xx.). Mr. Ingram, the biographer of
Edgar Poe, observes that Poe praised the piece while he was exposing
Tasistro's "barefaced robbery."
The copy of _The Death-Wake_ from which this edition is printed was
once the property of Mr. Aytoun, author of _Lays of the Scottish
Cavaliers_, and, I presume, of _Ta Phairshon_. Mr. Aytoun has written
a prefatory sonnet which will be found in its proper place, a set of
rhymes on the flyleaf at the end, and various cheerful but unfeeling
notes. After some hesitation I do not print these frivolities.
The copy was most generously presented to me by Professor Knight of
St. Andrews, and I have only seen one other example, which I in turn
contributed to fill the vacant place in the shelves of Mr. Knight. His
example, however, is far the more curious of the twain, by virtue of
Aytoun's annotations.
I had been wanting to see _The Death-Wake_ ever since, as a boy, I
read the unkind review of it in an ancient volume of _Blackwood's
Magazine_. In its "pure purple mantle" of glazed cloth, with paper
label, it is an unaffectedly neat and well-printed little volume.
It would be unbecoming and impertinent to point out to any one who has
an ear for verse, the charm of such lines as--
"A murmur far and far, of those that stirred
Within the great encampment of the sea.
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