Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1862-04-17
4 NEW CHAPTER IN LITERARY BOG
RAPHY.
WHY IRVING WAS NEVER MARRIED.

WHY IRVING WAS NEVER MARRIED..
The New York correspondent Of the Boston
Post writes the following:
"NIuch mystery has attached to the celibacy
of Washington Irving. While upon every
other point Of popularity of the great writer's
character and career his familiar friends have
taken pains to inform the wide circle of his
admirers, an aggravative reiicence has always
met the questionings of those who were
curious as TO why matrimony made no part of
his experience. There were occasional and
very vagu4 references made to a lang syne' love
so dimly distant in the past as to have the
air of tradion-and the manner of mention
ing which made Irving appear the model of
constancy, If not the hero of a romance. But
the circumstances of his bachelorhood remained
q simple, unexplained fact the theme OF many
wondelings, the warp and wool of much i'm
agining-nay more, the substructure of thou
sand sweet sympathes outgushing from other
hearts whose loves had not been lost but gone
before. 1t is doubtful if secret of the sort
all things considered-was ever before so care.
fully and c, implicitly kept For once the i'm
pertinent were held at bay, the plying were
banked, and the sympathetic, even, discourage
ed. The set time for its disclosure has not
come and, surely, when his intimates and re-
latves were debarred from the remotest refer
ence to the subject in the hallowed home circle |
of the literary bachelor it was but proper that |
the truth should burst forth upon the world, it
at all. in Irving's own selected time and in his
own pathetic language.
at was while engaged in writing his History
of New York. that Irving. then young man
of twenty. six, was called to mourn the some
what sudden death of Matilda Hoffman, whom
he had hoped to call his wife. This young lady
was the second daughter of Josiah Ogden Hoff-
man. and the sister of those two talented men,
Charles Fenno Hoffman, the poet, and Ogden
Hoffman, the eloquent jurist In her fathers
Office Washington Irving had essayed to study
law, and with every prospect, if INDUSTRIOUS OF
partnership with Mr. Hoffman as well as
matrimonial alliance with Matilda. These high
hopes were disappointed b, the decease of the
young lady on the Goth of April, 1903, in the
eighteenth year Of her age.
"There is pathos about 1rvin9's recital of
the circumstances of her death, and of his own
feelings, that is truly painful and tear-mpelling.
He says She was taken i'll with cold. Moth
ing was thought of it at first but she grew
rapidly worse and fell into a consumption.
cannot tell YOU what suffered.
saw her fade rapidly avay-beap,iful, and more
beautiful and more angecal TO the very last
was often by her bedside, and in her wander
ing state Of mind she would talk to me with
sweet, natural and affecting eloquence that was
overpowering. | saw more of the beauty of
her mind in that delirious state than had ever
known before. Her malady was rapid in its
career, and hurried her off in two months.
Het dying struggles were painful and protrac-
ted. For three days and nights did not leave
the house, and scarcely slept. l 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 | cannot tell
you what a horrid state of mind was in for
!oDg time. l seemed to care Tor nothing; tn.
world was blank to me. | abandoned all
thoughts of tie law. | went into the country,
but could not bear solitude, yet could not enjoy
society. There was a dismal horror continual
ly in my mind, that made me fear to be alone
/ had often to get up in the night and seek the
bedroom of my brother, as if the having a hu-
man being by me would relieve me from the
frightful gloom OF my own thoughts. Months
elapsed before my mind would resume any
tone hut the despondency had suffered for a
long time in the course of this attachment and
the anguish that attended its catastrophe, seem
cd to give turn to my whole character, anG
throw some clouds into my disposition, which
have si,ce hung about it.
seemed TO drift about without aim or object, at
the mercy of every breeze; my heart wanted
anchorage | was naturally susceptible, and
tried TO form other attachments, but my heart
would MOI 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 the subject of this hopeless
regret / could not even mention her name
but her image was continually before me, and
dreamt OF her necessarily
"Such was the language in which Irving
poured forth his sorrows and sad memories in
letter VIZ tten many years ago to lady whu
wondered at his celibacy and expressed the wish
to know why he had never married Can words
more graphically describe the shipwreck oil
hope, or more tenderly depict the chiyalric de.
yotion of a faithful loverP How ,weetly. too
does Irving portray with his ar,ist-pen the
lineaments OF his loved one. He saws, in the
same letter; The more saw Of her the more
had reason to admire her. Her mind seemed
to unfold itself leaf by leaf, and every tine n
discover new sweetness. Nobody knew her Sc
we'll as l. for she was generally timid and silen,
but | in a manner studied her excellence
Never did | meet with more intuitve rec,itud,
of mind, more native delicacy more exquisite
in word, thought and action, than this youn.
creature. ! am not exaggerating; what | sa
was acknowledged by all that knew her. He
brilliant little sister used to say that people he
gan by admiring her, but ended by loving Ma
tda. For my par | idolized her. felt a
times rebuked by her superior delicacy an
purity, and as il was a coarse, unworthy beinj
in comparison
Striving seldom or never alluded 10 this sa
event nor was the name OF Matilda ever spoke
in his presence Thirty years after her deaf
Irving was visiting Mr.. Hoffman, and grand
daughter in drawing out some sheets of must
to be performed upon the piano, accidental
brought with them piece of embroidery whic
dropped npon the floor Washington, sal
Mr.. Hoffman. this is piece of poor Matilda
Worship. His biographer describes the efieC
as electric. lie had been conversing in III
sprighlliest mood before, says Pierre NJ. Ii
wing, 'and he sunk at once into utter silenc,
and in few minutes got up and left the house