The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-09-19
.nARGINALtA

Saxon, but was used precisely as it is
known for forty years or SO, that it was
in Chaucer, the father of English
poetry" as he is called. who f1ourished
between A. D. 1340-14O0. But it was not
south in h sense of carry-as carry
d burden. In the "Plowman's Tale"
1st part, line 2O14, we find this:
Who rtoteth on hem thei ben untall.''
In 1st part, line 1883. we read:
'"Thei toteth ON ther summe totall."
The edition is London, Printed for
John Bell, British Library, February
18th, 1888. Bells Edition. The Poets of
Great Britain, Complete from Chaucer
says thai 1.-THE editor Islips 1902 book
says he has seen it in a hand of man to
Chaucer's time for antiquity"
Here is a line from ''The Miller's
Tale" 3,768 line:
Hath brought you thus upon the verl-
tote"
What that last word means is un-
known to us. An old scholarly friend
Of Granville, an educated farmer who
was a. close student of Chaucer, once
informed us that he thought Chaucer's
word was the same as 'firetote," as
the smithy was the place for fire before
matches.
In Prologue, 47Oth line we read:
Cat totheo was she, sothly for to say"
Turwhitt says he is unable to explain
this. Our old Granville scholarly friend
us this: "Cat toothed, etc." wo-
men have some such teeth.
One of the great English poems is
Fitzgerald's so-called translation of
Omar Khayyam's ."Rubaiyat." 1t is
regarded in England by the foremost
literary men as very much of an orig
poem and of exalted merit. Mr..
Stanhope Sans, a Persian scholar, says
in New York Saturday Review that
mastery work-a splendid
paraphrase is an immortal English
poem, as familiar to thousands as any
thing Of Tennyson or Wordsworth"
We refer to it to get his pronunciation
OF a masterpiece. The name of the
there is no I" in Persian. The name
'Khayyam'' is in English Kay-yatwm,
accent on yawm. The name of the
poem is in English form "Ruba-iyat"
pronounced Ru-baw-ee-yawt.
We lately mentioned as we had men
toned some years ago, that Edgar A.
England as an original poet with mar
vellous melody INC artistic form than
any other American. He really ranks
above any poet in New England. Late
~ we have seen incidental references to
him in books and reviews that show
that his is a growing, widening, deep
ening fame. Recently we were reading
a paper by Helen Church in that very
literary weekly, the New
York Saturday Review, in which she
asks:
Who does not admire Poe's wonder
power OF imagination and of literary
construction, notwithstanding our
knowledge of his vagabond life and
lack OF moral sense?"
sions OF the greatest southern poet. He
was unfortunate at times, but merits no
such stab as h tries to inflict. Those
Yankee writer's who had tried to cast
a great blur upon his memory are actu-
ated by a spirit Of spite, for Poe in his
criticisms vas something merciless
upon certain New England authors in
the past. They have bounded him to
his grave and are happy when they
think they can so disparage and de-
fame him as to heap obloquy upon his
memory. A great deal of first-rate ly-
ing has een lone as to Poe. A lie once
started seems immortal. Burns is great
and immortal in spite OF an unfortunate,
unhappy life. Poe vas far more moral
that h great Scotch iyrist and genius.
In q short time a handsome bust of Poe
is to be unveiled at The University OK
Virginia, where ne was educated. The
south appreciates Poe's superb genius.
Aside from his great gifts as poet, he
wrote admirable prose and to a great
extent invented the most striking and
popular Of all short stories. His criti-
cal papers also reveal high gifts. No
American has yet equalled his finest,
most perfect stories unless it be Ma
thdniel Hawthorne. There is abundant
Svidence to establish that Poe was not
m hAbftual tppler. and not remotely
the depraved, hopeless, abandoned
drunkard his enemies and slanderers in
the north are prone to represent him as