his reproach and the
whole scandal of this season by attributing its excesses to his grief
and anxiety on account of his wife, whom, he says, he "loved as man
never loved before," a phrase the extravagance of which betrays its
insincerity. He describes how through the years of her illness he "loved
her more and more dearly and clung to her with the most desperate
pertinacity, until he became insane, with intervals of horrible
sanity.... During these fits of absolute unconsciousness I drank." And
thus he endeavors to explain away his pursuit of Mrs. Osgood!

It cannot but be noted that in all Poe's accounts of himself, and
especially of his feelings, is a palpable affectation and exaggeration,
with an extravagance of expression bordering on the tragic and
melo-dramatic; a style which is exemplified in some of his writings, and
may be equally imaginative in both cases.

Mrs. Osgood also, in her "_Reminiscences_," after Poe's death, sought to
clear both him and herself from the scandal of that summer by writing of
the affection and confidence existing between himself and his wife--"his
idolized Virginia"--as she saw them in their home, and declares her
belief that his wife was the only woman whom he had ever really loved.
In this we do not feel disposed to question her sincerity. Touching the
slander against herself, she wrote to a friend:

"You have proof in Mrs. Poe's letters to me and Poe's to Mrs. Ellet,
either of which would fully establish my innocence.... Neither of them,
as you know, were persons likely to take much trouble to prove a woman's
innocence, and it was only because she felt that I had been cruelly
wronged by _her mother_ and Mrs. Ellet that she impulsively rendered me
this justice."

Of course, the letter of Mrs. Poe here referred to was written at the
suggestion of her husband, but it is curious to observe how frankly and
_naively_ Mrs. Osgood--not now writing for the public--expresses her
real opinion of Poe and his wife.

Mrs. Osgood goes on to say: "Oh, it is too cruel that I, the only one of
all those women who did _not_ seek his acquaintance, should be sought
out after his death as the only victim to suffer from the slanders of
his mother."

From this it would appear that _after Poe's death_ the old scandal was
revived, and by Mrs. Clemm herself. About this time she was having
frequent interviews with Dr. Griswold in regard to Poe's papers, which
she had handed over to him for use in the _M