Hawthorne were really original, he could not fail
of making himself felt by the public. But the fact is, he is _not_
original in any sense." He then attempts to show that Hawthorne's
peculiarity is derivative, and selects Tieck as the source of this
idiosyncrasy. Perhaps his insinuation may be the origin of Hawthorne's
effort to read some of the German author, while at the Old Manse,--an
attempt given up in great fatigue. Presently, the unhappy critic brings
up his favorite charge of plagiarism; and it happens, as usual, that the
writer borrowed from is Poe himself! The similarity which he discovers
is between "Howe's Masquerade" and "William Wilson," and is based upon
fancied resemblances of situation, which have not the least foundation
in the facts, and upon the occurrence in both stories of the phrase,
"Villain, unmuffle yourself!" In the latter half of his review, written
a little later, Mr. Poe takes quite another tack:--
"Of Mr. Hawthorne's tales we would say emphatically that they belong to
the highest region of art,--an art subservient to genius of a very lofty
order. We had supposed, with good reason for so supposing, that he had
been thrust into his present position by one of the impudent
_cliques_ who beset our literature; ... but we have been most
agreeably mistaken.... Mr. Hawthorne's distinctive trait is invention,
creation, imagination, originality,--a trait which, in the literature of
fiction, is positively worth all the rest. But the nature of the
originality .
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