in Falmouth
the girl who was to become his wife and the author's mother. Mrs.
Irving was a woman of much beauty and of a lovely disposition, and
she exerted a great influence upon the character of the son. The


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WASHINGTON IRVING
7993
(
desire to wander far afield which pursued Irving through a large part
of his life may also be traced, it seems to me, to the parent stock,
which must have been saturated with the adventurous spirit of a
seafaring life. This impulse made itself felt when Irving was very
young; for in the account which the author of the (Sketch Book)
gives of himself, he admits that he began his travels when a mere
child, and made many tours of discovery into foreign parts and
unknown regions of his native city, to the frequent alarm of his
parents and the emolument of the town crier. ” As Irving was born
on April 3d, 1783, his parents having been residents of New York for
about twenty years, we may believe that these youthful escapades
took place when the boy was perhaps six or eight years old; say a
year or two after Washington began his first term as President. The
lad possessed from an early age, in addition to this roving tendency,
a romantic, emotional, imaginative temperament, which invested with
a special interest for him every spot in or near his native town that
had become celebrated through fable or by a tragedy in real life.
The New York through which the lad, brimful of gay spirits and
of boundless curiosity, wandered, was a town devoted exclusively to
commerce, of fewer than twenty-five thousand inhabitants.
It was
confined within narrow limits. An excursion from the Irving home
in William Street, about half-way between Fulton and John Streets,
to what is now Chambers Street, must have brought the venturesome
youth into the fields and among country houses. The educational
facilities of the town were meagre, and young Irving had little taste
for study. Rather than go to school, he preferred to loiter around
the wharves and dream of the far distant lands whence the ships with
their odorous cargoes had come; while in the evening he would steal
away to the theatre in company with a companion of about his own
age, James K. Paulding, with whom some years later he was to make
his first literary venture. He liked to read books of voyages and
romances, like "Robinson Crusoe) and (Sindbad,' much better than
the Pilgrim's Progress, which his father, then a deacon in the
Presbyterian church, gave him for his Sunday perusal. Two of his
brothers — he was the youngest of a family of eight boys — had been
sent to Columbia College, but Washington was not a student. Text-
books were repugnant to him; and lacking the faculty of application
and concentration, he never made inuch headway with routine studies,
although he acquired a little knowledge of Latin in addition to the
ordinary branches of learning. He was “a saunterer and a dreamer,"
did not like to study, and had no ambition to go to college.
As the years were slipping by, and as it was plainly necessary for
him to prepare himself for some work in life, young Irving entered
a law office. But the dry routine of reading law proved to be very
(


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7994
WASHINGTON IRVING
distasteful to him, and he soon drifted into general literature, in the
reading of which he atoned in large part for the deficiencies of his
early schooling. His indolence was partly due to temperament, and
partly no doubt to physical causes. For his health was not robust.
A weakness of the lungs showed itself, and gave him a good excuse
to get away from books and into the open air, and to indulge his
liking for travel and exploration. He had already wandered, gun in
hand, along the shores of the Hudson and through the woods of West-
chester County, becoming well acquainted with the natural beauties
of the Sleepy Hollow country, which he was later to people with
legendary figures. He had also made a voyage up the Hudson, and
had journeyed through the valley of the Mohawk. The pulmonary
trouble which made it necessary for him to take a more extended
outing made itself felt while he was dawdling over his law-books in
the office of Josiah Ogden Hoffman; and in the next two years — this
was between 1802 and 1804 — he made several adventurous journeys
to the north, going so far on one occasion as Montreal.
It was during this period of Irving's life, when he was approaching
his majority, that another important aspect of his character - the
social, which was to influence his entire career and to leave its color
indelibly stamped upon his writings — made itself apparent. From an
early age the social instinct was strong in him. As he grew older he
developed “a boundless capacity for good-fellowship,” as one of his
contemporaries testifies. This liking for his fellow-man had for its
foundation a warm-hearted, sympathetic, generous nature, a rich vein
of humor, perfect ease of manner and great readiness as a talker, and
an optimistic philosophy of life. These amiable traits made him
many friends in the towns which he visited outside of New York in
this period of his life, and throw a flood of light upon the warm
friendships which he made in England and elsewhere in later years.
It is easy to believe that these qualities of mind and heart were due
in large part to the influence of his mother, the gentleness and sweet-
ness of whose nature must have had a deep effect upon the impres.
sionable son. And to the same tender influence is probably due the
devotion, almost idolatrous, which Irving showed both in his writings
and in his social relations throughout his life to womankind. By
temperament extremely susceptible to the attractions of the sex, he
was always their ardent admirer and chivalric defender. The untimely
death of the girl whom we may well believe to have been the em-
bodiment of his loftiest ideals, the second daughter of the Mr. Hoff-
man under whom he had read law, imparted a tinge of melancholy
to his emotional temperament, and remained with him as a sad
memory throughout his life. This overwhelming disappointment, and
the necessity which arose some years later that he should assume the


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WASHINGTON IRVING
7995
responsibility of supporting his brothers, made marriage an impossi-
bility for him.
This tragedy, however, had not overshadowed his life when in 1804
Irving made his first journey to Europe, in search of the health which
he had not been able to find in northern New York and in Canada.
He had just passed his twenty-first birthday; and despite his poor
health, he was all eagerness to see the famous places which his read-
ing had made familiar to his lively imagination. The reality exceeded
his anticipations. His health was restored by the voyage, and he
gave himself up to sight-seeing and to making friends. He loitered
here and there: in Italy, where he met Allston, who nearly persuaded
him to become a painter; in Paris, where he frequented the theatres;
and in London, where he saw John Kemble and Mrs. Siddons. He
studied little but observed much, gathering materials perhaps sub-
consciously from the associations historic and legendary connected
with this old and infinitely rich civilization, to be worked later into
delightful stories and sketches. He was forming his taste too on the
best models, and was thus laying a broad foundation for his literary
career, although he had as yet written nothing.
After two enjoyable years abroad, Irving returned in 1806 to
New York, and soon began to feel his way into the world of letters
through the pages of Salmagundi, a periodical which he wrote in
conjunction with the friend of his youth, James K. Paulding. These
papers on society and its “whim-whams,” or fads as we should say,
have only a slight interest to-day as a reflection of the manners of
the time; but to Irving's contemporaries the vivacity and spirit with
which they were written, and the thread of humor which ran through
them, were sources of much entertainment and amusement. With the
Knickerbocker History of New York,' however,— which was pub-
lished in 1809, the year in which Madison succeeded Jefferson to the
Presidency,– Irving acquired wide-spread celebrity. This book was
the first real piece of literature which America had produced, and it
served to introduce its author into a still wider and more influential
circle of friends in the literary and art world when he made his
second visit to England in 1815. His constitutional indolence, his
distrust of his capacity, and the distractions of society, interfered to
prevent him, after his first success, from accepting literature as his
vocation. Finally he entered into the business which his brothers
had been carrying on with indifferent results, although his distaste for
commercial affairs was unconcealed. At last the necessity arose that
he should go to England, in order if possible to place the affairs of
the firm — the Irvings were importers of hardware — on a sounder
basis. The fortunate — no other word in view of the event seems
so appropriate — failure of the firm, a few years after his arrival in


## p. 7996 (#192) ###########################################

7996
WASHINGTON IRVING
England, compelled him to cast about in search of some means of
repairing the broken fortunes of the family; and he naturally turned
again to letters.
This decision was the turning-point in Irving's career. He forth-
with began the preparation of the several numbers of the “Sketch
Book'; the popularity of which, when they were published in 1819
and 1820, decided him to make literature his life work. The financial
returns from these ventures were more than he had dreamed of, and
with the offers which poured in upon him from English publishers,
gave him a feeling of independence and security for the future.
From this time on he produced books with rapidity. Bracebridge
Hall' and the “Tales of a Traveller' appeared in 1822 and in 1824
respectively. A residence of several years in Spain resulted in the
production of the Life of Columbus) (1828), the Conquest of Gra-
nada' (1829), and the Alhambra) tales and sketches. On his return
to the United States in 1832, after an absence of seventeen years, he
was welcomed at a public dinner at which his praises were sung in
every key. He had won from England respect for American liter-
ature, and no honors were too great for his fellow-countrymen to
bestow upon him.
In the ten years between 1832 and 1842 Irving bought and devel-
oped the property on the east bank of the Hudson, north of Tarry-
town and overlooking the Tappan Zee, to which he gave the name
of Sunnyside. He traveled some in the far West, and published A
Tour on the Prairies' (1835), (Astoria (1836), and the Adventures of
Captain Bonneville) (1837). For the four years from 1842 to 1846 he
was United States Minister to Spain; a post for which he was espe-
cially well fitted, and to which he was appointed as a sort of national
recognition of his services to the cause of letters. While he was in
Madrid he was planning and arranging the material for the early
volumes of his Life of Washington'; the first volume of which did
not appear, however, until 1855. His Life of Goldsmith' was pub-
lished in 1849, Mahomet and his Successors in the winter of the
same year, Wolfert's Roost' in 1854, and the fifth and final volume
of his 'Washington' only a short time before his death at Sunnyside
on November 28th, 1859.
Irving's literary activity thus extended over exactly half a century.
The books which he published in that period fall naturally into
four groups, each of which reflects his explorations, observations,
and meditations in some special field. The first of these groups is
made up of the experimental Salmagundi papers, the Knickerbocker
“History, the (Sketch Book,' Bracebridge Hall,' and Tales of a
Traveller'; all of which were published while the author was between
twenty-six and forty-one years of age. They were the fruit of his


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WASHINGTON IRVING
7997
interest, first in the Dutch history and legends that gave a quaint
charm to Old New York, and to the customs and manners of the
early settlers in the valley of the Hudson; and second in the roman-
tic and picturesque aspects of foreign life which had stirred his
fancy and imagination during his two sojourns abroad. Although
they were not published in book form until many years later, the
sketches and tales gathered under the title of Wolfert's Roost' be-
long to the same time and to the same group. The second group
consists of the volumes which were the outgrowth of Irving's resi-
dence in Spain, and of his admiration for the daring and adventurous
life of the early Spanish voyagers, and for the splendid story, so
brilliant with Oriental pageantry and with barbaric color, of the
Moorish invasion and occupancy of Spain. The third group includes
the three books in which Irving pictured with a vivid realism, with
an accurate knowledge, and with a narrative style that gave to two
at least of these volumes the fascination of romance, the perils and
hardships which the explorers, fur-traders, hunters, and trappers of
the Northwest endured in the early years of the present century.
Finally, the last group embraces the historical and biographical works
of the author's last years.
Of all these books, the one that is the boldest in conception and
that shows the most virility is the first one that Irving published, -
the Knickerbocker History of New York. ' Born of an audacity that
is the privilege of youth, this History' was the product of a mind
untrammeled by literary traditions, and bent only upon giving the
freest play to its fanciful idea of the grotesquely humorous possibili-
ties of the Dutch character and temperament when confronted with
problems of State. In freshness, vigor, and buoyancy the narrative is
without a parallel in our literature. It is literally saturated with the
spirit of broad comedy, the effect of which is immeasurably height-
ened by the air of historical gravity with which the narrative is pre-
sented. The character studies are full of individuality, and are drawn
with a mock seriousness and with a minuteness that give them all
the qualities of actual historical portraits; while the incidents are
pictured with a vividness that invests them with an atmosphere of
reality, from the influence of which the sympathetic reader escapes
with difficulty. I know of no piece of broad, sustained humor in
English or in American literature which is the equal of the narrative
of the capture of Fort Casimir,-- an episode in the description of
which the Homeric manner is adopted with grandiloquent effect. A
phrase may be found here and there in the book which is out of
harmony with the taste of our day; but ninety years make con-
siderable difference in such matters, and all must admit that these
seventeenth-century touches are not unnatural in a youth whose early
(


## p. 7998 (#194) ###########################################

7998
WASHINGTON IRVING
reading had carried him in many directions in search of the novel
and eccentric in life and letters. Taken as a whole the book is
a masterpiece, revealing a limitless fund of humor, a shrewd knowl-
edge of human nature, and a deep love of mankind, and governed
throughout by a fine sense of the literary possibilities and limitations
of historical burlesque.
In any book which might be made up of Irving's legends of the
Hudson, and of his stories on other American themes, the precedence
would be given without protest from any quarter, I think, to the
tender, pathetic, sweetly humorous story of Rip Van Winkle. The
change of style that one perceives in these stories and in the tales
of Spanish, French, and English life, as compared with that in the
Knickerbocker History,' is marked. If there is a loss of youthful
vigor and enthusiasm, there is a decided gain in grace of form, in
simplicity, in delicacy and tenderness of feeling, and in refinement of
humor. These are the qualities which give a permanent value to
writing and make it literature. They suffuse (Rip Van Winkle' and
the Legend of Sleepy Hollow) with an undying charm, and lift these
legends to a higher plane than that occupied by the Knickerbocker
(History. ' In them Irving gave the fullest and freest play to his
artistic nature. The tales from over seas in this first group of
his books reflect the "charms of storied and poetical association »
which his active fancy pictured when he escaped from the common-
place realities of the present,” and lost himself among the shadowy
grandeurs of the past. ” He brought too an appreciative mind to the
contemplation of the quiet beauty of English country life.
It was
always, however, the human element in the scene that was of inter-
est to him; and this, I think, is one of the principal reasons why
so much of his work has retained its vitality through three-quarters
of a century.
It is not surprising — to take up the second group of Irving's
books — that a man of his poetic temperament found Spain "a coun-
try where the most miserable inn is as full of adventure as
enchanted castle. ” It was the historical associations, however, which
especially appealed to him, and to the inspiration of which we are
indebted for some of his most brilliant pages. The glories of old
Spain in the days of the Moslem invader and in the reign of Ferdi-
nand and Isabella, when the adventurous spirit of the Spanish sailors
was at its height, and when great enterprises inflamed men's minds
with the lust for conquest and power and riches, - these were the
themes that kindled his sympathetic imagination. To these influences
was due the Life of Columbus,' - which may seem somewhat anti-
quated in form to a generation accustomed to the modern style of
biography, but which is nevertheless a very solid piece of historical
an


## p. 7999 (#195) ###########################################

WASHINGTON IRVING
7999
writing, calm, clear, judicious, and trustworthy,- together with the
collection of legends and historical narratives growing out of the
Moorish conquest. In the Conquest of Granada' and in the Alham-
bra' tales, Irving's style, affected no doubt by the variety and rich-
ness of the color of the scenes which he is depicting, is a little
lacking at times in the fine reticence which distinguishes his best
work; but the fact remains that his picture of this chapter of Spanish
history was of such a character as to discourage any successor from
attempting to deal with the same topic.
Two of the three books descriptive of the wild life of the North-
west, Astoria and the Adventures of Captain Bonneville,' were
based upon documents placed at Irving's disposal by John Jacob
Astor, supplemented by oral narratives, and by the author's recollec-
tions of his own experiences during the journey which he made on
the prairies after his second return from Europe. In addition to the
deep interest attaching to the tragic story of the suffering and dan-
gers encountered by the overland party which Mr. Astor dispatched
to establish a fur-trading post at the mouth of the Columbia River,
the Astoria' is filled with graphic character sketches of the hardy
adventurers who gathered in those days at the frontier settlements,
– men of varied nationalities and of eccentric and picturesque indi-
vidualities, all of whom are as actual in Irving's pages as if they had
been studied from the life. It may be nothing more than a fancy,
but I like to think that this incursion into the trackless regions of
the Northwest, in company with the primitive types of the explorer,
the hunter, and the trapper, reflects a natural reaction of Irving's
mind after so long a sojourn in the highly cultivated society of
Europe, and a yearning on his part to find rest and refreshment by
getting as close as possible in his work to Mother Nature.
Of the three biographies which were the last product of his pen,
the Life of Goldsmith is noteworthy as having more of the charm of
his earlier manner than the others have. He was in peculiar sym-
pathy with the subject of this volume, and told the story of his life
with an insight which no later biographer has brought to the task.
The Mahomet and his Successors) is an honest, straightforward,
conscientious piece of work, but did not add anything to the author's
reputation. He expended an enormous amount of time and labor on
the Life of Washington, but the work was too large and too exact-
ing for a man of his age to undertake. There are passages in it
that for incisiveness of characterization and for finish of form are the
equal of anything that he produced in the days when his intellectual
vigor was unimpaired; but the reader cannot escape the feeling that
the author's grasp of the materials relating to the subject was feeble,
and that his heart was not in his work. It dragged terribly, he tells


## p. 8000 (#196) ###########################################

8000
WASHINGTON IRVING
us, in the writing; and it drags too in the reading. Nor does it seem
likely that even if the task had been undertaken twenty years earlier,
the theme would have been altogether a congenial one. Washington,
in the perspective from which Irving viewed him, and one must
remember that the lad was six years old when Washington took the
oath of office as President, and may have witnessed that ceremony
almost from his father's doorstep,— was a very real man who had
solved a very real problem. There was no atmosphere surrounding
him that corresponded to the romantic glamour which transfigured
the personality of Columbus, or to the literary associations which
were linked with Goldsmith's name; and Irving required some such
stimulus to the imagination in order to enable him to do his best
work.
Irving, finally, was the first American man of letters whose writ-
ings contained the vital spark. No one would venture to say that he
possessed a creative imagination of the highest order, such as Haw-
thorne for example was gifted with. The tragedy of life, the more
strenuous problems that arise to torment mankind, had no attraction
for him. But he had nevertheless imagination of a rare sort, and the
creative faculty was his also. Were this not so, his books would
have been forgotten long ago. Neither his play of fancy, nor his
delicious sense of humor, nor the singular felicity of his style, could
have saved his writings from oblivion if he had not possessed, in
addition to these qualities, a profound knowledge of the romance and
comedy of life, and the power, which is vouchsafed to few, to sur-
round his characters and his scenes with some of the mellow glow of
his own sweet and gentle spirit.
Edwin W. Morse,
ار
THE GOOD OLD DAYS OF KNICKERBOCKER LIFE
From A History of New York: By Diedrich Knickerbocker)
He houses of the higher class were generally constructed of
T
and yellow Dutch bricks, and always faced on the street, -
as our ancestors, like their descendants, were very much given to
outward show, and were noted for putting the best leg foremost.
The house was always furnished with abundance of large doors
and small windows on every floor; the date of its erection was
curiously designated by iron figures on the front; and on the top


## p. 8001 (#197) ###########################################

WASHINGTON IRVING
8001
of the roof was perched a fierce little weathercock, to let the
family into the important secret which way the wind blew.