Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/301

 NOTES BY THE WAY.

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��to the first number of The Atlantic Monthly, published by Phillips & Sampson.

' The Courtship of Miles Standish ' was published hi 1858. Ten thousand copies were rapidly sold, and a second edition of the same number soon followed.

On the 9th of July, 1861, a great calamity came to him. It is thus recorded in the ' Life ' edited by Samuel Longfellow, vol. ii. p. 369 (Kegan Paul, Trench & Co.) :

" His wife was sitting in the library, with her two little girls, engaged in sealing up some small packages of their curls which she had just cut off. From a match fallen upon the floor, her light summer dress caught fire. The shock was too great, and she died the next morn- ing. She was buried three days later at Mount Auburn. It was the anniversary of her marriage day, and on her beautiful head, lovely and unmarred in death, some one had placed a wreath of orange blossoms. Her husband was not there, confined to his chamber by the severe burns which he had himself received."

After this there is a great break in his usually well-kept journal, the first entry being the following lines from Tennyson :

Sleep sweetly, tender heart, in peace !

Sleep, holy spirit, blessed soul ! While the stars burn, the moons increase,

And the great ages onward roll.

On the 25th of February, 1859, we find in the poet's journal :

" The thought struck me this morning, that a very good poem might be written on the Saga of King of Olaf, who converted the North to Christianity. Read the old Saga in the ' Heimskringla,' Laing's translation. It is very curious. ' The Challenge of Thor ' will serve as a prelude."

But it was not until November, 1860, that he took up the task in earnest, when he wrote fifteen of the lyrics in as many days ; and a few days afterwards he completed the whole of the Saga.

The framework of the ' Wayside Inn ' was determined later : the llth of October, 1862, is the first indication we have in his diary ; and on the 31st, on " a delicious Indian-summer day," he " drives with Fields to the old ' Red Horse ' Tavern in Sudbury," which used to be a house of call for all travellers from Boston west- ward. The title he intended to give the book was ' The Sudbury Tales ' ; but when he saw it announced he disliked it. Sumner cried out against it, and persuaded him to come back to the title of the ' Wayside Inn.' All the characters in it are real. It was published on the 25th of November, 1863, by Ticknor & Fields, the first edition consisting of fifteen thousand copies.

At this point of my notes it will be interesting to record the reception given to Longfellow's works in the pages of The Athenaeum.

As far back as the 13th of June, 1840, that journal, in its review of ' Voices of the Night,' had pointed out that there was

��' Miles Standish.'

��Death of Mrs. Longfellow.

��1907, Mar. 30.

' Saga of King Olaf.'

��The 'Wayside Inn.'

��The

Athenaeum's appreciation

of Longfellow.

�� �