The second letter is from Lowell, to whom Mr. W.’s letter had been sent by Dr. James:—
17th Feb., 1888.
Dear Dr. James,—My Commemoration Ode was very rapidly written, and came to me unexpectedly, for I had told Child, who was one of the committee (I suppose), that he must look for nothing from me. I sat up all the night before the ceremony, writing and copying out what I had written during the day. I think most of it was composed on that last day. I have no doubt the verse quoted by Mr. W. came to me in a flash, but whether during that last night or not I cannot say. Perhaps my MS. would show, if I had kept it, or if anybody else has. Child will remember my taking him apart under an elm, between Massachusetts and the Law School, that morning, that I might read him a part of the Ode, to see if it would do, for ’twas so fresh that I knew not, having probably not even had time to read it over. It was such a new thing in more senses than one.
I recollect Mr. W.’s letter, and think it was substantially like that to you. I did not burn it, I am sure, and ’twill, no doubt, turn up somewhere in my hay-stack of letters when I am “up back of the meetin’-house,” as Yankees used to say while there were any Yankees left....
There is one painful suggestion in the fact of Mr. W.’s anticipation, which I hardly venture to speak of. Was the verse already do? Did I steal it? Not to my knowledge; but perhaps it might be well to set a literary detective on my trail.
I return the letter.
Faithfully yours,
J. R. Lowell.
[18] Quoted by A. V. G. Allen in his Life and Letters of Phillips Brooks, i. 552.
[19] An interesting venture was made by Little, Brown & Co. in the summer of 1864, which unfortunately proved too uncertain to be carried through. Lowell was to have edited a series of volumes illustrative of the Old Dramatists, from Marlowe down. He prepared one volume, which was put into type but never published. A set of proofs is in the library of Harvard University.
[20] “James Russell Lowell,” in the Atlantic Monthly, January, 1892.
[21] “Shakespeare Once More,” iii. 33.