Fitz-Greene Halleck

“ For all three in my dreams since rose the sun,
Have sought to make me their adopted one,
Destined to run the race that each has run;
But my Ambition’s leaves no more are green,
In one brief month my age will be Fifteen.
I’ve seen the world, and by the world been seen,
And now am speeding fast upon the way
To the calm, quiet evening of my day ”

“ Page 314.—The Baron Von Hoffman.—An adventurer styling himself a Dutch nobleman of high distinction, and by the fashionable circles courted and caressed accordingly, until detected as an impostor. “A fish can as veil live out of water as I can live out of de ladies,” was a favorite remark of the bogus baron, who came very near winning the hand of a noted New-York belle and heiress. ”

“ Most of the portraits of our officers, civil and military, then winning honorable distinction, and now gracing our public halls and chambers, we owe to his admired and admirable pencil. Halleck’s portrait, painted by Jarvis for Dr. DeKay (now in the possession of Drake’s daughter, Mrs. Commodore DeKay) , is by many esteemed the best likeness we have of the poet.
(10) Page 257.—Bartholomew Skaats, or “Barty Skaats,” as he was familiarly known—superintendent and curator of the City Hall, and for many years crier of the courts which were held in the old City Hall in Wall Street. ”

“ His steps beside the cradle-bower of vines
Where sleeps the boy. A moment’s mute surprise,
And the mazed mourner greets, with grateful eyes,
The enlivening presence of that cherub face,
Delighted in its loveliness to trace
The memorial beauty of his own lost boy,
A blossomed bud, death-doomed, in its spring-time of joy ”

“ And sword, and lance, and banner, bowing down
In tributary grace, before his bright renown.
And on, and on, as rank on rank appears,
Come, fast and loud, the thrice-repeated cheers
From voices of brave men whose life-long cry
Has been with him to live, for him to die. ”

“ The bust and statue therein named as specimens of the fine arts in America at the period were to be seen, the one in plaster at the Academy of Arts (stanza 51) , the one in wax at Scudder’s Museum (stanza 68) . Poor McDonald Clarke, the mad poet of New York, having been called in Lang’s paper a person with “zig-zag brains,” immediately responded in the following neat epigram:
“I can tell Johnny Lang, in the way of a laugh,
In reply to his rude and unmannerly scrawl,
That in my humble sense it is better by half
To have brains that are zig-zag than to have none at all.” ”

“ Stanza 140.—De Witt Clinton.—Governor of the State of New York.
Stanza 141.—“Eastburn’s Rooms,” in the building occupied by James Eastburn & Co., booksellers and publishers, on the corner of Broadway and Pine Street—a favorite resort of men of letters and leisure. Bishop Eastburn, of the Episcopal Church, and James W. Eastburn, the young poet, who died at twenty-two, are sons of the worthy bookseller, for whom Mr. Halleck entertained a great friendship, and to whose reading-room he was a constant visitor. ”

“ Page 349.—Mrs. Joseph Rodman Drake, wife of the poet, and daughter of Henry Eckford, the celebrated ship-builder, of New York.
(84) Page 349.—Miss Eliza McCall, a young lady of many accomplishments, and a charming singer, who was much admired by Halleck and Drake. Both the poets wrote songs for her. The beautiful lines by the former, “The world is bright before thee,” were written for Miss McCall, and Drake’s “Yes, Heaven protect thee,” and “Though fate upon this faded flower,” were also inscribed to the same young lady. ”

“ There are laurels our temples throb warmly to claim 213
There is a beast sublime and savage 347
There is a gloom on every brow 356
There is an evening twilight of the heart 36
There’s one who long will think of thee 242
There’s magic in the robe of power 323
The world is not a perfect one 340 ”

“ In the poem he is sportively made to appear, not in his excellent and estimable personal character, but as the “burden of a merry song”—the embodied representative of a party leader, and of party men in general, in their proverbial obnoxiousness. ”

“ Page 343.—Captain J. R. Nicholson, a gallant officer, who served under Decatur; like Halleck, a bachelor, and, like his poet-friend, always an admirer of, and admired by, the ladies.
(82) Page 349.—James E. DeKay was educated a physician, but devoted himself from his early years to natural history, and, in the State Survey of New York, the Department of Zoology was assigned to him. It was through Dr. DeKay that Halleck and Drake became acquainted in the summer of 1815. He died August 8th, 1851, at his residence, Oyster Bay, Long Island. ”

“ Page 304.—Nathaniel Leavenworth.—A young gentleman of fortune and fashion, recently returned from his travels abroad, then residing at 30 Greenwich Street, which, strange as it may now appear, was fifty years ago a fashionable place of residence.
(45) Page 306.—William Cobbett.—The career of this very powerful writer and political agitator, here and in England, is too prominent in the records of both countries to be other than slightly mentioned. At the time of the appearance of the verses, he was a resident of Hempstead, Long Island. ”

“ Page 262.—Charles King.—The lately lost and lamented president of Columbia College; her model of an accomplished scholar and gentleman. In early life an aide to a military commander.
Robert Bayard.—A young officer in a similar military position. He was one of the firm of Le Roy, Bayard, and McEvers, prominent merchants of New York, and a brother-in-law of the late General Stephen Van Rensselaer. Mr. Bayard is still a resident of this city.
(14) Page 263.—“Samuel Swartwout” (see previous note) .—He was for a time the proprietor of the meadows between Weehawken and Jersey City. ”

“ Like the scape-goat of antiquity, he is forced to bear the sins of others, not his own, and is “sent out into the wilderness of criticism,” with a heavy load of them upon his innocent shoulders. In the duel alluded to on page 162, which took place early in his political career, the result of a political difference of opinion between him and his antagonist, General Robert Swartwout, Mr. ”

“ Stanza 6, etc.—Doctors Mitchill, Hosack, and Francis, then (1819) eminent physicians in New York, highly distinguished, not only in their profession, and as authors of popular works connected with medicine and general knowledge, but as active and useful leaders in the social, literary, and scientific institutions of the city. ”

“ Mead’s “Wall Street,” a drama whose characters were designed to be played by stock actors only.
Stanza 68.—Doctor John Griscom.—A highly-esteemed Quaker physician then delivering lectures upon chemistry, etc. His office was in the building called the “Old Alms-House,” situated in the rear of the City Hall, facing Chambers Street. Its rooms facing Broadway were occupied by the museum of John Scudder, the “illustrious predecessor” of the late world-renowned showman P. T. Barnum. Among its attractions was the band of music commemorated in stanza 175. ”

“ Stanza 173.—Colonel Aaron Burr, then Vice-President of the United States, the theme of one of the most interesting episodes in American history.
THE RECORDER.
(1) Page 161.—Richard Riker.—The Recorder of the city at the date of the poem. A gentleman of great merit, who had previously filled, and continued to fill through life, offices of the highest trust. ”

“ Weimar, who visited the United States in 1825–’26. Mr. Livingston was a brother of the Chancellor, and at one time a member of the New-York Assembly.
(73) Page 342.—Thomas A. Cooper.—The celebrated actor, and for a time manager of the Park Theatre. His daughter married a son of President Tyler, who gave him an appointment in the New-York Custom-House, which he held for several years.
(74) Page 342.—Edmund Kean, who ranks among the greatest of modern actors, second only to Garrick and John Philip Kemble. He visited the United States in 1820 and again in 1825. ”

“ Page 253.—A signature adopted by Halleck and Drake, from an amusing character in Goldsmith’s comedy of “The Good-natured Man,” and attached to a series of verses appearing from time to time in the New-York Evening Post, and in other periodicals, in and after the month of March, 1819. The letters H. and D. represent the names of Fitz-Greene Halleck and Joseph Rodman Drake, and indicate the respective authorship of the poems. ”