Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/306

 236

��NOTES BY THE WAY.

��Dickens.

��Tioknor and Prescott.

��' The Scarlet Letter.'

G. P. R.

James.

Jenny Lind.

��Kingsley's

' Saint's

Tragedy.'

��Longfellow dedicates

' Ultima Thule' to

George Washington

Greene.

��Here is Dickens described on his visit to America in 1842 :

" A gay, free-and-easy character, with a fine bright face, blue eyes, and long dark hair, he is young, only thirty next month, and a good constitution."

Dickens, on hearing that Longfellow was about to visit England, wrote to him : " Have no home but mine."

Longfellow notes on the 4th of September, 1849 :

" Saw Mr. Ticknor : he has nearly finished with the proofs of his ' History of Spanish Literature.' In the street met Prescott, rosy and young, with a gay blue satin waistcoat, gray trousers, and shoes."

Longfellow saw Ticknor only a day or two before his death in 1859, and his last remembrance of him was his sunny smile. Here are a few other brief comments :

"March 16th, 1850. Hawthorne's 'Scarlet Letter' is just pub- lished a most tragic tragedy. Success to the book 1 "

" Sept. 17th, 1850. G. P. R. James came, the novelist, a sturdy man, fluent and rapid, and looking quite capable of fifty more novels."

" June 26th, 1851. Jenny Lind called this morning with Mr. Goldschmidt. There is something very fascinating about her, a kind of soft wildness of manner, and sudden pauses in her speaking, and floating shadows over her face."

"April 2nd, 1852. Read Kingsley's 'The Saint's Tragedy,' the story of St. Elizabeth of Hungary put into dramatic form with great power. I wish I had hit upon this theme for my ' Golden Legend,' the mediaeval part of my trilogy. It is nobler and more characteristic than my obscure legend."

On the 15th of September, 1880, ' Ultima Thule ' was pub- lished. It is dedicated to the poet's lifelong friend George Wash- ington Greene, with this motto from Horace :

Precor, Integra

Cum mente, nee turpem senectam Degere, nee cithara carentem.

Horace had been a favourite for many years with Longfellow, who when he was only seventeen wrote to his father :

" We are reading Horace. I admire it very much indeed, and in fact I have not met with so pleasant a study since the commence- ment of my college life. Moreover, it is extremely easy to read, which not a little contributes to the acquisition of a thorough knowledge of every line and every ode."

In 1872 he wrote a joking letter to Greene, reminding him that

" Horace mentions the Craigie House in Ode XXI. of the First Book. He spoke of it as the viridis cragi, in which Diana takes delight, that is, on which the moonlight lingers."

The copy of Horace used by Longfellow in college is now in the library at Bowdoin, the gift of Prof. Smyth, of Andover (' Life,' by Samuel Longfellow, vol. i. p. 49).

�� �