Morphy's Speech in England

Some time ago a  friend of mine stumbled across a newspaper article and sent the page to me. Not knowing his intentions, I never published it but I think sufficient time has passed.  In the newspaper, there were two articles on Morphy, one directly following the other just as below: 

Sacramento Daily Union
June 10, 1859

MORPHY'S SPEECH IN ENGLAND—At the festival given in London by several noble gentlemen on the departure of Morphy from England, he said, in reply to a toast : I hardly know, my lord and gentlemen, in what terms to acknowledge the high compliment of which I this day find myself the unworthy object. There are occasions when a language must be spoken of far more difficult utterance than the ordinary speech which obtains among men—momenta when the full heart can find no expressions commensurate with the intensity of its feelings—when every word seems cold—when language itself becomes powerless. Of such, I feel, is the present occasion. When I look before and around me, and see gathered in my honor so select an assembly of chess loving gentlemen, I feel that mere words could never adequately express my deep sense of indebtedness. The only return I can make is to tender to each and every gentleman here present my warm, and I would beg you to believe, my heartfelt acknowledgments. To those gentlemen with whom I have had the honor to contest a few friendly battles over the checkered board, I would also express my profound obligation. Their kindness, their unvarying courtesy, their demeanor, always marked by the most polite attentions, I shall not easily forget. Let me hope that they who for a few brief hours were foes in the mimic strife have become warm personal ! friends. To have conquered their esteem is my proudest boast. And now, gentlemen, after a sojourn of near twelve months in the Old, I must seek my far home in the New World. Gladly would I here remain, in company so congenial, but the call of duty most be obeyed. To say that I regret the few months spent in Europe would be saying but little. What may be reserved for me in the future I will not venture to divine ; but this I do feel that one of the most delightful episodes of my life is fast vanishing into the past—Come what may—be pleasure or pain my lot hereafter—the remembrance of the golden days passed in your midst will ever be dearly treasured here. Should fortune smile on my future career, I shall dwell with delight on the auspicious morn that heralded the bright and happy day, and should adversity—as soon as it may—lower around my pathway of life, I shall derive from the remembrance of other and better days a consolation of which nothing shall deprive me.

"Let fate do her worst, there are relics of Joy
Bright dreams of the east that she cannot destroy,
That come in the night time of sorrow and care,
And bring back the features that Joy used to wear.

"Long, long he my heart with such memories filled
Like the vase In which roles have once been distilled;
You may break, you may shatter the vase if you will,
But the scent of the roses will hang round it still."

MORPHY AT HOME—In the bustle of the Anniversaries, the excitement incident to the recent news from Europe, and the pertinacity of the northeast " May storm," the arrival home of Paul Morphy has passed almost unrecorded. Morphy arrived in the Persia on Wednesday morning. Morphy was met at the steamer by his intimate friends, Litchtenheim and Daniel W. Fiske, with several members from the various chess clubs in this city, and escorted to his quarters at the St. Nicholas Hotel, where be was waited upon by C. D. Mead, President of the New York Chess Club ; Frederick Perrin, of the Brooklyn Chess Club ; W. J. A. Fuller, J. L. Graham, Jr., and many other distinguished admirers of the game of chess and of him who has so ably proved himself its master. In the evening Morphy and a few friends partook of a dinner at the Metropolitan Hotel. It was impromptu in its character, and intended only as a social courtesy from friends to a friend. At the close of the repast the party adjourned to the elegant rooms of the New York Chess Club, where Morphy engaged in two or three games with Perrin, President of the Brooklyn Club, giving that gentle. man the advantage of a knight and winning all but one. Yesterday Morphy was engaged in receivingIn the n calls from his friends, for the moat of the day, and last evening made visits in company with Fuller. He is rapidly recovering from the fatigues of his recent voyage and excessive mental exertion for the past few months, and appeared in excellent spirits. The stay of Morphy in this city, it is expected, will be prolonged to three or four weeks. The contemplated testimonial of the New York Chess Club will be made on on or about the 20th inst., after which Morphy visits Boston, where a public dinner has been tendered him by several distinguished gentlemen. His headquarters will be in this city until his departure for New Orleans. The testimonial is nearly complete; the chessmen have been ready for several weeks, and have probably never been equaled for costly elegance and perfection of workmanship. They are composed of gold and silver and precious stones. The board will be finished by Saturday, and has exhausted the resources of art and skill in its production. The splendid American match, which forms a part of the testimonial, will be ready during the present week, and will form an unique and specially attractive element in the presentation. During his stay in this city, Morphy's friends will have frequent opportunities of witnessing his play at the rooms of the New York Chess Club, arrangements having been made for that purpose by members of the Club.—New York Times, May 13th.

very nice article .. don't quite understand your confusion bg .. goodwill towards all .. cg

When I read articles from that time period I feel it's more the opposite. Using 10 words to say what can be said in 2 is a fault not a skill. Brevity is the soul of wit, which Shakespeare points out a few hundred years before Morphy's time.

Having said that, Morphy speaks better than a typical news paper clipping from that period. I'm sure he was a bright young man.

The fact that Morphy pulled that speech  from his cuff so to speak is amazing in of itself. I wish he'd lived longer, sad

Brevity has its place but isn't the standard against which to gauge the written or spoken word.  Hamlet ran on for 33 lines of mostly iambic pentameter debating suicide. He could have gotten to the point in far fewer lines but we'd have been left without one of the most poignant of soliloquies.  Thankfully Shakespeare never practiced what he penned.

Morphy 2019: “Hey bitches, I totally owned your asses! LOL!”

ok

Terrific article !!! I get so much joy reading your chess history articles batgirl , Morphy as a subject is fascinating and his use of words in the above London speech is Lincoln like  .

I wonder how much Morphy stuff is still out there? hidden away ; What a terrible shame the photo's of Morphy & Anderssen were lost by fire (not sure), Have you done an article specifically about de Kermur Sire de Legal who lived to be 90 ? there doesn't seem to be a lot written in English about him.

Even so, out of a million written and spoken lines since them, the adage has lived on and is well known today.

And having a character in a play drone on and on is different from speeches in real life.

Morphy was obviously intelligent, and I don't dislike his speech. The people listening at the time likely enjoyed it, but as is typical I disagree with @ironic_u 's assessment.

Beautiful stuff as always. I love Victorian English.😁👍

very nice article,Powerless beautiful stuff.

Once again , many thanks batgirl.

By all accounts , it would seem that Paul M would have made a splendid playwright , perhaps of the same caliber as the Bard ? 

Such eloquence.

With regards to a previous comment about re-incarnation , I am of the opinion that Capablanca is indeed the re-incarnation of Paul Morphy , AND.....wait for it....................Fischer is the re-incarnation of Capablanca.

Think about it.

There are many connections ( eg , New York ....playing accuracy...moey  "troubles" etc )

IF re-incarnation is true , then it may be entirely possible.

There are gaps between Paul's death and Capablanca's birth , and Jose's death and Bobby's birth.

money "troubles"

cool cool cool cool

I wasn't really commenting on his speech as much as your assessment of how "language skills have lessened."

I wonder if Staunton was there.

Staunton ?  Probably still working on his openings or having a gin and tonic with Daniel Harrwitz and bitching about Paul .

что вы говорите ?????

Staunton's still alive ?!!

Morphy the same caliber as Shakespeare? I think you presume too much there. The lyrical piece at the end is a Thomas Moore quote.