Emily Dickinson's Shakespeare

Chapter Four - "He has had his Future who has found Shakespeare": American Nationalism and the English Dramatist

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [First Page] [78], (1) Lines: 0 ——— -2.59pt ——— Normal P PgEnds: [78], (1) c h a p t e r f o u r “He has had his Future who has found Shakespeare” American Nationalism and the English Dramatist I n reply to a letter from Franklin B. Sanborn that probably gave her information about recent books and asked for a literary contribution, Dickinson wrote, “Thank you, Mr Sanborn. I am glad there are Books. They are better than Heaven for that is unavoidable while one may miss these. Had I a trait you would accept I should be most proud, though he has had his Future who has found Shakespeare” (L 402). Johnson has dated the letter “about 1873,” and by this time Sanborn was no longer the resident editor of the Springfield Republican and had returned with his family to Concord.1 He continued to have a regular column in the paper as the correspondent from Boston and Concord, and was responsible for book notices.2 Sanborn knew of Dickinson ’s writings either through her friend—and his boss—Samuel Bowles, or because seven of her poems had already been published in the paper.3 But she contrasts her level of creativity with Shakespeare’s overachieving accomplishments . Her reluctance to submit a poem is framed as a confirmation that Shakespeare supersedes all prospective authors, herself included. Dickinson’s poems are like the hypothetical books too easily missed. While Dickinson may feel ambiguity toward publishing, more significantly she is here placing herself in opposition to many of her contemporaries, who sought a different future for American literature—as a literature distinct from its English counterpart. Sanborn’s autobiography, Recollections of Seventy Years, proclaims his great love of Shakespeare. He recalls that at eight he found odd volumes of Henry VI, Richard III, and Henry VIII and learnt these plays by heart; at twelve, he obtained Shakespeare’s complete works.4 In fact, he begins his recollections by differentiating his feelings at seventy-eight from those of Mortimer in Henry VI, part 2, who reflects disdainfully on his life to his young nephew, Richard, the ambitious Duke of York.5 Yet despite his obvious love of Shakespeare, Sanborn throughout his recollections stresses his much stronger affiliations with American writers, especially Hawthorne, Emerson, and Thoreau. Moreover, Dickinson’s remark quoted above is in sharp contrast to the sentiments of an 1852 letter by Ariana Smith Walker, who in August 1854 became Sanborn’s wife: 78 “He has had his Future who has found Shakespeare” 79 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [79], (2) Lines: 21 to ——— 6.76703pt ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TE [79], (2) I do not like the boastful comparisons which Americans sometimes make, of their own merits with those of other countries; but I think it unjust that America should not calmly and wisely acknowledge the genius and talent which she has, and which is enough to enable her to hold up her head among the nations, and have no need to blush. She is a child still, it is true; and we cannot expect of a child what we demand of the strong man; but if she is a child she is no weak, puny babe, but an infant Hercules who can strangle some serpents which would crush many a grown man.6 For Walker, America’s own literature must be regarded as pivotal, and although only in its infancy will in time be the world’s most powerful writing. Walker goes on to praise American poets, like Emerson, Whittier, and Lowell, and novelists, among them Stowe, Hawthorne, Sedgwick, and Cooper. She condemns Americans who do not appreciate the great writers they have, noting that because of Emerson Americans “may stand up erect among the thinking men of England and France and Germany, and not be ashamed.”7 When Ariana died, eight days after they were married, Sanborn became anxious that no restoration should be performed on his New Hampshire homestead because he remembered there reading Shakespeare to Ariana...