Astonishing poem on the Holy Land forthcoming: premature notices of CLAREL aka CLARA

Convent of Santa Saba
via The New York Public Library Digital Collections

Herman Melville's religious epic Clarel was first published by G. P. Putnam's Sons in June 1876. Months before, the work had been announced in the New York press as forthcoming. As things turned out, however, the earliest notices of Melville's new "poem on the Holy Land" were premature. 

The Publishers' Weekly - January 15, 1876

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, New-York. 
 
... A Poem on the Holy Land, Narrative and Descriptive. By Herman Melville.

-- The Publishers' Weekly, January 15, 1876. 

The announcement in Publishers' Weekly on January 15, 1876 indicated a different working title, with no mention of "Clarel," the name of Melville's student-quester:

A Poem on the Holy Land, Narrative and Descriptive. By Herman Melville.

The earliest newspaper notices picked up on the interesting generic characterization of Melville's new poem as "narrative and descriptive":

New York Daily Tribune - January 12, 1876

LITERARY NOTES.

"A narrative and descriptive poem on the Holy Land, by Herman Melville, is in press by G. P. Putnam's Sons." -- New York Daily Tribune, January 12, 1876.
<https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1876-01-12/ed-1/seq-6/>

"A narrative and descriptive poem on the Holy Land, by Herman Melville, is in press by G. P. Putnam's Sons."--  Syracuse NY Daily Journal, January 15, 1876. 

 

The Christian Union - January 19, 1876

"Herman Melville, who is best known in literature by his fascinating sea-stories, has astonished his many admirers by writing a poem on the Holy Land, which the Messrs. Putnam will shortly publish."  -- The Christian Union, January 19, 1876.

"A narrative and descriptive poem on the Holy Land, by Herman Melville, is in press by G. P. Putnam's Sons."--  Chicago Tribune, January 22, 1876

31 Jan 1876, Mon New York Daily Herald (New York, New York) Newspapers.com

Herman Mellville, the author of "Typee" and "Omoo," who has long been absent from book authorship, has a poem on the "Holy Land" in Putnam's press.

-- New York Herald, January 31, 1876. 

Portland Maine Daily Press - January 29, 1876

"... a narrative poem on The Holy Land, by Herman Melville, who has heretofore been known only by his audacious romances,--Typee, Omoo and Moby Dick...."  
-- Portland ME Daily Press, January 29, 1876. 

In The American Bookseller for March 1, 1876, Putnam's Sons announced the title as "The Holy Land. A Narrative Poem."

Later in March Melville's publisher got the eponymous title right:

Mr. Herman Melville's narrative poem of a pilgrimage in the Holy Land, called "Clarel," will introduce him afresh to a new generation of readers.

-- Publishers' Weekly, March 11, 1876. 

Nevertheless, in April another announcement, still pre-publication, gave the title of Melville's forthcoming work as "Clara":

Clara. A Pilgrimage in the Holy Land. A Narrative Poem. By HERMAN MELVILLE. 2 VOLS., 12mo, cloth, extra, $3.  --Publisher's Weekly, April 22, 1876.

Melville's verse epic Clarel, A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land was officially published on June 7, 1876 according to this advertisement in the New York Evening Post:

New York Evening Post - June 7, 1876
via Genealogy Bank

Related post:

• Clarel, notices in the Cincinnati Commercial
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/12/clarel-notices-in-cincinnati-commercial.html

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

Charleston reprinting of "Hawthorne and His Mosses"

As first documented by Gary Scharnhorst in his 1988 article

"Melville Bibliography 1846-1897: A Sheaf of Uncollected Excerpts, Notices, and Reviews" continued from Number 74 in Melville Society Extracts 75 (November 1988), pages 3-8, item number 78 on page 4;

one early extract from Melville's Hawthorne and His Mosses appeared in the New York Evening Post for August 21, 1850. Here another reprinting, this one with the complete text of the first part as originally published in The Literary World on August 17, 1850. (The second part of Melville's now famous review-essay appeared one week later in The Literary World on August 24, 1850.)

Southern Literary Gazette - August 31, 1850
via Georgia Historic Newspapers

On August 31, 1850 the Southern Literary Gazette gave Part I of  Melville's "Hawthorne and His Mosses" from The Literary World of August 17, 1850. Melville's pseudonymous review appears in the Gazette under the editorial heading, "The Essayist." As in the Literary World,  Melville's contribution in the Gazette reprint is credited only to "A Virginian Spending July in Vermont." Part II of Melville's "Mosses" essay does not appear in the next issue of the Gazette and evidently was never reprinted there.

Then published in Charleston, South Carolina, the Southern Literary Gazette was edited by William Carey Richards, a native Brit and "ardent Baptist" per Gertrude Gilmer in A Critique of Certain Georgia Ante Bellum Literary Magazines, Georgia Historical Quarterly 18.4 (December,1934), page 300.

Related posts:

• Extract in the New York Evening Post 

• William Carey Richards on Mardi 

• COSMOS aka William Carey Richards on ISRAEL POTTER
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2021/11/cosmos-aka-william-carey-richards-on.html

Melville's new book, The Whale

Just as Moby-Dick was rolling out in the U. S., the New York Evening Post printed this brief notice of the favorable reception of The Whale across the pond, more or less buried in a long column of "Foreign Items":

"Herman Melville's new book "The Whale," now in press of the Harper's, is well received in England."  --New York Evening Post, November 12, 1851.

Reprinted in the Troy Daily Budget on November 13, 1851; also the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser on November 14, 1851; and the Buffalo Courier on November 15, 1851.

Wed, Nov 12, 1851 – Page 2 · The Evening Post (New York, New York, New York) · Newspapers.com

Clement C. Moore's Petrosa in the New York Evening Post

"To Petrosa" by Clement C. Moore was collected in Moore's 1844 volume Poems where it appears on pages 92-94. A brief prose heading in the 1844 volume explains that "Petrosa" was

"Suggested by Goldsmith's stanzas which begin, "Say cruel Iris, pretty rake."

"Lines to Petrosa" had appeared previously with other of Moore's poems over the signature "L." in John Duer's A New Translation, with Notes, of the Third Satire of Juvenal (New York, 1806). Here is an even earlier printing (the first, apparently) of "Petrosa," signed "Meliboeus" and published without any title in the New York Evening Post on May 9, 1804. To the Evening Post editor, Moore (still 24 in May 1804) described himself as "A young rhymer." The 1804 and 1806 versions of "Petrosa" both lack the 1844 allusion to Goldsmith's poem The Gift.

· Wed, May 9, 1804 – Page 2 · The Evening Post (New York, New York) · Newspapers.com

FOR THE EVENING POST.

Sir,
A young rhymer submits the following lines to your judgment, and will be flattered if you should think them worthy of a place in your paper.

Thy charms, Petrosa, which inspire
   Unnumber'd swains to chaunt thy praise,
Bid me, too, join the tuneful choir,
   And strive my feeble voice to raise.

And though more lofty songs invite,
   Hear me, for once, an humble swain--
The warbling thrush can oft delight
   More than the sky lark's louder strain.

Thy heav'nly form, thy virtue too,
   In notes of praise ascend the skies;
To opening charms, which strike the view,
   Unceasing aspirations rise.

Yet, in these charms, by all confest,
   Thy hopeless swains one fault declare:
A heart there dwells within that breast
   Which feels no love, which heeds no prayer.

Despondent sighs and notes of pain
   Delight, they say, Petrosa's ear;
To sue for pity, were as vain
   As from the rocks to ask a tear.

Oh, senseless throng! that callous breast
   Proclaims her Nature's favour'd child
While others pine, with love oppress'd,
   Her thoughts are free, her slumbers mild.

And all the softness, which gives grace
   And honor to the female heart,
Though distant from its wonted place,
   She harbours in a nobler part--

For though that heart, to every sound
   Which would compassion move, be dull;
The softness which should there be found,
   Kind Nature granted to--her skull.

MELIBOEUS.

Related:

• Two poems by Clement C. Moore in the NY Evening Post
• To a Lady in The Portfolio
• Moore's snow poem in the Troy Sentinel 

Extract in the New York Evening Post from Melville's "Hawthorne and His Mosses"

Found on Newspapers.com


Update 3/11/2020: Gary Scharnhorst first located this item which is listed as number 78 in the second of his two-part article, 

"Melville Bibliography 1846-1897: A Sheaf of Uncollected Excerpts, Notices, and Reviews" continued from Number 74 in Melville Society Extracts 75 (November 1988), pages 3-8 at page 4.

The New York Evening Post gave a portion of the "elaborate article" on Hawthorne in The Literary World for August 17, 1850 without venturing to guess the name of the author, identified in the original article as "a Virginian Spending July in Vermont." The second part of Melville's now famous review essay would be published in the Literary World on Saturday, August 24, 1850.

The Evening Post printed "frollicking rudeness" where Melville had written "rollicking rudeness."

From the New York Evening Post, August 21, 1850:

HAWTHORNE.-- A writer in the Literary World, in an elaborate article on Hawthorne's "Mosses from an Old Manse," says:

"Stretched on that new-mown clover, the hill-side breeze blowing over me through the wide barn door, and soothed by the hum of the bees in the meadows around, how magically stole over me this Mossy Man! and how amply, how bountifully, did he redeem that delicious promise to his guests in the Old Manse, of whom it is written--"Others could give them pleasure, or amusement, or instruction--these could be picked up anywhere--but it was for me to give them rest. Rest, in a life of trouble! What better could be done for weary and world-worn spirits? What better could be done for anybody, who came within our magic circle, than to throw the spell of a magic spirit over him?" So all that day, half buried in the new clover, I watched this Hawthorne's 'Assyrian dawn, and Paphian sunset and moonrise, from the summit of our Eastern Hill.'

"The soft ravishments of the man spun me round in a web of dreams, and when the book was closed, when the spell was over, this wizard 'dismissed me with but misty reminiscences, as if I had been dreaming of him.'

"What a mild moonlight of contemplative humor bathes that Old Manse!--the rich and rare distilment of a spicy and slowly-oozing heart. No frollicking rudeness, no gross fun fed on fat dinners, and bred in the lees of wine,--but a humor so spiritually gentle, so high, so deep, and yet so richly relishable, that it were hardly inappropriate in an angel. It is the very religion of mirth; for nothing so human but it may be advanced to that. The orchard of the Old Manse seems the visible type of the fine mind that has described it--those twisted and contorted old trees, 'that stretch out their crooked branches, and take such hold of the imagination, that we remember them as humorists and odd-fellows.' And then, as surrounded by these grotesque forms, and hushed in the noon-day repose of this Hawthorne's spell, how aptly might the still fall of his ruddy thoughts into your soul be symbolized by 'the thump of a great apple, in the stillest afternoon, falling without a breath of wind, from the mere necessity of perfect ripeness!' For no less ripe than ruddy are the apples of the thoughts and fancies in this sweet Man of Mosses--

"Buds and Bird-voices."--

"What a delicious thing is that! 'Will the world ever be so decayed, that Spring may not renew its greenness?' And the 'Fire-Worship.' Was ever the hearth so glorified into an altar before? The mere title of that piece is better than any common work in fifty folio volumes. How exquisite is this: 'Nor did it lessen the charm of his soft, familiar courtesy and helpfulness, that the mighty spirit, were opportunity offered him, would run riot through the peaceful house, wrap its inmates in his terrible embrace, and leave nothing of them save their whitened bones. This possibility of mad destruction only made his domestic kindness the more beautiful and touching. It was so sweet of him, being endowed with such power, to dwell, day after day, and one long, lonesome night after another, on the dusky hearth, only now and then betraying his wild nature, by thrusting his red tongue out of the chimney-top! True, he had done much mischief in the world, and was pretty certain to do more, but his warm heart atoned for all; He was kindly to the race of man.'

"But he has still other apples, not quite so ruddy, though full as ripe; apples, that have been left to wither on the tree, after the pleasant autumn gathering is past. The sketch of 'The Old Apple Dealer' is conceived in the subtlest spirit of sadness; he whose 'subdued and nerveless boyhood prefigured his abortive prime, which, likewise, contained within itself the prophecy and image of his lean and torpid age.' Such touches as are in this piece can not proceed from any common heart. They argue such a depth of tenderness, such a boundless sympathy with all forms of being, such an omnipresent love, that we must needs say, that this Hawthorne is here almost alone in his generation, at least, in the artistic manifestation of these things. Still more. Such touches as these, and many, very many similar ones, all through his chapters, furnish clues, whereby we enter a little way into the intricate, profound heart where they originated."

Links to e-texts online:

• Hawthorne and His Mosses - via Stephen Railton, University of Virginia

Herman Melville's annotated copy of Hawthorne's Mosses from an Old Manse is digitized and available via Melville's Marginalia Online.

Related posts:

• Charleston reprinting of Hawthorne and His Mosses
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/05/charleston-reprinting-of-hawthorne-and.html

• Book reviews in manuscript at NYPL (including Melville's "Hawthorne and His Mosses")
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2017/12/book-reviews-in-manuscript-at-nypl.html

New York High Schools, Allan Melvill on Board of Trustees for 1829

From 1825 to 1829 young Herman Melvill (age six to ten) attended the New York High School where his father Allan Melvill eventually became a stockholder and trustee. Here Herman served as a student "monitor" and, as Allan Melvill reported to Peter Gansevoort in February 1828, "proved the best Speaker in the introductory Department."

Organized in 1824 by a group of well-to-do New Yorkers, it had quickly acquired over six hundred students. Its spacious three-story brick building, fifty feet by seventy-five, stood in Crosby street, a walk of five short blocks for the Melville boys. --William Gilman, Melville's Early Life and Redburn (page 28)

David K. Titus has more on Melville's early education at the New York High School in his article on "Herman Melville at the Albany Academy," published in Melville Society Extracts 42 (May 1980).

New York-High School for Boys, and Girls.--We have received from the Treasurer of the New York High-School, the Third Annual Report of the Trustees, by which it appears, that (in November, 1827) in the Boys School, the present number was 543.-- A committee of the trustees, on a visit to this school, found in the Introductory Department, 243 scholars, of which 184 were studying arithmetick tables, 64 geography--and nearly all of them studying words, definitions, and spelling lessons. The average number of scholars in the Junior Department, was 185, of whom 65 were promoted to the Senior Department. The studies in the Junior Department are similar to those embraced in the Prospectus of the Buffalo High School. In the Senior Department, the average number of scholars, was 148; of whom 30 are taught book-keeping, and an equal number geometry, trigonometry, mensuration, and practical mathematicks. There are 100 who are taught geography, 30 Greek, 70 Latin, 80 French, 20 Spanish, and 40 taught in landscape drawing. The trustees have expressed their great satisfaction at the progress of the scholars, and of the capacity and diligence of the principals and assistants.

In the Girls' School, there was in November last, 359 scholars; of whom 150 are taught in the Introductory, 100 in the Junior, and 105 in the Senior Departments. The studies in the two first departments are somewhat similar to those pursued by the scholars in the Boys' School; but in the Senior department, 14 are taught book keeping, 20 read Blair's Lectures, 8 Alison on Taste, 16 classical Biography, 4 study Astronomy; and a class of 20 have gone through a system of Botany. The trustees declare, that the success of the young ladies in this department, in industry, talents and taste, is admirable: exhibiting a beautiful exhibition of the powers of the female mind. --Buffalo and Black Rock Gazette, January 17, 1828.

Found on Newspapers.com

As noted in the previous post on Dancing with Miss Whieldon, Herman's sister Helen Maria Melville received private instruction from Mrs. Whieldon.

In September 1829 (when Gansevoort and Herman were enrolled at the Columbia Grammar School), the Female High School continued to offer an impressive course of study in the Senior department, where young women could study (besides needlework and French) "moral philosophy, history, and belles lettres," and attend "lectures on astronomy, natural history and natural philosophy."

New York Observer - September 5, 1829
Found in the online archives of Historical Newspapers at Genealogy Bank

In 1829 and 1830, Herman attended the Grammar School of Columbia College with his brother Gansevoort. John P. Runden published two fine articles on the Columbia school in Melville Society Extracts:

• "Columbia Grammar School: An Overlooked Year in the Lives of Gansevoort and Herman Melville" in Melville Society Extracts 46 (May 1981): 1-3; and 

• "Old School Ties: Melville, the Columbia Grammar School, and the New Yorkers" in Melville Society Extracts 55 (September 1983): 1-5.

Two poems by Clement C. Moore, as first published in the New York Evening Post

Found on Newspapers.com

To start with, here is the original version of "Lines Written after a Season of Yellow Fever" by Clement C. Moore as first published under the title of "Congratulatory Lines" in The New York Evening Post, November 27, 1805.

These "Lines" were republished with interesting revisions in Moore's 1844 volume Poems. For example, Moore significantly revised this confession by the "veteran belle" who is his invented speaker throughout:

my soul’s to madness wrought
By forms which fly like meteors in my thought!

In revision, Moore replaced "forms" with "visions" and changed the end rhymes:

I'm madden'd with delight
By visions flying round, as meteors bright.

Moore deleted two couplets of imagined censure by "moralists and dull divines," and weakened their supposed authority by changing "purists" to casuists."  Moore also changed "pas battu" to "pigeon-wing"; and "ever-willing belles" became "ever-ready" in revision. He changed "which" to "that" and normalized archaic spellings of "frolick," "eccentrick," and "panick." In the last line, the belle's carefree perspective prevails over that of the moralizing poet, when "starch morality" mockingly replaces the former, heavy-handed concern with endangered salvation.

CONGRATULATORY LINES.

Addressed to the fashionable people of New-York upon their return to the city, after the disappearance of the yellow-fever. BY A LADY.

Dread pestilence hath now fled far away;
And life and health, once more around us play.
The din of commerce spreads from street to street;
Long-parted friends with new-warm'd friendship meet.
Now many-color'd nymphs, in noon-tide rows,
To gazing eyes fresh-gather'd charms disclose.
Welcome; all welcome to your wish'd abodes,
But chiefly you who’re skill'd in pleasure's modes;
Whose minds on humbler themes ne’er deign to dwell,
Receive the welcome of a veteran Belle
Whose heart's now dancing at the visions bright
Of high exploits which play in fancy's sight.
Now haste we to our winter's lov'd campaign,
Arm'd for the glorious contests we maintain;
Not wars of prudish belles with forward beaux
(These but inure to strife with real foes)
But wars with all the rules grave matrons teach,
Cold purity applauds, and parsons preach.
Courage, dear friends! our cause shall yet prevail:
But there are notions, hatch'd from doctrines stale,
'Gainst which 'twere well your valorous souls to guard;
For trifles oft e'en conquerors retard.
We're told by moralists and dull divines
That no pursuit becomes us which confines
Our highest wishes to mere sensual joys,
And thought of dread futurity destroys.
But most they deem morality disgrac’d
When those who’ve just by threat’ning death been chas’d
Soon as the danger’s o’er, with ten-fold glee,
Return to idle sports and revelry.
They hold it not, indeed, true wisdom’s part
To wear grief's impress ever in the heart,
But think the oblivious temper of our mind
For noble purposes by Heaven design'd;
To aid mortality beneath the weight
Of evils which oppress our tottering state;
To check despair, and give our reason play;
Reason, which calls from anxious cares away;
And teaches to behold, with minds serene
The joys and ills that crowd life's motley scene.
Try now this antique stuff by reason's test.
All science and all rules of action rest
On few clear principles assum'd as true.
The rule we, frolick's children, keep in view
Is this plain truth, whence all true precepts flow;
“Pleasure's the worthiest object man can know:”
Not pleasure felt by intellect alone;
Nor dreams of bliss in distant prospect shown;
But solid pleasure, present and secure,
All that can flatter passion, sense allure.
Let no vain fears this golden maxim hide,
But let heart-chilling laws by this be tried;
Then mark how emptily these croakers prate
Of what becomes [1844: beseems] our frail inconstant state.
Our frailty well we know; and 'tis for this
We should forget futurity's abyss,
And snatch from ruthless time each proffer’d joy.
Shall we, like drowsy dotards, e'er destroy
Our blissful sports by thought, of ills the worst
With which humanity by Heav’n is curs’d?
Thought! which forever tells some hateful truth;
Says wintry age soon chills [1844: must chill] the glow of youth;
To towering strength decrepitude foretells,
And wrinkles to the cheek where beauty dwells?
No! but this once the unruly traitor use
Then drive the fiend forever from your breasts;
On thoughtlessness alone your pleasure rests.
‘Tis true, we’ve just been chas’d by panick fears:
Whence sure ‘tis wise to claim the due arrears
Of pleasure thus detain'd, and to our store
Of present joys add those withheld before.
Let listless drones serenity approve;
In no dull medium let us deign to move.
Society is like a running wheel;
All parts the same progressive impulse feel;
And yet towards happiness, the general end,
These various parts with different motions tend.
Calm conscientious minds the centre hold;
While we are in the swift circumference roll'd.
Those at the centre keep an even way;
We in eccentrick movements round them play.
In quick vicissitudes we're whirl'd around;
Now rais'd on high, now low upon the ground.
We spurn the safe unchanging course they keep;
And while they calmly take their central sleep,
We rush like wind; we make the sparkles fly;
We raise the dust, and plunge through wet and dry;
We splash the folk, and make the world all know,
Our rattling shall be heard where'er we go.
"Enough of argument"; I hear you cry,
"Where pleasure calls we'll like the lightning fly.”
Come then, ye honour’d [1844: lofty] favourers of the dance
And splendid feast, whom fortune's gifts advance
To eminence in Fashion's wide domain;
Whose bright example leads a mimic train,
With eager steps, your flowery paths to tread;
Whose ire all deprecate with deeper dread
Than wrath of Heav'n (for how can Heav'n assist
The heart which mourns an invitation miss'd?)
Come forth with all your gay munificence,
And teach mankind that true pre-eminence
In dignity from outward grandeur springs;
That they rise highest in the scale of things
At whose command the guests most numerous throng;
Whose halls ring oftenest with the dance and song;
Who Nature's ill-fram'd laws most boldly slight;
Convert the night to day, and day to night;
Decrepitude in youthful sports engage;
And teach to youth the confidence of age.
To arms! ye ever-willing belles, to arms!
Sharpen each glance, and brighten all your charms.
Arouse! ye gallant beaux, at Fashion’s call:
She, to excuse you from the feast or ball,
Will heed no specious plea by sloth alledg'd,
And chiefly you, ye beaux with chins unfledg'd,
Who wisely quit your Algebra and Greek,
True honour in our well throng'd school to seek;
Now quickly muster all your hopeful band,
Train'd by our care, the glory of the land.
How bright ye shine beyond those awkward clowns
Who care for none but their preceptor's frowns;
Who heed their noisy sports and cross-grain'd books
More than the fairest fair-one's sweetest looks.
Men are too oft by this persuasion led;
Beneath the unpolish’d sage too oft they place
The beau who walks and dances with a grace.
But you, ne'er let your learned feet forget
Their chassez, pas battu and pirouette;
And let mankind by your example know,
The head's no worthier member than the toe.
Ye tawny minstrels; wake your viols sweet
Whose measures guide our lightly tripping feet;
Our life, depriv'd of you, were worse than death,
Your heav’nly notes are pleasure's vital breath.
How oft doth gloom the crowded hall pervade;
In vain the hostess smiles, the beaux upbraid;
Soon fly the whispers, and [1844: The whispering murmurs rise,] the gape goes round;
Decorum's self in weariness is drown'd.
But let your magic string's approaching twang
Be heard, and feast of Comus sure ne'er rang
With keener ecstacy, and mirth more loud
Than burst tumultuous from the wakening crowd.
Thus, when some bark's becalm'd upon the deep,
The listless passengers lie press'd with sleep
And lassitude; the moments scarce creep by;
And Sol seems weary as he climbs the sky.
But when some skilful mariner foresees,
By tokens sure, the fair approaching breeze,
Then instant life appears in every part;
All spring alert, for joy fills every heart;
With various notes the coming breeze they hail,
Strain every rope, and set each swelling sail.
Ye powers of sport! my soul’s to madness wrought
By forms which fly like meteors in my thought!
Cotillions, concerts, fiddlers, mirth's whole train
Of countless joys rush wildly through my brain.
Oh! may the phrenzy catch from soul to soul;
May all who now own sober law's controul
Acknowledge law mere breath, mere ink and paper,
And sacrifice salvation for a caper!

The previous spring, on May 24, 1804, the Evening Post had published Moore's "Lines to the Fashionable" over the pseudonym "Florio."

Found on Newspapers.com

In the transcription below, bracketed words indicate revisions to the text printed in the 1806 Juvenal translation under the title, "Lines Addressed to the Fashionable Part of My Young Countrywomen." Moore's heading in the 1844 Poems volume adds, "and happy am I to say, now no longer applicable to them." The 1804 preface to the newspaper version addresses William Coleman, the first editor of the New York Evening Post.

FOR THE EVENING POST.

MR. COLEMAN,

It is hoped that the cause which the following lines are intended to serve, will induce you to excuse the faults which they contain. And if the strife and tumult of politics have afforded you leisure, for a year past, to look into the fashionable world, you must acknowledge that they are not guilty of any misrepresentation.

Ye gentle Fair [blooming nymphs], our ornament [country's joy] and pride,
Who in the stream of Fashion thoughtless glide;
No modish lay, no melting strain of love
Is here pour'd forth, your tender hearts to move—
Yet, think not envious age inspires the song,
Rejecting all our earth-born joys as wrong:
Suspect [Think me] no matron stern, who would repress
Each modern grace, each harmless change of dress;
But one whose heart exults to join the band,
Where joy and innocence go hand in hand.
One who, while modesty maintains her place,
That sacred charm which heightens every grace,
Complacent views [sees] your robes excell the snow,
Or borrow colors from the painted [1844: aerial] bow;
But dreads the threaten'd hour of Virtue's flight,
More than the pestilence which walks by night.
Say, in those half rob'd bosoms are there hid,
No thoughts which shame and purity forbid?
Why do those fine-wrought veils around you play,
Like mists which scarce bedim the orb of day?
What mean those careless limbs, that conscious air,
At which the modest blush, the vulgar stare?
Can spotless minds endure the guilty leer,
The sober matron's frowns, the witling's sneer?
Are these the charms which, in this age refin'd,
Insure [Ensure] applause, and captivate the mind?
Are these your boasted powers? are these the arts
Which kindle love, and chain inconstant hearts?
Alas! some angry pow'r, some envious [envious] demon's skill
Has [1844: Hath] wrought this strange perversity of will:
For sure some foe to innocence beguiles,
When harmless doves attempt the serpent's wiles,
True, Fashion's laws her ready vot'ries screen,
And ogling beaux exclaim, Oh, goddess! queen!
But, low [vile] the praise and adoration sought
By arts degrading to each nobler thought.
A base-born love those notes of praise inspires--
That incense rises from unhallowed sires.
If deaf while shame and purity complain,
If reason's gentle voice be heard [rais'd] in vain;

Learn from the flowers which deck those bosoms white
What charms alone can give unmix'd delight—

[Those flowers you cull with such instinctive art,
Shall teach the charms that captivate the heart.
1844: Learn from the scented nosegay in your hand
The charms that can alone true love command.]

The flaunting tulip you reject with scorn,
Though ting'd with ev'ry hue which can adorn [Its hues tho' brilliant as the tints of morn:] And careful, search for humbler flowers which bloom [But search with care, for humbler flowers that bloom]
Beneath the grass, yet scatter sweet perfume,
The buds which only half their sweets disclose
You fondly seize; but leave the full blown rose.
Humble the praise, and trifling the regard,
Which ever wait upon the moral bard.
But, there remains a hateful truth unsung
Which burns the cheek, and faulters on the tongue;
And which, if modesty be more than sound [still hover round]
With shame each virgin bosom must confound. [Each virgin breast, with sorrow must confound.]
These modes becoming [graceful modes], say your flattering beaux,
From ancient times, and tastes refin'd arose.
Disgrace not thus the names of Greece and Rome,
Their birth-place must be sought for nearer home.
Shame! shame! heart-rending thought! Disgraceful [deep sinking] stain!
That Britain's and Columbia's Fair should deign,
Should ev'ry art employ, to dress, to dance [Nay, strive their native beauties to enhance,]
Though virtue blush, [By arts first taught by] like prostitutes of France!*
Oh! Modesty, and Innocence! sweet pair
Of dove-like sisters! still attend our Fair.
Teach them how vain, without your [heavn'ly] influence,
Are all [How vain] he charms of beauty, or of sense.
Invest them with your radiance mild, yet bright;
And give their sparkling eyes a softer light.
Enchanting [1844: Quick mantling] dimples on their cheeks bestow;
And teach [bid] them with a purer red to glow.
Let winning smiles, too from [round] those dimples gleam,
Like [sportive] moon-beams sporting on [o'er] the ruffled [curling] stream.
[1844: Like moon-beams on the ruffled stream.]
And if resentment should [on] the Muse attend,
Who thus presumes to shew herself your friend; [From those she loves, and truly would befriend:]
Tell them how cruel and unjust their ire;
How pure the feelings which this strain [these lays] inspire;
How pants her heart, those graces to secure [oft she sighs, those beauties to impart,]
Which constant love, and endless praise ensure [charm the soul, and meliorate the heart.]

[1844: Tell them, that cruel and unjust their ire;
That she would warm their hearts with holy fire;
And to the charms that soon must pass away
Would add those mental beauties which shall ne'er decay.]

FLORIO.

*Dr. Barrow, in his treatise on education, vol. 2, p 305, says, "Our young women are probably little aware that the fashionable nakedness of the present day was first adopted in this country in imitation of the revolutionary prostitutes of France."

Moore's poem "To the Fashionable" was reprinted at the end of A New Translation with Notes, of the Third Satire of Juvenal by Moore's friend John Duer. The 1806 Port-Folio review of  Duer's volume sharply criticized Moore's contributions. The reviewer made fun of Moore's immature, hyper-critical preface and derided the appended contributions as morally sound but aesthetically vapid.

We have made no secret of the disgust excited in our minds by the critical preface to this volume. But the author of the preface, too, appears before us as a poet. "This and the following pieces, subscribed L, was given me by the friend who furnished the introductory letter; most of them have been already published, either in the Port Folio, or in the New-York Evening Post." Really this gentleman gives and furnishes with profusion! he gives too, it appears, what he had given elsewhere before; and this second-hand sort of gift must be infinitely valuable: 

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes!

 The note, just transcribed, is appended to the lines from which we have already extracted the beautiful and delicate images, and which the author’s primary concern (and certainly a very allowable one) is, not to be thought an old woman. --The Port-Folio

In the last sentence the reviewer has humorously paraphrased Moore's plea, "Think me no Matron stern."

Among other lessons, the Port-Folio review shows why aspiring poets rarely signed their real names to fledgling verses. Over time Moore seems to have heard and heeded as best he could the just verdict of the Port-Folio reviewer:

"Sound sentiments are truisms; what we expect from the poet is, to deliver them in beautiful terms. He that does this, is a poet; he that does not, is none."  --The Port-Folio

Not surprisingly, neither one of these early ventures was selected for inclusion in The New-York Book of Poetry,  the 1837 anthology of well-regarded fugitive pieces by natives of New York State. Besides "A Visit from St. Nicholas," three additional poems there by "C. C. Moore" are

• To A Lady [dated 1804]; 

• From a Father to His Children; and 

• From a Husband to His Wife.

No doubt marriage tempered Clement C. Moore, and made him a better, wiser poet. He acknowledges as much in the poem From a Husband to His Wife:

You have awaken'd in my breast
   Some chords I ne'er before had known;
And you've imparted to the rest
   A stronger pulse, a deeper tone.

As shown in a previous post, Moore's Lines Written after a Snow-Storm originally appeared, like "A Visit from St. Nicholas," in the Troy Sentinel. "To the Sisters of Charity" (signed "SILVIO") appeared in the New York American on April 15, 1834. "Sisters of Charity" was reprinted in The Churchman, and later the Philadelphia Catholic Herald, August 28, 1834.

Related:

• Petrosa in the NY Evening Post

High praise for Clement C. Moore's Poems, by William Alfred Jones in the Literary World

Frank Luther Mott in A History of American Magazines rated "the literary criticism of Jones" as "one of the best features of Arcturus," the adventurous journal founded by Evert A. Duyckinck and Cornelius Mathews. After its early demise, William Alfred Jones wrote for numerous periodicals including both the Democratic Review, the American Whig Review, and the Church Record. Jones's long and highly favorable review of Clement C. Moore's Poems first appeared in the July 17, 1847 issue of the Literary World, then being edited by Charles Fenno Hoffman.

As Columbia College librarian and historian, Jones kept on saying nice things about "Dr. Clement C. Moore." Among retired authors associated with Columbia, Moore in Jones's estimation

"holds the first place, and is one of the few living graduates of the latter years (1798) of the past century; a refined and classic poetical writer of the school of Goldsmith and Cowper, with a mingled happy vein of delicate humor and pathetic sentiment." 
--The First Century of Columbia College - 1863

Jones's 1847 review of Poems by Clement C. Moore was reprinted (minus the excerpt of Moore's preface to his children) in the 1849 collection Essays Upon Authors and Books; and again in the 1857 Characters and Criticisms, Volume 2.

Poems by Clement C. Moore, L. L. D. New York: Bartlett & Welford

This is a pure volume of refined and classic poetry, in its genuine sense. Not to be sure in the highest sense, for these pages include none of the higher aspirations of the muse. There is nothing dramatic nor epical; no Pindaric strains, no Miltonic fervor and sublimity, nor the grand sweep of Dryden's glorious verse, but there is still a great deal that is truly excellent, nay admirable, both positively and negatively.

To begin with the latter cold praise, (which we do not mean to be so considered, in these days of extravagance and crudity, in poetical attempts), there is not a particle of affectation, cant, false pretence, or straining after effect, in the whole collection. Artistically and morally, it is one of the most honest books we ever read. The author does not once feign a sentiment or court popular prejudice; he is utterly without duplicity or ostentation.

It is true, circumstances may have had something to do with this. Dr. Moore, the son of the excellent Bishop Moore, of New York, himself not only a pure and refined character, but superadding to the accomplishments of the gentleman the nobler character of a benevolent Christian philanthropist, has been most fortunately placed as well for the culture of refined taste as for the development of individual character.

The author of this volume (we add this for the benefit of those who are ignorant of his name and position) is at present a professor* of the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church, giving his services for the benefit of the Institution (to which he presented the grounds on which the buildings stand, with the beautiful adjacent green) and the Church. The poems here collected, are the fruit of leisure hours, and form the expression of personal feelings. They are mostly occasional poems: a description of verse often styled fugitive, but not assuredly to be such in this instance, and we risk little in predicting a permanent reputation for them and their author. 

Refinement is their characteristic; not weakness nor sentimentality, but fine sense, elegance, graceful turns of pleasantry, natural and pleasing sentiment, genuine pathos. Gifford's highly praised verses to his Anna are weak and puerile compared with the verses to the Poet's Children, to his late wife, and on the death of a favorite daughter.

The purest moral feeling and polished versification are also to be remarked as prominent traits of Dr. Moore's poetry. Neither Bryant nor Dana is more careful in the musical structure of his verse; neither of these finished poets is more deserving of being read, for elevation and high aims. Yet there is no assumption on the part of the poet. From his natural elevation, and from a religious tone of character, surrounded by admiring friends and devoted children, our author writes naturally either as a moralist or as a companion, when he writes for others: it is different when he pours out the full tide of his own feelings, in the purest elegiac verse, far more touching than the verses of Hammond, whom it was once the fashion to call the English Tibullus. In humor, too, our author has been quite successful. His visit of St. Nicholas, we believe, has been regularly reprinted for some years past in certain of our city journals; and together with the two exquisite poems of "Lines to my Children, with their Father's Portrait," and " Lines from a Husband to his Wife," are to be found in most of the collections of American poetry.

Dr. Moore's poetical talents incline him to domestic themes and incidents and characters; he is a disciple of Cowper and Goldsmith; yet by no means an imitator of either. His vein is original: his manner is his own—still, his admiration for classic models may guide his taste and control his pen. Both of these fine poets might be proud of such a follower, each of them would have gloried in such a friend.

We can see nothing in this writer of the ordinary sins of American versifiers, no plagiarism, no imitation, no morbid feeling, no rhetorical flourishes, no transcendentalism.

The poems are occasional; and so far, instead of being worthy of rejection on that score, they are the natural effusions of the writer's heart and fancy. After the highest walks of song, the drama and the epic, (only worthy, when admirable), what forms of verse are so enduring and so popular, as the songs and ballads which make up the popular staple of every national poetic literature? These are truly occasional, spontaneous, individual. It is in such poems the poet writes his life, gives his experience: proclaims his joys and praises: embalms a friend or an enemy; deepens a sentiment or renders his description most vivid. The regular forms of poetry seem strained and elaborate compared with this. They want, apparently, the impulse which gives truth to these, and which infuses its life into them. Other verse is more reflective or philosophical: this gives the essence of the art; the true poetic afflatus.

Much of our American verse (the best portion) is lyrical Not always verses for music, nor drinking songs, nor effusions of gallantry, though we can point to a rich anthology of that class. But a lyrical spirit runs through much of the serious poetry of Bryant, all of Halleck's and Brainard's; and most of the productions of Dr. Moore's muse are essentially lyrical, although they often run into the more purely elegiac form— of this, the following poems are more especially to be remarked, in confirmation of our criticism.

The Organist, a spirited address in epistolary guise, the Wine Drinker and the Water Drinker, two capital poems, that would have delighted Green, (author of the Spleen,) and much after his manner; and that must gratify every rational man, as well as lover of fine verse; and the exquisite lines To my Daughter on her Marriage, the equally admirable address to Southey, which, with the fine poems to the Poet's Children and Wife, we have referred to before, emphatically stamp our Poet's mastery of the pathetic in domestic scenes. The parallel may seem strained, but we are apt to compare these rare gems with such a poem as Cowper's Address to his Mother's Picture; and we think our bard loses not a whit by the comparison. With Goldsmith, our poet is a model of simplicity and natural grace, which shine out in the lightest copy of verses. A few of the pieces in this volume of this kind and exactly suited to the occasion that produced them, may not be adequately appreciated by the common reader, but none can fail to be impressed (who have a heart to feel or a taste sufficiently cultivated to appreciate our author's delicacy) with the poems we have mentioned above. They are, truly, classical poems.

[Omitted in the later book versions:] The preface is a manly and judicious one, instinct with the uncommon union of wise prudence and natural feeling. It is the best criticism, and forms a most appropriate commentary on the volume; as modest and discriminating as the poems that succeed are truly excellent. And as such we transcribe it for the benefit of our readers.... --William Alfred Jones on Clement C. Moore

[1849/1857 footnote:] *Author of a Hebrew Dictionary, and the Life of Castriot

Here's another contemporary review of Moore's 1844 collection of poetry, brief but equally appreciative:

New York Evening Post -  July 10, 1844

C. C. MOORE'S POEMS.—The "Poems of Clement C. Moore, L. L. D.," have been published in a handsome printed duodecimo by Bartlett & Welford, of this city.

Professor Moore is the author of the popular little poem styled "A visit from St. Nicholas," which forms a part of this collection. The first and largest in the volume is entitled "A Trip to Saratoga," and is a domestic narrative, agreeably and unambitiously told, in, for the most part, very easy verse. The lines addressed "To my children after having my portrait taken for them," possess a certain quiet pathos and tenderness.

Related posts:

• W. A. Jones's Dedication to Clement C. Moore

• Computer error, please try again: MacDonald P. Jackson on the authorship of The Night Before Christmas

• I cannot pretend to judge of their piety - Moore's reply to inquisitors

• How we know Moore wrote The Night Before Christmas

Treasury Secretary compared to Melville's "confidence man" in 1905

L.M. Shaw. Secretary of the Treasury of the United States.

George Grantham Bain, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

One New York journalist in 1905 still remembered Melville's man in gray. From the New York Evening Post, May 27, 1905:

Secretary Shaw's alleged statement that the nation could build the Isthmian Canal every year without feeling the additional taxes, displays a characteristically jaunty conception of national finance. It reminds one, in fact, of a whimsical fancy of the late Hermann Melville who makes his "confidence man" undertake the evangelization of the world in a year or so by simply collecting a per capita subscription of a dollar from all Christendom. In this fashion the job was to be done quickly, and once for all. Through some such reasoning Secretary Shaw is able to convince himself that a matter of a hundred million more or less is only a dollar or so per citizen, and hence negligible. By the same process of ratiocination he is able to prove that it's all one whether the Government lays down rails at Panama at twenty dollars a ton or at twenty-eight. Between friends, such a difference is too small to mention....

As proposed in the seventh chapter of The Confidence-Man, the World's Charity scheme required only a dollar a head to implement. Worldwide evangelizing would be financed by the World's Charity and operated as another commercial market, by contract: "Missions I would quicken with the Wall street spirit."

"Secretary Shaw" is Leslie Mortier Shaw, United States Secretary of the Treasury under Theodore Roosevelt, 1902-1907.

"The creation of a water passage across Panama was one of the supreme human achievements of all time, the culmination of a heroic dream of four hundred years and of more than twenty years of phenomenal effort and sacrifice. The fifty miles between the oceans were among the hardest ever won by human effort and ingenuity, and no statistics on tonnage or tolls can begin to convey the grandeur of what was accomplished." --David McCullough on the Panama Canal in The Path Between the Seas (Simon & Schuster, 1978) pages 613-614.

• https://archive.org/details/ThePathBetweenTheSeas/page/n615/mode/2up

Melville's "Old Zack" Anecdotes, in Yankee Doodle and some newspapers

In the summer of 1847, Herman Melville wrote anonymously for Yankee Doodle, the New York humor magazine then edited by his friend Cornelius Mathews. Melville's best and best-known contribution to Yankee Doodle was the mock-journalistic series on Zachary Taylor at war called "Authentic Anecdotes of 'Old Zack.'" As documented in textual notes to "Authentic Anecdotes" in the Northwestern-Newberry edition of Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces, the New York Evening Post reprinted Anecdotes I and II on Friday, July 23, 1847; and part of Anecdote IV on Tuesday, August 17, 1847.

New York Evening Post - July 23, 1847
via genealogybank.com

Some of Melville's "Anecdotes" appeared also in other newspapers.

Melville's first "Old Zack" anecdote was reprinted from Yankee Doodle in the Lowell Daily Courier, Saturday, July 24, 1847.

Lowell Daily Courier  - July 24, 1847
Found at Fulton History

The Natchez Mississippi Free Trader, August 18, 1847 gave Anecdotes I and II from Yankee Doodle (via the New York Evening Post, as evidenced by the editorial preface copied verbatim from the New York paper).

Found on Newspapers.com

And on Wednesday, September 1, 1847 the Edgefield [South Carolina] Advertiser reprinted Anecdote II, crediting Yankee Doodle.

Found on Newspapers.com

Below, the first two of Melville's "Authentic Anecdotes," transcribed from the digitized volume of Yankee Doodle at Google Books.

ANECDOTE, NO. I

It is well known that upon the battle field the hero of Palo Alto is as cool as a Roman Punch. His surprising self-collectedness and imperturbability in times of the greatest peril, was never more forcibly shown than in a little circumstance at Buena Vista. A Mexican mortar being in full play upon the front of the American columns, a large shell with the burning fusee fizzing at the aperture weighing hard on 200 cwt., fell directly at the feet of old Zack, who, with his characteristic contempt of danger, was sitting on his horse upon a conspicuous knoll and was surrounded by several of his staff. Thinking it altogether fool-hardy and superogatory to stand still and be blown to pieces, the officers betrayed no delicacy in instantly galloping out of harm's way. But old ZACK moved not a peg. “ Don’t be alarmed, gentlemen," he observed quietly, shifting his attitude by throwing the other leg on the neck of his horse—“don’t be alarmed—them 'are chaps don‘t bust always. What will you wager now, Major BLISS, that the fusee doesn’t go out afore harm’s done?"* While the Major at a good distance leveled his long spy glass at the globular apparition, the old hero calmly took out his spectacles, polished their glasses by rubbing them gently against his thigh—clapped them on his nose—descended, and approaching the shell, bent over and closely scrutinized the fusee. It had just burnt to within a hair's breadth of the inflammable bowels of the shell—and old ZACK taking it between his fore finger and thumb, drew forth the fusee and waving it towards his aghast officers, quietly observed that if any of them had a cigar to smoke he could supply them with a light.

P. S. to Anecdote, No. I.—Mr. BARNUM happening to drop in when we opened our communications from our correspondent, we read him the above. He immediately seized pen and ink and wrote to a military acquaintance of his in the army, to institute a diligent search after the above mentioned shell—pack up carefully in cotton and send it on for his Museum with all possible despatch. Thinking, however, that the search might not prove effectual, Mr. BARNUM has given orders for a shell of the proper dimensions to be cast at one of the foundries up town. We feel confident, however, in stating that the latter will not be exhibited for the genuine article, unless the genuine article fails to come to hand.

* In all cases we give the old man‘s very words. If they show a want of early attendance at the Grammar School, it must be borne in mind that old ZACK never took a college diploma—was cradled in the backwood camp—and rather glories in the simplicity and unostentation of his speech. “Describe me. Sir," said he to our correspondent,—“describe me, Sir, as I am—no polsyllables—no stuff—it's time they should know me in my true light."

ANECDOTE, NO. II.

The Cincinnatus-like simplicity and unaffectedness of old ZACK's habits have frequently been celebrated. But it is not commonly known, perhaps, that he generally does his own washing. Of a pleasant evening, after the war-like toils of the day are closed, the old hero may be seen at the opening of his tent, sitting plump on the ground with a camp-kettle between his legs—and with shirt sleeves rolled up, creating a loud splashing of his garments in the suds. The old General by the way, wholly excludes hard soap as an unsoldier-like luxury, and uses nothing but the soft; a barrel of which furnishes part of his tent furniture.

The old hero, however, on account of his eye sight, is not very nimble with the needle. Nevertheless, he insists upon doing his own mending, and particularly prides himself upon the neatness and expedition with which he puts a new seat in his ample pants. These nether garments, of course, require frequent repairs, owing to the constant practice, and the habit the old hero has of violently slapping his person when
excited. At Buena Vista his being a long time in the saddle, united to the ire-provoking and dastardly conduct of the Illinois regiments, came near entirely rending them in pieces and it was late that night before the General retired, as he always makes it a principle not to permit his basket of new clothes to accumulate.

At Monterey, when the deputies from Gen. Ampudia first ushered the old hero at his quarters, they found him sitting cross-legged upon a gun carriage and earnestly engaged in letting out the seams of his coat—a proceeding necessitated by his increasing bulkiness.

--Yankee Doodle via Google Books - Authentic Anecdotes of "Old Zack"

This 1847 volume of Yankee Doodle with Melville's Authentic Anecdotes of Old Zack is also available courtesy of HathiTrust Digital Libary.

• https://hdl.handle.net/2027/chi.66322947

The great Walter Blair checked it out at the University of Chicago.

Dates for Melville's unsigned Yankee Doodle sketches in the "Old Zack" series are listed below, with links to digitized pages or online texts where I can find them:

"Authentic Anecdotes of 'Old Zack'" in Yankee Doodle vol. 2 (1847)

• Anecdotes I and II - July 24, 1847 
• Anecdote III - July 31,1847 
• General Taylor's Personal Appearance - August 7, 1847 
• Anecdote IV - August 14, 1847 
• Anecdotes V and VI - August 21, 1847 
• Anecdote VII and VIII - August 28, 1847 
• Anecdote IX - September 11, 1847

The pioneering study is by Luther Stearns Mansfield, Melville's Comic Articles on Zachary Taylor.

Related posts

• Personal appearance of Zachary Taylor, Melville's 1847 sketch and newspaper source
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2017/07/personal-appearance-of-zachary-taylor.html 

• Rewriting Old Zack
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2017/07/rewriting-old-zack.html

• Yankee Doodle, borrowed by Walter Blair
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2014/05/yankee-doodle-borrowed-by-walter-blair.html