+
+ Study Webtext
+ "Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street " (1853)
+ Herman Melville
+ 
+
+ Prepared by Ann
+ Woodlief, Virginia Commonwealth University
+ Click on text in red for hypertext notes and questions
+
+ am a man. The nature of my
+ for the last thirty years has brought me into more than ordinary contact
+ with what an interesting and somewhat singular set of men of whom as yet
+ nothing that I know of has ever been written:-- I mean the
+ or .
+ I have known very many of them, professionally and privately, and if I
+ pleased, could relate divers histories, at which good-natured gentlemen
+ might smile, and sentimental souls might weep. But I waive the biographies
+ of all other scriveners for a few
+ in the life of Bartleby, who was a scrivener the
+ I ever saw or heard of. While of other law-copyists I might write the
+ , of Bartleby nothing of that sort can be done. I believe that
+ no materials exist for a full and of this man. It is an irreparable loss to literature. Bartleby
+ was one of those beings of whom nothing is ascertainable, except from
+ the original sources, and in his case those are very small. What my own
+ astonished eyes saw of Bartleby, that is all I know of him, except, indeed,
+ one vague report which will appear in the .
+ Ere introducing the scrivener, as he first appeared to me, it is fit
+ I make some mention of myself, my employees, my business, my chambers,
+ and general surroundings; because some such description is indispensable
+ to an adequate understanding of the chief character about to be presented.
+ Imprimis: I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been
+ filled with a profound conviction that . Hence, though I belong to a profession
+ proverbially energetic and nervous, even to turbulence, at times, yet
+ nothing of that sort have I ever suffered to
+ my peace. I am one of those unambitious lawyers who never addresses
+ a jury, or in any way draws down public applause; but in the cool tranquillity
+ of a snug retreat, do a among rich men's bonds and mortgages and title-deeds. The late , a personage little given to poetic enthusiasm, had
+ no hesitation in pronouncing my to be prudence; my next, method. I do not , but simply record the fact, that I was not
+ unemployed in my profession by the last John Jacob Astor; a name which,
+ I admit, I love to repeat, for it hath a rounded and orbicular sound to
+ it, and I will freely add, that I was the late John Jacob Astor's good opinion.
+ Some time prior to the period at which this little history begins, my
+ avocations had been largely increased. The good old office, in the State of New York, of a Master in Chancery,
+ had been conferred upon me. It was not a very arduous office, but very
+ pleasantly remunerative. ; much more seldom indulge in dangerous
+ indignation at wrongs and outrages; but I must be permitted to be rash
+ here and declare, that I consider the sudden and violent abrogation of
+ the office of Master of Chancery, by the new Constitution, as a----; inasmuch as I had counted upon a life-lease of the
+ profits, whereas I only received those of a few short years. But this is
+ .
+ My chambers were up stairs at No.--Wall-street. At one end they looked
+ upon the white wall of the interior of a spacious sky-light shaft, penetrating
+ the building from top to bottom. This view might have been considered rather
+ tame than otherwise, But if so, the view
+ from the other end of my chambers offered, at least, a contrast, if nothing
+ more. In that direction my windows commanded an unobstructed view of a
+ black by age and everlasting shade; which wall required
+ no spy-glass to bring out its lurking beauties, but for the benefit of
+ all near-sighted spectators, was pushed up to within ten feet of my window
+ panes. Owing to the great height of the surrounding buildings, and my chambers
+ being on the second floor, the interval between this wall and mine not
+ a little resembled a huge square .
+ At the period just preceding the advent of Bartleby, I had two persons
+ as copyists in my employment, and a promising lad as an office-boy. First,
+ Turkey; second, Nippers; third, Ginger Nut.These may seem names, the like
+ of which are not usually found in the Directory. In truth they were , mutually conferred upon
+ each other by my three clerks, and were deemed expressive of their respective
+ persons or characters. Turkey was a short, pursy Englishman of about my
+ own age, that is, somewhere not far from sixty. In the morning, one might
+ say, his face was of a fine florid hue, but after twelve o'clock, meridian--
+ -- it blazed like a grate full of Christmas coals;
+ and continued blazing--but, as it were, with a gradual wane--till 6 o'clock,
+ P.M. or thereabouts, after which I saw no more of the proprietor of the
+ face, which gaining its meridian with the sun, seemed to set with it, to
+ rise, culminate, and decline the following day, with the like regularity
+ and undiminished glory. There are many singular coincidences I have known
+ in the course of my life, not the least among which was the fact that exactly
+ when Turkey displayed his fullest beams from his red and radiant countenance,
+ just then, too, at the critical moment, began the daily period when I considered
+ his business capacities as seriously disturbed for the remainder of the
+ twenty-four hours. Not that he was absolutely idle, or averse to business
+ then; far from it. The difficulty was, he was apt to be altogether . There was a strange, inflamed, flurried, flighty
+ recklessness of activity about him. He would be incautious in dipping his
+ pen into his inkstand. All his blots upon my documents, were dropped there
+ after twelve o'clock, meridian. Indeed, not only would he be reckless and
+ sadly given to making blots in the afternoon, but some days he went further,
+ and was rather . At such times, too, his face
+ flamed with augmented blazonry, as if had been heaped on anthracite. He made an unpleasant
+ racket with his chair; spilled his sand-box; in mending his pens, impatiently
+ split them all to pieces, and threw them on the floor in a sudden passion;
+ stood up and leaned over his table, boxing his papers about in a most
+ like him. Nevertheless,
+ as he was in many ways a most valuable person to me, and all the time before
+ twelve o'clock, meridian, was the quickest, steadiest creature too, accomplishing
+ a great deal of work in a style not easy to be matched--for these reasons,
+ to overlook his eccentricities, though indeed, occasionally,
+ I remonstrated with him. I did this very gently, however, because, though
+ the civilest, nay, the blandest and most reverential of men in the morning,
+ yet in the afternoon he was disposed, upon provocation, to be slightly
+ rash with his tongue, in fact, insolent. Now, valuing his morning services
+ as I did, and resolved not to lose them; yet, at the same time made uncomfortable
+ by his inflamed ways after twelve o'clock; and being a , unwilling by my admonitions to call forth unseemingly
+ retorts from him; I took upon me, one Saturday noon (he was always worse
+ on Saturdays), to hint to him, very kindly, that perhaps now that he was
+ growing old, it might be well to abridge his labors; in short, he need
+ not come to my chambers after twelve o'clock, but, dinner over, had best
+ go home to his lodgings and rest himself till tea-time. But no; he insisted
+ upon his afternoon . His countenance became
+ intolerably fervid, as he oratorically assured me--gesticulating with a
+ long ruler at the other end of the room--that if his services in the morning
+ were useful, how indispensible, then, in the afternoon?
+ "" said Turkey on this occasion, "I consider
+ myself your right-hand man. In the morning I but marshal and deploy my
+ columns; but in the afternoon , and gallantly charge the foe,
+ thus!"--and he made a with the ruler.
+ "But the blots, Turkey," intimated I.
+ "True,--but, with submission, sir, behold these hairs! I am getting old.
+ Surely, sir, a blot or two of a warm afternoon is not the page--is honorable.
+ With submission, sir, we both are getting old."
+ was hardly to be resisted. At
+ all events, I saw that go he would not. So I made up my mind to let him
+ stay, resolving, nevertheless, to see to it, that during the afternoon
+ he had to do with my less important papers.
+ Nippers, the second on my list, was a whiskered, sallow, and, upon the
+ whole, rather young man of about
+ five and twenty. I always deemed him the victim of two evil powers-- ambition
+ and indigestion. The ambition was evinced by a certain impatience of the
+ duties of a an unwarrantable usurpation of strictly profession
+ affairs, such as the of legal documents. The indigestion seemed betokened
+ in an occasional nervous testiness and grinning irritability, causing the
+ teeth to audibly grind together over mistakes committed in copying; unnecessary
+ maledictions, hissed, rather than spoken, in the heat of business; and
+ especially by a with the height of the table where he worked.
+ Though of a very ingenious mechanical turn, Nippers could never get this
+ table to suit him. He put chips under it, blocks of various sorts, bits
+ of pasteboard, and at last went so far as to attempt an exquisite adjustment
+ by final pieces of folded blotting-paper. But no invention would answer.
+ If, for the sake of easing his back, he brought the table lid at a sharp
+ angle well up towards his chin, and wrote there like a man using the steep
+ roof of a Dutch house for his desk:--then he declared that it stopped the
+ circulation in his arms. If now he lowered the table to his waistbands,
+ and stooped over it in writing, then there was a sore aching in his back.
+ In short, the truth of the matter was, Nippers knew not what he wanted.
+ Or, , it was to be rid of a scrivener's table
+ altogether. Among the manifestations of his diseased ambition was a fondness
+ he had for receiving visits from certain ambiguous-looking fellows in seedy
+ coats, whom he called his clients. Indeed I was aware that not only was
+ he, at times, considerable of a ward-politician, but he occasionally did
+ at the Justices' courts, and was not unknown on the
+ steps of the Tombs. I have good reason to believe, however, that one individual
+ who called upon him at my chambers, and who, with a grand air, he insisted
+ was his client, was no other than a dun, and the alleged title-deed, a
+ bill. But with all his failings, and the annoyances he caused me, Nippers,
+ like his compatriot Turkey, was a very to me; wrote a neat, swift hand; and, when he chose,
+ was not deficient in a gentlemanly sort of deportment. Added to this, he
+ in a gentlemanly sort of way; and so, incidentally,
+ reflected credit upon my chambers. Whereas with respect to Turkey, I had
+ much ado to keep him from being a reproach to me. His clothes were apt
+ to look oily and smell of eating-houses. He wore his pantaloons very loose
+ and baggy in summer. His coats were execrable; his hat not to be handled.
+ But while the was a thing of indifference to
+ me, inasmuch as his natural civility and deference, as a dependent Englishman,
+ always led him to doff it the moment he entered the room, yet his coat
+ was another matter. Concerning his coats, I reasoned with him; but with
+ no effect. The truth was, I suppose, that a man with so small an income,
+ could not afford to sport such a lustrous face and a lustrous coat at one
+ and the same time. As Nippers once observed, Turkey's money went chiefly
+ for red ink. One winter day with a highly-respectable looking coat
+ of my own, a padded gray coat, of a most comfortable warmth, and which
+ buttoned straight up from the knee to the neck. I thought Turkey would
+ appreciate the favor, and abate his rashness and obstreperousness of afternoons.
+ But no. I verily believe that buttoning himself up in so downy and blanket-like
+ a coat had a pernicious effect upon him; upon the same principle that too
+ much oats are bad for horses. In fact, precisely as a rash, restive , so Turkey felt his coat. It made
+ him insolent. He was a man whom prosperity harmed.
+ Though concerning the self-indulgent habits of Turkey I had my own private
+ surmises, yet touching Nippers I was well persuaded that whatever might
+ be his faults in other respects, he was, at least, a temperate young man.
+ But indeed, nature herself seemed to have been his , and at his birth charged
+ him so thoroughly with an irritable, brandy-like disposition, that all
+ subsequent potations were needless. When I consider how, amid the stillness
+ of my chambers, Nippers would sometimes impatiently rise from his seat,
+ and stooping over his table, spread his arms wide apart, seize the whole
+ desk, and move it, and jerk it, with a grim, grinding motion on the floor,
+ as if the table were a , intent on thwarting and vexing him; I plainly
+ perceive that for Nippers, brandy and water were altogether superfluous.
+ It was fortunate for me that, owing to its course--indigestion--the irritability
+ and consequent nervousness of Nippers, were mainly observable in the morning,
+ while in the afternoon he was comparatively mild. So that Turkey's paroxysms
+ only coming on about twelve o'clock, I never had to do with their eccentricities
+ at one time. Their fits relieved each other like guards. When Nippers'
+ was on, Turkey's was off, and vice versa. This was a under the circumstances.
+ Ginger Nut, the third on my list, was a lad some twelve years old. His
+ father was a carman, ambitious of seeing his son on the bench instead of
+ a cart, before he died. So he sent him to my office as a student at law,
+ errand boy, and cleaner and sweeper, at the rate of one dollar a week.
+ He had a little desk to himself, but he did not use it much. Upon inspection,
+ the drawer exhibited a great array of the shells of various sorts of nuts.
+ Indeed, to this quick-witted youth the whole noble science of the law was
+ . Not the least among the employments of Ginger
+ Nut, as well as one which he discharged with the most alacrity, was his
+ duty as cake and apple purveyor for Turkey and Nippers. Copying law papers
+ being proverbially a sort of business, my two scriveners were fain to moisten
+ their mouths very often with Spitzenbergs to be had at the numerous stalls
+ nigh the Custom House and Post Office. Also, they sent Ginger Nut very
+ frequently for that peculiar cake--small, flat, round, and very spicy--after
+ which he had been named by them. Of a cold morning when business was but
+ dull, Turkey would gobble up scores of these cakes, as if they were mere
+ wafers--indeed they sell them at the rate of six or eight for a penny--the
+ scrape of his pen blending with the crunching of the crisp particles in
+ his mouth. Of all the fiery afternoon blunders and flurried rashnesses
+ of Turkey, was his once moistening a ginger-cake between his lips, and
+ clapping it on to a mortgage for a seal. of dismissing him then. But he mollified
+ me by making an oriental bow, and saying--"With submission, sir, it was
+ generous of me in stationery on my own account."
+ Now my original business--that of a , and drawer-up of recondite documents of
+ all sorts--was considerably increased by receiving the master's office.
+ There was now great work for scriveners. Not only must I push the clerks
+ already with me, but I must have additional help. In answer to my advertisement,
+ a motionless young man one morning, stood upon my office threshold, the
+ door being open, for it was summer. I can see that figure now--, pitiably respectable, incurably forlorn! It was Bartleby.
+ After a few words touching his qualifications, I engaged him, glad to
+ have among of copyists a man of so an aspect, which I thought might operate beneficially
+ upon the flighty temper of Turkey, and the fiery one of Nippers.
+ I should have stated before that ground glass folding-doors divided my
+ premises into two parts, one of which was occupied by my scriveners, the
+ other by myself. I threw open these doors, or closed them. I resolved
+ to assign Bartleby a corner by the folding-doors, but on my side of them,
+ so as to have this quiet man within easy call, in case any was to be done. I placed his desk close up to a small
+ side window in that part of the room, a window which originally had afforded
+ a lateral view of certain grimy back-yards and bricks, but which, owing
+ to commanded at present no view at all, though it
+ gave some light. Within three feet of the panes was a wall, and the light
+ came down from far above, between two lofty buildings, as from a very small
+ opening in a dome. Still further to a satisfactory arrangement, I procured
+ , which might entirely isolate Bartleby
+ from my sight, though not remove him from . And thus, in a manner, privacy and society were
+
+
+ At first Bartleby did an extraordinary quantity of writing. As if long
+ for something to copy, he seemed to himself on my documents. There
+ was no pause for digestion. He ran a day and night line, copying by sun-light
+ and by candle-light. I should have been quite delighted with his application,
+ had be been . But he wrote on silently, palely,
+
+ It is, of course, an indispensable part of a scrivener's business to verify
+ the accuracy of his copy, word by word. Where there are two or more scriveners
+ in an office, they assist each other in this examination, one reading from
+ the copy, the other holding the original. It is a affair. I can readily imagine
+ that to some temperaments it would be altogether
+ intolerable. For example, I cannot credit that the would have contentedly sat down with Bartleby
+ to examine a law document of, say five hundred pages, closely written in
+ a crimpy hand.
+ Now and then, in the haste of business, it had been my habit to assist
+ in comparing some brief document myself, calling Turkey or Nippers for
+ this purpose. One object I had in placing Bartleby so handy to me behind
+ the screen, was to avail myself of his services on such . It was on the third day, I think, of his being
+ with me, and before any necessity had arisen for having his own writing
+ examined, that, being much hurried to complete a small affair I had in
+ hand, I abruptly called to Bartleby. In my haste and , I sat with my head bent
+ over the original on my desk, and my right hand sideways, and somewhat
+ nervously extended with the copy, so that immediately upon emerging from
+ his retreat, Bartleby might it and proceed to business without
+ the least delay.
+ In this very attitude did I sit when I called to him, rapidly stating
+ what it was I wanted him to do--namely, to examine a small paper with me.
+ Imagine my surprise, nay, my consternation, when without moving from his
+ privacy, Bartleby in a singularly , replied,
+
+ I sat awhile in perfect silence, rallying my stunned faculties. Immediately
+ it occurred to me that my ears had deceived me, or Bartleby had entirely
+ misunderstood my meaning. I repeated my request in the clearest tone I
+ could assume. But in quite as clear a one came the previous reply, "I would
+ prefer not to."
+ "Prefer not to," echoed I, rising in high excitement, and crossing the
+ room with a stride, "What do you mean? Are you ? I want you to help me
+ compare this sheet here--take it," and I thrust it towards him.
+ "I would prefer not to," said he.
+ I looked at him steadfastly. His face was leanly composed; his gray eye
+ dimly calm. Not a wrinkle of agitation rippled him. Had there been the
+ least uneasiness, anger, impatience or impertinence in his manner; in other
+ words, had there been any thing about him, doubtless him from the premises. But
+ as it was, I should have as soon thought of turning my pale out of doors. I stood gazing at him awhile,
+ as he went on with his own writing, and then reseated myself at my desk.
+ This is very strange, thought I. What had best do? But my business hurried
+ me. I concluded to forget the matter for the present, reserving it for
+ my future leisure. So calling Nippers from the other room, the paper was
+ speedily examined.
+ A few days after this, Bartleby concluded four lengthy documents, being
+ quadruplicates of a week's testimony taken before me in my High Court of
+ Chancery. It became necessary to examine them. It was an important suit,
+ and great accuracy was imperative. Having all things arranged I called
+ Turkey, Nippers and Ginger Nut from the next room, meaning to place the
+ four copies in the hands of my four clerks, while I should read from the
+ original. Accordingly Turkey, Nippers and Ginger Nut had taken their seats
+ in a row, each with his document in hand, when I called to Bartleby to
+ join this .
+ "Bartleby! quick, I am waiting."
+ I heard a low scrape of his chair legs on the unscraped floor, and soon
+ he appeared standing at the entrance of his
+
+ "What is wanted?" said he mildly.
+ "The copies, the copies," said I hurriedly. "We are going to examine them.
+ There"--and I held towards him the fourth quadruplicate.
+ "I would prefer not to," he said, and gently disappeared behind the screen.
+ For a few moments I was turned into standing at the head of my seated column
+ of clerks. Recovering myself, I towards the screen, and demanded
+ the reason for such extraordinary conduct.
+ "Why do you refuse?"
+ "I would prefer not to."
+ With any other man I should have scorned all further words,
+ and thrust him ignominiously from my presence. But there was something
+ about Bartleby that not only strangely disarmed me, but in a wonderful
+ manner touched and disconcerted me. I began to reason with him.
+ "These are your own copies we are about to examine. It is labor saving
+ to you, because one examination will answer for your four papers. Every copyist is bound to help examine his
+ copy. Is it not so? Will you not speak? Answer!"
+ "I prefer not to," he replied in a flute-like tone. It seemed to me that
+ while I had been addressing him, he carefully revolved every statement
+ that I made; fully comprehended the meaning; could not gainsay the irresistible
+ conclusion; but, at the same time, some paramount consideration prevailed
+ with him to reply as he did.
+ "You are decided, then, not to comply with my request--a request made
+ according to common usage and common sense?"
+ He briefly gave me to understand that on that point Yes: his decision was irreversible.
+ It is not seldom the case that when a man is in some unprecedented and
+ violently unreasonable way, in his own plainest faith. He begins, as
+ it were, vaguely to surmise that, wonderful as it may be, all the justice
+ and all the reason is on the other side. Accordingly, if any disinterested
+ persons are present, he turns to them for some reinforcement for his own
+
+
+ "Turkey," said I, "what do you think of this? Am I not right?"
+ "With submission, sir," said Turkey, with his blandest tone, "I think
+ that you are."
+ "Nippers," said I, "what do you think of it?"
+ "I think I should kick him out of the office."
+ (The reader of nice perceptions will here perceive that, it being morning,
+ Turkey's answer is couched in polite and tranquil terms, but Nippers replies
+ in ill-tempered ones. Or, to repeat a previous sentence, Nipper's ugly
+ mood was on duty, and Turkey's off.)
+ "Ginger Nut," said I, willing to enlist the smallest suffrage in my behalf,
+ "what do you think of it?"
+ "I think, sir, he's a little luny," replied Ginger Nut, with a
+ grin.
+ "You hear what they say," said I, turning towards the screen, "come forth
+ and ."
+ But he vouchsafed no reply. I pondered a moment in sore perplexity. But
+ once more business hurried me. I determined to postpone the consideration
+ of this dilemma to my future leisure. With a little trouble we made out
+ to examine the papers without Bartleby, though at every page or two, Turkey
+ deferentially dropped his opinion that this proceeding was quite out of
+ the common; while Nippers, twitching in his chair with a dyspeptic nervousness,
+ ground out between his set teeth occasional hissing maledictions against
+ the stubborn oaf behind the screen. And for his (Nipper's) part, this was
+ the first and the last time he would do another man's business without
+ pay.
+ Meanwhile Bartleby sat in his hermitage, oblivious to every thing but
+ his own peculiar business there.
+ Some days passed, the scrivener being employed upon another lengthy work.
+ His late remarkable conduct led me to regard his way narrowly. I observed
+ that he never went to dinner; indeed that he never went any where. As yet
+ I had never of my personal knowledge known him to be outside of my office.
+ He was a in the corner. At about eleven o'clock though, in
+ the morning, I noticed that Ginger Nut would advance toward the opening
+ in Bartleby's screen, as if silently beckoned thither by a gesture invisible
+ to me where I sat. That boy would then leave the office jingling a few
+ pence, and reappear with a handful of ginger-nuts which he delivered in
+ the hermitage, receiving two of the cakes for his trouble.
+ He lives, then, on ginger-nuts, thought I; never eats a dinner, properly
+ speaking; he must be a vegetarian then, but no; he never eats even vegetables,
+ he . My mind then ran on in reveries
+ concerning the probable effects upon the human constitution of living entirely
+ on ginger-nuts. Ginger-nuts are so called because they contain ginger as
+ one of their peculiar constituents, and the final flavoring one. Now what
+ was ginger? A hot, spicy thing. Was Bartleby hot and spicy? Not at all.
+ Ginger, then, had no effect upon Bartleby. Probably
+
+ Nothing so aggravates an earnest person as a If the individual so resisted be of a not inhumane
+ temper, and the resisting one perfectly harmless in his passivity; then,
+ in the better moods of the former, he will endeavor charitably to what proves impossible to be solved by
+ his judgment. Even so, for the most part, I regarded Bartleby and his ways.
+ Poor fellow! thought I, he means no mischief; it is plain he intends no
+ insolence; his aspect sufficiently evinces that his eccentricities are
+ involuntary. . I can get along with him. If I turn him
+ away, the chances are he will fall in with some less indulgent employer,
+ and then he will be rudely treated, and perhaps driven forth miserably
+ to starve. Yes. Here a delicious self-approval. To befriend
+ Bartleby; to humor him in his strange willfulness, will cost me little
+ or nothing, while I lay up in my soul what will eventually prove a for my conscience. But this mood was not invariable
+ with me. The passiveness of Bartleby sometimes irritated me. I felt strangely
+ goaded on to encounter him in new opposition, to elicit some angry spark
+ from him answerable to my own. But indeed I might as well have essayed
+ to strike fire with my knuckles against a bit of . But one afternoon the evil impulse in me mastered
+ me, and the following little scene ensued:
+ "Bartleby," said I, "when those papers are all copied, I will compare
+ them with you."
+ "I would prefer not to."
+ "How? Surely you do not mean to persist in that "
+ No answer.
+ I threw open the folding-doors near by, and turning upon Turkey and Nippers,
+ exclaimed in an excited manner--
+ "He says, a second time, he won't examine his papers. What do you think
+ of it, Turkey?"
+ It was afternoon, be it remembered. Turkey sat glowing like a brass boiler,
+ his bald head steaming, his hands reeling among his blotted papers.
+ "Think of it?" roared Turkey; "I think I'll just step behind his screen,
+ and black his eyes for him!"
+ So saying, Turkey rose to his feet and threw his arms into a . He was hurrying away to make good his promise,
+ when I detained him, alarmed at the effect of incautiously rousing Turkey's
+ combativeness after dinner.
+ "Sit down, Turkey," said I, "and hear what Nippers has to say. What do
+ you think of it, Nippers? Would I not be justified in immediately dismissing
+ Bartleby?"
+ "Excuse me, that is for you to decide, sir. I think his conduct quite
+ unusual, and indeed unjust, as regards Turkey and myself. But it may only
+ be a passing whim."
+ "Ah," exclaimed I, "you have strangely changed your mind then--you speak
+ very gently of him now."
+ "All beer," cried Turkey; "gentleness is effects of beer--Nippers and
+ I dined together to-day. You see how gentle I am, sir. Shall I go and black
+ his eyes?"
+ "You refer to Bartleby, I suppose. No, not to-day, Turkey," I replied;
+ "pray, put up your fists."
+ I closed the doors, and again advanced towards Bartleby. I felt additional
+ incentives tempting me to my fate. I remembered that Bartleby
+ never left the office.
+ "Bartleby," said I, "Ginger Nut is away; just step round to the , won't you? (it was but a three minutes walk,) and
+ see if there is any thing for me."
+ "I would prefer not to."
+ "You will not?"
+ "I prefer not."
+ I to my desk, and sat there
+ in a deep study. My returned. Was there any other thing in which I
+ could procure myself to be repulsed by this lean,
+ penniless with?--? What added thing is there, perfectly reasonable,
+ that he will be sure to refuse to do?
+ "Bartleby!"
+ No answer.
+ "Bartleby," in a louder tone.
+ No answer.
+ "Bartleby," I roared.
+ Like , agreeably to the laws of magical invocation,
+ at the third summons, he appeared at the entrance of his hermitage.
+ "Go to the next room, and tell Nippers to come to me."
+ "I prefer not to," he and slowly said, and mildly disappeared.
+ "Very good, Bartleby," said I, in a quiet sort of serenely severe self-possessed
+ tone, intimating the unalterable purpose of some very close at hand. At the moment I half intended
+ something of the kind. But upon the whole, as it was drawing towards my
+ dinner-hour, I thought it best to put on my hat and walk home for the day,
+ .
+ The conclusion of this whole business was
+ that it soon became a fixed fact of my chambers, that a pale young scrivener,
+ by the name of Bartleby, had a desk there; that he copied for me at the
+ usual rate of (one hundred words); but he was permanently
+ exempt from examining the work done by him, that duty being transferred
+ to Turkey and Nippers, one of compliment doubtless to their superior acuteness;
+ moreover, said Bartleby was never on any account to be dispatched on the
+ most trivial errand of any sort; and that even if entreated to take upon
+ him such a matter, it was generally understood that he would prefer not
+ to--in other words, that he would refuse
+
+ 32 As days passed on, I became considerably reconciled to Bartleby. His
+ steadiness, his freedom from all dissipation, his incessant industry (except
+ when he chose to throw himself into a standing revery behind his screen),
+ his great stillness, his unalterableness of demeanor under all circumstances,
+ made him . One prime thing was this,--he was
+ always there;--first in the morning, continually through the day, and the
+ last at night. I had a singular confidence in his honesty. I felt my most
+ precious papers perfectly safe in his hands. Sometimes to be sure I could
+ not, , avoid falling into sudden spasmodic
+ passions with him. For it was exceeding difficult to bear in mind all the
+ time those strange peculiarities, privileges, and unheard of exemptions,
+ forming the tacit stipulations on Bartleby's part under which he remained
+ in my office. Now and then, in the eagerness of dispatching pressing business,
+ I would inadvertently summon Bartleby, in a short, rapid tone, to put his
+ finger, say, on the incipient tie of a bit of red tape with which I was
+ about compressing some papers. Of course, from behind the screen the usual
+ answer, "I prefer not to," was sure to come; and then, with the common infirmities of our
+ nature, refrain from bitterly exclaiming upon such perverseness--such unreasonableness.
+ However, every added repulse of this sort which I received only the probability of my repeating the inadvertence.
+ Here is must be said, that according to the custom of most legal gentlemen
+ occupying chambers in densely-populated law buildings, there were several
+ keys to my door. One was kept by a woman residing in the attic, which person
+ weekly scrubbed and daily swept and dusted my apartments. Another was kept
+ by Turkey for convenience sake. The third I sometimes carried in my own
+ pocket. The fourth I knew not who had.
+ Now, one Sunday morning I happened to go to Trinity Church, , and finding myself rather early
+ on the ground, I thought I would walk round to my chambers for a while.
+ Luckily I had my key with me; but upon applying it to the lock, I found
+ it resisted by something inserted from the inside. Quite surprised, I called
+ out; when to my consternation a key was turned from within; and thrusting
+ his lean visage at me, and holding the door ajar, of Bartleby appeared, in his shirt sleeves, and
+ otherwise in a strangely tattered dishabille, saying quietly that he was
+ sorry, but he was deeply engaged just then, and--preferred not admitting
+ me at present. In a brief word or two, he moreover added, that perhaps
+ I had better walk round the block two or three times, and by that time
+ he would probably have concluded his affairs. Now, the utterly of Bartleby, tenanting my law-chambers of a Sunday
+ morning, with his gentlemanly nonchalance,
+ yet withal firm and self-possessed, had such a strange effect upon me,
+ that incontinently I slunk away from my own door, and did as desired. But
+ not without sundry twinges of impotent rebellion against the mild effrontery
+ of this unaccountable scrivener. Indeed, it was his wonderful mildness
+ chiefly, which not only disarmed me, but me, as it were. For I consider
+ that one, for the time, is a sort of unmanned when he tranquilly permits
+ his hired clerk to dictate to him, and away from his own premises. Furthermore, I was full of
+ uneasiness as to what Bartleby could possibly be doing in my office in
+ his shirt sleeves, and in an otherwise dismantled condition of a Sunday
+ morning. Was any thing amiss going on? Nay, that was out of the question.
+ It was not to be thought of for a moment that Bartleby was an immoral person.
+ But what could he be doing there?--copying? Nay again, whatever might be
+ his eccentricities, Bartleby was an eminently decorous person. He would
+ be the last man to sit down to his desk in any state approaching to nudity.
+ Besides, it was Sunday; and there was something about Bartleby that forbade
+ the supposition that we would by any secular occupation violate of the day.
+ Nevertheless, my mind was not pacified; and full of a restless curiosity,
+ at last I returned to the door. Without hindrance I inserted my key, opened
+ it, and entered. Bartleby was not to be seen. I looked round anxiously,
+ peeped behind his screen; but it was very plain that he was gone. Upon
+ more closely examining the place, I surmised that for an indefinite period
+ Bartleby must have ate, dressed, and slept in my office, and that too without
+ plate, mirror, or bed. The cushioned seat of a rickety old sofa in one
+ corner bore t faint impress of a lean, reclining form. Rolled away under
+ his desk, I found a blanket; under the empty grate, a blacking box and
+ brush; on a chair, a tin basin, with soap and a ragged towel; in a newspaper
+ a few crumbs of ginger-nuts and a morsel of cheese. Yet, thought I, it
+ is evident enough that Bartleby has been making his home here, keeping
+ all by himself. Immediately then the thought came sweeping
+ across me, What miserable friendlessness and loneliness are here revealed!
+ His poverty is great; but his solitude, Think of it. Of a Sunday, Wall-street is deserted
+ as ; and every night of every day
+ it is an emptiness. This building too, which of week-days hums with industry
+ and life, at nightfall echoes with sheer vacancy, and all through Sunday
+ is forlorn. And here Bartleby makes his home; sole spectator of a solitude
+ which he has seen all populous--a sort of innocent and transformed
+
+ For the a feeling of overpowering stinging melancholy
+ seized me. Before, I had never experienced aught but a not-unpleasing sadness.
+ The bond of a common humanity now drew me irresistibly to gloom. A fraternal
+ melancholy! For both I and Bartleby were . I remembered the bright silks and sparkling faces
+ I had seen that day in gala trim, swan-like sailing down the Mississippi
+ of Broadway; and I contrasted them with the pallid copyist, and thought
+ to myself, Ah, happiness courts the light, so we deem the world is gay;
+ but misery hides aloof, so we deem that misery there is none. These sad
+ fancyings-- , doubtless, of a sick and
+ silly brain--led on to other and more special thoughts, concerning the
+ eccentricities of Bartleby. Presentiments of strange discoveries hovered
+ round me. The scrivener's pale form appeared to me , among uncaring strangers, in its shivering winding
+ sheet.
+ Suddenly I was attracted by Bartleby's closed desk, the key in open sight
+ left in the lock.
+ seek the gratification of no heartless
+ curiosity, thought I; besides, the desk is mine, and its contents too,
+ so I will make bold to look within. Every thing was methodically arranged,
+ the papers smoothly placed. The pigeon holes were deep, and removing the
+ files of documents, I groped into their recesses. Presently I felt something
+ there, and dragged it out. It was an old bandanna handkerchief, heavy and
+ knotted. I opened it, and saw it was a savings' bank.
+ I now recalled all the quiet mysteries which I had noted in the man. I
+ remembered that he never spoke but to answer; that though at intervals
+ he had considerable time to himself, yet I had never seen him reading--no,
+ not even a newspaper; that for long periods he would stand looking out,
+ at his pale window behind the screen, upon the dead brick wall; I was quite
+ sure he never visited any refectory or eating house; while his pale face
+ clearly indicated that he never drank beer like Turkey, or tea and coffee
+ even, like other men; that he never went any where in particular that I
+ could learn; never went out for a walk, unless indeed that was the case
+ at present; that he had declined telling who he was, or whence he came,
+ or whether he had any relatives in the world; that though so thin and pale,
+ he never complained of ill health. And more than all, I remembered a certain
+ unconscious air of pallid--how shall I call it?--of , say, or rather an austere reserve about him,
+ which had positively awed me into my tame compliance with his eccentricities,
+ when I had feared to ask him to do the slightest incidental thing for me,
+ even though I might know, from his long-continued motionlessness, that
+ behind his screen he must be standing in one of those of his.
+ Revolving all these things, and coupling them with the recently discovered
+ fact that he made my office his constant abiding place and home, and not
+ forgetful of his morbid moodiness; revolving all these things, a began to steal over me. My first emotions had been
+ those of pure melancholy and sincerest pity; but just in proportion as
+ the forlornness of Bartleby grew and grew to my imagination, did that same
+ melancholy merge into , that pity into repulsion. So
+ true it is, and so terrible too, that up to a certain point the thought
+ or sight of misery enlists our best affections; but, in certain special
+ cases, beyond that point it does not. They err who would assert that invariably
+ this is owing to the inherent selfishness of the human heart. It rather
+ proceeds from a certain hopelessness of remedying excessive and organic
+ ill. To a sensitive being, pity is not seldom pain. And when at last it
+ is perceived that such pity cannot lead to effectual succor, common sense
+ bids the soul be rid of it. What I saw that morning persuaded me that the
+ scrivener was the victim I might give alms to his body;
+ but his body did not pain him; it was his soul that suffered, and
+
+ I did not accomplish the purpose of going to Trinity Church that morning.
+ Somehow, for the time from church-going.
+ I walked homeward, thinking what I would do with Bartleby. Finally, I
+ upon this;--I would put certain calm questions to him the
+ next morning, touching his history, &c., and if he declined to answer
+ then openly and reservedly (and I supposed he would prefer not), then to
+ give him a twenty dollar bill over and above whatever I might owe him,
+ and tell him his services were no longer required; but that if in any other
+ way I could assist him, I would be happy to do so, especially if he desired
+ to return to his native place, wherever that might be, I would willingly
+ help to defray the expenses. Moreover, if after reaching home, he found
+ himself at any time in want of aid, a letter from him would be sure of
+ a reply.
+ The next morning came.
+ "Bartleby," said I, gently calling to him behind the screen.
+ No reply.
+ "Bartleby," said I, in a still gentler tone, "come here; I am not going
+ to ask you to do any thing you would prefer not to do--I simply wish to
+ speak to you."
+ Upon this he noiselessly slid into view.
+ "Will you tell me, Bartleby,
+
+ "I would prefer not to."
+ "Will you tell me anything about yourself?"
+ "I would prefer not to."
+ "But what can you have to speak to me? I feel friendly towards
+ you."
+ He did not look at me while I spoke, but kept his glance fixed upon my
+ , which as I then sat, was directly behind me, some
+ six inches above my head. "What is your answer, Bartleby?" said I, after
+ waiting a considerable time for a reply, during which his countenance remained
+ immovable, only there was the of the white attenuated mouth.
+ "At present I prefer to give no answer," he said, and retired into his
+ hermitage.
+ It was rather weak in me I confess, but his manner on this occasion nettled
+ me. Not only did there seem to lurk in it a certain disdain, but , considering the undeniable
+ good usage and indulgence he had received from me.
+ Again I sat ruminating what I should do. as I was at his behavior,
+ and resolved as I had been to dismiss him when I entered my office, nevertheless
+ I strangely felt something superstitious knocking at my heart, and forbidding
+ me to carry out my purpose, and denouncing me for a villain if I dared
+ to breathe one bitter word against this forlornest of mankind. At last,
+ familiarly drawing my chair behind his screen, I sat down and said: "Bartleby,
+ never mind then about revealing your history; but let me entreat you,
+ , to comply as far as may be with the usages of this office.
+ Say now you will help to examine papers tomorrow or next day: in short,
+ say now that in a day or two you will begin to be a little reasonable:--say
+ so, Bartleby."
+ "At present I would prefer not to be a little ,"
+ Just then the folding-doors opened, and Nippers approached. He seemed
+ suffering from an unusually bad night's rest, induced by severer indigestion
+ than common. He overheard those final words of Bartleby.
+ " not,
+ eh?" gritted Nippers--"I'd prefer him, if I were you, sir," addressing
+ me--"I'd prefer him; I'd give him preferences, the stubborn mule!
+ What is it, sir, pray, that he prefers not to do now?"
+ Bartleby moved not a limb.
+
+
+ Somehow, of late I had got into the way of involuntary using this word
+ "prefer" upon all sorts of not exactly suitable occasions. And I trembled
+ to think that my contact with the scrivener had already and seriously affected
+ me in a mental way. And what further and deeper might it not yet produce?
+ This apprehension had not been without in determining me to summary
+ means.
+ As Nippers, looking very sour and sulky, was departing, Turkey blandly
+ and deferentially approached.
+ "With submission, sir," said he, "yesterday I was thinking about Bartleby
+ here, and I think that if he would but prefer to take a quart of good ale
+ every day, it would do much towards mending him, and enabling him to assist
+ in examining his papers."
+ "So you have got the word too," said I, slightly excited.
+ "With submission, what word, sir," asked Turkey, respectfully crowding
+ himself into the contracted space behind the screen, and by so doing, making
+ me "What word, sir?"
+ "I would prefer to be left alone here," said Bartleby, as if offended
+ at being
+
+ "That's the word, Turkey," said I--"that's it."
+ "Oh, prefer oh yes--queer word. I never use it myself. But, sir
+ as I was saying, if he would but prefer--"
+ "Turkey," interrupted I, "you will please withdraw."
+ "Oh, certainly, sir, ."
+ As he opened the folding-door to retire, Nippers at his desk caught a
+ glimpse of me, and asked whether I would prefer to have a certain paper
+ copied on blue paper or white. He did not in the least roguishly accent
+ the word prefer. It was plain that it involuntarily rolled from his tongue.
+ I thought to myself, surely I must get rid of a man, who already has in some
+ degree turned the tongues, if not the heads of myself and clerks. But I
+ thought it not to break the dismission
+ at once.
+ The next day I noticed that but stand at his window in his dead-wall revery.
+ Upon asking him why he did not write, he said that he had decided upon
+ doing no more writing.
+ "Why, how now? what next?" exclaimed I, "do no more writing?"
+ "No more."
+ "And what is the reason?"
+ " for yourself," he indifferently replied.
+ I looked steadfastly at him, and perceived that his eyes looked dull and
+ glazed. Instantly it occurred to me, that his unexampled diligence in copying
+ by his dim window for the first few weeks of his stay with me might have
+ temporarily .
+ I was touched. I said something in condolence with him. I hinted that
+ of course he did wisely in abstaining from writing for a while; and urged
+ him to embrace that opportunity of taking wholesome exercise in the open
+ air. This, however, . A few days after this, my other clerks being
+ absent, and being in a great hurry to dispatch certain letters by the mail,
+ I thought that, having nothing else earthly to do, Bartleby would surely
+ be less inflexible than usual, and carry these letters . But he blankly declined. So, much to my
+ inconvenience, I went myself.
+ Still Whether Bartleby's eyes improved or not, I
+ could not say. To all appearance, I thought they did. But when I asked
+ him if they did, he vouchsafed no answer. At all events, he would do no
+ copying. At last, in reply to my urgings, he informed me that he had permanently
+ given up copying.
+ "What!" exclaimed I; "suppose your eyes should get entirely well- better
+ than ever before--would you not copy then?"
+ "I have given up copying," he answered, and
+
+ He remained as ever, in my chamber. Nay--if that were possible--he became
+ still more of a fixture than before. What was to be done? He would do nothing
+ in the office: why should he stay there? In plain fact, he had now become
+ a millstone to me, not only useless as a necklace, but afflictive to bear.
+ Yet I was sorry for him. I speak less than truth when I say that, on his
+ own account, he occasioned me uneasiness. If he would but have named a
+ single relative or friend, I would instantly have written, and urged their
+ taking the poor fellow away to some convenient retreat. But he seemed alone,
+ absolutely alone in the universe. /font> in the mid Atlantic. At length,
+ necessities connected with my business tyrannized over all other considerations.
+ Decently as I could, I told Bartleby that in six days' time he must unconditionally
+ leave the office. I warned him to take measures, in the interval, for procuring
+ some other abode. I offered to assist him in this endeavor, if he himself
+ would but take the first step towards a removal. "And when you finally
+ quit me, Bartleby," added I, "I shall see that you go not away entirely
+ unprovided. Six days from this hour, remember."
+ At the expiration of that period, I peeped behind the screen, and
+
+ I , balanced myself; advanced slowly towards him,
+ touched his shoulder, and said, "The time has come; you must quit this
+ place; I am sorry for you; here is money; but you must go."
+ "I would prefer not," he replied, with his back still towards me.
+ "You must."
+ He remained silent.
+ Now I had an unbounded confidence in this man's common honesty. He had
+ frequently restored to me six pences and shillings carelessly dropped upon
+ the floor, for I am apt to be very reckless in such . The proceeding then which followed will not be
+ deemed extraordinary. " and I handed the
+ bills towards him.
+ But he made no motion.
+ "I will leave them here then," putting them under a weight on the table.
+ Then taking my hat and cane and going to the door I tranquilly turned and
+ added--"After you have removed your things from these offices, Bartleby,
+ you will of course lock the door--since every one is now gone for the day
+ but you--and if you please, slip your key underneath the mat, so that I
+ may have it in the morning. I shall not see you again; so good-bye to you.
+ If hereafter in your new place of abode I can be of any service to you,
+ do not fail to advise me by letter. Good-bye, Bartleby, and fare you well."
+ But he answered not a word; like , he remained standing
+ mute and solitary in the middle of the otherwise deserted room.
+ As I walked home in a pensive mood, my . I could not but highly plume
+ myself on my masterly management in getting rid of Bartleby. Masterly I
+ call it, and such it must appear to any dispassionate thinker. The beauty
+ of my procedure seemed to consist in its perfect quietness. There was
+ , no bravado of any sort, no choleric hectoring
+ and striding to and fro across the apartment, jerking out vehement commands
+ for Bartleby to bundle himself off with his beggarly traps. Nothing of
+ the kind. Without loudly bidding Bartleby depart--as might have done--I assumed the ground that
+ depart he must; and upon the assumption built all I had to say. The more
+ I thought over my procedure, the more I was charmed with it. Nevertheless,
+ next morning, upon awakening, I had my doubts,--I had somehow slept off
+ the fumes of vanity. One of the coolest and wisest hours a man has, is
+ just after he awakes in the morning. My procedure seemed as sagacious as
+ ever,--but only in theory. How it would prove in practice--there was the
+ rub. It was truly a beautiful thought to have assumed Bartleby's departure;
+ but, after all, that assumption was simply my own, and none of Bartleby's.
+ The great point was, not whether I had assumed that he would quit me, but
+ whether he would prefer so to do. He was more a .
+ After breakfast, I walked down town, arguing the probabilities pro and
+ con. One moment I thought it would prove a miserable failure, and Bartleby
+ would be found all alive at my office as usual; the next moment it seemed
+ certain that I should see his chair empty. And so I kept veering about.
+ At the corner of Broadway and Canal- street, I saw quite an excited group
+ of people standing in earnest conversation.
+ "I'll take odds he doesn't," said a voice as I passed.
+ "Doesn't go?--done!" said I, "put up your money."
+ I was instinctively putting my hand in my pocket to produce my own, when
+ I remembered that this was an election day. The words I had overheard bore
+ no reference to Bartleby, but to the success or non-success of some candidate
+ for the mayoralty. In my intent frame of mind, I had, as it were, , and were debating
+ the same question with me. I passed on, very thankful that the uproar of
+ the street screened my momentary absent-mindedness.
+ As I had intended, I was earlier than usual at my office door. I stood
+ listening for a moment. All was still. He must be gone. I tried the knob.
+ The door was locked. Yes, my procedure had worked to a charm; he indeed
+ must be vanished. Yet a certain melancholy mixed with this: I was . I was fumbling under the
+ door mat for the key, which Bartleby was to have left there for me, when
+ accidentally my knee knocked against a panel, producing a summoning sound,
+ and in response a voice came to me from within--"Not yet; I am occupied."
+ It was Bartleby.
+ I was thunderstruck. For an instant I stood one cloudless afternoon
+ long ago in Virginia, by summer lightning; at his own warm open window
+ he was killed, and remained leaning out there upon the dreamy afternoon,
+ till some one touched him, when he fell. "Not gone!" I murmured at last.
+ But again obeying that which the inscrutable scrivener had over me, and
+ from which ascendancy, for all my chafing, I could not completely escape,
+ I slowly went down stairs and out into the street, and while walking round
+ the block, considered what I should next do in this unheard-of-perplexity.
+ Turn the man out by an actual thrusting I could not; to drive him away
+ by calling him hard names would not do; calling in the police was an unpleasant
+ idea; and yet, to enjoy his cadaverous triumph over me,--this too I
+ could not think of. What was to be done? or, if nothing could be done,
+ was there any thing further that I could in the matter? Yes, as before
+ I had prospectively assumed that Bartleby would depart, so now I might
+ retrospectively assume that departed he was. In the legitimate carrying
+ out of this assumption, I might enter my office in a great hurry, and pretending
+ not to see Bartleby at all, walk straight against him as if he were air.
+ Such a proceeding would in a singular degree have the appearance of a
+ . It was hardly possible that Bartleby could withstand
+ such an application of the doctrine of assumptions. But upon second thoughts
+ the success of the plan seemed rather dubious. I resolved to argue the
+ matter over with him again.
+ Bartleby," said I, entering the office, with a quietly severe expression.
+ "I am seriously displeased. I am pained, Bartleby. I had thought better
+ of you. I had imagined you of such a , that in any delicate dilemma a slight hint
+ would suffice--in short, an assumption. But it appears I am deceived. Why,"
+ I added, , "you have not even touched the money yet," pointing
+ to it, just where I had left it the evening previous.
+ He answered nothing.
+ "Will you, or will you not, quit me?" I now demanded in a , advancing close to him.
+ "I would prefer not to quit you," he replied, the not.
+ "What have you to stay here? do you pay any rent? Do you
+ pay my taxes? Or is this property yours?"
+ He answered nothing.
+ "Are you ready to go on and write now? Are your eyes recovered? Could
+ you copy a small paper for me this morning? or help examine a few lines?
+ or step round to the post-office? In a word, will you do any thing at all,
+ to give a coloring to your refusal to depart the premises?"
+ He .
+ I was now in such a state of nervous resentment that I thought it but
+ to check myself at present from further demonstrations. Bartleby
+ and I were alone. the tragedy of the unfortunate Adams and the still
+ more unfortunate Colt in the solitary office of the latter; and how poor
+ Colt, being dreadfully incensed by Adams, and imprudently permitting himself
+ to get wildly excited, was at unawares hurried into his --an act which certainly more than the actor himself. Often
+ it had occurred to me in my upon the subject, that had
+ that altercation taken place in the public street, or at a private residence,
+ it would not have terminated as it did. It was the circumstance of being
+ alone in a solitary office, up stairs, of a building entirely unhallowed
+ by humanizing domestic associations--an , doubtless of a dusty, haggard sort of appearance;--this
+ it must have been, which greatly helped to enhance the irritable desperation
+ of the hapless Colt.
+ But when this rose in me and tempted me concerning Bartleby,
+ I grappled him and threw him. How? Why, simply by recalling the : "A new commandment give I unto you, that ye
+ love one another." Yes, this it was that saved me. Aside from higher considerations,
+ charity often operates as principle--a great safeguard to its
+ possessor. Men have committed murder for jealousy's sake, and anger's sake,
+ and hatred's sake, and selfishness' sake, and spiritual pride's sake; but
+ no man that ever I heard of, ever for sweet charity's sake. , then, if no better motive can be enlisted,
+ should, especially with high-tempered men, prompt all beings to charity
+ and philanthropy. At any rate, upon the occasion in question, I strove
+ to towards the scrivener by benevolently
+ construing his conduct. Poor fellow, poor fellow! thought I, he don't mean
+ any thing; and besides, he has seen hard times, and ought to be indulged.
+ I endeavored also immediately to occupy myself, and at the same time
+ I tried to fancy that in the course of the
+ morning, at such time as might prove agreeable to him, Bartleby, of his
+ own free accord, would emerge from his hermitage, and take up some decided
+ line of march in the direction of the door. But no. Half-past twelve o'clock
+ came; Turkey began to glow in the face, overturn his inkstand, and become
+ generally obstreperous; Nippers abated down into quietude and courtesy;
+ Ginger Nut munched his noon apple; and Bartleby remained standing at his
+ window in one of his profoundest reveries. Ought I to acknowledge it? That afternoon
+ I left the office without saying one further word to him.
+ Some days now passed, during which, at leisure intervals I looked a little
+ into " and "Priestly on Necessity." Under the circumstances,
+ those books induced a salutary feeling. Gradually I that these troubles of mine touching
+ the scrivener, had been all , and Bartleby was upon me for some mysterious
+ purpose of an all-wise Providence, which it was not for a mere mortal like
+ me to fathom. Yes, Bartleby, stay there behind your screen, ; I shall persecute you no more; you are harmless and noiseless
+ as any of these old chairs; in short, I never feel so private as when I
+ know you are here. At least I see it, I feel it; I penetrate to the predestinated
+ purpose of my life. I am content. Others may have loftier parts to enact;
+ but in this world, Bartleby, is to furnish you with office-room
+ for such period as you may see fit to remain.
+ I believe that this wise and blessed frame of mind would have continued
+ with me, had it not been for the unsolicited and uncharitable remarks obtruded
+ upon me by who visited the rooms. But thus it often
+ is, that the constant friction of illiberal minds wears out at last the
+ best resolves of the more . Though to be sure, when
+ I reflected upon it, it was not strange that people entering my office
+ should be struck by the peculiar aspect of the unaccountable Bartleby,
+ and so be tempted to throw out some sinister observations concerning him.
+ Sometimes an attorney having business with me, and calling at my office,
+ and finding no one but the scrivener there, would undertake to obtain some
+ sort of precise information from him touching my whereabouts; but without
+ heeding his Bartleby would remain standing immovable in the middle
+ of the room. So after contemplating him in that position for a time, the
+ attorney would depart, no wiser than he came.
+ Also, when a Reference was going on, and the room full of lawyers and
+ witnesses and business was driving fast; some deeply occupied legal gentleman
+ present, seeing Bartleby wholly unemployed, would request him to run round
+ to his (the legal gentleman's) office and fetch some papers for him. Thereupon,
+ Bartleby would tranquilly decline, and remain idle as before. Then the
+ lawyer would give a great stare, and turn to me. And what could I say?
+ At last I was made aware that all through the circle of my professional
+ acquaintance, a whisper of wonder was running round, having reference to
+ the strange creature I kept at my office. This . And as the idea came upon me of his possibly
+ turning out a long-lived man, and keep occupying my chambers, and ; and perplexing my visitors; and scandalizing
+ my professional reputation; and casting a general gloom over the premises;
+ keeping soul and body together to the last upon his savings (for doubtless
+ he spent but half a dime a day), and in the end perhaps , and claim possession of my office by right of his perpetual
+ occupancy: as all these dark anticipations crowded upon me more and more,
+ and my friends continually intruded their relentless remarks upon the apparition
+ in my room; a great change was wrought in me. I resolved to gather all
+ my faculties together, and for ever rid me of this .
+ Ere revolving any complicated project, however, adapted to this end, I
+ first simply suggested to Bartleby the of his permanent departure.
+ In a calm and serious tone, I commended the idea to his careful and mature
+ consideration. But having taken three days to meditate upon it, he apprised
+ me that his original determination remained the same; in short, that he
+ still preferred to .
+ What shall I do? I now said to myself, to the last button. What shall I do? what ought
+ I to do? what does conscience say I should do with this man, or rather
+ ghost. Rid myself of him, I must; go, he shall. But how? You will not thrust
+ him, the poor, pale, passive mortal,--you will not thrust such a helpless
+ creature out of your door? you will not by such cruelty? No, I will not, I cannot do that.
+ Rather would I let him live and die here, and then in the wall. What then will you do? For all
+ your coaxing, he will not budge. he leaves under your own paperweight
+ on your table; in short, it is quite plain that he prefers.
+ Then something severe, something unusual must be done. What! surely you
+ will not have him collared by a constable, and commit his innocent pallor
+ to the common jail? And upon what ground could you procure such a thing
+ to be done?--a vagrant, is he? he a vagrant, a wanderer, who
+ refuses to budge? It is because he will not be a vagrant, then, that you
+ seek to count him as a vagrant. That is too absurd. No visible means of
+ support: there I have him. Wrong again: for indubitably he does support
+ himself, and that is the only unanswerable proof that any man can show
+ of his possessing the means so to do. No more then. Since he will not quit
+ me, I must quit him. I will change my offices; I will move elsewhere; and
+ give him fair notice, that if I find him on my new premises I will then
+ proceed against him as a common trespasser.
+ Acting accordingly, next day I thus addressed him: "I find these chambers
+ too far from the City Hall; the air is unwholesome. In a word, I propose
+ to remove my offices next week, and shall no longer require your services.
+ I tell you this now, in order that you may seek another place."
+ He made no reply, and nothing more was said.
+ On the appointed day I engaged carts and men, proceeded to my chambers,
+ and having but little furniture, every thing was removed in a few hours.
+ Throughout, the scrivener remained standing behind which I directed to be removed the last thing. It
+ was withdrawn; and being folded up like a huge folio, left him the I stood in the entry watching him
+ a moment, while something from within me upbraided me.
+ I re-entered, with my
+
+ "Good-bye, Bartleby; I am going--good-bye, and God some way bless you;
+ and take that," slipping something in his hand. But it dropped to the floor,
+ and then,--I tore myself from him whom I had so longed to be
+ rid of.
+ Established in my new quarters, for a day or two I kept the door locked,
+ and started at every footfall in the passages. When I returned to my rooms
+ after any little absence, I would pause at the threshold for an instant,
+ and attentively listen, ere applying my key. But these fears were needless.
+ Bartleby never came nigh me.
+ I thought all was going well, when a perturbed looking stranger visited
+ me, inquiring whether I was the person who had recently occupied rooms
+ at No.--Wall-street.
+ Full of forebodings, I replied that I was.
+ "Then, sir," said the , "you are responsible for the man you
+ left there. He refuses to do any copying; he refuses to do any thing; he
+ says he prefers not to; and he refuses to quit the premises."
+ "I am very sorry, sir," said I, with assumed tranquillity, but an inward
+ tremor, "but, really, --he is no relation or
+ apprentice of mine, that you should hold me responsible for him."
+ "In mercy's name, who is he?"
+ "I certainly cannot inform you. I know nothing about him. Formerly I employed
+ him as a copyist; but he has done nothing for me now for some time past."
+ " then,--good morning, sir."
+ Several days passed, and I heard nothing more; and though I often felt
+ a charitable prompting to call at the place and see poor Bartleby, yet
+ a certain of I know not what withheld
+ me.
+ All is over with him, by this time, thought I at last, when through another
+ week no further intelligence reached me. But coming to my room the day
+ after, I found several persons waiting at my door in a high state of nervous
+ excitement.
+ "That's the man--here he comes," cried the foremost one, whom recognized
+ as the lawyer who had previously called upon me alone.
+ "You must take him away, sir, at once," cried a portly person among them,
+ advancing upon me, and whom I knew to be the landlord of No.--Wall-street.
+ "These gentlemen, my tenants, cannot stand it any longer; Mr. B--" pointing
+ to the lawyer, "has turned him out of his room, and he now persists in
+ generally, sitting upon the banisters of the
+ stairs by day, and sleeping in the entry by night. Every body is concerned;
+ clients are leaving the offices; ; something you must do, and
+ that without delay."
+ , I fell back before it, and would fain have
+ in my new quarters. In vain I persisted that Bartleby
+ was nothing to me--no more than to any one else. In vain:--I was the last
+ person known to have any thing to do with him, and they held me to the
+ terrible account. in the papers (as one person present
+ obscurely threatened) I considered the matter, and at length said, that
+ if the lawyer would give me a confidential interview with the scrivener,
+ in his (the lawyer's) own room, I would that afternoon strive my best to
+ rid them of the nuisance they complained of.
+ Going up stairs to my old haunt, there was Bartleby silently sitting upon
+ the banister at the landing.
+ "What are you doing here, Bartleby?" said I.
+ "Sitting upon the banister," he mildly replied.
+ I motioned him into the lawyer's room, who then left us.
+ ", "are you aware that you are the cause of great tribulation
+ to me, by persisting in occupying the entry after being dismissed from
+ the office?"
+ No answer.
+ "Now one of two things must take place. Either you must do something or
+ something must be done to you. Now what sort of business would you like
+ to engage in? Would you like to re-engage in copying for some one?"
+ "No; I would prefer not to make any change."
+ "Would you like a clerkship in a dry-goods store?"
+ "There is too much confinement about that. No, I would not like a clerkship;
+ but I am not particular."
+ "Too much confinement," I cried, "why you keep yourself confined all the
+ time!"
+ "I would prefer not to take a clerkship," he rejoined, as if to settle
+ that little item at once.
+ "How would a bar-tender's business suit you? There is no trying of the
+ eyesight in that."
+ "I would not like it at all; though, as I said before, I am not particular."
+ His unwonted wordiness inspirited me. I returned to the charge.
+ "Well then, would you like to travel through the country collecting bills
+ for the merchants? That would improve your health."
+ "No, I would prefer to be doing something else."
+ "How then would going as a companion to Europe, to entertain some young
+ gentleman with your conversation,--how would that suit you?"
+ "Not at all. It does not strike me that there is any thing definite about
+ that. I like to be stationary. But I am not particular.
+ "Stationary you shall be then," I cried, now losing all patience, and
+ for the first time in all my exasperating connection with him fairly flying
+ into a passion. "If you do not go away from these premises before night,
+ --indeed I am bound--to-- to--to quit the premises
+ myself!" I rather absurdly concluded, knowing not with what his immobility into compliance.
+ Despairing of all further efforts, I was precipitately leaving him, when
+ a final thought occurred to me--
+
+ "Bartleby," said I, in the kindest under such exciting circumstances, "will you
+ go home with me now--not to my office, but my dwelling--and remain there
+ till we can conclude upon some convenient arrangement for you at our leisure?
+ Come, let us start now, right away."
+ "No: at present I would prefer not to make any change at all."
+ I answered nothing; but effectualy dodging every one by the rushed from the building, ran
+ up Wall-street towards Broadway, and jumping into the first omnibus was
+ soon removed from pursuit. As soon as tranquility returned I distinctly
+ perceived that I had now done all that I possibly could, both in respect
+ to the demands of the landlord and his tenants, and with regard to my own
+ desire and sense of duty, to benefit Bartleby, and shield him from rude
+ persecution. I now strove to be entirely care-free and quiescent; and my
+ conscience justified me in the attempt; though indeed it was not so successful
+ as I could have wished. So fearful was I of being again hunted out by the
+ incensed landlord and his exasperated tenants, that, surrendering my business
+ to Nippers, for a few days I drove about the upper part of the town and
+ through the suburbs, in my rockaway; crossed over to Jersey City and Hoboken,
+ and paid fugitive visits to Manhattanville and Astoria. In fact I almost
+ lived in my for the time.
+ When again I entered my office, lo, a note from the landlord lay upon
+ desk. opened it with trembling hands. informed me that writer had sent
+ to police, and Bartleby removed as a . Moreover, since I knew more
+ about him than any one else, he wished me to appear at that place, and
+ make a suitable statement of the facts. These tidings had a conflicting
+ effect upon me. At first I was indignant; but at last almost approved.
+ The landlord's energetic, summary disposition, had led him to adopt a procedure
+ which I do not think I would have decided upon myself; and yet as a last
+ resort, under such peculiar circumstances, it seemed the only plan.
+ As I afterwards learned, the poor scrivener, when told that he must be
+ conducted to the Tombs, offered not the slightest obstacle, but in his
+ pale unmoving way,
+
+ Some of the compassionate and curious bystanders joined the party; and
+ headed by one of the constables arm in arm with Bartleby, filed its way through all the noise, and
+ heat, and joy of the roaring thoroughfares at noon.
+ The same day I received the note I went to the Tombs, or to speak more
+ properly, the Halls of Justice. Seeking the right officer, I stated the
+ purpose of my call, and was informed that the individual I described was
+ indeed within. I then assured the functionary that Bartleby was a perfectly
+ honest man, and greatly to be compassionated, however unaccountably eccentric.
+ and closed by suggesting the idea of letting
+ him remain in as indulgent confinement as possible till something less
+ harsh might be done--though indeed I hardly knew what. At all events, if
+ nothing else could be decided upon, the alms-house must receive him. I
+ then begged to have an interview.
+ Being under no disgraceful charge, and quite serene and harmless in all
+ his ways, they had permitted him freely to wander about the prison, and
+ especially in the inclosed grass-platted yards thereof. And so I found
+ him there, standing all alone in the quietest of the yards, his face
+ , while all around, from the narrow slits of the
+ jail windows, I thought
+
+ "Bartleby!"
+ "," he said, without looking round,--"and I want
+ nothing to say to you."
+ "It was not I that brought you here, Bartleby," said I, at his implied suspicion. "And to you, this should
+ not be so vile a place. Nothing reproachful attaches to you by being here.
+ And see, a place as one might think. Look, there is
+ the sky, and here is the grass."
+ "I know where I am," he replied, but would say nothing more, and so I
+ left him.
+ As I entered the corridor again, a broad man in an apron, accosted me, and jerking his thumb over
+ his shoulder said--"Is that ?"
+ "Yes."
+ "Does he want to starve? If he does, let him live on the prison fare,
+ that's all.
+ "Who are you?" asked I, not knowing what to make of such an in such a place.
+ "I am the grub-man. Such gentlemen as have friends here, hire me to provide
+ them with something good to eat."
+ "Is this so?" said I, turning to the turnkey.
+ He said it was.
+ "Well then," said I, slipping some silver into the grub-man's hands (for
+ so they called him). "I want you to give particular attention to my friend
+ there; let him have the best dinner you can get. And you must be as polite
+ to him as possible."
+ "Introduce me, will you?" said the grub-man, looking at me with an expression
+ which seemed to say he was all impatience for an opportunity to give a
+ specimen of his breeding.
+ Thinking it would prove of benefit to the scrivener, I acquiesced; and
+ , went up with him to Bartleby.
+ "Bartleby, this is you will find him very useful to you."
+ ", sir, your sarvant," said the grub-man, making a
+ low salutation behind his apron. "Hope you find it , sir;--spacious grounds--cool apartments, sir--hope
+ you'll stay with us some time--try to make it agreeable. What will you
+ have for dinner today?"
+ "I prefer not to dine to-day," said Bartleby, turning away. "It would
+ disagree with me; I am unused to dinners." So saying he slowly moved to
+ the other side of the inclosure, and took up fronting the dead-wall.
+ "How's this?" said the grub-man, addressing me with a stare of astonishment.
+ "He's odd, aint he?"
+ "I think he is a little deranged," said I, sadly.
+ "Deranged? deranged is it? Well now, upon my word, I thought that friend
+ of yourn was a ; they are always pale and genteel-like, them forgers.
+ --can't help it, sir. Did you know Monroe Edwards?"
+ he added touchingly, and paused. Then, laying his hand pityingly on my
+ shoulder, sighed, "he died of consumption at Sing-Sing. so you weren't
+ acquainted with Monroe?"
+ "No, I was never socially acquainted with any forgers. But I cannot stop
+ longer. Look to my friend yonder. You will not lose by it. I will see you
+ again."
+ Some few days after this, I again obtained admission to the Tombs, and
+ went through the corridors in quest of Bartleby; but without finding him.
+ "I saw him coming from his cell not long ago," said a turnkey, "may be
+ he's gone to loiter in the yards."
+ So I went in that direction.
+ "Are you looking for the silent man?" said another turnkey passing me.
+ "Yonder he lies--sleeping in the yard there. 'Tis not twenty minutes since
+ I saw him lie down."
+ The yard was entirely quiet. It was not accessible to the common prisoners.
+ The surrounding walls, of amazing thickness, behind them. The of the masonry weighed upon me with its gloom.
+ But a soft grew under foot. The heart of the eternal pyramids,
+ it seemed, wherein, by some strange magic, through the clefts, grass-seed,
+ dropped by birds, had sprung.
+ Strangely huddled at the base of the wall, , and lying on his side, his head touching
+ the cold stones, I saw the wasted Bartleby. But nothing stirred. I paused;
+ then went close up to him; stooped over, and saw that his dim eyes were
+ open; otherwise he seemed profoundly sleeping. Something prompted me
+ . I felt his hand, when a tingling shiver ran up my arm
+ and down my spine to my feet.
+ The round face of the grub-man peered upon me now. "His dinner is ready.
+ Won't he dine to-day, either? Or does he live without dining?"
+ "Lives without dining," said I, and closed the eyes.
+ "Eh!--He's asleep, aint he?"
+ "," murmured I.
+ * * * * * * * *
+ There would seem little need for proceeding further in this history. Imagination
+ will readily supply the meagre recital of poor Bartleby's interment. But
+ ere parting with the reader, let me say, that if this little narrative
+ has sufficiently interested him, to awaken curiosity as to who Bartleby
+ was, and what manner of life he led prior to the present narrator's making
+ his acquaintance, I can only reply, that in such curiosity I fully share,
+ but am wholly unable to gratify it. Yet here I hardly know whether I should
+ divulge , which came to my ear a few months
+ after the scrivener's decease. Upon what basis it rested, I could never
+ ascertain; and hence how true it is I cannot now tell. But inasmuch as
+ this vague report has not been without a certain strange to me, however said, it may prove the same with
+ some others; and so I will briefly mention it. The report was this: that
+ Bartleby had been a subordinate clerk in the at Washington, from which he had been suddenly removed
+ by a change in the administration. When I think over this rumor, I cannot
+ adequately express the emotions which seize me. does it not sound like dead men? Conceive a man
+ by nature and misfortune prone to a pallid hopelessness, can any business
+ seem more fitted to heighten it than that of continually handling these
+ dead letters and assorting them for the flames? For by the cart-load they
+ are annually burned. from out the folded paper
+ the pale clerk takes a ring:--the bank-note sent in swiftest charity:--he
+ whom it would relieve, nor eats nor hungers any more; pardon for those
+ who died despairing; hope for those who died unhoping; good tidings for
+ those who died stifled by unrelieved calamities.
+
+ !
+ |
+
+ 
+ 