Henry James

by Henry James

  493.20 Hardee] Confederate Lieutenant General William J. Hardee (1815–1873), who commanded the First Corps of the Army of Tennessee.

  494.14–15 Honey Hill] Honey Hill, South Carolina, site of a battle fought on November 30, 1864, a Confederate victory.

  494.19 Gen’l Stephen Lee] Confederate Lieutenant General Stephen Dill Lee (1833–1908).

  495.19–20 Billy Perkins and Sam Storrow in the 2nd Mass.] Perkins, see note 488.30–31; First Lieutenant Samuel Storrow (1843–1865).

  495.28–29 General Gillmore’s staff as A.D.C.] Major General Quincy Adams Gillmore (1825–1888), commander of the Department of the South, July 1863–May 1864, Feb.–June 1865; A.D.C.: aide-de-camp.

  496.8 Governor Aiken of S.C.] William Aiken Jr. (1806–1887), governor of South Carolina, 1844–46, and a Democratic U.S. congressman, 1851–57.

  497.5 R. J.’ s] Robertson James’s.

  503.28 The Wonder-Book and Twice-Told Tales] A Wonder-Book for Boys and Girls (1852), a retelling of Greek myths; and the story collection Twice-Told Tales (1837), so called because they had already been published in magazines.

  503.36–37 story of Donatello and Miriam] The guilty couple in Hawthorne’s novel The Marble Faun (1860), whose British title was Transformation.

  504.8 bêtise] French: foolishness.

  504.21–23 Polonius . . . arras] In Shakespeare, Hamlet, III.iv.

  505.25–26 constatation] French: statement of fact.

  505.39 prolonged exploration of Brazil] William James accompanied Louis Agassiz on his scientific expedition to Brazil, 1865–66, recounted in Agassiz’s Journey in Brazil (1868).

  507.20 my “sitting” to John La Farge] Only one portrait of James by La Farge is known to survive, now in the Century Club, New York.

  509.16–18 the great Sanitary Commission . . . Nightingale] The United States Sanitary Commission, founded in June 1861, was a civilian organization dedicated to improving conditions in Union army camps and caring for sick and wounded soldiers. It was based on similar British efforts in the Crimean War and especially the work of English nurse, social reformer, and public-health advocate Florence Nightingale (1820–1910).

  509.38 Lawton’s Valley] Summer residence in South Portsmouth, Rhode Island, of poet, editor, and social reformer Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910), whose best-known work is “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” (1862). In March 1864 James wrote to Perry of a “grand Sanitary concert” in Newport, where “your humble servant performed the duties of one: attired like an English footman, he showed folks to their seats.”

  510.3 Tyrtaean] Martial and patriotic songs, after the seventh-century B.C.E. Spartan poet Tyrtaeus.

  510.37–40 wife of the eminent, the militant Phil-Hellene, Dr. S. G. . . . deaf-mutes] Julia Ward Howe’s husband, Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe (1801–1876), had, like Byron, traveled to Greece as a young man in support of the Greek war of independence, working as a surgeon. He was later the founding director of the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts, and an advocate for prison reform, abolition, and better care for the mentally ill and disabled.

  511.32 M. Viollet-le-Duc was even then restoring Carcassonne] French architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879), the guiding spirit of the Gothic Revival movement in France, began his controversial restoration of Carcassonne’s medieval fortifications in 1853.

  512.27–28 conversations with Landor] English poet Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864), author of Imaginary Conversations (1824–53).

  515.13 remonté] French: agitated.

  516.8–9 in its habit as it lived] Cf Hamlet, III.iv.135: “My father, in his habit as he lived!”

  518.11 inénarrables] French: indescribable.

  518.23 any stream more Pactolean] A reference to the river Pactolus, on the Aegean coast of Turkey. According to Greek legend, King Midas of Phrygia could turn whatever he touched into gold. Seeking to be rid of his power after fatally transforming his daughter into a golden statue, he washed himself in the Pactolus, giving it a golden gleam.

  520.1–2 the campaign of Sadowa across the sea] The battle of Sadowa (also called the battle of Königgrätz), July 3, 1866, Prussian victory over the Austrians in the decisive battle of the Austro-Prussian War, at Sadová in the present-day Czech Republic.

  520.10–11 plight of France under the portent of Sedan] Overwhelming French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, September 1, 1870, which decided the outcome of the war, leading to the siege of Paris.

  523.39–40 Les Idées de Madame Aubray, with Pasca and Delaporte] Inaugural 1867 production of the play by Dumas fils, with French actor Alix-Marie-Angèle Séon, known as Madame Pasca (1835–1914), and French actor Marie Delaporte (1838–1910).

  524.3–4 Warren of the Boston Museum.”] American comic actor William Warren (1812–1888); for Boston Museum, see note 98.35.

  524.9 Lake Leman] Lake Geneva.

  524.34 “Existenz so völlig dasteht,”] German: existence [is] so fully present.

  525.10 gemüthlich] German: comfortable, pleasant.

  525.12 “so freundlich mobilirt”] German: furnished in such a friendly way.

  525.14 “Schön!”] German: fine.

  525.26–28 das sagen Kinder . . . Kinder!”] German: Children don’t say that. . . . Not for children!

  525.33–34 Écu . . . Corraterie] In Geneva, the Hôtel de l’Écu and the rue de la Corraterie.

  526.5 Théophile Gautier] William James on pages 529–530 of this volume refers to Gautier’s collection of travel writing Caprices et Zigzags (1852) and his novel Capitaine Fracasse (1863).

  526.16 Ritter, Chantre] Swiss writer and theologian Charles Ritter (1838–1908); French archaeologist and anthropologist Ernest Chantre (1843–1924), Geneva school friends of William James.

  529.22–23 George’s: La Daniella and the Beaux Messieurs de Bois-Doré] Novels by George Sand published in 1857 and 1858, respectively.

  529.23–26 Was it thee . . . Nation notices on her, on W. Morris’s new poem and on The Spanish Gypsy?] Epic poem The Earthly Paradise (1868–70) by English writer, artist, designer, and social reformer William Morris (1834–1896); The Spanish Gypsy (1868), book-length poem by George Eliot. James published reviews of these books and of George Sand’s latest novel, Mademoiselle Merquem, in The Nation in July 1868.

  529.29 The Woman in White] Novel (1860) by English novelist Wilkie Collins (1824–1889).

  529.42 T. S. P.] Thomas Sergeant Perry.

  530.5 établissement] French établissement: establishment.

  530.11 etwa] German: about.

  531.5–6 friend whom I shall not name here] John Chipman Gray (see note 424.12–13).

  532.29–30 Mrs. Gracie King’s . . . a very pretty Miss King] Elizabeth Denning King (née Duer, 1821–1900) and her daughter Maria “May” Van Rensselaer (1848–1925).

  532.30 Delmonico’s] Prestigious New York restaurant in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, originally located in Lower Manhattan; the restaurant referred to here was at Fourteenth Street and Fifth Avenue.

  532.40 a Mr. Lee] David Bradley Lee (1834–1903), who made his fortune in the wholesale grocery business; one sister inherited $4,000,000 from her (elderly) prince and remarried; the other was a Baroness.

  533.16 North Conway] In the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

  533.19 The Ring and the Book.] Blank-verse novel in twelve books (1868–69) by Robert Browning based on a seventeenth-century Roman murder case. James lectured on it in 1912.

  533.40 so handsome young man] John Chipman Gray.

  535.10 the companion of my own pilgrimage] Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841–1935); his “great friend” was John Chipman Gray.

  537.5–6 that line of a hymn, “Hark, from the tombs etc.!”] Opening of “A Funeral Thought” (1707), by English hymnist Isaac Watts (1674–1748).

  538.1 Elly] Her sister Ellen James Temple (1850–1920), the seco
nd youngest of the four Temple sisters, who married Christopher Temple Emmet (1822–1884), a railroad baron, in 1869.

  539.14 to hear Faust] Opera (1859) by French composer Charles Gounod (1818–1893), based on Goethe’s play.

  540.26 Miss Emerson] Ellen Tucker Emerson (1839–1909), daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The original letter reads: “of Ellen Emerson.”

  541.36 Mrs. Lewes] George Eliot.

  543.16 Phillips Brooks] Episcopal clergyman Phillips Brooks (1835–1893), at the time the rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Philadelphia.

  544.31 Mill on the Floss] Novel (1860) by George Eliot.

  544.36–37 Francis Boott and his daughter . . . later on Mrs. Frank Duveneck] American composer (1813–1904) who spent much of his middle life in Italy; Boston-born artist Elizabeth Boott (1846–1888), who married American artist Frank Duveneck (1848–1919) in Paris in 1886.

  545.8–9 ewig Weibliche] German: eternal feminine (from the final lines of Goethe’s Faust).

  545.26 the woodnote wild] See note 185.29.

  545.38 but lately expropriated Grand Dukes] The last grand dukes of Tuscany, Leopold II (1797–1870) and his son Ferdinand IV (1835–1908), were exiled in 1859 during the Second War of Italian Independence (see note 263.25–28).

  545.39 en plein] French: in the middle of.

  548.34–35 my Gilbert Osmond] In The Portrait of a Lady.

  549.27 Lewes] English philosopher and literary and dramatic critic George Henry Lewes (1817–1878) was the longtime partner of Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot). The founder and editor of The Fortnightly Review, Lewes was the author of many books, including The Life and Works of Goethe (1855), The Physiology of Common Life (1859), and The Problems of Life and Mind (1874–79).

  549.41–550.1 Paul . . . glass, very darkly.] Cf. 1 Corinthians 13:12.

  554.37–38 that “little ease” that Clough talks about] In the poem “Blank Misgivings of a Creature Moving About in Worlds Not Realised” (1841), sec. 10, by English poet Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861).

  555.3 with Bishop Blougram] In “Bishop Bloughram’s Apology” (1855), dramatic monologue in verse by Robert Browning, uttered by a worldly prelate.

  557.35–36 my eminent friend F. Marion] American writer Francis Marion Crawford (1854–1909), author of Dr. Claudius (1883), A Roman Singer (1884), Zoroaster (1885), and many other novels.

  558.23–24 “on field and hill, in heart and brain,” as Mr. Lowell says.] The second line of James Russell Lowell’s poem “Palinode: Autumn” (1854).

  559.36–37 Fred Jones’s engagement with Miss Rawle of Philadelphia.] In 1870 Frederic Rhinelander Jones (1846–1918), the brother of novelist Edith Wharton, married his first wife Mary Cadwalader Rawle (1850–1935), later a close friend of James as well as of Wharton and Theodore Roosevelt.

  559.38 the Hones’] The home at 247 Fifth Avenue of insurance executive Robert Hone (c. 1819–c. 1890), son of New York mayor and diarist Philip Hone, and his wife Eliza Russell Hone (née Rodman, 1819–1876).

  559.40 Mrs. Willy Duncan] Jane Percy Duncan (née Sargent, 1833–1905), a cousin of the painter John Singer Sargent.

  563.35–36 Blessed are they . . . believed.] Cf. Christ’s words to the doubting apostle Thomas at John 20:29.

  563.40 a matinée of William Tell] Opera (1829) by Italian composer Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868), based on Schiller’s 1804 play.

  564.9–11 Brignoli . . . Phillipps] Italian tenor Pasquale Brignoli (1824–1884), Italian bass Agostino Susini (1825–1883), American soprano Clara Louise Kellogg (1842–1916), and American contralto Adelaide Phillips (1833–1882).

  566.16–17 likened the kingdom of heaven to a little child] Cf. Matthew 19:14: “But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”

  THE MIDDLE YEARS

  573.1 lent by Mr. W. Rothenstein] English artist William Rothenstein (1872–1945), who made the drawing in 1897.

  575.4 one of his own short stories] James’s story “The Middle Years” was first published in 1893.

  575.15 PERCY LUBBOCK.] See Note on the Texts.

  578.22–23 glanced at too . . . on some other and less separated page] At the beginning of “London” (1888), collected in Essays on London and Elsewhere (1893).

  579.19 Smollett] Scottish novelist and historian Tobias Smollett (1721–1771), author of The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748).

  585.1–2 Albert Rutson] Albert Osliff Rutson (1836–1890), barrister and Liberal politician, private secretary to Liberal politician Henry Austin Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare (1815–1895), who was at this time home secretary, 1868–73, under Gladstone.

  586.7 choses vues] French: things seen (a reference to Victor Hugo’s posthumously collected memoirs, Choses vues).

  587.39–40 French adage says, c’est le ton qui fait la chanson.] It’s the tone that makes the song (i.e., it isn’t what you say but how you say it).

  589.11–12 trait de mœurs] French: feature of manners.

  591.35 Moore and Lockhart and Rogers] Irish poet Thomas Moore (1779–1852); Scottish writer John Gibson Lockhart (1794–1854), best known for his biography of Sir Walter Scott, his father-in-law; English poet Samuel Rogers (1763–1855).

  592.29–30 Bayard Taylor] American poet and travel writer (1825–1878), author of Poems of the Orient (1854), Poems of Home and Travel (1855), and such travel books as Eldorado (1850), A Journey to Central Africa (1854), and Byways of Europe (1869). James had written an unpublished review of Taylor’s novel John Godfrey’s Fortunes (1865), admonishing him that “to write a good novel is . . . not in any degree an off-hand piece of business.”

  593.6–8 Frederic Harrison . . . Arnold’s early fine banter] English legal scholar and historian Frederic Harrison (1831–1923) published a satire directed at Arnold, “Culture: A Dialogue,” in the Fortnightly Review in 1867, which Arnold called “very good-tempered and witty” in Culture and Anarchy (1869), though elsewhere in the book he takes issue with Harrison’s views.

  593.8–9 his too confidently roaring “young lions” of the periodical press.] Arnold wrote ironically of the “magnificent roaring of the young lions of the ‘Daily Telegraph’” in his preface to Essays in Criticism (1865). He was especially hostile to one of the Daily Telegraph’s journalists, the English writer George Augustus Sala (1828–1895).

  595.29–30 sermons of the very stones of London.] Cf. Shakespeare, As You Like It, II.i.15–17: “And this our life, exempt from public haunt, / Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, / Sermons in stones, and good in everything.” James may also be thinking of John Ruskin’s The Stones of Venice (1851–53).

  599.37–38 more successful of Mr. Robertson’s comedies] The comedies of English playwright Thomas William Robertson (1829–1871) include his breakthrough success Society (1865), Ours (1866), Caste (1867), and School (1869).

  600.2–3 Henry Irving’s Shakespearean splendours at the transcendent Lyceum?] English Shakespearean actor Henry Irving (1838–1905), manager of the Lyceum Theater, 1878–1902, dominated the London stage for many decades. James reviewed him, with reservations, several times.

  600.9 the Grosvenor Gallery] Commercial art gallery in London, 1877–90, which exhibited important works by English Aesthetic movement artists; James knew its founders, Sir Coutts (1824–1913) and Lady Blanche Lindsay (1845–1912).

  600.35–36 Family of Darius . . . portrait of Ariosto.] The Family of Darius Before Alexander (1565–67) by Paolo Veronese; Bacchus and Ariadne (1520–23) and most likely the Portrait of Gerolamo Barbarigo (c. 1510) by Titian (c. 1490–1576).

  601.10 chevelu] French: hairy.

  602.3 South Kensington] From 1857 the South Kensington Museum, since 1899 the Victoria and Albert Museum.

  606.25–34 Felix Holt the radical . . . review of the delightful thing] James reviewed George Eliot’s novel Felix Holt, The Radical (1866)
in The Nation, August 16, 1866.

  608.2 Mr. Paget the pre-eminent surgeon] English surgeon and scientist James Paget (1814–1899), a baronet from 1871.

  608.11–12 Avignon . . . J. S. Mill] John Stuart Mill owned a house in St-Véran, near Avignon in southern France.

  608.18 impression de voyage] French: impressions from one’s travels.

  610.10 Deronda] George Eliot’s novel Daniel Deronda (1876).

  611.6 Mrs. Greville] Sabine Matilda Greville (née Thellusson, 1823–1882), a friend of Victorian writers such as Carlyle, Tennyson, and Swinburne.

  613.29 an illustrious soldier] Sir Dighton Macnaghton Probyn (1833–1924), a general in the British army, who had won the Victoria Cross.

  614.5–6 Fanny Kemble] See note 192.28–29.

  617.11 the Laureate] Tennyson was the British Poet Laureate from 1850 to his death in 1892.

  617.20–21 old friend the late Lord Houghton] Richard Monckton Milnes (1809–1885), poet, writer, literary patron, biographer of John Keats, and a member of parliament from 1837 to 1863, when he was made Baron Houghton.

  618.6 M. Ernest Renan] French historian, philosopher, and philologist (1823–1892), best known for his Life of Jesus (1863).

  619.29 his London adventure] Lowell was U.S. ambassador to Great Britain, 1880–85.

  620.10 Hallam] Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s oldest son (1852–1928).

  621.11 Locksley Hall] Tennyson’s 1842 poem (see note 155.3).

  622.1 In Memoriam] Tennyson’s elegiac poem-sequence (1850).

  625.22 à tout propos] French: at every turn.

  627.10 Louisa Lady Waterford] English artist Louisa Anne Stuart, Marchioness of Waterford (1818–1891), a friend of Ruskin.

  628.8 d’antan] French: of former times. See note 46.37–38.

  631.11–12 Bonifazio’s] Italian artist Bonifazio de’ Pitati, also known as Bonifazio Veronese (c. 1487–1553).