The Irish standard., 1896-02-01

IrOmt the SlfDSLa1lCe.s his l6UteES WksIt u3
reactionary expressions, no doubt, sof his
utterly impractical life. Fifteen dellars
meaning nothing to him; and a date be-
ing as shadoWy as a date palm, he takes
a certain savage comfort in pretending,
on paper, that he devotes himself purely
to the contemplation of dollars, and dates.
There is hardly an alluston to his i'm
agination or his methods of writing in all
inous and exact Vet in an oceas. s.onal
burst Of morbid raving, when there is no
cause, he shows his .rue artist and poets
nature. At the time fortunes began to
favor him, be was most ,Wretched--he
knew not why But every artist and
every poet in the world now knows why !;
and Poe knew why too. Herwas a poet. 7
One tale, not added to the list before
ssThe Elk''--appears in the new edition.
Some corrections and some typogra phi
cal changes have been made, and Poe s
own marginal corrections In printed vol
umes Of DIR. GrisWold's editions, intended
for later interpretations have been used.
Otherwise the text has undergone few
changes. Divisions of subjects have
been made, and each general division has
new preface.
The same personal history of Mr.. Wood
berry, is OF course, or should be, a CRATE
full relief from M. Baudelaire's critic
eulogy, yet Baudelaire is classic III his
apt expression OF Foes morbid genius.
s'IIe loved to move his figures on a
ground of green or violet, where. the
phosphorescence OF putrefaction and the
odor of the hurricane reveal themselves !
Woodberry's plain statistics OF career
Of drunkenness are sOberer than baude-
laire's indignant reproof to those who
would censure his idol-"Of his drunk
enness, celebrated and cast up at him
with persistence which might make
one believe that al the authors OF the
United States, Poe alone excepted, are
angels of sohriety but, after all, one
has kind Of sympathy for the man
':whose melancholy beauty was almost a
virtue" Mr.. Woodberry, however, makes
little comment, beyond quietly mention
ing Poe's habit OF perpetually writing to
literary persons for help and criticism,
and such of his other habits as cannot be
disguised. He does give lovely picture
of the girl-wife, Virginia C.emm, and
chat wonderful mother-in-law, Mrs.
Clemm whose example should color the
whole traditional rancor against the
class. He quotes from Mr.. Harris rem
iniscences:
She (Virgina) hardly looked more than
14-fair, soft, graceful and girlish. Poe
was very proud and very fond OF her, and
she, in turn, idoliZed him. :.
She had voice of wonderful sweetness
and was an exquisite singer ~. She
could not bear the slightest exposure
and needed the utmost care: and al these
conveniences as to surroundings which
are so important in the case OF the in
vile, where she was born. She was
death to her Aud yet the room where
she lay for weeks, hardly able to breath,
except as she was tanned, Was little
place with the ceiling so low over the
narrow bed that her head almost touched
it, But no one dared to speak. Mr.. Poe
was so sensitive and irritable, ''quick as
steel and flint" T. And he would
not allows word about the danger of dy-
ing; the mention of it drove him wild.
This is a portrait et Edgar as well as
as one of Virginia Poe. After the death
Of this child, to whom Poe must have
been devoted throughout. since the most
records hint at nothing else. he probably
went mad; since nothing but insanity or
incessant intoxication would explain his
antics with three women; asking them
all to marry him at practically the same
utOilGILL, G1uC z,ulLS Du iol 1il iIS WV1 l0
like l1natic. You can read all about
it in Mr. Woodberry,s excellent story,
and make your own deductions
This set of books is second only to the
new Stevenson set by Scribuer's III i'm
portance, presenting, as it does, in a
handsome, yet not too costly form, the
works of an author of universal interest,
whose writings have never before been
collected