Henry James

by Henry James

  I might happily offer him the tribute of a gay cornucopia of sweets bought of no less a purveyor than Dean, the celebrated confectioner, then near at hand? I had sallied forth with timely art, leaving Johnny, more distressed than elate, I inferred, upon the scene, and I hovered, to waylay him, where I knew he must presently pass. I recognised in fact before long his approach, but perceived also, to my dismay, that, flushed and disordered, with his spectacles awry, he was bathed in angry tears and came along in a passion of grief or of resentment, talking to himself aloud and beating the air with the pair of books he carried. Painful the shock of the sight and dire for me, as I feel it again, the instant of indecision—during which I stood gaping with my packet of candies. The next moment I had chosen, or at least had acted—for choice was sharply impossible as to whether I should most aggravate his woe by interrupting or by ignoring it. Vivid to me even now is the whole opposition of aspects—that of the feared “false note” of my offering and that, which affected me as the uglier, of his seeing me, token in hand, let him unconsoledly pass. I had doubtless never yet had so many fine grains for the scales of analysis to weigh. But what I best recall is his momentary lapse, on my sudden thrust; his stare, through his tears or as from far off, not in the least at me, for whom he hadn’t a glance, but only at the object placed in his grasp—any word from my lips quite impossible with it; and the resumed anguish of his walk, in which he seems to have passed from me for ever, making his points now with both hands monologuing and asseverating in the saddest public manner and [amid?] the bland brightness of Broadway. That was the abiding image and the queer little tragedy, that even of such material in part, the overschooled, the spectacled, the sensitive, the already wounded, the already sacrificed, had the great grim hecatombs been composed.

  A child’s diary of mid-nineteenth-century New York states that “Down Broadway, below Eighth Street is Dean’s candy store, and they make molasses candy that is the best in the city” (Diary of a Little Girl in Old New York [1849–1850] by Catherine Elizabeth Havens, New York: Henry Collins Brown, 1920). Jenks’s school was at 689 Broadway, just below Fourth Street, and James emphasizes how much time the pupils spent on Broadway; so it seems a more likely location for this episode than James’s next school, that of “Messrs. Forest and Quackenboss, who carried on business at the northwest corner of Fourteenth Street and Sixth Avenue.”

  130.32 Doctor Anthon] American classical scholar and longtime Columbia College professor Charles Anthon (1797–1867).

  130.34–35 sterner discipline of Andrews and Stoddard] Latin textbook (A Grammar of the Latin Language, for Use of Schools and Colleges, 1836) by American educators Ethan Allen Andrews (1787–1858) and Solomon Stoddard (1800–1847).

  130.39 rival, the Columbia College school] The Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School, founded in 1764.

  131.28 trempe] French: stamp, character.

  137.10–11 Romulus . . . Remus] Romulus and Remus, the brothers who according to legend were the founders of Rome, were found and suckled by a she-wolf, after being abandoned to die as newborn infants.

  142.25–26 tutti quanti] Italian: all such, all of those.

  143.31 elder Jarves] Probably English-born American portrait painter John Wesley Jarvis (1780–1839).

  143.37 Mayor . . . I think Mr. Varick.] Richard Varick (1753–1831), mayor of New York City, 1789–1801. They were married on July 28, 1840, not by Varick but by Isaac Leggett Varian (1793–1864), the city’s mayor, 1835–42.

  144.26 en règle.] French: in proper form, by the book.

  145.20 through an injury received in youth)] One of Henry James Sr.’ s legs had been amputated above the knee after being burned in a fire when he was twelve or thirteen.

  145.32 Bloomingdale] Area in the western side of Upper Manhattan.

  146.19 jarret tendu] French: with leg extended.

  146.23 outbreak of the Civil War, as a General of volunteers] In 1861 the dancing instructor Edward Ferrero (1831–1899) raised the 51st New York Infantry Regiment (also known as the “Shepard Rifles”) and as its commander was given the rank of colonel.

  147.28 mousquetaire de Louis Quinze] Musketeer during the reign of French king Louis XV (1710–1774).

  148.5–6 the visit of the great Grisi and the great Mario] In 1854 the Italian opera singers Guilia Grisi (1811–1869), a soprano, and her longtime companion Giovanni Matteo de Candia (1810–1883), the tenor known as Mario, toured the United States.

  148.11–12 Norma and Lucrezia Borgia] Norma, see note 73.5; Lucrezia Borgia (1833), opera by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848).

  148.18 débardeur] French: stevedore; here a carnival costume based on the stevedore’s work-clothes made popular through the lithographs of Gavarni (see note 15.27).

  149.32–33 as unwittingly as M. Jourdain expressed himself in prose] In Molière’s comedy Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670; The Bourgeois gentleman), M. Jourdain is delighted to discover that he has been unwittingly speaking in prose his entire life.

  150.1–2 Franconia stories . . . Rollo series] American clergyman and educator Jacob Abbott (1803–1879) was a prolific writer of children’s books, including many novels about a young boy named Rollo and the ten-volume “Franconia” series. For some of his books he collaborated with his brother John (1805–1877).

  151.18 Mr. Channing] Unitarian theologian and social reformer William Ellery Channing (1780–1842).

  151.26–27 Ladies of the Sacred Heart . . . Bloomingdale, if they were not already in part established there] The Catholic Society of the Sacred Heart established their school and teachers’ convent on their Upper Manhattan campus (between West 130th and West 135th streets) in 1847.

  155.3 that heir of all the ages] From Tennyson’s 1842 poem “Locksley Hall.”

  156.5 pas seul] French: solo dance.

  156.5 garment of “Turkey red”] Cotton garment dyed bright red.

  156.7 dessous] French: underwear.

  157.30 Doctor Anthon’s?] The Columbia College Preparatory School, presided over by Charles Anthon (see notes 130.32, 130.39).

  161.27 Mr. Benjamin Haydon] English history painter and writer Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786–1846).

  161.30 Düsseldorf collection in Broadway;] The Düsseldorf Gallery, at 548 Broadway.

  161.31 canvas of the Martyrdom of John Huss] Hus vor dem Scheiterhaufen (1850; Hus at the Stake) by German artist Karl Friedrich Lessing (1808–1880), depicting the execution of Jan Hus (1369?–1415), Czech religious reformer condemned to death as a heretic.

  162.3 Düsseldorf school] School of Romantic painting focusing on landscape and genre scenes that emerged from the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf under the directorship of German painter Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow (1789–1862).

  162.19–20 masterpiece of Mr. Leutze . . . Washington crossing the Delaware] Painting (1851) by German-born American artist Emanuel Leutze (1816–1868).

  163.9–10 Bryan’s Gallery of Christian Art] The art collection of more than two hundred works acquired in Europe by American collector Thomas J. Bryan (1802–1870), exhibited at several locations before being given to the New-York Historical Society in 1867.

  163.16 grave suspicion] As to the provenance and authenticity of many of the works Bryan collected.

  163.33–34 the ample canvas of Mr. Cole] Thomas Cole’s View of Florence from San Miniato (1837), oil painting now in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

  164.34 French painter, M. Lefèvre] Robert-Jacques-François Lefèvre (1755–1830).

  166.31 agrément] French: pleasure, delight.

  167.14–16 Civil War . . . laid down before Petersburg a young life] Vernon King, an officer in Robert Gould Shaw’s black regiment the 54th Massachusetts Infantry (see note 402.14–16), was killed on June 15, 1864, during the Union assault on Petersburg, Virginia, June 15–18.

  167.26 dame de compagnie] French: a female paid companion.

  168.22
 flourishing farce of Betsy Baker] Betsy Baker; or, Too Attentive by Half (1849), farce by English playwright John Maddison Morton (1811–1891).

  170.16 modiste] French: milliner.

  171.20 vie de province] French: provincial life.

  171.33 “bonne Lorraine”] French: a good female servant from Lorraine.

  175.38 petits pays chauds] See note 124.13–19.

  175.40 à la portée] French: within reach.

  176.30–31 Rodolphe Toeppfer’s Voyages en Zigzag, the two goodly octavo volumes] Illustrated book (1844) and its sequel Nouveaux voyages en zigzag . . . (1854) by Swiss writer and cartoonist Rodolphe Töppfer (1799–1846).

  177.6–7 association makes that faded Swiss master of landscape Calame] Some of the engraved illustrations in Töppfer’s Voyages en zigzag are based on works by Swiss artist Alexandre Calame (1810–1864).

  177.8 Ruysdael] Dutch painter and etcher Jacob van Ruysdael (1628 or 1629–1682).

  178.3 malle-poste] French: mail coach.

  178.10 “rien que pour saluer ces dames,”] French: only to greet these ladies.

  179.8–9 The Order of Release of a young English painter, J. E. Millais] The Order of Release 1746 (1852–53) by the English Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais (1829–1896).

  181.14 Lambs’ Tales from Shakespeare] The children’s adaptation Tales from Shakespeare (1807) by English essayist and critic Charles Lamb (1775–1834) and his sister Mary Lamb (1764–1847).

  183.37–184.2 Madame Tussaud’s . . . Chamber of Horrors] The Baker Street Bazaar, where the collection of wax figures by Strasbourg-born artist Marie Tussaud (1761–1850), first displayed in London in 1802, were permanently exhibited starting in 1835. Its Chamber of Horrors contained figures as well as torture instruments and items relating to notorious crimes.

  184.1 Mrs. Manning] Marie Manning (1821–1849), a Swiss lady’s maid who with the help of her husband murdered her lover, Frederick O’Connor, in an attempt to take possession of his financial assets. Both Mannings were hanged for the crime, known as the “Bermondsey Horror,” on November 13, 1849.

  184.2 Burke and Hare] William Burke (1792–1829) and William Hare (c. 1792–1859?) robbed graves and committed murders to sell corpses to Edinburgh medical schools.

  185.2 night of the Deux-Décembre] December 2, 1851, date of the coup d’état in which French ruler Louis-Napoléon (1808–1873) seized power and dismissed the French National Assembly.

  185.2 micawberish] Baselessly optimistic; in Dickens’s David Copperfield, Micawber is a debtor who lives in cheerful optimism about his future prospects (see also note 72.1–2).

  185.28 ramage] French: warbling.

  185.29 wood-note wild] Cf. L’Allegro (1631), lines 133–34, where English poet John Milton imagines going to the theater to hear “sweetest Shakespear fancies childe, / Warble his native Wood-notes wilde.”

  186.15–16 George Cruikshank’s Artful Dodger and his Bill Sikes and his Nancy] Criminal characters in Dickens’s novel Oliver Twist (1838), as illustrated by George Cruikshank (see note 75.33).

  186.24 quite a Hogarth, side] William Hogarth (1697–1764), English painter and printmaker best known as a satirist, in works like Gin Lane (1751).

  186.28 per contra] Latin: on the other hand.

  189.3 B. R. Haydon] See note 161.27.

  189.7–8 Banishment of Aristides] Painting first exhibited in 1846.

  189.14 hapless artist’s Autobiography] Haydon committed suicide in 1846. Life of Benjamin Robert Haydon, Historical Painter, from his Autobiography and Journals, edited by English playwright Tom Taylor (1817–1880), was published posthumously in 1853.

  189.28 English collection, the Vernon bequest to the nation] English businessman and art collector Robert Vernon (1774–1849) gave his collection of British art to the nation in 1847.

  189.34–35 Maclise, Mulready and Landseer, to David Wilkie and Charles Leslie.] Irish painter and illustrator Daniel Maclise (1806–1870); Irish artist William Mulready (1786–1863); English painter Sir Edwin Landseer (1802–1873), whose specialty was paintings of animals; Scottish painter Sir David Wilkie (1785–1841); Charles Robert Leslie (1794–1859), English artist born to American parents.

  189.38 Maclise’s Play-scene in Hamlet] The Play Scene in “Hamlet” (1842), painting now in the collection of Tate Britain, depicting the performance of the play-within-the-play in Hamlet.

  190.1–2 Leslie’s Sancho Panza and his Duchess] The painting Sancho Panza in the Apartment of the Duchess (1843–44), now in the collection of Tate Britain, illustrating a scene in Cervantes’s Don Quixote (1605–15).

  190.8 the Pre-Raphaelite efflorescence] The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded in London in 1848 by the English artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882), William Holman Hunt (1827–1910), and John Everett Millais, and soon included other artists. Rejecting the dominant modes of contemporary painting as taught by England’s Royal Academy, they created highly realistic, meticulously detailed paintings of religious and literary, often medieval, subjects.

  190.17 Holman Hunt’s Scapegoat] Holman Hunt’s 1854 painting of the biblical animal from the book of Leviticus—also referred to in James’s 1904 novel The Golden Bowl (Ch. 36).

  190.24–26 M. Léon Coigniet . . . Ruins of Carthage] Marius Among the Ruins of Carthage (1824), painting by French artist Léon Cogniet (1794–1880).

  191.6–7 Mr. Albert Smith’s once-famous representation of the Tour of Mount Blanc.] Popular theatrical entertainment Mr. Albert Smith’s Ascent of Mont Blanc, first performed at the Egyptian Hall in London in 1852, by the English mountaineer and author Albert Smith (1816–1860), based on his experience climbing the mountain in 1851.

  191.23–25 Princess’s, then under the management of Charles Kean . . . Shakespearean revivalist] In 1850 English actor Charles Kean (1811–1868) leased the Princess’s Theatre in Oxford Street, London, and staged revivals of Shakespeare plays there through 1859.

  191.26–27 Alfred Wigan, the extraordinary and too short-lived Robson . . . Mrs. Stirling] English actors Alfred Wigan (1814–1878), Frederick Robson (1821–1864), and Fanny Stirling (1815–1895); “Mr. Ryder” (see page 191) is English actor John Ryder (1814–1885).

  191.31–32 Queen Katharine’s dream-vision . . . on the way to the scaffold.] References to the masque-like vision of “six personages, clad in white robes” (Henry VIII, IV.ii), Wolsey’s elegiac speech (III.ii.203–27), and Buckingham’s speech as he goes to face “the long divorce of steel” (II.i.56–136).

  192.22–24 Hogarth and Zoffany . . . the Mrs. Cibbers and the Mrs. Pritchards] English actors portrayed by German-born English artist Johann Zoffany (c. 1733–1810): Susannah Maria Cibber (1714–1766) in David Garrick as Jaffier and Susannah Cibber as Belvidera in Venice Preserv’d (1762–63), and Hannah Vaughan Pritchard (1711–1768) in David Garrick as Macbeth and Hannah Pritchard as Lady Macbeth (c. 1768). Another painting of Cibber on the stage, Susannah Cibber as Cordelia (1755), is not by Hogarth or Zoffany but by Pieter van Bleeck (fl. 1723–1764).

  192.27–31 Still Waters Run Deep . . . Charles de Bernard’s novel of Un Gendre] Still Waters Run Deep (1855) was a stage adaptation by Tom Taylor (see note 189.14) of Le Gendre (1841; The son-in-law), novella by Charles de Bernard, pseudonym of novelist and journalist Charles-Bernard du Grail de la Villette (1805–1850), discussed by James in “The Minor French Novelists” (1876).

  192.28–29 old friend Fanny Kemble’s] In 1893 James published an essay on “Frances Anne Kemble” (1809–1895), an English actor and writer he had first met in 1873.

  193.8 Planché’s extravaganza of The Discreet Princess] The Discreet Princess; or, The Three Glass Distaffs (1855), billed as a “fairy extravaganza,” by English playwright and actor James Robinson Planché (1796–1880).

  193.14 parody of Charles Kean in The Corsican Brothers;] Popular stage adaptation (1852) by Dion Boucicault (see note 69.24–25) of an 184
4 story by Alexandre Dumas père (1802–1870), in which Kean played both lead roles, those of the play’s titular brothers.

  193.15–17 his Daddy Hardacre . . . Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet.] Robson played the title role in Daddy Hardacre (1857), two-act play by English playwright John Palgrave Simpson (1807–1887) based on Eugénie Grandet (1833), novel by French novelist Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850).

  193.32–35 Charles Matthews in Sheridan’s Critic and in a comedy botched from the French . . . called Married for Money;] Mathews (see note 73.31–33) starred in a revival of The Critic (1779), play by Irishborn dramatist Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816), and in Married for Money (1855), based on Le jeune mari (1826; The young husband) by French playwright Édouard-Joseph-Ennemond Mazères (1796–1866).

  195.2 fin] French: clever, sharp, shrewd.

  196.23 communs] French: outbuildings.

  197.8 Victor Cherbuliez] Swiss-born French novelist (1829–1899), published in the Revue des Deux Mondes, whose Paule Méré (1865) is mentioned in James’s Daisy Miller (1878).

  197.11 Sainte-Beuve of the Causeries] Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve (1804–1869), French literary historian and critic whose weekly newspaper essays were known as “Causeries du lundi” (“Monday Chats”). On September 20, 1867, James wrote to his friend T. S. Perry that “deep in the timorous recesses of my being is a vague desire to do for our dear old English letters and writers something of what Ste. Beuve & the best French critics have done for theirs.”

  197.24 taille] French: waist.

  197.25 Miss Rebecca Sharp] Morally questionable heroine of Thackeray’s novel Vanity Fair (1847–48).

  197.28–29 l’ingénieux petit] French: the clever little.

  198.34–35 the great free hand soon to be allowed to Baron Haussmann] From 1853, French civil administrator Georges-Eugène Haussmann (1809–1891) directed the radical transformation of Paris under Louis-Napoléon (Napoléon III), which included the destruction of many of the city’s medieval streets and the creation of wide boulevards.