Alonzo and Melissa; Or, The Unfeeling Father: An American Tale
Page 33
Melissa removed the ensuing summer.
The clergyman of the village having recently died in a _good old age_,Edgar was called to the pastoral charge of this unsophisticated people.Here did Melissa and Alonzo repose after the storms of adversity werepast. Here did they realize all the happiness which the sublunary handof time apportions to mortals. The varying seasons diversified theirjoys, except when Alonzo was called with the militia of his country,wherein he bore an eminent commission, to oppose the enemy; and this wasnot unfrequent, as in his country's defence he took a very conspicuouspart. Then would anxiety, incertitude, and disconsolation possess thebosom of Melissa, until dissipated by his safe return. But the happytermination of the war soon removed all cause of these disquietudes.
Soon after the close of the war, Alonzo received a letter from hisfriend, Jack Brown, dated at an interior parish in England,--in which,after pouring forth abundance of gratitude, he informed, that onreturning to England he procured his discharge from the navy, sold hishouse, and removed into the country, where he had set up an inn with thesign of _The Grateful American_. "You have made us all happy, said he;my dear Poll blubbered like a fresh water sailor in a hurricane, when Itold her of your goodness. My wife, my children, all hands upon deck areyours. We have a good run of business, and are now under full sail, forthe land of prosperity."
Edgar married to one of the Miss Simpsons, whose father's seat was inthe vicinity of the village. The parents of Alonzo and Melissa weretheir frequent visitors, as were also Vincent and his lady, with manyothers of their acquaintance, who all rejoiced in their happy situation,after such a diversity of troubles. Alfred was generally once a yeartheir guest, until at length he married and settled in the mercantilebusiness in Charleston, South Carolina.
To our hero and heroine, the rural charms of their secluded village werea source of ever pleasing variety. Spring, with its verdured fields,flowery meads, and vocal groves: its vernal gales, purling rills, andits evening whippoorwill: summer, with its embowering shades, reflectedin the glassy lake, and the long, pensive, yet sprightly notes of thesolitary strawberry-bird;[A] its lightning and its thunder; autumn withits mellow fruit, its yellow foliage and decaying verdure; winter, withits hoarse, rough blasts, its icy beard and snowy mantle, all tended tothrill with sensations of pleasing transition, the feeling bosoms of_Alonzo and Melissa_.
[Footnote A: A bird which, in the New England states, makes its first appearance about the time strawberries begin to ripen. Its song is lengthy, and consists of a variety of notes, commencing sprightly, but ending plaintive and melancholy.]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Chronology
Based on references to datable external events, the story covers atleast ten years. The parts of the book that take place in Connecticutare filled with descriptions of changing seasons. Europe and thesouthern states have no climate.
"two young gentlemen of Connecticut ... graduated at Yale College""Beauman ... came regularly once in two or three months""Beauman's visits to Melissa became more frequent""[Beauman's] visits became more and more frequent.""It was summer, and towards evening when [Alonzo] arrived."
To accommodate Beauman's repeated visits, a full year would have to pass.
"The troubles which gave rise to the disseveration of England fromAmerica had already commenced, which broke out the ensuing spring intoactual hostilities, by the battle of Lexington, followed soon after bythe battle of Bunker Hill."
The battles took place in April and June of 1775; "the ensuing spring" would mean that the year is 1774.
"Winter came on; it rapidly passed away. Spring advanced..."
1774 changes to 1775
"The spring opened ... the colonies, which had now been dissevered fromthe British empire, by the declaration of independence"
This is the same spring as in the previous quotation, but if the Declaration of Independence (July 1776) is in the past, it would have to be the spring of 1777.
"It was at the latter end of the month of May"
May 1775 or 1777, depending on one's chosen chronology.
"The particulars of this action, in the early stage of the American war,are yet remembered by many."
The "action" may be a conflation of two different episodes involving the _Trumbull_, neither of them early in the war: the first was in June 1780, the second in late August 1781. The _Trumbull_ was towed to New York, not to London.
"who died there about eighteen months ago"
Alonzo took sail shortly after learning of Melissa's death, so we are now in early 1783.
[Melissa's gravestone] "October 26, 1776 / In the 18th year of her age."
Depending on the chronology chosen, Melissa's reported death could have been in 1775, 1777 or 1781. Her 18th year is properly the year _leading up to_ her 18th birthday, but may mean that she was 18 years old.
"to be opened that night only, with the tragedy of _Gustavus_"
_Gustavus_ was written by Henry Brooke in 1739 and immediately banned. Its American premiere was in Baltimore on 14 June 1782.
* * * * * * * * *
Quotations
Only a few quotations have been identified. Some of the others may beparaphrases.
"Call round her laughing eyes, in playful turns, The glance that lightens, and the smile that burns." Erasmus Darwin, 1731-1802, "The Temple of Nature, or, The Origin of Society"
But far beyond the pride of pomp, and power, He lov'd the realms of nature to explore; . . . Timothy Dwight (president of Yale), 1752-1817, _The Conquest of Canaan_. The _Cambridge History of English and American Literature_ says that the poem was "written by the time he was twenty-two, but published when he was thirty-three and should have known better."
"musing, moping melancholy." Arthur Murphy, _The Upholsterer or What News_ (1758), I:i: "musing, moping, melancholy lover".
"The breeze's rustling wing was in the tree" This unidentified line is also quoted in Mitchell's _Albert and Eliza_.
the "stilly sound" of the low murmuring brook Misprinted in 1851 as "slitty sound". Probably John Home, _Douglas_ (1756) IV:i.
"the confused noise of the warriors, and garments rolled in blood," 1804 text has "warrior". Isaiah 9:5 (King James): For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood.
until "the heavens were arrayed in blackness." Isaiah 50:3: "I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering."
he cast a "longing, lingering look" Thomas Gray (1716-71) _Elegy_.
"Blue trembling billows, topp'd with foam," The 1804 and 1811 texts have the correct form "tumbling billows". _Anarchiad, a New England Poem_ (1786-87) with joint authors Joel Barlow (1754-1812), David Humphreys (1752-1818), John Trumbull (1750-1831) and Lemuel Hopkins (1750-1801).
"dingy scud" Printed "dirgy scud" in all but the 1804 original. Possibly from Charles Dibdin (b. 1745), "Ev'ry Inch a Sailor": The wind blew hard, the sea ran high, The dingy scud drove 'cross the sky ...
"... like Patience on a monument ..." _Twelfth Night_ II:iv.
The "days of other years" Possibly from "Ossian" (James MacPherson); the phrase is used often.
Here may the "widowed wild rose love to bloom!" May be a paraphrase of another line in _The Conquest of Canaan_.
"Song, beauty, youth, love, virtue, joy ...." Identified in the text as Edward Young, _Night Thoughts_, 1745. The couplet on the title page is from the same source.
"To tie those bands which nought but death can sever." May be "bonds" as in 1804 text. The phrase "that naught but death can sever" occurs in Spenser, _Amoretti_ VI (1595).
"white as the southern clouds" The phrase occurs in a translation of Salomon Gessner, as well as in an 1817 text (Pen
nie, "The Royal Minstrel"). Both passages are descriptions of sheep.
"a good old age" The phrase occurs at least four times in the King James Bible.
* * * * * * * * *
Other Editions
The editions available for comparison were:
1804 Weekly installments in _The Political Barometer_, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. This version was only available in an online transcription. A number of questioned words were checked with the transcriber, Hugh MacDougall of the Cooper Society. 1811 Plattsburgh, N.Y. "Printed For The Proprietor." The first of the pirated editions. Some copies have no author