Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1862-04-10
A New Chapter in Literary
Biography.

why irving was Never Married.
The New York correspondent of the
Boston Post writes as follows:
"Much mystery has attached to the cell
bacy Of Washington Irving. While upon
every other point of peculiarity Of the
great writer's character and career his fa-
miliar friends have taken kains to inform
the wide circle of his admirers, an aggra-
vating reticence has always met the ques.
tionings>Of those who were curious as to
why matrimony made no part of his e1pe-
Tience. There were occasional aud very
vague references made to lang syne'
love-so dtmly distant in the past as to
have the air of tradition-and the manner
of mentioning which made Irving appear
the model of cOnstancy, if not the hero of
u romance. But the circumstance of his
bachelorhood remained q simple, unex-
planned fact; the theme of many wonder
lngs, the warp and wOof of much imagin-
| ing-nay more, the substructure of a
thousand sweet symPathies outgushing
from other hearts whose loves had not been
lost but gone before. 1t is doubtful if a
secret of the sOrt-all things considered
! was ever before so carefully and complete
/ ~ kept, For once the impertinent were
held at bay, the Prying were banked, and
the sympathetic. even, discouraged. The
set time for its disclosure has not come,
aud surely, when his iutimates and rela-
| tives were debarred from the remotest ref
erence to the subject iu the hallowed home
circle of the literary bachelor, it was but
proper that the truth should burst forth
upon the world, if at all, in Irving's own
selected time and in his own pathetic Lam
guage.
s'lt was while engaged in writing his
history of New York. that Irving, then a
young man of twenty-six, was called to
mourn the somewhat sudden death of Ma
tilda Hoffman, whom he had hoped to call
his wife. This young lady was the second
daughter of Josiah Ogden Hoffman, aud
the sister of those two talented men,
Charles Fenuo Hoffman, the poet, and Og-
den Hoffman, the eloquent jurist. In her
tathers office Washington Irving had es-
| saycd to study law, and with every pros
pect, If industrious and studious, of a part
nership with Mr.. Hoffman as well as
matrimonial alliance with Matilda. These
high hopes were disappointed by the de-
cease of the young lady on the 26th of
April, 1909, in the eighteenth year of her
age.
There is n pathos about Irving's recital
of the circumstances of her death, and of
his own feelings, that is truely painful aud
tear impelling. He says: She was taken
i'll with cold. Nothing was thought of
it at FIRST; but she grew rapidly worse and
fell into consumption. IcannoL tell YOU
what suffered. = 1 saw her
fade rapidly away-beautitul, and more
beautiful and more angelicaI to the very
last. was often by her bedside, and in
her wandering state of mind she would
talk to me with n sweet, natural and af-
tecting elOquence that was OYerpoweriug.
saw more of the beauty of her mind in
that delirious state than l had ever known
before. Her malady was rapid in its ca
reer, and hurried her off in two months.
Her dying struggles were painful and pro.
tracted. For three days and nights did
not leave the house, and scarcely slept
| was by her when she died; all tie family
were assembled round her, some praying,
others weeping, for she was adored by
them all. l cannot tell yon
what horrid state of miudI was in for
long time. l seemed to care for nothing;
the world was a blank to me. abaudon-
ed all thoughts of the law, / went into
the country, but could not bear solitude.
yet could not enjoy society. There was a
dismal horror continually in my mind.
that made me fear to be alone had off
en- to get up in the night aud seek the bed
room of my brother, as if the having
human being by me would relieve me of
the frightfnl gloom of my own thoughts
Months elapsed before my mind would re-
sumo any tone; but the despondency ] had
suffered for a long time in the course of
this attachment, and the anguish that at
tended its catastrophe, seemed to give a
turn to my whole character, and throw
some clouds into my disposition, which
have ever since hung about it.
| seemed to drift about without aim or OBJ
ject, at the mercey of every breeze; nv
heart wanted anchorage. was naturally
susceptible, aud tried to form other attach
ments, but my heart would not hold on it
! would continually recur to what it had
lost; and whenever there was a pause in
the hurry of novelty and excitement, /
would sink into dismal detection. For
! years could not talk on this. hopeful re-
/ greet could not even mention her name /;
but her image was continually before me,
and dreamt of her incessantIy.' -
"Such was the language in which Irving
poured forth his sorrows and sad memo-
ries, in a letter written many years ago to
a lady who wondered at his celibacy and
expressed the wish to know why he had
never got married. Can words more
graphically describe the shipwreck of
hope. or more tenderly depict the chival-
ric devotion of a faithful lover2 How
sWeetly, too, does Irving portray with his
n artist-pen the lineaments of his loved one.
He says in his letter: the more l saw Of
her the more i had reason TO admire her
Her mind seemud to unfold itself leaf by
leaf, and every time to discover new sweet
ness. Nobody knew her so we'll as /, for
Z she was generally timid and silent; but
in manner studied her excellence New
er did meet with more intuitive rectitude
of mind, more native delicacy. moro ex.
quisite Proprtety in word, thought and 40.
ton, than this young creature. am moi
exaggeradngi what say was aeknoWl.
edged by all that knew ber. Her brilliant
al by adnir;nu her hut Sy5a5 ~, II: 81 :.