File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Isaac Appleton Jewett, 25 February 1840 (814d1a08-25f0-47c5-a8c7-a0ec8afcfc35).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-010#010

“The Farm” (near Philadelphia).
Feb 25th 1840.
I hope dear Jewett your matrimonial intentions have not been clogged by my slow-coming permissions (which you so graciously request) as poor Mr Bodiske’s have by the like tardiness on the Emperor’s part – who has been hanging, poor wretch, à la Mahomet’s coffin in the mid air of suspense for a sufficient length of time to weary out the patience of a younger lover who can better afford to wait. You have cried “wolf” so often that my faith cannot readily trust itself with the permanency or present existence even of this new nuance of your chameleon temperament & I know not whether to answer seriously or jocosely all you assert of the mighty change in your views of life & living. “Can the leopard change his spots”? Can a “philosophical loafer,” as you not unjustly term yourself, suddenly shift into a plodding, practical married man? You say the genius is shut up again in the nut-shell but who ever heard of his voluntarily contracting himself thereunto did he not chafe & fume in his narrow prison-house spell-bound there by the potent seal of Solomon (Destiny.) No sudden effort of the will can clip the wings with aid of which, like a butterfly epicurean, - you have been rashly sipping the “honey bags” everywhere – matrimony is a very good clipper & if you plunge therein farewell to your loafership & vagabondizing with which you seem to be thoroughly blasé, God knows, may commit suicide – or marriage in your extremity of ennui. Miss Carneal may hold the scissors so gracefully & smile so sweetly as she opens them that you may resign your freedom without a sigh & even kiss the rod but I shall expect, if that happens, to hear of it per earthquake as all wondrous events are heralded. To encourage you to such paais[??]y proceeding know that if you give up with your bachelor-ship one [??] of priveleges others open upon you – par exemple occupying the ladies car in railroads, having private parlors in hotels &c. If you really turn Benedict for Heaven’s sake let me enjoy the sight of the phenom- [p. 2] enon for tho’ my imagination graspeth many strange things that is beyond its powers of conception. But since the wise Ulysses could hardly resist the Sirens what can be expected of a man with a much better ear for music than he was gifted withal & such a Siren to sing you into a chromatic Elysium. Enough of this nonsense which somehow slips from my pen because I have been reading Pope’s ridiculous letters to Lady Mary Montagu & his silly conceits have got into my head. I meant to write you from Washington & sketch for you à la magic lantern the fantastic figures of gawky Reps – mustached diplomats, & fair ladyes (as various in country & speech, tho all American, as a Sultan’s harem) which flitted over the quiet background of our truly domestic life there – but now that I have escaped from that witches cauldron of odd ingredients & am enjoying this nice country solitude I don’t wish to conjure them back again. However, I never found W- so endurable we living out of the turmoil in the rural, diplomatic ‘quarter’ near Georgetown with a house to ourselves. We went to several very pretty parties each varying from the other in kaleidescope [sic] fashion, dined agreeably with the President – on spicier dishes than talk, thought him very like Uncle Aaron or Moses – only fatigued with his non-committal manner, pitied him for the bore of being equally gracious to all visitors even lunatics who he says often come maintaining he usurps their station, went twice to the House only & twice that too often, saw Mr Bodisko waltz & expected he would come apart in the operation (he is ‘compound addition’ alias a “man of parts.”) dined vis à vis Fox & found his frontal developments very German &c &c. Retrospection is is a tiresome exercise of the mind! Liked some of our neighbours there but not the society in general; tis too like a travelling menagerie – a gaping curiosity from group to group & a constant wish to see the big lions stirred up with a long pole. I can readily believe that the Washingtonians rejoice when this swarm of strangers departs & leaves them their own sociable circle. Every new foreign damsel that rises on that horizon is speculated about as new stars by astronomers & it is far from agreeable to be the victim of such inspection. The Cobbs [p. 3] resided at Miss Polks & said you were still the burden of their song to make such an impression in the shifting population of Washington on fickle old maids must tickle your vanity which, like that of mankind generally, can be tickled by a straw probably. We expected Tom to join us there but the journey has been made so vile with ice & snow that he has delayed & now we are on our return. Mary & Robert think of sailing for England on 1st April & wish to make us in Boston a visit first. We have such a horror of the Sound after with the terrible associations of the Lexington that linger there that we may possibly go via Stockbridge. I sigh when I think how differently already that name affects me. So much pleasure hallowed it last summer when we audaciously talked with certainty of passing another, perhaps all others there & now Mr Sedgwicks death & Mary’s marriage (strange events to go hand in hand) have blown that fair castle in the air quite away. The first casts a gloom there heavy as those mountain shadows – & one lonely spinsterhood no longer the independence two could claim. Yet to be with my dear friend Miss Sedgwick I may be there for a time [??] summer - & if I can persuade Emmeline to go to Lebanon again we may renew past delights. Mary wants me very much to accompany her to England but I have the virtue to resist knowing Father never w’d consent & that poor E. would be miserable & I feel myself doing so little good in the world that a selfish gratification easily yields to the satisfacation (only less palpably selfish) of conferring my mite of happiness. We were in Baltimore a day – dined with Georgie & caressed her infant – which is in a fair way of being killed with kindness & tho’ I am no babe ologist is certainly a very favorable specimen of the genus. I hope you liked them as much as they you, Maggy with her race-horse nostrils & out-pouring heart which ‘like a proud river peering o’er its banks’ overflows forever tho’ her lover only, should open all its sluice gates. Odd contrast this southern & northern temperament – one all avarice t’other all generosity & one as incomprehensible to the other as light & darkness. Didn’t you mourn poor Finn’s loss? what a tragic end for a man who has been acting comedy all his life. The world can as little afford, I suppose, to love such a creature as such an [p. 4 bottom] apostle as Dr Follen. We are here for a few days – passed very agreeably in lolling on Mrs Butler’s nice ottomans, reading her nice books – enjoying her nice society & breathing the nicest atmosphere – so balmy & Spring-like that I hate to think of the winter winds we shall find flanéxing about our streets. Pierce has gone South & she thinks us quite a God-send in her loneliness tho’ she has likewise here pro tem a demure, sad little widow & child. Little Sally has grown mentally & physically much & is ever demanding with that trustful hope of an answer so touching in a child the riddles of the Sphynxes. There is an infinity about all the actions & wishes of [p. 4 top] curiosity of a child which bespeaks its birth-right of immortality most strikingly. Pity you are’nt in N. York to go to Mrs. Bravourt’s famous fancy ball tomorrow night – in your new character of practical man. None of your friends would recognise you, without a domino. Jesting apart if it will only give you permanent content it is a good resolve – a weathercock life must weaken the energies of the character & the sooner you reconcile yourself to taking the world as it comes the more chance you will have of enjoying a better. There must be a satisfaction in acting if it be but coining law-books into bread that loafers know not of – at least I as a woman debarred from the glorious privilege of creating my own comforts & luxuries naturally think so; over thinking is worse than over-working I am sure unless one has the [p. 1 cross] healthiest temperament possible and over enjoying worse than either. Am I not a very she Solomon? My paper forbids farther preaching so with best wishes for contented spirit in whatever you undertake & hopes that since I write so practically you dont consider letters to me foolish frivolities I remain (with Mary & Robert’s kind remembrance) yrs with true cousinly regard & interest
Fanny E. A.
Addressed: J. A. Jewett Esq. /[ crossed out: Columbus] Cincinnati / Ohio
POSTMARK: PHILADELPHIA PA / FEB 28
POSTMARK: COLUMBUS / O. / MAR 1
ENDORSED: ANSD MARCH 5TH ‘40

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