Henry W. Longfellow. Biography, anecdote, letters, criticism
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■Pi J> °y v"* " ** ^ ^ 'Kt, \N ^ <i ^<- A' V ^ v V1 ^ '. "£ -<- Vx <^ W ^ v* >- ^ u\X -p ■u BORN FEB. 27, 1807. DIED MAR. 24, 1882. HENRY W. LONGFELLOW Biography. Axecdote, Letters, Criticism BY W. SLOANE KENNEDY AUTHOR OF "POEMS OF THE WEIRD AND THE MYSTICAL," ETC. A Student of old books and days, To whom all tongues and lands were known, And yet a lover of his own : With many a social virtue graced, And yet a friend of solitude ; A man of such a genial mood The heart of all things he embraced, And yet of such fastidious taste, He never found the best too good. Tales of n Wayside Inn. PORTRAIT AND ILLUSTRATIONS CAMBRIDGE, MASS. MOSES KING, PUBLISHER HARVARD SQUARE Copyright by MOSES KING, CAMBRIDGE, MASS., 1882. JFranWm press : RAND, AVERY, AND COMPANY, BOSTON. PEEFAOE. TT is the part of a host who is entertaining a distinguished -*- company to keep himself in the background, and see that his guests are properly introduced and grouped. What is true of a social gathering is true of such a work as the present : it is eclectic in character, a mosaic of the choicest thoughts of many minds, — for the most part digested and incorporated into a continuous narrative by one whose own personality is kept as much as possible out of view, — thus fully justifying the pleasant and characteristic remark of Oliver Wendell Holmes : " Your book," he said, " is like a huckleberry-pie, containing a great many good huckleberries and very little batter." Materials for a biography of Longfellow were abundant and rich. Much had been written about him previous to his death ; and, after that event, reminiscences, anecdotes, and reviews appeared in profusion, both at home and abroad. Whatever was of permanent value and interest in this pub- lished material has been culled for the present work, due credit being given to the authors in every case. But scattered throughout the volume are very many anecdotes and reminis- cences now for the first time published. They were obtained 6 PREFACE. by personal conversation and correspondence with friends of the poet. Authorities have been consulted at first hand whenever it was possible. Proof-slips were sent to those whose writings are quoted in the volume, and many correc- tions and improvements have been made hy them. Proof- sheets of the entire volume have been carefully read in detail by several eminent men of letters who were intimate friends of the poet. To these gentlemen, and to all who have given their generous aid and advice, the writer renders most sincere thanks. Yet, after all, such work as this is its own reward. It is impossible to study so pure a life as this vol- ume commemorates, without receiving some of its lustre and perfume into one's own nature. Besides the full biographical, anecdotical, and critical in- formation furnished in the following pages, there are also given Mr. Longfellow's juvenile poems hitherto unpub- lished in America in book form, his letters to various persons, a selection of poetical tributes, and a Longfellow bibliography. It is believed that all readers of the juvenile poems will find in their quiet beauty and tender purity of sentiment abundant justification for their presentation here, although they were not considered by their author to be worthy of preservation in permanent form. It is interesting to see, that, from the first note to the last of our poet's songs, hardly one discord, or one instance of bad taste, can be found. Cambridge, Mass., May 15, 1882. CONTENTS. PAGE Biography . 9-166 Anecdotes and Letters 167-258 General Criticism 259-306 Poets' Tributes 307-334 Early Poems 335-352 Bibliography 353-362 Index 363-368 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Birthplace 17 Children's Arm-chair 119 Corner in the Poet's Study 251 Craigie House 45 Craigie House, "West Side 51 Craigie House, Mall on "West Side 177 Early Home 8 Elmwood Ill Portrait 2 Howe Tavern (the Wayside Inn) 93 Old Round Tower, Newport 239 Profile Portrait 149 St. John's Memorial Chapel 305 The Poet's Study 155 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME. henby Wadsworth Longfellow. BIOGEAPHY. INFLUENCES THAT MOULDED HIS CHARACTER. IT is no accident that the writings of the six chief New England poets — Emerson, Longfellow, Whit- tier, Bryant, Holmes, and Lowell — should be charac- terized by exquisite moral purity. All of these poets, except Whittier, are of Puritan stock ; and their poems are nearly all suffused with a subtle moral atmosphere, — as are also the romances and stories of Hawthorne. The town of Portland, Me., where on the 27th of February, 1807, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born, and the town of Brunswick, where, as a student in Bowdoin College, he passed some years of his youth, are, like the towns of Connecticut, pervaded by a spirit of the most austere Puritanism. In the days of Long- fellow's boyhood, this stern religious spirit was all- dominant. Each community, in those days, was a little theocracy. Tocqueville rightly says that the New Eng- land town-meeting was the germinal unit of American democracy ; but the town-meeting was ruled by the pulpit and the pew. William Willis, in his history of Portland, tells us that as late as the first quarter of 10 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. the present century public dancing in that town was prohibited by law, and cases of actual arrest for the violation of the law are noted. The inhabitants fought with tireless persistency all attempts to introduce the- atres and theatrical performances into the town. It was not until 1831 that a theatre was built in Free Street. It was a small affair, and never nourished, and in 1836 was sold to a Baptist society for a church. There were very few public amusements in the Port- land of that day, and such as were in vogue were of a very homespun character. Mr. Willis says (p. 783) that " it was common for clubs and social parties to meet at the tavern in those days ; and Mrs. Greele's, in Congress Street, was a place of most fashionable resort for both old and young wags before, as well as after, the Revolution. It was the Eastcheap of Portland, and was as famous for baked beans as the ' Boar's Head ' was for sack." In an old number of The Cumberland Gazette we read of a " spinning-bee," given at the house of the Rev. Samuel Deane. Sixty fair hands made music with the humming of sixty wheels, and near the close of the day the company presented to Mrs. Deane two hundred and twenty-four skeins of cotton and linen yarn spun that day. Homely amusements enough, these ! The Wheelers, in their history of Brunswick, Me., say (p. 214) that " about 1821 an attempt was made to introduce a bass-viol into the church of the First Parish ; but the project was thwarted by Mr. William Randall, an influential member of the societ}T, who declared that he ' wouldn't hear a fiddle in God's house.' '' Wagons were not introduced into Brunswick until 1816 or 1817, and there had been but two or three carts in the town previous to that date. The first car- PATERNAL ANCESTORS. 11 pet ever made in Topsham (a neighboring village) was made in 1799 by Miss Margaret Rogers, the late Mrs. Nathaniel Greene. The first theatrical perform- ance in Brunswick was given in 1828, for one week, at Nichols Hall, by a company of comedians from the Tremont Theatre, Boston.1 In 1826 a man named John Cleaves Symmes gave a course of three lectures on an interior world which he maintained was open to voyagers in the southern hemisphere. u His lectures were well attended, and were listened to with respect and interest " / Such were some of the surroundings of Longfellow's boyhood. The kind of societ}" described in the local histories above quoted is similar to that depicted in books on Connecticut history and antiquities ; such, for instance, as the pleasant little book entitled " New Con- necticut," recently published by Mr. A. THE POET'S PATERNAL ANCESTORS. Let us now turn our attention first to the paternal, and then to the maternal ancestry of the poet. The American ancestor of the Longfellow family was Wil- liam Longfellow of Newbury, Mass., who came to this country from Yorkshire, Eng., about the year 1651. He was the great-great-great-grandfather of the poet, and the lineal succession is as follows : — William, merchant. Stephen (1), blacksmith Stephen (2), teacher, etc. Stephen (3), judge. Stephen (4), lawyer and legislator. Henry Wads worth, the poet. 1 The entertainment of the evening consisted of Tobin's comedy of " The Honeymoon," and the farce of " The Young Widow." 12 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. Of William Longfellow this much is known, that he was a merchant in the parish of Byfield, Newbury ; that he married Anne Sewall ; and that in 1690, as ensign of a Newbury company, he took part in the ill-fated expedition of Sir William Phips against Quebec. The fleet, on its return, was overtaken by a violent storm in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the vessel containing the Newbury company went ashore at the desolate island of Anticosti. William Longfellow and nine others were drowned. Of Stephen (1) the blacksmith, little is known. He married Abigail Thompson of Marshfield. His son, Stephen (2), graduated at Harvard in 1742. Stephen (2) was the first of the Portland Longfellows, coming to the town, April 11, 1745, by invitation of Parson Thomas Smith, to act as teacher. Portland was then called the Neck. Stephen was schoolmaster of the town for fifteen years (1745-60). His father, dying in 1764, left him a small legacy. The son sent the silver coin to Boston for the purpose of having it converted into a memorial silver-service. Unfortu- nately the vessel by which it was sent was lost, and the coin with it. But Stephen immediately made up the amount, and sent it to Boston, this time success- fully, where it was manufactured, by the silversmith John Butler, into a tankard, a can, and two porringers, each piece bearing the initials S. L., and the words ex dono pat r is. " The tankard has been preserved ; and one of the porringers, after a somewhat eventful history, has found its way back into the family, and is one of the treasures of the poet's brother, Alexander W. Longfellow." Stephen (2) held many important town offices. It is interesting to find that his handwriting, HIS FATHER. 13 like that of his great-grandson the poet, was beautiful and clear, " symbolical of the purity and excellence of his own moral character." He married Tabitha Brag- don of York in 1749, and died at Gorham in 1790. Stephen (8), son of Stephen (2), was born in 1750, married Patience Young of York, and died at his home in Gorham in 1824. He represented Gorham in the Massachusetts General Court for eight years; was. for several years senator from Cumberland County, and judge of the Court of Common Pleas from 1797 to 1811. " He was a fine-looking gentleman, with the bearing of the old school ; was erect, portly, rather taller than the average, had a strongly marked face, and his hair was tied behind in a 'club' with black ribbon. To the close of his life he wore the old-style dress, — knee- breeches, a long waistcoat, and white top-boots. He was a man of sterling qualities of mind and heart, great integrity, and sound common-sense." Stephen (4), son of Stephen (8), was born in Gorham in 1776, and was the father of Henry Wadsworth Long- fellow, the poet. Stephen (4) entered Harvard College in 1794, and graduated in 1798. Daniel Appleton White, a college friend, said of him, that "he was evi- dently a well-bred gentleman when he left the paternal mansion for the universitj^. He seemed to breathe the atmosphere of purity as his native element ; while his bright intelligence, buoyant spirits, and social warmth diffused a sunshine of joy that made his presence always gladsome." He graduated with rank and honors. Re- turning to Portland, he entered the law-office of Salmon Chase (an uncle of Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase), and in 1804 married Zilpah, eldest daughter of Gen. Peleg Wadsworth. Stephen's sister, Abigail Longfellow, had 14 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. married Samuel Stephenson, a rich merchant of Port- land. In the winter of 1806-7, Mr. Stephenson having gone to the West Indies on business, his wife invited her brother Stephen and his wife to spend the winter at her house, which they did ; and there Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born, Feb. 27, 1807.1 He was named from his uncle, Lieut. Henry Wadsworth of the United States navy, who lost his life at Tripoli on the night of Sept. 4, 1804, in a gallant attempt to destroy the enemy's flotilla by a fire-ship. In the spring of 1807 Gen. Peleg Wadsworth, the maternal grandfather of the future poet, removed to Hiram on the Saco River in order to occupy and im- prove seventy-five hundred acres of wild land granted him in consideration of his military services. Ac- cordingly Stephen Longfellow took up his residence in the Wadsworth house at Portland, and made it thenceforth his home. This venerable brick building is still standing, and, together with the Stephenson house where the poet was born, attracts the attention of most visitors to the city. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was the second son, the first being named Stephen. Besides these there were afterwards born two other sons, Alexander Wadsworth and Samuel, and four daughters, Elizabeth, Anne, Mary, and Ellen. The old Wadsworth (or Longfellow) house on Congress Street is now occupied by the poet's sister, Mrs. Anne L. Pierce, and contains many interesting relics of the Longfellow family. The Stephenson house (the poet's birthplace) is also still standing on its original site, cor- ner of Fore and Hancock Streets. It is now used as a tenement-house. 1 It is a fact not generally known, that the poet Nathaniel Parker Willis was also born in Portland in this same year. BYFIELD PEOPLE. 15 Before passing on to speak of Gen. Peleg Wadsworth and the other maternal ancestors of the poet, let us return for a moment to speak of the By field Longfellows in Newbury, Mass. Byfield is the original " home- nest " of the family. It is an interesting fact that the families of the two poets, Whittier and Longfellow, should have originated in the same neighborhood. The Longfellow homestead in Byfield is only about five miles distant from the old Whittier homestead in East Haverhill. Near Byfield were born Cornelius Conway Felton, president of Harvard University ; Professor Parker Cleaveland, Judge Tenney of Maine, the poet Albert Pike, and Chief Justice Parsons. The Byfield Longfellows are prominent in local politics. One of them, Joseph, who is quite a wit, says that when he was a young man he was ashamed of his name, as he was literally a Long-fellow. But when Henry Wadsworth became famous, and people asked him if he were a kinsman of his, he became proud of the name. In February, 1882, Mr. Horace F. Longfellow of By- field wrote to Mr. S. T. Pickard, one of the editors of " The Portland Transcript," the following letter, de- scriptive of the old homestead : — Dear Sir, — At the request of my father, Joseph Long- fellow, I answer yours of the 14th in regard to the old Long- fellow house at Byfield, Mass. It was probably built by William Longfellow, about 1676, at or about the time of his marriage with Anne Sewall. The location of the house is unsurpassed. It is situated on a sightly eminence at the very head of tide-water on the river Parker, the sparkle of whose waters, as they go tumbling over the falls, adds a pic- turesqueness to the natural beauty of the scenery that lies spread out on either hand, — hill and dale, forest and field, 16 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. the outgoing or incoming tide. Nature was lavish here ; and young Longfellow, appreciating it all, erected the old house to which he took his young bride. It still stands, al- though two centuries and more have passed since its oaken frame was put together. It has not been occupied for twenty-odd years, and, of course, is in a dilapidated con- dition. I was born under the old roof -tree m37self ; and so were my father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great- great-grandfather (son of William) before me. The large chimney was taken down years ago ; a part of the house itself has been removed ; but " The scenes of my childhood are brought fresh to my mind," and I can see the old weather-beaten house, with its rear roof descending nearly to the ground, the long kitchen with its low ceiling and wide fireplace, the big brick oven in which were baked the Thanksgiving pies and puddings (I can taste them now), the big " best room," the winding stairs, the old spinning-wheel in the attic, the well-curb and its long sweep at the end of the house, in front the granite horse-block, and the large elm spreading over all. The old elm still lives, but is feeling the effects of age. The old elm and the house will end their existence together, and soon. Very truly, HOKACE F. LONGFELLOW. HIS MATERNAL ANCESTORS. Gen. Peleg Wadsworth, the maternal grandfather of the poet, was the son of Deacon Peleg Wadsworth of Duxbury, Mass., and was fifth in descent from Chris- topher Wadsworth, who came from England and settled in Duxbury previous to 1632. Peleg Wadsworth, jun., was born at Duxbury in 1748, and graduated at Har- vard College in 1769. In 1772 he married Elizabeth Bartlett of Plvmouth, Mass. They had ten children, THE BIRTHPLACE OF LONGFELLOW, CORNER OF FORE AND HANCOCK STREETS, PORTLAND, MAINE. 18 HENRY WADSWOBTH LONGFELLOW. one of whom was Zilpah, the mother of the poet. Zilpah inherited the blood of four or five of the " May- flower " Pilgrims, including Elder Brewster and Capt. John Alden, immortalized in the " Courtship of Miles Standish." Gen. Peleg Wadsworth served with great distinction in the Revolutionary war. He was second in command in the ill-fated expedition of 1779 against the British at Castine, Me., on Penobscot Bay ; and the next year, while in command on the coast, with headquarters at Camden, a town situated on the same bay, he was captured by the British, and imprisoned in the fort at Castine. After four months' imprisonment he made his escape in the following manner : — " Major Burton," says the Hon. William Gould, " a resident of St. George's River, who had served the previous summer under Gen. Wadsworth, was a pris- oner in the same room with him. After a long prepa- ration, and after obtaining a gimlet from the fort barber, they made their escape on the night of the 18th of June, 1781, by passing through an opening pre- viously and laboriously made in the board ceiling with the gimlet, the marks of which were filled with bread. They adroitly evaded the sentinels, but got separated in the darkness, both, however, getting off safely. They kept much in the shoal-water of the shores, to prevent being tracked by the bloodhounds which were kept at the fort for that purpose. The two friends came accidentally together on the next day. Major Burton dropped a glove in the darkness, which pointed out to their pursuers the route they had taken on leaving the fort. They, however, found a canoe, got across the river, and pursued their course through the woods by a pocket-compass to the settlements, and were assisted to Thomaston, after much suffering." THE PORTLAND OF THE POET'S BOYHOOD. 19 The appearance of Gen. Wadsworth after the close of the Revolutionary war is thus described by the mother of the poet Longfellow : — " Perhaps you would like to see my father's picture as it was when we came to this town after the war of the Revo- lution, in 1784:. Imagine to yourself a man of middle size, well proportioned, with a military air, and who carried him- self so truly that many thought him tall. His dress, a bright scarlet coat, buff small-clothes and vest, full ruffled bosom, ruffles over the hands, white stockings, shoes with silver buckles, white cravat bow in front ; hair well powdered, and tied behind in a club, so called. ... Of his character others may speak ; but I cannot forbear to claim for him an un- common share of benevolence and kind feeling. "Z. W. L. " January, 1848." It was the son of the Gen. Wadsworth described in this letter who perished at Tripoli, and from whom the poet Longfellow received his baptismal name. From such noble ancestors descended, and in such sternly religious communities educated, the poet Long- fellow grew up. From such a stem sprang the beautiful blossom of his song. THE PORTLAND OF THE POET'S BOYHOOD. But an account of the boyhood of Longfellow would be incomplete without a few more picturesque details of the Portland of that time. It has had its eras of great commercial prosperity, as, for instance, during the last decade of the preceding century. At present it is a flourishing seaport city, beautifully situated on the broad Casco Bay, with its quiet waters and numerous beautiful islands. Landward the landscape stretches away for eighty miles to the White Mountains, with 20 HENRY WADS WORTH LONGFELLOW. Mount Washington indistinctly visible on the far hori- zon. The town, as it was in Longfellow's boyhood, is thus described by Mr. Edward Henry El well : " It lay on the narrow peninsula, or Neck, in the depression between the two hills which mark its extremities, — Munjoy and Bramhall. In a square house, standing on the one hand within a stone's throw of the spot where the first settler landed and built his cabin in 1632, and on the other not much farther from the site of old Fort Loyal, our poet was born. ... It was a pleasant site, not then, as now, hemmed in by new-made land encroaching on the sea. It looked out on the waters of our beautiful bay, commanding a view of those — ' islands that were the Hesperides Of all my boyish dreams.' Near by was the beach, the scene of many a baptism on ' the Lord's day.' " " On Indian Point, where the Grand Trunk bridge leaves the hill, stood seven or eight lofty ancient pine- trees, and in the high branches the fish-hawks were wont to build their nests. The boys went a-gunning "• back of the Neck,' and shot plovers and curlews and sand-birds, which visited the shore in great numbers." " With the revival of commerce, after the war, trade with the West India Islands sprang up, and low-decked brigs carried out cargoes of lumber and dried fish, bringing back sugar, rum, and molasses. This trade made lively scenes on Long Wharf and Portland Pier. From lack of system, and the aj^pliances of steam, every thing was then done with great noise and bustle, and by main strength. The discharging of a cargo of molasses set the town in an uproar. The wharves re- THE PORTLAND OF THE POET'S BOYHOOD. 21 sounded with the songs of the negro stevedores hoist- ing the hogsheads from the hold without the aid of a winch ; the long trucks, with heavy loads, were tugged by straining horses, under the whips and loud cries of the truckmen. Liquor was lavishly supplied to labor- ing men, and it made them turbulent and uproarious. Adding to the busy tumult were the teams coining into town by the two principal avenues, — over Deering's Bridge and up Green Street, or over BramhaLTs Hill by way of Horse Tavern, — bringing charcoal from Water- borough, shooks from Fryeburg, Hiram, and Baldwin, hoop-poles, heading, cord-wood, and screwed hay ; and the Vermonters, in their blue woollen frocks, bringing in their red pungs round hogs, butter, and cheese." Rev. Elijah Kellogg, jun., gives a lively picture of Portland at this time, on a winter morning : " Then you might have seen lively times. A string of board- teams from George Libby's to Portland Pier; sleds growling ; surveyors running about like madmen, a shingle in one hand and a rule-staff in the other ; cattle white with frost, and their nostrils hung with icicles ; teamsters screaming and hallooing ; Herrick's tavern, and all the shops in Huckler's Row, lighted up, and the loggerheads hot to give customers their morn- ing dram." It is with such scenes as these rising in his memory that Longfellow sings, in his poem entitled MY LOST YOUTH. I remember the black wharves and the slips, And the sea-tides tossing free ; And Spanish sailors with bearded lips, And the beauty and mystery of the ships, And the made of the sea. 22 HENRY WADS WORTH LONGFELLOW. And the voice of that wayward song Is singing and saying still : " A boy's will is the wind's will, And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.-' I remember the bulwarks by the shore, And the fort upon the hill ; The sunrise gun, with its hollow roar, The drum-beat, repeated o'er and o'er, And the bugle wild and shrill. And the music of that old song Throbs in my memory still : " A boy's will is the wind's will, And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." I remember the sea-fight far away, How it thundered o'er the tide ! And the dead captains, as they lay In their graves, o'erlooking the tranquil bay, Where they in battle died. And the sound of that mournful song Goes through me with a thrill : " A boy's will is the wind's will, And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." " Portland was a lumber-port, driving a brisk little trade with more tumult and hurrah than now accom- panies the transaction of ten times the amount of busi- ness then done. In addition to its lumber-trade it had its distilleries, its tanneries, its rope-walks, and its pot- tery, — the latter two of which so impressed themselves upon the memory of the boy Longfellow that in after- years they suggested his poems, ' The Ropewalk ' and ' Keramos,' the song of the potter.1 Men now living, 1 Mr. H. H. Clark, who, as the proof-reader at the University Press, read the proof of "Keramos," says that Mr. Longfellow spoke to him of having visited the old potter at his wheel under the hill, and of see- ing him go to and fro under the branches of the trees, as described in the first stanza of the poem. THE PORTLAND OF THE POET'S BOYHOOD. 23 going back in memory to those bustling days, will tell you those were the times when business was lively, and think it but a dull town now, though with five times the population and many times the amount of business." There was a good deal of intellectual life in the town. In 1790 the Rev. Dr. Samuel Deane published his New-England Farmer, or Georgical Dictionary, which was for a long time a standard work on matters of agri- culture. In 1816 Enoch Lincoln of Portland published his poem, The Village, containing over two thousand lines, and "remarkable for its advanced moral senti- ment, anticipating many of the reforms of our day, as well as for its erudition and its evenly sustained poetical merit." Of the social life of the period, Mr. El well thus speaks : — " In social life the marked distinctions of the ante- Revolutionary period are giving way under the influence of our democratic institutions. Cocked hats, bush wigs, and knee-breeches are passing out, and pantaloons have come in. Old men still wear queues and spencers, and disport .their shrunken shanks in silk stockings. A homely style of speech prevails among the common peo- ple. Old men are 'Daddies,' old ladies are 'Marms,' ship-masters are ' Skippers,' and school-teachers are ' Masters.' There are no stoves, and open fires and brick ovens are in universal use. The fire is raked up at night, and rekindled in the morning by the use of flint, steel, and tinder-box. Nearly every house has its barn, in which is kept the cow, pastured during the day on Munjoy. The boys go after the cows at nightfall, driving them home through the streets. There are few private carriages kept in town, and fewer public vehi- 24 HENRY WADSWOBTH LONGFELLOW. cles. When, in 1824, Gen. Lafayette visits the town, and Gov. Parris gives a ball in his honor, at his resi- dence on Bridge Street, — the site of which is now covered by the beautiful lawn attached to the residence of H. P. Storer, Esq., — a storm coming up prevents the attendance of a great part of the company invited, because of the distance out of town and the scarcity of carriages. The coin in circulation is chiefly Spanish dollars, halves, quarters, pistareens, eighths, and six- teenths, the last two of which are known as ninepence and fourpence 'alfpennies. Federal money is so little recognized that prices are still reckoned in shillings and pence, — two-and-six, three-and-ninepence, seven-and- sixpence. It is a journey of two days, by the accom- modation stage, to Boston, costing eight to ten dollars. If you go by the mail-stage you ma}^ be bounced through, with aching bones, in the hours between two o'clock in the morning and ten at night. Or you may take a coaster, and perhaps be a week on the passage. The old Portland Gazette and The Eastern Argus come out once a week, and the town-crier supplies the place of the daily newspaper. There are few amusements. The- atrical performances have been voted down in town- meeting, and prohibited under heavy penalties ; but by 1820 the poor players venture to make an occasional appearance, and set up their scenery in Union Hall. It is not until 1830 that a theatre is built, and it is soon converted into a church. In the summer there are excursions by sailing-boats to the islands, with an oc- casional capsize and loss of life. In the winter, merry sleighing parties drive out to ' Broad's ' for a dance and a supper. These are merry times, especially if the party is snowed up, and compelled to remain over night. THE POET'S BOYHOOD. 25 Flip and punch flow freely, and sobriety is the exception rather than the rule." THE POET'S BOYHOOD. Of Mr. Longfellow's early boyhood not many details are known. He manifested a turn for poetry and poeti- cal composition at a very early age. It has been several times stated that the first poem of his, known to be preserved in manuscript, is that called "Venice, an Italian Song,# and dated Portland Academy, March 17, 1820, when he was hardly thirteen. But the writer is informed by Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson that this is a mistake. The poem is by Samuel Rogers, and may be found in his printed works. The poem had only been copied by the boy-poet as an exercise in penman- ship. His first published poem was entitled " Lovell's Fight,"1 printed in the Poet's Corner of a Portland paper previous to his entering college. Other poems of his also appeared in the local papers at about the same time. The first school that young Longfellow attended was kept by "Marin Fellows," in a small brick schoolhouse on Spring Street. Later he went to the town school on Love Lane, now Center Street ; and soon after, to the private school of Nathaniel H. Carter, in a little one- story house on the west side of Preble Street, now Con- gress. Afterward he attended the Portland Academy, under the same master, and also under the mastership of Bezaleel Cushman, who had Jacob Abbott as one of 1 The scene of Lovell's fight (or " Lovewell " as it used to be called) was but a few miles from Hiram. Here, at the Wadsworth homestead, the boy Longfellow spent many of his summers. It is known that the few of Lovell's men who escaped returned down the road to Ossipee past the old Wadsworfh house- 2G HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. his assistants. Here he fitted for college ; and at the age of fourteen, in the year 1821, he entered Bowdoin College at Brunswick, Me., in company with his elder brother Stephen. AT BOWDOIN COLLEGE. The poet once told Mr. John Langdon Sibley, libra- rian emeritus of Harvard College, that, if his father had not been a trustee of Bowdoin, he would have been sent to Harvard College, and that he wotfld have then been in Mr. Sibley's class. The Bowdoin class contained sons of some of the first families of New England. Among Longfellow's class- mates were such young men as Nathaniel Hawthorne, George B. Cheever, John S. C. Abbott, and others. One of his classmates, the Rev. David Shepley, D.D., says of him, " He gave diligent heed to all departments of study in the prescribed course, and excelled in all, while his enthusiasm moved in the direction it has taken in subsequent life. His themes, felicitous trans- lations of Horace, and occasional contributions to the press, drew marked attention to him, and led to the expectation that his would be an honorable career." The Hon. J. W. Bradbury, another classmate, describes him as having a " slight, erect figure, delicate complex- ion, and an intelligent expression of countenance. He was always a gentleman in his deportment, and a model in his character and habits." Professor A. S. Packard, D.D., of Bowdoin College, remembers Longfellow as "an attractive youth, with auburn locks, clear, fresh, bloom- ing complexion, and, as might be expected, of well-bred manners and bearing." While in college he wrote a number of poems, many AT BOWDOIN COLLEGE. 27 of which were first published in The United-States Literary Gazette, and thence found their way into the daily and weekly papers of the country. This periodical, published at New York and Boston simultaneously, was much in favor with the poets of that day. It was founded by the late Theophilus Parsons ; but at the time Longfellow sent in his poems it was edited by James Gordon Carter of Boston (Harvard, 1820), well known from his relation to the public schools. Long- fellow's poemf were probably anonymous ; for once, when Professor Packard was spending an evening with Mr. Carter in Boston, the latter asked him who that young man was at Bowdoin who sent him such fine poetry. Professor Packard thinks Longfellow was at this time a junior in college. Longfellow graduated second in a class of thirty-seven, Joseph S. Little of Portland being first. Professor Packard says : " Of his standing as a scholar in college, one may judge from his assignment at Commencement of an English oration, when fewer parts of that rank were given than of late years. His was the first claim to the poem ; but, as the poem had no definite rank, it was thought due to him, since his scholarship bore a high mark, that he should receive an appointment which placed his scholarship beyond question." His English oration had for its subject, " Our Native Writers." "Chatterton and his Poems" had been as- signed him as a subject, but was afterwards changed, and the change noted in ink on the programmes. The class poem was read by Frederic Mellen. During the first half of his senior year, Longfellow read the poem before the Peucinian Literary Society of the college. Hawthorne embodied some features of Bowdoin Col- lege life in his suppressed novel, " Fanshawe." 28 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. It is now known that Longfellow received one dollar each for his poems contributed to The Literary Ga- zette, while William Cullen Bryant received two dollars a poem, a sum fixed by himself.1 For Sandalphon, the poet received by way of payment a year's subscrip- tion to the paper in which it was published. In 1826, the year after Longfellow graduated, there was published a little volume entitled Miscellaneous Poems, selected from the United-States Literary Ga- zette. The contributors to it were Bryant, Long- fellow, Mellen, Percival, Dawes, and Jones. A writer in the New- York Evening Post, understood to be Col. Higginson, remarks that this volume " offered a curious contrast to that equally characteristic volume of 1794, The Columbian Muse, whose poets were Barlow, Trumbull, Freneau, D wight, Humphreys, and a few others ; not a single poem or poet being held in com- mon by the two collections." In the Gazette collec- tion were fourteen of Longfellow's poems, all written before he was nineteen. Among them were The Hymn of the Moravian Nuns, and The Rivulet: these and four others are retained in the collected works of the poet to this day.2 Longfellow at first began the study of law in his father's office in Portland, but took little interest in his studies. In 1826 he received an invitation to fill, at Bowdoin College, a chair which had been almost cre- ated for him ; namely, a professorship of modern lan- guages and literature. The establishment of such a 1 See the Reminiscences of Gen. James Grant Wilson, p. 215 of this volume. 2 For Mr. Longfellow's juvenile poems never published in this country in book form, see p. 335, where all of them will be found in full, with interesting details concerning them. AT BOWDOIN COLLEGE. 29 chair as this was considered at that time to be quite an innovation; the languages and literatures of Greece and Rome having been considered, from time imme- morial, as entirely sufficient for the culture and disci- pline of the young mind. Mrs. Bowdoin had, however, some years before, given one thousand dollars as the beginning of a fund for such a chair. Mr. Lone-fellow when appointed, was only nineteen years of age f and he at once set off for Europe, visiting and studying for nearly four years in Spain, France, Italy, and Germany, in order to prepare himself for his duties. In Pierce's Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner is recorded the fact that Longfellow met Sumner at Marseilles in 1827, and they journeyed together to Rome. Sumner afterwards became distantly connected with Lono-fellow through Harriet Coffin Sumner, the second wife of Nathan Appleton of Boston, Mr. Longfellow's second wife being a daughter of Nathan Appleton by his first wife. _ In 1829 he returned to America, and entered upon his duties at Bowdoin College. Such a rare oppor- tunity for future success must have been appreciated by him. The tradition is, that this appointment was given to Longfellow as a result of the impression made upon a member of the college examining committee by his translation of one of Horace's odes. He entered upon his professional duties with zeal and fidelity The department was a new one, and there was a lack of suitable text-books. Accordingly he prepared "Ele- ments of French Grammar. Translated from the French of C. F. L'Homond." (Boston : 1830.) "Syl- labus de la Grammaire Italienne." (Boston: 1832.) "Cours de la Langue Francaise " (Boston: 1832), in- 30 HENRY WADS WORTH LONGFELLOW. eluding (1) " Le Ministre de Wakefield " and (2) ,% Proverbes Dramatiques." " Saggi de' Novellieri Ital- iani d' Ogni Secolo : Tratti da' piu celebri scrittori, con brevi notizie intorno alia vita di ciascheduno." (Bos- ton: 1832.) He also published " Coplas de Manrique. A Translation from the Spanish." (Boston : Allen & Ticknor, 1833.) Included in this volume are transla- tions by Mr. Longfellow of sonnets of Lope de Vega and others. The poem was prefaced by an essay on Spanish Moral and Devotional Poetry, which had pre- viously appeared in The North- American Review, xxxiv. 277. (For a complete list of Mr. Longfellow's con- tributions to The North-American Review, see the bibliography appended to this volume.) George Tick- nor, in his History of Spanish Literature, speaks of the translation of " Coplas " as " a beautiful one." This edition is now very rare. Mr. Thomas Niles (of the firm of Roberts Brothers), the Boston publisher, says that when he first went into the book-trade, many years ago, he found in his stock one hundred and fifty copies of " Coplas de Manrique." He does not remember what became of these books, but thinks they went to the paper-mill, being then unsalable. They would now, probably, be worth their weight in gold. The book was a thin duodecimo, with Longfellow's name as Bow- doin professor on the title-page. The translation was afterwards slightly altered by the poet. The historian Prescott said of it, "Mr. Longfellow's version is well calculated to give the English reader a correct notion of the Castilian bard, and, of course, a very exaggerated one of the literary culture of the age." There was a previous version of the " Coplas " by Bowring, but Longfellow's was considered its superior. AT BOWDOIN COLLEGE. 31 At the Bowdoin College commencement, in 1832, Mr. Longfellow delivered the poem before the Phi Beta Kappa Society. In 1833 also appeared the first two numbers of Outre-Mer ; or, A Pilgrimage to the Old World by an American (Hilliard, Gray, & Co., Bos- ton), and two years later the whole work was published by Harper & Brothers of New- York City ; Mr. Long- fellow selling it to them for five hundred dollars. It is written in a most charming vein. The light and lambent humor is like that of Irving or Lamb or Sterne. There is a buoyancy in the style like that of the blue sky, and a freshness as of clover or dew. The work is picturesque, antiquarian ; golden and mellow as the shield of its Lion cV Or, full of quiet causerie about mediaeval legends, trouveres, and old chansons. Quaint characters are depicted ; and the beautiful scenes of classic Italy, sunburnt Spain, and vine-covered France are lovingly portrayed. There is a chapter on " Old Spanish Ballads," and in the second volume appears the translation of the stanzas of Don Jorge Manrique on the death of his father Don Bodrigo. The title of the book was probably suggested by Thibaut, who in his "Roi de Navarre " says, — " Si j'ai long terns ete en Romanie, Et outre-mer fait mon pelerinage." On the title-page appears this quotation from .old Sir John Maundeville : — " I have passed manye landes and manye yles and contrees, and cherched manye fulle straunge places, and have ben in manye a fulle gode honourable companye. Now I am comen home to reste. And thus recordynge the tyme passed, I have fulfilled these thynges and putte 32 HENBY WADSWOBTH LONGFELLOW. 