Elizabeth Arnold Poe

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Elizabeth Arnold Poe

Elizabeth "Eliza" Arnold Hopkins Poe (born Spring 1787 in London , † December 8, 1811 in Richmond ) was an English stage actress and mother of the American writers Henry Poe and Edgar Allan Poe .

Life

Early life

Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe was born in London in the spring of 1787 to Henry Arnold and the stage actress Elizabeth Arnold. Henry Arnold died in 1789. She and her mother sailed to Boston between November 1795 and January 1796 .

Career

She received her first role in 1796 when she was 9. She was described as talented at an early age. She received praise for the role of Biddy Bellair in William Garrick's Miss in Her Teens , which she played on November 25, 1796, in the Portland Herald:

"Miss Arnold, in Miss Biddy, exceeded all price .. Although a miss of only nine years old, her powers as an Actress will do credit to any of her sex of maturer age"

"Miss Arnold, in Miss Biddy, exceeded all praise. Although she is only nine, her talent as an actress would also do credit to anyone older of her sex."

Elizabeth married the musician Charles Tubbs, who sailed to Boston with the Arnolds. Together they joined the Charleston Comedians, an actor group led by Mr. Edgar. Her mother died while touring in North Carolina . Since she has not been recorded since 1798, it can be assumed that she died around this time.

After the death of her mother, she did not leave the Charleston Comedians. The largest of their tours was a performance at the Chestnut Street Theater in Philadelphia with an audience of 2,000. The Charleston Comedians moved to New York City in the summer of 1809 . Elizabeth Arnold Poe was widely praised. The Boston Gazette wrote on March 21, 1808 that it had "good intuition and natural talent." Her husband, however, was unpopular. He left her six weeks after arriving in New York. Little is known about his life after 1809. In the absence of her husband, their only daughter, Rosalie Poe, was born.

death

Tombstone

1811 she started in a house in Richmond in blood coughing . On October 11th she performed in her last play. She played Countess Wintersen in The Stranger .

Edgar and Rosalie were cared for by the Usher family of actors (possibly namesake for the short story The Fall of the House of Usher ), while Henry was cared for by his grandfather, David Poe senior . Because of her popularity she received other help: B. the Richmond Theater had performed a play, the proceeds of which were donated to them.

Elizabeth died on December 8th at the age of 24 with her children. It can be assumed that she died of tuberculosis . She was buried in St. John's Episcopal Church . Although the exact location of the grave is not known, the area in which the grave is likely to be located is marked by a tombstone.

Marriages and offspring

In 1802, at the age of about 15, Elizabeth Arnold married her also very young colleague Charles Hopkins in Alexandria , Virginia . Together they performed on the stages of different cities for the next three years. At the end of 1805, her husband fell ill and died (possibly of yellow fever ), as did two other ensemble members, finally at the age of possibly 20 years on October 26th of that year in Washington, DC The marriage was childless.

Less than six months later, on March 14, 1806, the 18-year-old widow in Richmond , Virginia, married David Poe, Jr. , another fellow actor who had joined the acting troupe in 1804 and toured with her ever since.

The marriage to David Poe, Jr. had (presumably) three children:

  1. William Henry Leonard (1807–1831), seaman and poet
  2. Edgar (1809-1849), writer
  3. Rosalie (1810–1874), David Poe Jr. Paternity is questioned in the specialist literature, however, because there is evidence that suggests another father.

After the death of their mother, at the age of only 23/24, the three children (4, 2 and 1 years old) were separated from each other and divided into three different families in two cities that were far apart: Henry stayed with his grandfather "General Poe" (1742-1816) and his wife Elizabeth (1756-1835) in Baltimore, Edgar was (1785-1829) Allan from childless merchant married couple, John (1779-1834) and Frances adopted and Rosalie was by the many children couple Jane and William Mackenzie (1775-1829) adopted. Edgar and Rosalie both lived in Richmond at first, but had little contact, the contact between the two brothers was lively.

Significance for the work of Edgar Allan Poe

His mother's early death likely inspired him to create the recurring figure of Lenore .

literature

  • Fredrick S. Frank, Anthony Main Line: The Poe Encyclopedia. Greenwood Press, Westport 1997, ISBN 0-313-27768-0 , p. 280.
  • Geddeth Smith: The Brief Career of Eliza Poe. , Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1988
  • Jeffrey Meyers : Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy , Cooper Square Press, New York, 1992 ISBN 0-8154-1038-7
  • Kenneth Silverman : Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. , "Eliza", New York et al. a. 1991, ISBN 0-06-092331-8
  • Dawn B. Sova: Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. , Checkmark Books, New York ISBN 0-8160-4161-X .
  • Daniel Stashower: The Beautiful Cigar Girl. Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder. Dutton Adult, New York, 2006.
  • John H. Ingram: Edgar Allan Poe: Life, Letters, and Opinions. , "Parentage", 1886
  • Arthur Hobson Quinn: Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography , "The Heritage", New York, London, 1941

Web links

Commons : Eliza Poe  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elizabeth "Eliza" Poe. National Park Service , accessed June 1, 2020 .
  2. ^ Daniel Hoffman: Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe. , P. 25, Louisiana State University Press, 1972, ISBN 0-8071-2321-8
  3. ^ Dwight Thomas and David K. Jackson: The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849. , P. 12, GK Hall & Co., New York, 1987, ISBN 0-7838-1401-1
  4. ^ Hervey Allen: Israfel: The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe. , P. 683, Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., New York, 1934
  5. ↑ Kenneth Silverman: Edgar A. Poe. Mornful and Never-ending Remembrance. P. 3.
  6. ^ Julian Symons : The Tell-Tale Heart. The Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Faber & Faber, London 1978, ISBN 0-571-11259-5 , p. 6.
  7. ↑ Dwight Thomas, David Kelly Jackson: The Poe Log. A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849. GK Hall, Boston 1987, ISBN 978-0-816187-34-8 , pp. XXXVII.
  8. ^ Liliane Weissberg : Edgar Allan Poe. Metzler, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-476-10204-1 , p. 19.
  9. ↑ Peter Ackroyd : Poe: A life cut short. Chatto & Windus, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-7011-6988-6 , p. 9.
  10. ↑ Peter Ackroyd: Poe: A life cut short. P. 11.
  11. ↑ Thomas Ollive Mabbott (Ed.): Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Volume I: Poems. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA 1969, p. 520.
  12. ^ Fredrick S. Frank, Anthony Magistrale: The Poe Encyclopedia. P. 280f.
  13. ^ Fredrick S. Frank, Anthony Magistrale: The Poe Encyclopedia. P. 15f.
  14. ^ Fredrick S. Frank, Anthony Magistrale: The Poe Encyclopedia. P. 216.
personal data
SURNAME Poe, Elizabeth Arnold
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Poe, Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins; Poe, Eliza Arnold Hopkins; Poe, Eliza
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English stage actress, mother Edgar Allan Poes
DATE OF BIRTH between March 1787 and June 1787
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH December 8, 1811
Place of death Richmond