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diff --git a/old/gmbra10.txt b/old/gmbra10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bc53c76 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/gmbra10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2767 @@ +**The Project Gutenberg Etext of Gambara, by Honore de Balzac** +#76 in our series by Honore de Balzac + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnyj@hotmail.com +and John Bickers, jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz + + + + + +Gambara + +by Honore de Balzac + +Translated by Clara Bell and James Waring + + + + +DEDICATION + + To Monsieur le Marquis de Belloy + + It was sitting by the fire, in a mysterious and magnificent + retreat,--now a thing of the past but surviving in our memory,-- + whence our eyes commanded a view of Paris from the heights of + Belleville to those of Belleville, from Montmartre to the + triumphal Arc de l'Etoile, that one morning, refreshed by tea, + amid the myriad suggestions that shoot up and die like rockets + from your sparkling flow of talk, lavish of ideas, you tossed to + my pen a figure worthy of Hoffmann,--that casket of unrecognized + gems, that pilgrim seated at the gate of Paradise with ears to + hear the songs of the angels but no longer a tongue to repeat + them, playing on the ivory keys with fingers crippled by the + stress of divine inspiration, believing that he is expressing + celestial music to his bewildered listeners. + + It was you who created GAMBARA; I have only clothed him. Let me + render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, regretting only + that you do not yourself take up the pen at a time when gentlemen + ought to wield it as well as the sword, if they are to save their + country. You may neglect yourself, but you owe your talents to us. + + + + +GAMBARA + + + +New Year's Day of 1831 was pouring out its packets of sugared almonds, +four o'clock was striking, there was a mob in the Palais-Royal, and +the eating-houses were beginning to fill. At this moment a coupe drew +up at the /perron/ and a young man stepped out; a man of haughty +appearance, and no doubt a foreigner; otherwise he would not have +displayed the aristocratic /chasseur/ who attended him in a plumed +hat, nor the coat of arms which the heroes of July still attacked. + +This gentleman went into the Palais-Royal, and followed the crowd +round the galleries, unamazed at the slowness to which the throng of +loungers reduced his pace; he seemed accustomed to the stately step +which is ironically nicknamed the ambassador's strut; still, his +dignity had a touch of the theatrical. Though his features were +handsome and imposing, his hat, from beneath which thick black curls +stood out, was perhaps tilted a little too much over the right ear, +and belied his gravity by a too rakish effect. His eyes, inattentive +and half closed, looked down disdainfully on the crowd. + +"There goes a remarkably good-looking young man," said a girl in a low +voice, as she made way for him to pass. + +"And who is only too well aware of it!" replied her companion aloud-- +who was very plain. + +After walking all round the arcades, the young man looked by turns at +the sky and at his watch, and with a shrug of impatience went into a +tobacconist's shop, lighted a cigar, and placed himself in front of a +looking-glass to glance at his costume, which was rather more ornate +than the rules of French taste allow. He pulled down his collar and +his black velvet waistcoat, over which hung many festoons of the thick +gold chain that is made at Venice; then, having arranged the folds of +his cloak by a single jerk of his left shoulder, draping it gracefully +so as to show the velvet lining, he started again on parade, +indifferent to the glances of the vulgar. + +As soon as the shops were lighted up and the dusk seemed to him black +enough, he went out into the square in front of the Palais-Royal, but +as a man anxious not to be recognized; for he kept close under the +houses as far as the fountain, screened by the hackney-cab stand, till +he reached the Rue Froid-Manteau, a dirty, poky, disreputable street-- +a sort of sewer tolerated by the police close to the purified purlieus +of the Palais-Royal, as an Italian major-domo allows a careless +servant to leave the sweepings of the rooms in a corner of the +staircase. + +The young man hesitated. He might have been a bedizened citizen's wife +craning her neck over a gutter swollen by the rain. But the hour was +not unpropitious for the indulgence of some discreditable whim. +Earlier, he might have been detected; later, he might find himself cut +out. Tempted by a glance which is encouraging without being inviting, +to have followed a young and pretty woman for an hour, or perhaps for +a day, thinking of her as a divinity and excusing her light conduct by +a thousand reasons to her advantage; to have allowed oneself to +believe in a sudden and irresistible affinity; to have pictured, under +the promptings of transient excitement, a love-adventure in an age +when romances are written precisely because they never happen; to have +dreamed of balconies, guitars, stratagems, and bolts, enwrapped in +Almaviva's cloak; and, after inditing a poem in fancy, to stop at the +door of a house of ill-fame, and, crowning all, to discern in Rosina's +bashfulness a reticence imposed by the police--is not all this, I say, +an experience familiar to many a man who would not own it? + +The most natural feelings are those we are least willing to confess, +and among them is fatuity. When the lesson is carried no further, the +Parisian profits by it, or forgets it, and no great harm is done. But +this would hardly be the case with this foreigner, who was beginning +to think he might pay too dearly for his Paris education. + +This personage was a Milanese of good family, exiled from his native +country, where some "liberal" pranks had made him an object of +suspicion to the Austrian Government. Count Andrea Marcosini had been +welcomed in Paris with the cordiality, essentially French, that a man +always finds there, when he has a pleasant wit, a sounding name, two +hundred thousand francs a year, and a prepossessing person. To such a +man banishment could but be a pleasure tour; his property was simply +sequestrated, and his friends let him know that after an absence of +two years he might return to his native land without danger. + +After rhyming /crudeli affanni/ with /i miei tiranni/ in a dozen or so +of sonnets, and maintaining as many hapless Italian refugees out of +his own purse, Count Andrea, who was so unlucky as to be a poet, +thought himself released from patriotic obligations. So, ever since +his arrival, he had given himself up recklessly to the pleasures of +every kind which Paris offers /gratis/ to those who can pay for them. +His talents and his handsome person won him success among women, whom +he adored collectively as beseemed his years, but among whom he had +not as yet distinguished a chosen one. And indeed this taste was, in +him, subordinate to those for music and poetry which he had cultivated +from his childhood; and he thought success in these both more +difficult and more glorious to achieve than in affairs of gallantry, +since nature had not inflicted on him the obstacles men take most +pride in defying. + +A man, like many another, of complex nature, he was easily fascinated +by the comfort of luxury, without which he could hardly have lived; +and, in the same way, he clung to the social distinctions which his +principles contemned. Thus his theories as an artist, a thinker, and a +poet were in frequent antagonism with his tastes, his feelings, and +his habits as a man of rank and wealth; but he comforted himself for +his inconsistencies by recognizing them in many Parisians, like +himself liberal by policy and aristocrats by nature. + +Hence it was not without some uneasiness that he found himself, on +December 31, 1830, under a Paris thaw, following at the heels of a +woman whose dress betrayed the most abject, inveterate, and long- +accustomed poverty, who was no handsomer than a hundred others to be +seen any evening at the play, at the opera, in the world of fashion, +and who was certainly not so young as Madame de Manerville, from whom +he had obtained an assignation for that very day, and who was perhaps +waiting for him at that very hour. + +But in the glance at once tender and wild, swift and deep, which that +woman's black eyes had shot at him by stealth, there was such a world +of buried sorrows and promised joys! And she had colored so fiercely +when, on coming out of a shop where she had lingered a quarter of an +hour, her look frankly met the Count's, who had been waiting for her +hard by! In fact, there were so many /buts/ and /ifs/, that, possessed +by one of those mad temptations for which there is no word in any +language, not even in that of the orgy, he had set out in pursuit of +this woman, hunting her down like a hardened Parisian. + +On the way, whether he kept behind or ahead of this damsel, he studied +every detail of her person and her dress, hoping to dislodge the +insane and ridiculous fancy that had taken up an abode in his brain; +but he presently found in his examination a keener pleasure than he +had felt only the day before in gazing at the perfect shape of a woman +he loved, as she took her bath. Now and again, the unknown fair, +bending her head, gave him a look like that of a kid tethered with its +head to the ground, and finding herself still the object of his +pursuit, she hurried on as if to fly. Nevertheless, each time that a +block of carriages, or any other delay, brought Andrea to her side, he +saw her turn away from his gaze without any signs of annoyance. These +signals of restrained feelings spurred the frenzied dreams that had +run away with him, and he gave them the rein as far as the Rue Froid- +Manteau, down which, after many windings, the damsel vanished, +thinking she had thus spoilt the scent of her pursuer, who was, in +fact, startled by this move. + +It was now quite dark. Two women, tattooed with rouge, who were +drinking black-currant liqueur at a grocer's counter, saw the young +woman and called her. She paused at the door of the shop, replied in a +few soft words to the cordial greeting offered her, and went on her +way. Andrea, who was behind her, saw her turn into one of the darkest +yards out of this street, of which he did not know the name. The +repulsive appearance of the house where the heroine of his romance had +been swallowed up made him feel sick. He drew back a step to study the +neighborhood, and finding an ill-looking man at his elbow, he asked +him for information. The man, who held a knotted stick in his right +hand, placed the left on his hip and replied in a single word: + +"Scoundrel!" + +But on looking at the Italian, who stood in the light of a street- +lamp, he assumed a servile expression. + +"I beg your pardon, sir," said he, suddenly changing his tone. "There +is a restaurant near this, a sort of table-d'hote, where the cooking +is pretty bad and they serve cheese in the soup. Monsieur is in search +of the place, perhaps, for it is easy to see that he is an Italian-- +Italians are fond of velvet and of cheese. But if monsieur would like +to know of a better eating-house, an aunt of mine, who lives a few +steps off, is very fond of foreigners." + +Andrea raised his cloak as high as his moustache, and fled from the +street, spurred by the disgust he felt at this foul person, whose +clothes and manner were in harmony with the squalid house into which +the fair unknown had vanished. He returned with rapture to the +thousand luxuries of his own rooms, and spent the evening at the +Marquise d'Espard's to cleanse himself, if possible, of the smirch +left by the fancy that had driven him so relentlessly during the day. + +And yet, when he was in bed, the vision came back to him, but clearer +and brighter than the reality. The girl was walking in front of him; +now and again as she stepped across a gutter her skirts revealed a +round calf; her shapely hips swayed as she walked. Again Andrea longed +to speak to her--and he dared not, he, Marcosini, a Milanese nobleman! +Then he saw her turn into the dark passage where she had eluded him, +and blamed himself for not having followed her. + +"For, after all," said he to himself, "if she really wished to avoid +me and put me off her track, it is because she loves me. With women of +that stamp, coyness is a proof of love. Well, if I had carried the +adventure any further, it would, perhaps, have ended in disgust. I +will sleep in peace." + +The Count was in the habit of analyzing his keenest sensations, as men +do involuntarily when they have as much brains as heart, and he was +surprised when he saw the strange damsel of the Rue Froid-Manteau once +more, not in the pictured splendor of his dream but in the bare +reality of dreary fact. And, in spite of it all, if fancy had stripped +the woman of her livery of misery, it would have spoilt her for him; +for he wanted her, he longed for her, he loved her--with her muddy +stockings, her slipshod feet, her straw bonnet! He wanted her in the +very house where he had seen her go in. + +"Am I bewitched by vice, then?" he asked himself in dismay. "Nay, I +have not yet reached that point. I am but three-and-twenty, and there +is nothing of the senile fop about me." + +The very vehemence of the whim that held possession of him to some +extent reassured him. This strange struggle, these reflections, and +this love in pursuit may perhaps puzzle some persons who are +accustomed to the ways of Paris life; but they may be reminded that +Count Andrea Marcosini was not a Frenchman. + +Brought up by two abbes, who, in obedience to a very pious father, had +rarely let him out of their sight, Andrea had not fallen in love with +a cousin at the age of eleven, or seduced his mother's maid by the +time he was twelve; he had not studied at school, where a lad does not +learn only, or best, the subjects prescribed by the State; he had +lived in Paris but a few years, and he was still open to those sudden +but deep impressions against which French education and manners are so +strong a protection. In southern lands a great passion is often born +of a glance. A gentleman of Gascony who had tempered strong feelings +by much reflection had fortified himself by many little recipes +against sudden apoplexies of taste and heart, and he advised the Count +to indulge at least once a month in a wild orgy to avert those storms +of the soul which, but for such precautions, are apt to break out at +inappropriate moments. Andrea now remembered this advice. + +"Well," thought he, "I will begin to-morrow, January 1st." + + + +This explains why Count Andrea Marcosini hovered so shyly before +turning down the Rue Froid-Manteau. The man of fashion hampered the +lover, and he hesitated for some time; but after a final appeal to his +courage he went on with a firm step as far as the house, which he +recognized without difficulty. + +There he stopped once more. Was the woman really what he fancied her? +Was he not on the verge of some false move? + +At this juncture he remembered the Italian table d'hote, and at once +jumped at the middle course, which would serve the ends alike of his +curiosity and of his reputation. He went in to dine, and made his way +down the passage; at the bottom, after feeling about for some time, he +found a staircase with damp, slippery steps, such as to an Italian +nobleman could only seem a ladder. + +Invited to the first floor by the glimmer of a lamp and a strong smell +of cooking, he pushed a door which stood ajar and saw a room dingy +with dirt and smoke, where a wench was busy laying a table for about +twenty customers. None of the guests had yet arrived. + +After looking round the dimly lighted room where the paper was +dropping in rags from the walls, the gentleman seated himself by a +stove which was roaring and smoking in the corner. + +Attracted by the noise the Count made in coming in and disposing of +his cloak, the major-domo presently appeared. Picture to yourself a +lean, dried-up cook, very tall, with a nose of extravagant dimensions, +casting about him from time to time, with feverish keenness, a glance +that he meant to be cautious. On seeing Andrea, whose attire bespoke +considerable affluence, Signor Giardini bowed respectfully. + +The Count expressed his intention of taking his meals as a rule in the +society of some of his fellow-countrymen; he paid in advance for a +certain number of tickets, and ingenuously gave the conversation a +familiar bent to enable him to achieve his purpose quickly. + +Hardly had he mentioned the woman he was seeking when Signor Giardini, +with a grotesque shrug, looked knowingly at his customer, a bland +smile on his lips. + +"/Basta/!" he exclaimed. "/Capisco/. Your Excellency has come spurred +by two appetites. La Signora Gambara will not have wasted her time if +she has gained the interest of a gentleman so generous as you appear +to be. I can tell you in a few words all we know of the woman, who is +really to be pitied. + +"The husband is, I believe, a native of Cremona and has just come here +from Germany. He was hoping to get the Tedeschi to try some new music +and some new instruments. Isn't it pitiable?" said Giardini, shrugging +his shoulders. "Signor Gambara, who thinks himself a great composer, +does not seem to me very clever in other ways. An excellent fellow +with some sense and wit, and sometimes very agreeable, especially when +he has had a few glasses of wine--which does not often happen, for he +is desperately poor; night and day he toils at imaginary symphonies +and operas instead of trying to earn an honest living. His poor wife +is reduced to working for all sorts of people--the women on the +streets! What is to be said? She loves her husband like a father, and +takes care of him like a child. + +"Many a young man has dined here to pay his court to madame; but not +one has succeeded," said he, emphasizing the word. "La Signora +Marianna is an honest woman, monsieur, much too honest, worse luck for +her! Men give nothing for nothing nowadays. So the poor soul will die +in harness. + +"And do you suppose that her husband rewards her for her devotion? +Pooh, my lord never gives her a smile! And all their cooking is done +at the baker's; for not only does the wretched man never earn a sou; +he spends all his wife can make on instruments which he carves, and +lengthens, and shortens, and sets up and takes to pieces again till +they produce sounds that will scare a cat; then he is happy. And yet +you will find him the mildest, the gentlest of men. And, he is not +idle; he is always at it. What is to be said? He is crazy and does not +know his business. I have seen him, monsieur, filing and forging his +instruments and eating black bread with an appetite that I envied him +--I, who have the best table in Paris. + +"Yes, Excellenza, in a quarter of an hour you shall know the man I am. +I have introduced certain refinements into Italian cookery that will +amaze you! Excellenza, I am a Neapolitan--that is to say, a born cook. +But of what use is instinct without knowledge? Knowledge! I have spent +thirty years in acquiring it, and you see where it has left me. My +history is that of every man of talent. My attempts, my experiments, +have ruined three restaurants in succession at Naples, Parma, and +Rome. To this day, when I am reduced to make a trade of my art, I more +often than not give way to my ruling passion. I give these poor +refugees some of my choicest dishes. I ruin myself! Folly! you will +say? I know it; but how can I help it? Genius carries me away, and I +cannot resist concocting a dish which smiles on my fancy. + +"And they always know it, the rascals! They know, I can promise you, +whether I or my wife has stood over the fire. And what is the +consequence? Of sixty-odd customers whom I used to see at my table +every day when I first started in this wretched place, I now see +twenty on an average, and give them credit for the most part. The +Piedmontese, the Savoyards, have deserted, but the connoisseurs, the +true Italians, remain. And there is no sacrifice that I would not make +for them. I often give them a dinner for five and twenty sous which +has cost me double." + +Signore Giardini's speech had such a full flavor of Neapolitan cunning +that the Count was delighted, and could have fancied himself at +Gerolamo's. + +"Since that is the case, my good friend," said he familiarly to the +cook, "and since chance and your confidence have let me into the +secret of your daily sacrifices, allow me to pay double." + +As he spoke Andrea spun a forty-franc piece on the stove, out of which +Giardini solemnly gave him two francs and fifty centimes in change, +not without a certain ceremonious mystery that amused him hugely. + +"In a few minutes now," the man added, "you will see your /donnina/. I +will seat you next the husband, and if you wish to stand in his good +graces, talk about music. I have invited every one for the evening, +poor things. Being New Year's Day, I am treating the company to a dish +in which I believe I have surpassed myself." + +Signor Giardini's voice was drowned by the noisy greetings of the +guests, who streamed in two and two, or one at a time, after the +manner of tables-d'hote. Giardini stayed by the Count, playing the +showman by telling him who the company were. He tried by his +witticisms to bring a smile to the lips of a man who, as his +Neapolitan instinct told him, might be a wealthy patron to turn to +good account. + +"This one," said he, "is a poor composer who would like to rise from +song-writing to opera, and cannot. He blames the managers, music- +sellers,--everybody, in fact, but himself, and he has no worse enemy. +You can see--what a florid complexion, what self-conceit, how little +firmness in his features! he is made to write ballads. The man who is +with him and looks like a match-hawker, is a great music celebrity-- +Gigelmi, the greatest Italian conductor known; but he has gone deaf, +and is ending his days in penury, deprived of all that made it +tolerable. Ah! here comes our great Ottoboni, the most guileless old +fellow on earth; but he is suspected of being the most vindictive of +all who are plotting for the regeneration of Italy. I cannot think how +they can bear to banish such a good man." + +And here Giardini looked narrowly at the Count, who, feeling himself +under inquisition as to his politics, entrenched himself in Italian +impassibility. + +"A man whose business it is to cook for all comers can have no +political opinions, Excellenza," Giardini went on. "But to see that +worthy man, who looks more like a lamb than a lion, everybody would +say what I say, were it before the Austrian ambassador himself. +Besides, in these times liberty is no longer proscribed; it is going +its rounds again. At least, so these good people think," said he, +leaning over to speak in the Count's ear, "and why should I thwart +their hopes? I, for my part, do not hate an absolute government. +Excellenza, every man of talent is for depotism! + +"Well, though full of genius, Ottoboni takes no end of pains to +educate Italy; he writes little books to enlighten the intelligence of +the children and the common people, and he smuggles them very cleverly +into Italy. He takes immense trouble to reform the moral sense of our +luckless country, which, after all, prefers pleasure to freedom,--and +perhaps it is right." + +The Count preserved such an impenetrable attitude that the cook could +discover nothing of his political views. + +"Ottoboni," he ran on, "is a saint; very kind-hearted; all the +refugees are fond of him; for, Excellenza, a liberal may have his +virtues. Oho! Here comes a journalist," said Giardini, as a man came +in dressed in the absurd way which used to be attributed to a poet in +a garret; his coat was threadbare, his boots split, his hat shiny, and +his overcoat deplorably ancient. "Excellenza, that poor man is full of +talent, and incorruptibly honest. He was born into the wrong times, +for he tells the truth to everybody; no one can endure him. He writes +theatrical articles for two small papers, though he is clever enough +to work for the great dailies. Poor fellow! + +"The rest are not worth mentioning, and Your Excellency will find them +out," he concluded, seeing that on the entrance of the musician's wife +the Count had ceased to listen to him. + + + +On seeing Andrea here, Signora Marianna started visibly and a bright +flush tinged her cheeks. + +"Here he is!" said Giardini, in an undertone, clutching the Count's +arm and nodding to a tall man. "How pale and grave he is poor man! His +hobby has not trotted to his mind to-day, I fancy." + +Andrea's prepossession for Marianna was crossed by the captivating +charm which Gambara could not fail to exert over every genuine artist. +The composer was now forty; but although his high brow was bald and +lined with a few parallel, but not deep, wrinkles; in spite, too, of +hollow temples where the blue veins showed through the smooth, +transparent skin, and of the deep sockets in which his black eyes were +sunk, with their large lids and light lashes, the lower part of his +face made him still look young, so calm was its outline, so soft the +modeling. It could be seen at a glance that in this man passion had +been curbed to the advantage of the intellect; that the brain alone +had grown old in some great struggle. + +Andrea shot a swift look at Marianna, who was watching him. And he +noted the beautiful Italian head, the exquisite proportion and rich +coloring that revealed one of those organizations in which every human +power is harmoniously balanced, he sounded the gulf that divided this +couple, brought together by fate. Well content with the promise he +inferred from this dissimilarity between the husband and wife, he made +no attempt to control a liking which ought to have raised a barrier +between the fair Marianna and himself. He was already conscious of +feeling a sort of respectful pity for this man, whose only joy she +was, as he understood the dignified and serene acceptance of ill +fortune that was expressed in Gambara's mild and melancholy gaze. + +After expecting to see one of the grotesque figures so often set +before us by German novelists and writers of /libretti/, he beheld a +simple, unpretentious man, whose manners and demeanor were in nothing +strange and did not lack dignity. Without the faintest trace of +luxury, his dress was more decent than might have been expected from +his extreme poverty, and his linen bore witness to the tender care +which watched over every detail of his existence. Andrea looked at +Marianna with moistened eyes; and she did not color, but half smiled, +in a way that betrayed, perhaps, some pride at this speechless homage. +The Count, too thoroughly fascinated to miss the smallest indication +of complaisance, fancied that she must love him, since she understood +him so well. + +From this moment he set himself to conquer the husband rather than the +wife, turning all his batteries against the poor Gambara, who quite +guilelessly went on eating Signor Giardini's /bocconi/, without +thinking of their flavor. + +The Count opened the conversation on some trivial subject, but at the +first words he perceived that this brain, supposed to be infatuated on +one point, was remarkably clear on all others, and saw that it would +be far more important to enter into this very clever man's ideas than +to flatter his conceits. + +The rest of the company, a hungry crew whose brain only responded to +the sight of a more or less good meal, showed much animosity to the +luckless Gambara, and waited only till the end of the first course, to +give free vent to their satire. A refugee, whose frequent leer +betrayed ambitious schemes on Marianna, and who fancied he could +establish himself in her good graces by trying to make her husband +ridiculous, opened fire to show the newcomer how the land lay at the +table-d'hote. + +"It is a very long time since we have heard anything about the opera +on 'Mahomet'!" cried he, with a smile at Marianna. "Can it be that +Paolo Gambara, wholly given up to domestic cares, absorbed by the +charms of the chimney-corner, is neglecting his superhuman genius, +leaving his talents to get cold and his imagination to go flat?" + +Gambara knew all the company; he dwelt in a sphere so far above them +all that he no longer cared to repel an attack. He made no reply. + +"It is not given to everybody," said the journalist, "to have an +intellect that can understand Monsieur Gambara's musical efforts, and +that, no doubt, is why our divine maestro hesitates to come before the +worthy Parisian public." + +"And yet," said the ballad-monger, who had not opened his mouth but to +swallow everything that came within his reach, "I know some men of +talent who think highly of the judgments of Parisian critics. I myself +have a pretty reputation as a musician," he went on, with an air of +diffidence. "I owe it solely to my little songs in /vaudevilles/, and +the success of my dance music in drawing-rooms; but I propose ere long +to bring out a mass composed for the anniversary of Beethoven's death, +and I expect to be better appreciated in Paris than anywhere else. You +will perhaps do me the honor of hearing it?" he said, turning to +Andrea. + +"Thank you," said the Count. "But I do not conceive that I am gifted +with the organs needful for the appreciation of French music. If you +were dead, monsieur, and Beethoven had composed the mass, I would not +have failed to attend the performance." + +This retort put an end to the tactics of those who wanted to set +Gambara off on his high horse to amuse the new guest. Andrea was +already conscious of an unwillingness to expose so noble and pathetic +a mania as a spectacle for so much vulgar shrewdness. It was with no +base reservation that he kept up a desultory conversation, in the +course of which Signor Giardini's nose not infrequently interposed +between two remarks. Whenever Gambara uttered some elegant repartee or +some paradoxical aphorism, the cook put his head forward, to glance +with pity at the musician and with meaning at the Count, muttering in +his ear, "/E matto/!" + +Then came a moment when the /chef/ interrupted the flow of his +judicial observations to devote himself to the second course, which he +considered highly important. During his absence, which was brief, +Gambara leaned across to address Andrea. + +"Our worthy host," said he, in an undertone, "threatens to regale us +to-day with a dish of his own concocting, which I recommend you to +avoid, though his wife has had an eye on him. The good man has a mania +for innovations. He ruined himself by experiments, the last of which +compelled him to fly from Rome without a passport--a circumstance he +does not talk about. After purchasing the good-will of a popular +restaurant he was trusted to prepare a banquet given by a lately made +Cardinal, whose household was not yet complete. Giardini fancied he +had an opportunity for distinguishing himself--and he succeeded! for +that same evening he was accused of trying to poison the whole +conclave, and was obliged to leave Rome and Italy without waiting to +pack up. This disaster was the last straw. Now," and Gambara put his +finger to his forehead and shook his head. + +"He is a good fellow, all the same," he added. "My wife will tell you +that we owe him many a good turn." + +Giardini now came in carefully bearing a dish which he set in the +middle of the table, and he then modestly resumed his seat next to +Andrea, whom he served first. As soon as he had tasted the mess, the +Count felt that an impassable gulf divided the second mouthful from +the first. He was much embarrassed, and very anxious not to annoy the +cook, who was watching him narrowly. Though a French /restaurateur/ +may care little about seeing a dish scorned if he is sure of being +paid for it, it is not so with an Italian, who is not often satiated +with praises. + +To gain time, Andrea complimented Giardini enthusiastically, but he +leaned over to whisper in his ear, and slipping a gold piece into his +hand under the table, begged him to go out and buy a few bottles of +champagne, leaving him free to take all the credit of the treat. + +When the Italian returned, every plate was cleared, and the room rang +with praises of the master-cook. The champagne soon mounted these +southern brains, and the conversation, till now subdued in the +stranger's presence, overleaped the limits of suspicious reserve to +wander far over the wide fields of political and artistic opinions. + +Andrea, to whom no form of intoxication was known but those of love +and poetry, had soon gained the attention of the company and skilfully +led it to a discussion of matters musical. + +"Will you tell me, monsieur," said he to the composer of dance-music, +"how it is that the Napoleon of these tunes can condescend to usurp +the place of Palestrina, Pergolesi, and Mozart,--poor creatures who +must pack and vanish at the advent of that tremendous Mass for the +Dead?" + +"Well, monsieur," replied the composer, "a musician always finds it +difficult to reply when the answer needs the cooperation of a hundred +skilled executants. Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven, without an orchestra +would be of no great account." + +"Of no great account!" said Marcosini. "Why, all the world knows that +the immortal author of /Don Giovanni/ and the /Requiem/ was named +Mozart; and I am so unhappy as not to know the name of the +inexhaustible writer of quadrilles which are so popular in our +drawing-rooms----" + +"Music exists independently of execution," said the retired conductor, +who, in spite of his deafness, had caught a few words of the +conversation. "As he looks through the C-minor symphony by Beethoven, +a musician is transported to the world of fancy on the golden wings of +the subject in G-natural repeated by the horns in E. He sees a whole +realm, by turns glorious in dazzling shafts of light, gloomy under +clouds of melancholy, and cheered by heavenly strains." + +"The new school has left Beethoven far behind," said the ballad- +writer, scornfully. + +"Beethoven is not yet understood," said the Count. "How can he be +excelled?" + +Gambara drank a large glass of champagne, accompanying the draught by +a covert smile of approval. + +"Beethoven," the Count went on, "extended the limits of instrumental +music, and no one followed in his track." + +Gambara assented with a nod. + +"His work is especially noteworthy for simplicity of construction and +for the way the scheme is worked out," the Count went on. "Most +composers make use of the orchestral parts in a vague, incoherent way, +combining them for a merely temporary effect; they do not persistently +contribute to the whole mass of the movement by their steady and +regular progress. Beethoven assigns its part to each tone-quality from +the first. Like the various companies which, by their disciplined +movements, contribute to winning a battle, the orchestral parts of a +symphony by Beethoven obey the plan ordered for the interest of all, +and are subordinate to an admirably conceived scheme. + +"In this he may be compared to a genius of a different type. In Walter +Scott's splendid historical novels, some personage, who seems to have +least to do with the action of the story, intervenes at a given moment +and leads up to the climax by some thread woven into the plot." + +"/E vero/!" remarked Gambara, to whom common sense seemed to return in +inverse proportion to sobriety. + +Andrea, eager to carry the test further, for a moment forgot all his +predilections; he proceeded to attack the European fame of Rossini, +disputing the position which the Italian school has taken by storm, +night after night for more than thirty years, on a hundred stages in +Europe. He had undertaken a hard task. The first words he spoke raised +a strong murmur of disapproval; but neither the repeated +interruptions, nor exclamations, nor frowns, nor contemptuous looks, +could check this determined advocate of Beethoven. + +"Compare," said he, "that sublime composer's works with what by common +consent is called Italian music. What feebleness of ideas, what +limpness of style! That monotony of form, those commonplace cadenzas, +those endless bravura passages introduced at haphazard irrespective of +the dramatic situation, that recurrent /crescendo/ that Rossini +brought into vogue, are now an integral part of every composition; +those vocal fireworks result in a sort of babbling, chattering, +vaporous mucic, of which the sole merit depends on the greater or less +fluency of the singer and his rapidity of vocalization. + +"The Italian school has lost sight of the high mission of art. Instead +of elevating the crowd, it has condescended to the crowd; it has won +its success only by accepting the suffrages of all comers, and +appealing to the vulgar minds which constitute the majority. Such a +success is mere street juggling. + +"In short, the compositions of Rossini, in whom this music is +personified, with those of the writers who are more or less of his +school, to me seem worthy at best to collect a crowd in the street +round a grinding organ, as an accompaniment to the capers of a puppet +show. I even prefer French music, and I can say no more. Long live +German music!" cried he, "when it is tuneful," he added to a low +voice. + +This sally was the upshot of a long preliminary discussion, in which, +for more than a quarter of an hour, Andrea had divagated in the upper +sphere of metaphysics, with the ease of a somnambulist walking over +the roofs. + +Gambara, keenly interested in all this transcendentalism, had not lost +a word; he took up his parable as soon as Andrea seemed to have ended, +and a little stir of revived attention was evident among the guests, +of whom several had been about to leave. + +"You attack the Italian school with much vigor," said Gambara, +somewhat warmed to his work by the champagne, "and, for my part, you +are very welcome. I, thank God, stand outside this more or less +melodic frippery. Still, as a man of the world, you are too ungrateful +to the classic land whence Germany and France derived their first +teaching. While the compositions of Carissimi, Cavalli, Scarlatti, and +Rossi were being played throughout Italy, the violin players of the +Paris opera house enjoyed the singular privilege of being allowed to +play in gloves. Lulli, who extended the realm of harmony, and was the +first to classify discords, on arriving in France found but two men--a +cook and a mason--whose voice and intelligence were equal to +performing his music; he made a tenor of the former, and transformed +the latter into a bass. At that time Germany had no musician excepting +Sebastian Bach.--But you, monsieur, though you are so young," Gambara +added, in the humble tone of a man who expects to find his remarks +received with scorn or ill-nature, "must have given much time to the +study of these high matters of art; you could not otherwise explain +them so clearly." + +This word made many of the hearers smile, for they had understood +nothing of the fine distinctions drawn by Andrea. Giardini, indeed, +convinced that the Count had been talking mere rhodomontade, nudged +him with a laugh in his sleeve, as at a good joke in which he +flattered himself that he was a partner. + +"There is a great deal that strikes me as very true in all you have +said," Gambara went on; "but be careful. Your argument, while +reflecting on Italian sensuality, seems to me to lean towards German +idealism, which is no less fatal heresy. If men of imagination and +good sense, like you, desert one camp only to join the other; if they +cannot keep to the happy medium between two forms of extravagance, we +shall always be exposed to the satire of the sophists, who deny all +progress, who compare the genius of man to this tablecloth, which, +being too short to cover the whole of Signor Giardini's table, decks +one end at the expense of the other." + +Giardini bounded in his seat as if he had been stung by a horse-fly, +but swift reflections restored him to his dignity as a host; he looked +up to heaven and again nudged the Count, who was beginning to think +the cook more crazy than Gambara. + +This serious and pious way of speaking of art interested the Milanese +extremely. Seated between these two distracted brains, one so noble +and the other so common, and making game of each other to the great +entertainment of the crowd, there was a moment when the Count found +himself wavering between the sublime and its parody, the farcical +extremes of human life. Ignoring the chain of incredible events which +had brought them to this smoky den, he believed himself to be the +plaything of some strange hallucination, and thought of Gambara and +Giardini as two abstractions. + +Meanwhile, after a last piece of buffoonery from the deaf conductor in +reply to Gambara, the company had broken up laughing loudly. Giardini +went off to make coffee, which he begged the select few to accept, and +his wife cleared the table. The Count, sitting near the stove between +Marianna and Gambara, was in the very position which the mad musician +thought most desirable, with sensuousness on one side and idealism on +the other. Gambara finding himself for the first time in the society +of a man who did not laugh at him to his face, soon diverged from +generalities to talk of himself, of his life, his work, and the +musical regeneration of which he believed himself to be the Messiah. + +"Listen," said he, "you who so far have not insulted me. I will tell +you the story of my life; not to make a boast of my perseverance, +which is no virtue of mine, but to the greater glory of Him who has +given me strength. You seem kind and pious; if you do not believe in +me at least you will pity me. Pity is human; faith comes from God." + +Andrea turned and drew back under his chair the foot that had been +seeking that of the fair Marianna, fixing his eyes on her while +listening to Gambara. + + + +"I was born at Cremona, the son of an instrument maker, a fairly good +performer and an even better composer," the musician began. "Thus at +an early age I had mastered the laws of musical construction in its +twofold aspects, the material and the spiritual; and as an inquisitive +child I observed many things which subsequently recurred to the mind +of the full-grown man. + +"The French turned us out of our own home--my father and me. We were +ruined by the war. Thus, at the age of ten I entered on the wandering +life to which most men have been condemned whose brains were busy with +innovations, whether in art, science, or politics. Fate, or the +instincts of their mind which cannot fit into the compartments where +the trading class sit, providentially guides them to the spots where +they may find teaching. Led by my passion for music I wandered +throughout Italy from theatre to theatre, living on very little, as +men can live there. Sometimes I played the bass in an orchestra, +sometimes I was on the boards in the chorus, sometimes under them with +the carpenters. Thus I learned every kind of musical effect, studying +the tones of instruments and of the human voice, wherein they differed +and how they harmonized, listening to the score and applying the rules +taught me by my father. + +"It was hungry work, in a land where the sun always shines, where art +is all pervading, but where there is no pay for the artist, since Rome +is but nominally the Sovereign of the Christian world. Sometimes made +welcome, sometimes scouted for my poverty, I never lost courage. I +heard a voice within me promising me fame. + +"Music seemed to me in its infancy, and I think so still. All that is +left to us of musical effort before the seventeenth century, proves to +me that early musicians knew melody only; they were ignorant of +harmony and its immense resources. Music is at once a science and an +art. It is rooted in physics and mathematics, hence it is a science; +inspiration makes it an art, unconsciously utilizing the theorems of +science. It is founded in physics by the very nature of the matter it +works on. Sound is air in motion. The air is formed of constituents +which, in us, no doubt, meet with analogous elements that respond to +them, sympathize, and magnify them by the power of the mind. Thus the +air must include a vast variety of molecules of various degrees of +elasticity, and capable of vibrating in as many different periods as +there are tones from all kinds of sonorous bodies; and these +molecules, set in motion by the musician and falling on our ear, +answer to our ideas, according to each man's temperament. I myself +believe that sound is identical in its nature with light. Sound is +light, perceived under another form; each acts through vibrations to +which man is sensitive and which he transforms, in the nervous +centres, into ideas. + +"Music, like painting, makes use of materials which have the property +of liberating this or that property from the surrounding medium and so +suggesting an image. The instruments in music perform this part, as +color does in painting. And whereas each sound produced by a sonorous +body is invariably allied with its major third and fifth, whereas it +acts on grains of fine sand lying on stretched parchment so as to +distribute them in geometrical figures that are always the same, +according to the pitch,--quite regular when the combination is a true +chord, and indefinite when the sounds are dissonant,--I say that music +is an art conceived in the very bowels of nature. + +"Music is subject to physical and mathematical laws. Physical laws are +but little known, mathematics are well understood; and it is since +their relations have been studied, that the harmony has been created +to which we owe the works of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Rossini, +grand geniuses, whose music is undoubtedly nearer to perfection than +that of their precursors, though their genius, too, is unquestionable. +The old masters could sing, but they had not art and science at their +command,--a noble alliance which enables us to merge into one the +finest melody and the power of harmony. + +"Now, if a knowledge of mathematical laws gave us these four great +musicians, what may we not attain to if we can discover the physical +laws in virtue of which--grasp this clearly--we may collect, in larger +or smaller quantities, according to the proportions we may require, an +ethereal substance diffused in the atmosphere which is the medium +alike of music and of light, of the phenomena of vegetation and of +animal life! Do you follow me? Those new laws would arm the composer +with new powers by supplying him with instruments superior of those +now in use, and perhaps with a potency of harmony immense as compared +with that now at his command. If every modified shade of sound answers +to a force, that must be known to enable us to combine all these +forces in accordance with their true laws. + +"Composers work with substances of which they know nothing. Why should +a brass and a wooden instrument--a bassoon and horn--have so little +identity of tone, when they act on the same matter, the constituent +gases of the air? Their differences proceed from some displacement of +those constituents, from the way they act on the elements which are +their affinity and which they return, modified by some occult and +unknown process. If we knew what the process was, science and art +would both be gainers. Whatever extends science enhances art. + +"Well, these are the discoveries I have guessed and made. Yes," said +Gambara, with increasing vehemence, "hitherto men have noted effects +rather than causes. If they could but master the causes, music would +be the greatest of the arts. Is it not the one which strikes deepest +to the soul? You see in painting no more than it shows you; in poetry +you have only what the poet says; music goes far beyond this. Does it +not form your taste, and rouse dormant memories? In a concert-room +there may be a thousand souls; a strain is flung out from Pasta's +throat, the execution worthily answering to the ideas that flashed +through Rossini's mind as he wrote the air. That phrase of Rossini's, +transmitted to those attentive souls, is worked out in so many +different poems. To one it presents a woman long dreamed of; to +another, some distant shore where he wandered long ago. It rises up +before him with its drooping willows, its clear waters, and the hopes +that then played under its leafy arbors. One woman is reminded of the +myriad feelings that tortured her during an hour of jealousy, while +another thinks of the unsatisfied cravings of her heart, and paints in +the glowing hues of a dream an ideal lover, to whom she abandons +herself with the rapture of the woman in the Roman mosaic who embraces +a chimera; yet a third is thinking that this very evening some hoped- +for joy is to be hers, and rushes by anticipation into the tide of +happiness, its dashing waves breaking against her burning bosom. Music +alone has this power of throwing us back on ourselves; the other arts +give us infinite pleasure. But I am digressing. + +"These were my first ideas, vague indeed; for an inventor at the +beginning only catches glimpses of the dawn, as it were. So I kept +these glorious ideas at the bottom of my knapsack, and they gave me +spirit to eat the dry crust I often dipped in the water of a spring. I +worked, I composed airs, and, after playing them on any instrument +that came to hand, I went off again on foot across Italy. Finally, at +the age of two-and-twenty, I settled in Venice, where for the first +time I enjoyed rest and found myself in a decent position. I there +made the acquaintance of a Venetian nobleman who liked my ideas, who +encouraged me in my investigations, and who got me employment at the +Venice theatre. + +"Living was cheap, lodging inexpensive. I had a room in that Capello +palace from which the famous Bianca came forth one evening to become a +Grand Duchess of Tuscany. And I would dream that my unrecognized fame +would also emerge from thence one day to be crowned. + +"I spent my evenings at the theatre and my days in work. Then came +disaster. The performance of an opera in which I had experimented, +trying my music, was a failure. No one understood my score for the +/Martiri/. Set Beethoven before the Italians and they are out of their +depth. No one had patience enough to wait for the effect to be +produced by the different motives given out by each instrument, which +were all at last to combine in a grand /ensemble/. + +"I had built some hopes on the success of the /Martiri/, for we +votaries of the blue divinity Hope always discount results. When a man +believes himself destined to do great things, it is hard not to fancy +them achieved; the bushel always has some cracks through which the +light shines. + +"My wife's family lodged in the same house, and the hope of winning +Marianna, who often smiled at me from her window, had done much to +encourage my efforts. I now fell into the deepest melancholy as I +sounded the depths of a life of poverty, a perpetual struggle in which +love must die. Marianna acted as genius does; she jumped across every +obstacle, both feet at once. I will not speak of the little happiness +which shed its gilding on the beginning of my misfortunes. Dismayed at +my failure, I decided that Italy was not intelligent enough and too +much sunk in the dull round of routine to accept the innovations I +conceived of; so I thought of going to Germany. + +"I traveled thither by way of Hungary, listening to the myriad voices +of nature, and trying to reproduce that sublime harmony by the help of +instruments which I constructed or altered for the purpose. These +experiments involved me in vast expenses which had soon exhausted my +savings. And yet those were our golden days. In Germany I was +appreciated. There has been nothing in my life more glorious than that +time. I can think of nothing to compare with the vehement joys I found +by the side of Marianna, whose beauty was then of really heavenly +radiance and splendor. In short, I was happy. + +"During that period of weakness I more than once expressed my passion +in the language of earthly harmony. I even wrote some of those airs, +just like geometrical patterns, which are so much admired in the world +of fashion that you move in. But as soon as I made a little way I met +with insuperable obstacles raised by my rivals, all hypercritical or +unappreciative. + +"I had heard of France as being a country where novelties were +favorably received, and I wanted to get there; my wife had a little +money and we came to Paris. Till then no one had actually laughed in +my face; but in this dreadful city I had to endure that new form of +torture, to which abject poverty ere long added its bitter sufferings. +Reduced to lodging in this mephitic quarter, for many months we have +lived exclusively on Marianna's sewing, she having found employment +for her needle in working for the unhappy prostitutes who make this +street their hunting ground. Marianna assures me that among those poor +creatures she has met with such consideration and generosity as I, for +my part, ascribe to the ascendency of virtue so pure that even vice is +compelled to respect it." + +"Hope on," said Andrea. "Perhaps you have reached the end of your +trials. And while waiting for the time when my endeavor, seconding +yours, shall set your labors in a true light, allow me, as a fellow- +countryman and an artist like yourself, to offer you some little +advances on the undoubted success of your score." + +"All that has to do with matters of material existence I leave to my +wife," replied Gambara. "She will decide as to what we may accept +without a blush from so thorough a gentleman as you seem to be. For my +part,--and it is long since I have allowed myself to indulge such full +confidences,--I must now ask you to allow me to leave you. I see a +melody beckoning to me, dancing and floating before me, bare and +quivering, like a girl entreating her lover for her clothes which he +has hidden. Good-night. I must go and dress my mistress. My wife I +leave with you." + +He hurried away, as a man who blames himself for the loss of valuable +time; and Marianna, somewhat embarrassed, prepared to follow him. + +Andrea dared not detain her. + +Giardini came to the rescue. + +"But you heard, signora," said he. "Your husband has left you to +settle some little matters with the Signor Conte." + +Marianna sat down again, but without raising her eyes to Andrea, who +hesitated before speaking. + +"And will not Signor Gambara's confidence entitle me to his wife's?" +he said in agitated tones. "Can the fair Marianna refuse to tell me +the story of her life?" + +"My life!" said Marianna. "It is the life of the ivy. If you wish to +know the story of my heart, you must suppose me equally destitute of +pride and of modesty if you can ask me to tell it after what you have +just heard." + +"Of whom, then, can I ask it?" cried the Count, in whom passion was +blinding his wits. + +"Of yourself," replied Marianna. "Either you understand me by this +time, or you never will. Try to ask yourself." + +"I will, but you must listen. And this hand, which I am holding, is to +lie in mine as long as my narrative is truthful." + +"I am listening," said Marianna. + +"A woman's life begins with her first passion," said Andrea. "And my +dear Marianna began to live only on the day when she first saw Paolo +Gambara. She needed some deep passion to feed upon, and, above all, +some interesting weakness to shelter and uphold. The beautiful woman's +nature with which she is endowed is perhaps not so truly passion as +maternal love. + +"You sigh, Marianna? I have touched one of the aching wounds in your +heart. It was a noble part for you to play, so young as you were,-- +that of protectress to a noble but wandering intellect. You said to +yourself: 'Paolo will be my genius; I shall be his common sense; +between us we shall be that almost divine being called an angel,--the +sublime creature that enjoys and understands, reason never stifling +love.' + +"And then, in the first impetus of youth, you heard the thousand +voices of nature which the poet longed to reproduce. Enthusiasm +clutched you when Paolo spread before you the treasures of poetry, +while seeking to embody them in the sublime but restricted language of +music; you admired him when delirious rapture carried him up and away +from you, for you liked to believe that all this devious energy would +at last come down and alight as love. But you knew not the tyrannous +and jealous despotism of the ideal over the minds that fall in love +with it. Gambara, before meeting you, had given himself over to the +haughty and overbearing mistress, with whom you have struggled for him +to this day. + +"Once, for an instant, you had a vision of happiness. Paolo, tumbling +from the lofty sphere where his spirit was constantly soaring, was +amazed to find reality so sweet; you fancied that his madness would be +lulled in the arms of love. But before long Music again clutched her +prey. The dazzling mirage which had cheated you into the joys of +reciprocal love made the lonely path on which you had started look +more desolate and barren. + +"In the tale your husband has just told me, I could read, as plainly +as in the contrast between your looks and his, all the painful secrets +of that ill-assorted union, in which you have accepted the sufferer's +part. Though your conduct has been unfailingly heroical, though your +firmness has never once given way in the exercise of your painful +duties, perhaps, in the silence of lonely nights, the heart that at +this moment is beating so wildly in your breast, may, from time to +time, have rebelled. Your husband's superiority was in itself your +worst torment. If he had been less noble, less single-minded, you +might have deserted him; but his virtues upheld yours; you wondered, +perhaps, whether his heroism or your own would be the first to give +way. + +"You clung to your really magnanimous task as Paolo clung to his +chimera. If you had had nothing but a devotion to duty to guide and +sustain you, triumph might have seemed easier; you would only have had +to crush your heart, and transfer your life into the world of +abstractions; religion would have absorbed all else, and you would +have lived for an idea, like those saintly women who kill all the +instincts of nature at the foot of the altar. But the all-pervading +charm of Paolo, the loftiness of his mind, his rare and touching +proofs of tenderness, constantly drag you down from that ideal realm +where virtue would fain maintain you; they perennially revive in you +the energies you have exhausted in contending with the phantom of +love. You never suspected this! The faintest glimmer of hope led you +on in pursuit of the sweet vision. + +"At last the disappointments of many years have undermined your +patience,--an angel would have lost it long since,--and now the +apparition so long pursued is no more than a shade without substance. +Madness that is so nearly allied to genius can know no cure in this +world. When this thought first struck you, you looked back on your +past youth, sacrificed, if not wasted; you then bitterly discerned the +blunder of nature that had given you a father when you looked for a +husband. You asked yourself whether you had not gone beyond the duty +of a wife in keeping yourself wholly for a man who was bound up in his +science. Marianna, leave your hand in mine; all I have said is true. +And you looked about you--but now you were in Paris, not in Italy, +where men know how to love----" + +"Oh! Let me finish the tale," cried Marianna. "I would rather say +things myself. I will be honest; I feel that I am speaking to my +truest friend. Yes, I was in Paris when all you have expressed so +clearly took place in my mind; but when I saw you I was saved, for I +had never met with the love I had dreamed of from my childhood. My +poor dress and my dwelling-place had hidden me from the eyes of men of +your class. A few young men, whose position did not allow of their +insulting me, were all the more intolerable for the levity with which +they treated me. Some made game of my husband, as if he were merely a +ridiculous old man; others basely tried to win his good graces to +betray me; one and all talked of getting me away from him, and none +understood the devotion I feel for a soul that is so far away from us +only because it is so near heaven, for that friend, that brother, +whose handmaid I will always be. + +"You alone understood, did you not? the tie that binds me to him. Tell +me that you feel a sincere and disinterested regard for my Paolo--" + +"I gladly accept your praises," Andrea interrupted; "but go no +further; do not compel me to contradict you. I love you, Marianna, as +we love in the beautiful country where we both were born, I love you +with all my soul and with all my strength; but before offering you +that love, I will be worthy of yours. I will make a last attempt to +give back to you the man you have loved so long and will love forever. +Till success or defeat is certain, accept without any shame the modest +ease I can give you both. We will go to-morrow and choose a place +where he may live. + +"Have you such regard for me as will allow you to make me the partner +in your guardianship?" + +Marianna, surprised at such magnanimity, held out her hand to the +Count, who went away, trying to evade the civilities of Giardini and +his wife. + + + +On the following day Giardini took the Count up to the room where the +Gambaras lodged. Though Marianna fully knew her lover's noble soul,-- +for there are natures which quickly enter into each other's spirit,-- +Marianna was too good a housewife not to betray her annoyance at +receiving such a fine gentleman in so humble a room. Everything was +exquisitely clean. She had spent the morning in dusting her motley +furniture, the handiwork of Signor Giardini, who had put it together, +at odd moments of leisure, out of the fragments of the instruments +rejected by Gambara. + +Andrea had never seen anything quite so crazy. To keep a decent +countenance he turned away from a grotesque bed, contrived by the +ingenious cook in the case of an old harpsichord, and looked at +Marianna's narrow couch, of which the single mattress was covered with +a white muslin counterpane, a circumstance that gave rise in his mind +to some sad but sweet thoughts. + +He wished to speak of his plans and of his morning's work; but +Gambara, in his enthusiasm, believing that he had at last met with a +willing listener, took possession of him, and compelled him to listen +to the opera he had written for Paris. + +"In the first place, monsieur," said the composer, "allow me to +explain the subject in a few words. Here, the hearers receiving a +musical impression do not work it out in themselves, as religion bids +us work out the texts of Scripture in prayer. Hence it is very +difficult to make them understand that there is in nature an eternal +melody, exquisitely sweet, a perfect harmony, disturbed only by +revolutions independent of the divine will, as passions are +uncontrolled by the will of men. + +"I, therefore, had to seek a vast framework in which effect and cause +might both be included; for the aim of my music is to give a picture +of the life of nations from the loftiest point of view. My opera, for +which I myself wrote the /libretto/, for a poet would never have fully +developed the subject, is the life of Mahomet,--a figure in whom the +magic of Sabaeanism combined with the Oriental poetry of the Hebrew +Scriptures to result in one of the greatest human epics, the Arab +dominion. Mahomet certainly derived from the Hebrews the idea of a +despotic government, and from the religion of the shepherd tribes or +Sabaeans the spirit of expansion which created the splendid empire of +the Khalifs. His destiny was stamped on him in his birth, for his +father was a heathen and his mother a Jewess. Ah! my dear Count to be +a great musician a man must be very learned. Without knowledge he can +get no local color and put no ideas into his music. The composer who +sings for singing's sake is an artisan, not an artist. + +"This magnificent opera is the continuation of the great work I +projected. My first opera was called /The Martyrs/, and I intend to +write a third on Jerusalem delivered. You perceive the beauty of this +trilogy and what a variety of motives it offers,--the Martyrs, +Mahomet, the Deliverance of Jerusalem: the God of the West, the God of +the East, and the struggle of their worshipers over a tomb. But we +will not dwell on my fame, now for ever lost. + +"This is the argument of my opera." He paused. "The first act," he +went on, "shows Mahomet as a porter to Kadijah, a rich widow with whom +his uncle placed him. He is in love and ambitious. Driven from Mecca, +he escapes to Medina, and dates his era from his flight, the /Hegira/. +In the second act he is a Prophet, founding a militant religion. In +the third, disgusted with all things, having exhausted life, Mahomet +conceals the manner of his death in the hope of being regarded as a +god,--last effort of human pride. + +"Now you shall judge of my way of expressing in sound a great idea, +for which poetry could find no adequate expression in words." + +Gambara sat down to the piano with an absorbed gaze, and his wife +brought him the mass of papers forming his score; but he did not open +them. + +"The whole opera," said he, "is founded on a bass, as on a fruitful +soil. Mahomet was to have a majestic bass voice, and his wife +necessarily had a contralto. Kadijah was quite old--twenty! Attention! +This is the overture. It begins with an /andante/ in C major, triple +time. Do you hear the sadness of the ambitious man who is not +satisfied with love? Then, through his lamentation, by a transition to +the key of E flat, /allegro/, common time, we hear the cries of the +epileptic lover, his fury and certain warlike phrases, for the mighty +charms of the one and only woman give him the impulse to multiplied +loves which strikes us in /Don Giovanni/. Now, as you hear these +themes, do you not catch a glimpse of Mahomet's Paradise? + +"And next we have a /cantabile/ (A flat major, six-eight time), that +might expand the soul that is least susceptible to music. Kadijah has +understood Mahomet! Then Kadijah announces to the populace the +Prophet's interviews with the Angel Gabriel (/maestoso sostenuto/ in F +Major). The magistrates and priests, power and religion, feeling +themselves attacked by the innovator, as Christ and Socrates also +attacked effete or worn-out powers and religions, persecute Mahomet +and drive him out of Mecca (/stretto/ in C major). Then comes my +beautiful dominant (G major, common time). Arabia now harkens to the +Prophet; horsemen arrive (G major, E flat, B flat, G minor, and still +common time). The mass of men gathers like an avalanche; the false +Prophet has begun on a tribe the work he will achieve over a world (G +major). + +"He promises the Arabs universal dominion, and they believe him +because he is inspired. The /crescendo/ begins (still in the +dominant). Here come some flourishes (in C major) from the brass, +founded on the harmony, but strongly marked, and asserting themselves +as an expression of the first triumphs. Medina has gone over to the +Prophet, and the whole army marches on Mecca (an explosion of sound in +C major). The whole power of the orchestra is worked up like a +conflagration; every instrument is employed; it is a torrent of +harmony. + +"Suddenly the /tutti/ is interrupted by a flowing air (on the minor +third). You hear the last strain of devoted love. The woman who had +upheld the great man dies concealing her despair, dies at the moment +of triumph for him in whom love has become too overbearing to be +content with one woman; and she worships him enough to sacrifice +herself to the greatness of the man who is killing her. What a blaze +of love! + +"Then the Desert rises to overrun the world (back to C major). The +whole strength of the orchestra comes in again, collected in a +tremendous quintet grounded on the fundamental bass--and he is dying! +Mahomet is world-weary; he has exhausted everything. Now he craves to +die a god. Arabia, in fact, worships and prays to him, and we return +to the first melancholy strain (C minor) to which the curtain rose. + +"Now, do you not discern," said Gambara, ceasing to play, and turning +to the Count, "in this picturesque and vivid music--abrupt, grotesque, +or melancholy, but always grand--the complete expression of the life +of an epileptic, mad for enjoyment, unable to read or write, using all +his defects as stepping-stones, turning every blunder and disaster +into a triumph? Did not you feel a sense of his fascination exerted +over a greedy and lustful race, in this overture, which is an epitome +of the opera?" + +At first calm and stern, the maestro's face, in which Andrea had been +trying to read the ideas he was uttering in inspired tones, though the +chaotic flood of notes afforded no clue to them, had by degrees glowed +with fire and assumed an impassioned force that infected Marianna and +the cook. Marianna, too, deeply affected by certain passages in which +she recognized a picture of her own position, could not conceal the +expression of her eyes from Andrea. + +Gambara wiped his brow, and shot a glance at the ceiling of such +fierce energy that he seemed to pierce it and soar to the very skies. + +"You have seen the vestibule," said he; "we will now enter the palace. +The opera begins:-- + +"Act I. Mahomet, alone on the stage, begins with an air (F natural, +common time), interrupted by a chorus of camel-drivers gathered round +a well at the back of the stage (they sing in contrary time--twelve- +eight). What majestic woe! It will appeal to the most frivolous women, +piercing to their inmost nerves if they have no heart. Is not this the +very expression of crushed genius?" + +To Andrea's great astonishment,--for Marianna was accustomed to it,-- +Gambara contracted his larynx to such a pitch that the only sound was +a stifled cry not unlike the bark of a watch-dog that has lost its +voice. A slight foam came to the composer's lips and made Andrea +shudder. + +"His wife appears (A minor). Such a magnificent duet! In this number I +have shown that Mahomet has the will and his wife the brains. Kadijah +announces that she is about to devote herself to an enterprise that +will rob her of her young husband's love. Mahomet means to conquer the +world; this his wife has guessed, and she supports him by persuading +the people of Mecca that her husband's attacks of epilepsy are the +effect of his intercourse with the angels (chorus of the first +followers of Mahomet, who come to promise him their aid, C sharp +minor, /sotto voce/). Mahomet goes off to seek the Angel Gabriel +(/recitative/ in F major). His wife encourages the disciples (/aria/, +interrupted by the chorus, gusts of chanting support Kadijah's broad +and majestic air, A major). + +"Abdallah, the father of Ayesha,--the only maiden Mahomet has found +really innocent, wherefore he changed the name of Abdallah to Abubekir +(the father of the virgin),--comes forward with Ayesha and sings +against the chorus, in strains which rise above the other voices and +supplement the air sung by Kadijah in contrapuntal treatment. Omar, +the father of another maiden who is to be Mahomet's concubine, follows +Abubekir's example; he and his daughter join in to form a quintette. +The girl Ayesha is first soprano, Hafsa second soprano; Abubekir is a +bass, Omar a baritone. + +"Mahomet returns, inspired. He sings his first /bravura/ air, the +beginning of the /finale/ (E major), promising the empire of the world +to those who believe in him. The Prophet seeing the two damsels, then, +by a gentle transition (from B major to G major), addresses them in +amorous tones. Ali, Mahomet's cousin, and Khaled, his greatest +general, both tenors, now arrive and announce the persecution; the +magistrates, the military, and the authorities have all proscribed the +Prophet (/recitative/). Mahomet declares in an invocation (in C) that +the Angel Gabriel is on his side, and points to a pigeon that is seen +flying away. The chorus of believers responds in accents of devotion +(on a modulation to B major). The soldiers, magistrates, and officials +then come on (/tempo di marcia/, common time, B major). A chorus in +two divisions (/stretto/ in E major). Mahomet yields to the storm (in +a descending phrase of diminished sevenths) and makes his escape. The +fierce and gloomy tone of this /finale/ is relieved by the phrases +given to the three women who foretell Mahomet's triumph, and these +motives are further developed in the third act in the scene where +Mahomet is enjoying his splendor." + +The tears rose to Gambara's eyes, and it was only upon controlling his +emotion that he went on. + +"Act II. The religion is now established. The Arabs are guarding the +Prophet's tent while he speaks with God (chorus in A minor). Mahomet +appears (a prayer in F). What a majestic and noble strain is this that +forms the bass of the voices, in which I have perhaps enlarged the +borders of melody. It was needful to express the wonderful energy of +this great human movement which created an architecture, a music, a +poetry of its own, a costume and manners. As you listen, you are +walking under the arcades of the Generalife, the carved vaults of the +Alhambra. The runs and trills depict that delicate mauresque +decoration, and the gallant and valorous religion which was destined +to wage war against the gallant and valorous chivalry of Christendom. +A few brass instruments awake in the orchestra, announcing the +Prophet's first triumph (in a broken /cadenza/). The Arabs adore the +Prophet (E flat major), and the Khaled, Amru, and Ali arrive (/tempo +di marcia/). The armies of the faithful have taken many towns and +subjugated the three Arabias. Such a grand recitative!--Mahomet +rewards his generals by presenting them with maidens. + +"And here," said Gambara, sadly, "there is one of those wretched +ballets, which interrupt the thread of the finest musical tragedies! +But Mahomet elevates it once more by his great prophetic scene, which +poor Monsieur Voltaire begins with these words: + + "Arabia's time at last has come! + +"He is interrupted by a chorus of triumphant Arabs (twelve-eight time, +/accelerando/). The tribes arrive in crowds; the horns and brass +reappear in the orchestra. General rejoicings ensue, all the voices +joining in by degrees, and Mahomet announces polygamy. In the midst of +all this triumph, the woman who has been of such faithful service to +Mahomet sings a magnificent air (in B major). 'And I,' says she, 'am I +no longer loved?' 'We must part. Thou art but a woman, and I am a +Prophet; I may still have slaves but no equal.' Just listen to this +duet (G sharp minor). What anguish! The woman understands the +greatness her hands have built up; she loves Mahomet well enough to +sacrifice herself to his glory; she worships him as a god, without +criticising him,--without murmuring. Poor woman! His first dupe and +his first victim! + +"What a subject for the /finale/ (in B major) is her grief, brought +out in such sombre hues against the acclamations of the chorus, and +mingling with Mahomet's tones as he throws his wife aside as a tool of +no further use, still showing her that he can never forget her! What +fireworks of triumph! what a rush of glad and rippling song go up from +the two young voices (first and second soprano) of Ayesha and Hafsa, +supported by Ali and his wife, by Omar and Abubekir! Weep!--rejoice!-- +Triumph and tears! Such is life." + +Marianna could not control her tears, and Andrea was so deeply moved +that his eyes were moist. The Neapolitan cook was startled by the +magnetic influence of the ideas expressed by Gambara's convulsive +accents. + +The composer looked round, saw the group, and smiled. + +"At last you understand me!" said he. + +No conqueror, led in pomp to the Capitol under the purple beams of +glory, as the crown was placed on his head amid the acclamations of a +nation, ever wore such an expression. The composer's face was radiant, +like that of a holy martyr. No one dispelled the error. A terrible +smile parted Marianna's lips. The Count was appalled by the +guilelessness of this mania. + +"Act III," said the enchanted musician, reseating himself at the +piano. "(/Andantino, solo/.) Mahomet in his seraglio, surrounded by +women, but not happy. Quartette of Houris (A major). What pompous +harmony, what trills as of ecstatic nightingales! Modulation (into F +sharp minor). The theme is stated (on the dominant E and repeated in F +major). Here every delight is grouped and expressed to give effect to +the contrast of the gloomy /finale/ of the first act. After the +dancing, Mahomet rises and sings a grand /bravura/ air (in F minor), +repelling the perfect and devoted love of his first wife, but +confessing himself conquered by polygamy. Never has a musician had so +fine a subject! The orchestra and the chorus of female voices express +the joys of the Houris, while Mahomet reverts to the melancholy strain +of the opening. Where is Beethoven," cried Gambara, "to appreciate +this prodigious reaction of my opera on itself? How completely it all +rests on the bass. + +"It is thus that Beethoven composed his E minor symphony. But his +heroic work is purely instrumental, whereas here, my heroic phrase is +worked out on a sextette of the finest human voices, and a chorus of +the faithful on guard at the door of the sacred dwelling. I have every +resource of melody and harmony at my command, an orchestra and voices. +Listen to the utterance of all these phases of human life, rich and +poor;--battle, triumph, and exhaustion! + +"Ali arrives, the Koran prevails in every province (duet in D minor). +Mahomet places himself in the hands of his two fathers-in-law; he will +abdicate his rule and die in retirement to consolidate his work. A +magnificent sextette (B flat major). He takes leave of all (solo in F +natural). His two fathers-in-law, constituted his vicars or Khalifs, +appeal to the people. A great triumphal march, and a prayer by all the +Arabs kneeling before the sacred house, the Kasbah, from which a +pigeon is seen to fly away (the same key). This prayer, sung by sixty +voices and led by the women (in B flat), crowns the stupendous work +expressive of the life of nations and of man. Here you have every +emotion, human and divine." + +Andrea gazed at Gambara in blank amazement. Though at first he had +been struck by the terrible irony of the situation,--this man +expressing the feelings of Mahomet's wife without discovering them in +Marianna,--the husband's hallucination was as nothing compared with +the composer's. There was no hint even of a poetical or musical idea +in the hideous cacophony with which he had deluged their ears; the +first principles of harmony, the most elementary rules of composition, +were absolutely alien to this chaotic structure. Instead of the +scientifically compacted music which Gambara described, his fingers +produced sequences of fifths, sevenths, and octaves, of major thirds, +progressions of fourths with no supporting bass,--a medley of +discordant sounds struck out haphazard in such a way as to be +excruciating to the least sensitive ear. It is difficult to give any +idea of the grotesque performance. New words would be needed to +describe this impossible music. + +Andrea, painfully affected by this worthy man's madness, colored, and +stole a glance at Marianna; while she, turning pale and looking down, +could not restrain her tears. In the midst of this chaos of notes, +Gambara had every now and then given vent to his rapture in +exclamations of delight. He had closed his eyes in ecstasy; had smiled +at his piano; had looked at it with a frown; put out his tongue at it +after the fashion of the inspired performer,--in short, was quite +intoxicated with the poetry that filled his brain, and that he had +vainly striven to utter. The strange discords that clashed under his +fingers had obviously sounded in his ears like celestial harmonies. + +A deaf man, seeing the inspired gaze of his blue eyes open on another +world, the rosy glow that tinged his cheeks, and, above all, the +heavenly serenity which ecstasy stamped on his proud and noble +countenance, would have supposed that he was looking on at the +improvisation of a really great artist. The illusion would have been +all the more natural because the performance of this mad music +required immense executive skill to achieve such fingering. Gambara +must have worked at it for years. + +Nor were his hands alone employed; his feet were constantly at work +with complicated pedaling; his body swayed to and fro; the +perspiration poured down his face while he toiled to produce a great +/crescendo/ with the feeble means the thankless instrument placed at +his command. He stamped, puffed, shouted; his fingers were as swift as +the serpent's double tongue; and finally, at the last crash on the +keys, he fell back in his chair, resting his head on the top of it. + +"/Per Bacco!/ I am quite stunned," said the Count as he left the +house. "A child dancing on the keyboard would make better music." + +"Certainly mere chance could not more successfully avoid hitting two +notes in concord than that possessed creature has done during the past +hour," said Giardini. + +"How is it that the regular beauty of Marianna's features is not +spoiled by incessantly hearing such a hideous medley?" said the Count +to himself. "Marianna will certainly grow ugly." + +"Signor, she must be saved from that," cried Giardini. + +"Yes," said Andrea. "I have thought of that. Still, to be sure that my +plans are not based on error, I must confirm my doubts by another +experiment. I will return and examine the instruments he has invented. +To-morrow, after dinner, we will have a little supper. I will send in +some wine and little dishes." + +The cook bowed. + +Andrea spent the following day in superintending the arrangement of +the rooms where he meant to install the artist in a humble home. + +In the evening the Count made his appearance, and found the wine, +according to his instructions, set out with some care by Marianna and +Giardini. Gambara proudly exhibited the little drums, on which lay the +powder by means of which he made his observations on the pitch and +quality of the sounds emitted by his instruments. + +"You see," said he, "by what simple means I can prove the most +important propositions. Acoustics thus can show me the analogous +effects of sound on every object of its impact. All harmonies start +from a common centre and preserve the closest relations among +themselves; or rather, harmony, like light, is decomposable by our art +as a ray is by a prism." + +He then displayed the instruments constructed in accordance with his +laws, explaining the changes he had introduced into their +constitution. And finally he announced that to conclude this +preliminary inspection, which could only satisfy a superficial +curiosity, he would perform on an instrument that contained all the +elements of a complete orchestra, and which he called a +/Panharmonicon/. + +"If it is the machine in that huge case, which brings down on us the +complaints of the neighborhood whenever you work at it, you will not +play on it long," said Giardini. "The police will interfere. Remember +that!" + +"If that poor idiot stays in the room," said Gambara in a whisper to +the Count, "I cannot possibly play." + +Andrea dismissed the cook, promising a handsome reward if he would +keep watch outside and hinder the neighbors or the police from +interfering. Giardini, who had not stinted himself while helping +Gambara to wine, was quite willing. + +Gambara, without being drunk, was in the condition when every power of +the brain is over-wrought; when the walls of the room are transparent; +when the garret has no roof, and the soul soars in the empyrean of +spirits. + +Marianna, with some little difficulty, removed the covers from an +instrument as large as a grand piano, but with an upper case added. +This strange-looking instrument, besides this second body and its +keyboard, supported the openings or bells of various wind instruments +and the closed funnels of a few organ pipes. + +"Will you play me the prayer you say is so fine at the end of your +opera?" said the Count. + +To the great surprise of both Marianna and the Count, Gambara began +with a succession of chords that proclaimed him a master; and their +astonishment gave way first to amazed admiration and then to perfect +rapture, effacing all thought of the place and the performer. The +effects of a real orchestra could not have been finer than the voices +of the wind instruments, which were like those of an organ and +combined wonderfully with the harmonies of the strings. But the +unfinished condition of the machine set limits to the composer's +execution, and his idea seemed all the greater; for, often, the very +perfection of a work of art limits its suggestiveness to the recipient +soul. Is not this proved by the preference accorded to a sketch rather +than a finished picture when on their trial before those who interpret +a work in their own mind rather than accept it rounded off and +complete? + +The purest and serenest music that Andrea had ever listened to rose up +from under Gambara's fingers like the vapor of incense from an altar. +The composer's voice grew young again, and, far from marring the noble +melody, it elucidated it, supported it, guided it,--just as the feeble +and quavering voice of an accomplished reader, such as Andrieux, for +instance, can expand the meaning of some great scene by Corneille or +Racine by lending personal and poetical feeling. + +This really angelic strain showed what treasures lay hidden in that +stupendous opera, which, however, would never find comprehension so +long as the musician persisted in trying to explain it in his present +demented state. His wife and the Count were equally divided between +the music and their surprise at this hundred-voiced instrument, inside +which a stranger might have fancied an invisible chorus of girls were +hidden, so closely did some of the tones resemble the human voice; and +they dared not express their ideas by a look or a word. Marianna's +face was lighted up by a radiant beam of hope which revived the +glories of her youth. This renascence of beauty, co-existent with the +luminous glow of her husband's genius, cast a shade of regret on the +Count's exquisite pleasure in this mysterious hour. + +"You are our good genius!" whispered Marianna. "I am tempted to +believe that you actually inspire him; for I, who never am away from +him, have never heard anything like this." + +"And Kadijah's farewell!" cried Gambara, who sang the /cavatina/ which +he had described the day before as sublime, and which now brought +tears to the eyes of the lovers, so perfectly did it express the +loftiest devotion of love. + +"Who can have taught you such strains?" cried the Count. + +"The Spirit," said Gambara. "When he appears, all is fire. I see the +melodies there before me; lovely, fresh in vivid hues like flowers. +They beam on me, they ring out,--and I listen. But it takes a long, +long time to reproduce them." + +"Some more!" said Marianna. + +Gambara, who could not tire, played on without effort or antics. He +performed his overture with such skill, bringing out such rich and +original musical effects, that the Count was quite dazzled, and at +last believed in some magic like that commanded by Paganini and Liszt, +--a style of execution which changes every aspect of music as an art, +by giving it a poetic quality far above musical inventions. + +"Well, Excellenza, and can you cure him?" asked Giardini, as Andrea +came out. + +"I shall soon find out," replied the Count. "This man's intellect has +two windows; one is closed to the world, the other is open to the +heavens. The first is music, the second is poetry. Till now he has +insisted on sitting in front of the shuttered window; he must be got +to the other. It was you, Giardini, who first started me on the right +track, by telling me that your client's mind was clearer after +drinking a few glasses of wine." + +"Yes," cried the cook, "and I can see what your plan is." + +"If it is not too late to make the thunder of poetry audible to his +ears, in the midst of the harmonies of some noble music, we must put +him into a condition to receive it and appreciate it. Will you help me +to intoxicate Gambara, my good fellow? Will you be none the worse for +it?" + +"What do you mean, Excellenza?" + +Andrea went off without answering him, laughing at the acumen still +left to this cracked wit. + +On the following day he called for Marianna, who had spent the morning +in arranging her dress,--a simple but decent outfit, on which she had +spent all her little savings. The transformation would have destroyed +the illusions of a mere dangler; but Andrea's caprice had become a +passion. Marianna, diverted of her picturesque poverty, and looking +like any ordinary woman of modest rank, inspired dreams of wedded +life. + +He handed her into a hackney coach, and told her of the plans he had +in his head; and she approved of everything, happy in finding her +admirer more lofty, more generous, more disinterested than she had +dared to hope. He took her to a little apartment, where he had allowed +himself to remind her of his good offices by some of the elegant +trifles which have a charm for the most virtuous women. + +"I will never speak to you of love till you give up all hope of your +Paolo," said the Count to Marianna, as he bid her good-bye at the Rue +Froid-Manteau. "You will be witness to the sincerity of my attempts. +If they succeed. I may find myself unequal to keeping up my part as a +friend; but in that case I shall go far away, Marianna. Though I have +firmness enough to work for your happiness, I shall not have so much +as will enable me to look on at it." + +"Do not say such things. Generosity, too, has its dangers," said she, +swallowing down her tears. "But are you going now?" + +"Yes," said Andrea; "be happy, without any drawbacks." + + + +If Giardini might be believed, the new treatment was beneficial to +both husband and wife. Every evening after his wine, Gambara seemed +less self-centered, talked more, and with great lucidity; he even +spoke at last of reading the papers. Andrea could not help quaking at +his unexpectedly rapid success; but though his distress made him aware +of the strength of his passion, it did not make him waver in his +virtuous resolve. + +One day he called to note the progress of this singular cure. Though +the state of the patient at first gave him satisfaction, his joy was +dashed by Marianna's beauty, for an easy life had restored its +brilliancy. He called now every evening to enjoy calm and serious +conversation, to which he contributed lucid and well considered +arguments controverting Gambara's singular theories. He took advantage +of the remarkable acumen of the composer's mind as to every point not +too directly bearing on his manias, to obtain his assent to principles +in various branches of art, and apply them subsequently to music. All +was well so long as the patient's brain was heated with the fumes of +wine; but as soon as he had recovered--or, rather, lost--his reason, +he was a monomaniac once more. + +However, Paolo was already more easily diverted by the impression of +outside things; his mind was more capable of addressing itself to +several points at a time. + +Andrea, who took an artistic interest in his semi-medical treatment, +thought at last that the time had come for a great experiment. He +would give a dinner at his own house, to which he would invite +Giardini for the sake of keeping the tragedy and the parody side by +side, and afterwards take the party to the first performance of +/Robert le Diable/. He had seen it in rehearsal, and he judged it well +fitted to open his patient's eyes. + +By the end of the second course, Gambara was already tipsy, laughing +at himself with a very good grace; while Giardini confessed that his +culinary innovations were not worth a rush. Andrea had neglected +nothing that could contribute to this twofold miracle. The wines of +Orvieto and of Montefiascone, conveyed with the peculiar care needed +in moving them, Lachrymachristi and Giro,--all the heady liqueurs of +/la cara Patria/,--went to their brains with the intoxication alike of +the grape and of fond memory. At dessert the musician and the cook +both abjured every heresy; one was humming a /cavatina/ by Rossini, +and the other piling delicacies on his plate and washing them down +with Maraschino from Zara, to the prosperity of the French /cuisine/. + +The Count took advantage of this happy frame of mind, and Gambara +allowed himself to be taken to the opera like a lamb. + +At the first introductory notes Gambara's intoxication appeared to +clear away and make way for the feverish excitement which sometimes +brought his judgment and his imagination into perfect harmony; for it +was their habitual disagreement, no doubt, that caused his madness. +The ruling idea of that great musical drama appeared to him, no doubt, +in its noble simplicity, like a lightning flash, illuminating the +utter darkness in which he lived. To his unsealed eyes this music +revealed the immense horizons of a world in which he found himself for +the first time, though recognizing it as that he had seen in his +dreams. He fancied himself transported into the scenery of his native +land, where that beautiful Italian landscape begins at what Napoleon +so cleverly described as the /glacis/ of the Alps. Carried back by +memory to the time when his young and eager brain was as yet +untroubled by the ecstasy of his too exuberant imagination he listened +with religious awe and would not utter a single word. The Count +respected the internal travail of his soul. Till half-past twelve +Gambara sat so perfectly motionless that the frequenters of the opera +house took him, no doubt, for what he was--a man drunk. + +On their return, Andrea began to attack Meyerbeer's work, in order to +wake up Gambara, who sat sunk in the half-torpid state common in +drunkards. + +"What is there in that incoherent score to reduce you to a condition +of somnambulism?" asked Andrea, when they got out at his house. "The +story of /Robert le Diable/, to be sure, is not devoid of interest, +and Holtei has worked it out with great skill in a drama that is very +well written and full of strong and pathetic situations; but the +French librettist has contrived to extract from it the most ridiculous +farrago of nonsense. The absurdities of the libretti of Vesari and +Schikander are not to compare with those of the words of Robert le +Diable; it is a dramatic nightmare, which oppresses the hearer without +deeply moving him. + +"And Meyerbeer has given the devil a too prominent part. Bertram and +Alice represent the contest between right and wrong, the spirits of +good and evil. This antagonism offered a splendid opportunity to the +composer. The sweetest melodies, in juxtaposition with harsh and crude +strains, was the natural outcome of the form of the story; but in the +German composer's score the demons sing better than the saints. The +heavenly airs belie their origin, and when the composer abandons the +infernal motives he returns to them as soon as possible, fatigued with +the effort of keeping aloof from them. Melody, the golden thread that +ought never to be lost throughout so vast a plan, often vanishes from +Meyerbeer's work. Feeling counts for nothing, the heart has no part in +it. Hence we never come upon those happy inventions, those artless +scenes, which captivate all our sympathies and leave a blissful +impression on the soul. + +"Harmony reigns supreme, instead of being the foundation from which +the melodic groups of the musical picture stand forth. These +discordant combinations, far from moving the listener, arouse in him a +feeling analogous to that which he would experience on seeing a rope- +dancer hanging to a thread and swaying between life and death. Never +does a soothing strain come in to mitigate the fatiguing suspense. It +really is as though the composer had had no other object in view than +to produce a baroque effect without troubling himself about musical +truth or unity, or about the capabilities of human voices which are +swamped by this flood of instrumental noise." + +"Silence, my friend!" cried Gambara. "I am still under the spell of +that glorious chorus of hell, made still more terrible by the long +trumpets,--a new method of instrumentation. The broken /cadenzas/ +which give such force to Robert's scene, the /cavatina/ in the fourth +act, the /finale/ of the first, all hold me in the grip of a +supernatural power. No, not even Gluck's declamation ever produced so +prodigious an effect, and I am amazed by such skill and learning." + +"Signor Maestro," said Andrea, smiling, "allow me to contradict you. +Gluck, before he wrote, reflected long; he calculated the chances, and +he decided on a plan which might be subsequently modified by his +inspirations as to detail, but hindered him from ever losing his way. +Hence his power of emphasis, his declamatory style thrilling with life +and truth. I quite agree with you that Meyerbeer's learning is +transcendent; but science is a defect when it evicts inspiration, and +it seems to me that we have in this opera the painful toil of a +refined craftsman who in his music has but picked up thousands of +phrases out of other operas, damned or forgotten, and appropriated +them, while extending, modifying, or condensing them. But he has +fallen into the error of all selectors of /centos/,--an abuse of good +things. This clever harvester of notes is lavish of discords, which, +when too often introduced, fatigue the ear till those great effects +pall upon it which a composer should husband with care to make the +more effective use of them when the situation requires it. These +enharmonic passages recur to satiety, and the abuse of the plagal +cadence deprives it of its religious solemnity. + +"I know, of course, that every musician has certain forms to which he +drifts back in spite of himself; he should watch himself so as to +avoid that blunder. A picture in which there were no colors but blue +and red would be untrue to nature, and fatigue the eye. And thus the +constantly recurring rhythm in the score of /Robert le Diable/ makes +the work, as a whole, appear monotonous. As to the effect of the long +trumpets, of which you speak, it has long been known in Germany; and +what Meyerbeer offers us as a novelty was constantly used by Mozart, +who gives just such a chorus to the devils in /Don Giovanni/." + +By plying Gambara, meanwhile, with fresh libations, Andrea thus +strove, by his contradictoriness, to bring the musician back to a true +sense of music, by proving to him that his so-called mission was not +to try to regenerate an art beyond his powers, but to seek to express +himself in another form; namely, that of poetry. + +"But, my dear Count, you have understood nothing of that stupendous +musical drama," said Gambara, airily, as standing in front of Andrea's +piano he struck the keys, listened to the tone, and then seated +himself, meditating for a few minutes as if to collect his ideas. + +"To begin with, you must know," said he, "that an ear as practised as +mine at once detected that labor of choice and setting of which you +spoke. Yes, the music has been selected, lovingly, from the storehouse +of a rich and fertile imagination wherein learning has squeezed every +idea to extract the very essence of music. I will illustrate the +process." + +He rose to carry the candles into the adjoining room, and before +sitting down again he drank a full glass of Giro, a Sardinian wine, as +full of fire as the old wines of Tokay can inspire. + +"Now, you see," said Gambara, "this music is not written for +misbelievers, nor for those who know not love. If you have never +suffered from the virulent attacks of an evil spirit who shifts your +object just as you are taking aim, who puts a fatal end to your +highest hopes,--in one word, if you have never felt the devil's tail +whisking over the world, the opera of /Robert le Diable/ must be to +you, what the Apocalypse is to those who believe that all things will +end with them. But if, persecuted and wretched, you understand that +Spirit of Evil,--the monstrous ape who is perpetually employed in +destroying the work of God,--if you can conceive of him as having, not +indeed loved, but ravished, an almost divine woman, and achieved +through her the joy of paternity; as so loving his son that he would +rather have him eternally miserable with himself than think of him as +eternally happy with God; if, finally, you can imagine the mother's +soul for ever hovering over the child's head to snatch it from the +atrocious temptations offered by its father,--even then you will have +but a faint idea of this stupendous drama, which needs but little to +make it worthy of comparison with Mozart's /Don Giovanni/. /Don +Giovanni/ is in its perfection the greater, I grant; /Robert le +Diable/ expresses ideas, /Don Giovanni/ arouses sensations. /Don +Giovanni/ is as yet the only musical work in which harmony and melody +are combined in exactly the right proportions. In this lies its only +superiority, for /Robert/ is the richer work. But how vain are such +comparisons since each is so beautiful in its own way! + +"To me, suffering as I do from the demon's repeated shocks, Robert +spoke with greater power than to you; it struck me as being at the +same time vast and concentrated. + +"Thanks to you, I have been transported to the glorious land of dreams +where our senses expand, and the world works on a scale which is +gigantic as compared with man." + +He was silent for a space. + +"I am trembling still," said the ill-starred artist, "from the four +bars of cymbals which pierced to my marrow as they opened that short, +abrupt introduction with its solo for trombone, its flutes, oboes, and +clarionet, all suggesting the most fantastic effects of color. The +/andante/ in C minor is a foretaste of the subject of the evocation of +the ghosts in the abbey, and gives grandeur to the scene by +anticipating the spiritual struggle. I shivered." + +Gambara pressed the keys with a firm hand and expanded Meyerbeer's +theme in a masterly /fantasia/, a sort of outpouring of his soul after +the manner of Liszt. It was no longer the piano, it was a whole +orchestra that they heard; the very genius of music rose before them. + +"That was worthy of Mozart!" he exclaimed. "See how that German can +handle his chords, and through what masterly modulations he raises the +image of terror to come to the dominant C. I can hear all hell in it! + +"The curtain rises. What do I see? The only scene to which we gave the +epithet infernal: an orgy of knights in Sicily. In that chorus in F +every human passion is unchained in a bacchanalian /allegro/. Every +thread by which the devil holds us is pulled. Yes, that is the sort of +glee that comes over men when they dance on the edge of a precipice; +they make themselves giddy. What /go/ there is in that chorus! + +"Against that chorus--the reality of life--the simple life of every- +day virtue stands out in the air, in G minor, sung by Raimbaut. For a +moment it refreshed my spirit to hear the simple fellow, +representative of verdurous and fruitful Normandy, which he brings to +Robert's mind in the midst of his drunkenness. The sweet influence of +his beloved native land lends a touch of tender color to this gloomy +opening. + +"Then comes the wonderful air in C major, supported by the chorus in C +minor, so expressive of the subject. '/Je suis Robert/!' he +immediately breaks out. The wrath of the prince, insulted by his +vassal, is already more than natural anger; but it will die away, for +memories of his childhood come to him, with Alice, in the bright and +graceful /allegro/ in A major. + +"Can you not hear the cries of the innocent dragged into this infernal +drama,--a persecuted creature? '/Non, non/,' " sang Gambara, who made +the consumptive piano sing. "His native land and tender emotions have +come back to him; his childhood and its memories have blossomed anew +in Robert's heart. And now his mother's shade rises up, bringing with +it soothing religious thoughts. It is religion that lives in that +beautiful song in E major, with its wonderful harmonic and melodic +progression in the words: + + "Car dans les cieux, comme sur la terre, + Sa mere va prier pour lui. + +"Here the struggle begins between the unseen powers and the only human +being who has the fire of hell in his veins to enable him to resist +them; and to make this quite clear, as Bertram comes on, the great +musician has given the orchestra a passage introducing a reminiscence +of Raimbaut's ballad. What a stroke of art! What cohesion of all the +parts! What solidity of structure! + +"The devil is there, in hiding, but restless. The conflict of the +antagonistic powers opens with Alice's terror; she recognizes the +devil of the image of Saint Michael in her village. The musical +subject is worked out through an endless variety of phases. The +antithesis indispensable in opera is emphatically presented in a noble +/recitative/, such as a Gluck might have composed, between Bertram and +Robert: + + "Tu se sauras jamais a quel exces je t'aime. + +"In that diabolical C minor, Bertram, with his terrible bass, begins +his work of undermining which will overthrow every effort of the +vehement, passionate man. + +"Here, everything is appalling. Will the crime get possession of the +criminal? Will the executioner seize his victim? Will sorrow consume +the artist's genius? Will the disease kill the patient? or, will the +guardian angel save the Christian? + +"Then comes the /finale/, the gambling scene in which Bertram tortures +his son by rousing him to tremendous emotions. Robert, beggared, +frenzied, searching everything, eager for blood, fire, and sword, is +his own son; in this mood he is exactly like his father. What hideous +glee we hear in Bertram's words: '/Je ris de tes coups/!' And how +perfectly the Venetian /barcarole/ comes in here. Through what +wonderful transitions the diabolical parent is brought on to the stage +once more to make Robert throw the dice. + +"This first act is overwhelming to any one capable of working out the +subjects in his very heart, and lending them the breadth of +development which the composer intended them to call forth. + +"Nothing but love could now be contrasted with this noble symphony of +song, in which you will detect no monotony, no repetitions of means +and effects. It is one, but many; the characteristic of all that is +truly great and natural. + +"I breathe more freely; I find myself in the elegant circle of a +gallant court; I hear Isabella's charming phrases, fresh, but almost +melancholy, and the female chorus in two divisions, and in +/imitation/, with a suggestion of the Moorish coloring of Spain. Here +the terrifying music is softened to gentler hues, like a storm dying +away, and ends in the florid prettiness of a duet wholly unlike +anything that has come before it. After the turmoil of a camp full of +errant heroes, we have a picture of love. Poet! I thank thee! My heart +could not have borne much more. If I could not here and there pluck +the daisies of a French light opera, if I could not hear the gentle +wit of a woman able to love and to charm, I could not endure the +terrible deep note on which Bertram comes in, saying to his son: '/Si +je la permets/!' when Robert had promised the princess he adores that +he will conquer with the arms she has bestowed on him. + +"The hopes of the gambler cured by love, the love of a most beautiful +woman,--did you observe that magnificent Sicilian, with her hawk's eye +secure of her prey? (What interpreters that composer has found!) the +hopes of the man are mocked at by the hopes of hell in the tremendous +cry: '/A toi, Robert de Normandie/!' + +"And are not you struck by the gloom and horror of those long-held +notes, to which the words are set: '/Dans la foret prochaine/'? We +find here all the sinister spells of /Jerusalem Delivered/, just as we +find all chivalry in the chorus with the Spanish lilt, and in the +march tune. How original is the /alegro/ with the modulations of the +four cymbals (tuned to C, D, C, G)! How elegant is the call to the +lists! The whole movement of the heroic life of the period is there: +the mind enters into it; I read in it a romance, a poem of chivalry. +The /exposition/ is now finished; the resources of music would seem to +be exhausted; you have never heard anything like it before; and yet it +is homogeneous. You have had life set before you, and its one and only +/crux/: 'Shall I be happy or unhappy?' is the philosopher's query. +'Shall I be saved or damned?' asks the Christian." + +With these words Gambara struck the last chord of the chorus, dwelt on +it with a melancholy modulation, and then rose to drink another large +glass of Giro. This half-African vintage gave his face a deeper flush, +for his passionate and wonderful sketch of Meyerbeer's opera had made +him turn a little pale. + +"That nothing may be lacking to this composition," he went on, "the +great artist has generously added the only /buffo/ duet permissible +for a devil: that in which he tempts the unhappy troubadour. The +composer has set jocosity side by side with horror--a jocosity in +which he mocks at the only realism he had allowed himself amid the +sublime imaginings of his work--the pure calm love of Alice and +Raimbaut; and their life is overshadowed by the forecast of evil. + +"None but a lofty soul can feel the noble style of these /buffo/ airs; +they have neither the superabundant frivolity of Italian music nor the +vulgar accent of French commonplace; rather have they the majesty of +Olympus. There is the bitter laughter of a divine being mocking the +surprise of a troubadour Don-Juanizing himself. But for this dignity +we should be too suddenly brought down to the general tone of the +opera, here stamped on that terrible fury of diminished sevenths which +resolves itself into an infernal waltz, and finally brings us face to +face with the demons. + +"How emphatically Bertram's couplet stands out in B minor against that +diabolical chorus, depicting his paternity, but mingling in fearful +despair with these demoniacal strains. + +"Then comes the delightful transition of Alice's reappearance, with +the /ritornel/ in B flat. I can still hear that air of angelical +simplicity--the nightingale after a storm. Thus the grand leading idea +of the whole is worked out in the details; for what could be more +perfectly in contrast with the tumult of devils tossing in the pit +than that wonderful air given to Alice? '/Quand j'ai quitte la +Normandie/.' + +"The golden thread of melody flows on, side by side with the mighty +harmony, like a heavenly hope; it is embroidered on it, and with what +marvelous skill! Genius never lets go of the science that guides it. +Here Alice's song is in B flat leading into F sharp, the key of the +demon's chorus. Do you hear the tremolo in the orchestra? The host of +devils clamor for Robert. + +"Bertram now reappears, and this is the culminating point of musical +interest; after a /recitative/, worthy of comparison with the finest +work of the great masters, comes the fierce conflict in E flat between +two tremendous forces--one on the words '/Oui, tu me connais/!' on a +diminished seventh; the other, on that sublime F, '/Le ciel est avec +moi/.' Hell and the Crucifix have met for battle. Next we have Bertram +threatening Alice, the most violent pathos ever heard--the Spirit of +Evil expatiating complacently, and, as usual, appealing to personal +interest. Robert's arrival gives us the magnificent unaccompanied trio +in A flat, the first skirmish between the two rival forces and the +man. And note how clearly that is expressed," said Gambara, +epitomizing the scene with such passion of expression as startled +Andrea. + +"All this avalanche of music, from the clash of cymbals in common +time, has been gathering up to this contest of three voices. The magic +of evil triumphs! Alice flies, and you have the duet in D between +Bertram and Robert. The devil sets his talons in the man's heart; he +tears it to make it his own; he works on every feeling. Honor, hope, +eternal and infinite pleasures--he displays them all. He places him, +as he did Jesus, on the pinnacle of the Temple, and shows him all the +treasures of the earth, the storehouse of sin. He nettles him to +flaunt his courage; and the man's nobler mind is expressed in his +exclamation: + + "Des chevaliers de ma patrie + L'honneur toujours fut le soutien! + +"And finally, to crown the work, the theme comes in which sounded the +note of fatality at the beginning. Thus, the leading strain, the +magnificent call to the deed: + + "Nonnes qui reposez sous cette froide pierre, + M'entendez-vous? + +"The career of the music, gloriously worked out, is gloriously +finished by the /allegro vivace/ of the bacchanalian chorus in D +minor. This, indeed, is the triumph of hell! Roll on, harmony, and +wrap us in a thousand folds! Roll on, bewitch us! The powers of +darkness have clutched their prey; they hold him while they dance. The +great genius, born to conquer and to reign, is lost! The devils +rejoice, misery stifles genius, passion will wreck the knight!" + +And here Gambara improvised a /fantasia/ of his own on the +bacchanalian chorus, with ingenious variations, and humming the air in +a melancholy drone as if to express the secret sufferings he had +known. + +"Do you hear the heavenly lamentations of neglected love?" he said. +"Isabella calls to Robert above the grand chorus of knights riding +forth to the tournament, in which the /motifs/ of the second act +reappear to make it clear that the third act has all taken place in a +supernatural sphere. This is real life again. This chorus dies away at +the approach of the hellish enchantment brought by Robert with the +talisman. The deviltry of the third act is to be carried on. Here we +have the duet with the viol; the rhythm is highly expressive of the +brutal desires of a man who is omnipotent, and the Princess, by +plaintive phrases, tries to win her lover back to moderation. The +musician has here placed himself in a situation of great difficulty, +and has surmounted it in the loveliest number of the whole opera. How +charming is the melody of the /cavatina 'Grace pour toi!'/ All the +women present understood it well; each saw herself seized and snatched +away on the stage. That part alone would suffice to make the fortune +of the opera. Every woman felt herself engaged in a struggle with some +violent lover. Never was music so passionate and so dramatic. + +"The whole world now rises in arms against the reprobate. This +/finale/ may be criticised for its resemblance to that of /Don +Giovanni/; but there is this immense difference: in Isabella we have +the expression of the noblest faith, a true love that will save +Robert, for he scornfully rejects the infernal powers bestowed on him, +while Don Giovanni persists in his unbelief. Moreover, that particular +fault is common to every composer who has written a /finale/ since +Mozart. The /finale/ to /Don Giovanni/ is one of those classic forms +that are invented once for all. + +"At last religion wins the day, uplifting the voice that governs +worlds, that invites all sorrow to come for consolation, all +repentance to be forgiven and helped. + +"The whole house was stirred by the chorus: + + "Malheureaux on coupables + Hatez-vous d'accourir! + +"In the terrific tumult of raving passions, the holy Voice would have +been unheard; but at this critical moment it sounds like thunder; the +divine Catholic Church rises glorious in light. And here I was amazed +to find that after such lavish use of harmonic treasure, the composer +had come upon a new vein with the splendid chorus: '/Gloire a la +Providence/' in the manner of Handel. + +"Robert rushes on with his heartrending cry: '/Si je pouvais prier/!' +and Bertram, driven by the infernal decree, pursues his son, and makes +a last effort. Alice has called up the vision of the Mother, and now +comes the grand trio to which the whole opera has led up: the triumph +of the soul over matter, of the Spirit of Good over the Spirit of +Evil. The strains of piety prevail over the chorus of hell, and +happiness appears glorious; but here the music is weaker. I only saw a +cathedral instead of hearing a concert of angels in bliss, and a +divine prayer consecrating the union of Robert and Isabella. We ought +not to have been left oppressed by the spells of hell; we ought to +emerge with hope in our heart. + +"I, as musician and a Catholic, wanted another prayer like that in +/Mose/. I should have liked to see how Germany would contend with +Italy, what Meyerbeer could do in rivalry with Rossini. + +"However, in spite of this trifling blemish, the writer cannot say +that after five hours of such solid music, a Parisian prefers a bit of +ribbon to a musical masterpiece. You heard how the work was applauded; +it will go through five hundred performances! If the French really +understand that music----" + +"It is because it expresses ideas," the Count put in. + +"No; it is because it sets forth in a definite shape a picture of the +struggle in which so many perish, and because every individual life is +implicated in it through memory. Ah! I, hapless wretch, should have +been too happy to hear the sound of those heavenly voices I have so +often dreamed of." + +Hereupon Gambara fell into a musical day-dream, improvising the most +lovely melodious and harmonious /cavatina/ that Andrea would ever hear +on earth; a divine strain divinely performed on a theme as exquisite +as that of /O filii et filioe/, but graced with additions such as none +but the loftiest musical genius could devise. + +The Count sat lost in keen admiration; the clouds cleared away, the +blue sky opened, figures of angels appeared lifting the veil that hid +the sanctuary, and the light of heaven poured down. + +There was a sudden silence. + +The Count, surprised at the cessation of the music, looked at Gambara, +who, with fixed gaze, in the attitude of a visionary, murmured the +word: "God!" + +Andrea waited till the composer had descended from the enchanted realm +to which he had soared on the many-hued wings of inspiration, +intending to show him the truth by the light he himself would bring +down with him. + +"Well," said he, pouring him out another bumper of wine and clinking +glasses with him, "this German has, you see, written a sublime opera +without troubling himself with theories, while those musicians who +write grammars of harmony may, like literary critics, be atrocious +composers." + +"Then you do not like my music?" + +"I do not say so. But if, instead of carrying musical principles to an +extreme--which takes you too far--you would simply try to arouse our +feelings, you would be better understood, unless indeed you have +mistaken your vocation. You are a great poet." + +"What," cried Gambara, "are twenty-five years of study in vain? Am I +to learn the imperfect language of men when I have the key to the +heavenly tongue? Oh, if you are right,--I should die." + +"No, no. You are great and strong; you would begin life again, and I +would support you. We would show the world the noble and rare alliance +of a rich man and an artist in perfect sympathy and understanding." + +"Do you mean it?" asked Gambara, struck with amazement. + +"As I have told you, you are a poet more than a musician." + +"A poet, a poet! It is better than nothing. But tell me truly, which +do you esteem most highly, Mozart or Homer?" + +"I admire them equally." + +"On your honor?" + +"On my honor." + +"H'm! Once more. What do you think of Meyerbeer and Byron?" + +"You have measured them by naming them together." + +The Count's carriage was waiting. The composer and his noble physician +ran down-stairs, and in a few minutes they were with Marianna. + +As they went in, Gambara threw himself into his wife's arms, but she +drew back a step and turned away her head; the husband also drew back +and beamed on the Count. + +"Oh, monsieur!" said Gambara in a husky voice, "you might have left me +my illusions." He hung his head, and then fell. + +"What have you done to him? He is dead drunk!" cried Marianna, looking +down at her husband with a mingled expression of pity and disgust. + +The Count, with the help of his servant, picked up Gambara and laid +him on his bed. + +Then Andrea left, his heart exultant with horrible gladness. + + + +The Count let the usual hour for calling slip past next day, for he +began to fear lest he had duped himself and had made this humble +couple pay too dear for their improved circumstances and added wisdom, +since their peace was destroyed for ever. + +At last Giardini came to him with a note from Marianna. + +"Come," she wrote, "the mischief is not so great as you so cruelly +meant it to be." + +"Excellenza," said the cook, while Andrea was making ready, "you +treated us splendidly last evening. But apart from the wine, which was +excellent, your steward did not put anything on the table that was +worthy to set before a true epicure. You will not deny, I suppose, +that the dish I sent to you on the day when you did me the honor to +sit down at my board, contained the quintessence of all those that +disgraced your magnificent service of plate? And when I awoke this +morning I remembered the promise you once made me of a place as +/chef/. Henceforth I consider myself as a member of your household." + +"I thought of the same thing a few days ago," replied Andrea. "I +mentioned you to the secretary of the Austrian Embassy, and you have +permission to recross the Alps as soon as you please. I have a castle +in Croatia which I rarely visit. There you may combine the offices of +gate-keeper, butler, and steward, with two hundred crowns a year. Your +wife will have as much for doing all the rest of the work. You may +make all the experiments you please /in anima vili/, that is to say on +the stomach of my vassals. Here is a cheque for your traveling +expenses." + +Giardini kissed the Count's hand after the Neapolitan fashion. + +"Excellenza," said he, "I accept the cheque, but beg to decline the +place. It would dishonor me to give up my art by losing the opinion of +the most perfect epicures, who are certainly to be found in Paris." + +When Andrea arrived at Gambara's lodgings, the musician rose to +welcome him. + +"My generous friend," said he, with the utmost frankness, "you either +took advantage, last evening, of the weakness of my brain to make a +fool of me, or else your brain is no more capable of standing the test +of the heady liquors of our native Latium, than mine is. I will assume +this latter hypothesis; I would rather doubt your digestion than your +heart. Be this as it may, henceforth I drink no more wine--for ever. +The abuse of good liquor last evening led me into much guilty folly. +When I remember that I very nearly----" He gave a glance of terror at +Marianna. "As to the wretched opera you took me to hear, I have +thought it over, and it is, after all, music written on ordinary +lines, a mountain of piled-up notes, /verba et voces/. It is but the +dregs of the nectar I can drink in deep draughts as I reproduce the +heavenly music that I hear! It is a patchwork of airs of which I could +trace the origin. The passage '/Gloire a la Providence/' is too much +like a bit of Handel; the chorus of knights is closely related to the +Scotch air in /La Dame Blanche/; in short, if this opera is a success, +it is because the music is borrowed from everybody's--so it ought to +be popular. + +"I will say good-bye to you, my dear friend. I have had some ideas +seething in my brain since the morning that only wait to soar up to +God on the wings of song, but I wished to see you. Good-bye; I must +ask forgiveness of the Muse. We shall meet at dinner to-night--but no +wine; at any rate, none for me. I am firmly resolved--" + +"I give him up!" cried Andrea, flushing red. + +"And you restore my sense of conscience," said Marianna. "I dared not +appeal to it! My friend, my friend, it is no fault of ours; he does +not want to be cured." + + + +Six years after this, in January 1837, such artists as were so unlucky +as to damage their wind or stringed instruments, generally took them +to the Rue Froid-Manteau, to a squalid and horrible house, where, on +the fifth floor, dwelt an old Italian named Gambara. + +For five years past he had been left to himself, deserted by his wife; +he had gone through many misfortunes. An instrument on which he had +relied to make his fortune, and which he called a /Panharmonicon/, had +been sold by order of the Court on the public square, Place du +Chatelet, together with a cartload of music paper scrawled with notes. +The day after the sale, these scores had served in the market to wrap +up butter, fish, and fruit. + +Thus the three grand operas of which the poor man would boast, but +which an old Neapolitan cook, who was now but a patcher up of broken +meats, declared to be a heap of nonsense, were scattered throughout +Paris on the trucks of costermongers. But at any rate, the landlord +had got his rent and the bailiffs their expenses. + +According to the Neapolitan cook--who warmed up for the street-walkers +of the Rue Froid-Manteau the fragments left from the most sumptuous +dinners in Paris--Signora Gambara had gone off to Italy with a +Milanese nobleman, and no one knew what had become of her. Worn out +with fifteen years of misery, she was very likely ruining the Count by +her extravagant luxury, for they were so devotedly adoring, that in +all his life, Giardini could recall no instance of such a passion. + +Towards the end of that very January, one evening when Giardini was +chatting with a girl who had come to buy her supper, about the divine +Marianna--so poor, so beautiful, so heroically devoted, and who had, +nevertheless, "gone the way of them all," the cook, his wife, and the +street-girl saw coming towards them a woman fearfully thin, with a +sunburned, dusty face; a nervous walking skeleton, looking at the +numbers, and trying to recognize a house. + +"/Ecco la Marianna/!" exclaimed the cook. + +Marianna recognized Giardini, the erewhile cook, in the poor fellow +she saw, without wondering by what series of disasters he had sunk to +keep a miserable shop for secondhand food. She went in and sat down, +for she had come from Fontainebleau. She had walked fourteen leagues +that day, after begging her bread from Turin to Paris. + +She frightened that terrible trio! Of all her wondrous beauty nothing +remained but her fine eyes, dimmed and sunken. The only thing faithful +to her was misfortune. + +She was welcomed by the skilled old instrument mender, who greeted her +with unspeakable joy. + +"Why, here you are, my poor Marianna!" said he, warmly. "During your +absence they sold up my instrument and my operas." + +It would have been difficult to kill the fatted calf for the return of +the Samaritan, but Giardini contributed the fag end of a salmon, the +trull paid for wine, Gambara produced some bread, Signora Giardini +lent a cloth, and the unfortunates all supped together in the +musician's garret. + +When questioned as to her adventures, Marianna would make no reply; +she only raised her beautiful eyes to heaven and whispered to +Giardini: + +"He married a dancer!" + +"And how do you mean to live?" said the girl. "The journey has ruined +you, and----" + +"And made me an old woman," said Marianna. "No, that is not the result +of fatigue or hardship, but of grief." + +"And why did you never send your man here any money?" asked the girl. + +Marianna's only answer was a look, but it went to the woman's heart. + +"She is proud with a vengeance!" she exclaimed. "And much good it has +done her!" she added in Giardini's ear. + +All that year musicians took especial care of their instruments, and +repairs did not bring in enough to enable the poor couple to pay their +way; the wife, too, did not earn much by her needle, and they were +compelled to turn their talents to account in the lowest form of +employment. They would go out together in the dark to the Champs +Elysees and sing duets, which Gambara, poor fellow, accompanied on a +wretched guitar. On the way, Marianna, who on these expeditions +covered her head with a sort of veil of coarse muslin, would take her +husband to the grocer's shop in the Faubourg Saint-Honore and give him +two or three thimblefuls of brandy to make him tipsy; otherwise he +could not play. Then they would stand up together in front of the +smart people sitting on the chairs, and one of the greatest geniuses +of the time, the unrecognized Orpheus of Modern Music, would perform +passages from his operas--pieces so remarkable that they would extract +a few half-pence from Parisian supineness. When some /dilettante/ of +comic operas happened to be sitting there and did not recognize from +what work they were taken, he would question the woman dressed like a +Greek priestess, who held out a bottle-stand of stamped metal in which +she collected charity. + +"I say, my dear, what is that music out of?" + +"The opera of /Mahomet/," Marianna would reply. + +As Rossini composed an opera called /Mahomet II./, the amateur would +say to his wife, sitting at his side: + +"What a pity it is that they will never give us at the Italiens any +operas by Rossini but those we know. That is really fine music!" + +And Gambara would smile. + + + +Only a few days since, this unhappy couple had to pay the trifling sum +of thirty-six francs as arrears for rent for the cock-loft in which +they lived resigned. The grocer would not give them credit for the +brandy with which Marianna plied her husband to enable him to play. +Gambara was, consequently, so unendurably bad that the ears of the +wealthy were irresponsive, and the tin bottle-stand remained empty. + +It was nine o'clock in the evening. A handsome Italian, the +Principessa Massimilla De Varese, took pity on the poor creatures; she +gave them forty francs and questioned them, discerning from the +woman's thanks that she was a Venetian. Prince Emilio would know the +history of their woes, and Marianna told it, making no complaints of +God or men. + +"Madame," said Gambara, as she ended, for he was sober, "we are +victims of our own superiority. My music is good. But as soon as music +transcends feeling and becomes an idea, only persons of genius should +be the hearers, for they alone are capable of responding to it! It is +my misfortune that I have heard the chorus of angels, and believed +that men could understand the strains. The same thing happens to women +when their love assumes a divine aspect: men cannot understand them." + +This speech was well worth the forty francs bestowed by Massimilla; +she took out a second gold piece, and told Marianna she would write to +Andrea Marcosini. + +"Do not write to him, madame!" exclaimed Marianna. "And God grant you +to always be beautiful!" + +"Let us provide for them," said the Princess to her husband; "for this +man has remained faithful to the Ideal which we have killed." + +As he saw the gold pieces, Gambara shed tears; and then a vague +reminiscence of old scientific experiments crossed his mind, and the +hapless composer, as he wiped his eyes, spoke these words, which the +circumstances made pathetic: + +"Water is a product of burning." + + + +PARIS, June 1837. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Varese, Emilio Memmi, Prince of + Massimilla Doni + +Varese, Princess of + Massimilla Doni + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Gambara, by Honore de Balzac + |