Poe's Love of Hoaxing. 255 newspaper, and therein fully subserved the purpose of creating indigestible aliment for the quidnuncs during the few hours intervening between a couple of the Charleston mails. The rush for the sole paper which had the news' was something beyond even the prodigious; and, in fact, if (as some assert) the Victoria' did not absolutely accomplish the voyage recorded, it will be difficult to assign a reason why she should not have accomplished it." As a jeu d'esprit, this trick on public credulity was a splendid success, but such jests are scarcely the class of productions one would desire to obtain from a poetic genius. Doubtless, for the immediate needs of the hour, these clever impositions paid their author much better than did the best of his poems, whilst they also furnished more ample food for his cravings for reputation, and his insatiable love of hoaxing. Poe's readers and admirers must, in point of fact, always be upon their guard against his inveterate habit of attempting to gauge their gullibility; his passion for this propensity frequently led him into indulging in the practice when least expected-into giving way to the desire of befooling his readers when apparently most in earnest. In the same month as "The Balloon Hoax," Godey published in his Lady's Book, a literary magazine of Philadelphia," A Tale of the Ragged Mountains." It was one of its author's favourite stories, and the scene 256 The Effects of Morphia. of it is laid in the vicinity where his college days were spent, that is to say, in the neighbourhood of Charlottesville. Taken in connection with mesmeric theories and at this period Poe appears to have been investigating such theories with the most steadfast interest this tale is a singular manifestation, but, beyond some Poësque traits of thought and diction, contains nothing very remarkable. The Death Fetch, Doppelgänger, and similar dual creations of superstition have always been numerous enough in literature, and this revivification, although treated in a suggestively original manner, calls for no lengthy comment. Perhaps, when Poe's own habits are considered, and his love of mystification fully allowed for, the most interesting passages in the tale will be found in these allusions to its hero's use of drugs :-"His imagination was singularly vigorous and creative; and no doubt it derived additional force from the habitual use of morphine, which he swallowed in great quantity, and without which he would have found it impossible to exist. It was his practice to take a very large dose of it immediately after breakfast each morning-or rather, immediately after a cup of strong coffee, for he ate nothing in the forenoon-and then set forth alone, or attended only by a dog, upon a long ramble., . . In the meantime," that is to say, after some hours walking, "the morphine had its customary effect Memories of the Past. 257 that of enduing all the external world with an intensity of interest. In the quivering of a leaf-in the hue of a blade of grass-in the shape of a trefoil—in the humming of a bee—in the gleaming of a dewdrop— in the breathing of the wind-in the faint odours that came from the forest—there came a whole universe of suggestion—a gay and motley train of rhapsodical and immethodical thought." Scarcely any original composition is again discernible until the end of the year. A review, already alluded to, in The Pioneer, and the quaintly beautiful verses, "Dreamland," published in the June number of Graham's, are all we can trace before the following September. The poem is replete with words-thoughts -expressions—that have appeared again, and again, in others of their author's poems, but is, nevertheless, most idiosyncratic and original. Those who have thus far followed Poe's "route, obscure and lonely," need not ask who is "the traveller" that "Meets aghast Sheeted Memories of the Past Shrouded forms that start and sigh White-robed forms of friends long given, "The Oblong Box" appeared in Godey's Lady's Book for September. It is a tale of no particular merit, VOL. I. R 258 for Poe, and is chiefly remarkable for some somewhat curious mental analyses. In this same month the New Mirror perished, and with it, of course, the unfortunate poet's chief, although slender, source of livelihood. Thoroughly adrift, something decided had now to be done, and done at once. A living was not to be had, apparently, from literature in Philadelphia, and the conclusion was arrived at, probably through some intimation from Willis, to seek New York once The "New Mirror" Stopped. more. ( 259 ) CHAPTER XIV. NEW YORK ONCE MORE. EDGAR POE's reputation had already preceded him to New York, where, indeed, the publications of N. P. Willis, and other literary correspondents and friends, had kept his name for some time before the public. "Our first knowledge of Mr. Poe's removal to this city," says Willis," was by a call which we received from a lady who introduced herself to us as the mother of his wife. She was in search of employment for him, and she excused her errand by mentioning that he was ill, that her daughter was a confirmed invalid, and that their circumstances were such as compelled her taking it upon herself. The countenance of this lady, made beautiful and saintly by an evidently complete giving up of her life to privation and sorrowful tenderness, her gentle and mournful voice urging its plea, her long-forgotten but habitually and unconsciously refined manners, and her appealing yet appreciative mention of the claims and abilities of * Home Journal, Saturday, October 13, 1849. |