Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1862-05-02
A Chapter in Literary Biography.
Why Irving was Never Married.
New York. April /. 1862.

Dacy oil ashington Irving. While upon
the other point or peculiarity of. the great
writer's character and career, his familiar
friends have taken pains to inform the wide
circle of his admirers, an aggravating re-
ticence has always met the questiouings Of
those who were curious as to why matri-
mony made no part of his experience
There were occasional and very vague re-
ferences made to lang syne" love-so
dimiy distant in the past as to have the air
of tradition-and the manner of mention
ing which made Irving appear the model Of
constancy, if not the hero Of romance
But the circumstances of his bachelor-hood
remained a simple, patent, unexplained fact
the theme of many wanderings, the warp
and woof of much iniagning-=nay more,
the substructure of a thousand sweet SYM
pathies out-gushins from other hearts whose
loves had not been lost, but gone before.
IL is doubtful if secret of the sort all
things considered--was ever before SO care-
fully and completely kept. For once-the
impertinent were held at bay, the prying
were banked, and the sympathetic even,
discouraged. The set time for its dsclos.
ure had not come, and surely, when It's in-
Inmates and relatives were debarred from
the remotest reference to the subject in the
hallowed home circle of the literary bache-
lor, it was but proper that the truth should
burst upon the world, if at all, in Irving's
own select ed time and in his own pathetic
language.
1t was while engaged in writing his ellis
tory of New York." that Irving, then a
young man of twenty-six, was called to
mourn the somewhat sudden death of
Matilda Hoffman, whom he had hoped TO
call his wife. This young lady was the
second daughter Of Josiah Ogden Hoffman,
and the sister of those two talented men,
Charles Fenno Hoffman, the poet, and Osl
den Hoffman, the eloquent jurist. In her
fathers office Washington Irving had essay
ed to study law, and with every prospect if
industrious and studicus, of partnership
with Mr.. Hoffman as well as a matrimonial
alliance with Matil a. These high hopes
were disappointed by the decease of the
young lady on the 2eth of April, 1909, in
the eighteenth year of her age.
| There is pathos about Irving's recital
of the circumstances of her death. and of
his own feelings, that is truly painful and
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. cannot tell you what
/ suffered. : / saw her fade rapid
ly away; beautiful and more beautiful and
more angelic to the very last / was Of
ten by her bedside, and In her wander
ing state of mind she would talk to me with
a sweet, natural and affecting eloquence
that was overwhelming. ] saw more of the
beauty of her mind in that deirious state
than had ever known before. Her mala-
dy was rapid in Its career, and hurried her
off in two months. Her dying struggles
were painful and protracted. For three
days and nights did not leave the house,
and scarcely slept. / was by her when
she died all the family were assembled
round her, some praying, others weeping,
for she was adored by them all. / was the
last one she looked upon. . cam
not tell you what a horrid state Of mind I
was in for long time. ! seemed to care
for nothing the world was blank to me,
l abandoned all thoughts of the law. /
went into the country, but could not bear
solitude, yet could not bear society. There
was a dismal horror continually in my mind,
that made Iie fear TO be alone. Thad often
TO get up in the night and seek the bedroom
of my brother, as ie the having human be-
ing by me would relieve me from the fright
ful gloom Of my own thoughts. Months
elapsed before my mind would restime any
tone; but the dependency had suffered
for long time in the course of this attach
ment and the anguish that attended its
catastrophe, and throw some clouds into my
disposition, which have ever since hung alb
out it. s* l seemed to drift about
without aim or object, at the mercy ofevery
breeze my heart wanted anchorage.
was naturally susceptible, and tried to form
other attachments, 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 excite
meni. could not talh on the subject Of this
hopeless regret; could not even mention
her name but her image was continually
before me; and dreamt of her incessantlv.'
Such was the language in which Irving
poured forth his sorrows and sad memories
in letter written many years ago to a Ia
dy who wondered at his ceIibacy and ex-
pressed the wish to know why he had never
married. Can words more graphically de-
scribe the shipwreck of hope, or more ten
derly depict the chivalric devotion of low
er? How sweetly, too, does Irving portray
with his arts, pen the lineamenis Of bis