The Home Life of Poe Part 5

[5] A letter to Mrs. Holmes c.u.mming, from a son of the Rev.

Amasa Converse, 1905.

It will be observed that, according to the marriage bond, Virginia was married under her maiden name of Clemm, thus ignoring the former ceremony; and that Poe subscribed to the oath of Thomas Cleland that she was "of the full age of twenty-one years," when in reality she was but thirteen, having been born August 16, 1822. Thus is shown how pliable was Poe in the hands of his mother-in-law; and as regards Mr. Cleland, who was a very pious Presbyterian, it can only be hoped that he never discovered in what manner he had been imposed upon.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE POES IN RICHMOND.

When Poe went to Richmond as a.s.sistant editor to Mr. White, it had been with the expectation of resuming his old place among his former friends and a.s.sociates--a prospect which, as he himself stated in a letter to that gentleman, had afforded him very great pleasure. He had no idea of the altered estimate in which he was held by some of these, and of the general prejudice existing against him in consequence of the exaggerated reports concerning his rupture with the Allans and the later story of his attempt to force himself into Mr. Allan's presence. It is true that the Mackenzies, the Sullys, Dr. Robert G. Cabell and his wife, with some others of the best people, remained his firm friends; but he found himself without social standing and with but few a.s.sociates among his former acquaintances. It was even said that when a leading society lady, enjoying a literary reputation--the mother of Mrs. Julia Mayo Cabell and Mrs. General Winfield Scott--gave an entertainment to which she invited the talented young editor of the _Messenger_, two of the most priggish of these gentlemen declined to attend rather than meet their former schoolmate, Edgar Poe.

This state of things must undoubtedly have served to irritate and embitter one of Poe's proud and sensitive nature, and may have partly led to the dissipated habits in which he now for the first time began to indulge--besides, in some measure, influencing the extreme bitterness and severity, or, as it has been called, _venom_ of the criticism for which the _Messenger_ began to be noted. Never before had he been accused of unamiability of disposition, but his temper seems suddenly to have changed, and he was called "haughty, overbearing and quarrelsome."

A great and, it is to be feared, irreparable obloquy has attached to Poe's name through the utterance of a single individual--a Mr. Ferguson, who was employed as a printer's a.s.sistant in the office of the _Messenger_ at the time of Poe's editorship of that magazine. Not many years ago, Mr. Ferguson, who is still living, said, in answer to some inquiry concerning the poet: "There never was a more perfect gentleman than Mr. Poe when he was sober," but that at other times "he would just as soon lie down in the gutter as anywhere else." And this a.s.sertion has been taken up by one and another writer until it appears now to be received as a fixed fact.

I have often heard this statement indignantly denied by persons who knew Poe at this time. Howsoever much under the influence of drink he might be, he was, they say, never at any time or by any person seen staggering through the streets or lying in a gutter. On the contrary, he was extremely sensitive about being seen by his friends, and especially ladies, under the influence of drink.

Poe himself, long after this time, while denying the charge of general dissipation, confessed that while in Richmond he at long intervals yielded to temptation, and after each excess was invariably for some days confined to his bed. And now, in addition to other charges against him, was that of neglecting his wife and being frequently seen in attendance on other women; a point on which his motherly friend, Mrs.

Mackenzie, more than once felt herself called upon to remonstrate with him. He would be, for a week at a time, away from his home, putting up at various hotels and boarding-houses, and spending his money freely, instead of, as formerly, committing it to the keeping of his mother-in-law. Mrs. Clemm, descending from the dignity of a boarder, tried to open a boarding-house of her own, but failed; and she now rented a cheap tenement on Seventh street and went back to her dressmaking, letting out rooms, and probably taking one or two boarders.

But it was seldom that her son-in-law was to be found here; though always, after one of his excesses, he would seek its seclusion until fit to again appear in public.

Mr. Hewitt, who was about this time in Richmond, says that he heard a great deal of gossip about Poe's love affairs; and describes him as, at this time, of remarkable personal beauty--"graceful, and with dark, curling hair and magnificent eyes, wearing a Byron collar and looking every inch a poet." An old gentleman, a distinguished lawyer, once undertook his defence, saying: "Poe is one of the kind whom men envy and calumniate and women adore. How many could resist the temptation?"

The Mackenzies spoke of Virginia at this time--now fourteen years of age--as being small for her age, but very _plump_; pretty, but not especially so, with sweet and gentle manners and the simplicity of a child. Rose Poe, now twenty-six years of age, would sometimes take her young sister-in-law to spend an afternoon at the Mackenzies, where she appeared as much of a child as any of the pupils, joining in their sports of swinging and skipping rope. On one occasion her husband--"Buddy"--came unexpectedly to bring her home, when she scandalized Miss Jane Mackenzie by rushing into the street and greeting him with the _abandon_ of a child.

Nearly twenty years after this time there were persons living on Main street who remembered having almost daily seen about the Old Market, in business hours, a tall, dignified looking woman, with a market basket on one arm, while on the other hung a little girl with a round, ever-smiling face, who was addressed as "Mrs. Poe"! She, too, carried a basket.

Whatsoever was the cause of Poe's discontent, he never appeared happy or satisfied while in Richmond. His dissipated habits grew upon him, with a consequent neglect of editorial duties, which sorely tried the patience of his good and kind friend, Mr. White, to whom, it must be admitted, Poe never appeared sufficiently grateful. Whether Mr. White was compelled at length to reluctantly discharge him, or whether, as Mr.

Kennedy says, Poe himself gave up his place as editor of the _Messenger_, thinking that with his now established literary reputation he could do better in the North, is not clear; but in the summer of 1838 he left Richmond and, with his family, removed to New York.

Mrs. Clemm, at least, could not have been averse to the move; for it seems certain that there was a general prejudice against her on account of her having made or consented to the match between her little daughter and a man of Poe's age and dissipated habits.

CHAPTER XV.

IN NEW YORK.

Of Poe's business and literary affairs in New York, and subsequently in Philadelphia, his biographers have fully informed us, but with little or no mention of his home life or his family. All that we can gather concerning the latter is that never at any time were their circ.u.mstances such as would enable them to dispense with the utmost economy of living, and that, as regarded the practical everyday business affairs of life, Poe was almost as helpless and dependent upon his mother-in-law as was his child-wife. But for this devoted mother, what could they have done?--those two, whom she rightly called her "children."

Poe was sadly disappointed in his hopes of obtaining literary employment in New York, and but for Mrs. Clemm's opening a boarding-house on Carmine street, an obscure locality, the family might have starved.

Here, however, he seems to have turned over a new leaf, for one of the boarders, a Mr. Gowans, a book-seller on the next street, declares that in the eight months of his residence at Mrs. Clemm's, and a daily intercourse with Poe, he never saw him otherwise than "sober, courteous, and a perfect gentleman." Being a stranger in New York, he was removed from the temptations which had a.s.sailed him in Richmond, and this fact should be noted as a proof that, when left to himself, he showed no inclination to indulge in dissipation. Of Virginia, Poe's wife, then fifteen years of age, this gallant old bachelor says, in the exaggerated style of flattery common in those days: "Her eyes outshone those of any houri, and her features would defy the genius of a Canova to imitate.

Poe delighted in her round, childlike face and plump little figure."

CHAPTER XVI.

THE REAL VIRGINIA.

As regards the nature of Poe's affection for his wife, I have often recalled an expression of Mr. John Mackenzie when, after the poet's death, a group of his friends were familiarly discussing his character.

One doubted whether Poe had ever really loved his wife; to which Mr.

Mackenzie replied: "I believe that Edgar loved his wife, but not that he was ever in love with her--which accounts for his constancy."

I have heard other men say that it was impossible that Poe, at the age of twenty-seven, could have felt for the child of twelve, with whom he had played and romped in the familiar a.s.sociation of home life and the free intercourse of brother and sister, aught of the absorbing and idealizing pa.s.sion of love. At most, said they, there could have been but the tender and protective affection of an elder brother or cousin; which, as Mr. Mackenzie remarked, was in one of Poe's temperament the best guarantee for its continuance.

Apart from the disparity of age, there was no congeniality of mind or character to draw these two into sympathy. Virginia was not mentally gifted, and Poe once, after her death, remarked to Mrs. Mackenzie that she had never read half of his poems. When writing, he would go to Mrs.

Clemm to explain his ideas or to ask her opinion, but never to Virginia.

She was his pet, his plaything, his little "Sissy," whose sunny temper and affectionate disposition brightened and cheered his home.

"She was always a child," said a lady who knew her well. "Even in person smaller and younger looking than her real age, she retained to the last the shy sweetness and simplicity of childhood."

It would certainly appear that Poe's child-wife never attained to the full completeness of the nature and affections of a mature woman. She was never known to manifest jealousy of the women whom he so notoriously admired; neither did scandals disturb nor his neglect estrange her. Mrs.

Clemm would sometimes, as in duty bound, take him to task for his irregularities, but no word of reproach ever escaped Virginia. She regarded him with the most implicit and childlike trust; and certainly it seems that Poe, of all men, knew how, by endearing epithets and eloquent protestations, to win a woman's confidence--as will presently appear.

But, naturally, this was not the kind of affection to satisfy one of Poe's impa.s.sioned and poetic nature. He craved a woman's love, and the sympathetic appreciation of talented women, in whose companionship, as Mrs. Whitman a.s.sures us, he delighted. What he did not find in Virginia he sought elsewhere. In special he missed in her that understanding and appreciation of his genius which he found in some other women. She loved and admired her handsome and fascinating husband, but never appeared to take pride in his genius or his fame as a poet.

The accounts of Virginia's beauty, say those who knew her personally, have been greatly exaggerated by Poe's biographers, who, taking their impressions from the description of Mr. Gowans already mentioned, have painted the poet's child-wife in the most glowing colors. The general idea of her is like that which Mr. Woodbury expresses: "A sylph-like creature, of such delicate and ethereal beauty that we almost expect to see it vanish away, like one of Poe's own creations."

But the real Virginia was neither delicate nor ethereal. She is described by those who knew her at the age of twenty-two as looking more like a girl of fifteen than a woman grown, with, notwithstanding her frail health, a round, full face and figure, full, pouting lips, a forehead too high and broad for beauty, and bright black eyes and raven-black hair, contrasting almost startlingly with a white and colorless complexion. Her manner and expression were soft and shy, with something childlike and appealing. "She was liked by every one," says Mr. Graham. A decided _lisp_ added to her child-likeness.

CHAPTER XVII.

POE'S PHILADELPHIA HOME.

Poe, disappointed in his hopes of success in New York, left that city and, in the summer of 1839, removed to Philadelphia, then the literary center of the United States.

Of his business experiences while here--his successes and disappointments--his quarrels with certain editors and literary men and his friendly relations with others, his biographers have informed us.

But it is in his home and private life that we are interested.

Their financial circ.u.mstances at this time must have been deplorable, for they had to borrow money to enable them to remove to Philadelphia.

Under the circ.u.mstances, to take board was impracticable; and it appears from the reminiscences of certain neighbors, that they for some time occupied very poor lodgings in an obscure street in the vicinity of a market. But Poe was much more successful here than in New York, and we find them in the following spring established in a home of their own in a locality known as _Spring Garden_, a quiet suburb far from the dust and noise of the city.

Some one has recently taken pains to hunt out with infinite patience and perseverance this house, which the Poes occupied for nearly five years.

It was an ordinary framed Dutch-roofed building, with but three rooms on the ground floor, and under the eaves little horizontal strips of windows on a level with the floor, which could scarcely have admitted light and air. But there was, when they took possession, a bit of gra.s.sy side yard which had once been part of a garden, and a porch over which grew a straggling rose-bush. This latter Mrs. Clemm's skillful hands carefully pruned and trained, thus winning for the humble abode the t.i.tle still applied to it of "The poet's rose-embowered cottage," to which some enthusiast has added, "Where Poe and his idolized Virginia dreamed their divine dream of love."

To a lady who was at this time a resident of Spring Garden we are indebted for a glimpse of the Poes in this their quiet and half-rural abode.