Book VI, line 126. It should be "facilis descensus Averno," _easy is
the descent to Avernus_. CATALANI: Angelica Catalani (1779-1849). An
Italian singer. MONSTRUM HORRENDUM: (Latin) _a horrible monster_, the
epithet applied to the one-eyed giant, Polyphemus, in Vergil's "Aeneid,"
Book III, line 658. UN DESSEIN, etc.: (French). _A design so fatal, if
it is not worthy of Atrée, it is worthy of Thyeste_. CRÉBILLON'S
"ATRÉE": Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon (1674-1762). A French tragic poet.
His play, "Atrée et Thyeste," bears the date 1707.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
Nathaniel Hawthorne, or Hathorne, as it was spelled before he changed
it, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, July 4, 1804. His family, settled
in New England since 1630, had played its part in the activities of the
land in various capacities, including the persecution of so-called
witches. His father, a sea-captain, died on a voyage when the lad was
four years old. The excessive mourning then in vogue made the widow
practically seclude herself in her room, throwing a consequent gloom
over the household and affecting the boy's spirits. From this depressing
atmosphere he found relief in an early developed taste for reading. In
1818 the family moved to a lonely part of Maine, where in roaming the
lonely woods he gained a liking for solitude as well as for nature. He
returned to Salem in 1819 to prepare for Bowdoin College, which he
entered in 1821. After an undistinguished course he went back to his
native town, whither his mother had also returned.
In Salem he remained for twelve years, a recluse in a family of
recluses, devoting himself to reading and writing. In 1828 his first
book, "Fanshawe," was published at his own expense. Its failure caused
him to destroy all the copies he could find. Some of the stories which
he wrote during this period were published in the annuals, then
fashionable, and in _The New England Magazine_, but without making much
impression.
This hermit-like existence was healthily broken in 1836 by his becoming
the editor of an obscure magazine, though it was hack work and lasted
but a short time. The anonymity to which he had stubbornly clung was
also dispelled by one friend, and the publication of his "Twice-Told
Tales" was arranged for by another, his classmate, Horatio Bridge. These
two facts made him known and mark the beginning of the disappearance of
his solitary depression, which was ended by his engagement to Sophia
Peabody.
In January, 1839, he became a weigher and gauger in the Boston Custom
House, a position which he lost in April, 1841, owing to a change in the
political administration. Then for a few months he was a member of the
Brook Farm Community, a group of reformers who tried to combine
agriculture and education. In the Custom House and at Brook Farm he
worked so hard as to have little energy for literature, publishing only
some children's books. On July 9, 1842, occurred his marriage.
For the next three years Hawthorne resided in Concord at the Old Manse.
In this retired town, where such eminent people as Emerson and Thoreau
were to be met, he lived a very happy, quiet life, given to musing and
observation. But he had lost a considerable sum of money in the Brook
Farm experiment, the failure of _The Democratic Review_ prevented
payment for his contributions, and he began to feel the pinch of
poverty. At this juncture his college mates, Bridge and Pierce, came to
the rescue, and on March 23, 1846, he was appointed surveyor of the port
of Salem, that spot in which the Hawthorne family was so firmly rooted,
whither he had previously returned with his wife and daughter, Una, born
in Concord in 1844.
Though happy for a short time at getting into the stir of actual life,
the routine and sordidness soon palled and he began to fret in the
harness. This mood kept him from composition till he forced from
himself, in 1848, the last of his short stories, including "The Great
Stone Face" and "Ethan Brand." Despite the effort, the stories rank
well. In 1849 he was dismissed from office by a change of political
administration, not because of inefficiency. He took this dismissal hard
because some of his townspeople had been opposed to him. Again he was in
money difficulties from which he was released by a donation from his
loyal friends. The leisure thus made possible was devoted to the
production of his greatest work, a novel, "The Scarlet Letter," which is
a study in the darker side of Puritanism. Its publication in April,
1850, brought him fame. In the same year he moved to the Berkshire
Hills.
The year and a half in the hills was thoroughly happy. He had the
incentive of success, the tranquillity of mind due to sufficient means,
physical comfort, and a loving household now enlarged by the birth of a
second daughter, Rose. During this time he wrote and published (1851)
his novel, "The House of the Seven Gables," the study of an inherited
curse, made pleasing as a story by means of its realistic portrayal of
ordinary life. He also put many of the stories of classical mythology
into a form understandable by children, publishing the results in "A
Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys" (1852) and "Tanglewood Tales for Girls
and Boys" (1853). In 1852 appeared "The Snow Image and Other Twice-Told
Tales," containing hitherto uncollected contributions to various
magazines.
Believing the Berkshire air rather enervating, Hawthorne moved in
November, 1851, to a temporary residence in West Newton, where he wrote
"The Blithedale Romance," which was published in 1852. This novel,
founded on his Brook Farm experience, is a study of the failure of the
typical reformer. In June, 1852, the family moved to a place of their
own, called "The Wayside" in Concord. Here the ideal family life
continued. In the summer he brought out "The Life of Franklin Pierce,"
the biography of his old college mate, who was shortly after elected to
the presidency of the United States, and made Hawthorne United States
Consul at Liverpool in 1853.
The holding of office was never a congenial occupation to Hawthorne,
though he was a good official. It always became irksome and dried up his
creative power. The consulship was no exception, and when he resigned in
1857 he felt much relief. By this time he had obtained a competence
which afforded him the gratification of paying back the money once
raised for him by his friends. When in England he had seen much of the
country; now he determined to see more of Europe. The family travelled
through France to Italy, which they greatly enjoyed, staying there till
1859. For some months they had occupied the old villa of Montauto, where
Hawthorne composed most of "The Marble Faun." The illness of Una
compelling them to seek a different climate, they returned to England,
where he finished the book, which was published the next year. "The
Marble Faun" is "an analytical study of evil"; but despite the subject,
the artistic effects and the interpretation of Italy lend it charm.
In 1860 the family returned to Concord. Hawthorne's health had been
failing for some time, and now he became incapable of sustained work.
However, in 1863 was published "Our Old Home," the theme of which is
well expressed by the sub-title "A Series of English Sketches," which
had been composed previously. He continued to do some work, and even
promised a new novel to the press, but he came to realize that he would
never finish it. In 1864 he went on a carriage trip with his old friend
Pierce, during which he peacefully died in his sleep.
REFERENCES
BIOGRAPHY:
WOODBERRY: Nathaniel Hawthorne.
JAMES: Nathaniel Hawthorne.
CRITICISM:
HUTTON: Literary Essays.
STEPHEN: Hours in a Library.
NOTES ON "HOWE'S MASQUERADE"
This story was first published in _The Democratic Review_ for May, 1838,
and was republished in 1842 in an enlarged edition of "Twice-Told
Tales." It exemplifies the work in which Hawthorne was the pioneer--that
of building a story about a situation. The idea of this particular one
is found in the following entry in "American Note-Books": "A phantom of
the old royal governors, or some such showy shadowy pageant, on the
night of the evacuation of Boston by the British." Hawthorne was
accustomed to jot down in his note-books hints for stories which often
can be traced in his developed writings.
In "Howe's Masquerade" can be clearly seen the fact that he had not
mastered the method of writing the short-story as we have it to-day.
There is too much introduction and too much conclusion. He takes too
long to get the story into motion, and he spoils the effect by tacking
to the end a moral. These mistakes or crudities Poe did not make;
however, each writer contributed to the development of the short-story
some element of value, as has been pointed out in the Introduction.
This story is one of "The Legends of the Province House," stories joined
together by the scheme of having an old inhabitant tell them to some
visitor. Such machinery with its prologues and end-links, more or less
elaborate, has been often used, as is seen in Chaucer's "Canterbury
Tales" and in Longfellow's "Tales of a Wayside Inn." The taste for this
method has largely passed, though it has been recently revived by
Alfred Noyes in "The Tales of the Mermaid Tavern."
PAGE 93. WASHINGTON STREET: the scene is laid in Boston. OLD PROVINCE
HOUSE: the term Province House is used somewhat in the same sense as
State House. The building was erected when Massachusetts was a province
and served as the headquarters and dwelling of the royal governor.
Hawthorne represents it as having descended to the condition of an inn
or inferior hotel, the most important part of which was the bar for the
sale of liquor.
94. LADY OF POWNALL: the wife of Thomas Pownall, a royal governor of
Massachusetts Bay Colony. BERNARD: Sir Thomas Bernard, another royal
governor.
98. STEELED KNIGHTS OF THE CONQUEST: persons dressed as cavalrymen in
steel armor of 1066, when William the Conqueror became King of England.
PARTY-COLORED MERRY ANDREW: an old term for a clown dressed in garments
having several colors. FALSTAFF: an important character in several of
Shakespeare's plays. He is always represented as fat and ridiculous. DON
QUIXOTE: the chief character of the celebrated Spanish satire "Don
Quixote" (1605) by Cervantes. Don Quixote is a simple-minded man, whose
head has been turned by reading the extravagant romances of chivalry
then current, in which knights ride forth to redress wrongs. He feels
himself called to such a mission and, armed with various ridiculous
makeshifts and accompanied by a humorous squire, Sancho Panza, whose
sayings have achieved an immortality nearly equal to his master's
doings, he sallies out upon a course of adventures, which caused the
world to laugh the dying remnants of false chivalry into its grave.
COLONEL JOLIFFE: an imaginary character. WHIG PRINCIPLES: the people
belonging to the patriotic party in the colonies were called Whigs.
99. REV. MATHER BYLES: an actual person (1706-1788). He was imprisoned
in 1777 as a Tory; that is, as an adherent of the king. WIG AND BAND:
Protestant clergymen of that day wore wigs and a strip of linen, called
a band, placed about the neck with the ends hanging down in front.
102. REGICIDE JUDGES: in the first part of the seventeenth century the
people of England became dissatisfied with their king, Charles I,
because of his illegal acts. They revolted, captured the king, put him
on trial, and executed him, January 30, 1649. The judges are called
regicide, because they tried and condemned a king. The royal party spoke
of him as a martyr to the cause.
110. WHEN THE TRUTH-TELLING ACCENTS, etc.: Hawthorne has tried in this
last paragraph to emphasize the contrast between the rather sordid real
and the imaginary. He is entirely too successful, because he spoils the
effect of the story--something for which Poe strove with such singleness
of purpose as to permit of no such ending.
NOTES TO "THE BIRTHMARK"
This story was first published in the March, 1843, number of _The
Pioneer_, a magazine edited by James Russell Lowell, and was republished
in "Mosses from an Old Manse" in 1846. It belongs to the "moral
philosophic" group of Hawthorne's writings (see Introduction).
PAGE 112. NATURAL PHILOSOPHY: an old term for physics. SPIRITUAL
AFFINITY: in chemistry certain elements show a tendency to combine with
others, so an attraction of one human spirit for another, leading
generally to marriage, is often called a spiritual affinity.
114. EVE OF POWERS: Hiram Powers (1805-1873). An American sculptor whose
statue of Eve is one of his noted works.
118. PYGMALION: in Greek mythology a sculptor who made such a beautiful
statue of a woman that he fell in love with it, whereupon in answer to
his prayer the goddess Aphrodite gave it life.
121. OPTICAL PHENOMENA: sights which cheat the eye into believing them
real.
122. CORROSIVE ACID: a powerful chemical which eats away substance.
DYNASTY OF THE ALCHEMISTS: the succession of the early investigators of
chemistry who spent most of their energy in seeking what was called the
"universal solvent" which would turn every substance into gold. These
men were sometimes legitimate investigators, but often cheats who made
money out of foolish people. At one time they became so numerous in
London that laws were passed against them, but it took Jonson's play
"The Alchemist" to laugh away their hold.
123. ELIXIR VITÆ: (Arabic, _el iksir_, plus Latin, _vitæ_) literally,
_the philosopher's stone of life_. Another fad of the alchemists.
125. ALBERTUS MAGNUS: "Albert the Great" (1193-1280), a member of the
Dominican order of monks. CORNELIUS AGRIPPA: (1486-1535) a student of
magic. PARACELSUS: Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus (1493-1541), a
physician and alchemist. FRIAR WHO CREATED THE PROPHETIC BRAZEN HEAD:
the legendary "Famous History of Friar Bacon" records the construction
of such a thing. TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY: the volumes
containing the discussions of the Royal Society and also the papers read
before it. This association was founded about 1660 for the advancement
of science.
BRET HARTE
Francis Bret Harte, or as he later called himself Bret Harte, was born
in Albany, New York, August 25, 1836. He came of mixed English, Dutch,
and Hebrew stock. The family led a wandering life, full of privations,
till the death of the father, a schoolmaster, in 1845. In 1853 the widow
moved to California, where she married Colonel Andrew Williams. Thither
the son followed her in 1854.
As tutor, express messenger, printer, drug clerk, miner, and editor he
spent the three years till 1857, when he settled in San Francisco, where
he became a printer in the office of _The Golden Era_. Soon he began to
contribute articles to the paper, and was promoted to the editorial
room. In 1862 he married Miss Anna Griswold, and in 1864 he was
appointed secretary of the California mint. He continued writing, and in
the same year was engaged on a weekly, _The Californian_. In 1867 the
first collection of his poems was published under the title of "The Lost
Galleon and Other Tales." When _The Overland Monthly_ was founded in the
next year Bret Harte became its first editor. To its second number he
contributed "Luck of Roaring Camp." Though received with much question
in California, it met a most enthusiastic reception in the East, the
columns of _The Atlantic Monthly_ being thrown open to him. This success
he followed six months later by another, "The Outcasts of Poker Flat."
His next great success was the poem "Plain Language from Truthful
James," which was in the September, 1870, number of the magazine. It
made him famous though he attached little importance to it. In this year
he was made Professor of Recent Literature in the University of
California.
Debt, friction with the new owner of _The Overland_, and a growing lack
of sympathy with the late settlers, caused Bret Harte to leave
California in 1871. He came East and devoted himself entirely to
writing, his work being published for one year altogether in _The
Atlantic Monthly_. But his ever recurring financial difficulties
becoming acute, he did some lecturing in addition. In 1876 appeared his
only novel, "Gabriel Conroy," which was not a success. His money
difficulties continuing, his friends came to the rescue and secured his
appointment as United States Consul at Crefeld, Germany. Leaving his
wife, whom he never saw again, he sailed in 1878. At this post he
continued for two years, his life being varied by a lecture tour in
England. In 1880 he was transferred to the more lucrative consulship at
Glasgow.
In Glasgow he remained for five years, writing, meeting some eminent
writers, and visiting different parts of the country. In 1885, a new
President having taken office, he was superseded in his consulship. He
then settled in London, devoting himself to writing with only an
occasional trip away, once as far as Switzerland. In 1901 he died.
REFERENCES
BIOGRAPHY:
MERWIN: The Life of Bret Harte.
PEMBERTON: Life of Bret Harte.
CRITICISM:
WOODBERRY: America in Literature.
NOTES TO "THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT"
This story was first published in _The Overland Monthly_ of San
Francisco in 1869.
PAGE 134. POKER FLAT: an actual place in Sierra County, California. The
name is typical of a large class of western geographic names bestowed by
rough uneducated men when the West was new. MORAL ATMOSPHERE: these
western mining towns in 1850 in a region which had just become a part of
the United States as a result of the War with Mexico, were largely
unorganized and without regularly constituted government. The bad
element did as it pleased until the better people got tired. Then a
"vigilance committee" would be organized, which would either drive out
the undesirables, as in this story, or would execute the entire lot.
135. SLUICE ROBBER: one way of separating gold from the gravel and sand
in which it is found is to put the mixture into a slanting trough,
called a sluice, through which water is run. As these sluices were
sometimes of considerable length, it was not a difficult matter for a
man to rob one.
136. PARTHIAN: the Parthians inhabited a part of ancient Persia. It was
their custom when retreating to continue to shoot arrows at their enemy.
142. COVENANTER: one of that body of Scotchmen who had bound themselves
by a solemn covenant or agreement in the seventeenth century to uphold
the Presbyterian faith. This act required force of character, since it
was in defiance of King Charles I, and this force was shown in the vigor
of their hymns.
144. ILIAD: the ancient Greek epic poem, ascribed to Homer, which tells
the story of the war of the Greeks against Troy. ALEXANDER POPE
(1688-1744), an English poet, who rather freely translated the poem.
147. DERRINGER: a pistol, so called from the name of the inventor.
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson, the son of a man of some means, was born
in Edinburgh, November 30, 1850. The _Louis_ form of his second name was
merely a caprice in spelling adopted by the boy, and never altered the
pronunciation of the original by his family. An only child, afflicted
with poor health, he was an object of solicitude, notably to his nurse,
Alison Cunningham, to whose loving devotion the world owes an unpayable
debt. Stevenson's appreciation of her faithful ministrations is
beautifully voiced in the dedication of his "A Child's Garden of Verses"
(1885). After some schooling, made more or less desultory by ill-health,
he attended Edinburgh University. The family profession was lighthouse
engineering, and though he gave it enough attention to receive a medal
for a suggested improvement on a lighthouse lamp, his heart was not in
engineering, so he compromised with his father on law. He was called to
the Scottish bar and rode on circuit with the court, but, becoming
master of his destiny, he abandoned law for literature.
Literature was the serious purpose of his life and to it he gave an
ardor of industry which is amazing. He worked at the mastery of its
technique for years, till he gained that felicity of expression which
has made his writings classical. His earliest publications were essays,
often inspired by his trips abroad in search of health. On one of these
in France in 1876 he met his future wife, Mrs. Osbourne, an American.
Other such trips are recorded in "An Inland Voyage" (1878) and in
"Travels with a Donkey" (1879). In 1879 he came to America, travelling
in a rough way to California, an experience made use of in his book "An
Amateur Emigrant." As a consequence of this trip, he fell desperately
ill in San Francisco, where he was nursed by Mrs. Osbourne, whom he
married in 1880. His convalescence in an abandoned mining camp is
recorded in "The Silverado Squatters" (1883). Returning to Scotland,
they found the climate impossible for his weak lungs, consequently they
tried various places on the Continent. Throughout his ill-health he
heroically kept at work, publishing from time to time books of essays
and short-stories, such as "Virginibus Puerisque" (1881) and "New
Arabian Nights" (1882), parts of which had already appeared in
magazines, and in 1883 his first popular success, "Treasure Island."
In 1887 his father died and in the next year he came again to America,
sojourning at various places, among them Saranac Lake, and then voyaging
in a sailing vessel, _The Casco_, in the Pacific. It was not his
ill-health alone that kept him on the move, but an adventurous spirit as
well. Finally the family settled at Apia, Samoa, the climate of which he
found remarkably salubrious. There he could work even physically without
the long spells of illness to which he had been accustomed all his life.
He was able to take an intense interest in the unhappy politics of the
islands, endeavoring to alleviate the unfortunate condition of the
natives, who passionately returned his interest. They built for him to
his house a road to which they gave the significant name of "The Road of
the Loving Heart," and they celebrated his story-telling gift by the
name "Tusitala," the teller of tales. His efforts for Samoa resulted in
a book entitled "A Foot Note to History" (1893), which showed the
troubled condition of the islands. In this place, ruling over a large
retinue of servants like a Scottish chieftain over his clan, he lived
for three years, turning out much work and producing half of that most
wonderful novel, "Weir of Hermiston," which bid fair to be his greatest
achievement. Death came suddenly in 1894 from the bursting of a blood
vessel in the brain, thus cheating his lifelong enemy, tuberculosis.
Besides "Weir," he left almost completed another novel, "St. Ives,"
which was concluded by Quiller-Couch and published in 1898.
On a high peak of Vaea he lies beneath a stone bearing the epitaph
written by himself:
"Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me:
_Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill_."
REFERENCES
BIOGRAPHY:
BALFOUR: Life of Robert Louis Stevenson.
RALEIGH: R. L. Stevenson.
CRITICISM:
GENUNG: Stevenson's Attitude toward Life.
PHELPS: Modern Novelists.
NOTES ON "THE SIRE DE MALÉTROIT'S DOOR"
This story of dramatic interest, which contains, moreover, much
psychologic interest, was first published in _Temple Bar_, January,
1878, and reprinted in the volume "New Arabian Nights" in 1882.
PAGE 148. SIRE: obsolete French for sir. BURGUNDY: a section of eastern
France bordering on the river Rhone. The Count of Burgundy by a treaty
with the English recognized the claim of the English king, Henry VI, to
the throne of France. Their troops at the time of the story were
endeavoring to establish this claim by force of arms. Joan of Arc
figures in this war. SAFE-CONDUCT: a passport. As Denis had one, he must
have come from the French forces and consequently was among enemies.
149. CHATEAU LANDON: an ancient town southeast of Paris.
150. BOURGES: a city in the Department of Cher, west of Burgundy.