The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Edgar Allan Poe [944]
“Whether the first Philosophy, considered in relation to Physics, was first in time?
“How far our moral perceptions have been influenced by natural phenomena?
“How far our metaphysical notions of cause and effect are attributable to the transference of notions connected with logical language?”
And all this in a poem about Acus, a tailor!
Waldron prefers, unhappily, Geraldine to Alice, and Geraldine returns his love, exciting thus the deep indignation of the neglected fair one,
whom love and jealousy bear up
To mingle poison in her rival’s cup.
Miss A. has among her adorers one of the genus loafer, whose appellation, not improperly, is Bore. B. is acquainted with a milliner — the milliner of the disconsolate lady.
She made this milliner her friend, who swore,
To work her full revenge through Mr. Bore.
And now says the poet —
I leave your sympathetic fancies,
To fill the outline of this pencil sketch.
This filling has been, with us at least, a matter of no little difficulty. We believe, however, that the affair is intended to run thus: — Waldron is enticed to some vile sins by Bore, and the knowledge of these, on the part of Alice, places the former gentleman in her power.
We are now introduced to a fête champêtre at the residence of Acus, who, by the way, has a son, Clifford, a suitor to Geraldine with the approbation of her father — that good old gentleman, for whom our sympathies were excited in the beginning of things, being influenced by the consideration that this scion of the house of the tailor will inherit a plum. The worst of the whole is, however, that the romantic Geraldine, who should have known better, and who loves Waldron, loves also the young knight of the shears. The consequence is a rencontre of the rival suitors at the fête champêtre; Waldron knocking his antagonist on the head, and throwing him into the lake. The murderer, as well as we can make out the narrative, now joins a piratical band, among whom he alternately cuts throats and sings songs of his own composition. In the mean time the deserted Geraldine mourns alone, till, upon a certain day,
A shape stood by her like a thing of air —
She started — Waldron’s haggard face was there.
He laid her gently down, of sense bereft,
And sunk his picture on her bosom’s snow,
And close beside these lines in blood he left:
“Farewell forever, Geraldine, I go
Another woman’s victim — dare I tell?
‘Tis Alice! — curse us, Geraldine! — farewell!”
There is no possibility of denying the fact: this is a droll piece of business. The lover brings forth a miniature, (Mr. Dawes has a passion for miniatures,) sinks it in the bosom of the lady, cuts his finger, and writes with the blood an epistle, (where is not specified, but we presume he indites it upon the bosom as it is “close beside” the picture,) in which epistle he announces that he is “another woman’s victim,” giving us to understand that he himself is a woman after all, and concluding with the delicious bit of Billingsgate
dare I tell?
‘Tis Alice! — curse us, Geraldine! — farewell!
We suppose, however, that “curse us” is a misprint; for why should Geraldine curse both herself and her lover? — it should have been “curse it!” no doubt. The whole passage, perhaps, would have read better thus —
oh, my eye!
‘Tis Alice! — d — n it, Geraldine! — good bye!
The remainder of the narrative may be briefly summed up. Waldron returns to his professional engagements with the pirates, while Geraldine, attended by her father, goes to sea for the benefit of her health. The consequence is inevitable. The vessels of the separated lovers meet and engage in the most diabolical of conflicts. Both are blown all to pieces. In a boat from one vessel, Waldron escapes — in a boat from the other, the lady Geraldine. Now, as a second natural consequence, the parties meet again — Destiny is every thing in such cases. Well, the parties meet again. The lady Geraldine has “that miniature” about her neck, and the circumstance proves too much for the excited state of mind of Mr. Waldron.