Verplanck toasts Moore, 1859

Hon. Gulian Crommelin Verplanck of N.Y.
Brady-Handy photograph collection,
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

From the account of the 1859 St Nicholas Society banquet, titled "The Children's Carol" and published over the signature of "SENTINEL" (William Henry Bogart) in the Morning Courier and New York Enquirer on Saturday, December 17, 1859:

Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer - December 17, 1859
via Fultonhistory.com

... All this is introduction to the mention of the very pleasantest page in the history of the evening of the last sixth of December. No one who heard him will forget the pleasant but enriched manner in which GULIAN C. VERPLANCK delineated the character and pledged to the health and happiness of CLEMENT C. MOORE, the Author of that delightful Poem, sung for and by so many darling little hearts, whose golden pivot of the wheel of the Year, is  

"The Night before Christmas"--

 Mr. VERPLANCK declared it the Children's Carol, and as such it has blended itself among those associations which brighten even amidst the deepest dust of care, those hours which even a stern man keeps hid from all the tumult of his own breast and struggles with others. Men remember to their latest day how often little hands have in their innocence led them into the path, they would then give worlds to tread again. The very inner light of a Christian civilization is kindness to the home hearts.

We have almost in the heavier movement of lesser men forgotten that the graceful scholar whose felicitous embodiment of the most popular of all traditions that have found rest in America, is yet [one] of our citizens. Mr. VERPLANCK's delineation of the life of this gentleman was heard with appreciation of the value of this offering by one scholar to another. Surrounded by all that the possession of great wealth can give, Mr. MOORE finds in the library of rare books, the society of cherished friends, the observation of an old age preserved in vigor of reflection, as pleasant lot as is cast among men.

And as the days in the sure drift of Time are bringing us to the Christmas, to turn a genial thought towards this theme, is most appropriate.

It was a right theme for the utterances of that brilliant evening, for brilliant it was, though all the gloom of the accumulated clouds wore the drapery that the city wore. The Old Festival had all the honors. The Presidency had one of New York's favorite sons in its place [Verplanck, succeeded by Hamilton Fish]. The best scholar left among us rose to the pledge, and the Sons of St. Nicholas with joyous heart remembered the Author of the Children's Christmas Carol.
SENTINEL.

"Sentinel" was the usual pseudonym of William Henry Bogart, as verified in Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography Volume 1, ed. James Grant Wilson and John Fiske (New York, 1888) page 302.



It's good to have Bogart's account of the 1859 holiday toast by Gulian C. Verplanck "to the health and happiness" of his old friend and former seminary colleague. Clement C. Moore did not belong to the St. Nicholas Society and would not have been present at the festivities that Bogart describes. Verplanck himself was the "best scholar left among us" who rose to make the "pledge" or drinking toast. The report in the New York Tribune on December 7, 1859 did not mention Gulian C. Verplanck or his formal tribute to the author of the "Children's Christmas Carol":

ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY.-- This Association, composed of the descendants of the Dutch settlers of New York, celebrated its anniversary last night by a dinner at the St Nicholas Hotel. The attendance was good, and the representatives of the old Knickerbockers had a good time generally, eating doughnuts and drinking schnapps, and cracking jokes and smoking long pipes. 

Earlier in the same year, this bit of "Newport Gossip" dated August 3, 1859 appeared in correspondence of the Boston Journal; reprinted in the New York Evening Post on August 5, 1859:

Another literary notable here is Clement C. Moore, who is justly styled "a fine old Christian gentleman, scholar and poet," by one who knows him well. Although upwards of eighty years of age, Mr. Moore retains his love for classical literature, and his conversation is marked by that genial good humor displayed in his well-known poetical chronicle of "A Visit from St. Nicholas," commencing

" 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse."  

Harper ads quoting London reviews of The Whale

In January 1852, Harper ads in New York City briefly quoted three British reviews of The Whale. One of these, the mixed review in the London Atlas (First Notice, November 1, 1851), was also excerpted with a positive spin in the January 1852 issue of Harper's New Monthly Magazine. Along with the Atlas, the Harpers quoted the London Leader (November 8, 1851) and Literary Gazette (December 6, 1851). A different, longer excerpt from the Leader showed up in Harper's magazine for April 1852. Herman Melville's brother Allan knew the whole Leader review, as Hershel Parker relates in Herman Melville: A Biography Volume 2, 1851-1891 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002) pages 99-100. And reminds in a comment on the Melvilliana post, Moby-Dick widely praised.

These particular London blurbs do seem underwhelming next to the most appreciative and insightful British responses we know about now, for example in the London Morning Advertiser, Morning Post, Weekly News and Chronicle, and Daily News.

The Leader review first glossed The Whale as "a strange, wild weird book, full of poetry and full of interest." But the Harper ad skips the weirdness and poetry. Instead, the text of the Leader blurb has been clipped and combined from bits of another passage, describing Melville's Whale as

"a strange, wild work, with the tangled overgrowth and luxuriant vegetation of American forests, not the trim orderliness of an English park. Criticism may pick many holes in this work; but no criticism will thwart its fascination."

The compressed Leader text still anticipates and answers negative criticism, without getting specific:

"A strange, wild work--no criticism will thwart its fascination." 

On the bright side, the Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer and The Literary World supplemented the London quotations with very high praise from the Washington, DC National Intelligencer ("actually Shakspearean") and New York Tribune (for "the author's originality and power"). In the Literary World for January 17, 1852 the full page ad for "HARPER & BROTHERS' LATEST PUBLICATIONS" listed "MOBY DICK; OR, THE WHALE" as the sixth of nine new works.

The Literary World - January 17, 1852 - page 60

VI.

MOBY DICK; OR, THE WHALE

By HERMAN MELVILLE. 

12mo. muslin, $1 50.  

"A prose Epic on Whaling. Mr. Melville's delineations of character are actually Shakspearean—a quality which is even more prominently evinced In 'Moby Dick' than in any of his antecedent efforts." —National Intelligencer. 

"Nothing like it has ever before been written of the Whale." —Literary World. 

"It gives us a higher opinion of the author's originality and power than even the fragrant and first fruits of his genius, the never to be forgotten 'Typee.' " —N. York Tribune.  

"A strange, wild work—no criticism will thwart its fascination." —Lond, Leader.

"Equal to anything we have ever met with" — London Literary Gazette. 

"That Herman Melville knows more about whales than any from Jonah down, we do really believe."—London Atlas. 

https://books.google.com/books?id=XjwZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA60&lpg#v=onepage&q&f=false>

Below, the same ad in the New York Courier and Enquirer. In the quote from the National Intelligencer, William A. Butler's word "Shakespearean" is spelled "Shaksperean"; the Literary World version has it "Shakspearean" on January 17 but "Shakspearian" on February 14, 1852.

Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer - January 8, 1852
via FultonHistory

MOBY DICK; OR THE WHALE.

By Herman Melville. 12mo, muslin, $1.50.

"A prose Epic on Whaling. Mr. Melville's delineations of character is actually Shaksperean--a quality which is even more prominently evinced in "Moby-Dick" than in any of his antecedent efforts." --National Intelligencer.

"Nothing like it has ever before been written of the Whale." --Literary World. 

 "It gives us a higher opinion of the author's originality and power than even the fragrant and first fruits of his genius, the never to be forgotten 'Typee.' --N. Y. Tribune. 

"A strange, wild work--no criticism will thwart its fascination." --London Leader.

"Equal to anything we have ever met with." --London Literary Gazette.

"That Herman Melville knows more about whales than any man from Jonah down, we do really believe." --London Atlas. 

Thursday, January 8, 1852 is the first day the new Harper & Brothers ad ran in the Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer. On the previous day, January 7th, the Harper ad for Moby-Dick contained only one quotation--from the London Times review of Typee.

Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer - January 7, 1852
via FultonHistory

The Harper & Brothers ad in the New York Evening Post on January 17, 1852 features the three new quotations from London reviews of The Whale, but no American blurbs.

New York Evening Post - January 17, 1852
via GenealogyBank

In February the Harper ad for Moby-Dick in the Literary World provided a different selection of London quotes. The revised ad drops the Leader and Literary Gazette texts, while substituting a juicier quotation from the London Atlas, and adding a new one from the otherwise negative notice in the London Examiner. The Valentine's Day 1852 version keeps the high praise of Moby-Dick from major American newspapers the New York Tribune and Washington National Intelligencer, but omits the previously included endorsement from the first Literary World review ("Nothing like it has ever before been written of the Whale"). Transcribed below from the New York Literary World, February 14, 1852, page 128:

The Literary World - February 14, 1852 - page 128

Moby Dick;
Or, The Whale. By HERMAN MELVILLE. 12mo. Muslin, $1 50. 

"It gives us a higher opinion of the author's originality and power than even the fragrant and first-fruits of his genius, the never-to-be forgotten 'Typee.'" —New York Tribune. 

"A prose Epic on whaling. His delineation of character is actually Shakspearian —a quality which is even more prominently evinced in 'Moby Dick' than in any of his antecedent efforts."—National Intelligencer.  

"Fully and freely is the book to be commended to all who are curious in such matters." —London Examiner. 

"Herman Melville plunges among the whales as if he loved them, and counted them the grandest and most glorious of the creatures of the globe. Upon the whale, its mysteries and its terrors, he dwells as if the subject had enchantment for him." —London Atlas.

https://books.google.com/books?pg=PA128&lpg=&id=XjwZAAAAYAAJ#v=onepage&q&f=false 

Related posts

• Moby Dick widely praised in 1851-1852
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2020/02/moby-dick-widely-praised-in-1851-2.html 

• London Morning Herald notices of THE WHALE
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2021/06/london-morning-herald-notices-of-whale.html

Moby-Dick in the New York Morning Express

This notice of Moby-Dick in the New York Morning Express on November 17, 1851 borrows extensively from the Courier and Enquirer review of November 14th, but the texts are not identical. The Express tweaks the introduction before quoting the body of the earlier notice--using quotation marks and presenting it as the verdict of

"One who has read "Moby dick."

The reference to Melville's previous "squintings at his whaling experiences" appears only in the Express version.

New York Morning Express - November 17, 1851 via Fulton History

LITERARY NOTICES.

MOBY-DICK, OR THE WHALE. Herman Melville. Harpers.

Another book by the author of "Typee." What writer is more welcome? We have had a touch of his qualities on the sea, and some squintings at his whaling experiences, before, and are prepared to find in his new book a great deal of amusement and instruction, combined with his usual felicity. One who has read "Moby dick" tells us that it "has all the attractiveness of any of its predecessors; in truth it possesses more of a witching nature, since the author has taken in it a wilder play than ever before. It is ostensibly taken up with whales and whalers, but a vast variety of characters and subjects figure in it, all set off with an artistic effect that irresistibly captivates the attention. The author writes with the gusto of true genius, and it must be a torpid spirit indeed that is not enlivened with the raciness of his humor and the redolence of his imagination."  --New York Morning Express, November 17, 1851; found at Fulton History. 

Both notices of Moby-Dick, the earlier one in the New York Courier and the later one in the Morning Express, are collected and transcribed in Herman Melville: The Contemporary Reviews, edited by Brian Higgins and Hershel Parker (Cambridge University Press, 1995; 2009 in paperback), on pages 374 and 377.

Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer - November 14, 1851
via Fulton History

As reported by David Potter in his survey of Reviews of Moby-Dick in The Journal of the Rutgers University Library Vol 3, No 2 (1940), the highly favorable Courier and Enquirer review was reprinted in Littell's Living  Age, vol. 32 (January 17, 1852).

Moby Dick; or the Whale. By Herman Melville. Harper and Brothers: New York. 

No American writer is more sure, at every reappearance, of a more cheerful welcome than the author of Typee. His purity and freshness of style and exquisite tact in imparting vividness and life-likeness to his sketches long since gained him hosts of admirers on both sides of the water. This book has all the attractiveness of any of its predecessors; in truth, it possesses more of a witching interest, since the author's fancy has taken in it a wilder play than ever before. It is ostensibly taken up with whales and whalers, but a vast variety of characters and subjects figure in it, all set off with an artistic effect that irresistibly captivates the attention. The author writes with the gusto of true genius, and it mast be a torpid spirit indeed that is not enlivened with the raciness of his humor and the redolence of his imagination.—
N. Y. Courier  [as reprinted January 17, 1852 in Littell's Living  Age, vol. 32.]

Devil to pay, and no pitch hot

Love. Or an exquisite at his devotions
1825 by Alfred Crowquill via The British Museum

In his great speech at the 1844 Jackson Jubilee, Gansevoort Melville recycled a joke from two years before about the "fashionable" way of restating the common expression, "There's the devil to pay and no pitch hot." Here's one 1842 version of the joke, from the Elmira Gazette, March 10, 1842:

Elmira Gazette - March 10, 1842 via Fulton History

It is not customary at the present day to say--"There's the devil to pay and no pitch hot;" the fashionable phrase being--"There is a certain liability due to the 'old gentleman,' and no bituminous matter of the proper temperature to liquidate the obligation."

In 1844 Gansevoort ascribed the "fashionable" phraseology to Whigs whom he portrayed as anti-democratic Broadway dandies or "exquisites":

Now, my fair countrywomen, with your permission, a word with you. I grant ye that the whigs have the advantage of us plain-spoken democrats in scented hair, diamond rings, and white kid gloves—[roars of laughter]—in the language of compliment and the affectation of manner, and most particularly, in their style of dressing. If one of these exquisites wished to express the idea contained in the home-spun adage, “There is the devil to pay and no pitch hot,” he would say, “There is a pecuniary liability due to the old gentleman, and no bituminous matter, of the proper temperature, wherewith to liquidate the obligation.” [Uproarious laughter and applause, in which the ladies joined.]

The term Broadway exquisite was a stereotype of affectation and elitism that the Louisville Courier Journal (July 19, 1845) later applied to Gansevoort himself, after his appointment as Secretary of Legation in London. In New York City, the Morning Courier and Enquirer questioned Gansevoort's understanding of the word pay in "the devil to pay."

A General Dictionary of Provincialisms
(London, 1840)

Criticizing Gansevoort's flourishes, the Whig newspaper pointed out the nautical meaning of pay as tar or "pitch" used to caulk the seams of a ship. As further explained on the Official Website of the United States Navy along with other instances of Navy Terminology,

The "devil" was the wooden ship's longest seam in the hull. Caulking was done with "pay" or pitch (a kind of tar). The task of "paying the devil" (caulking the longest seam) by squatting in the bilges was despised by every seaman.

Gansevoort's Whig critic seems to have realized, eventually, that the misunderstanding of the nautical metaphor could also be regarded as part of the joke, attributable to the clueless dandy being described. From the Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer, March 22, 1844; found at Fulton History:

Mr. Gansevoort Melville, who seems to be aiming at a rivalry with Anacharsis Cloots for the honor of being considered "Orator of the Human Race," emptied his last bag of blarney into the laps of the ladies and gentlemen who assembled the other night at the Tabernacle to celebrate the seventy-seventh birthday of Gen. Jackson. The whole oration appears to have been a budget of beauties, a congeries of "unstrung pearls," with now and then a boquet of blossoms, fragrant as a poppy bud and redolent of odours from a newly blown swamp cabbage. The following figure, however, is a "metaphor of another smell," and shows a versatility of conception, and stretchiness of imagination worthy of Orator Henley himself. Mr. Melville, addressing himself to the ladies with one of his archest and blandest smiles, said,

"Now, my fair countrywomen, with your permission, a word with you. I grant ye that the Whigs have the advantage of us plain spoken Democrats in scented hair, diamond rings, and white kid gloves—(roars of laughter)—in the language of compliment and the affectation of manner, and most particularly, in the style of dressing. If one of these exquisites wished to express the idea contained in the home-spun adage, 'There is the devil to pay, and no pitch hot,' he would say, 'There is a pecuniary liability due to the old gentleman, and no bituminous matter of the proper temperature, wherewith to liquidate the obligation.'"

This is peculiarly beautiful we acknowledge, and the euphuism put into the mouth of the modern "poodle dog of society" would have charmed Sir Piercie Shafton; but it strikes us that a nautical critic would be apt to accuse Mr. Melville of having no knowledge of his own metaphor. It is not generally understood that the phrase implies any pecuniary obligation to the old rascal from Sulphurdom. When a sailor says there is "the devil to pay and no pitch hot," he simply means that his seams are to be caulked and payed over, and there is no hot tar to do it with. However, we repeat that the figure is decidedly pretty and poetical, and we dare say appropriate to the occasion and the audience ———, or Mr. M. would not have used it.

Portrait of John Henley via The British Museum

Related posts:

• Gansevoort Melville at the 1844 Jackson Jubilee
• Gansevoort Melville as Broadway Exquisite
• Glimpse of tall, very tall Gansevoort in March 1845 

Lost and Found Department: Fulton History has New York Morning Express with 1849 riot coverage, including "The Three Macbeths"

At the time of the Astor Place riots The New York Express featured a regular column of "Dramatic and Musical" news and reviews. The "Dramatic and Musical" editor witnessed Macready's disrupted Monday night performance which he reviewed under the heading "The Three Macbeths" (Tuesday, May 8, 1849):

New York Morning Express / May 8, 1849

The "Three Macbeths" item and other reports about the 1849 Astor Place riots are available at Fulton History:

The New York Morning Express 1849-1850 at Fulton History:

Tuesday, May 8, 1849: New York NY Morning Express 1849-1850 - 0407
Wednesday, May 9, 1849: New York NY Morning Express 1849-1850 - 0411
Thursday, May 10, 1849: New York NY Morning Express 1849-1850 - 0415
Friday, May 11, 1849: New York NY Morning Express 1849-1850 - 0419
Saturday, May 12, 1849: New York NY Morning Express 1849-1850 - 0423

On Wednesday, May 9, 1849 the Morning Express printed the open letter to Macready that Herman Melville signed with other leading citizens, assuring the actor of a better reception if he would give another performance.

New York Morning Express / May 9, 1849

New York Morning Express / May 9, 1849

On Thursday, May 10, 1849 the Express printed Macready's reply of hesitant acceptance. It's great to have these images available for historical and biographical research. And the Fulton History cache in one place confirms our idea in the previous melvilliana post about "lost" files of the New York Express. In the microfilmed copy scanned by Fulton History, most of the report on Friday, May 10. 1849, the day after the deadly riot of Thursday night, has been scissored out of the newspaper. Fortunately, however, the Norwich Evening Courier and very likely other newspapers reprinted the same report from one or another editions of the New York Express. Saturday coverage includes a heartfelt defense of soldiers who "endured a stoning with the patience of the Apostles, before they fired."

Getting back to Percy Hammond (1873-1936). The story of the Astor Place riot in Hammond's 1933 article is taken verbatim from two New York Morning Express articles: 1) "The Three Macbeths" column of May 8, 1849; and 2) the lengthy report published on Friday, May 11, 1849. Hammond explicitly presented the narrative as an old newspaper report by his "ancient friend." So far then his claim rings true, except for the unacknowledged conflation of events and accounts from different days.

Conceivably Hammond as a young drama critic (in Chicago, at the Tribune?), say in the late 1890's or very early 1900's, knew and possibly worked with the former "Dramatic and Musical" critic of the New York Express. In 1899 Percy Hammond was 26; a drama critic who was that age in 1849 would have been 76 in 1899, 86 in 1909. So it's possible that Hammond knew an eyewitness to the Astor Place riots.

The trickiest and doubtfulest part of Hammond's story is still the thing we lack, any mention of Melville together with Washington Irving, Henry J. Raymond (then assistant editor of the Courier and Enquirer) and Richard Grant White.

We regret that space forbids further comment on this melancholy episode. However, since Dame Rumor hath it that the bloody and unwonted demonstration was a deliberately contrived insult to a visiting scholar and gentleman, we cannot forbear to say that it is a deplorable shame to New York City and the United States and a humiliation to those who love the works of the Bard of Avon. 

As Washington Irving, Henry J. Raymond, Richard Grant White, Herman Melville and your correspondent walked with Mr. Macready to his lodgings last night, he said:

“In escaping from this country, which has been endeared to me by long and strong attachments, I shall not do you the injustice of associating the American character with the ill-deeds of persons unhappily to be found in every large community. I shall form no hasty and inconsiderate judgements from the unprovoked indignities offered me tonight, and shall remain honored and grateful because of the appreciation and friendship of true Americans.”  --Philadelphia Inquirer, May 7, 1933; found at Fulton History.

Two things, after reflection. One is, in Hammond's reconstruction this section with the Melville mention appears out of chronological order. Although the passage as placed by Hammond concludes the story of the later Thursday riot, it seems to reflect an earlier perspective and concerns after the disrupted Monday performance of May 7, 1849, BEFORE Macready's Thursday performance and the ensuing violence. Macready's quoted words are adapted from his reply to Irving and co-signers, published in the Morning Express on Thursday, the day of the repeat performance.

Another thing is, similar language about the "bloody and unwonted demonstration" was used in eyewitness reporting by Henry J. Raymond in his newspaper, the New York Courier and Enquirer.

We have neither room, time nor disposition now,—fresh as we are from these bloody and unwonted scenes,— to comment upon them as we feel, or as they deserve. We cannot, however, forbear from saying that we do not agree with those who may be inclined to say that Mr. Macready, after the reception he met on Monday night, should not have attempted to appear again. If he had abandoned his engagement and the country then, it would have been because a New York mob had forbidden him to remain. The whole world would have been justified in saying, that the laws of New York could not protect a man in the exercise of his lawful calling,—that they were powerless, in presence of an organized mob—and that an attempt to enforce them, under such circumstances, dare not be made by the authorities to whom their execution had been entrusted.  --New York Courier & Enquirer, as reprinted under the heading "Spirit of the Press" in the New York Morning Express, May 12, 1849

Possibly then the original of Hammond's reference to Melville with Irving, Raymond, and White is to be found there, in the Courier and Enquirer. Richard Grant White in those years also contributed "musical, dramatic, and art criticisms" (Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography) for the New York Courier and Enquirer. So the association in Hammond's piece of Henry J. Raymond and Richard Grant White is a believable one, probably not the result of random name-dropping from the list of Macready's petitioners. And the New York Express still is implicated in Hammond's 1933 use of two different articles, the first one from the "Dramatic and Musical" column.

Related posts:

• Looking for lost 1849 report
•  James F. Otis aka Gemotice