gcls_courant_011 6

94 THE COURANT; A SOUTHERN LITERARY JOURNAL.
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"the vices of that ill-starred child of song," as we heard one
not long since. We asked for her authority; she quoted Gris-
wold, and the common consent of our American writes--all of
whom could have known better, nay, many, doubtless, did know
better, and should have had more generosity, than to pander
to a vulgar prejudice, merely because it is wide-spread. It is
time now to cease this style of speaking, in reference to POE:
at all events, writers will have to cease it. A very large num-
ber of our more intelligent readers, are already aware that the
old slanders have been explained, and having been correctly
stated by persons perfectly acquainted with teh facts, it will
not do to revamp these absurd stories.
We must confess that we are surprised, beyond measure, at
the article of the Mercury. The writer of that paper must
have known that the Northern writers have no sort of sympa-
thy with Southern talent: many of the very men who have
been blackening the name of POE, were the vilest quacks,
whom he, in his life, had excoriated in the style for which he
was so remarkable. Most of the detraction has come from the
great city of Boston--that "hub of the intellectual universe,"
that choice resort of all that is good and noble. It is the
sacred duty of our writers to see that POE shall receive a fair
trial, and that he bear the weight, only, of sins which are un-
questionably his.
We must beg the critic of the Mercury not to condemn every
generous effort to set POE rectus in curia, as a "disposition to
decry and denounce those who have written biographies of
POE;" nor yet to attribute it to a total ignorance of the facts.
It seems to us strangely contradictory, that a writer should
vaunt his own knowledge of the facts, and then go on talking
in a style which betrays lamentable ignorance of the most im-
portant ones. Does our critic know what Mr. Graham wrote
on this subject? What Mr. Godey said? What Mr. Pabodie
testified? Does he know that, seriatim, the charges against POE
have been taken up, sifted, and shown to be, in the main, a
string of falsehoods, a tissue of slanders? It is high time to
stop writing such articles as the one of the Mercury--the con-
clusions therein stated are based upon premises which are denied,
and to the proof of which, we challenge this critic, or anybody
else. Let him marshall these ancient Grundy-isms--they have
all been refuted time and again, and we shall have only to col-
lect the distinct statements of those who were personally con-
nected with these affairs, in order to show that EDGAR POE is
the most slandered, rather than "the most morally wretched,"
among gifted men. It is a gratuitous assumption of the critic of
the Mercury, that they who find fault with POE'S biographers do so
by reason of ignorance of the facts. Surely, he has never read one
of those fault-finding articles--or he must have seen that a thor-
ough and profound acquaintane with all the details of the con-
troversy was the most remarkable feature of both the articles to
which we referred above. Come, come, Mr. Critic! it will not
do for you to accuse writers of ignorance, simply because you
happen to think differently on these topics. Besides the illib-
erality of such an assertion, it is an ignorance on your part,
of the real character of these defences of our great poet;
for these articles are most elaborate, and once glance would
suffice to show that, at least, the writers were not in "ignorance
of the facts of the case."
We protest that the notice of the Mercury can not be defended
by the facts, and that it is unjust to the memory of POE, and
reflects no sort of credit upon its author. Let us hope, that,
at least, the critic will give us some of his grounds for passing
such a severe and awful judgement upon a fellow-man, who
was, doubtless, erring, as we are all erring--and we shall beg of
the author of the notice not to rely on Griswold, nor to weary
out the public with those stories which have been distinctly
refuted--but, in a straight-forward manner, to let us hear (as
he says he knows "much") why he, the impartial critic, has
pronounced in such style, on the moral aspect of POE'S charac-
ter. If he knows more than has transpired, in all candor, let
us have it: it is due to truth that nothing be held back, which
can shed any light upon the subject, on either side. This
much is certain, almost all of Griswold's yarns have been shown
to have had no better foundation than the tea-table of the vera-
cious Mrs. Grundy. We hope, for his own sake, that the critic
of the Mercury has better grounds for saying all the savage
things which we have been discussing.
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PRIM PEOPLE.--There is a set of people whom I cannot
bear--the pinks of fashionable propriety--whose every word
is precise, and whose every movement is unexceptionable; but
who, though well versed in all the catalogues of polite be-
haviour, have not a particle of soul or cordiality abou tthem.
We allow that their manners may be abundantly correct.--
There may be elegance in every position, not a smile out of
place, and not a step that would not bear the measurement of
the severest scrutiny. This is all very fine; but what I want
is the gayety of social intercourse; the frankness that speaks
affability to all, that chases timidity from every bosom, and
tells every man in the company to be confident and happy.--
This is what I conceive to be the virtue of those who walk by
rule, and would reduce the whole of the human life to a wire-
bound system of misery and constraint.--Dr. Chambers.
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Sydney Smith, passing through a by-street behind St. Paul's,
heard two women abusing each other from opposite houses.--
"They will never agree," said the wit; "they argue from differ-
ent premises."
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For the Courant.
SHAKSPERE LATINIZED.
Dear Editor:--As an offset to "Byron latinized," I give you
a portion of Shakspere's "Passionate Pilgrim," treated in
like manner. It is drawn from the same source* as the former,
which you published some weeks since. P. D. S.

Crabbed age and youth	Quid senectæ cum juventâ,
Cannot live together;	Simul agunt non securæ;
Youth is full of pleasaunce,	Est juventus plena salum,
Age is full of care:	Est senectus plena curæ.
Youth like summer morn,	Est juventa sol æstivus,
Age like winter weather:	Est senectus brumæ cruda,
Youth like summer brave,	Est juventus æstas ardens,
Age like winter bare:	Est senectus hyems nuda.
Youth is full of sport,	Plena jocûm est juventa,
Age's breath is short;	Anima senectæ lenta:
Youth is nimble, age is lame:	Est juventus pede cita,
Youth is hot and bold,	Est senectus impedita;
Age is weak and cold:	Dum juventa fervet--viget--
Youth is wild and age is tame.	Heu! senectus fracta--friget.
Age, I do abhor thee;	Venis est juventa plenis,
Youth, I do adore thee;	At senectæ sicca lenis.
O, my love, my love is young:	Apage--senectus--oro;
Age, I do defy thee;	Te, juventa, te adoro.
O, sweet shepherd, hie thee.	O! quam amo quàm decora:
For me thinks thou stay'st too	Hinc, senectus, hinc abito;
long.	Pastorelle, hùc et citò, Nimis enim longa mora.

* By "B. I. W."--Hone's Year Book, for 1832.
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TULIPOMANIA.
The greater part of the flowers which adorn our gardens,
have been brought to us from the Levant. A few hae been
procured from other parts of the world; and some of our indi-
genous plants, that grow wild, have, by care and cultivation,
been so much improved as to merit a place in our parterres.
Our ancestors, perhaps, some centuries ago, paid attention to
flowers; but it appears that the Orientals, and particularly the
Turks, who in other sespects are not very susceptible of the
inanimate beauties of nature, were the first people who culti-
vated a variety of them in their gardens for ornament and
pleasure. From their gardens, therefore, have been procured
the most of those which decorate ours; and amongst these is
the tulip.
Few plants acquire, through accident, weakness, or disease,
so many tints, variegations, and figures, as the tulip. When
uncultivated, and in its natural state, it is almost of one colour,
has large leaves, and extraordinary long stem. When it has
been weakened by culture, it becomes more agreeable in the
eyes of the florist. The petals are then paler, more variegated,
and smaller; the leaves assume a fainter or softer green
colour; and this master-piece of culture, the more beautiful it
turns, grows so much the weaker; so that, with the most
careful skill and attention, it can with difficulty be transplant-
ed, and even scarcely kept alive.
That the tulip grows wild in the Levant, and was thence
brought to us, may be proved by the testimony of many writers.
Busbequius found it on the road between Adrianople and Con-
stantinople; Shaw found it in Syria, in the plains between
Jaffa and Rama; and the Chadrin on the northern confines of
Arabia. The early-blowing kinds, it appears, were brought to
Constantinople from Cavala, and the late-blowing from Caffa;
and on this account the former are called by the Turks Cavalá
lalé and the latter Café lalé. Caval is a town on the eastern
coast of Macedonia, of which Paul Lucas gives some account;
and Caffa is a town in the Crimea, or peninsula of Gazaria, as
was called in the middle ages, from the Gazares, a people very
little known.
Though florists have published numerous catalogues of the
species of the tulip, botanists are acquainted only with two, or,
at most three, of which scarcely one is indigenous in Europe.
All these found in our gardens have been propogated from the
species named after that learned man, to whom natural history
is so much indebted, the Linnæus of the sixteenth century,
Conrad Gesner, who first made the tulip known by a botanical
description and a figure. In his additions to the works of
Valerius Cordus, he tells us that he saw the first in the beginning
of April 1859, at Augsburg, in the garden of the learned and
ingenious counsellor, John Henry Herwart. The seeds had
been brought from Constantinople, or, according to others, from
Cappadocia. This flower was then known in Italy under the
name of tulipa, or tulip, which is said to be of Turkish extrac-
tion, and given to it on account of its resembling a turban.
Balbinus asserts that Busbequius brought the first tulip-roots
to Prague, from which they were afterwards spread all over
Germany. This is not improbable; for Busbequius says, in a
letter written in 1554, that this flower was then new to him;
and it is known that besides coins and manuscripts, he collect-
ed also natural curiosities, and brought them with him from the
Levant. Nay, he tells us he paid very dear to the Turks for
these tulips; but I do not find he anywhere says that he was
the first who brought them from the East.
In the year 1566 there were tulips in the garden of M. Fug-
ger, from whom Gesner wished to procure some. They first
appeared in Provence, in France, in the garden of the cele-
brated Peyresc, in the year 1611.
After the tulip was known, Dutch merchants, and rich
people at Vienna, who were fond of flowers, sent at different
times to Constantinople for various kinds. The first roots
planted in England were sent thither from Vienna, about the
end of the sixteenth eentury, according to Hakluyt; who is
however, wrong in ascribing to Clusius the honour of having
first introduced them into Europe; for that naturalist only col-
lected and described all the then known species.
These flowers, which are of no further use than to ornament
gardens, which are exceeded in beauty by many other plants,
and whose duration is short and very precarious, became, in
the middle of the 17th century, the object of a trade such as is
not to be met with in the history of commerce, and by which
their price rose above that of the most precious metal. An ac-
count of this trade has been given by many authors; but by
all late ones it has been misrepresented. People laugh at the
Tulipomania, because they believe that the beauty and rarity
of the flowers induced florists to give such extravagant prices:
they imagine that the tulips were purchased so excessively
dear in order to ornament gardens; but this supposition is false,
as I shall show hereafter.
This trade was not carried on throughout all Europe, but in
some cities of the Netherlands, particularly Amsterdam, Haar-
lem, Ttrecht, Alkmaar, Leyded, Rotterdam, Hoorn, Enkhuysen,
and Meedenblick; and rose to the greatest heighth in the years
1634-37. Munting has given, from some of the books kept
during that trade, a few of the prices then paid, of which I
shall present the reader with the following. For a root of that
species called the Viceroy the after-mentioned articles, valued
as below expressed, were agreed to be delivered:
Florins. Florins.
2 lasts of wheat..........448 4 tons of beer............32
4 " rye..............558 2 " butter...........192
4 fat oxen..................480 1000 pounds of cheese...120
3 fat swine.................240 a complete bed.........100
12 fat sheep...............120 a suit of clothes...........80
2 hogsheads of wine....70 a silver beaker.............60
------- --------
1916 584
1916
-------
Sum..........................2500
These tulips afterwards were sold according to the weight of
the roots. Four hundred perits (a perit is a small weight less
than a grain,) of Admiral Leifken cost 4400 florins; 446 ditto
of Admiral Von der Eyk, 1620 florins; 160 perits Schilder
cost 1615 florins; 200 ditto Semper Augustus, 5500 florins;
410 ditto Viceroy, 3000 florins, &c. The species Semper Au-
gustus has been sold for 2000 florins; and it once happened
that there were only two roots of it to be had, the one at Am-
sterdam, and the other at Haarlem. For a root of this species,
one agreed to give 4600 florins, together with a new carriage,
two grey horses, and a complete harness. Another agreed to
give for a root twelve acres of land; for those who had not
ready money, promised their moveable and immoveable goods,
houses and lands, cattle and clothes. A man, whose name
Munting once knew, but could not recollect, won by this trade
more than 60,000 florins in the course of four months. It was
followed not only by mercantile people, but also by the first
noblemen, citizens of every description, mechanics, seamen,
farmers, turf-diggers, chimney-sweeps, footmen, maid-servants,
and old-clothes-women, &c. At first every one won and no
one lost. Some of the poorest people gained, in a few months,
houses, coaches and horses, and figured away like the first
characters in the land. In every town some tavern was selec-
ted which served as a 'Change, where high and low traded in
flowers, and confirmed their bargains with the most sumptuous
entertainments. They formed laws for themselves, and had
their notaries and clerks.
When the nature of this trade is considered, it will readily
be perceived, that to get possession of these flowers, was not
the real object of it, though many have represented it in that
light. The price of tulips rose always higher from the year
1634 to the year 1637; but had the object of the purchaser
been to get possession of the flowers, the price in such a length
of time must have fallen instead of risen. "Raise the price of
the productions of agriculture, when you wish to reduce them,"
says Young; and in this he is unoubtedly right, for a great
consumption causes a greater reproduction. This has been
sufficiently proved by the price of asparagus at Göttingen. As
it was much sought after, and large prices paid for it, more of
it was planted, and the price has fallen. In like manner plan-
tations of tulips would have in a short time been formed in Hol-
land, and florists would have been able to purchase flowers at
a much lower price. But this was not done; and the chimney-
sweeper, who threw aside his besom, did not become a gardener,
though he was a dealer in flowers. Roots would have been
imported from distant countries, as asparagus was from Han-
over and Brunswick to Göttingen; the high price would have
induced people to go to Constantinople to purchase roots, as
the Europeans travel to Golconda and Visapour to procure
precious stones; but the dealers in tulips confined themselves
to their own country, without thinking of long journeys. I will
allow that a flower might have become scarce, and consequent-
ly dearer; but it would have been impossible for the price to
rise to a great heigth, and continue so for a year. How ridic-
ulous would it have been to purchase useless roots with their
weight of gold, if the possession of the flower had been the only
object! Great is the folly of mankind; but they are not fools
without a cause, as they would have been under such circum-
stances.
During the time of Tulipomania, a speculator often offered
and paid large sums for a root which he never received, and
never wished to receive. Another sold roots which he never
possessed or delivered. Oft did a nobleman purchase of a
chimney-sweep tulips to the amount of 2000 florins, and sell
them at the same time to a farmer; and neither the nobleman,
chimney-sweep or farmer had roots in their possession, or
wished to possess them. Before the tulip season was over, more
roots were sold and purchased, bespoke and promised to be de-
livered, than in all probability were to be found in the gardens
of Holland; and when "Semper Augustus" was not to be had,
which happened twice, no species, perhaps, was oftener pur-
chased and sold. In the space of three years, as Munting tells
us, more than ten millions were expended in this trade in only
one town of Holland.
To understand this gambling traffic, it may be necessary to
make the following supposition. A nobleman bespoke of a
merchant a tulip-root, to be delived in six months, at the price
of 1000 florins. During these six months the price of that spe-
cies of tulip must have risen or fallen, or remained as it was.--
We shall suppose that at the expiration of this time the price
was 1500 florins; in that case the nobleman did not wish to have
the tulip; and the merchant paid him 500 florins, which the
latter lost and the former won. If the price was fallen when
the six months was expired, so that a root could be purchased
for 800 florins, the nobleman then paid to the merchant 200
florins, which he received as so much gain; but if the price
continued the same, that is, 1000 florins, neither party gained
or lost. In all these circumstances, however, no one ever
thought of delivering the roots or of receiving them. Henry
Munting in 1636, sold to a merchant at Alkmaar, a tulip-root
for 7000 florins, to be delivered in six months; but as the price
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