diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/lfcpn10.txt | 5571 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/lfcpn10.zip | bin | 0 -> 124824 bytes |
2 files changed, 5571 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/lfcpn10.txt b/old/lfcpn10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..886a091 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/lfcpn10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5571 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Life of Chopin, by Franz Liszt + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before distributing this or any other +Project Gutenberg file. + +We encourage you to keep this file, exactly as it is, on your +own disk, thereby keeping an electronic path open for future +readers. Please do not remove this. + +This header should be the first thing seen when anyone starts to +view the etext. Do not change or edit it without written permission. +The words are carefully chosen to provide users with the +information they need to understand what they may and may not +do with the etext. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These Etexts Are Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get etexts, and +further information, is included below. We need your donations. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541 + + + +Title: Life of Chopin + +Author: Franz Liszt + +Release Date: August, 2003 [Etext# 4386] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on January 20, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Life of Chopin, by Franz Liszt +****This file should be named lfcpn10.txt or lfcpn10.zip**** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, lfcpn11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, lfcpn10a.txt + +Produced by John Mamoun <mamounjo@umdnj.edu> and the Online +Distributed Proofreading team of Charles Franks. + + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep etexts in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our etexts one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our sites at: +http://gutenberg.net or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +etexts, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any Etext before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03 + +Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2001 as we release over 50 new Etext +files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 4000+ +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third +of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 4,000 Etexts. We need +funding, as well as continued efforts by volunteers, to maintain +or increase our production and reach our goals. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of November, 2001, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, +Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, +Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, +Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, +Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, +and Wyoming. + +*In Progress + +We have filed in about 45 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +All donations should be made to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fundraising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fundraising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this etext, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the etext, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END* + + + + + + +Produced by John Mamoun <mamounjo@umdnj.edu> and the Online +Distributed Proofreading team of Charles Franks. + + + + +LIFE OF CHOPIN + + +by Franz Liszt (Translated from the French by Martha Walker Cook) + + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + INFORMATION ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION + DEDICATION OF THE TRANSLATION TO JAN PYCHOWSKI + PREFACE + CHAPTER I + CHAPTER II + CHAPTER III + CHAPTER IV + CHAPTER V + CHAPTER VI + CHAPTER VII + CHAPTER VIII + + + +INFORMATION ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION + + + +The following is an e-text of "Life of Chopin," written by Franz +Liszt and translated from the french by Martha Walker Cook. The +original edition was published in 1863; a fourth, revised edition +(1880) was used in making this e-text. This e-text reproduces the +fourth edition essentially unabridged, with original spellings +intact, numerous typographical errors corrected, and words +italicized in the original text capitalized in this e-text. In +making this e-text, each page was cut out of the original book +with an x-acto knife to feed the pages into an Automatic Document +Feeder scanner for scanning. Hence, the book was disbinded in +order to save it. Thanks to Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading team for help in proofreading this e- +text. + + + +DEDICATION OF THE TRANSLATION TO JAN PYCHOWSKI + + + +"Without your consent or knowledge, I have ventured to dedicate +this translation to you! + +As the countryman of Chopin, and filled with the same earnest +patriotism which distinguished him; as an impassioned and perfect +Pianist, capable, of reproducing his difficult compositions in +all the subtle tenderness, fire, energy, melancholy, despair, +caprice, hope, delicacy and startling vigor which they +imperiously exact; as thorough master of the complicated +instrument to which he devoted his best powers; as an erudite and +experienced possessor of that abstruse and difficult science, +music; as a composer of true, deep, and highly original genius,-- +this dedication is justly made to you! + +Even though I may have wounded your characteristically haughty, +shrinking, and Sclavic susceptibilities in rendering so public a +tribute to your artistic skill, forgive me! The high moral worth +and manly rectitude which distinguish you, and which alone render +even the most sublime genius truly illustrious in the eyes of +woman, almost force these inadequate and imperfect words from the +heart of the translator. + +M.W.C. + + + +PREFACE + + + +To a people, always prompt in its recognition of genius, and +ready to sympathize in the joys and woes of a truly great artist, +this work will be one of exceeding interest. It is a short, +glowing, and generous sketch, from the hand of Franz Liszt, (who, +considered in the double light of composer and performer, has no +living equal,) of the original and romantic Chopin; the most +ethereal, subtle, and delicate among our modern tone-poets. It is +a rare thing for a great artist to write on art, to leave the +passionate worlds of sounds or colors for the colder realm of +words; rarer still for him to abdicate, even temporarily, his own +throne, to stand patiently and hold aloft the blazing torch of +his own genius, to illume the gloomy grave of another: yet this +has Liszt done through love for Chopin. + +It is a matter of considerable interest to note how the nervous +and agile fingers, accustomed to sovereign rule over the keys, +handle the pen; how the musician feels as a man; how he estimates +art and artists. Liszt is a man of extensive culture, vivid +imagination, and great knowledge of the world; and, in addition +to their high artistic value, his lines glow with poetic fervor, +with impassioned eloquence. His musical criticisms are refined +and acute, but without repulsive technicalities or scientific +terms, ever sparkling with the poetic ardor of the generous soul +through which the discriminating, yet appreciative awards were +poured. Ah! in these days of degenerate rivalries and bitter +jealousies, let us welcome a proof of affection so tender as his +"Life of Chopin"! + +It would be impossible for the reader of this book to remain +ignorant of the exactions of art. While, through its eloquence +and subtle analysis of character, it appeals to the cultivated +literary tastes of our people, it opens for them a dazzling +perspective into that strange world of tones, of whose magical +realm they know, comparatively speaking, so little. It is +intelligible to all who think or feel; requiring no knowledge of +music for its comprehension. + +The compositions of Chopin are now the mode, the rage. Every one +asks for them, every one tries to play them. We have, however, +but few remarks upon the peculiarities of his style, or the +proper manner of producing his works. His compositions, generally +perfect in form, are never abstract conceptions, but had their +birth in his soul, sprang from the events of his life, and are +full of individual and national idiosyncrasies, of psychological +interest. Liszt knew Chopin both as man and artist; Chopin loved +to hear him interpret his music, and himself taught the great +Pianist the mysteries of his undulating rhythm and original +motifs. The broad and noble criticisms contained in this book are +absolutely essential for the musical culture of the thousands now +laboriously but vainly struggling to perform his elaborate works, +and who, having no key to their multiplied complexities of +expression, frequently fail in rendering them aright. + +And the masses in this country, full of vivid perception and +intelligent curiosity, who, not playing themselves, would yet +fain follow with the heart compositions which they are told are +of so much artistic value, will here find a key to guide them +through the tuneful labyrinth. Some of Chopin's best works are +analyzed herein. He wrote for the HEART OF HIS PEOPLE; their +joys, sorrows, and caprices are immortalized by the power of his +art. He was a strictly national tone-poet, and to understand him +fully, something must be known of the brave and haughty, but +unhappy country which he so loved. Liszt felt this, and has been +exceedingly happy in the short sketch given of Poland. We +actually know more of its picturesque and characteristic customs +after a perusal of his graphic pages, than after a long course of +dry historical details. His remarks on the Polonaise and Mazourka +are full of the philosophy and essence of history. These dances +grew directly from the heart of the Polish people; repeating the +martial valor and haughty love of noble exhibition of their men; +the tenderness, devotion, and subtle coquetry of their women-- +they were of course favorite forms with Chopin; their national +character made them dear to the national poet. The remarks of +Liszt on these dances are given with a knowledge so acute of the +traits of the nation in which they originated, with such a +gorgeousness of description and correctness of detail, that they +rather resemble a highly finished picture, than a colder work of +words only. They have all the splendor of a brilliant painting. +He seizes the secrets of the nationality of these forms, traces +them through the heart of the Polish people, follows them through +their marvelous transfiguration in the pages of the Polish +artist, and reads by their light much of the sensitive and +exclusive character of Chopin, analyzing it with the skill of +love, while depicting it with romantic eloquence. + +To those who can produce the compositions of Chopin in the spirit +of their author, no words are necessary. They follow with the +heart the poetic and palpitating emotions so exquisitely wrought +through the aerial tissue of the tones by this "subtle-souled +Psychologist," this bold and original explorer in the invisible +world of sound;--all honor to their genius: + + + "Oh, happy! and of many millions, they + The purest chosen, whom Art's service pure + Hallows and claims--whose hearts are made her throne, + Whose lips her oracle, ordained secure, + To lead a priestly life, and feed the ray + Of her eternal shrine, to them alone + Her glorious countenance unveiled is shown: + Ye, the high brotherhood she links, rejoice + In the great rank allotted by her choice! + The loftiest rank the spiritual world sublime, + Rich with its starry thrones, gives to the sons of Time!" + + Schiller. + + +Short but glowing sketches of Heine, Meyerbeer, Adolphe Nourrit, +Hiller, Eugene Delacroix, Niemcevicz, Mickiewicz, and Madame +Sand, occur in the book. The description of the last days of poor +Chopin's melancholy life, with the untiring devotion of those +around him, including the beautiful countess, Delphine Potocka; +his cherished sister, Louise; his devoted friend and pupil, M. +Gutman, with the great Liszt himself, is full of tragic interest. + +No pains have been spared by the translator to make the +translation acceptable, for the task was truly a labor of love. +No motives of interest induced the lingering over the careful +rendering of the charmed pages, but an intense desire that our +people should know more of musical art; that while acknowledging +the generosity and eloquence of Liszt, they should learn to +appreciate and love the more subtle fire, the more creative +genius of the unfortunate, but honorable and honored artist, +Chopin. + +Perchance Liszt may yet visit us; we may yet hear the matchless +Pianist call from their graves in the white keys, the delicate +arabesques, the undulating and varied melodies, of Chopin. We +should be prepared to appreciate the great Artist in his +enthusiastic rendering of the master-pieces of the man he loved; +prepared to greet him when he electrifies us with his wonderful +Cyclopean harmonies, written for his own Herculean grasp, +sparkling with his own Promethean fire, which no meaner hand can +ever hope to master! "Hear Liszt and die," has been said by some +of his enthusiastic admirers--understand him and live, were the +wiser advice! + +In gratitude then to Chopin for the multiplied sources of high +and pure pleasure which he has revealed to humanity in his +creations, that human woe and sorrow become pure beauty when his +magic spell is on them, the translator calls upon all lovers of +the beautiful "to contribute a stone to the pyramid now rapidly +erecting in honor of the great modern composer"--ay, the living +stone of appreciation, crystalized in the enlightened gratitude +of the heart. + + + + + + + "So works this music upon earth + God so admits it, sends it forth. + To add another worth to worth-- + + A new creation-bloom that rounds + The old creation, and expounds + His Beautiful in tuneful sounds." + + + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +Chopin--Style and Improvements--The Adagio of the Second +Concerto--Funeral March--Psychological Character of the +Compositions of Chopin, &c., &c. + + + +Deeply regretted as he may be by the whole body of artists, +lamented by all who have ever known him, we must still be +permitted to doubt if the time has even yet arrived in which he, +whose loss is so peculiarly deplored by ourselves, can be +appreciated in accordance with his just value, or occupy that +high rank which in all probability will be assigned him in the +future. + +If it has been often proved that "no one is a prophet in his own +country;" is it not equally true that the prophets, the men of +the future, who feel its life in advance, and prefigure it in +their works, are never recognized as prophets in their own times? +It would be presumptuous to assert that it can ever be otherwise. +In vain may the young generations of artists protest against the +"Anti-progressives," whose invariable custom it is to assault and +beat down the living with the dead: time alone can test the real +value, or reveal the hidden beauties, either of musical +compositions, or of kindred efforts in the sister arts. + +As the manifold forms of art are but different incantations, +charged with electricity from the soul of the artist, and +destined to evoke the latent emotions and passions in order to +render them sensible, intelligible, and, in some degree, +tangible; so genius may be manifested in the invention of new +forms, adapted, it may be, to the expression of feelings which +have not yet surged within the limits of common experience, and +are indeed first evoked within the magic circle by the creative +power of artistic intuition. In arts in which sensation is linked +to emotion, without the intermediate assistance of thought and +reflection, the mere introduction of unaccustomed forms, of +unused modes, must present an obstacle to the immediate +comprehension of any very original composition. The surprise, +nay, the fatigue, caused by the novelty of the singular +impressions which it awakens, will make it appear to many as if +written in a language of which they were ignorant, and which that +reason will in itself be sufficient to induce them to pronounce a +barbarous dialect. The trouble of accustoming the ear to it will +repel many who will, in consequence, refuse to make a study of +it. Through the more vivid and youthful organizations, less +enthralled by the chains of habit; through the more ardent +spirits, won first by curiosity, then filled with passion for the +new idiom, must it penetrate and win the resisting and opposing +public, which will finally catch the meaning, the aim, the +construction, and at last render justice to its qualities, and +acknowledge whatever beauty it may contain. Musicians who do not +restrict themselves within the limits of conventional routine, +have, consequently, more need than other artists of the aid of +time. They cannot hope that death will bring that instantaneous +plus-value to their works which it gives to those of the +painters. No musician could renew, to the profit of his +manuscripts, the deception practiced by one of the great Flemish +painters, who, wishing in his lifetime to benefit by his future +glory, directed his wife to spread abroad the news of his death, +in order that the pictures with which he had taken care to cover +the walls of his studio, might suddenly increase in value! + +Whatever may be the present popularity of any part of the +productions of one, broken, by suffering long before taken by +death, it is nevertheless to be presumed that posterity will +award to his works an estimation of a far higher character, of a +much more earnest nature, than has hitherto been awarded them. A +high rank must be assigned by the future historians of music to +one who distinguished himself in art by a genius for melody so +rare, by such graceful and remarkable enlargements of the +harmonic tissue; and his triumph will be justly preferred to many +of far more extended surface, though the works of such victors +may be played and replayed by the greatest number of instruments, +and be sung and resung by passing crowds of Prime Donne. + +In confining himself exclusively to the Piano, Chopin has, in our +opinion, given proof of one of the most essential qualities of a +composer--a just appreciation of the form in which he possessed +the power to excel; yet this very fact, to which we attach so +much importance, has been injurious to the extent of his fame. It +would have been most difficult for any other writer, gifted with +such high harmonic and melodic powers, to have resisted the +temptation of the SINGING of the bow, the liquid sweetness of the +flute, or the deafening swells of the trumpet, which we still +persist in believing the only fore-runner of the antique goddess +from whom we woo the sudden favors. What strong conviction, based +upon reflection, must have been requisite to have induced him to +restrict himself to a circle apparently so much more barren; what +warmth of creative genius must have been necessary to have forced +from its apparent aridity a fresh growth of luxuriant bloom, +unhoped for in such a soil! What intuitive penetration is +repealed by this exclusive choice, which, wresting the different +effects of the various instruments from their habitual domain, +where the whole foam of sound would have broken at their feet, +transported them into a sphere, more limited, indeed, but far +more idealized! What confident perception of the future powers of +his instrument must have presided over his voluntary renunciation +of an empiricism, so widely spread, that another would have +thought it a mistake, a folly, to have wrested such great +thoughts from their ordinary interpreters! How sincerely should +we revere him for this devotion to the Beautiful for its own +sake, which induced him not to yield to the general propensity to +scatter each light spray of melody over a hundred orchestral +desks, and enabled him to augment the resources of art, in +teaching how they may be concentrated in a more limited space, +elaborated at less expense of means, and condensed in time! + +Far from being ambitious of the uproar of an orchestra, Chopin +was satisfied to see his thought integrally produced upon the +ivory of the key-board; succeeding in his aim of losing nothing +in power, without pretending to orchestral effects, or to the +brush of the scene-painter. Oh! we have not yet studied with +sufficient earnestness and attention the designs of his delicate +pencil, habituated as we are, in these days, to consider only +those composers worthy of a great name, who have written at least +half-a-dozen Operas, as many Oratorios, and various Symphonies: +vainly requiring every musician to do every thing, nay, a little +more than every thing. However widely diffused this idea may be, +its justice is, to say the least, highly problematical. We are +far from contesting the glory more difficult of attainment, or +the real superiority of the Epic poets, who display their +splendid creations upon so large a plan; but we desire that +material proportion in music should be estimated by the same +measure which is applied to dimension in other branches of the +fine arts; as, for example, in painting, where a canvas of twenty +inches square, as the Vision of Ezekiel, or Le Cimetiere by +Ruysdael, is placed among the chefs d'oeuvre, and is more highly +valued than pictures of a far larger size, even though they might +be from the hands of a Rubens or a Tintoret. In literature, is +Beranger less a great poet, because he has condensed his thoughts +within the narrow limits of his songs? Does not Petrarch owe his +fame to his Sonnets? and among those who most frequently repeat +their soothing rhymes, how many know any thing of the existence +of his long poem on Africa? We cannot doubt that the prejudice +which would deny the superiority of an artist--though he should +have produced nothing but such Sonatas as Franz Schubert has +given us--over one who has portioned out the insipid melodies of +many Operas, which it were useless to cite, will disappear; and +that in music, also, we will yet take into account the eloquence +and ability with which the thoughts and feelings are expressed, +whatever may be the size of the composition in which they are +developed, or the means employed to interpret them. + +In making an analysis of the works of Chopin, we meet with +beauties of a high order, expressions entirely new, and a +harmonic tissue as original as erudite. In his compositions, +boldness is always justified; richness, even exuberance, never +interferes with clearness; singularity never degenerates into +uncouth fantasticalness; the sculpturing is never disorderly; the +luxury of ornament never overloads the chaste eloquence of the +principal lines. His best works abound in combinations which may +be said to form an epoch in the handling of musical style. +Daring, brilliant and attractive, they disguise their profundity +under so much grace, their science under so many charms, that it +is with difficulty we free ourselves sufficiently from their +magical enthrallment, to judge coldly of their theoretical value. +Their worth has, however, already been felt; but it will be more +highly estimated when the time arrives for a critical examination +of the services rendered by them to art during that period of its +course traversed by Chopin. + +It is to him we owe the extension of chords, struck together in +arpeggio, or en batterie; the chromatic sinuosities of which his +pages offer such striking examples; the little groups of +superadded notes, falling like light drops of pearly dew upon the +melodic figure. This species of adornment had hitherto been +modeled only upon the Fioritures of the great Old School of +Italian song; the embellishments for the voice had been servilely +copied by the Piano, although become stereotyped and monotonous: +he imparted to them the charm of novelty, surprise and variety, +unsuited for the vocalist, but in perfect keeping with the +character of the instrument. He invented the admirable harmonic +progressions which have given a serious character to pages, +which, in consequence of the lightness of their subject, made no +pretension to any importance. But of what consequence is the +subject? Is it not the idea which is developed through it, the +emotion with which it vibrates, which expands, elevates and +ennobles it? What tender melancholy, what subtlety, what sagacity +in the master-pieces of La Fontaine, although the subjects are so +familiar, the titles so modest? Equally unassuming are the titles +and subjects of the Studies and Preludes; yet the compositions of +Chopin, so modestly named, are not the less types of perfection +in a mode created by himself, and stamped, like all his other +works, with the high impress of his poetic genius. Written in the +commencement of his career, they are characterized by a youthful +vigor not to be found in some of his subsequent works, even when +more elaborate, finished, and richer in combinations; a vigor, +which is entirely lost in his latest productions, marked by an +over-excited sensibility, a morbid irritability, and giving +painful intimations of his own state of suffering and exhaustion. + +If it were our intention to discuss the development of Piano +music in the language of the Schools, we would dissect his +magnificent pages, which afford so rich a field for scientific +observation. We would, in the first place, analyze his Nocturnes, +Ballades, Impromptus, Scherzos, which are full of refinements of +harmony never heard before; bold, and of startling originality. +We would also examine his Polonaises, Mazourkas, Waltzes and +Boleros. But this is not the time or place for such a study, +which would be interesting only to the adepts in Counterpoint and +Thoroughbass. + +It is the feeling which overflows in all his works, which has +rendered them known and popular; feeling of a character eminently +romantic, subjective individual, peculiar to their author, yet +awakening immediate sympathy; appealing not alone to the heart of +that country indebted to him for yet one glory more, but to all +who can be touched by the misfortunes of exile, or moved by the +tenderness of love. Not content with success in the field in +which he was free to design, with such perfect grace, the +contours chosen by himself, Chopin also wished to fetter his +ideal thoughts with classic chains. His Concertos and Sonatas are +beautiful indeed, but we may discern in them more effort than +inspiration. His creative genius was imperious, fantastic and +impulsive. His beauties were only manifested fully in entire +freedom. We believe he offered violence to the character of his +genius whenever he sought to subject it to rules, to +classifications, to regulations not his own, and which he could +not force into harmony with the exactions of his own mind. He was +one of those original beings, whose graces are only fully +displayed when they have cut themselves adrift from all bondage, +and float on at their own wild will, swayed only by the ever +undulating impulses of their own mobile natures. + +He was, perhaps, induced to desire this double success through +the example of his friend, Mickiewicz, who, having been the first +to gift his country with romantic poetry, forming a school in +Sclavic literature by the publication of his Dziady, and his +romantic Ballads, as early as 1818, proved afterwards, by the +publication at his Grazyna and Wallenrod, that he could triumph +over the difficulties that classic restrictions oppose to +inspiration, and that, when holding the classic lyre of the +ancient poets, he was still master. In making analogous attempts, +we do not think Chopin has been equally successful. He could not +retain, within the square of an angular and rigid mould, that +floating and indeterminate contour which so fascinates us in his +graceful conceptions. He could not introduce in its unyielding +lines that shadowy and sketchy indecision, which, disguising the +skeleton, the whole frame-work of form, drapes it in the mist of +floating vapors, such as surround the white-bosomed maids of +Ossian, when they permit mortals to catch some vague, yet lovely +outline, from their home in the changing, drifting, blinding +clouds. + +Some of these efforts, however, are resplendent with a rare +dignity of style; and passages of exceeding interest, of +surprising grandeur, may be found among them. As an example of +this, we cite the Adagio of the Second Concerto, for which he +evinced a decided preference, and which he liked to repeat +frequently. The accessory designs are in his best manner, while +the principal phrase is of an admirable breadth. It alternates +with a Recitative, which assumes a minor key, and which seems to +be its Antistrophe. The whole of this piece is of a perfection +almost ideal; its expression, now radiant with light, now full of +tender pathos. It seems as if one had chosen a happy vale of +Tempe, a magnificent landscape flooded with summer glow and +lustre, as a background for the rehearsal of some dire scene of +mortal anguish. A bitter and irreparable regret seizes the +wildly-throbbing human heart, even in the midst of the +incomparable splendor of external nature. This contrast is +sustained by a fusion of tones, a softening of gloomy hues, which +prevent the intrusion of aught rude or brusque that might awaken +a dissonance in the touching impression produced, which, while +saddening joy, soothes and softens the bitterness of sorrow. + +It would be impossible to pass in silence the Funeral March +inserted in the first Sonata, which was arranged for the +orchestra, and performed, for the first time, at his own +obsequies. What other accents could have been found capable of +expressing, with the same heart-breaking effect, the emotions, +the tears, which should accompany to the last long sleep, one who +had taught in a manner so sublime, how great losses should be +mourned? We once heard it remarked by a native of his own +country: "these pages could only have been written by a Pole." +All that the funeral train of an entire nation weeping its own +ruin and death can be imagined to feel of desolating woe, of +majestic sorrow, wails in the musical ringing of this passing +bell, mourns in the tolling of this solemn knell, as it +accompanies the mighty escort on its way to the still city of the +Dead. The intensity of mystic hope; the devout appeal to +superhuman pity, to infinite mercy, to a dread justice, which +numbers every cradle and watches every tomb; the exalted +resignation which has wreathed so much grief with halos so +luminous; the noble endurance of so many disasters with the +inspired heroism of Christian martyrs who know not to despair;-- +resound in this melancholy chant, whose voice of supplication +breaks the heart. All of most pure, of most holy, of most +believing, of most hopeful in the hearts of children, women, and +priests, resounds, quivers and trembles there with irresistible +vibrations. We feel it is not the death of a single warrior we +mourn, while other heroes live to avenge him, but that a whole +generation of warriors has forever fallen, leaving the death song +to be chanted but by wailing women, weeping children and helpless +priests. Yet this Melopee so funereal, so full of desolating woe, +is of such penetrating sweetness, that we can scarcely deem it of +this earth. These sounds, in which the wild passion of human +anguish seems chilled by awe and softened by distance, impose a +profound meditation, as if, chanted by angels, they floated +already in the heavens: the cry of a nation's anguish mounting to +the very throne of God! The appeal of human grief from the lyre +of seraphs! Neither cries, nor hoarse groans, nor impious +blasphemies, nor furious imprecations, trouble for a moment the +sublime sorrow of the plaint: it breathes upon the ear like the +rhythmed sighs of angels. The antique face of grief is entirely +excluded. Nothing recalls the fury of Cassandra, the prostration +of Priam, the frenzy of Hecuba, the despair of the Trojan +captives. A sublime faith destroying in the survivors of this +Christian Ilion the bitterness of anguish and the cowardice of +despair, their sorrow is no longer marked by earthly weakness. +Raising itself from the soil wet with blood and tears, it springs +forward to implore God; and, having nothing more to hope from +earth, it supplicates the Supreme Judge with prayers so poignant, +that our hearts, in listening, break under the weight of an +august compassion! It would be a mistake to suppose that all the +compositions of Chopin are deprived of the feelings which he has +deemed best to suppress in this great work. Not so. Perhaps human +nature is not capable of maintaining always this mood of +energetic abnegation, of courageous submission. We meet with +breathings of stifled rage, of suppressed anger, in many passages +of his writings: and many of his Studies, as well as his +Scherzos, depict a concentrated exasperation and despair, which +are sometimes manifested in bitter irony, sometimes in intolerant +hauteur. These dark apostrophes of his muse have attracted less +attention, have been less fully understood, than his poems of +more tender coloring. The personal character of Chopin had +something to do with this general misconception. Kind, courteous, +and affable, of tranquil and almost joyous manners, he would not +suffer the secret convulsions which agitated him to be even +suspected. + +His character was indeed not easily understood. A thousand subtle +shades, mingling, crossing, contradicting and disguising each +other, rendered it almost undecipherable at a first view. As is +usually the case with the Sclaves, it was difficult to read the +recesses of his mind. With them, loyalty and candor, familiarity +and the most captivating ease of manner, by no means imply +confidence, or impulsive frankness. Like the twisted folds of a +serpent rolled upon itself, their feelings are half hidden, half +revealed. It requires a most attentive examination to follow the +coiled linking of the glittering rings. It would be naive to +interpret literally their courtesy full of compliment, their +assumed humility. The forms of this politeness, this modesty, +have their solution in their manners, in which their ancient +connection with the East may be strangely traced. Without having +in the least degree acquired the taciturnity of the Mussulman, +they have yet learned from it a distrustful reserve upon all +subjects which touch upon the more delicate and personal chords +of the heart. When they speak of themselves, we may almost always +be certain that they keep some concealment in reserve, which +assures them the advantage in intellect, or feeling. They suffer +their interrogator to remain in ignorance of some circumstance, +some mobile secret, through the unveiling of which they would be +more admired, or less esteemed, and which they well know how to +hide under the subtle smile of an almost imperceptible mockery. +Delighting in the pleasure of mystification, from the most +spiritual or comic to the most bitter and melancholy, they may +perhaps find in this deceptive raillery an external formula of +disdain for the veiled expression of the superiority which they +internally claim, but which claim they veil with the caution and +astuteness natural to the oppressed. + +The frail and sickly organization of Chopin, not permitting him +the energetic expression of his passions, he gave to his friends +only the gentle and affectionate phase of his nature. In the +busy, eager life of large cities, where no one has time to study +the destiny of another, where every one is judged by his external +activity, very few think it worth while to attempt to penetrate +the enigma of individual character. Those who enjoyed familiar +intercourse with Chopin, could not be blind to the impatience and +ennui he experienced in being, upon the calm character of his +manners, so promptly believed. And may not the artist revenge the +man? As his health was too frail to permit him to give vent to +his impatience through the vehemence of his execution, he sought +to compensate himself by pouring this bitterness over those pages +which he loved to hear performed with a vigor [Footnote: It was +his delight to hear them executed by the great Liszt himself.-- +Translator.] which he could not himself always command: pages +which are indeed full of the impassioned feelings of a man +suffering deeply from wounds which he does not choose to avow. +Thus around a gaily flagged, yet sinking ship, float the fallen +spars and scattered fragments, torn by warring winds and surging +waves from its shattered sides. + +Such emotions have been of so much the more importance in the +life of Chopin, because they have deeply influenced the character +of his compositions. Among the pages published under such +influences, may be traced much analogous to the wire-drawn +subtleties of Jean Paul, who found it necessary, in order to move +hearts macerated by passion, blazes through suffering, to make +use of the surprises caused by natural and physical phenomena; to +evoke the sensations of luxurious terrors arising from +occurrences not to be foreseen in the natural order of things; to +awaken the morbid excitements of a dreamy brain. Step by step the +tortured mind of Chopin arrived at a state of sickly +irritability; his emotions increased to a feverish tremor, +producing that involution, that tortuosity of thought, which mark +his latest works. Almost suffocating under the oppression of +repressed feelings, using art only to repeat and rehearse for +himself his own internal tragedy, after having wearied emotion, +he began to subtilize it. His melodies are actually tormented; a +nervous and restless sensibility leads to an obstinate +persistence in the handling and rehandling and a reiterated +pursuit of the tortured motifs, which impress us as painfully as +the sight of those physical or mental agonies which we know can +find relief only in death. Chopin was a victim to a disease +without hope, which growing more envenomed from year to year, +took him, while yet young, from those who loved him, and laid him +in his still grave. As in the fair form of some beautiful victim, +the marks of the grasping claws of the fierce bird of prey which +has destroyed it, may be found; so, in the productions of which +we have just spoken, the traces of the bitter sufferings which +devoured his heart, are painfully visible. + + + +CHAPTER II. + +National Character of the Polonaise--Oginski--Meyseder--Weber-- +Chopin--His Polonaise in F Sharp, Minor--Polonaise--Fantaisie. + + + +It must not be supposed that the tortured aberrations of feeling +to which we have just alluded, ever injure the harmonic tissue in +the works of Chopin on the contrary, they only render it a more +curious subject for analysis. Such eccentricities rarely occur in +his more generally known and admired compositions. His +Polonaises, which are less studied than they merit, on account of +the difficulties presented by their perfect execution, are to be +classed among his highest inspirations. They never remind us of +the mincing and affected "Polonaises a la Pompadour," which our +orchestras have introduced into ball-rooms, our virtuosi in +concerts, or of those to be found in our "Parlor Repertories," +filled, as they invariably are, with hackneyed collections of +music, marked by insipidity and mannerism. + +His Polonaises, characterized by an energetic rhythm, galvanize +and electrify the torpor of indifference. The most noble +traditional feelings of ancient Poland are embodied in them. The +firm resolve and calm gravity of its men of other days, breathe +through these compositions. Generally of a martial character, +courage and daring are rendered with that simplicity of +expression, said to be a distinctive trait of this warlike +people. They bring vividly before the imagination, the ancient +Poles, as we find them described in their chronicles; gifted with +powerful organizations, subtle intellects, indomitable courage +and earnest piety, mingled with high-born courtesy and a +gallantry which never deserted them, whether on the eve of +battle, during its exciting course, in the triumph of victory, or +amidst the gloom of defeat. So inherent was this gallantry and +chivalric courtesy in their nature, that in spite of the +restraint which their customs (resembling those of their +neighbours and enemies, the infidels of Stamboul) induced them to +exercise upon their women, confining them in the limits of +domestic life and always holding them under legal wardship, they +still manifest themselves in their annals, in which they have +glorified and immortalized queens who were saints; vassals who +became queens, beautiful subjects for whose sake some periled, +while others lost, crowns: a terrible Sforza; an intriguing +d'Arquien; and a coquettish Gonzaga. + +The Poles of olden times united a manly firmness with this +peculiar chivalric devotion to the objects of their love. A +characteristic example of this may be seen in the letters of Jean +Sobieski to his wife. They were dictated in face of the standards +of the Crescent, "numerous as the ears in a grain-field," tender +and devoted as is their character. Such traits caught a singular +and imposing hue from the grave deportment of these men, so +dignified that they might almost be accused of pomposity. It was +next to impossible that they should not contract a taste for this +stateliness, when we consider that they had almost always before +them the most exquisite type of gravity of manner in the +followers of Islam, whose qualities they appreciated and +appropriated, even while engaged in repelling their invasions. +Like the infidel, they knew how to preface their acts by an +intelligent deliberation, so that the device of Prince Boleslas +of Pomerania, was always present to them: "First weigh it; then +dare:" Erst wieg's: dann wag's! Such deliberation imparted a kind +of stately pride to their movements, while it left them in +possession of an ease and freedom of spirit accessible to the +lightest cares of tenderness, to the most trivial interests of +the passing hour, to the most transient feelings of the heart. As +it made part of their code of honor to make those who interfered +with them, in their more tender interests, pay dearly for it; so +they knew how to beautify life, and, better still, they knew how +to love those who embellished it; to revere those who rendered it +precious to them. + +Their chivalric heroism was sanctioned by their grave and haughty +dignity; an intelligent and premeditated conviction added the +force of reason to the energy of impulsive virtue; thus they have +succeeded in winning the admiration of all ages, of all minds, +even that of their most determined adversaries. They were +characterized by qualities rarely found together, the description +of which would appear almost paradoxical: reckless wisdom, daring +prudence, and fanatic fatalism. The most marked and celebrated +historic manifestation of these properties is to be found in the +expedition of Sobieski when he saved Vienna, and gave a mortal +blow to the Ottoman Empire, which was at last conquered in the +long struggle, sustained on both sides with so much prowess and +glory, with so much mutual deference between opponents as +magnanimous in their truces as irreconcilable in their combats. + +While listening to some of the POLONAISES of Chopin, we can +almost catch the firm, nay, the more than firm, the heavy, +resolute tread of men bravely facing all the bitter injustice +which the most cruel and relentless destiny can offer, with the +manly pride of unblenching courage. The progress of the music +suggests to our imagination such magnificent groups as were +designed by Paul Veronese, robed in the rich costume of days long +past: we see passing at intervals before us, brocades of gold, +velvets, damasked satins, silvery soft and flexile sables, +hanging sleeves gracefully thrown back upon the shoulders, +embossed sabres, boots yellow as gold or red with trampled blood, +sashes with long and undulating fringes, close chemisettes, +rustling trains, stomachers embroidered with pearls, head dresses +glittering with rubies or leafy with emeralds, light slippers +rich with amber, gloves perfumed with the luxurious attar from +the harems. Prom the faded background of times long passed these +vivid groups start forth; gorgeous carpets from Persia lie at +their feet, filigreed furniture from Constantinople stands +around; all is marked by the sumptuous prodigality of the +Magnates who drew, in ruby goblets embossed with medallions, wine +from the fountains of Tokay, and shoed their fleet Arabian steeds +with silver, who surmounted all their escutcheons with the same +crown which the fate of an election might render a royal one, and +which, causing them to despise all other titles, was alone worn +as INSIGNE of their glorious equality. + +Those who have seen the Polonaise danced even as late as the +beginning of the present century, declare that its style has +changed so much, that it is now almost impossible to divine its +primitive character. As very few national dances have succeeded +in preserving their racy originality, we may imagine, when we +take into consideration the changes which have occurred, to what +a degree this has degenerated. The Polonaise is without rapid +movements, without any true steps in the artistic sense of the +word, intended rather for display than for the exhibition of +seductive grace; so we may readily conceive it must lose all its +haughty importance, its pompous self-sufficiency, when the +dancers are deprived of the accessories necessary to enable them +to animate its simple form by dignified, yet vivid gestures, by +appropriate and expressive pantomime, and when the costume +peculiarly fitted for it is no longer worn. It has indeed become +decidedly monotonous, a mere circulating promenade, exciting but +little interest. Unless we could see it danced by some of the old +regime who still wear the ancient costume, or listen to their +animated descriptions of it, we can form no conception of the +numerous incidents, the scenic pantomime, which once rendered it +so effective. By a rare exception this dance was designed to +exhibit the men, to display manly beauty, to set off noble and +dignified deportment, martial yet courtly bearing. "Martial yet +courtly:" do not these two epithets almost define the Polish +character? In the original the very name of the dance is +masculine; it is only in consequence of a misconception that it +has been translated in other tongues into the feminine gender. + +Those who have never seen the KONTUSZ worn, (it is a kind of +Occidental kaftan, as it is the robe of the Orientals, modified +to suit the customs of an active life, unfettered by the stagnant +resignation taught by fatalism,) a sort of FEREDGI, often trimmed +with fur, forcing the wearer to make frequent movements +susceptible of grace and coquetry, by which the flowing sleeves +are thrown backward, can scarcely imagine the bearing, the slow +bending, the quick rising, the finesse of the delicate pantomime +displayed by the Ancients, as they defiled in a Polonaise, as +though in a military parade, not suffering their fingers to +remain idle, but sometimes occupying them in playing with the +long moustache, sometimes with the handle of the sword. Both +moustache and sword were essential parts of the costume, and were +indeed objects of vanity with all ages. Diamonds and sapphires +frequently sparkled upon the arms, worn suspended from belts of +cashmere, or from sashes of silk embroidered with gold, +displaying to advantage forms always slightly corpulent; the +moustache often veiled, without quite hiding, some scar, far more +effective than the most brilliant array of jewels. The dress of +the men rivaled that of the women in the luxury of the material +worn, in the value of the precious stones, and in the variety of +vivid colors. This love of adornment is also found among the +Hungarians, [Footnote: The Hungarian costume worn by Prince +Nicholas Esterhazy at the coronation of George the Fourth, is +still remembered in England. It was valued at several millions of +florins.] as may be seen in their buttons made of jewels, the +rings forming a necessary part of their dress, the wrought clasps +for the neck, the aigrettes and plumes adorning the cap made of +velvet of some brilliant hue. To know how to take off, to put on, +to manoeuvre the cap with all possible grace, constituted almost +an art. During the progress of a Polonaise, this became an object +of especial remark, because the cavalier of the leading pair, as +commandant of the file, gave the mute word of command, which was +immediately obeyed and imitated by the rest of the train. + +The master of the house in which the ball was given, always +opened it himself by leading off in this dance. His partner was +selected neither for her beauty, nor youth; the most highly +honored lady present was always chosen. This phalanx, by whose +evolutions every fete was commenced, was not formed only of the +young: it was composed of the most distinguished, as well as of +the most beautiful. A grand review, a dazzling exhibition of all +the distinction present, was offered as the highest pleasure of +the festival. After the host, came next in order the guests of +the greatest consideration, who, choosing their partners, some +from friendship, some from policy or from desire of advancement, +some from love,--followed closely his steps. His task was a far +more complicated one than it is at present. He was expected to +conduct the files under his guidance through a thousand +capricious meanderings, through long suites of apartments lined +by guests, who were to take a later part in this brilliant +cortege. They liked to be conducted through distant galleries, +through the parterres of illuminated gardens, through the groves +of shrubbery, where distant echoes of the music alone reached the +ear, which, as if in revenge, greeted them with redoubled sound +and blowing of trumpets upon their return to the principal +saloon. As the spectators, ranged like rows of hedges along the +route, were continually changing, and never ceased for a moment +to observe all their movements, the dancers never forgot that +dignity of bearing and address which won for them the admiration +of women, and excited the jealousy of men. Vain and joyous, the +host would have deemed himself wanting in courtesy to his guests, +had he not evinced to them, which he did sometimes with a piquant +naivete, the pride he felt in seeing himself surrounded by +persons so illustrious, and partisans so noble, all striving +through the splendor of the attire chosen to visit him, to show +their high sense of the honor in which they held him. + +Guided by him in their first circuit, they were led through long +windings, where unexpected turns, views, and openings had been +arranged beforehand to cause surprise; where architectural +deceptions, decorations and shifting scenes had been studiously +adapted to increase the pleasure of the festival. If any monument +or inscription, fitted for the occasion, lay upon the long line +of route, from which some complimentary homage might be drawn to +the "most valiant or the most beautiful," the honors were +gracefully done by the host. The more unexpected the surprises +arranged for these excursions, the more imagination evinced in +their invention, the louder were the applauses from the younger +part of the society, the more ardent the exclamations of delight; +and silvery sounds of merry laughter greeted pleasantly the ears +of the conductor-in-chief, who, having thus succeeded in +achieving his reputation, became a privileged Corypheus, a leader +par excellence. If he had already attained a certain age, he was +greeted on his return from such circuits by frequent deputations +of young ladies, who came, in the name of all present, to thank +and congratulate him. Through their vivid descriptions, these +pretty wanderers excited the curiosity of the guests, and +increased the eagerness for the formation of the succeeding +Polonaises among those who, though they did not make part of the +procession, still watched its passage in motionless attention, as +if gazing upon the flashing line of light of some brilliant +meteor. + +In this land of aristocratic democracy, the numerous dependents +of the great seigniorial houses, (too poor, indeed, to take part +in the fete, yet only excluded from it by their own volition, +all, however noble, some even more noble than their lords,) being +all present, it was considered highly desirable to dazzle them; +and this flowing chain of rainbow-hued and gorgeous light, like +an immense serpent with its glittering rings, sometimes wreathed +its linked folds, sometimes uncoiled its entire length, to +display its brilliancy through the whole line of its undulating +animated surface, in the most vivid scintillations; accompanying +the shifting hues with the silvery sounds of chains of gold, +ringing like muffled bells; with the rustling of the heavy sweep +of gorgeous damasks and with the dragging of jewelled swords upon +the floor. The murmuring sound of many voices announced the +approach of this animated, varied, and glittering life-stream. + +But the genius of hospitality, never deficient in high-born +courtesy, and which, even while preserving the touching +simplicity of primitive manners, inspired in Poland all the +refinements of the most advanced state of civilization,--how +could it be exiled from the details of a dance so eminently +Polish? After the host had, by inaugurating the fete, rendered +due homage to all who were present, any one of his guests had the +right to claim his place with the lady whom he had honored by his +choice. The new claimant, clapping his hands, to arrest for a +moment the ever moving cortege, bowed before the partner of the +host, begging her graciously to accept the change; while the +host, from whom she had been taken, made the same appeal to the +lady next in course. This example was followed by the whole +train. Constantly changing partners, whenever a new cavalier +claimed the honor of leading the one first chosen by the host, +the ladies remained in the same succession during the whole +course; while, on the contrary, as the gentlemen continually +replaced each other, he who had commenced the dance, would, in +its progress, become the last, if not indeed entirely excluded +before its close. + +Each cavalier who placed himself in turn at the head of the +column, tried to surpass his predecessors in the novelty of the +combinations of his opening, in the complications of the windings +through which he led the expectant cortege; and this course, even +when restricted to a single saloon, might be made remarkable by +the designing of graceful arabesques, or the involved tracing of +enigmatical ciphers. He made good his claim to the place he had +solicited, and displayed his skill, by inventing close, +complicated and inextricable figures; by describing them with so +much certainty and accuracy, that the living ribbon, turned and +twisted as it might be, was never broken in the loosing of its +wreathed knots; and by so leading, that no confusion or graceless +jostling should result from the complicated torsion. The +succeeding couples, who had only to follow the figures already +given, and thus continue the impulsion, were not permitted to +drag themselves lazily and listlessly along the parquet. The step +was rhythmic, cadenced, and undulating; the whole form swayed by +graceful wavings and harmonious balancings. They were careful +never to advance with too much haste, nor to replace each other +as if driven on by some urgent necessity. On they glided, like +swans descending a tranquil stream, their flexile forms swayed by +the ebb and swell of unseen and gentle waves. Sometimes, the +gentleman offered the right, sometimes, the left hand to his +partner; touching only the points of her fingers, or clasping the +slight hand within his own, he passed now to her right, now to +her left, without yielding the snowy treasure. These complicated +movements, being instantaneously imitated by every pair, ran, +like an electric shiver, through the whole length of this +gigantic serpent. Although apparently occupied and absorbed by +these multiplied manoeuvres, the cavalier yet found time to bend +to his lady and whisper sweet flatteries in her ear, if she were +young; if young no longer, to repose confidence, to urge +requests, or to repeat to her the news of the hour. Then, +haughtily raising himself, he would make the metal of his arms +ring, caress his thick moustache, giving to all his features an +expression so vivid, that the lady was forced to respond by the +animation of her own countenance. + +Thus, it was no hackneyed and senseless promenade which they +executed; it was, rather, a parade in which the whole splendor of +the society was exhibited, gratified with its own admiration, +conscious of its own elegance, brilliancy, nobility and courtesy. +It was a constant display of its lustre, its glory, its renown. +Men grown gray in camps, or in the strife of courtly eloquence; +generals more often seen in the cuirass than in the robes of +peace; prelates and persons high in the Church; dignitaries of +State aged senators; warlike palatines; ambitious castellans;-- +were the partners who were expected, welcomed, disputed and +sought for, by the youngest, gayest, and most brilliant women +present. Honor and glory rendered ages equal, and caused years to +be forgotten in this dance; nay, more, they gave an advantage +even over love. It was while listening to the animated +descriptions of the almost forgotten evolutions and dignified +capabilities of this truly national dance, from the lips of those +who would never abandon the ancient Zupan and Kontusz, and who +still wore their hair closely cut round their temples, as it had +been worn by their ancestors, that we first fully understood in +what a high degree this haughty nation possessed the innate +instinct of its own exhibition, and how entirely it had +succeeded, through its natural grace and genius, in poetizing its +love of ostentation by draping it in the charms of noble +emotions, and wrapping round it the glittering robes of martial +glory. + +When we visited the country of Chopin, whose memory always +accompanied us like a faithful guide who constantly keeps our +interest excited, we were fortunate enough to meet with some of +the peculiar characters, daily growing more rare, because +European civilization, even where it does not modify the basis of +character, effaces asperities, and moulds exterior forms. We +there encountered some of those men gifted with superior +intellect, cultivated and strongly developed by a life of +incessant action, yet whose horizon does not extend beyond the +limits of their own country, their own society, their own +traditions. During our intercourse, facilitated by an +interpreter, with these men of past days, we were able to study +them and to understand the secret of their greatness. It was +really curious to observe the inimitable originality caused by +the utter exclusiveness of the view taken by them. This limited +cultivation, while it greatly diminishes the value of their ideas +upon many subjects, at the same time gifts the mind with a +peculiar force, almost resembling the keen scent and the acute +perceptions of the savage, for all the things near and dear to +it. Only from a mind of this peculiar training, marked by a +concentrative energy that nothing can distract from its course, +every thing beyond the circle of its own nationality remaining +alien to it, can we hope to obtain an exact picture of the past; +for it alone, like a faithful mirror, reflects it in its primal +coloring, preserves its proper lights and shades, and gives it +with its varied and picturesque accompaniments. From such minds +alone can we obtain, with the ritual of customs which are rapidly +becoming extinct, the spirit from which they emanated. Chopin was +born too late, and left the domestic hearth too early, to be +himself in possession of this spirit; but he had known many +examples of it, and, through the memories which surrounded his +childhood, even more fully than through the literature and +history of his country, he found by induction the secrets of its +ancient prestige, which he evoked from the dim and dark land of +forgetfulness, and, through the magic of his poetic art, endowed +with immortal youth. Poets are better comprehended and +appreciated by those who have made themselves familiar with the +countries which inspired their songs. Pindar is more fully +understood by those who have seen the Parthenon bathed in the +radiance of its limpid atmosphere; Ossian, by those familiar with +the mountains of Scotland, with their heavy veils and long +wreaths of mist. The feelings which inspired the creations of +Chopin can only be fully appreciated by those who have visited +his country. They must have seen the giant shadows of past +centuries gradually increasing, and veiling the ground as the +gloomy night of despair rolled on; they must have felt the +electric and mystic influence of that strange "phantom of glory" +forever haunting martyred Poland. Even in the gayest hours of +festival, it appalls and saddens all hearts. Whenever a tale of +past renown, a commemoration of slaughtered heroes is given, an +allusion to national prowess is made, its resurrection from the +grave is instantaneous; it takes its place in the banquet-hall, +spreading an electric terror mingled with intense admiration; a +shudder, wild and mystic as that which seizes upon the peasants +of Ukraine, when the "Beautiful Virgin," white as Death, with her +girdle of crimson, is suddenly seen gliding through their +tranquil village, while her shadowy hand marks with blood the +door of each cottage doomed to destruction. + +During many centuries, the civilization of Poland was entirely +peculiar and aboriginal; it did not resemble that of any other +country; and, indeed, it seems destined to remain forever unique +in its kind. As different from the German feudalism which +neighboured it upon the West, as from the conquering spirit of +the Turks which disquieted it on the East, it resembled Europe in +its chivalric Christianity, in its eagerness to attack the +infidel, even while receiving instruction in sagacious policy, in +military tactics, and sententious reasoning, from the masters of +Byzantium. By the assumption, at the same time, of the heroic +qualities of Mussulman fanaticism and the sublime virtues of +Christian sanctity and humility, [Footnote: It is well known with +how many glorious names Poland has enriched the martyrology of +the Church. In memorial of the countless martyrs it had offered, +the Roman Church granted to the order of Trinitarians, or +Redemptorist Brothers, whose duty it was to redeem from slavery +the Christians who had fallen into the hands of the Infidels, the +distinction, only granted to this nation, of wearing a crimson +belt. These victims to benevolence were generally from the +establishments near the frontiers, such as those of Kamieniec- +Podolski.] it mingled the most heterogeneous elements, and thus +planted in its very bosom the seeds of ruin and decay. + +The general culture of Latin letters, the knowledge of and love +for Italian and French literature gave a lustre and classical +polish to the startling contrasts we hare attempted to describe. +Such a civilization must necessarily impress all its +manifestations with its own seal. As was natural for a nation +always engaged in war, forced to reserve its deeds of prowess and +valor for its enemies upon the field of battle, it was not famed +for the romances of knight-errantry, for tournaments or jousts; +it replaced the excitement and splendor of the mimic war by +characteristic fetes, in which the gorgeousness of personal +display formed the principal feature. + +There is certainly nothing new in the assertion, that national +character is, in some degree, revealed by national dances. We +believe, however, there are none in which the creative impulses +can be so readily deciphered, or the ensemble traced with so much +simplicity, as in the Polonaise. In consequence of the varied +episodes which each individual was expected to insert in the +general frame, the national intuitions were revealed with the +greatest diversity. When these distinctive marks disappeared, +when the original flame no longer burned, when no one invented +scenes for the intermediary pauses, when to accomplish +mechanically the obligatory circuit of a saloon, was all that was +requisite, nothing but the skeleton of departed glory remained. + +We would certainly have hesitated to speak of the Polonaise, +after the exquisite verses which Mickiewicz has consecrated to +it, and the admirable description which he has given of it in the +last Canto of the "Pan Tadeusz," but that this description is to +be found only in a work not yet translated, and, consequently, +only known to the compatriots of the Poet. [Footnote: It has been +translated into German.--T.] It would have been presumptuous, +even under another form, to have ventured upon a subject already +sketched and colored by such a hand, in his romantic Epic, in +which beauties of the highest order are set in such a scene as +Ruysdael loved to paint; where a ray of sunshine, thrown through +heavy storm-clouds, falls upon one of those strange trees never +wanting in his pictures, a birch shattered by lightning, while +its snowy bark is deeply stained, as if dyed in the blood flowing +from its fresh and gaping wounds. The scenes of "Pan Tadeusz" are +laid at the beginning of the present century, when many still +lived who retained the profound feeling and grave deportment of +the ancient Poles, mingled with those who were even then under +the sway of the graceful or giddying passions of modern origin. +These striking and contrasting types existing together at that +period, are now rapidly disappearing before that universal +conventionalism which is at present seizing and moulding the +higher classes in all cities and in all countries. Without doubt, +Chopin frequently drew fresh inspiration from this noble poem, +whose scenes so forcibly depict the emotions he best loved to +reproduce. + +The primitive music of the Polonaise, of which we have no example +of greater age than a century, possesses but little value for +art. Those Polonaises which do not bear the names of their +authors, but are frequently marked with the name of some hero, +thus indicating their date, are generally grave and sweet. The +Polonaise styled "de Kosciuszko," is the most universally known, +and is so closely linked with the memories of his epoch, that we +have known ladies who could not hear it without breaking into +sobs. The Princess F. L., who had been loved by Kosciuszko, in +her last days, when age had enfeebled all her faculties, was only +sensible to the chords of this piece, which her trembling hands +could still find upon the key-board, though the dim and aged eye +could no longer see the keys. Some contemporary Polonaises are of +a character so sad, that they might almost be supposed to +accompany a funeral train. + +The Polonaises of Count Oginski [Footnote: Among the Polonaises +of Count Oginski, the one in F Major has especially retained its +celebrity. It was published with a vignette, representing the +author in the act of blowing his brains out with a pistol. This +was merely a romantic commentary, which was for a long time +mistaken for a fact.] which next appeared, soon attained great +popularity through the introduction of an air of seductive +languor into the melancholy strains. Full of gloom as they still +are, they soothe by their delicious tenderness, by their naive +and mournful grace. The martial rhythm grows more feeble; the +march of the stately train, no longer rustling in its pride of +state, is hushed in reverential silence, in solemn thought, as if +its course wound on through graves, whose sad swells extinguish +smiles and humiliate pride. Love alone survives, as the mourners +wander among the mounds of earth so freshly heaped that the grass +has not yet grown upon them, repeating the sad refrain which the +Bard of Erin caught from the wild breezes of the sea: + +"Love born of sorrow, like sorrow is true!" + +In the well known pages of Oginski may be found the sighing of +analogous thoughts: the very breath of love is sad, and only +revealed through the melancholy lustre of eyes bathed in tears. + +At a somewhat later stage, the graves and grassy mounds were all +passed, they are seen only in the distance of the shadowy +background. The living cannot always weep; life and animation +again appear, mournful thoughts changed into soothing memories, +return on the ear, sweet as distant echoes. The saddened train of +the living no longer hush their breath as they glide on with +noiseless precaution, as if not to disturb the sleep of those who +have just departed, over whose graves the turf is not yet green; +the imagination no longer evokes only the gloomy shadows of the +past. In the Polonaises of Lipinski we hear the music of the +pleasure-loving heart once more beating joyously, giddily, +happily, as it had done before the days of disaster and defeat. +The melodies breathe more and more the perfume of happy youth; +love, young love, sighs around. Expanding into expressive songs +of vague and dreamy character, they speak but to youthful hearts, +cradling them in poetic fictions, in soft illusions. No longer +destined to cadence the steps of the high and grave personages +who ceased to bear their part in these dances, [Footnote: Bishops +and Primates formerly assisted in these dances; at a later date +the Church dignitaries took no part in them.] they are addressed +to romantic imaginations, dreaming rather of rapture than of +renown. Meyseder advanced upon this descending path; his dances, +full of lively coquetry, reflect only the magic charms of youth +and beauty. His numerous imitations have inundated us with pieces +of music, called Polonaises, out which have no characteristics to +justify the name. + +The pristine and vigorous brilliancy of the Polonaise was again +suddenly given to it by a composer of true genius. Weber made of +it a Dithyrambic, in which the glittering display of vanished +magnificence again appeared in its ancient glory. He united all +the resources of his art to ennoble the formula which had been so +misrepresented and debased, to fill it with the spirit of the +past; not seeking to recall the character of ancient music, he +transported into music the characteristics of ancient Poland. +Using the melody as a recital, he accentuated the rhythm, he +colored his composition, through his modulations, with a +profusion of hues not only suitable to his subject, but +imperiously demanded by it. Life, warmth, and passion again +circulated in his Polonaises, yet he did not deprive them of the +haughty charm, the ceremonious and magisterial dignity, the +natural yet elaborate majesty, which are essential parts of their +character. The cadences are marked by chords, which fall upon the +ear like the rattling of swords drawn from their scabbards. The +soft, warm, effeminate pleadings of love give place to the +murmuring of deep, fall, bass voices, proceeding from manly +breasts used to command; we may almost hear, in reply, the wild +and distant neighings of the steeds of the desert, as they toss +the long manes around their haughty heads, impatiently pawing the +ground, with their lustrous eye beaming with intelligence and +full of fire, while they bear with stately grace the trailing +caparisons embroidered with turquoise and rubies, with which the +Polish Seigneurs loved to adorn them. [Footnote: Among the +treasures of Prince radziwill at Nieswirz were to be seen, in the +days of former splendor, twelve sets of horse trappings, each of +a different color, incrusted with precious stones. The twelve +Apostles, life size, in massive silver, were also to be seen +there. This luxury will cease to astonish us when we consider +that the family of Radziwill was descended from the last Grand +Pontiff of Lithuania, to whom, when he embraced Christianity, +were given all the forests and plains which had before been +consecrated to the worship of the heathen Deities; and that +toward the close of the last century, the family still possessed +eight hundred thousand serfs, although its riches had then +considerably diminished. Among the collection of treasures of +which we speak, was an exceedingly curious relic, which is still +in existence. It is a picture of St. John the Baptist, surrounded +by a Bannerol bearing the inscription: "In the name of the Lord, +John, thou shalt be Conqueror." It was found by Jean Sobieski +himself, after the victory which he had won, under the walls of +Vienna, in the tent of the Vizier Kara Mustapha. It was presented +after his death, by Marie d'Arquin, to a Prince Radziwill, with +an inscription in her own hand- writing which indicates its +origin, and the presentation which she makes of it. The +autograph, with the royal seal, is on the reverse side of the +canvas.] How did Weber divine the Poland of other days? Had he +indeed the power to call from the grave of the past, the scenes +which we have just contemplated, that he was thus able to clothe +them with life, to renew their earlier associations? Vain +questions! Genius is always endowed with its own sacred +intuitions! Poetry ever reveals to her chosen the secrets of her +wild domain! + +All the poetry contained in the Polonaises had, like a rich sap, +been so fully expressed from them by the genius of Weber, they +had been handled with a mastery so absolute, that it was, indeed, +a dangerous and difficult thing to attempt them, with the +slightest hope of producing the same effect. He has, however, +been surpassed in this species of composition by Chopin, not only +in the number and variety of works in this style, but also in the +more touching character of the handling, and the new and varied +processes of harmony. Both in construction and spirit, Chopin's +Polonaise In A, with the one in A flat major, resembles very much +the one of Weber's in E Major. In others he relinquished this +broad style: Shall we say always with a more decided success? In +such a question, decision were a thorny thing. Who shall restrict +the rights of a poet over the various phases of his subject? Even +in the midst of joy, may he not be permitted to be gloomy and +oppressed? After having chanted the splendor of glory, may he not +sing of grief? After having rejoiced with the victorious, may he +not mourn with the vanquished? We may, without any fear of +contradiction, assert, that it is not one of the least merits of +Chopin, that he has, consecutively, embraced ALL the phases of +which the theme is susceptible, that he has succeeded in +eliciting from it all its brilliancy, in awakening from it all +its sadness. The variety of the moods of feeling to which he was +himself subject, aided him in the reproduction and comprehension +of such a multiplicity of views. It would be impossible to follow +the varied transformations occurring in these compositions, with +their pervading melancholy, without admiring the fecundity of his +creative force, even when not fully sustained by the higher +powers of his inspiration. He did not always confine himself to +the consideration of the pictures presented to him by his +imagination and memory, taken en masse, or as a united whole. +More than once, while contemplating the brilliant groups and +throngs flowing on before him, has he yielded to the strange +charm of some isolated figure, arresting it in its course by the +magic of his gaze, and, suffering the gay crowds to pass on, he +has given himself up with delight to the divination of its mystic +revelations, while he continued to weave his incantations and +spells only for the entranced Sibyl of his song. + +His GRAND POLONAISE in F SHARP MINOR, must be ranked among his +most energetic compositions. He has inserted in it a MAZOURKA. +Had he not frightened the frivolous world of fashionable life, by +the gloomy grotesqueness with which he introduced it in an +incantation so fantastic, this mode might have become an +ingenious caprice for the ball-room. It is a most original +production, exciting us like the recital of some broken dream, +made, after a night of restlessness, by the first dull, gray, +cold, leaden rays of a winter's sunrise. It is a dream-poem, in +which the impressions and objects succeed each other with +startling incoherency and with the wildest transitions, reminding +us of what Byron says in his "DREAM:" + + "...Dreams in their development have breath, + And tears, and tortures, and the touch of joy; + They leave a weight upon our waking thoughts, + * * * * * * * * + And look like heralds of Eternity." + +The principal motive is a weird air, dark as the lurid hour which +precedes a hurricane, in which we catch the fierce exclamations +of exasperation, mingled with a bold defiance, recklessly hurled +at the stormy elements. The prolonged return of a tonic, at the +commencement of each measure, reminds us of the repeated roar of +artillery--as if we caught the sounds from some dread battle +waging in the distance. After the termination of this note, a +series of the most unusual chords are unrolled through measure +after measure. We know nothing analogous, to the striking effect +produced by this, in the compositions of the greatest masters. +This passage is suddenly interrupted by a SCENE CHAMPETRE, a +MAZOURKA in the style of an Idyl, full of the perfume of lavender +and sweet marjoram; but which, far from effacing the memory of +the profound sorrow which had before been awakened, only +augments, by its ironical and bitter contrast, our emotions of +pain to such a degree, that we feel almost solaced when the first +phrase returns; and, free from the disturbing contradiction of a +naive, simple, and inglorious happiness, we may again sympathize +with the noble and imposing woe of a high, yet fatal struggle. +This improvisation terminates like a dream, without other +conclusion than a convulsive shudder; leaving the soul under the +strangest, the wildest, the most subduing impressions. + +The "POLONAISE-FANTAISIE" is to be classed among the works which +belong to the latest period of Chopin's compositions, which are +all more or less marked by a feverish and restless anxiety. No +bold and brilliant pictures are to be found in it; the loud tramp +of a cavalry accustomed to victory is no longer heard; no more +resound the heroic chants muffled by no visions of defeat--the +bold tones suited to the audacity of those who were always +victorious. A deep melancholy--ever broken by startled movements, +by sudden alarms, by disturbed rest, by stifled sighs--reigns +throughout. We are surrounded by such scenes and feelings as +might arise among those who had been surprised and encompassed on +all sides by an ambuscade, the vast sweep of whose horizon +reveals not a single ground for hope, and whose despair had +giddied the brain, like a draught of that wine of Cyprus which +gives a more instinctive rapidity to all our gestures, a keener +point to all our words, a more subtle flame to all our emotions, +and excites the mind to a pitch of irritability approaching +insanity. + +Such pictures possess but little real value for art. Like all +descriptions of moments of extremity, of agonies, of death +rattles, of contractions of the muscles where all elasticity is +lost, where the nerves, ceasing to be the organs of the human +will, reduce man to a passive victim of despair; they only serve +to torture the soul. Deplorable visions, which the artist should +admit with extreme circumspection within the graceful circle of +his charmed realm! + + + +CHAPTER III. + +Chopin's Mazourkas--Polish Ladies--Mazourka in Poland--Tortured +Motives--Early life of Chopin--Zal. + + + +In all that regards expression, the MAZOURKAS of Chopin differ +greatly from his POLONAISES. Indeed they are entirely unlike in +character. The bold and vigorous coloring of the Polonaises gives +place to the most delicate, tender, and evanescent shades in the +Mazourkas. A nation, considered as a whole, in its united, +characteristic, and single impetus, is no longer placed before +us; the character and impressions now become purely personal, +always individualized and divided. No longer is the feminine and +effeminate element driven back into shadowy recesses. On the +contrary, it is brought out in the boldest relief, nay, it is +brought into such prominent importance that all else disappears, +or, at most, serves only as its accompaniment. The days are now +past when to say that a woman was charming, they called her +GRATEFUL (WDZIECZNA); the very word charm being derived from +WDZIEKI: GRATITUDE. Woman no longer appears as a protegee, but as +a queen; she no longer forms only the better part of life, she +now entirely fills it. Man is still ardent, proud, and +presumptuous, but he yields himself up to a delirium of pleasure. +This very pleasure is, however, always stamped with melancholy. +Both the music of the national airs, and the words, which are +almost always joined with them, express mingled emotions of pain +and joy. This strange but attractive contrast was caused by the +necessity of "CONSOLING MISERY" (CIESZYC BIDE), which necessity +induced them to seek the magical distraction of the graceful +Mazourka, with its transient delusions. The words which were sung +to these melodies, gave them a capability of linking themselves +with the sacred associations of memory, in a far higher degree +than is usual with ordinary dance-music. They were sung and re- +sung a thousand times in the days of buoyant youth, by fresh and +sonorous voices, in the hours of solitude, or in those of happy +idleness. Linking the most varying associations with the melody, +they were again and again carelessly hummed when traveling +through forests, or ploughing the deep in ships; perhaps they +were listlessly upon the lips when some startling emotion has +suddenly surprised the singer; when an unexpected meeting, a +long-desired grouping, an unhoped-for word, has thrown an undying +light upon the heart, consecrating hours destined to live +forever, and ever to shine on in the memory, even through the +most distant and gloomy recesses of the constantly darkening +future. + +Such inspirations were used by Chopin in the most happy manner, +and greatly enriched with the treasures of his handling and +style. Cutting these diamonds so as to present a thousand facets, +he brought all their latent fire to light, and re-uniting even +their glittering dust, he mounted them in gorgeous caskets. +Indeed what settings could he have chosen better adapted to +enhance the value of his early recollections, or which would have +given him more efficient aid in creating poems, in arranging +scenes, in depicting episodes, in producing romances? Such +associations and national memories are indebted to him for a +reign far more extensive than the land which gave them birth. +Placing them among those idealized types which art has touched +and consecrated with her resplendent lustre, he has gifted them +with immortality. + +In order fully to understand how perfectly this setting suited +the varying emotions which Chopin had succeeded in displaying in +all the magic of their rainbow hues, we must have seen the +Mazourka danced in Poland, because it is only there that it is +possible to catch the haughty, yet tender and alluring, character +of this dance. The cavalier, always chosen by the lady, seizes +her as a conquest of which he is proud, striving to exhibit her +loveliness to the admiration of his rivals, before he whirls her +off in an entrancing and ardent embrace, through the tenderness +of which the defiant expression of the victor still gleams, +mingling with the blushing yet gratified vanity of the prize, +whose beauty forms the glory of his triumph. There are few more +delightful scenes than a ball in Poland. After the Mazourka has +commenced, the attention, in place of being distracted by a +multitude of people jostling against each other without grace or +order, is fascinated by one couple of equal beauty, darting +forward, like twin stars, in free and unimpeded space. As if in +the pride of defiance, the cavalier accentuates his steps, quits +his partner for a moment, as if to contemplate her with renewed +delight, rejoins her with passionate eagerness, or whirls himself +rapidly round, as though overcome with the sudden joy and +yielding to the delicious giddiness of rapture. Sometimes, two +couples start at the same moment, after which a change of +partners may occur between them; or a third cavalier may present +himself, and, clapping his hands, claim one of the ladies as his +partner. The queens of the festival are in turn claimed by the +most brilliant gentlemen present, courting the honor of leading +them through the mazes of the dance. + +While in the Waltz and Galop, the dancers are isolated, and only +confused tableaux are offered to the bystanders; while the +Quadrille is only a kind of pass at arms made with foils, where +attack and defence proceed with equal indifference, where the +most nonchalant display of grace is answered with the same +nonchalance; while the vivacity of the Polka, charming, we +confess, may easily become equivocal; while Fandangos, Tarantulas +and Minuets, are merely little love-dramas, only interesting to +those who execute them, in which the cavalier has nothing to do +but to display his partner, and the spectators have no share but +to follow, tediously enough, coquetries whose obligatory +movements are not addressed to them;--in the Mazourka, on the +contrary, they have also their part, and the role of the cavalier +yields neither in grace nor importance to that of his fair +partner. + +The long intervals which separate the successive appearance of +the pairs being reserved for conversation among the dancers, when +their turn comes again, the scene passes no longer only among +themselves, but extends from them to the spectators. It is to +them that the cavalier exhibits the vanity he feels in having +been able to win the preference of the lady who has selected him; +it is in their presence she has deigned to show him this honor; +she strives to please them, because the triumph of charming them +is reflected upon her partner, and their applause may be made a +part of the most flattering and insinuating coquetry. Indeed, at +the close of the dance, she seems to make him a formal offering +of their suffrages in her favor. She bounds rapidly towards him +and rests upon his arm,--a movement susceptible of a thousand +varying shades which feminine tact and subtle feeling well know +how to modify, ringing every change, from the most impassioned +and impulsive warmth of manner to an air of the most complete +"abandon." + +What varied movements succeed each other in the course round the +ball-room! Commencing at first with a kind of timid hesitation, +the lady sways about like a bird about to take flight; gliding +for some time on one foot only, like a skater, she skims the ice +of the polished floor; then, running forward like a sportive +child, she suddenly takes wing. Raising her veiling eyelids, with +head erect, with swelling bosom and elastic bounds, she cleaves +the air as the light bark cleaves the waves, and, like an agile +woodnymph, seems to sport with space. Again she recommences her +timid graceful gliding, looks round among the spectators, sends +sighs and words to the most, highly favored, then extending her +white arms to the partner who comes to rejoin her, again begins +her vigorous steps which transport her with magical rapidity from +one end to the other of the ball-room. She glides, she runs, she +flies; emotion colors her cheek, brightens her eye; fatigue bends +her flexile form, retards her winged feet, until, panting and +exhausted, she softly sinks and reclines in the arms of her +partner, who, seizing her with vigorous arm, raises her a moment +in the air, before finishing with her the last intoxicating +round. + +In this triumphal course, in which may be seen a thousand +Atalantas as beautiful as the dreams of Ovid, many changes occur +in the figures. The couples, in the first chain, commence by +giving each other the hand; then forming themselves into a +circle, whose rapid rotation dazzles the eye, they wreathe a +living crown, in which each lady is the only flower of its own +kind, while the glowing and varied colors are heightened by the +uniform costume of the men, the effect resembling that of the +dark-green foliage with which nature relieves her glowing buds +and fragrant bloom. They all then dart forward together with a +sparkling animation, a jealous emulation, defiling before the +spectators as in a review--an enumeration of which would scarcely +yield in interest to those given us, by Homer and Tasso, of the +armies about to range themselves in the front of battle! At the +close of an hour or two, the same circle again forms to end the +dance; and on those days when amusement and pleasure fill all +with an excited gayety, sparkling and glittering through those +impressible temperaments like an aurora in a midnight sky, a +general promenade is recommenced, and in its accelerated +movements, we cannot detect the least symptom of fatigue among +all these delicate yet enduring women; as if their light limbs +possessed the flexible tenacity and elasticity of steel! + +As if by intuition, all the Polish women possess the magical +science of this dance. Even the least richly gifted among them +know how to draw from it new charms. If the graceful ease and +noble dignity of those conscious of their own power are full of +attraction in it, timidity and modesty are equally full of +interest. This is so because of all modern dances, it breathes +most of pure love. As the dancers are always conscious that the +gaze of the spectators is fastened upon them, addressing +themselves constantly to them, there reigns in its very essence a +mixture of innate tenderness and mutual vanity, as full of +delicacy and propriety as of allurement. + +The latent and unknown poetry, which was only indicated in the +original Polish Mazourkas, was divined, developed, and brought to +light, by Chopin. Preserving their rhythm, he ennobled their +melody, enlarged their proportions; and--in order to paint more +fully in these productions, which he loved to hear us call +"pictures from the easel," the innumerable and widely-differing +emotions which agitate the heart during the progress of this +dance, above all, in the long intervals in which the cavalier has +a right to retain his place at the side of the lady, whom he +never leaves--he wrought into their tissues harmonic lights and +shadows, as new in themselves as were the subjects to which he +adapted them. + +Coquetries, vanities, fantasies, inclinations, elegies, vague +emotions, passions, conquests, struggles upon which the safety or +favor of others depends, all--all, meet in this dance. How +difficult it is to form a complete idea of the infinite +gradations of passion--sometimes pausing, sometimes progressing, +sometimes suing, sometimes ruling! In the country where the +Mazourka reigns from the palace to the cottage, these gradations +are pursued, for a longer or shorter time, with as much ardor and +enthusiasm as malicious trifling. The good qualities and faults +of men are distributed among the Poles in a manner so fantastic, +that, although the essentials of character may remain nearly the +same in all, they vary and shade into each other in a manner so +extraordinary, that it becomes almost impossible to recognize or +distinguish them. In natures so capriciously amalgamated, a +wonderful diversity occurs, adding to the investigations of +curiosity, a spur unknown in other lands; making of every new +relation a stimulating study, and lending unwonted interest to +the lightest incident. Nothing is here indifferent, nothing +unheeded, nothing hackneyed! Striking contrasts are constantly +occurring among these natures so mobile and susceptible, endowed +with subtle, keen and vivid intellects, with acute sensibilities +increased by suffering and misfortune; contrasts throwing lurid +light upon hearts, like the blaze of a conflagration illumining +and revealing the gloom of midnight. Here chance may bring +together those who but a few hours before were strangers to each +other. The ordeal of a moment, a single word, may separate hearts +long united; sudden confidences are often forced by necessity, +and invincible suspicions frequently held in secret. As a witty +woman once remarked: "They often play a comedy, to avoid a +tragedy!" That which has never been uttered, is yet incessantly +divined and understood. Generalities are often used to sharpen +interrogation, while concealing its drift; the most evasive +replies are carefully listened to, like the ringing of metal, as +a test of the quality. Often, when in appearance pleading for +others, the suitor is urging his own cause; and the most graceful +flattery may be only the veil of disguised exactions. + +But caution and attention become at last wearisome to natures +naturally expansive and candid, and a tiresome frivolity, +surprising enough before the secret of its reckless indifference +has been divined, mingles with the most spiritual refinement, the +most poetic sentiments, the most real causes for intense +suffering, as if to mock and jeer at all reality. It is difficult +to analyze or appreciate justly this frivolity, as it is +sometimes real, sometimes only assumed. It makes use of confusing +replies and strange resources to conceal the truth. It is +sometimes justly, sometimes wrongfully regarded as a kind of veil +of motley, whose fantastic tissue needs only to be slightly torn +to reveal more than one hidden or sleeping quality under the +variegated folds of gossamer. It often follows from such causes, +that eloquence becomes only a sort of grave badinage, sparkling +with spangles like the play of fireworks, though the heart of the +discourse may contain nothing earnest; while the lightest +raillery, thrown out apparently at random, may perhaps be most +sadly serious. Bitter and intense thought follows closely upon +the steps of the most tempestuous gayety; nothing indeed remains +absolutely superficial, though nothing is presented without an +artificial polish. In the discussions constantly occurring in +this country, where conversation is an art cultivated to the +highest degree, and occupying much time, there are always those +present, who, whether the topic discussed be grave or gay, can +pass in a moment from smiles to tears, from joy to sorrow, +leaving the keenest observer in doubt which is most real, so +difficult is it to discern the fictitious from the true. + +In such varying modes of thought, where ideas shift like quick +sands upon the shores of the sea, they are rarely to be found +again at the exact point where they were left. This fact is in +itself sufficient to give interest to interviews otherwise +insignificant. We have been taught this in Paris by some natives +of Poland, who astonished the Parisians by their skill in +"fencing in paradox;" an art in which every Pole is more or less +skillful, as he has felt more or less interest or amusement in +its cultivation. But the inimitable skill with which they are +constantly able to alternate the garb of truth or fiction (like +touchstones, more certain when least suspected, the one always +concealed under the garb of the other), the force which expends +an immense amount of intellect upon the most trivial occasions, +as Gil Bias made use of as much intelligence to find the means of +subsistence for a single day, as was required by the Spanish king +to govern the whole of his domain; make at last an impression as +painful upon us as the games in which the jugglers of India +exhibit such wonderful skill, where sharp and deadly arms fly +glittering through the air, which the least error, the least want +of perfect mastery, would make the bright, swift messengers of +certain death! Such skill is full of concealed anxiety, terror, +and anguish! From the complication of circumstances, danger may +lurk in the slightest inadvertence, in the least imprudence, in +possible accidents, while powerful assistance may suddenly spring +from some obscure and forgotten individual. A dramatic interest +may instantaneously arise from interviews apparently the most +trivial, giving an unforeseen phase to every relation. A misty +uncertainty hovers round every meeting, through whose clouds it +is difficult to seize the contours, to fix the lines, to +ascertain the present and future influence, thus rendering +intercourse vague and unintelligible, filling it with an +indefinable and hidden terror, yet, at the same time, with an +insinuating flattery. The strong currents of genuine sympathy are +always struggling to escape from the weight of this external +repression. The differing impulses of vanity, love, and +patriotism, in their threefold motives of action, are forever +hurtling against each other in all hearts, leading to +inextricable confusion of thought and feeling. + +What mingling emotions are concentrated in the accidental +meetings of the Mazourka! It can surround, with its own +enchantment, the lightest emotion of the heart, while, through +its magic, the most reserved, transitory, and trivial rencounter +appeals to the imagination. Could it be otherwise in the presence +of the women who give to this dance that inimitable grace and +suavity, for which, in less happy countries, they struggle in +vain? In very truth are not the Sclavic women utterly +incomparable? There are to be found among them those whose +qualities and virtues are so incontestable, so absolute, that +they are acknowledged by all ages, and by all countries. Such +apparitions are always and everywhere rare. The women of Poland +are generally distinguished by an originality full of fire. +Parisians in their grace and culture, Eastern dancing girls in +their languid fire, they have perhaps preserved among them, +handed down from mother to daughter, the secret of the burning +love potions possessed in the seraglios. Their charms possess the +strange spell of Asiatic languor. With the flames of spiritual +and intellectual Houris in their lustrous eyes, we find the +luxurious indolence of the Sultana. Their manners caress without +emboldening; the grace of their languid movements is +intoxicating; they allure by a flexibility of form, which knows +no restraint, save that of perfect modesty, and which etiquette +has never succeeded in robbing of its willowy grace. They win +upon us by those intonations of voice which touch the heart, and +fill the eye with tender tears; by those sudden and graceful +impulses which recall the spontaneity and beautiful timidity of +the gazelle. Intelligent, cultivated, comprehending every thing +with rapidity, skillful in the use of all they have acquired; +they are nevertheless as superstitious and fastidious as the +lovely yet ignorant creatures adored by the Arabian prophet. +Generous, devout, loving danger and loving love, from which they +demand much, and to which they grant little; beyond every thing +they prize renown and glory. All heroism is dear to them. Perhaps +there is no one among them who would think it possible to pay too +dearly for a brilliant action; and yet, let us say it with +reverence, many of them devote to obscurity their most holy +sacrifices, their most sublime virtues. But however exemplary +these quiet virtues of the home life may be, neither the miseries +of private life, nor the secret sorrows which must prey upon +souls too ardent not to be frequently wounded, can diminish the +wonderful vivacity of their emotions, which they know how to +communicate with the infallible rapidity and certainty of an +electric spark. Discreet by nature and position, they manage the +great weapon of dissimulation with incredible dexterity, +skillfully reading the souls of others with out revealing the +secrets of their own. With that strange pride which disdains to +exhibit characteristic or individual qualities, it is frequently +the most noble virtues which are thus concealed. The internal +contempt they feel for those who cannot divine them, gives them +that superiority which enables them to reign so absolutely over +those whom they have enthralled, flattered, subjugated, charmed; +until the moment arrives when--loving with the whole force of +their ardent souls, they are willing to brave and share the most +bitter suffering, prison, exile, even death itself, with the +object of their love! Ever faithful, ever consoling, ever tender, +ever unchangeable in the intensity of their generous devotion! +Irresistible beings, who in fascinating and charming, yet demand +an earnest and devout esteem! In that precious incense of praise +burned by M. de Balzac, "in honor of that daughter of a foreign +soil," he has thus sketched the Polish woman in hues composed +entirely of antitheses: "Angel through love, demon through +fantasy; child through faith, sage through experience; man +through the brain, woman through the heart; giant through hope, +mother through sorrow; and poet through dreams." [Footnote: +Dedication of "Modeste Mignon".] + +The homage inspired by the Polish women is always fervent. They +all possess the poetic conception of an ideal, which gleams +through their intercourse like an image constantly passing before +a mirror, the comprehension and seizure of which they impose as a +task. Despising the insipid and common pleasure of merely being +able to please, they demand that the being whom they love shall +be capable of exacting their esteem. This romantic temperament +sometimes retains them long in hesitation between the world and +the cloister. Indeed, there are few among them who at some moment +of their lives have not seriously and bitterly thought of taking +refuge within the walls of a convent. + +Where such women reign as sovereigns, what feverish words, what +hopes, what despair, what entrancing fascinations must occur in +the mazes of the Mazourka; the Mazourka, whose every cadence +vibrates in the ear of the Polish lady as the echo of a vanished +passion, or the whisper of a tender declaration. Which among them +has ever danced through a Mazourka, whose cheeks burned not more +from the excitement of emotion than from mere physical fatigue? +What unexpected and endearing ties have been formed in the long +tete-a-tete, in the very midst of crowds, with the sounds of +music, which generally recalled the name of some hero or some +proud historical remembrance attached to the words, floating +around, while thus the associations of love and heroism became +forever attached to the words and melodies! What ardent vows have +been exchanged; what wild and despairing farewells been breathed! +How many brief attachments have been linked and as suddenly +unlinked, between those who had never met before, who were never, +never to meet again--and yet, to whom forgetfulness had become +forever impossible! What hopeless love may have been revealed +during the moments so rare upon this earth; when beauty is more +highly esteemed than riches, a noble bearing of more consequence +than rank! What dark destinies forever severed by the tyranny of +rank and wealth may have been, in these fleeting moments of +meeting, again united, happy in the glitter of passing triumph, +reveling in concealed and unsuspected joy! What interviews, +commenced in indifference, prolonged in jest, interrupted with +emotion, renewed with the secret consciousness of mutual +understanding, (in all that concerns subtle intuition Slavic +finesse and delicacy especially excel,) have terminated in the +deepest attachments! What holy confidences have been exchanged in +the spirit of that generous frankness which circulates from +unknown to unknown, when the noble are delivered from the tyranny +of forced conventionalisms! What words deceitfully bland, what +vows, what desires, what vague hopes have been negligently thrown +on the winds;--thrown as the handkerchief of the fair dancer in +the Mazourka...and which the maladroit knows not how to pick +up!... + +We have before asserted that we must have known personally the +women of Poland, for the full and intuitive comprehension of the +feelings with which the Mazourkas of Chopin, as well as many more +of his compositions, are impregnated. A subtle love vapor floats +like an ambient fluid around them; we may trace step by step in +his Preludes, Nocturnes Impromptus and Mazourkas, all the phases +of which passion is capable The sportive hues of coquetry the +insensible and gradual yielding of inclination, the capricious +festoons of fantasy; the sadness of sickly joys born dying, +flowers of mourning like the black roses, the very perfume of +whose gloomy leaves is depressing, and whose petals are so frail +that the faintest sigh is sufficient to detach them from the +fragile stem; sudden flames without thought, like the false +shining of that decayed and dead wood which only glitters in +obscurity and crumbles at the touch; pleasures without past and +without future, snatched from accidental meetings; illusions, +inexplicable excitements tempting to adventure, like the sharp +taste of half ripened fruit which stimulates and pleases even +while it sets the teeth on edge; emotions without memory and +without hope; shadowy feelings whose chromatic tints are +interminable;--are all found in these works, endowed by genius +with the innate nobility, the beauty, the distinction, the +surpassing elegance of those by whom they are experienced. + +In the compositions just mentioned, as well as in most of his +Ballads, Waltzes and Etudes, the rendering of some of the +poetical subjects to which we have just alluded, may be found +embalmed. These fugitive poems are so idealized, rendered so +fragile and attenuated, that they scarcely seem to belong to +human nature, but rather to a fairy world, unveiling the +indiscreet confidences of Peris, of Titanias, of Ariels, of Queen +Mabs, of the Genii of the air, of water, and of fire,--like +ourselves, subject to bitter disappointments, to invincible +disgusts. + +Some of these compositions are as gay and fantastic as the wiles +of an enamored, yet mischievous sylph; some are soft, playing in +undulating light, like the hues of a salamander; some, full of +the most profound discouragement, as if the sighs of souls in +pain, who could find none to offer up the charitable prayers +necessary for their deliverance, breathed through their notes. +Sometimes a despair so inconsolable is stamped upon them, that we +feel ourselves present at some Byronic tragedy, oppressed by the +anguish of a Jacopo Foscari, unable to survive the agony of +exile. In some we hear the shuddering spasms of suppressed sobs. +Some of them, in which the black keys are exclusively taken, are +acute and subtle, and remind us of the character of his own +gaiety, lover of atticism as he was, subject only to the higher +emotions, recoiling from all vulgar mirth, from coarse laughter, +and from low enjoyments, as we do from those animals more abject +than venomous, whose very sight causes the most nauseating +repulsion in tender and sensitive natures. + +An exceeding variety of subjects and impressions occur in the +great number of his Mazourkas. Sometimes we catch the manly +sounds of the rattling of spurs, but it is generally the almost +imperceptible rustling of crape and gauze under the light breath +of the dancers, or the clinking of chains of gold and diamonds, +that maybe distinguished. Some of them seem to depict the defiant +pleasure of the ball given on the eve of battle, tortured however +by anxiety for, through the rhythm of the dance, we hear the +sighs and despairing farewells of hearts forced to suppress their +tears. Others reveal to us the discomfort and secret ennui of +those guests at a fete, who find it in vain to expect that the +gay sounds will muffle the sharp cries of anguished spirits. We +sometimes catch the gasping breath of terror and stifled fears; +sometimes divine the dim presentiments of a love destined to +perpetual struggle and doomed to survive all hope, which, though +devoured by jealousy and conscious that it can never be the +victor, still disdains to curse, and takes refuge in a soul- +subduing pity. In others we feel as if borne into the heart of a +whirlwind, a strange madness; in the midst of the mystic +confusion, an abrupt melody passes and repasses, panting and +palpitating, like the throbbing of a heart faint with longing, +gasping in despair, breaking in anguish, dying of hopeless, yet +indignant love. In some we hear the distant flourish of trumpets, +like fading memories of glories past, in some of them, the rhythm +is as floating, as undetermined, as shadowy, as the feeling with +which two young lovers gaze upon the first star of evening, as +yet alone in the dim skies. + +Upon one afternoon, when there were but three persons present, +and Chopin had been playing for a long time, one of the most +distinguished women in Paris remarked, that she felt always more +and more filled with solemn meditation, such as might be awakened +in presence of the grave-stones strewing those grounds in Turkey, +whose shady recesses and bright beds of flowers promise only a +gay garden to the startled traveller. She asked him what was the +cause of the involuntary, yet sad veneration which subdued her +heart while listening to these pieces, apparently presenting only +sweet and graceful subjects:--and by what name he called the +strange emotion inclosed in his compositions, like ashes of the +unknown dead in superbly sculptured urns of the purest +alabaster...Conquered by the appealing tears which moistened the +beautiful eyes, with a candor rare indeed in this artist, so +susceptible upon all that related to the secrets of the sacred +relics buried in the gorgeous shrines of his music, he replied: +"that her heart had not deceived her in the gloom which she felt +stealing upon her, for whatever might have been his transitory +pleasures, he had never been free from a feeling which might +almost be said to form the soil of his heart, and for which he +could find no appropriate expression except in his own language, +no other possessing a term equivalent to the Polish word: ZAL!" +As if his ear thirsted for the sound of this word, which +expresses the whole range of emotions produced by an intense +regret, through all the shades of feeling, from hatred to +repentance, he repeated it again and again. + +ZAL! Strange substantive, embracing a strange diversity, a +strange philosophy! Susceptible of different regimens, it +includes all the tenderness, all the humility of a regret borne +with resignation and without a murmur, while bowing before the +fiat of necessity, the inscrutable decrees of Providence: but, +changing its character, and assuming the regimen indirect as soon +as it is addressed to man, it signifies excitement, agitation, +rancor, revolt full of reproach, premeditated vengeance, menace +never ceasing to threaten if retaliation should ever become +possible, feeding itself meanwhile with a bitter, if sterile +hatred. + +ZAL! In very truth, it colors the whole of Chopin's compositions: +sometimes wrought through their elaborate tissue, like threads of +dim silver; sometimes coloring them with more passionate hues. It +may be found in his sweetest reveries; even in those which that +Shakespearian genius, Berlioz, comprehending all extremes, has so +well characterized as "divine coquetries"--coquetries only +understood in semi-oriental countries; coquetries in which men +are cradled by their mothers, with which they are tormented by +their sisters, and enchanted by those they love; and which cause +the coquetries of other women to appear insipid or coarse in +their eyes; inducing them to exclaim, with an appearance of +boasting, yet in which they are entirely justified by the truth: +NIEMA IAK POLKI! "Nothing equals the Polish women!" [Footnote: +The custom formerly in use of drinking, in her own shoe, the +health of the woman they loved, is one of the most original +traditions of the enthusiastic gallantry if the Poles.] Through +the secrets of these "divine coquetries" those adorable beings +are formed, who are alone capable of fulfilling the impassioned +ideals of poets who, like M. de Chateaubriand, in the feverish +sleeplessness of their adolescence, create for themselves visions +"of an Eve, innocent, yet fallen; ignorant of all, yet knowing +all; mistress, yet virgin." [Footnote: Memoires d'Outre Tombe. 1st +vol. Incantation.] The only being which was ever found to +resemble this dream, was a Polish girl of seventeen--"a mixture +of the Odalisque and Valkyria...realization of the ancient sylph- +-new Flora--freed from the chain of the seasons" [Footnote: Idem. +3d vol. Atala.]--and whom M. de Chateaubriand feared to meet +again. "Divine coquetries" at once generous and avaricious; +impressing the floating, wavy, rocking, undecided motion of a +boat without rigging or oars upon the charmed and intoxicated +heart! + +Through his peculiar style of performance, Chopin imparted this +constant rocking with the most fascinating effect; thus making +the melody undulate to and fro, like a skiff driven on over the +bosom of tossing waves. This manner of execution, which set a +seal so peculiar upon his own style of playing, was at first +indicated by the term 'tempo rubato', affixed to his writings: a +Tempo agitated, broken, interrupted, a movement flexible, yet at +the same time abrupt and languishing, and vacillating as the +flame under the fluctuating breath by which it is agitated. In +his later productions we no longer find this mark. He was +convinced that if the performer understood them, he would divine +this rule of irregularity. All his compositions should be played +with this accentuated and measured swaying and balancing. It is +difficult for those who have not frequently heard him play to +catch this secret of their proper execution. He seemed desirous +of imparting this style to his numerous pupils, particularly +those of his own country. His countrymen, or rather his +countrywomen, seized it with the facility with which they +understand every thing relating to poetry or feeling; an innate, +intuitive comprehension of his meaning aided them in following +all the fluctuations of his depths of aerial and spiritual blue. + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Chopin's Mode of Playing--Concerts--The Elite--Fading Bouquets +and Immortal Crowns--Hospitality--Heine--Meyerbeer--Adolphe +Nourrit--Eugene Delacroix--Niemcevicz--Mickiewicz--George Sand. + + + +AFTER having described the compositions palpitating with emotion +in which genius struggles with grief, (grief, that terrible +reality which Art must strive to reconcile with Heaven), +confronting it sometimes as conqueror, sometimes as conquered; +compositions in which all the memories of his youth, the +affections of his heart, the mysteries of his desires, the +secrets of his untold passions, are collected like tears in a +lachrymatory; compositions in which, passing the limits of human +sensations--too dull for his eager fancy, too obtuse for his keen +perceptions--he makes incursions into the realms of Dryads, +Oreads, and Oceanides;--we would naturally be expected to speak +of his talent for execution. But this task we cannot assume. We +cannot command the melancholy courage to exhume emotions linked +with our fondest memories, our dearest personal recollections; we +cannot force ourselves to make the mournful effort to color the +gloomy shrouds, veiling the skill we once loved, with the +brilliant hues they would exact at our hands. We feel our loss +too bitterly to attempt such an analysis. And what result would +it be possible to attain with all our efforts! We could not hope +to convey to those who have never heard him, any just conception +of that fascination so ineffably poetic, that charm subtle and +penetrating as the delicate perfume of the vervain or the +Ethiopian calla, which, shrinking and exclusive, refuses to +diffuse its exquisite aroma in the noisome breath of crowds, +whose heavy air can only retain the stronger odor of the +tuberose, the incense of burning resin. + +By the purity of its handling, by its relation with LA FEE AUX +MIETTES and LES LUTINS D'ARGAIL, by its rencounters with the +SERAPHINS and DIANES, who murmur in his ear their most +confidential complaints, their most secret dreams, the style and +the manner of conception of Chopin remind us of Nodier. He knew +that he did not act upon the masses, that he could not warm the +multitude, which is like a sea of lead, and as heavy to set in +motion, and which, though its waves may be melted and rendered +malleable by heat, requires the powerful arm of an athletic +Cyclops to manipulate, fuse, and pour into moulds, where the dull +metal, glowing and seething under the electric fire, becomes +thought and feeling under the new form into which it has been +forced. He knew he was only perfectly appreciated in those +meetings, unfortunately too few, in which ALL his hearers were +prepared to follow him into those spheres which the ancients +imagined to be entered only through a gate of ivory, to be +surrounded by pilasters of diamond, and surmounted by a dome +arched with fawn-colored crystal, upon which played the various +dyes of the prism; spheres, like the Mexican opal, whose +kaleidoscopical foci are dimmed by olive-colored mists veiling +and unveiling the inner glories; spheres, in which all is magical +and supernatural, reminding us of the marvellous worlds of +realized dreams. In such spheres Chopin delighted. He once +remarked to a friend, an artist who has since been frequently +heard: "I am not suited for concert giving; the public intimidate +me; their looks, only stimulated by curiosity, paralyze me; their +strange faces oppress me; their breath stifles me: but you--you +are destined for it, for when you do not gain your public, you +have the force to assault, to overwhelm, to control, to compel +them." + +Conscious of how much was necessary for the comprehension of his +peculiar talent, he played but rarely in public. With the +exception of some concerts given at his debut in 1831, in Vienna +and Munich, he gave no more, except in Paris, being indeed not +able to travel on account of his health, which was so precarious, +that during entire months, he would appear to be in an almost +dying state. During the only excursion which he made with a hope +that the mildness of a Southern climate would be more conducive +to his health, his condition was frequently so alarming, that +more than once the hotel keepers demanded payment for the bed and +mattress he occupied, in order to have them burned, deeming him +already arrived at that stage of consumption in which it becomes +so highly contagious We believe, however, if we may be permitted +to say it, that his concerts were less fatiguing to his physical +constitution, than to his artistic susceptibility. We think that +his voluntary abnegation of popular applause veiled an internal +wound. He was perfectly aware of his own superiority; perhaps it +did not receive sufficient reverberation and echo from without to +give him the tranquil assurance that he was perfectly +appreciated. No doubt, in the absence of popular acclamation, he +asked himself how far a chosen audience, through the enthusiasm +of its applause, was able to replace the great public which he +relinquished. Few understood him:--did those few indeed +understand him aright? A gnawing feeling of discontent, of which +he himself scarcely comprehended the cause, secretly undermined +him. We have seen him almost shocked by eulogy. The praise to +which he was justly entitled not reaching him EN MASSE, he looked +upon isolated commendation as almost wounding. That he felt +himself not only slightly, but badly applauded, was sufficiently +evident by the polished phrases with which, like troublesome +dust, he shook such praises off, making it quite evident that he +preferred to be left undisturbed in the enjoyment of his solitary +feelings to injudicious commendation. + +Too fine a connoisseur in raillery, too ingenious satirist ever +to expose himself to sarcasm, he never assumed the role of a +"genius misunderstood." With a good grace and under an apparent +satisfaction, he concealed so entirely the wound given to his +just pride, that its very existence was scarcely suspected. But +not without reason, might the gradually increasing rarity +[Footnote: Sometimes he passed years without giving a single +concert. We believe the one given by him in Pleyel's room, in +1844, was after an interval of nearly ten years] of his concerts +be attributed rather to the wish he felt to avoid occasions which +did not bring him the tribute he merited, than to physical +debility. Indeed, he put his strength to rude proofs in the many +lessons which he always gave, and the many hours he spent at his +own Piano. + +It is to be regretted that the indubitable advantage for the +artist resulting from the cultivation of only a select audience, +should be so sensibly diminished by the rare and cold expression +of its sympathies. The GLACE which covers the grace of the ELITE, +as it does the fruit of their desserts; the imperturbable calm of +their most earnest enthusiasm, could not be satisfactory to +Chopin. The poet, torn from his solitary inspiration, can only +find it again in the interest, more than attentive, vivid and +animated of his audience. He can never hope to regain it in the +cold looks of an Areopagus assembled to judge him. He must FEEL +that he moves, that he agitates those who hear him, that his +emotions find in them the responsive sympathies of the same +intuitions, that he draws them on with him in his flight towards +the infinite: as when the leader of a winged train gives the +signal of departure, he is immediately followed by the whole +flock in search of milder shores. + +But had it been otherwise--had Chopin everywhere received the +exalted homage and admiration he so well deserved; had he been +heard, as so many others, by all nations and in all climates; had +ho obtained those brilliant ovations which make a Capitol every +where, where the people salute merit or honor genius had he been +known and recognized by thousands in place of the hundreds who +acknowledged him--we would not pause in this part of his career +to enumerate such triumphs. + +What are the dying bouquets of an hour to those whose brows claim +the laurel of immortality? Ephemeral sympathies, transitory +praises, are not to be mentioned in the presence of the august +Dead, crowned with higher glories. The joys, the consolations, +the soothing emotions which the creations of true art awaken in +the weary, suffering, thirsty, or persevering and believing +hearts to whom they are dedicated, are destined to be borne into +far countries and distant years, by the sacred works of Chopin. +Thus an unbroken bond will be established between elevated +natures, enabling them to understand and appreciate each other, +in whatever part of the earth or period of time they may live. +Such natures are generally badly divined by their contemporaries +when they have been silent, often misunderstood when they have +spoken the most eloquently! + +"There are different crowns," says Goethe, "there are some which +may be readily gathered during a walk." Such crowns charm for the +moment through their balmy freshness, but who would think of +comparing them with those so laboriously gained by Chopin by +constant and exemplary effort, by an earnest love of art, and by +his own mournful experience of the emotions which he has so +truthfully depicted? + +As he sought not with a mean avidity those crowns so easily won, +of which more than one among ourselves has the modesty to be +proud; as he was a pure, generous, good and compassionate man, +filled with a single sentiment, and that one of the most noble of +feelings, the love of country; as he moved among us like a spirit +consecrated by all that Poland possesses of poetry; let us +approach his sacred grave with due reverence! Let us adorn it +with no artificial wreaths! Let us cast upon it no trivial +crowns! Let us nobly elevate our thoughts before this consecrated +shroud! Let us learn from him to repulse all but the highest +ambition, let us try to concentrate our labor upon efforts which +will leave more lasting effects than the vain leading of the +fashions of the passing hour. Let us renounce the corrupt spirit +of the times in which we live, with all that is not worthy of +art, all that will not endure, all that does not contain in +itself some spark of that eternal and immaterial beauty, which it +is the task of art to reveal and unveil as the condition of its +own glory! Let us remember the ancient prayer of the Dorians +whose simple formula is so full of pious poetry, asking only of +their gods: "To give them the Good, in return for the Beautiful!" +In place of laboring so constantly to attract auditors, and +striving to please them at whatever sacrifice, let us rather aim, +like Chopin, to leave a celestial and immortal echo of what we +have felt, loved, and suffered! Let us learn, from his revered +memory, to demand from ourselves works which will entitle us to +some true rank in the sacred city of art! Let us not exact from +the present with out regard to the future, those light and vain +wreath which are scarcely woven before they are faded and +forgotten!... + +In place of such crowns, the most glorious palms which it is +possible for an artist to receive during his lifetime, have been +placed in the hands of Chopin by ILLUSTRIOUS EQUALS. An +enthusiastic admiration was given him by a public still more +limited than the musical aristocracy which frequented his +concerts. This public was formed of the most distinguished names +of men, who bowed before him as the kings of different empires +bend before a monarch whom they have assembled to honor. Such men +rendered to him, individually, due homage. How could it have been +otherwise in France, where the hospitality, so truly national, +discerns with such perfect taste the rank and claims of the +guests? + +The most eminent minds in Paris frequently met in Chopin's +saloon. Not in reunions of fantastic periodicity, such as the +dull imaginations of ceremonious and tiresome circles have +arranged, and which they have never succeeded in realizing in +accordance with their wishes, for enjoyment, ease, enthusiasm, +animation, never come at an hour fixed upon before hand. They can +be commanded less by artists than by other men, for they are all +more or less struck by some sacred malady whose paralyzing torpor +they must shake off, whose benumbing pain they must forget, to be +joyous and amused by those pyrotechnic fires which startle the +bewildered guests, who see from time to time a Roman candle, a +rose-colored Bengal light, a cascade whose waters are of fire, or +a terrible, yet quite innocent dragon! Gayety and the strength +necessary to be joyous, are, unfortunately things only +accidentally to be encountered among poets and artists! It is +true some of the more privileged among them have the happy gift +of surmounting internal pain, so as to bear their burden always +lightly, able to laugh with their companions over the toils of +the way, or at least always able to preserve a gentle and calm +serenity which, like a mute pledge of hope and consolation, +animates, elevates, and encourages their associates, imparting to +them, while they remain under the influence of this placid +atmosphere, a freedom of spirit which appears so much the more +vivid, the more strongly it contrasts with their habitual ennui, +their abstraction, their natural gloom, their usual indifference. + +Chopin did not belong to either of the above mentioned classes; +he possessed the innate grace of a Polish welcome, by which the +host is not only bound to fulfill the common laws and duties of +hospitality, but is obliged to relinquish all thought of himself, +to devote all his powers to promote the enjoyment of his guests. +It was a pleasant thing to visit him; his visitors were always +charmed; he knew how to put them at once at ease, making them +masters of every thing, and placing every thing at their +disposal. In doing the honors of his own cabin, even the simple +laborer of Sclavic race never departs from this munificence; more +joyously eager in his welcome than the Arab in his tent, he +compensates for the splendor which may be wanting in his +reception by an adage which he never fails to repeat, and which +is also repealed by the grand seignior after the most luxurious +repasts served under gilded canopies: CZYM BOHAT, TYM RAD--which +is thus paraphrased for foreigners: "Deign graciously to pardon +all that is unworthy of you, it is all my humble riches which I +place at your feet." This formula [Footnote: All the Polish +formulas of courtesy retain the strong impress of the +hyperbolical expressions of the Eastern languages. The titles of +"very powerful and very enlightened seigniors" are still +obligatory. The Poles, in conversation, constantly name each +other Benefactor (DOBRODZIJ). The common salutation between men, +and of men to women, is PADAM DO NOG: "I fall at your feet." The +greeting of the people possesses a character of ancient solemnity +and simplicity: SLAWA BOHU: "Glory to God."] is still pronounced +with a national grace and dignity by all masters of families who +preserve the picturesque customs which distinguished the ancient +manners of Poland. + +Having thus described something of the habits of hospitality +common in his country, the ease which presided over our reunions +with Chopin will be readily understood. The flow of thought, the +entire freedom from restraint, were of a character so pure that +no insipidity or bitterness ever ensued, no ill humor was ever +provoked. Though he avoided society, yet when his saloon was +invaded, the kindness of his attention was delightful; without +appearing to occupy himself with any one, he succeeded in finding +for all that which was most agreeable; neglecting none, he +extended to all the most graceful courtesy. + +It was not without a struggle, without a repugnance slightly +misanthropic, that Chopin could be induced to open his doors and +piano, even to those whose friendship, as respectful as faithful, +gave them a claim to urge such a request with eagerness. Without +doubt more than one of us can still remember our first improvised +evening with him, in spite of his refusal, when he lived at +Chaussee d'Antin. + +His apartment, invaded by surprise, was only lighted by some wax +candles, grouped round one of Pleyel's pianos, which he +particularly liked for their slightly veiled, yet silvery +sonorousness, and easy touch, permitting him to elicit tones +which one might think proceeded from one of those harmonicas of +which romantic Germany has preserved the monopoly, and which were +so ingeniously constructed by its ancient masters, by the union +of crystal and water. + +As the corners of the room were left in obscurity, all idea of +limit was lost, so that there seemed no boundary save the +darkness of space. Some tall piece of furniture, with its white +cover, would reveal itself in the dim light; an indistinct form, +raising itself like a spectre to listen to the sounds which had +evoked it. The light, concentrated round the piano and falling on +the floor, glided on like a spreading wave until it mingled with +the broken flashes from the fire, from which orange colored +plumes rose and fell, like fitful gnomes, attracted there by +mystic incantations in their own tongue. A single portrait, that +of a pianist, an admiring and sympathetic friend, seemed invited +to be the constant auditor of the ebb and flow of tones, which +sighed, moaned, murmured, broke and died upon the instrument near +which it always hung. By a strange accident, the polished surface +of the mirror only reflected so as to double it for our eyes, the +beautiful oval with silky curls which so many pencils have +copied, and which the engraver has just reproduced for all who +are charmed by works of such peculiar eloquence. + +Several men, of brilliant renown, were grouped in the luminous +zone immediately around the piano: Heine, the saddest of +humorists, listened with the interest of a fellow countryman to +the narrations made him by Chopin of the mysterious country which +haunted his ethereal fancy also, and of which he too had explored +the beautiful shores. At a glance, a word, a tone, Chopin and +Heine understood each other; the musician replied to the +questions murmured in his ear by the poet, giving in tones the +most surprising revelations from those unknown regions, about +that "laughing nymph" [Footnote: Heine. SALOON- CHOPIN.] of whom +he demanded news: "If she still continued to drape her silvery +veil around the flowing locks of her green hair, with a coquetry +so enticing?" Familiar with the tittle-tattle and love tales of +those distant lands he asked: "If the old marine god, with the +long white beard, still pursued this mischievous naiad with his +ridiculous love?" Fully informed, too, about all the exquisite +fairy scenes to be seen DOWN THERE--DOWN THERE, he asked "if the +roses always glowed there with a flame so triumphant? if the +trees at moonlight sang always so harmoniously?" When Chopin had +answered, and they had for a long time conversed together about +that aerial clime, they would remain in gloomy silence, seized +with that mal du pays from which Heine suffered when he compared +himself to that Dutch captain of the phantom ship, with his crew +eternally driven about upon the chill waves, and "sighing in vain +for the spices, the tulips, the hyacinths, the pipes of sea- +foam, the porcelain cups of Holland...'Amsterdam! Amsterdam! when +shall we again see Amsterdam!' they cry from on board, while the +tempest howls in the cordage, beating them forever about in their +watery hell." Heine adds: "I fully understand the passion with +which the unfortunate captain once exclaimed: 'Oh if I should +EVER again see Amsterdam! I would rather be chained forever at +the corner of one of its streets, than be forced to leave it +again!' Poor Van der Decken!" + +Heine well knew what poor Van der Decken had suffered in his +terrible and eternal course upon the ocean, which had fastened +its fangs in the wood of his incorruptible vessel, and by an +invisible anchor, whose chain he could not break because it could +never be found, held it firmly linked upon the waves of its +restless bosom. He could describe to us when he chose, the hope, +the despair, the torture of the miserable beings peopling this +unfortunate ship, for he had mounted its accursed timbers, led on +and guided by the hand of some enamored Undine, who, when the +guest of her forest of coral and palace of pearl rose more +morose, more satirical, more bitter than usual, offered for the +amusement of his ill humor between the repasts, some spectacle +worthy of a lover who could create more wonders in his dreams +than her whole kingdom contained. + +Heine had traveled round the poles of the earth in this +imperishable vessel; he had seen the brilliant visitor of the +long nights, the aurora borealis, mirror herself in the immense +stalactites of eternal ice, rejoicing in the play of colors +alternating with each other in the varying folds of her glowing +scarf. He had visited the tropics, where the zodiacal triangle, +with its celestial light, replaces, during the short nights, the +burning rays of an oppressive sun. He had crossed the latitudes +where life becomes pain, and advanced into those in which it is a +living death, making himself familiar, on the long way, with the +heavenly miracles in the wild path of sailors who make for no +port! Seated on a poop without a helm, his eye had ranged from +the two Bears majestically overhanging the North, to the +brilliant Southern Cross, through the blank Antarctic deserts +extending through the empty space of the heavens overhead, as +well as over the dreary waves below, where the despairing eye +finds nothing to contemplate in the sombre depths of a sky +without a star, vainly arching over a shoreless and bottomless +sea! He had long followed the glittering yet fleeting traces left +by the meteors through the blue depths of space; he had tracked +the mystic and incalculable orbits of the comets as they flash +through their wandering paths, solitary and incomprehensible, +everywhere dreaded for their ominous splendor, yet inoffensive +and harmless. He had gazed upon the shining of that distant star, +Aldebaran, which, like the glitter and sullen glow in the eye of +a vengeful enemy, glares fiercely upon our globe, without daring +to approach it. He had watched the radiant planets shedding upon +the restless eye which seeks them a consoling and friendly light, +like the weird cabala of an enigmatic yet hopeful promise. + +Heine had seen all these things, under the varying appearances +which they assume in different latitudes; he had seen much more +also with which he would entertain us under strange similitudes. +He had assisted at the furious cavalcade of "Herodiade;" he had +also an entrance at the court of the king of "Aulnes" in the +gardens of the "Hesperides"; and indeed into all those places +inaccessible to mortals who have not had a fairy as godmother, +who would take upon herself the task of counterbalancing all the +evil experienced in life, by showering upon the adopted the whole +store of fairy treasures. + +Upon that evening which we are now describing, Meyerbeer was +seated next to Heine;--Meyerbeer, for whom the whole catalogue of +admiring interjections has long since been exhausted! Creator of +Cyclopean harmonics as he was, he passed the time in delight when +following the detailed arabesques, which, woven in transparent +gauze, wound in filmy veils around the delicate conceptions of +Chopin. + +Adolphe Nourrit, a noble artist, at once ascetic and passionate, +was also there. He was a sincere, almost a devout Catholic, +dreaming of the future with the fervor of the Middle Ages, who, +during the latter part of his life, refused the assistance of his +talent to any scene of merely superficial sentiment. He served +Art with a high and enthusiastic respect; he considered it, in +all its divers manifestations, only a holy tabernacle, "the +Beauty of which formed the splendor of the True." Already +undermined by a melancholy passion for the Beautiful, his brow +seemed to be turning into stone under the dominion of this +haunting feeling: a feeling always explained by the outbreak of +despair, too late for remedy from man--man, alas! so eager to +explore the secrets of the heart--so dull to divine them! + +Hiller, whose talent was allied to Chopin's, and who was one of +his most intimate friends, was there also. In advance of the +great compositions which he afterwards published, of which the +first was his remarkable Oratorio, "The Destruction of +Jerusalem," he wrote some pieces for the Piano. Among these, +those known under the title of Etudes, (vigorous sketches of the +most finished design), recall those studies of foliage, in which +the landscape painter gives us an entire little poem of light and +shade, with only one tree, one branch, a single "motif," happily +and boldly handled. + +In the presence of the spectres which filled the air, and whose +rustling might almost be heard, Eugene Delacroix remained +absorbed and silent. Was he considering what pallet, what +brushes, what canvas he must use, to introduce them into visible +life through his art? Did he task himself to discover canvas +woven by Arachne, brushes made from the long eyelashes of the +fairies, and a pallet covered with the vaporous tints of the +rainbow, in order to make such a sketch possible? Did he then +smile at these fancies, yet gladly yield to the impressions from +which they sprung, because great talent is always attracted by +that power in direct contrast to its own? + +The aged Niemcevicz, who appeared to be the nearest to the grave +among us, listened to the "Historic Songs" which Chopin +translated into dramatic execution for this survivor of times +long past. Under the fingers of the Polish artist, again were +heard, side by side with the descriptions, so popular, of the +Polish bard, the shock of arms, the songs of conquerors, the +hymns of triumph, the complaints of illustrious prisoners, and +the wail over dead heroes. They memorized together the long +course of national glory, of victory, of kings, of queens, of +warriors; and so much life had these phantoms, that the old man, +deeming the present an illusion, believed the olden times fully +resuscitated. + +Dark and silent, apart from all others, fell the motionless +profile of Mickiewicz: the Dante of the North, he seemed always +to find "the salt of the stranger bitter, and his steps hard to +mount." + +Buried in a fauteuil, with her arms resting upon a table, sat +Madame Sand, curiously attentive, gracefully subdued. Endowed +with that rare faculty only given to a few elect, of recognizing +the Beautiful under whatever form of nature or of art it may +assume, she listened with the whole force of her ardent genius. +The faculty of instantaneously recognizing Beauty may perhaps be +the "second sight," of which all nations have acknowledged the +existence in highly gifted women. It is a kind of magical gaze +which causes the bark, the mask, the gross envelope of form, to +fall off; so that the invisible essence, the soul which is +incarnated within, may be clearly contemplated; so that the ideal +which the poet or artist may have vivified under the torrent of +notes, the passionate veil of coloring, the cold chiseling of +marble, or the mysterious rhythms of strophes, may be fully +discerned. This faculty is much rarer than is generally supposed. +It is usually felt but vaguely, yet--in its highest +manifestations, it reveals itself as a "divining oracle," knowing +the Past and prophesying the Future. It is a power which exempts +the blessed organization which it illumes, from the bearing of +the heavy burden of technicalities, with which the merely +scientific drag on toward that mystic region of inner life, which +the gifted attain with a single bound. It is a faculty which +springs less from an acquaintance with the sciences, than from a +familiarity with nature. + +The fascination and value of a country life consist in the long +tete-a-tete with nature. The words of revelation hidden under the +infinite harmonies of form, of sounds, of lights and shadows, of +tones and warblings, of terror and delight, may best be caught in +these long solitary interviews. Such infinite variety may appear +crushing or distracting on a first view, but if faced with a +courage that no mystery can appal, if sounded with a resolution +that no length of time can abate, may give the clue to analogies, +conformities, relations between our senses and our sentiments, +and aid us in tracing the hidden links which bind apparent +dissimilarities, identical oppositions and equivalent antitheses, +and teach us the secrets of the chasms separating with narrow but +impassable space, that which is destined to approach forever, yet +never mingle; to resemble ever, yet never blend. To have awakened +early, as did Madame Sand, to the dim whispering with which +nature initiates her chosen to her mystic rites, is a necessary +appanage of the poet. To have learned from her to penetrate the +dreams of man when he, in his turn, creates, and uses in his +works the tones, the warblings, the terrors, the delights, +requires a still more subtle power; a power which Madame Sand +possesses by a double right, by the intuitions of her heart, and +the vigor of her genius. After having named Madame Sand, whose +energetic personality and electric genius inspired the frail and +delicate organization of Chopin with an intensity of admiration +which consumed him, as a wine too spirituous shatters the fragile +vase; we cannot now call up other names from the dim limbus of +the past, in which so many indistinct images, such doubtful +sympathies, such indefinite projects and uncertain beliefs, are +forever surging and hurtling. Perhaps there is no one among us, +who, in looking through the long vista, would not meet the ghost +of some feeling whose shadowy form he would find impossible to +pass! Among the varied interests, the burning desires, the +restless tendencies surging through the epoch in which so many +high hearts and brilliant intellects were fortuitously thrown +together, how few of them, alas! possessed sufficient vitality to +enable them to resist the numberless causes of death, surrounding +every idea, every feeling, as well as every individual life, from +the cradle to the grave! Even during the moments of the troubled +existence of the emotions now past, how many of them escaped that +saddest of all human judgments: "Happy, oh, happy were it dead! +Far happier had it never been born!" Among the varied feelings +with which so many noble hearts throbbed high, were there indeed +many which never incurred this fearful malediction? Like the +suicide lover in Mickiewicz's poem, who returns to life in the +land of the Dead only to renew the dreadful suffering of his +earth life, perhaps among all the emotions then so vividly felt +there is not a single one which, could it again live, would +reappear without the disfigurements, the brandings, the bruises, +the mutilations, which were inflicted on its early beauty, which +so deeply sullied its primal innocence! And if we should persist +in recalling these melancholy ghosts of dead thoughts and buried +feelings from the heavy folds of the shroud, would they not +actually appal us, because so few of them possessed sufficient +purity and celestial radiance to redeem them from the shame of +being utterly disowned, entirely repudiated, by those whose bliss +or torment they formed during the passionate hours of their +absolute rule? In very pity ask us not to call from the Dead, +ghosts whose resurrection would be so painful! Who could bear the +sepulchral ghastly array? Who would willingly call them from +their sheeted sleep? If our ideas, thoughts, and feelings were +indeed to be suddenly aroused from the unquiet grave in which +they lie buried, and an account demanded from them of the good +and evil which they have severally produced in the hearts in +which they found so generous an asylum, and which they have +confused, overwhelmed, illumined, devastated, ruined, broken, as +chance or destiny willed,--who could hope to endure the replies +that would be made to questions so searching? + +If among the group of which we have spoken, every member of which +has won the attention of many human souls, and must, in +consequence, bear in his conscience the sharp sting of multiplied +responsibilities, there should be found ONE who has not suffered +aught, that was pure in the natural attraction which bound them +together in this chain of glittering links, to fall into dull +forgetfulness; one who allowed no breath of the fermentation +lingering even around the most delicate perfumes, to embitter his +memories; one who has transfigured and left to the immortality of +art, only the unblemished inheritance of all that was noblest in +their enthusiasm, all that was purest and most lasting of their +joys; let us bow before him as before one of the Elect! Let us +regard him as one of those whom the belief of the people marks as +"Good Genii!" The attribution of superior power to beings +believed to be beneficent to man, has received a sublime +conformation from a great Italian poet, who defines genius as a +"stronger impress of Divinity!" Let us bow before all who are +marked with this mystic seal; but let us venerate with the +deepest, truest tenderness those who have only used their +wondrous supremacy to give life and expression to the highest and +most exquisite feelings! and among the pure and beneficent genii +of earth must indubitably be ranked the artist Chopin! + + + +CHAPTER V. + +The Lives of Artists--Pure Fame of Chopin--Reserve--Classic and +Romantic Art-Language of the Sclaves--Chopin's Love of Home +Memories. + + + +A natural curiosity is generally felt to know something of the +lives of men who have consecrated their genius to embellish noble +feelings through works of art, through which they shine like +brilliant meteors in the eyes of the surprised and delighted +crowd. The admiration and sympathy awakened by the compositions +of such men, attach immediately to their own names, which are at +once elevated as symbols of nobility and greatness, because the +world is loath to believe that those who can express high +sentiments with force, can themselves feel ignobly. The objects +of this benevolent prejudice, this favorable presumption, are +expected to justify such suppositions by the high course of life +which they are required to lead. When it is seen that the poet +feels with such exquisite delicacy all that which it is so sweet +to inspire; that he divines with such rapid intuition all that +pride, timidity, or weariness struggles to hide; that he can +paint love as youth dreams it, but as riper years despair to +realize it; when such sublime situations seem to be ruled by his +genius, which raises itself so calmly above the calamities of +human destiny, always finding the leading threads by which the +most complicated knots in the tangled skein of life may be +proudly and victoriously unloosed; when the secret modulations of +the most exquisite tenderness, the most heroic courage, the most +sublime simplicity, are known to be subject to his command,--it +is most natural that the inquiry should be made if this wondrous +divination springs from a sincere faith in the reality of the +noble feelings portrayed, or whether its source is to be found in +an acute perception of the intellect, an abstract comprehension +of the logical reason. + +The question in what the life led by men so enamored of beauty +differs from that of the common multitude, is then earnestly +asked. This high poetic disdain,--how did it comport itself when +struggling with material interests? These ineffable emotions of +ethereal love,--how were they guarded from the bitterness of +petty cares, from that rapidly growing and corroding mould which +usually stifles or poisons them? How many of such feelings were +preserved from that subtle evaporation which robs them of their +perfume, that gradually increasing inconstancy which lulls us +until we forget to call the dying emotions to account? Those who +felt such holy indignation,--were they indeed always just? Those +who exalted integrity,--were they always equitable? Those who +sung of honor,--did they never stoop? Those who so admired +fortitude,--have they never compromised with their own weakness? + +A deep interest is also felt in ascertaining how those to whom +the task of sustaining our faith in the nobler sentiments through +art has been intrusted, have conducted themselves in external +affairs, where pecuniary gain is only to be acquired at the +expense of delicacy, loyalty, or honor. Many assert that the +nobler feelings exist only in the works of art. When some +unfortunate occurrence seems to give a deplorable foundation to +the words of such mockers, with what avidity they name the most +exquisite conceptions of the poet, "vain phantoms!" How they +plume themselves upon their own wisdom in having advocated the +politic doctrine of an astute, yet honeyed hypocrisy; how they +delight to speak of the perpetual contradiction between words and +deeds!....With what cruel joy they detail such occurrences, and +cite such examples in the presence of those unsteady restless +souls, who are incited by their youthful aspirations and by the +depression and utter loss of happy confidence which such a +conviction would entail upon them, to struggle against a distrust +so blighting! When such wavering spirits are engaged in the +bitter combat with the harsh alternatives of life, or tempted at +every turn by its insinuating seductions, what a profound +discouragement seizes upon them when they are induced to believe +that the hearts devoted to the most sublime thoughts, the most +deeply initiated in the most delicate susceptibilities, the most +charmed by the beauty of innocence, have denied, by their acts, +the sincerity of their worship for the noble themes which they +have sung as poets! With what agonizing doubts are they not +filled by such flagrant contradictions! How much is their anguish +increased by the jeering mockery of those who repeat: "Poetry is +only that which might have been"--and who delight in blaspheming +it by their guilty negations! Whatever may be the human short- +comings of the gifted, believe the truths they sing! Poetry is +more than the gigantic shadow of our own imagination, +immeasurably increased, and projected upon the flying plane of +the Impossible. POETRY and REALITY are not two incompatible +elements, destined to move on together without commingling. +Goethe himself confesses this. In speaking of a contemporary +writer he says: "that having lived to create poems, he had also +made his life a Poem." (Er lebte dichtend, und dichtete lebend.) +Goethe was himself too true a poet not to know that Poetry only +is, because its eternal Reality throbs in the noble impulses of +the human heart. + +We have once before remarked that "genius imposes its own +obligations." [Footnote: Upon Paganini, after his death.] If the +examples of cold austerity and of rigid disinterestedness are +sufficient to awaken the admiration of calm and reflective +natures, whence shall more passionate and mobile organizations, +to whom the dullness of mediocrity is insipid, who naturally seek +honor or pleasure, and who are willing to purchase the object of +their desires at any price--form their models? Such temperaments +easily free themselves from the authority of their seniors. They +do not admit their competency to decide. They accuse them of +wishing to use the world only for the profit of their own dead +passions, of striving to turn all to their own advantage, of +pronouncing upon the effects of causes which they do not +understand, of desiring to promulgate laws in spheres to which +nature has denied them entrance. They will not receive answers +from their lips, but turn to others to resolve their doubts; they +question those who have drunk deeply from the boiling springs of +grief, bursting from the riven clefts in the steep cliffs upon +the top of which alone the soul seeks rest and light. They pass +in silence by the still cold gravity of those who practice the +good, without enthusiasm for the beautiful. What leisure has +ardent youth to interpret their gravity, to resolve their chill +problems? The throbbings of its impetuous heart are too rapid to +allow it to investigate the hidden sufferings, the mystic +combats, the solitary struggles, which may be detected even in +the calm eye of the man who practices only the good. Souls in +continual agitation seldom interpret aright the calm simplicity +of the just, or the heroic smiles of the stoic. For them +enthusiasm and emotion are necessities. A bold image persuades +them, a metaphor leads them, tears convince them, they prefer the +conclusions of impulse, of intuition, to the fatigue of logical +argument. Thus they turn with an eager curiosity to the poets and +artists who have moved them by their images, allured them by +their metaphors, excited them by their enthusiasm. They demand +from them the explanation, the purpose of this enthusiasm, the +secret of this beauty! + +When distracted by heart-rending events, when tortured by intense +suffering, when feeling and enthusiasm seem to be but a heavy and +cumbersome load which may upset the life-boat if not thrown +overboard into the abyss of forgetfulness; who, when menaced with +utter shipwreck after a long struggle with peril, has not evoked +the glorious shades of those who have conquered, whose thoughts +glow with noble ardor, to inquire from them how far their +aspirations were sincere, how long they preserved their vitality +and truth? Who has not exerted an ingenious discernment to +ascertain how much of the generous feeling depicted was only for +mental amusement, a mere speculation; how much had really become +incorporated with the habitual acts of life? Detraction is never +idle in such cases; it seizes eagerly upon the foibles, the +neglect, the faults of those who have been degraded by any +weakness: alas, it omits nothing! It chases its prey, it +accumulates facts only to distort them, it arrogates to itself +the right of despising the inspiration to which it will grant no +authority or aim but to furnish amusement, denying it any claim +to guide our actions, our resolutions, our refusal, our consent! +Detraction knows well how to winnow history! Casting aside all +the good grain, it carefully gathers all the tares, to scatter +the black seed over the brilliant pages in which the purest +desires of the heart, the noblest dreams of the imagination are +found; and with the irony of assumed victory, demands what the +grain is worth which only germinates dearth and famine? Of what +value the vain words, which only nourish sterile feelings? Of +what use are excursions into realms in which no real fruit can +ever be gathered? of what possible importance are emotions and +enthusiasm, which always end in calculations of interest, +covering only with brilliant veil the covert struggles of egotism +and venal self-interest? + +With how much arrogant derision men given to such detraction, +contrast the noble thoughts of the poet, with his unworthy acts! +The high compositions of the artist, with his guilty frivolity! +What a haughty superiority they assume over the laborious merit +of the men of guileless honesty, whom they look upon as +crustacea, sheltered from temptation by the immobility of weak +organizations, as well as over the pride of those, who, believing +themselves superior to such temptations, do not, they assert, +succeed even as well as themselves in repudiating the pursuit of +material well being, the gratification of vanity, or the pleasure +of immediate enjoyment! What an easy triumph they win over the +hesitation, the doubt, the repugnance of those who would fain +cling to a belief in the possibility of the union of vivid +feelings, passionate impressions, intellectual gifts, imaginative +temperaments, with high integrity, pure lives, and courses of +conduct in perfect harmony with poetic ideals! + +It is therefore impossible not to feel the deepest sadness when +we meet with any fact which shows us the poet disobedient to the +inspiration of the Muses, those guardian angels of the man of +genius, who would willingly teach him to make of his own life the +most beautiful of poems. What disastrous doubts in the minds of +others, what profound discouragements, what melancholy apostasies +are induced by the faltering steps of the man of genius! And yet +it would be profanity to confound his errors in the same +anathema, hurled against the base vices of meanness, the +shameless effrontery of low crime! It would be sacrilege! If the +acts of the poet have sometimes denied the spirit of his song, +have not his songs still more powerfully denied his acts? May not +the limited influence of his private actions have been far more +than counterbalanced by the germs of creative virtues, scattered +profusely through his eloquent writings? Evil is contagious, but +good is truly fruitful! The poet, even while forcing his inner +convictions to give way to his personal interest, still +acknowledges and ennobles the sentiments which condemn himself; +such sentiments attain a far wider influence through his works +than can be exerted by his individual acts. Are not the number of +spirits which have been calmed, consoled, edified, through these +works, far greater than the number of those who have been injured +by the errors of his private life? Art is far more powerful than +the artist. His creations have a life independent of his +vacillating will; for they are revelations of the "immutable +beauty!" More durable than himself, they pass on from generation +to generation; let us hope that they may, through the blessings +of their widely spread influence, contain a virtual power of +redemption for the frequent errors of their gifted authors. If it +be indeed true that many of those who have immortalized their +sensibility and their aspirations, by robing them in the garb of +surpassing eloquence, have, nevertheless, stifled these high +aspirations, abused these quick sensibilities,--how many have +they not confirmed, strengthened and encouraged to pursue a noble +course, through the works created by their genius! A generous +indulgence towards them would be but justice! It is hard to be +forced to claim simple justice for them; unpleasant to be +constrained to defend those whom we wish to be admired, to excuse +those whom we wish to see venerated! + +With what exultant feelings of just pride may the friend and +artist remember a career in which there are no jarring +dissonances; no contradictions, for which he is forced to claim +indulgence; no errors, whose source must be found in palliation +of their existence; no extreme, to be accounted for as the +consequence of "excess of cause." How sweet it is to be able to +name one who has fully proved that it is not only apathetic +beings whom no fascination can attract, no illusion betray, who +are able to limit themselves within the strict routine of honored +and honorable laws, who may justly claim that elevation of soul, +which no reverse subdues, and which is never found in +contradiction with its better self! Doubly dear and doubly +honored must the memory of Chopin, in this respect, ever remain! +Dear to the friends and artists who have known him in his +lifetime, dear to the unknown friends who shall learn to love him +through his poetic song, as well as to the artists who, in +succeeding him, shall find their glory in being worthy of him! + +The character of Chopin, in none of its numerous folds, concealed +a single movement, a single impulse, which was not dictated by +the nicest sense of honor, the most delicate appreciation of +affection. Yet no nature was ever more formed to justify +eccentricity, whims, and abrupt caprices. His imagination was +ardent, his feelings almost violent, his physical organization +weak, irritable and sickly. Who can measure the amount of +suffering arising from such contrasts? It must have been bitter, +but he never allowed it to be seen! He kept the secret of his +torments, he veiled them from all eyes under the impenetrable +serenity of a haughty resignation. + +The delicacy of his heart and constitution imposed upon him the +woman's torture, that of enduring agonies never to be confessed, +thus giving to his fate some of the darker hues of feminine +destiny. Excluded, by the infirm state of his health, from the +exciting arena of ordinary activity, without any taste for the +useless buzzing, in which a few bees, joined with many wasps, +expend their superfluous strength, he built apart from all noisy +and frequented routes a secluded cell for himself. Neither +adventures, embarrassments, nor episodes, mark his life, which he +succeeded in simplifying, although surrounded by circumstances +which rendered such a result difficult of attainment. His own +feelings, his own impressions, were his events; more important in +his eyes than the chances and changes of external life. He +constantly gave lessons with regularity and assiduity; domestic +and daily tasks, they were given conscientiously and +satisfactorily. As the devout in prayer, so he poured out his +soul in his compositions, expressing in them those passions of +the heart, those unexpressed sorrows, to which the pious give +vent in their communion with their Maker. What they never say +except upon their knees, he said in his palpitating compositions; +uttering in the language of the tones those mysteries of passion +and of grief which man has been permitted to understand without +words, because there are no words adequate for their expression. + +The care taken by Chopin to avoid the zig-zags of life, to +eliminate from it all that was useless, to prevent its crumbling +into masses without form, has deprived his own course of +incident. The vague lines and indications surrounding his figure +like misty clouds, disappear under the touch which would strive +to follow or trace their outlines. He takes part in no actions, +no drama, no entanglements, no denouements. He exercised a +decisive influence upon no human being. His will never encroached +upon the desires of another, he never constrained any other +spirit, or crashed it under the domination of his own, He never +tyrannized over another heart, he never placed a conquering hand +upon the destiny of another being. He sought nothing; he would +have scorned to have made any demands. Like Tasso, he might say: + +Brama assai, poco spera, e nulla chiede. In compensation, he +escaped from all ties; from the affections which might have +influenced him, or led him into more tumultuous spheres. Ready to +yield all, he never gave himself. Perhaps he knew what exclusive +devotion, what love without limit he was worthy of inspiring, of +understanding, of sharing! Like other ardent and ambitions +natures, he may have thought if love and friendship are not all-- +they are nothing! Perhaps it would have been more painful for him +to have accepted a part, any thing less than all, than to have +relinquished all, and thus to have remained at least faithful to +his impossible Ideal! If these things have been so or not, none +ever knew, for he rarely spoke of love or friendship. He was not +exacting, like those whose high claims and just demands exceed +all that we possess to offer them. The most intimate of his +acquaintances never penetrated to that secluded fortress in which +the soul, absent from his common life, dwelt; a fortress which he +so well succeeded in concealing, that its very existence was +scarcely suspected. + +In his relations and intercourse with others, he always seemed +occupied in what interested them; he was cautions not to lead +them from the circle of their own personality, lest they should +intrude into his. If he gave up but little of his time to others, +at least of that which he did relinquish, he reserved none for +himself. No one ever asked him to give an account of his dreams, +his wishes, or his hopes. No one seemed to wish to know what he +sighed for, what he might have conquered, if his white and +tapering fingers could have linked the brazen chords of life to +the golden ones of his enchanted lyre! No one had leisure to +think of this in his presence. His conversation was rarely upon +subjects of any deep interest. He glided lightly over all, and as +he gave but little of his time, it was easily filled with the +details of the day. He was careful never to allow himself to +wander into digressions of which he himself might become the +subject. His individuality rarely excited the investigations of +curiosity, or awakened vivid scrutiny. He pleased too much to +excite much reflection. The ensemble of his person was +harmonious, and called for no especial commentary. His blue eye +was more spiritual than dreamy, his bland smile never writhed +into bitterness. The transparent delicacy of his complexion +pleased the eye, his fair hair was soft and silky, his nose +slightly aquiline, his bearing so distinguished, and his manners +stamped with so much high breeding, that involuntarily he was +always treated EN PRINCE. His gestures were many and graceful; +the tone of his voice was veiled, often stifled; his stature was +low, and his limbs slight. He constantly reminded us of a +convolvulus balancing its heaven-colored cup upon an incredibly +slight stem, the tissue of which is so like vapor that the +slightest contact wounds and tears the misty corolla. + +His manners in society possessed that serenity of mood which +distinguishes those whom no ennui annoys, because they expect no +interest. He was generally gay, his caustic spirit caught the +ridiculous rapidly and far below the surface at which it usually +strikes the eye. He displayed a rich vein of drollery in +pantomime. He often amused himself by reproducing the musical +formulas and peculiar tricks of certain virtuosi, in the most +burlesque and comic improvisations, in imitating their gestures, +their movements, in counterfeiting their faces with a talent +which instantaneously depicted their whole personality. His own +features would then become scarcely recognizable, he could force +the strangest metamorphoses upon them, but while mimicking the +ugly and grotesque, he never lost his own native grace. Grimace +was never carried far enough to disfigure him; his gayety was so +much the more piquant because he always restrained it within the +limits of perfect good taste, holding at a suspicious distance +all that could wound the most fastidious delicacy. He never made +use of an inelegant word, even in the moments of the most entire +familiarity; an improper merriment, a coarse jest would have been +shocking to him. + +Through a strict exclusion of all subjects relating to himself +from conversation, through a constant reserve with regard to his +own feelings, he always succeeded in leaving a happy impression +behind him. People in general like those who charm them without +causing them to fear that they will be called upon to render +aught in return for the amusement given, or that the pleasurable +excitement of gayety will be followed by the sadness of +melancholy confidences the sight of mournful faces, or the +inevitable reactions which occur in susceptible natures of which +we may say: Ubi mel, ibi fel. People generally like to keep such +"susceptible natures" at a distance; they dislike to be brought +into contact with their melancholy moods, though they do not +refuse a kind of respect to the mournful feelings caused by their +subtle reactions; indeed such changes possess for them the +attraction of the unknown and they are as ready to take delight +in the description of such changing caprices, as they are to +avoid their reality. The presence of Chopin was always feted. He +interested himself so vividly in all that was not himself, that +his own personality remained intact, unapproached and +unapproachable, under the polished and glassy surface upon which +it was impossible to gain footing. + +On some occasions, although very rarely, we have seen him deeply +agitated. We have seen him grow so pale and wan, that his +appearance was actually corpse-like. But even in moments of the +most intense emotion, he remained concentrated within himself. A +single instant for self-recovery always enabled him to veil the +secret of his first impression. However full of spontaneity his +bearing afterwards might seem to be, it was instantaneously the +effect of reflection, of a will which governed the strange +conflict of emotional and moral energy with conscious physical +debility; a conflict whose strange contrasts were forever warring +vividly within. The dominion exercised over the natural violence +of his character reminds us of the melancholy force of those +beings who seek their strength in isolation and entire self- +control, conscious of the uselessness of their vivid indignation +and vexation, and too jealous of the mysteries of their passions +to betray them gratuitously. + +He could pardon in the most noble manner. No rancor remained in +his heart toward those who had wounded him, though such wounds +penetrated deeply in his soul, and fermented there in vague pain +and internal suffering, so that long after the exciting cause had +been effaced from his memory, he still experienced the secret +torture. By dint of constant effort, in spite of his acute and +tormenting sensibilities, he subjected his feelings to the rule +rather of what ought to be, than of what is; thus he was grateful +for services proceeding rather from good intentions than from a +knowledge of what would have been agreeable to him; from +friendship which wounded him, because not aware of his acute but +concealed susceptibility. Nevertheless the wounds caused by such +awkward miscomprehension are, of all others, the most difficult +for nervous temperaments to bear. Condemned to repress their +vexation, such natures are excited by degrees to a state of +constantly gnawing irritability, which they can never attribute +to the true cause. It would be a gross mistake to imagine that +this irritation existed without provocation. But as a dereliction +from what appeared to him to be the most honorable course of +conduct was a temptation which he was never called upon to +resist, because in all probability it never presented itself to +him; so he never, in the presence of the more vigorous and +therefore more brusque and positive individualities than his own, +unveiled the shudder, if repulsion be too strong a term, caused +by their contact or association. + +The reserve which marked his intercourse with others, extended to +all subjects to which the fanaticism of opinion can attach. His +own sentiments could only be estimated by that which he did not +do in the narrow limits of his activity. His patriotism was +revealed in the course taken by his genius, in the choice of his +friends, in the preferences given to his pupils, and in the +frequent and great services which he rendered to his compatriots; +but we cannot remember that he took any pleasure in the +expression of this feeling. If he sometimes entered upon the +topic of politics, so vividly attacked, so warmly defended, so +frequently discussed in Prance, it was rather to point out what +he deemed dangerous or erroneous in the opinions advanced by +others than to win attention for his own. In constant connection +with some of the most brilliant politicians of the day, he knew +how to limit the relations between them to a personal attachment +entirely independent of political interests. + +Democracy presented to his view an agglomeration of elements too +heterogeneous, too restless, wielding too much savage power, to +win his sympathies. The entrance of social and political +questions into the arena of popular discussion was compared, more +than twenty years ago, to a new and bold incursion of barbarians. +Chopin was peculiarly and painfully struck by the terror which +this comparison awakened. He despaired of obtaining the safety of +Rome from these modern Attilas, he feared the destruction of art, +its monuments, its refinements, its civilization; in a word, he +dreaded the loss of the elegant, cultivated if somewhat indolent +ease described by Horace. Would the graceful elegancies of life, +the high culture of the arts, indeed be safe in the rude and +devastating hands of the new barbarians? He followed at a +distance the progress of events, and an acuteness of perception, +which he would scarcely have been supposed to possess, often +enabled him to predict occurrences which were not anticipated +even by the best informed. But though such observations escaped +him, he never developed them. His concise remarks attracted no +attention until time proved their truth. His good sense, full of +acuteness, had early persuaded him of the perfect vacuity of the +greater part of political orations, of theological discussions, +of philosophic digressions. He began early to practice the +favorite maxim of a man of great distinction, whom we have often +heard repeat a remark dictated by the misanthropic wisdom of age, +which was then startling to our inexperienced impetuosity, but +which has since frequently struck us by its melancholy truth: +"You will be persuaded one day as I am," (said the Marquis de +Noailles to the young people whom he honored with his attention, +and who were becoming heated in some naive discussions of +differing opinions,) 'that it is scarcely possible to talk about +any thing to any body." (Qu'il n'y a guere moyen de causer de +quoi que ce soit, avec qui que ce soit.) + +Sincerely religious, and attached to Catholicity, Chopin never +touched upon this subject, but held his faith without attracting +attention to it. One might have been acquainted with him for a +long time, without knowing exactly what his religious opinion +were. Perhaps to console his inactive hand an reconcile it with +his lute, he persuaded himself to think: Il mondo va da se. We +have frequently watched him during the progress of long, +animated, and stormy discussions, in which he would take no part. +In the excitement of the debate he was forgotten by the speakers, +but we have often neglected to follow the chain of their +reasoning, to fix our attention upon the features of Chopin, +which were almost imperceptibly contracted when subjects touching +upon the most important conditions of our existence were +discussed with such eagerness and ardor, that it might have been +thought our fates were to be instantly decided by the result of +the debate. At such times, he appeared to us like a passenger on +board of a vessel, driven and tossed by tempests upon the +stormful waves, thinking of his distant country, watching the +horizon, the stars, the manoeuvres of the sailors, counting their +fatal mistakes, without possessing in himself sufficient force to +seize a rope, or the energy requisite to haul in a fluttering +sail. + +On one single subject he relinquished his premeditated silence, +his cherished neutrality. In the cause of art he broke through +his reserve, he never abdicated upon this topic the explicit +enunciation of his opinions. He applied himself with great +perseverance to extend the limits of his influence upon this +subject. It was a tacit confession that he considered himself +legitimately possessed of the authority of a great artist. In +questions which he dignified by his competence, he never left any +doubt with regard to the nature of his opinions. During several +years his appeals were full of impassioned ardor, but later, the +triumph of his opinions having diminished the interest of his +role, he sought no further occasion to place himself as leader, +as the bearer of any banner. In the only occurrence in which he +took part in the conflict of parties, he gave proof of opinions, +absolute, tenacious, and inflexible, as those which rarely come +to the light usually are. + +Shortly after his arrival in Paris, in 1832, a new school was +formed both in literature and music, and youthful talent +appeared, which shook off with eclat the yoke of ancient +formulas. The scarcely lulled political effervescence of the +first years of the revolution of July, passed into questions upon +art and letters, which attracted the attention and interest of +all minds. ROMANTICISM was the order of the day; they fought with +obstinacy for and against it. What truce could there be between +those who would not admit the possibility of writing in any other +than the already established manner, and those who thought that +the artist should be allowed to choose such forms as he deemed +best suited for the expression of his ideas; that the rule of +form should be found in the agreement of the chosen form with the +sentiments to be expressed, every different shade of feeling +requiring of course a different mode of expression? The former +believed in the existence of a permanent form, whose perfection +represented absolute Beauty. But in admitting that the great +masters had attained the highest limits in art, had reached +supreme perfection, they left to the artists who succeeded them +no other glory than the hope of approaching these models, more or +less closely, by imitation, thus frustrating all hope of ever +equalling them, because the perfecting of any process can never +rival the merit of its invention. The latter denied that the +immaterial Beautiful could have a fixed and absolute form. The +different forms which had appeared in the history of art, seemed +to them like tents spread in the interminable route of the ideal; +mere momentary halting places which genius attains from epoch to +epoch, and beyond which the inheritors of the past should strive +to advance. The former wished to restrict the creations of times +and natures the most dissimilar, within the limits of the same +symmetrical frame; the latter claimed for all writers the liberty +of creating their own mode, accepting no other rules than those +which result from the direct relation of sentiment and form, +exacting only that the form should be adequate to the expression +of the sentiment. However admirable the existing models might be, +they did not appear to them to have exhausted all the range of +sentiments upon which art might seize, or all the forms which it +might advantageously use. Not contented with the mere excellence +of form, they sought it so far only as its perfection is +indispensable for the complete revelation of the idea, for they +were not ignorant that the sentiment is maimed if the form remain +imperfect, any imperfection in it, like an opaque veil, +intercepting the raying of the pure idea. Thus they elevated what +had otherwise been the mere work of the trade, into the sphere of +poetic inspiration. They enjoined upon genius and patience the +task of inventing a form which would satisfy the exactions of the +inspiration. They reproached their adversaries with attempting to +reduce inspiration to the bed of Procrustes, because they refused +to admit that there are sentiments which cannot be expressed in +forms which have been determined upon beforehand, and of thus +robbing art, in advance even of their creation, of all works +which might attempt the introduction of newly awakened ideas, +newly clad in new forms; forms and ideas both naturally arising +from the naturally progressive development of the human spirit, +the improvement of the instruments, and the consequent increase +of the material resources of art. + +Those who saw the flames of Genius devour the old worm-eaten +crumbling skeletons, attached themselves to the musical school of +which the most gifted, the most brilliant, the most daring +representative, was Berlioz. Chopin joined this school. He +persisted most strenuously in freeing himself from the servile +formulas of conventional style, while he earnestly repudiated the +charlatanism which sought to replace the old abuses only by the +introduction of new ones. + +During the years which this campaign of Romanticism lasted, in +which some of the trial blows were master-strokes, Chopin +remained invariable in his predilections, as well as in his +repulsions. He did not admit the least compromise with those who, +in his opinion, did not sufficiently represent progress, and who, +in their refusal to relinquish the desire of displaying art for +the profit of the trade, in their pursuit of transitory effects, +of success won only from the astonishment of the audience, gave +no proof of sincere devotion to progress. He broke the ties which +he had contracted with respect when he felt restricted by them, +or bound too closely to the shore by cordage which he knew to be +decayed. He obstinately refused, on the other hand, to form ties +with the young artists whose success, which he deemed +exaggerated, elevated a certain kind of merit too highly. He +never gave the least praise to any thing which he did not believe +to be a real conquest for art, or which did not evince a serious +conception of the task of an artist. He did not wish to be lauded +by any party, to be aided by the manoeuvres of any faction, or by +the concessions made by any schools in the persons of their +chiefs. In the midst of jealousies, encroachments, forfeitures, +and invasions of the different branches of art, negotiations, +treaties, and contracts have been introduced, like the means and +appliances of diplomacy, with all the artifices inseparable from +such a course. In refusing the support of any accessory aid for +his productions, he proved that he confidently believed that +their own beauty would ensure their appreciation, and that he did +not struggle to facilitate their immediate reception. + +He supported our struggles, at that time so full of uncertainty, +when we met more sages shaking their heads, than glorious +adversaries, with his calm and unalterable conviction. He aided +us with opinions so fixed that neither weariness nor artifice +could shake them, with a rare immutability of will, and that +efficacious assistance which the creation of meritorious works +always brings to a struggling cause, when it can claim them as +its own. He mingled so many charms, so much moderation, so much +knowledge with his daring innovations, that the prompt admiration +he inspired fully justified the confidence he placed in his own +genius. The solid studies which he had made, the reflective +habits of his youth, the worship for classic models in which he +had been educated, preserved him from losing his strength in +blind gropings, in doubtful triumphs, as has happened to more +than one partisan of the new ideas. His studious patience in the +elaboration of his works sheltered him from the critics, who +envenomed the dissensions by seizing upon those easy and +insignificant victories due to omissions, and the negligence of +inadvertence. Early trained to the exactions and restrictions of +rules, having produced compositions filled with beauty when +subjected to all their fetters, he never shook them off without +an appropriate cause and after due reflection. In virtue of his +principles he always progressed, but without being led into +exaggeration or lured by compromise; he willingly relinquished +theoretic formulas to pursue their results. Less occupied with +the disputes of the schools and their terms, than in producing +himself the best argument, a finished work, he was fortunate +enough to avoid personal enmities and vexatious accommodations. + +Chopin had that reverential worship for art which characterized +the first masters of the middle ages, but in expression and +bearing he was more simple, modern, and less ecstatic. As for +them, so art was for him, a high and holy vocation. Like them he +was proud of his election for it, and honored it with devout +piety. This feeling was revealed at the hour of his death through +an occurrence, the significance of which is more fully explained +by a knowledge of the manners prevalent in Poland. By a custom +which still exists, although it is now falling into disuse, the +Poles often chose the garments in which they wished to be buried, +and which were frequently prepared a long time in advance. +[Footnote: General K----, the author of Julie and Adolphe, a +romance imitated from the New Heloise which was much in vogue at +the time of its publication, and who was still living in Volhynia +at the date of our visit to Poland, though more than eighty years +of age, in conformity with the custom spoken of above, had caused +his coffin to be made, and for more than thirty years it had +always stood at the door of his chamber.] Their dearest wishes +were thus expressed for the last time, their inmost feelings were +thus at the hour of death betrayed. Monastic robes were +frequently chosen by worldly men, the costumes of official +charges were selected or refused as the remembrances connected +with them were glorious or painful. Chopin, who, although among +the first of contemporary artists, had given the fewest concerts, +wished, notwithstanding, to be borne to the grave in the clothes +which he had worn on such occasions. A natural and profound +feeling springing from the inexhaustible sources of art, without +doubt dictated this dying request, when having scrupulously +fulfilled the last duties of a Christian, he left all of earth +which he could not bear with him to the skies. He had linked his +love for art and his faith in it with immortality long before the +approach of death, and as he robed himself for his long sleep in +the grave, he gave, as was customary with him, by a mute symbol, +the last touching proof of the conviction he had preserved intact +during the whole course of his life. Faithful to himself, he died +adoring art in its mystic greatness, its highest revelations. + +In retiring from the turmoil of society, Chopin concentrated his +cares and affections upon the circle of his own family and his +early acquaintances. Without any interruption he preserved close +relations with them; never ceasing to keep them up with the +greatest care. His sister Louise was especially dear to him, a +resemblance in the character of their minds, the bent of their +feelings, bound them closely to each other. Louise frequently +came from Warsaw to Paris to see him. She spent the last three +months of his life with the brother she loved, watching over him +with undying affection. Chopin kept up a regular correspondence +with the members of his own family, but only with them. It was +one of his peculiarities to write letters to no others; it might +almost have been thought that he had made a vow to write to no +strangers. It was curious enough to see him resort to all kinds +of expedients to escape the necessity of tracing the most +insignificant note. Many times he has traversed Paris from one +end to the other, to decline an invitation to dinner, or to give +some trivial information, rather than write a few lines which +would have spared him all this trouble and loss of time. His +handwriting was quite unknown to the greatest number of his +friends. It is said he sometimes departed from this custom in +favor of his beautiful countrywomen, some of whom possess several +of his notes written in Polish. This infraction of what seemed to +be a law with him, may be attributed to the pleasure he took in +the use of this language. He always used it with the people of +his own country, and loved to translate its most expressive +phrases. He was a good French scholar, as the Sclaves generally +are. In consequence of his French origin, the language had been +taught him with peculiar care. But he did not like it, he did not +think it sufficiently sonorous, and he deemed its genius cold. +This opinion is very prevalent among the Poles, who, although +speaking it with great facility, often better than their native +tongue, and frequently using it in their intercourse with each +other, yet complain to those who do not speak Polish of the +impossibility of rendering the thousand ethereal and shifting +modes of thought in any other idiom. In their opinion it is +sometimes dignity, sometimes grace, sometimes passion, which is +wanting in the French language. If they are asked the meaning of +a word or a phrase which they may have cited in Polish, the reply +invariably is: "Oh, that cannot be translated!" Then follow +explanations, serving as comments to the exclamation, of all the +subtleties, all the shades of meaning, all the delicacies +contained in THE NOT TO BE TRANSLATED words. We have cited some +examples which, joined to others, induce us to believe that this +language has the advantage of making images of abstract nouns, +and that in the course of its development, through the poetic +genius of the nation, it has been enabled to establish striking +and just relations between ideas by etymologies, derivations, and +synonymes. Colored reflections of light and shade are thus thrown +upon all expressions, so that they necessarily call into +vibration through the mind the correspondent tone of a third, +which modulates the thought into a major or minor mode. The +richness of the language always permits the choice of the mode, +but this very richness may become a difficulty. It is not +impossible that the general use of foreign tongues in Poland may +be attributed to indolence of mind or want of application; may be +traced to a desire to escape the necessary labor of acquiring +that mastery of diction indispensable in a language so full of +sudden depths, of laconic energy, that it is very difficult, if +not quite impossible, to support in it the commonplace. The vague +agreements of badly defined ideas cannot be compressed in the +nervous strength of its grammatical forms; the thought, if it be +really low, cannot be elevated from its debasement or poverty; if +it really soar above the commonplace, it requires a rare +precision of terms not to appear uncouth or fantastic. In +consequence of this, in proportion to the works published, the +Polish literature should be able to show a greater number of +chefs-d'oeuvre than can be done in any other language. He who +ventures to use this tongue, must feel himself already master. + +[Footnote: It cannot be reproached with a want of harmony or +musical charm. The harshness of a language does not always and +absolutely depend upon the number of consonants, but rather upon +the manner of their association. We might even assert, that in +consequence of the absence of well-determined and strongly marked +sounds, some languages have a dull and cold coloring. It is the +frequent repetition of certain consonants which gives shadow, +rhythm, and vigor to a tongue; the vowels imparting only a kind +of light clear hue, which requires to be brought out by deeper +shades. It is the sharp, uncouth, or unharmonious clashing of +heterogeneous consonants which strikes the ear painfully. It is +true the Sclavic languages make use of many consonants, but their +connection is generally sonorous, sometimes pleasant to the ear, +and scarcely ever entirely discordant, even when the combinations +are more striking than agreeable. The quality of the sounds is +rich, full, and varied. They are not straitened and contracted as +if produced in a narrow medium, but extending through a +considerable register, range through a variety of intonations. +The letter L, almost impossible for those to pronounce, who have +not acquired the pronunciation in their infancy, has nothing +harsh in its sound. The ear receives from it an impression +similar to that which is made upon the fingers by the touch of a +thick woolen velvet, rough, but at the same time, yielding. The +union of jarring consonants being rare, and the assonances easily +multiplied, the same comparison might be employed to the ensemble +of the effect produced by these idioms upon foreigners. Many +words occur in Polish which imitate the sound of the thing +designated by them. The frequent repetition of CH, (h aspirated,) +of SZ, (CH in French,) of RZ, of CZ, so frightful to a profane +eye, have however nothing barbaric in their sounds, being +pronounced nearly like GEAI, and TCHE, and greatly facilitate +imitations of the sense by the sound. The word DZWIEK, (read +DZWIINQUE,) meaning sound, offers a characteristic example of +this; it would be difficult to find a word which would reproduce +more accurately the sensation which a diapason makes upon the +ear. Among the consonants accumulated in groups, producing very +different sounds, sometimes metallic, sometimes buzzing, hissing +or rumbling, many diphthongs and vowels are mingled, which +sometimes become slightly nasal, the A and E being sounded as ON +and IN, (in French,) when they are accompanied by a cedilla. In +juxtaposition with the E, (TSE,) which is pronounced with great +softness, sometimes C, (TSIE,) the accented S is almost warbled. +The Z has three sounds: the Z, (JAIS,) the Z, (ZED,) and the Z, +(ZIED). The Y forms a vowel of a muffled tone, which, as the L, +cannot be represented by any equivalent sound in French, and +which like it gives a variety of ineffable shades to the +language. These fine and light elements enable the Polish women +to assume a lingering and singing accent, which they usually +transport into other tongues. When the subjects are serious or +melancholy, after such recitatives or improvised lamentations, +they have a sort of lisping infantile manner of speaking, which +they vary by light silvery laughs, little interjectional cries, +short musical pauses upon the higher notes, from which they +descend by one knows not what chromatic scale of demi and quarter +tones to rest upon some low note; and again pursue the varied, +brusque and original modulations which astonish the ear not +accustomed to such lovely warblings, to which they sometimes give +that air of caressing irony, of cunning mockery, peculiar to the +song of some birds. They love to ZINZILYLER, and charming +changes, piquant intervals, unexpected cadences naturally find +place in this fondling prattle, making the language far more +sweet and caressing when spoken by the women, than it is in the +mouths of the men. The men indeed pride themselves upon speaking +it with elegance, impressing upon it a masculine sonorousness, +which is peculiarly adapted to the energetic movements of manly +eloquence, formerly so much cultivated in Poland. Poetry commands +such a diversity of prosodies, of rhymes, of rhythms, such an +abundance of assonances from these rich and varied materials, +that it is almost possible to follow MUSICALLY the feelings and +scenes which it depicts, not only in mere expressions in which +the sound repeats the sense, but also in long declamations. The +analogy between the Polish and Russian, has been compared to that +which obtains between the Latin and Italian. The Russian language +is indeed more mellifluous, more lingering, more caressing, +fuller of sighs than the Polish. Its cadencing is peculiarly +fitted for song. The finer poems, such as those of Zukowski and +Pouchkin, seem to contain a melody already designated in the +metre of the verses; for example, it would appear quite possible +to detach an ARIOSO or a sweet CANTIABLE from some of the stanzas +of LE CHALE NOIR, or the TALISMAN. The ancient Sclavonic, which +is the language of the Eastern Church, possesses great majesty. +More guttural than the idioms which have arisen from it, it is +severe and monotonous yet of great dignity, like the Byzantine +paintings preserved in the worship to which it is consecrated. It +has throughout the characteristics of a sacred language which has +only been used for the expression of one feeling and has never +been modulated or fashioned by profane wants.] + +Chopin mingled a charming grace with all the intercourse which he +held with his relatives. Not satisfied with limiting his whole +correspondence to them alone, he profited by his stay in Paris to +procure for them the thousand agreeable surprises given by the +novelties, the bagatelles, the little gifts which charm through +their beauty, or attract as being the first seen of their kind. +He sought for all that he had reason to believe would please his +friends in Warsaw, adding constant presents to his many letters. +It was his wish that his gifts should be preserved, that through +the memories linked with them he might be often remembered by +those to whom they were sent. He attached the greatest +importance, on his side, to all the evidences of their affection +for him. To receive news or some mark of their remembrance, was +always a festival for him. He never shared this pleasure with any +one, but it was plainly visible in his conduct. He took the +greatest care of every thing that came from his distant friends, +the least of their gifts was precious to him, he never allowed +others to make use of them, indeed he was visibly uneasy if they +touched them. + +Material elegance was as natural to him as mental; this was +evinced in the objects with which he surrounded himself, as well +as in the aristocratic grace of his manners. He was passionately +fond of flowers. Without aiming at the brilliant luxury with +which, at that epoch, some of the celebrities in Paris decorated +their apartments, he knew how to keep upon this point, as well as +in his style of dress, the instinctive line of perfect propriety. + +Not wishing the course of his life, his thoughts, his time, to be +associated or shackled in any way by the pursuits of others, he +preferred the society of ladies, as less apt to force him into +subsequent relations. He willingly spent whole evenings in +playing blind man's buff with the young people, telling them +little stories to make them break into the silvery laughs of +youth, sweeter than the song of the nightingale. He was fond of a +life in the country, or the life of the chateau. He was ingenious +in varying its amusements, in multiplying its enjoyments. He also +loved to compose there. Many of his best works written in such +moments, perhaps embalm and hallow the memories of his happiest +days. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Birth and Early Life of Chopin--National Artists--Chopin embodies +in himself the poetic sense of his whole nation--Opinion of +Beethoven. + + + +CHOPIN was born in 1810, at Zelazowa-Wola, near Warsaw. Unlike +most other children, he could not, during his childhood, remember +his own age, and the date of his birth was only fixed in his +memory by a watch given him in 1820 by Madame Catalani, which +bore the following inscription: "Madame Catalani to Frederic +Chopin, aged ten years." Perhaps the presentiments of the artist +gave to the child a foresight of his future! Nothing +extraordinary marked the course of his boyhood; his internal +development traversed but few phases, and gave but few +manifestations. As he was fragile and sickly, the attention of +his family was concentrated upon his health. Doubtless it was +from this cause that he acquired his habits of affability, his +patience under suffering, his endurance of every annoyance with a +good grace; qualities which he early acquired from his wish to +calm the constant anxiety that was felt with regard to him. No +precocity of his faculties, no precursory sign of remarkable +development, revealed, in his early years, his future superiority +of soul, mind, or capacity. The little creature was seen +suffering indeed, but always trying to smile, patient and +apparently happy and his friends were so glad that he did not +become moody or morose, that they were satisfied to cherish his +good qualities, believing that he opened his heart to them +without reserve, and gave to them all his secret thoughts. + +But there are souls among us who resemble rich travelers thrown +among simple herdsmen, loading them with gifts during their +sojourn among them, truly not at all in proportion to their own +wealth, yet which are quite sufficient to astonish the poor +hosts, and to spread riches and happiness in the midst of such +simple habits. It is true that such souls give as much affection, +it may be more, than those who surround them; every body is +pleased with them, they are supposed to have been generous, when +the truth is that in comparison with their boundless wealth they +have not been liberal, and have given but little of their store +of internal treasure. + +The habits in which Chopin grew up, in which he was rocked as in +a form-strengthening cradle, were those peculiar to calm, +occupied, and tranquil characters. These early examples of +simplicity, piety, and integrity, always remained the nearest and +dearest to him. Domestic virtues, religious habits, pious +charities, and rigid modesty, surrounded him from his infancy +with that pure atmosphere in which his rich imagination assumed +the velvety tenderness characterizing the plants which have never +been exposed to the dust of the beaten highways. + +He commenced the study of music at an early age, being but nine +years old when he began to learn it. Shortly after he was +confided to a passionate disciple of Sebastian Bach, Ziwna, who +directed his studies during many years in accordance with the +most classic models. It is not to be supposed that when he +embraced the career of a musician, any prestige of vain glory, +any fantastic perspective, dazzled his eyes, or excited the hopes +of his family. In order to become a skillful and able master, he +studied seriously and conscientiously, without dreaming of the +greater or less amount of fame he would be able to obtain as the +fruit of his lessons and assiduous labors. + +In consequence of the generous and discriminating protection +always granted by Prince Antoine Radziwill to the arts, and to +genius, which he had the power of recognizing both as a man of +intellect and as a distinguished artist; Chopin was early placed +in one of the first colleges in Warsaw. Prince Radziwill did not +cultivate music only as a simple dilettante, he was also a +remarkable composer. His beautiful rendering of Faust, published +some years ago, and executed at fixed epochs by the Academy of +Song at Berlin, appears to us far superior to any other attempts +which have been made to transport it into the realm of music, by +its close internal appropriateness to the peculiar genius of the +poem. Assisting the limited means of the family of Chopin, the +Prince made him the inestimable gift of a finished education, of +which no part had been neglected. Through the person of a friend, +M. Antoine Korzuchowski, whose own elevated mind enabled him to +understand the requirements of an artistic career, the Prince +always paid his pension from his first entrance into college, +until the completion of his studies. From this time until the +death of Chopin, M. Antoine Korzuchowski always held the closest +relations of friendship with him. + +In speaking of this period of his life, it gives us pleasure to +quote the charming lines which may be applied to him more justly, +than other pages in which his character is believed to have been +traced, but in which we only find it distorted, and in such false +proportions as are given in a profile drawn upon an elastic +tissue, which has been pulled athwart, biased by contrary +movements during the whole progress of the sketch. [Footnote: +These extracts, with many that succeed them, in which the +character of Chopin is described, are taken from Lucrezia +Floriani, a novel by Madame Sand, in which the leading characters +are said to be intended to represent Liszt, Chopin, and herself.- +-Note of the Translator.] + + + +"Gentle, sensitive, and very lovely, at fifteen years of age he +united the charms of adolescence with the gravity of a more +mature age. He was delicate both in body and in mind. Through the +want of muscular development he retained a peculiar beauty, an +exceptional physiognomy, which had, if we may venture so to +speak, neither age nor sex. It was not the bold and masculine air +of a descendant of a race of Magnates, who knew nothing but +drinking, hunting and making war; neither was it the effeminate +loveliness of a cherub couleur de rose. It was more like the +ideal creations with which the poetry of the middle ages adorned +the Christian temples: a beautiful angel, with a form pure and +slight as a young god of Olympus, with a face like that of a +majestic woman filled with a divine sorrow, and as the crown of +all, an expression at the same time tender and severe, chaste and +impassioned. + +"This expression revealed the depths of his being. Nothing could +be purer, more exalted than his thoughts; nothing more tenacious, +more exclusive, more intensely devoted, than his +affections....But he could only understand that which closely +resembled himself....Every thing else only existed for him as a +kind of annoying dream, which he tried to shake off while living +with the rest of the world. Always plunged in reveries, realities +displeased him. As a child he could never touch a sharp +instrument without injuring himself with it; as a man, he never +found himself face to face with a being different from himself +without being wounded by the living contradiction... + +"He was preserved from constant antagonism by a voluntary and +almost inveterate habit of never seeing or hearing any thing +which was disagreeable to him, unless it touched upon his +personal affections. The beings who did not think as he did, were +only phantoms in his eyes. As his manners were polished and +graceful, it was easy to mistake his cold disdain on +insurmountable aversion for benevolent courtesy... + +"He never spent an hour in open-hearted expansiveness, without +compensating for it by a season of reserve. The moral causes +which induced such reserve were too slight, too subtle, to be +discovered by the naked eye. It was necessary to use the +microscope to read his soul, into which so little of the light of +the living ever penetrated....... + +"With such a character, it seems strange he should have had +friends: yet he had them, not only the friends of his mother who +esteemed him as the noble son of a noble mother, but friends of +his own age, who loved him ardently, and who were loved by him in +return..... He had formed a high ideal of friendship; in the age +of early illusions he loved to think that his friends and +himself, brought up nearly in the same manner, with the same +principles, would never change their opinions, and that no formal +disagreement could ever occur between them....... + +"He was externally so affectionate, his education had been so +finished, and he possessed so much natural grace, that he had the +gift of pleasing even where he was not personally known. His +exceeding loveliness was immediately prepossessing, the delicacy +of his constitution rendered him interesting in the eyes of +women, the full yet graceful cultivation of his mind, the sweet +and captivating originality of his conversation, gained for him +the attention of the most enlightened men. Men less highly +cultivated, liked him for his exquisite courtesy of manner. They +were so much the more pleased with this, because, in their +simplicity, they never imagined it was the graceful fulfillment +of a duty into which no real sympathy entered. + +"Could such people have divined the secrets of his mystic +character, they would have said he was more amiable than loving-- +and with respect to them, this would have been true. But how +could they have known that his real, though rare attachments, +were so vivid, so profound, so undying?... + +"Association with him in the details of life was delightful. He +filled all the forms of friendship with an unaccustomed charm, +and when he expressed his gratitude, it was with that deep +emotion which recompenses kindness with usury. He willingly +imagined that he felt himself every day dying; he accepted the +cares of a friend, hiding from him, lest it should render him +unhappy, the little time he expected to profit by them. He +possessed great physical courage, and if he did not accept with +the heroic recklessness of youth the idea of approaching death, +at least he cherished the expectation of it with a kind of bitter +pleasure."... + +The attachment which he felt for a young lady, who never ceased +to feel a reverential homage for him, may be traced back to his +early youth. The tempest which in one of its sudden gusts tore +Chopin from his native soil, like a bird dreamy and abstracted +surprised by the storm upon the branches of a foreign tree, +sundered the ties of this first love, and robbed the exile of a +faithful and devoted wife, as well as disinherited him of a +country. He never found the realization of that happiness of +which he had once dreamed with her, though he won the glory of +which perhaps he had never thought. Like the Madonnas of Luini +whose looks are so full of earnest tenderness, this young girl +was sweet and beautiful. She lived on calm, but sad. No doubt the +sadness increased in that pure soul when she knew that no +devotion tender as her own, ever came to sweeten the existence of +one whom she had adored with that ingenuous submission, that +exclusive devotion, that entire self-forgetfulness, naive and +sublime, which transform the woman into the angel. + +Those who are gifted by nature with the beautiful, yet fatal +energies of genius, and who are consequently forbidden to +sacrifice the care of their glory to the exactions of their love, +are probably right in fixing limits to the abnegation of their +own personality. But the divine emotions due to absolute +devotion, may be regretted even in the presence of the most +sparkling endowments of genius. The utter submission, the +disinterestedness of love, in absorbing the existence, the will, +the very name of the woman in that of the man she loves, can +alone authorize him in believing that he has really shared his +life with her, and that his honorable love for her has given her +that which no chance lover, accidentally met, could have rendered +her: peace of heart and the honor of his name. + +This young Polish lady, unfortunately separated from Chopin, +remained faithful to his memory, to all that was left of him. She +devoted herself to his parents. The father of Chopin would never +suffer the portrait which she had drawn of him in the days of +hope, to be replaced by another, though from the hands of a far +more skilful artist. We saw the pale cheeks of this melancholy +woman, glow like alabaster when a light shines through its snow, +many years afterwards, when in gazing upon this picture, she met +the eyes of his father. + +The amiable character of Chopin won for him while at college the +love of his fellow collegiates, particularly that of Prince +Czetwertynski and his brothers. He often spent the vacations and +days of festival with them at the house of their mother, the +Princess Louise Czetwertynska, who cultivated music with a true +feeling for its beauties, and who soon discovered the poet in the +musician. Perhaps she was the first who made Chopin feel the +charm of being understood, as well as heard. The Princess was +still beautiful, and possessed a sympathetic soul united to many +high qualities. Her saloon was one of the most brilliant and +RECHERCHE in Warsaw. Chopin often met there the most +distinguished women of the city. He became acquainted there with +those fascinating beauties who had acquired a European celebrity, +when Warsaw was so famed for the brilliancy, elegance, and grace +of its society. He was introduced by the Princess Czetwertynska +to the Princess of Lowicz; by her he was presented to the +Countess Zamoyska; to the Princess Radziwill; to the Princess +Jablonowska; enchantresses, surrounded by many beauties little +less illustrious. + +While still very young, he has often cadenced their steps to the +chords of his piano. In these meetings, which might almost be +called assemblies of fairies, he may often have discovered, +unveiled in the excitement of the dance, the secrets of +enthusiastic and tender souls. He could easily read the hearts +which were attracted to him by friendship and the grace of his +youth, and thus was enabled early to learn of what a strange +mixture of leaven and cream of roses, of gunpowder and tears of +angels, the poetic Ideal of his nation is formed. When his +wandering fingers ran over the keys, suddenly touching some +moving chords, he could see how the furtive tears coursed down +the cheeks of the loving girl, or the young neglected wife; how +they moistened the eyes of the young men, enamored of, and eager +for glory. Can we not fancy some young beauty asking him to play +a simple prelude, then softened by the tones, leaning her rounded +arm upon the instrument to support her dreaming head, while she +suffered the young artist to divine in the dewy glitter of the +lustrous eyes, the song sung by her youthful heart? Did not +groups, like sportive nymphs, throng around him, and begging him +for some waltz of giddying rapidity, smile upon him with such +wildering joyousness, as to put him immediately in unison with +the gay spirit of the dance? He saw there the chaste grace of his +brilliant countrywomen displayed in the Mazourka, and the +memories of their witching fascination, their winning reserve, +were never effaced from his soul. + +In an apparently careless manner, but with that involuntary and +subdued emotion which accompanies the remembrance of our early +delights, he would sometimes remark that he first understood the +whole meaning of the feeling which is contained in the melodies +and rhythms of national dances, upon the days in which he saw +these exquisite fairies at some magic fete, adorned with that +brilliant coquetry which sparkles like electric fire, and +flashing from heart to heart, heightens love, blinds it, or robs +it of all hope. And when the muslins of India, which the Greeks +would have said were woven of air, were replaced by the heavier +folds of Venetian velvet, and the perfumed roses and sculptured +petals of the hot-house camellias gave way to the gorgeous +bouquets of the jewel caskets; it often seemed to him that +however good the orchestra might be, the dancers glided less +rapidly over the floor, that their laugh was less sonorous, their +eye less luminous, than upon those evenings in which the dance +had been suddenly improvised, because he had succeeded in +electrifying his audience through the magic of his performance. +If he electrified them, it was because he repeated, truly in +hieroglyphic tones, but yet easily understood by the initiated, +the secret whispers which his delicate ear had caught from the +reserved yet impassioned hearts, which indeed resemble the +Fraxinella, that plant so full of burning and vivid life, that +its flowers are always surrounded by a gas as subtle as +inflammable. He had seen celestial visions glitter, and illusory +phantoms fade in this sublimated air; he had divined the meaning +of the swarms of passions which are forever buzzing in it; he +knew how these hurtling emotions fluttered through the reckless +human soul; how, notwithstanding their ceaseless agitation and +excitement, they could intermingle, interweave, intercept each +other, without once disturbing the exquisite proportions of +external grace, the imposing and classic charm of manner. It was +thus that he learned to prize so highly the noble and measured +manners which preserve delicacy from insipidity; petty cares from +wearisome trifling; conventionalism from tyranny; good taste from +coldness; and which never permit the passions to resemble, as is +often the case where such careful culture does not rule, those +stony and calcareous vegetables whose hard and brittle growth +takes a name of such sad contrast: flowers of iron (FLOS FERRI). + +His early introduction into this society, in which regularity of +form did not conceal petrifaction of heart, induced Chopin to +think that the CONVENANCES and courtesies of manner, in place of +being only a uniform mask, repressing the character of each +individual under the symmetry of the same lines, rather serve to +contain the passions without stifling them, coloring only that +bald crudity of tone which is so injurious to their beauty, +elevating that materialism which debases them, robbing them of +that license which vulgarizes them, lowering that vehemence which +vitiates them, pruning that exuberance which exhausts them, +teaching the "lovers of the ideal" to unite the virtues which +have sprung from a knowledge of evil, with those "which cause its +very existence to be forgotten in speaking to those they love." +As these visions of his youth deepened in the long perspective of +memories, they gained in grace, in charm, in delight, in his +eyes, fascinating him to such an extent that no reality could +destroy their secret power over his imagination, rendering his +repugnance more and more unconquerable to that license of +allurement, that brutal tyranny of caprice, that eagerness to +drink the cup of fantasy to the very dregs, that stormy pursuit +of all the changes and incongruities of life, which rule in the +strange mode of life known as LA BOHEME. + +More than once in the history of art and literature, a poet has +arisen, embodying in himself the poetic sense of a whole nation, +an entire epoch, representing the types which his contemporaries +pursue and strive to realize, in an absolute manner in his works: +such a poet was Chopin for his country and for the epoch in which +he was born. The poetic sentiments the most widely spread, yet +the most intimate and inherent of his nation, were embodied and +united in his imagination, and represented by his brilliant +genius. Poland has given birth to many bards, some of whom rank +among the first poets of the world. + +Its writers are now making strenuous efforts to display in the +strongest light, the most glorious and interesting facts of its +history, the most peculiar and picturesque phases of its manners +and customs. Chopin, differing from them in having formed no +premeditated design, surpasses them all in originality. He did +not determine upon, he did not seek such a result; he created no +ideal a priori. Without having predetermined to transport himself +into the past, he constantly remembered the glories of his +country, he understood and sung the loves and tears of his +contemporaries without having analyzed them in advance. He did not +task himself, nor study to be a national musician. Like all truly +national poets he sang spontaneously without premeditated design +or preconceived choice all that inspiration dictated to him, as +we hear it gushing forth in his songs without labor, almost +without effort. He repeated in the most idealized form the +emotions which had animated and embellished his youth; under the +magic delicacy of his pen he displayed the Ideal, which is, if we +may be permitted so to speak, the Real among his people; an Ideal +really in existence among them, which every one in general and +each one in particular approaches by the one or the other of its +many sides. Without assuming to do so, he collected in luminous +sheaves the impressions felt everywhere throughout his country-- +vaguely felt it is true, yet in fragments pervading all hearts. +Is it not by this power of reproducing in a poetic formula, +enchanting to the imagination of all nations, the indefinite +shades of feeling widely scattered but frequently met among their +compatriots, that the artists truly national are distinguished? + +Not without reason has the task been undertaken of collecting the +melodies indigenous to every country. It appears to us it would +be of still deeper interest, to trace the influences forming the +characteristic powers of the authors most deeply inspired by the +genius of the nation to which they belong. Until the present +epoch there have been very few distinctive compositions, which +stand out from the two great divisions of the German and Italian +schools of music. But with the immense development which this art +seems destined to attain, perhaps renewing for us the glorious +era of the Painters of the CINQUE CENTO, it is highly probable +that composers will appear whose works will be marked by an +originality drawn from differences of organization, of races, and +of climates. It is to be presumed that we will be able to +recognize the influences of the country in which they were born +upon the great masters in music, as well as in the other arts; +that we will be able to distinguish the peculiar and predominant +traits of the national genius more completely developed, more +poetically true, more interesting to study, in the pages of their +compositions than in the crude, incorrect, uncertain, vague and +tremulous sketches of the uncultured people. + +Chopin must be ranked among the first musicians thus +individualizing in themselves the poetic sense of an entire +nation, not because he adopted the rhythm of POLONAISES, +MAZOURKAS, and CRACOVIENNES, and called many of his works by such +names, for in so doing he would have limited himself to the +multiplication of such works alone, and would always have given +us the same mode, the remembrance of the same thing; a +reproduction which would soon have grown wearisome, serving but +to multiply compositions of similar form, which must have soon +grown more or less monotonous. It is because he filled these +forms with the feelings peculiar to his country, because the +expression of the national heart may be found under all the modes +in which he has written, that he is entitled to be considered a +poet essentially Polish. His PRELUDES, his NOCTURNES, his +SCHERZOS, his CONCERTOS, his shortest as well as his longest +compositions, are all filled with the national sensibility, +expressed indeed in different degrees, modified and varied in a +thousand ways, but always bearing the same character. An +eminently subjective author, Chopin has given the same life to +all his productions, animated all his works with his own spirit. +All his writings are thus linked by a marked unity. Their +beauties as well as their defects may be traced to the same order +of emotions, to peculiar modes of feeling. The reproduction of +the feelings of his people, idealized and elevated through his +own subjective genius, is an essential requisite for the national +poet who desires that the heart of his country should vibrate in +unison with his own strains. + +By the analogies of words and images, we should like to render it +possible for our readers to comprehend the exquisite yet +irritable sensibility peculiar to ardent yet susceptible hearts, +to haughty yet deeply wounded souls. We cannot flatter ourselves +that in the cold realm of words we have been able to give any +idea of such ethereal odorous flames. In comparison with the +vivid and delicious excitement produced by other arts, words +always appear poor, cold, and arid, so that the assertion seems +just: "that of all modes of expressing sentiments, words are the +most insufficient." We cannot flatter ourselves with having +attained in our descriptions the exceeding delicacy of touch, +necessary to sketch that which Chopin has painted with hues so +ethereal. All is subtle in his compositions, even the source of +excitement, of passion; all open, frank, primitive impressions +disappear in them; before they meet the eye, they have passed +through the prism of an exacting, ingenious, and fertile +imagination, and it has become difficult if not impossible to +resolve them again into their primal elements. Acuteness of +discernment is required to understand, delicacy to describe them. +In seizing such refined impressions with the keenest +discrimination, in embodying them with infinite art, Chopin has +proved himself an artist of the highest order. It is only after +long and patient study, after having pursued his sublimated ideas +through their multiform ramifications, that we learn to admire +sufficiently, to comprehend aright, the genius with which he has +rendered his subtle thoughts visible and palpable, without once +blunting their edge, or ever congealing their fiery flow. + +He was so entirely filled with the sentiments whose most perfect +types he believed he had known in his own youth, with the ideas +which it alone pleased him to confide to art; he contemplated art +so invariably from the same point of view, that his artistic +preferences could not fail to be influenced by his early +impressions. In the great models and CHEFS-D'OEUVRE, he only +sought that which was in correspondence with his own soul. That +which stood in relation to it pleased him; that which resembled +it not, scarcely obtained justice from him. Uniting in himself +the frequently incompatible qualities of passion and grace he +possessed great accuracy of judgment, and preserved himself from +all petty partiality, but he was but slightly attracted by the +greatest beauties, the highest merits, when they wounded any of +the phases of his poetic conceptions. Notwithstanding the high +admiration which he entertained for the works of Beethoven, +certain portions of them always seemed to him too rudely +sculptured; their structure was too athletic to please him, their +wrath seemed to him too tempestuous, their passion too +overpowering, the lion-marrow which fills every member of his +phases was matter too substantial for his tastes, and the +Raphaelic and Seraphic profiles which are wrought into the midst +of the nervous and powerful creations of this great genius, were +to him almost painful from the force of the cutting contrast in +which they are frequently set. + +In spite of the charm which he acknowledged in some of the +melodies of Schubert, he would not willingly listen to those in +which the contours were too sharp for his ear, in which suffering +lies naked, and we can almost feel the flesh palpitate, and hear +the bones crack and crash under the rude embrace of sorrow. All +savage wildness was repulsive to him. In music, in literature, in +the conduct of life, all that approached the melodramatic was +painful to him The frantic and despairing aspects of exaggerated +romanticism were repellent to him, he could not endure the +struggling for wonderful effects, for delicious excesses. "He +loved Shakspeare only under many conditions. He thought his +characters were drawn too closely to the life, and spoke a +language too true; he preferred the epic and lyric syntheses +which leave the poor details of humanity in the shade. For the +same reason he spoke little and listened less, not wishing to +give expression to his own thoughts, or to receive the thoughts +of others, until after they had attained a certain degree of +elevation." + +A nature so completely master of itself, so full of delicate +reserve, which loved to divine through glimpses, presentiments, +suppositions, all that had been left untold (a species of +divination always dear to poets who can so eloquently finish the +interrupted words) must have felt annoyed, almost scandalized, by +an audacity which leaves nothing unexpressed, nothing to be +divined. If he had been called upon to express his own views upon +this subject, we believe he would have confessed that in +accordance with his taste, he was only permitted to give vent to +his feelings on condition of suffering much to remain unrevealed, +or only to be divined under the rich veils of broidery in which +he wound his emotions. If that which they agree in calling +classic in art appeared to him too full of methodical +restrictions, if he refused to permit himself to be garroted in +the manacles and frozen in the conventions of systems, if he did +not like confinement although enclosed in the safe symmetry of a +gilded cage, it was not because he preferred the license of +disorder, the confusion of irregularity. It was rather that he +might soar like the lark into the deep blue of the unclouded +heavens. Like the Bird of Paradise, which it was once thought +never slept but while resting upon extended wing, rocked only by +the breath of unlimited space at the sublime height at which it +reposed; he obstinately refused to descend to bury himself in the +misty gloom of the forests, or to surround himself with the +howlings and wailings with which it is filled. He would not leave +the depths of azure for the wastes of the desert, or attempt to +fix pathways over the treacherous waves of sand, which the winds, +in exulting irony, delight to sweep over the traces of the rash +mortal seeking to mark the line of his wandering through the +drifting, blinding swells. + +That style of Italian art which is so open, so glaring, so devoid +of the attraction of mystery or of science, with all that which +in German art bears the seal of vulgar, though powerful energy, +was distasteful to him. Apropos of Schubert he once remarked: +"that the sublime is desecrated when followed by the trivial or +commonplace." Among the composers for the piano Hummel was one of +the authors whom he reread with the most pleasure. Mozart was in +his eyes the ideal type, the Poet par excellence, because he, +less rarely than any other author, condescended to descend the +steps leading from the beautiful to the commonplace. The father +of Mozart after having been present at a representation of +IDOMENEE made to his son the following reproach: "You have been +wrong in putting in it nothing for the long ears." It was +precisely for such omissions that Chopin admired him. The gayety +of Papageno charmed him; the love of Tamino with its mysterious +trials seemed to him worthy of having occupied Mozart; he +understood the vengeance of Donna Anna because it cast but a +deeper shade upon her mourning. Yet such was his Sybaritism of +purity, his dread of the commonplace, that even in this immortal +work he discovered some passages whose introduction we have heard +him regret. His worship for Mozart was not diminished but only +saddened by this. He could sometimes forget that which was +repulsive to him, but to reconcile himself to it was impossible. +He seemed to be governed in this by one of those implacable and +irrational instincts, which no persuasion, no effort, can ever +conquer sufficiently to obtain a state of mere indifference +towards the objects of the antipathy; an aversion sometimes so +insurmountable, that we can only account for it by supposing it +to proceed from some innate and peculiar idiosyncrasy. + +After he had finished his studies in harmony with Professor +Joseph Elsner, who taught him the rarely known and difficult task +of being exacting towards himself, and placing the just value +upon the advantages which are only to be obtained by dint of +patience and labor; and after he had finished his collegiate +course, it was the desire of his parents that he should travel in +order that he might become familiar with the finest works under +the advantage of their perfect execution. For this purpose he +visited many of the German cities. He had left Warsaw upon one of +these short excursions, when the revolution of the 29th of +November broke out in 1830. + +Forced to remain in Vienna, he was heard there in some concerts, +but the Viennese public, generally so cultivated, so prompt to +seize the most delicate shades of execution, the finest +subtleties of thought, during this winter were disturbed and +abstracted. The young artist did not produce there the effect he +had the right to anticipate. He left Vienna with the design of +going to London, but he came first to Paris, where he intended to +remain but a short time. Upon his passport drawn up for England, +he had caused to be inserted: "passing through Paris." These +words sealed his fate. Long years afterwards, when he seemed not +only acclimated, but naturalized in France, he would smilingly +say: I am "passing through Paris." + +He gave several concerts after his arrival in Paris, where he was +immediately received and admired in the circles of the elite, as +well as welcomed by the young artists. We remember his first +appearance in the saloons of Pleyel, where the most enthusiastic +and redoubled applause seemed scarcely sufficient to express our +enchantment for the genius which had revealed new phases of +poetic feeling, and made such happy yet bold innovations in the +form of musical art. + +Unlike the greater part of young debutants, he was not +intoxicated or dazzled for a moment by his triumph, but accepted +it without pride or false modesty, evincing none of the puerile +enjoyment of gratified vanity exhibited by the PARVENUS of +success. His countrymen who were then in Paris gave him a most +affectionate reception. He was intimate in the house of Prince +Czartoryski, of the Countess Plater, of Madame de Komar, and in +that of her daughters, the Princess de Beauveau and the Countess +Delphine Potocka, whose beauty, together with her indescribable +and spiritual grace, made her one of the most admired sovereigns +of the society of Paris. He dedicated to her his second Concerto, +which contains the Adagio we have already described. The ethereal +beauty of the Countess, her enchanting voice enchained him by a +fascination full of respectful admiration. Her voice was destined +to be the last which should vibrate upon the musician's heart. +Perhaps the sweetest sounds of earth accompanied the parting soul +until they blended in his ear with the first chords of the +angels' lyres. + +He mingled much with the Polish circle in Paris; with Orda who +seemed born to command the future, and who was however killed in +Algiers at twenty years of age; with Counts Plater, Grzymala, +Ostrowski, Szembeck, with Prince Lubomirski, etc. etc. As the +Polish families who came afterwards to Paris were all anxious to +form acquaintance with him, he continued to mingle principally +with his own people. He remained through them not only AU COURANT +of all that was passing in his own country, but even in a kind of +musical correspondence with it. He liked those who visited Paris +to show him the airs or new songs they had brought with them, and +when the words of these airs pleased him, he frequently wrote a +new melody for them, thus popularizing them rapidly in his +country although the name of their author was often unknown. The +number of these melodies, due to the inspiration of the heart +alone, having become considerable, he often thought of collecting +them for publication. But he thought of it too late, and they +remain scattered and dispersed, like the perfume of the scented +flowers blessing the wilderness and sweetening the "desert air" +around some wandering traveller, whom chance may have led upon +their secluded track. During our stay in Poland we heard some of +the melodies which are attributed to him, and which are truly +worthy of him; but who would now dare to make an uncertain +selection between the inspirations of the national poet, and the +dreams of his people? + +Chopin kept for a long time aloof from the celebrities of Paris; +their glittering train repelled him. As his character and habits +had more true originality than apparent eccentricity, he inspired +less curiosity than they did. Besides he had sharp repartees for +those who imprudently wished to force him into a display of his +musical abilities. Upon one occasion after he had just left the +dining-room, an indiscreet host, who had had the simplicity to +promise his guests some piece executed by him as a rare dessert, +pointed to him an open piano. He should have remembered that in +counting without the host, it is necessary to count twice. Chopin +at first refused, but wearied at last by continued persecution, +assuming, to sharpen the sting of his words, a stifled and +languid tone of voice, he exclaimed: "Ah, sir, I have scarcely +dined!" + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +Madame Sand--Lelia--Visit to Majorca--Exclusive Ideals. + + + +In 1836 Madame Sand had not only published INDIANA, VALENTINE, +and JACQUES, but also LELIA, that prose poem of which she +afterwards said: "If I regret having written it, it is because I +could not now write it. Were I in the same state of mind now as +when it was written, it would indeed be a great consolation to me +to be able to commence it." The mere painting of romances in cold +water colors must have seemed, without doubt, dull to Madame +Sand, after having handled the hammer and chisel of the sculptor +so boldly, in modeling the grand lines of that semi-colossal +statue, in cutting those sinewy muscles, which even in their +statuesque immobility, are full of bewildering and seductive +charm. Should we continue long to gaze upon it, it excites the +most painful emotion. In strong contrast to the miracle of +Pygmalion, Lelia seems a living Galatea, rich in feeling, full of +love, whom the deeply enamored artist has tried to bury alive in +his exquisitely sculptured marble, stifling the palpitating +breath, and congealing the warm blood in the vain hope of +elevating and immortalizing the beauty he adores. In the presence +of this vivid nature petrified by art, we cannot feel that +admiration is kindled into love, but, saddened and chilled, we +are forced to acknowledge that love may be frozen into mere +admiration. + +Brown and olive-hued Lelia! Dark as Lara, despairing as Manfred, +rebellious as Cain, thou hast ranged through the depths of +solitude! But thou art more ferocious, more savage, more +inconsolable than they, because thou hast never found a man's +heart sufficiently feminine to love thee as they were loved, to +pay the homage of a confiding and blind submission to thy virile +charms, to offer thee a mute yet ardent devotion, to suffer its +obedience to be protected by thy Amazonian force! Woman-hero! +Like the Amazons, thou hast been valiant and eager for combats; +like them thou hast not feared to expose the exquisite loveliness +of thy face to the fierceness of the summer's sun, or the sharp +blasts of winter! Thou hast hardened thy fragile limbs by the +endurance of fatigue, thus robbing them of the subtle power of +their weakness! Thou hast covered thy palpitating breast with a +heavy cuirass, which has pressed and torn it, dyeing its snow in +blood;--that gentle woman's bosom, charming as life, discreet as +the grave, which is always adored by man when his heart is +permitted to form its sole, its impenetrable buckler! + +After having blunted her chisel in polishing this statue, which, +by its majesty, its haughty disdain, its look of hopeless +anguish, shadowed by the frowning of the pure brows and by the +long loose locks shivering with electric life, reminds us of +those antique cameos on which we still admire the perfect +features, the beautiful yet fatal brow, the haughty smile of the +Medusa, whose gaze paralyzed and stopped the pulses of the human +heart;--Madame Sand in vain sought another form for the +expression of the emotions which tortured her insatiate soul. +After having draped this figure with the highest art, +accumulating every species of masculine greatness upon it in +order to compensate for the highest of all qualities which she +repudiated for it, the grandeur of, "utter self-abnegation for +love," which the many-sided poet has placed in the empyrean and +called "the Eternal Feminine," (DAS EWIGWEIBLICHE,)--a greatness +which is love existing before any of its joys, surviving all its +sorrows;--after having caused Don Juan to be cursed, and a divine +hymn to be chanted to Desire by Lelia, who, as well as Don Juan, +had repulsed the only delight which crowns desire, the luxury of +self-abnegation,--after having fully revenged Elvira by the +creation of Stenio,--after having scorned man more than Don Juan +had degraded woman,--Madame Sand, in her LETTRES D'UN VOYAGEUR, +depicts the shivering palsy, the painful lethargy which seizes +the artist, when, having incorporated the emotion which inspired +him in his work, his imagination still remains under the +domination of the insatiate idea without being able to find +another form in which to incarnate it. Such poetic sufferings +were well understood by Byron, when he makes Tasso shed his most +bitter tears, not for his chains, not for his physical +sufferings, not for the ignominy heaped upon him, but for his +finished Epic, for the ideal world created by his thought and now +about to close its doors upon him, and by thus expelling him from +its enchanted realm, rendering him at last sensible of the gloomy +realities around him:-- + + + "But this is o'er--my pleasant task is done:-- + My long-sustaining friend of many years: + If I do blot thy final page with tears, + Know that my sorrows have wrung from me none. + But thou, my young creation! my soul's child! + Which ever playing round me came and smiled, + And woo'd me from myself with thy sweet sight, + Thou too art gone--and so is my delight." + + LAMENT OF TASSO.--BYRON. + + +At this epoch, Madame Sand often heard a musician, one of the +friends who had greeted Chopin with the most enthusiastic joy +upon his arrival at Paris, speak of him. She heard him praise his +poetic genius even more than his artistic talent. She was +acquainted with his compositions, and admired their graceful +tenderness. She was struck by the amount of emotion displayed in +his poems, with the effusions of a heart so noble and dignified. +Some of the countrymen of Chopin spoke to her of the women of +their country, with the enthusiasm natural to them upon that +subject, an enthusiasm then very much increased by a remembrance +of the sublime sacrifices made by them during the last war. +Through their recitals and the poetic inspiration of the Polish +artist, she perceived an ideal of love which took the form of +worship for woman. She thought that guaranteed from dependence, +preserved from inferiority, her role might be like the fairy +power of the Peri, that ethereal intelligence and friend of man. +Perhaps she did not fully understand what innumerable links of +suffering, of silence, of patience, of gentleness, of indulgence, +of courageous perseverance, had been necessary for the formation +of the worship for this imperious but resigned ideal, beautiful +indeed, but sad to behold, like those plants with the rose- +colored corollas, whose stems, intertwining and interlacing in a +network of long and numerous branches, give life to ruins; +destined ever to embellish decay, growing upon old walls and +hiding only tottering stones! Beautiful veils woven by beneficent +Nature, in her ingenious and inexhaustible richness, to cover the +constant decay of human things! + +As Madame Sand perceived that this artist, in place of giving +body to his phantasy in porphyry and marble, or defining his +thoughts by the creation of massive caryatides, rather effaced +the contour of his works, and, had it been necessary, could have +elevated his architecture itself from the soil, to suspend it, +like the floating palaces of the Fata Morgana, in the fleecy +clouds, through his aerial forms of almost impalpable buoyancy, +she was more and more attracted by that mystic ideal which she +perceived glowing within them. Though her arm was powerful enough +to have sculptured the round shield, her hand was delicate enough +to have traced those light relievos where the shadows of +ineffaceable profiles have been thrown upon and trusted to a +stone scarcely raised from its level plane. She was no stranger +in the supernatural world, she to whom Nature, as to a favored +child, had unloosed her girdle and unveiled all the caprices, the +attractions, the delights, which she can lend to beauty. She was +not ignorant of the lightest graces; she whose eye could embrace +such vast proportions, had stooped to study the glowing +illuminations painted upon the wings of the fragile butterfly. +She had traced the symmetrical and marvellous network which the +fern extends as a canopy over the wood strawberry; she had +listened to the murmuring of streams through the long reeds and +stems of the water-grass, where the hissing of the "amorous +viper" may be heard; she had followed the wild leaps of the Will- +with-a-wisp as it bounds over the surface of the meadows and +marshes; she had pictured to herself the chimerical dwelling- +places toward which it perfidiously attracts the benighted +traveller; she had listened to the concerts given by the Cicada +and their friends in the stubble of the fields; she had learned +the names of the inhabitants of the winged republics of the woods +which she could distinguish as well by their plumaged robes, as +by their jeering roulades or plaintive cries. She knew the secret +tenderness of the lily in the splendor of its tints; she had +listened to the sighs of Genevieve, [Footnote: ANDRE] the maiden +enamored of flowers. + +She was visited in her dreams by those "unknown friends" who came +to rejoin her "when she was seized with distress upon a desolate +shore," brought by a "rapid stream...in large and full +bark"...upon which she mounted to leave the unknown shores, "the +country of chimeras which make real life appear like a dream half +effaced to those, who enamored from their infancy of large shells +of pearl, mount them to land in those isles where all are young +and beautiful...where the men and women are crowned with flowers, +with their long locks floating upon their shoulders...holding +vases and harps of a strange form...having songs and voices not +of this world...all loving each other equally with a divine +love...where crystal fountains of perfumed waters play in basins +of silver...where blue roses bloom in vases of alabaster...where +the perspectives are all enchanted...where they walk with naked +feet upon the thick green moss, soft as carpets of velvet...where +all sing as they wander among the fragrant groves." [Footnote: +LETTRES D'UN VOYAGEUR] + +She knew these unknown friends so well that after having again +seen them, "she could not dream of them without palpitations of +the heart during the whole day." She was initiated into the +Hoffmannic world--"she who had surprised such ineffable smiles +upon the portraits of the dead;" [Footnote: SPIRIDSON] who had +seen the rays of the sun falling through the stained glass of a +Gothic window form a halo round loved heads, like the arm of God, +luminous and impalpable, surrounded by a vortex of atoms;--she +who had known such glorious apparitions, clothed with the purple +and golden glories of the setting sun. The realm of fantasy had +no myth with whose secret she was not familiar! + +Thus she was naturally anxious to become acquainted with one who +had with rapid wing flown "to those scenes which it is impossible +to describe, but which must exist somewhere, either upon the +earth, or in some of the planets, whose light we love to gaze +upon in the forests when the moon has set." [Footnote: LETTRES +D'UN VOYAGEUR] Such scenes she had prayed never to be forced to +desert--never desiring to bring her heart and imagination back to +this dreary world, too like the gloomy coasts of Finland, where +the slime and miry slough can only be escaped by scaling the +naked granite of the solitary rocks. Fatigued with the massive +statue she had sculptured, the Amazonian Lelia; wearied with the +grandeur of an Ideal which it is impossible to mould from the +gross materials of this earth; she was desirous to form an +acquaintance with the artist "the lover of an impossible so +shadowy"--so near the starry regions. Alas! if these regions are +exempt from the poisonous miasmas of our atmosphere, they are not +free from its desolating melancholy! Perhaps those who are +transported there may adore the shining of new suns--but there +are others not less dear whose light they must see extinguished! +Will not the most glorious among the beloved constellation of the +Pleiades there disappear? Like drops of luminous dew the stars +fall one by one into the nothingness of a yawning abyss, whose +bottomless depths no plummet has ever sounded, while the soul, +contemplating these fields of ether, this blue Sahara with its +wandering and perishing oases,--is stricken by a grief so +hopeless, so profound, that neither enthusiasm nor love can ever +soothe it more. It ingulfs and absorbs all emotions, being no +more agitated by them than the sleeping waters of some tranquil +lake, reflecting the moving images thronging its banks from its +polished surface, are by the varied motions and eager life of the +many objects mirrored upon its glassy bosom. The drowsy waters +cannot thus be wakened from their icy lethargy. This melancholy +saddens even the highest joy. "Through the exhaustion always +accompanying such tension, when the soul is strained above the +region which it naturally inhabits...the insufficiency of speech +is felt for the first time by those who have studied it so much, +and used it so well--we are borne from all active, from all +militant instincts--to travel through boundless space--to be lost +in the immensity of adventurous courses far, far above the +clouds...where we no longer see that the earth is beautiful, +because our gaze is riveted upon the skies...where reality is no +longer poetically draped, as has been so skilfully done by the +author of Waverley, but where, in idealizing poetry itself, the +infinite is peopled with the spirits belonging only to its mystic +realm, as has been done by Byron in his Manfred." + +Could Madame Sand have divined the incurable melancholy, the will +which cannot blend with that of others, the imperious +exclusiveness, which invariably seize upon imaginations +delighting in the pursuit of dreams whose realities are nowhere +to be found, or at least never in the matter-of-fact world in +which the dreamers are constrained to dwell? Had she foreseen the +form which devoted attachment assumes for such dreamers; had she +measured the entire and absolute absorption which they will alone +accept as the synonyme of tenderness? It is necessary to be in +some degree shy, shrinking, and secretive as they themselves are, +to be able to understand the hidden depths of characters so +concentrated. Like those susceptible flowers which close their +sensitive petals before the first breath of the North wind, they +too veil their exacting souls in the shrouds of self +concentration, unfolding themselves only under the warming rays +of a propitious sun. Such natures have been called "rich by +exclusiveness;" in opposition to those which are "rich by +expansiveness." "If these differing temperaments should meet and +approach each other, they can never mingle or melt the one into +the other," (says the writer whom we have so often quoted) "but +the one must consume the other, leaving nothing but ashes +behind." Alas! it is the natures like that of the fragile +musician whose days we commemorate, which, consuming themselves, +perish; not wishing, not indeed being able, to live any life but +one in conformity with their own exclusive Ideal. + +Chopin seemed to dread Madame Sand more than any other woman, the +modern Sibyl, who, like the Pythoness of old, had said so many +things that others of her sex neither knew nor dared to say. He +avoided and put off all introduction to her. Madame Sand was +ignorant of this. In consequence of that captivating simplicity, +which is one of her noblest charms, she did not divine his fear +of the Delphic priestess. At last she was presented to him, and +an acquaintance with her soon dissipated the prejudices which he +had obstinately nourished against female authors. + +In the fall of 1837, Chopin was attacked by an alarming illness, +which left him almost without force to support life. Dangerous +symptoms forced him to go South to avoid the rigor of winter. +Madame Sand, always so watchful over those whom she loved, so +full of compassion for their sufferings, would not permit him, +when his health required so much care, to set out alone, and +determined to accompany him. They selected the island of Majorca +for their residence because the air of the sea, joined to the +mild climate which prevails there, is especially salubrious for +those who are suffering from affections of the lungs. Though he +was so weak when he left Paris that we had no hope of his ever +returning; though after his arrival in Majorca he was long and +dangerously ill; yet so much was he benefited by the change that +big health was improved during several years. + +Was it the effect of the balmy climate alone which recalled him +to health? Was it not rather because his life was full of bliss +that he found strength to live? Did he not regain strength only +because he now wished to live? Who can tell how far the influence +of the will extends over the body? Who knows what internal subtle +aroma it has the power of disengaging to preserve the sinking +frame from decay; what vital force it can breathe into the +debilitated organs? Who can say where the dominion of mind over +matter ceases? Who knows how far our senses are under the +dominion of the imagination, to what extent their powers may be +increased, or their extinction accelerated, by its influence? It +matters not how the imagination gains its strange extension of +power, whether through long and bitter exercise, or, whether +spontaneously collecting its forgotten strength, it concentrates +its force in some new and decisive moment of destiny: as when the +rays of the sun are able to kindle a flame of celestial origin +when concentrated in the focus of the burning glass, brittle and +fragile though the medium be. + +All the long scattered rays of happiness were collected within +this epoch of the life of Chopin; is it then surprising that they +should have rekindled the flame of life, and that it should have +burned at this time with the most vivid lustre? The solitude +surrounded by the blue waves of the Mediterranean and shaded by +groves of orange, seemed fitted in its exceeding loveliness for +the ardent vows of youthful lovers, still believing in their +naive and sweet illusions, sighing for happiness in "some desert +isle." He breathed there that air for which natures unsuited for +the world, and never feeling themselves happy in it, long with +such a painful home-sickness; that air which may be found +everywhere if we can find the sympathetic souls to breathe it +with us, and which is to be met nowhere without them; that air of +the land of our dreams; and which in spite of all obstacles, of +the bitter real, is easily discovered when sought by two! It is +the air of the country of the ideal to which we gladly entice the +being we cherish, repeating with poor Mignon: DAHIN! +DAHIN!...LASST UNS ZIEHN! + +As long as his sickness lasted, Madame Sand never left the pillow +of him who loved her even to death, with an attachment which in +losing all its joys, did not lose its intensity, which remained +faithful to her even after all its memories had turned to pain: +"for it seemed as if this fragile being was absorbed and consumed +by the strength of his affection....Others seek happiness in +their attachments; when they no longer find it, the attachment +gently vanishes. In this they resemble the rest of the world. But +he loved for the sake of loving. No amount of suffering was +sufficient to discourage him. He could enter upon a new phase, +that of woe; but the phase of coldness he could never arrive at. +It would have been indeed a phase of physical agony--for his love +was his life--and delicious or bitter, he had not the power of +withdrawing himself a single moment from its domination." +[Footnote: LUCRESIA FLORIANA] Madame Sand never ceased to be for +Chopin that being of magic spells who had snatched him from the +valley of the shadow of death, whose power had changed his +physical agony into the delicious languor of love. To save him +from death, to bring him back to life, she struggled courageously +with his disease. She surrounded him with those divining and +instinctive cares which are a thousand times more efficacious +than the material remedies known to science. While engaged in +nursing him, she felt no fatigue, no weariness, no +discouragement. Neither her strength, nor her patience, yielded +before the task. Like the mothers in robust health, who appear to +communicate a part of their own strength to the sickly infant +who, constantly requiring their care, have also their preference, +she nursed the precious charge into new life. The disease +yielded: "the funereal oppression which secretly undermined the +spirit of Chopin, destroying and corroding all contentment, +gradually vanished. He permitted the amiable character, the +cheerful serenity of his friend to chase sad thoughts and +mournful presentiments away, and to breathe new force into his +intellectual being." + +Happiness succeeded to gloomy fears, like the gradual progression +of a beautiful day after a night full of obscurity and terror, +when so dense and heavy is the vault of darkness which weighs +upon us from above, that we are prepared for a sudden and fatal +catastrophe, we do not even dare to dream of deliverance, when +the despairing eye suddenly catches a bright spot where the mists +clear, and the clouds open like flocks of heavy wool yielding, +even while the edges thicken under the pressure of the hand which +rends them. At this moment, the first ray of hope penetrates the +soul. We breathe more freely like those who lost in the windings +of a dark cavern at last think they see a light, though indeed +its existence is still doubtful. This faint light is the day +dawn, though so colorless are its rays, that it is more like the +extinction of the dying twilight,--the fall of the night-shroud +upon the earth. But it is indeed the dawn; we know it by the +vivid and pure breath of the young zephyrs which it sends forth, +like avant-coureurs, to bear us the assurance of morn and safety. +The balm of flowers fills the air, like the thrilling of an +encouraged hope. A stray bird accidentally commences his song +earlier than usual, it soothes the heart like a distant +consolation, and is accepted as a promise for the future. As the +imperceptibly progressive but sure indications multiply, we are +convinced that in this struggle of light and darkness it is the +shadows of night which are to yield. Raising our eyes to the Dome +of lead above us, we feel that it weighs less heavily upon us, +that it has already lost its fatal stability. + +Little by little the long gray lines of light increase, they +stretch themselves along the horizon like fissures into a +brighter world. They suddenly enlarge, they gain upon their dark +boundaries, now they break through them, as the waters bounding +the edge of a lake inundate in irregular pools the arid banks. +Then a fierce opposition begins, banks and long dikes accumulate +to arrest the progress. The clouds are oiled like ridges of sand, +tossing and surging to present obstructions, but like the +impetuous raging of irresistible waters, the light breaks through +them, demolishes them, devours them, and as the rays ascend, the +rolling waves of purple mist glow into crimson. At this moment +the young dawn shines with a timid yet victorious grace, while +the knee bends in admiration and gratitude before it, for the +last terror has vanished, and we feel as if new born. + +Fresh objects strike upon the view, as if just called from chaos. +A veil of uniform rose-color covers them all, but as the light +augments in intensity, the thin gauze drapes and folds in shades +of pale carnation, while the advancing plains grow clear in white +and dazzling splendor. + +The brilliant sun delays no longer to invade the firmament, +gaining new glory as he rises. The vapors surge and crowd +together, rolling themselves from right to left, like the heavy +drapery of a curtain moved by the wind. Then all breathes, moves, +lives, hums, sings; the sounds mingle, cross, meet, and melt into +each other. Inertia gives place to motion, it spreads, +accelerates and circulates. The waves of the lake undulate and +swell like a bosom touched by love. The tears of the dew, +motionless as those of tenderness, grow more and more +perceptible, one after another they are seen glittering on the +humid herbs, diamonds waiting for the sun to paint with rainbow- +tints their vivid scintillations. The gigantic fan of light in +the East is ever opening larger and wider. Spangles of silver, +borders of scarlet, violet fringes, bars of gold, cover it with +fantastic broidery. Light bands of reddish brown feather its +branches. The brightest scarlet at its centre has the glowing +transparency of the ruby; shading into orange like a burning +coal, it widens like a torch, spreads like a bouquet of flames, +which glows and glows from fervor to fervor, ever more +incandescent. + +At last the god of day appears! His blazing front is adorned with +luminous locks of long floating hair. Slowly he seems to rise-- +but scarcely has he fully unveiled himself, than he starts +forward, disengages himself from all around him, and, leaving the +earth far below him, takes instantaneous possession of the +vaulted heavens.............. + +The memory of the days passed in the lovely isle of Majorca, like +the remembrance of an entrancing ecstasy, which fate grants but +once in life even to the most favored of her children, remained +always dear to the heart of Chopin. "He [Footnote: Lucrezia +Fioriani] was no longer upon this earth, he was in an empyrean of +golden clouds and perfumes, his imagination, so full of exquisite +beauty, seemed engaged in a monologue with God himself; and if +upon the radiant prism in whose contemplation he forgot all else, +the magic-lantern of the outer world would even cast its +disturbing shadow, he felt deeply pained, as if in the midst of a +sublime concert, a shrieking old woman should blend her shrill +yet broken tones, her vulgar musical motivo, with the divine +thoughts of the great masters." He always spoke of this period +with deep emotion, profound gratitude, as if its happiness had +been sufficient for a life-time, without hoping that it would +ever be possible again to find a felicity in which the fight of +time was only marked by the tenderness of woman's love, and the +brilliant flashes of true genius. Thus did the clock of Linnaeus +mark the course of time, indicating the hours by the successive +waking and sleeping of the flowers, marking each by a different +perfume, and a display of ever varying beauties, as each +variegated calyx opened in ever changing yet ever lovely form! + +The beauties of the countries through which the Poet and Musician +travelled together, struck with more distinctness the imagination +of the former. The loveliness of nature impressed Chopin in a +manner less definite, though not less strong. His soul was +touched, and immediately harmonized with the external +enchantment, yet his intellect did not feel the necessity of +analyzing or classifying it. His heart vibrated in unison with +the exquisite scenery around him, although he was not able at the +moment to assign the precise source of his blissful tranquillity. +Like a true musician, he was satisfied to seize the sentiment of +the scenes he visited, while he seemed to give but little +attention to the plastic material, the picturesque frame, which +did not assimilate with the form of his art, nor belong to his +more spiritualized sphere. However, (a fact that has been often +remarked in organizations such as his,) as he was removed in time +and distance from the scenes in which emotion had obscured his +senses, as the clouds from the burning incense envelope the +censer, the more vividly the forms and beauties of such scenes +stood out in his memory. In the succeeding years, he frequently +spoke of them, as though the remembrance was full of pleasure to +him. But when so entirely happy, he made no inventory of his +bliss. He enjoyed it simply, as we all do in the sweet years of +childhood, when we are deeply impressed by the scenery +surrounding us without ever thinking of its details, yet finding, +long after, the exact image of each object in our memory, though +we are only able to describe its forms when we have ceased to +behold them. + +Besides, why should he have tasked himself to scrutinize the +beautiful sites in Spain which formed the appropriate setting of +his poetic happiness? Could he not always find them again through +the descriptions of his inspired companion? As all objects, even +the atmosphere itself, become flame-colored when seen through a +glass dyed in crimson, so he might contemplate these delicious +sites in the glowing hues cast around them by the impassioned +genius of the woman he loved. The nurse of his sick- room--was +she not also a great artist? Rare and beautiful union! If to the +depths of tenderness and devotion, in which the true and +irresistible empire of woman must commence, and deprived of which +she is only an enigma without a possible solution, nature should +unite the most brilliant gifts of genius,--the miraculous +spectacle of the Greek firs would be renewed,--the glittering +flames would again sport over the abysses of the ocean without +being extinguished or submerged in the chilling depths, adding, +as the living hues were thrown upon the surging waves, the +glowing dyes of the purple fire to the celestial blue of the +heaven-reflecting sea! + +Has genius ever attained that utter self-abnegation, that sublime +humility of heart which gives the power to make those strange +sacrifices of the entire Past, of the whole Future; those +immolations, as courageous as mysterious; those mystic and utter +holocausts of self, not temporary and changing, but monotonous +and constant,--through whose might alone tenderness may justly +claim the higher name, devotion? Has not the force of genius its +own exclusive and legitimate exactions, and does not the force of +woman consist in the abdication of all exactions? Can the royal +purple and burning flames of genius ever float upon the +immaculate azure of woman's destiny?... + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Disappointment--Ill Health--Visit to England--Devotion of +Friends--Last Sacraments--Delphina Potocka--Louise--M. Gutman-- +Death. + + + +FROM the date of 1840, the health of Chopin, affected by so many +changes, visibly declined. During some years, his most tranquil +hours were spent at Nohant, where he seemed to suffer less than +elsewhere. He composed there, with pleasure, bringing with him +every year to Paris several new compositions, but every winter +caused him an increase of suffering. Motion became at first +difficult, and soon almost impossible to him. From 1846 to 1847, +he scarcely walked at all; he could not ascend the staircase +without the most painful sensation of suffocation, and his life +was only prolonged through continual care and the greatest +precaution. + +Towards the Spring of 1847, as his health grew more precarious +from day to day, he was attacked by an illness from which it was +thought he could never recover. He was saved for the last time; +but this epoch was marked by an event so agonizing to his heart +that he immediately called it mortal. Indeed, he did not long +survive the rupture of his friendship with Madame Sand, which +took place at this date. Madame de Stael, who, in spite of her +generous and impassioned heart, her subtle and vivid intellect, +fell sometimes into the fault of making her sentences heavy +through a species of pedantry which robbed them of the grace of +"abandon,"--remarked on one of those occasions when the strength +of her feelings made her forget the solemnity of her Genevese +stiffness: "In affection, there are only beginnings!" + +This exclamation was based upon the bitter experience of the +insufficiency of the human heart to accomplish the beautiful and +blissful dreams of the imagination. Ah! if some blessed examples +of human devotion did not sometimes occur to contradict the +melancholy words of Madame de Stael, which so many illustrious as +well as obscure facts seem to prove, our suspicions might lead us +to be guilty of much ingratitude and want of trust; we might be +led to doubt the sincerity of the hearts which surround us, and +see but the allegorical symbols of human affections in the +antique train of the beautiful Canephoroe, who carried the +fragile and perfumed flowers to adorn some hapless victim for the +altar! + +Chopin spoke frequently and almost by preference of Madame Sand, +without bitterness or recrimination. Tears always filled his eyes +when he named her; but with a kind of bitter sweetness he gave +himself up to the memories of past days, alas, now. He stripped +of their manifold significance! In spite of the many subterfuges +employed by his friends to entice him from dwelling upon +remembrances which always brought dangerous excitement with them, +he loved to return to them; as if through the same feelings which +had once reanimated his life, he now wished to destroy it, +sedulously stifling its powers through the vapor of this subtle +poison. His last pleasure seemed to be the memory of the blasting +of his last hope; he treasured the bitter knowledge that under +this fatal spell his life was ebbing fast away. All attempts to +fix his attention upon other objects were made in vain, he +refused to be comforted and would constantly speak of the one +engrossing subject. Even if he had ceased to speak of it, would +he not always have thought of it? He seemed to inhale the poison +rapidly and eagerly, that he might thus shorten the time in which +he would be forced to breathe it! + +Although the exceeding fragility of his physical constitution +might not have allowed him, under any circumstances, to have +lingered long on earth, yet at least he might have been spared +the bitter sufferings which clouded his last hours! With a tender +and ardent soul, though exacting through its fastidiousness and +excessive delicacy, he could not live unless surrounded by the +radiant phantoms he had himself evoked; he could not expel the +profound sorrow which his heart cherished as the sole remaining +fragment of the happy past. He was another great and illustrious +victim to the transitory attachments occurring between persons of +different character, who, experiencing a surprise full of delight +in their first sudden meeting, mistake it for a durable feeling, +and build hopes and illusions upon it which can never be +realized. It is always the nature the most deeply moved, the most +absolute in its hopes and attachments, for which all +transplantation is impossible, which is destroyed and mined in +the painful awakening from the absorbing dream! Terrible power +exercised over man by the most exquisite gifts which he +possesses! Like the coursers of the sun, when the hand of +Phaeton, in place of guiding their beneficent career, permits +them to wander at random, disordering the beautiful structure of +the celestial spheres, they bring devastation and flames in their +train! Chopin felt and often repeated that the sundering of this +long friendship, the rupture of this strong tie, broke all the +chords which bound him to life. + +During this attack his life was despaired of for several days. M. +Gutman, his most distinguished pupil, and during the last years +of his life, his most intimate friend, lavished upon him every +proof of tender attachment. His cares, his attentions, were the +most agreeable to him. With the timidity natural to invalids, and +with the tender delicacy peculiar to himself, he once asked the +Princess Czartoryska, who visited him every day, often fearing +that on the morrow he would no longer be among the living: "if +Gutman was not very much fatigued? If she thought he would be +able to continue his care of him;" adding, "that his presence was +dearer to him than that of any other person." His convalescence +was very slow and painful, leaving him indeed but the semblance +of life. At this epoch he changed so much in appearance that he +could scarcely be recognized The next summer brought him that +deceptive decrease of suffering which it sometimes grants to +those who are dying. He refused to quit Paris, and thus deprived +himself of the pure air of the country, and the benefit of this +vivifying element. + +The winter of 1847 to 1848 was filled with a painful and +continual succession of improvements and relapses. +Notwithstanding this, he resolved in the spring to accomplish his +old project of visiting London. When the revolution of February +broke out, he was still confined to bed, but with a melancholy +effort, he seemed to try to interest himself in the events of the +day, and spoke of them more than usual. M. Gutman continued his +most intimate and constant visitor. He accepted through +preference his cares until the close of his life. + +Feeling better in the month of April, he thought of realizing his +contemplated journey, of visiting that country to which he had +intended to go when youth and life opened in bright perspective +before him. He set out for England, where his works had already +found an intelligent public, and were generally known and +admired. + +[Footnote: The compositions of Chopin were, even at that time, +known and very much liked in England. The most distinguished +virtuosi frequently executed them. In a pamphlet published in +London by Messrs. Wessel and Stappletou, under the title of AN +ESSAY ON THE WORKS OF F.CHOPIN, we find some lines marked by just +criticism. The epigraph of this little pamphlet is ingeniously +chosen, and the two lines from Shelley could scarcely be better +applied than to Chopin: + + "He was a mighty poet--and + A subtle-souled Psychologist." + +The author of this pamphlet speaks with enthusiasm of the +"originative genius untrammeled by conventionalities, unfettered +by pedantry;...of the outpourings of an unworldly and tristful +soul--those musical floods of tears, and gushes of pure +joyfulness--those exquisite embodiments of fugitive thoughts-- +those infinitesimal delicacies, which give so much value to the +lightest sketch of Chopin." The English author again says: "One +thing is certain, viz.: to play with proper feeling and correct +execution, the PRELUDES and STUDIES of Chopin, is to be neither +more nor less than a finished pianist, and moreover to comprehend +them thoroughly, to give a life and tongue to their infinite and +most eloquent subtleties of expression, involves the necessity of +being in no less a degree a poet than a pianist, a thinker than a +musician. Commonplace is instinctively avoided in all the works +of Chopin; a stale cadence or a trite progression, a humdrum +subject or a hackneyed sequence, a vulgar twist of the melody or +a worn-out passage, a meagre harmony or an unskillful +counterpoint, may in vain be looked for throughout the entire +range of his compositions; the prevailing characteristics of +which, are, a feeling as uncommon as beautiful, a treatment as +original as felicitous, a melody and a harmony as new, fresh, +vigorous, and striking, as they are utterly unexpected and out of +the common track. In taking up one of the works of Chopin, you +are entering, as it were, a fairyland, untrodden by human +footsteps, a path hitherto unfrequented but by the great composer +himself; and a faith, a devotion, a desire to appreciate and a +determination to understand are absolutely necessary, to do it +any thing like adequate justice.... Chopin in his POLONAISES and +in his MAZOURKAS has aimed at those characteristics, which +distinguish the national music of his country so markedly from, +that of all others, that quaint idiosyncrasy, that identical +wildness and fantasticality, that delicious mingling of the sad +and cheerful, which invariably and forcibly individualize the +music of those Northern nations, whose language delights in +combinations of consonants...."] + +He left France in that mood of mind which the English call "low +spirits." The transitory interest which he had endeavored to take +in political changes, soon disappeared. He became more taciturn +than ever. If through absence of mind, a few words would escape +him. They were only exclamations of regret. His affection for the +limited number of persons whom he continued to see, was filled +with that heart-rending emotion which precedes eternal farewells! +Art alone always retained its absolute power over him. Music +absorbed him during the time, now constantly shortening, in which +he was able to occupy himself with it, as completely as during +the days when he was full of life and hope. Before he left Paris, +he gave a concert in the saloon of M. Pleyel, one of the friends +with whom his relations had been the most constant, the most +frequent, and the most affectionate; who is now rendering a +worthy homage to his memory, occupying himself with zeal and +activity in the execution of a monument for his tomb. At this +concert, his chosen and faithful audience heard him for the last +time! + +He was received in London with an eagerness which had some effect +in aiding him to shake off his sadness, to dissipate his mournful +depression. Perhaps he dreamed, by burying all his former habits +in oblivion, he could succeed in dissipating, his melancholy! He +neglected the prescriptions of his physicians, with all the +precautions which reminded him of his wretched health. He played +twice in public, and many times in private concerts. He mingled +much in society, sat up late at night, and exposed himself to +considerable fatigue, without permitting himself to be deterred +by any consideration for his health. He was presented to the +Queen by the Duchess of Sutherland, and the most distinguished +society sought the pleasure of his acquaintance. He went to +Edinburgh, where the climate was particularly injurious to him. +He was much debilitated upon his return from Scotland; his +physicians wished him to leave England immediately, but he +delayed for some time his departure. Who can read the feelings +which caused this delay!...He played again at a concert given for +the Poles. It was the last mark of love sent to his beloved +country--the last look--the last sigh--the last regret! He was +feted, applauded, and surrounded by his own people. He bade them +all adieu,--they did not know it was an eternal Farewell! What +thoughts must have filled his sad soul as he crossed the sea to +return to Paris! That Paris so different now for him from that +which he had found without seeking in 1831! + +He was met upon his arrival by a surprise as painful as +unexpected. Dr. Molin, whose advice and intelligent prescriptions +had saved his life in the winter of 1847, to whom alone he +believed himself indebted for the prolongation of his life, was +dead. He felt his loss painfully, nay, it brought a profound +discouragement with it; at a time when the mind exercises so much +influence over the progress of the disease, he persuaded himself +that no one could replace the trusted physician, and he had no +confidence in any other. Dissatisfied with them all, without any +hope from their skill, he changed them constantly. A kind of +superstitious depression seized him. No tie stronger than life, +no more powerful as death, came now to struggle against this +bitter apathy! From the winter of 1848, Chopin had been in no +condition to labor continuously. From time to time he retouched +some scattered leaves, without succeeding in arranging his +thoughts in accordance with his designs. A respectful care of his +fame dictated to him the wish that these sketches should be +destroyed to prevent the possibility of their being mutilated, +disfigured, and transformed into posthumous works unworthy of his +hand. + +He left no finished manuscripts, except a very short WALTZ, and a +last NOCTURNE, as parting memories. In the later period of his +life he thought of writing a method for the Piano, in which he +intended to give his ideas upon the theory and technicality of +his art, the results of his long and patient studies, his happy +innovations, and his intelligent experience. The task was a +difficult one, demanding redoubled application even from one who +labored as assiduously as Chopin. Perhaps he wished to avoid the +emotions of art, (affecting those who reproduce them in serenity +of soul so differently from those who repeat in them their own +desolation of heart,) by taking refuge in a region so barren. He +sought in this employment only an absorbing and uniform +occupation, he only asked from it what Manfred demanded in vain +from the powers of magic: "forgetfulness!" Forgetfulness--granted +neither by the gayety of amusement, nor the lethargy of torpor! +On the contrary, with venomous guile, they always compensate in +the renewed intensity of woe, for the time they may have +succeeded in benumbing it. In the daily labor which "charms the +storms of the soul," (DER SEELE STURM BESCHWORT,) he sought +without doubt forgetfulness, which occupation, by rendering the +memory torpid, may sometimes procure, though it cannot destroy +the sense of pain. At the close of that fine elegy which he names +"The Ideal," a poet, who was also the victim of an inconsolable +melancholy, appeals to labor as a consolation when a prey to +bitter regret; while expecting an early death, he invokes +occupation as the last resource against the incessant anguish of +life: + + + "And thou, so pleated, with her uniting, + To charm the soul-storm into peace, + Sweet toil, in toil itself delighting, + That more it labored, less could cease, + Though but by grains thou aidest the pile + The vast eternity uprears, + At least thou strikest from TIME the while + Life's debt--the minutes--days--and years." + + Bulwer's translation of SCHILLER'S "Ideal." + + Beschoeftigung, die nie ermattet + Die langsam schafft, doch nie zerstoert, + Die zu dem Bau der Ewigkeiten + Zwar Sandkorn nur, fuer Sandkorn reicht, + Doch von der grossen Schuld der Zeiten + Minute, Tage, Jahre streicht. + + Die Ideale--SHILLER. + + +The strength of Chopin was not sufficient for the execution of +his intention. The occupation was too abstract, too fatiguing. He +contemplated the form of his project, he spoke of it at different +times, but its execution had become impossible. He wrote but a +few pages of it, which were destroyed with the rest. + +At last the disease augmented so visibly, that the fears of his +friends assumed the hue of despair. He scarcely ever left his +bed, and spoke but rarely. His sister, upon receiving this +intelligence, came from Warsaw to take her place at his pillow, +which she left no more. He witnessed the anguish, the +presentiments, the redoubled sadness around him, without showing +what impression they made upon him. He thought of death with +Christian calm and resignation, yet he did not cease to prepare +for the morrow. The fancy he had for changing his residence was +once more manifested, he took another lodging, disposed the +furnishing of it anew, and occupied himself in its most minute +details. As he had taken no measures to recall the orders he had +given for its arrangement, they were transporting his furniture +to the apartments he was destined never to inhabit, upon the very +day of his death! + +Did he fear that death would not fulfil his plighted promise! Did +he dread, that after having touched him with his icy hand, he +would still suffer him to linger upon earth? Did he feel that +life would be almost unendurable with its fondest ties broken, +its closest links dissevered? There is a double influence often +felt by gifted temperaments when upon the eve of some event which +is to decide their fate. The eager heart, urged on by a desire to +unravel the mystic secrets of the unknown Future, contradicts the +colder, the more timid intellect, which fears to plunge into the +uncertain abyss of the coming fate! This want of harmony between +the simultaneous previsions of the mind and heart, often causes +the firmest spirits to make assertions which their actions seem +to contradict; yet actions and assertions both flow from the +differing sources of an equal conviction. Did Chopin suffer from +this inevitable dissimilarity between the prophetic whispers of +the heart, and the thronging doubts of the questioning mind? + +From week to week, and soon from day to day, the cold shadow of +death gained upon him. His end was rapidly approaching; his +sufferings became more and more intense; his crises grew more +frequent, and at each accelerated occurrence, resembled more and +more a mortal agony. He retained his presence of mind, his vivid +will upon their intermission, until the last; neither losing the +precision of his ideas, nor the clear perception of his +intentions. The wishes which he expressed in his short moments of +respite, evinced the calm solemnity with which he contemplated +the approach of death. He desired to be buried by the side of +Bellini, with whom, during the time of Bellini's residence in +Paris, he had been intimately acquainted. The grave of Bellini is +in the cemetery of Pere LaChaise, next to that of Cherubini. The +desire of forming an acquaintance with this great master whom he +had been brought up to admire, was one of the motives which, when +he left Vienna in 1831 to go to London, induced him, without +foreseeing that his destiny would fix him there, to pass through +Paris. Chopin now sleeps between Bellini and Cherubini, men of +very dissimilar genius, and yet to both of whom he was in an +equal degree allied, as he attached as much value to the respect +he felt for the science of the one, as to the sympathy he +acknowledged for the creations of the other. Like the author of +NORMA, he was full of melodic feeling, yet he was ambitions of +attaining the harmonic depth of the learned old master; desiring +to unite, in a great and elevated style, the dreamy vagueness of +spontaneous emotion with the erudition of the most consummate +masters. + +Continuing the reserve of his manners to the very last, he did +not request to see. any one for the last time; but he evinced the +most touching gratitude to all who approached him. The first days +of October left neither doubt nor hope. The fatal moment drew +near. The next day, the next hour, could no longer be relied +upon. M. Gutman and his sister were in constant attendance upon +him, never for a single moment leaving him. The Countess Delphine +Potocka, who was then absent from Paris, returned as soon as she +was informed of his imminent danger. None of those who approached +the dying artist, could tear themselves from the spectacle of +this great and gifted soul in its hours of mortal anguish. + +However violent or frivolous the passions may be which agitate +our hearts, whatever strength or indifference may be displayed in +meeting unforeseen or sudden accidents, which would seem +necessarily overwhelming in their effects, it is impossible to +escape the impression made by the imposing majesty of a lingering +and beautiful death, which touches, softens, fascinates and +elevates even the souls the least prepared for such holy and +sublime emotions. The lingering and gradual departure of one +among us for those unknown shores, the mysterious solemnity of +his secret dreams, his commemoration of past facts and passing +ideas when still breathing upon the narrow strait which separates +time from eternity, affect us more deeply than any thing else in +this world. Sudden catastrophes, the dreadful alternations forced +upon the shuddering fragile ship, tossed like a toy by the wild +breath of the tempest; the blood of the battle-field, with the +gloomy smoke of artillery; the horrible charnel-house into which +our own habitation is converted by a contagious plague; +conflagrations which wrap whole cities in their glittering +flames; fathomless abysses which open at our feet;--remove us +less sensibly from all the fleeting attachments "which pass, +which can be broken, which cease," than the prolonged view of a +soul conscious of its own position, silently contemplating the +multiform aspects of time and the mute door of eternity! The +courage, the resignation, the elevation, the emotion, which +reconcile it with that inevitable dissolution so repugnant to all +our instincts, certainly impress the bystanders more profoundly +than the most frightful catastrophes, which, in the confusion +they create, rob the scene of its still anguish, its solemn +meditation. + +The parlor adjoining the chamber of Chopin was constantly +occupied by some of his friends, who, one by one, in turn, +approached him to receive a sign of recognition, a look of +affection, when he was no longer able to address them in words. +On Sunday, the 15th of October, his attacks were more violent and +more frequent--lasting for several hours in succession. He +endured them with patience and great strength of mind. The +Countess Delphine Potocka, who was present, was much distressed; +her tears were flowing fast when he observed her standing at the +foot of his bed, tall, slight, draped in white, resembling the +beautiful angels created by the imagination of the most devout +among the painters. Without doubt, he supposed her to be a +celestial apparition; and when the crisis left him a moment in +repose, he requested her to sing; they deemed him at first seized +with delirium, but he eagerly repeated his request. Who could +have ventured--to oppose his wish? The piano was rolled from his +parlor to the door of his chamber, while, with sobs in her voice, +and tears streaming down her cheeks, his gifted countrywoman +sang. Certainly, this delightful voice had never before attained +an expression so full of profound pathos. He seemed to suffer +less as he listened. She sang that famous Canticle to the Virgin, +which, it is said, once saved the life of Stradella. "How +beautiful it is!" he exclaimed. "My God, how very beautiful! +Again--again!" Though overwhelmed with emotion, the Countess had +the noble courage to comply with the last wish of a friend, a +compatriot; she again took a seat at the piano, and sung a hymn +from Marcello. Chopin again feeling worse, everybody was seized +with fright--by a spontaneous impulse all who were present threw +themselves upon their knees--no one ventured to speak; the sacred +silence was only broken by the voice of the Countess, floating, +like a melody from heaven, above the sighs and sobs which formed +its heavy and mournful earth-accompaniment. It was the haunted +hour of twilight; a dying light lent its mysterious shadows to +this sad scene--the sister of Chopin prostrated near his bed, +wept and prayed--and never quitted this attitude of supplication +while the life of the brother she had so cherished lasted. + +His condition altered for the worse during the night, but he felt +more tranquil upon Monday morning, and as if he had known in +advance the appointed and propitious moment, he asked to receive +immediately the last sacraments. In the absence of the Abbe * * +*, with whom he had been very intimate since their common +expatriation, he requested that the Abbe Jelowicki, one of the +most distinguished men of the Polish emigration, should be sent +for. When the holy Viaticum was administered to him, he received +it, surrounded by those who loved him, with great devotion. He +called his friends a short time afterwards, one by one, to his +bedside, to give each of them his last earnest blessing; calling +down the grace of God fervently upon themselves, their +affections, and their hopes,--every knee bent--every head bowed-- +all eyes were heavy with tears--every heart was sad and +oppressed--every soul elevated. + +Attacks more and more painful, returned and continued during the +day; from Monday night until Tuesday, he did not utter a single +word. He did not seem able to distinguish the persons who were +around him. About eleven o'clock on Tuesday evening, he appeared +to revive a little. The Abbe Jelowicki had never left him. Hardly +had he recovered the power of speech, than he requested him to +recite with him the prayers and litanies for the dying. He was +able to accompany the Abbe in an audible and intelligible voice. +From this moment until his death, he held his head constantly +supported upon the shoulder of M. Gutman, who, during the whole +course of this sickness, had devoted his days and nights to him. + +A convulsive sleep lasted until the 17th of October, 1849. The +final agony commenced about two o'clock; a cold sweat ran +profusely from his brow; after a short drowsiness, he asked, in a +voice scarcely audible: "Who is near me?" Being answered, he bent +his head to kiss the hand of M. Gutman, who still supported it-- +while giving this last tender proof of love and gratitude, the +soul of the artist left its fragile clay. He died as he had +lived--in loving. + +When the doors of the parlor were opened, his friends threw +themselves around the loved corpse, not able to suppress the gush +of tears. + +His love for flowers being well known, they were brought in such +quantities the next day, that the bed in which they had placed +them, and indeed the whole room, almost disappeared, hidden by +their varied and brilliant hues. He seemed to repose in a garden +of roses. His face regained its early beauty, its purity of +expression, its long unwonted serenity. Calmly--with his youthful +loveliness, so long dimmed by bitter suffering, restored by +death, he slept among the flowers he loved, the last long and +dreamless sleep! + +M. Clesinger reproduced the delicate traits, to which death had +rendered their early beauty, in a sketch which he immediately +modeled, and which he afterwards executed in marble for his tomb. + +The respectful admiration which Chopin felt for the genius of +Mozart, had induced him to request that his Requiem should be +performed at his obsequies; this wish was complied with. The +funeral ceremonies took place in the Madeleine Church, the 30th +of October, 1849. They had been delayed until this date, in order +that the execution of this great work should be worthy of the +master and his disciple. The principal artists in Paris were +anxious to take part in it. The FUNERAL MARCH of Chopin, arranged +for the instruments for this occasion by M. Reber, was introduced +at the Introit. At the Offertory, M. Lefebure Vely executed his +admirable PRELUDES in SI and MI MINOR upon the organ. The solos +of the REQUIEM were claimed by Madame Viardot and Madame +Castellan. Lablache, who had sung the TUBA MIRUM of this REQUIEM +at the burial of Beethoven in 1827, again sung it upon this +occasion. M. Meyerbeer, with Prince Adam Czartoryski, led the +train of mourners. The pall was borne by M. Delacroix, M. +Franchomme, M. Gutman, and Prince Alexander Czartorvski.--However +insufficient these pages may be to speak of Chopin as we would +have desired, we hope that the attraction which so justly +surrounds his name, will compensate for much that may be wanting +in them. If to these lines, consecrated to the commemoration of +his works and to all that he held dear, which the sincere esteem, +enthusiastic regard, and intense sorrow for his loss, can alone +gift with persuasive and sympathetic power, it were necessary to +add some of the thoughts awakened in every man when death robs +him of the loved contemporaries of his youth, thus breaking the +first ties linked by the confiding and deluded heart with so much +the greater pain if they were strong enough to survive that +bright period of young life, we would say that in the same--year +we have lost the two dearest friends we have known on earth. One +of them perished in the wild course of civil war. Unfortunate and +valiant hero! He fell with his burning courage unsubdued, his +intrepid calmness undisturbed, his chivalric temerity unabated, +through the endurance of the horrible tortures of a fearful +death. He was a Prince of rare intelligence, of great activity, +of eminent faculties, through whose veins the young blood +circulated with the glittering ardor of a subtle gas. By his own +indefatigable energy he had just succeeded in removing the +difficulties which obstructed his path, in creating an arena in +which his faculties might hare displayed themselves with as much +success in debates and the management of civil affairs, as they +had already done in brilliant feats in arms. The other, Chopin, +died slowly, consuming himself in the flames of his own genius. +His life, unconnected with public events, was like some fact +which has never been incorporated in a material body. The traces +of his existence are only to be found in the works which he has +left. He ended his days upon a foreign soil, which he never +considered as his country, remaining faithful in the devotion of +his affections to the eternal widowhood of his own. He was a Poet +of a mournful soul, full of reserve and complicated mystery, and +familiar with the stern face of sorrow. + +The immediate interest which we felt in the movements of the +parties to which the life of Prince Felix Lichnowsky was bound, +was broken by his death: the death of Chopin has robbed us of all +the consolations of an intelligent and comprehensive friendship. +The affectionate sympathy with our feelings, with our manner of +understanding art, of which this exclusive artist has given us so +many proofs, would have softened the disappointment and weariness +which yet await us, and have strengthened is in our earliest +tendencies, confirmed us in our first essays. + +Since it has fallen to our lot to survive them, we wish at least +to express the sincere regret we feel for their loss. We deem +ourselves bound to offer the homage of our deep and respectful +sorrow upon the grave of the remarkable musician who has just +passed from among us. Music is at present receiving such great +and general development, that it reminds us of that which took +place in painting in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Even +the artists who limited the productions of their genius to the +margins of parchments, painted their miniatures with an +inspiration so happy, that having broken through the Byzantine +stiffness, they left the most exquisite types, which the +Francias, the Peruginos, and the Raphaels to come were to +transport to their frescos, and introduce upon their canvas. + + ------- + +There have been people among whom, in order to preserve the +memory of their great men or the signal events of their history, +it was the custom to form pyramids composed of the stones which +each passer-by was expected to bring to the pile, which gradually +increased to an unlooked-for height from the anonymous +contributions of all. Monuments are still in our days erected by +an analogous proceeding, but in place of building only a rude and +unformed hillock, in consequence of a fortunate combination the +contribution of all concurs in the creation of some work of art, +which is not only destined to perpetuate the mute remembrance +which they wish to honor, but which may have the power to awaken +in future ages the feelings which gave birth to such creation, +the emotions of the contemporaries which called it into being. The +subscriptions which are opened to raise statues and noble +memorials to those who have rendered their epoch or country +illustrious, originate in this design. Immediately after the +death of Chopin, M. Camille Pleyel conceived a project of this +kind. He commenced a subscription, (which conformably to the +general expectation rapidly amounted to a considerable sum,) to +have the monument modeled by M. Clesinger, executed in marble and +placed in the Pere La-Chaise. In thinking over our long +friendship with Chopin; on the exceptional admiration which we +have always felt for him ever since his appearance in the musical +world; remembering that, artist like himself, we have been the +frequent interpreter of his inspirations, an interpreter, we may +safely venture to say, loved and chosen by himself; that we have +more frequently than others received from his own lips the spirit +of his style; that we were in some degree identified with his +creations in art, and with the feelings which he confided to it, +through that long and constant assimilation which obtains between +a writer and his translator;--we have fondly thought that these +connective circumstances imposed upon us a higher and nearer duty +than that of merely adding an unformed and anonymous stone to the +growing pyramid of homage which his contemporaries are elevating +to him. We believed that the claims of a tender friendship for +our illustrious colleague, exacted from us a more particular +expression of our profound regret, of our high admiration. It +appeared to us that we would not be true to ourselves, did we not +court the honor of inscribing our name, our deep affliction, upon +his sepulchral stone! This should be granted to those who never +hope to fill the void in their hearts left by an irreparable +loss!... + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of Life of Chopin, by Franz Liszt + diff --git a/old/lfcpn10.zip b/old/lfcpn10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9359640 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/lfcpn10.zip |