initial commit of ebook 7007HEADmain

10 files changed, 20000 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/7007-8.txt b/7007-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..36b4087
--- /dev/null
+++ b/7007-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,6435 @@
+Project Gutenberg's The True Story of My Life, by Hans Christian Andersen
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The True Story of My Life
+
+Author: Hans Christian Andersen
+
+Translator: Mary Howitt
+
+
+Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7007]
+This file was first posted on February 21, 2003
+Last Updated: June 12, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRUE STORY OF MY LIFE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Eric Eldred; Juliet Sutherland,the Project
+Manager--a DP text
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE TRUE STORY OF MY LIFE:
+
+A SKETCH
+
+By Hans Christian Andersen.
+
+Translated By Mary Howitt
+
+
+
+To MESSRS. MUNROE AND CO.
+
+Gentlemen,--I take this opportunity of forwarding to you, the _proof
+sheets_ of the unpublished Life of Hans Christian Andersen--translated
+from a copy transmitted to me for that purpose, by the Author. It is as
+well to state that this is the Author's Edition, he being participant in
+the proceeds of this work.
+
+I remain, gentlemen,
+
+Yours truly,
+
+MARY HOWITT.
+
+LONDON, June 29, 1847.
+
+
+
+TO
+
+JENNY LIND
+
+THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION
+
+OF
+
+THE TRUE STORY OF HER FRIEND'S LIFE
+
+IS INSCRIBED
+
+IN ADMIRATION OF HER BEAUTIFUL TALENTS
+
+AND STILL MORE BEAUTIFUL LIFE,
+
+BY
+
+MARY HOWITT.
+
+
+
+Project Gutenberg Editor's Note: There are many words in this file with
+missing letters. These spaces were letters with diacritic marks which
+at the time of the production of the digital file were not available
+for the character set of the file.  It is hoped that someone will be
+interested enough in this work to supply these missing letters.  DW
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+No literary labor is more delightful to me than translating the
+beautiful thoughts and fancies of Hans Christian Andersen. My heart is
+in the work, and I feel as if my spirit were kindred to his; just as our
+Saxon English seems to me eminently fitted to give the simple, pure, and
+noble sentiments of the Danish mind.
+
+This True Story of his Life will not be found the least interesting of
+his writings; indeed, to me it seems one of the most so. It furnishes
+the key, as it were, to all the rest; and the treasures which it unlocks
+will be found to be possessed of additional value when viewed through
+the medium of this introduction. It is gratifying for me to be able to
+state that the original Author has a personal interest in this English
+version of his "Life," as I have arranged with my publishers to pay Mr.
+Andersen a certain sum on the publication of this translation, and the
+same on all future editions.
+
+M. H.
+
+The Elms, Clapton, June 26.
+
+
+
+
+THE TRUE STORY OF MY LIFE
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+My life is a lovely story, happy and full of incident. If, when I was a
+boy, and went forth into the world poor and friendless, a good fairy had
+met me and said, "Choose now thy own course through life, and the object
+for which thou wilt strive, and then, according to the development of
+thy mind, and as reason requires, I will guide and defend thee to its
+attainment," my fate could not, even then, have been directed more
+happily, more prudently, or better. The history of my life will say to
+the world what it says to me--There is a loving God, who directs all
+things for the best.
+
+My native land, Denmark, is a poetical land, full of popular traditions,
+old songs, and an eventful history, which has become bound up with that
+of Sweden and Norway. The Danish islands are possessed of beautiful
+beech woods, and corn and clover fields: they resemble gardens on a
+great scale. Upon one of these green islands, Funen, stands Odense, the
+place of my birth. Odense is called after the pagan god Odin, who, as
+tradition states, lived here: this place is the capital of the province,
+and lies twenty-two Danish miles from Copenhagen.
+
+In the year 1805 there lived here, in a small mean room, a young married
+couple, who were extremely attached to each other; he was a shoemaker,
+scarcely twenty-two years old, a man of a richly gifted and truly
+poetical mind. His wife, a few years older than himself, was ignorant of
+life and of the world, but possessed a heart full of love. The young man
+had himself made his shoemaking bench, and the bedstead with which he
+began housekeeping; this bedstead he had made out of the wooden frame
+which had borne only a short time before the coffin of the deceased
+Count Trampe, as he lay in state, and the remnants of the black cloth on
+the wood work kept the fact still in remembrance.
+
+Instead of a noble corpse, surrounded by crape and wax-lights, here
+lay, on the second of April, 1805, a living and weeping child,--that was
+myself, Hans Christian Andersen. During the first day of my existence my
+father is said to have sate by the bed and read aloud in Holberg, but
+I cried all the time. "Wilt thou go to sleep, or listen quietly?" it is
+reported that my father asked in joke; but I still cried on; and even in
+the church, when I was taken to be baptized, I cried so loudly that the
+preacher, who was a passionate man, said, "The young one screams like
+a cat!" which words my mother never forgot. A poor emigrant, Gomar, who
+stood as godfather, consoled her in the mean time by saying that the
+louder I cried as a child, all the more beautifully should I sing when I
+grew older.
+
+Our little room, which was almost filled with the shoemaker's bench,
+the bed, and my crib, was the abode of my childhood; the walls, however,
+were covered with pictures, and over the work-bench was a cupboard
+containing books and songs; the little kitchen was full of shining
+plates and metal pans, and by means of a ladder it was possible to go
+out on the roof, where, in the gutters between and the neighbor's house,
+there stood a great chest filled with soil, my mother's sole garden, and
+where she grew her vegetables. In my story of the Snow Queen that garden
+still blooms.
+
+I was the only child, and was extremely spoiled, but I continually heard
+from my mother how very much happier I was than she had been, and that I
+was brought up like a nobleman's child. She, as a child, had been driven
+out by her parents to beg, and once when she was not able to do it,
+she had sate for a whole day under a bridge and wept. I have drawn
+her character in two different aspects, in old Dominica, in the
+Improvisatore, and in the mother of Christian, in Only a Fiddler.
+
+My father gratified me in all my wishes. I possessed his whole heart; he
+lived for me. On Sundays, he made me perspective glasses, theatres, and
+pictures which could be changed; he read to me from Holberg's plays
+and the Arabian Tales; it was only in such moments as these that I can
+remember to have seen him really cheerful, for he never felt himself
+happy in his life and as a handicrafts-man. His parents had been country
+people in good circumstances, but upon whom many misfortunes had fallen;
+the cattle had died; the farm house had been burned down; and lastly,
+the husband had lost his reason. On this the wife had removed with him
+to Odense, and there put her son, whose mind was full of intelligence,
+apprentice to a shoemaker; it could not be otherwise, although it was
+his ardent wish to be able to attend the Grammar School, where he might
+have learned Latin. A few well-to-do citizens had at one time spoken
+of this, of clubbing together a sufficient sum to pay for his board and
+education, and thus giving him a start in life; but it never went beyond
+words. My poor father saw his dearest wish unfulfilled; and he never
+lost the remembrance of it. I recollect that once, as a child, I saw
+tears in his eyes, and it was when a youth from the Grammar School came
+to our house to be measured for a new pair of boots, and showed us his
+books and told us what he learned.
+
+"That was the path upon which I ought to have gone!" said my father,
+kissed me passionately, and was silent the whole evening.
+
+He very seldom associated with his equals. He went out into the woods on
+Sundays, when he took me with him; he did not talk much when he was out,
+but would sit silently, sunk in deep thought, whilst I ran about and
+strung strawberries on a straw, or bound garlands. Only twice in the
+year, and that in the month of May, when the woods were arrayed in their
+earliest green, did my mother go with us, and then she wore a cotton
+gown, which she put on only on these occasions, and when she partook of
+the Lord's Supper, and which, as long as I can remember, was her holiday
+gown. She always took home with her from the wood a great many fresh
+beech boughs, which were then planted behind the polished stone. Later
+in the year sprigs of St. John's wort were stuck into the chinks of the
+beams, and we considered their growth as omens whether our lives would
+be long or short. Green branches and pictures ornamented our little
+room, which my mother always kept neat and clean; she took great pride
+in always having the bed-linen and the curtains very white.
+
+The mother of my father came daily to our house, were it only for a
+moment, in order to see her little grandson. I was her joy and her
+delight. She was a quiet and most amiable old woman, with mild blue eyes
+and a fine figure, which life had severely tried. From having been the
+wife of a countryman in easy circumstances she had now fallen into great
+poverty, and dwelt with her feeble-minded husband in a little house,
+which was the last, poor remains of their property. I never saw her shed
+a tear. But it made all the deeper impression upon me when she quietly
+sighed, and told me about her own mother's mother, how she had been
+a rich, noble lady in the city of Cassel, and that she had married a
+"comedy-player," that was as she expressed it, and run away from parents
+and home, for all of which her posterity had now to do penance. I
+never can recollect that I heard her mention the family name of her
+grandmother; but her own maiden name was Nommesen. She was employed to
+take care of the garden belonging to a lunatic asylum, and every Sunday
+evening she brought us some flowers, which they gave her permission
+to take home with her. These flowers adorned my mother's cupboard; but
+still they were mine, and to me it was allowed to put them in the glass
+of water. How great was this pleasure! She brought them all to me; she
+loved me with her whole soul. I knew it, and I understood it.
+
+She burned, twice in the year, the green rubbish of the garden; on such
+occasions she took me with her to the asylum, and I lay upon the great
+heaps of green leaves and pea-straw. I had many flowers to play with,
+and--which was a circumstance upon which I set great importanceù I had
+here better food to eat than I could expect at home.
+
+All such patients as were harmless were permitted to go freely about
+the court; they often came to us in the garden, and with curiosity and
+terror I listened to them and followed them about; nay, I even ventured
+so far as to go with the attendants to those who were raving mad. A long
+passage led to their cells. On one occasion, when the attendants were
+out of the way, I lay down upon the floor, and peeped through the crack
+of the door into one of these cells. I saw within a lady almost naked,
+lying on her straw bed; her hair hung down over her shoulders, and she
+sang with a very beautiful voice. All at once she sprang up, and threw
+herself against the door where I lay; the little valve through which she
+received her food burst open; she stared down upon me, and stretched out
+her long arm towards me. I screamed for terror--I felt the tips of her
+fingers touching my clothes--I was half dead when the attendant came;
+and even in later years that sight and that feeling remained within my
+soul.
+
+Close beside the place where the leaves were burned, the poor old women
+had their spinning-room. I often went in there, and was very soon
+a favorite. When with these people, I found myself possessed of an
+eloquence which filled them with astonishment. I had accidentally heard
+about the internal mechanism of the human frame, of course without
+understanding anything about it; but all these mysteries were very
+captivating to me; and with chalk, therefore, I drew a quantity of
+flourishes on the door, which were to represent the intestines; and my
+description of the heart and the lungs made the deepest impression. I
+passed for a remarkably wise child, that would not live long; and they
+rewarded my eloquence by telling me tales in return; and thus a world
+as rich as that of the thousand and one nights was revealed to me. The
+stories told by these old ladies, and the insane figures which I saw
+around me in the asylum, operated in the meantime so powerfully upon me,
+that when it grew dark I scarcely dared to go out of the house. I was
+therefore permitted, generally at sunset, to lay me down in my parents'
+bed with its long flowered curtains, because the press-bed in which
+I slept could not conveniently be put down so early in the evening on
+account of the room it occupied in our small dwelling; and here, in the
+paternal bed, lay I in a waking dream, as if the actual world did not
+concern me. I was very much afraid of my weak-minded grandfather. Only
+once had he ever spoken to me, and then he had made use of the formal
+pronoun "you." He employed himself in cutting out of wood strange
+figures, men with beasts' heads, and beasts with wings; these he
+packed in a basket and carried them out into the country, where he was
+everywhere well received by the peasant women, because he gave to them
+and their children these strange toys. One day, when he was returning to
+Odense, I heard the boys in the street shouting after him; I hid myself
+behind a flight of steps in terror, for I knew that I was of his flesh
+and blood.
+
+Every circumstance around me tended to excite my imagination. Odense
+itself, in those days in which there was not a single steamboat in
+existence, and when intercourse with other places was much more rare
+than now, was a totally different city to what it is in our day; a
+person might have fancied himself living hundreds of years ago, because
+so many customs prevailed then which belonged to an earlier age. The
+guilds walked in procession through the town with their harlequin before
+them with mace and bells; on Shrove Tuesday the butchers led the fattest
+ox through the streets adorned with garlands, whilst a boy in a white
+shirt and with great wings on his shoulders rode upon it; the sailors
+paraded through the city with music and all their flags flying, and then
+two of the boldest among them stood and wrestled upon a plank placed
+between two boats, and the one who was not thrown into the water was the
+victor.
+
+That, however, which more particularly stamped itself upon my memory,
+and became refreshed by after often-repeated relations, was, the abode
+of the Spaniards in Funen in 1808. It is true that at that time I was
+but three years old; still I nevertheless perfectly remember the brown
+foreign men who made disturbances in the streets, and the cannon which
+were fired. I saw the people lying on straw in a half-tumbledown church,
+which was near the asylum. One day, a Spanish soldier took me in his
+arms and pressed a silver image, which he wore upon his breast, to my
+lips. I remember that my mother was angry at it, because, she said,
+there was something papistical about it; but the image, and the strange
+man, who danced me about, kissed me and wept, pleased me: certainly
+he had children at home in Spain. I saw one of his comrades led to
+execution; he had killed a Frenchman. Many years afterwards this little
+circumstance occasioned me to write my little poem, "The Soldier," which
+Chamisso translated into German, and which afterwards was included in
+the illustrated people's books of soldier-songs. [Footnote: This
+same little song, sent to me by the author, was translated by me and
+published in the 19th No. of Howitt's Journal.--M. H.] I very seldom
+played with other boys; even at school I took little interest in their
+games, but remained sitting within doors. At home I had playthings
+enough, which my father made for me. My greatest delight was in making
+clothes for my dolls, or in stretching out one of my mother's aprons
+between the wall and two sticks before a currant-bush which I had
+planted in the yard, and thus to gaze in between the sun-illumined
+leaves. I was a singularly dreamy child, and so constantly went about
+with my eyes shut, as at last to give the impression of having weak
+sight, although the sense of sight was especially cultivated by me.
+
+Sometimes, during the harvest, my mother went into the field to glean.
+I accompanied her, and we went, like Ruth in the Bible, to glean in the
+rich fields of Boaz. One day we went to a place, the bailiff of which
+was well known for being a man of a rude and savage disposition. We
+saw him coming with a huge whip in his hand, and my mother and all the
+others ran away. I had wooden shoes on my bare feet, and in my haste I
+lost these, and then the thorns pricked me so that I could not run, and
+thus I was left behind and alone. The man came up and lifted his whip to
+strike me, when I looked him in the face and involuntarily exclaimed,--
+
+"How dare you strike me, when God can see it?"
+
+The strong, stern man looked at me, and at once became mild; he patted
+me on my cheeks, asked me my name, and gave me money.
+
+When I brought this to my mother and showed it her, she said to the
+others, "He is a strange child, my Hans Christian; everybody is kind to
+him: this bad fellow even has given him money."
+
+I grew up pious and superstitious. I had no idea of want or need; to be
+sure my parents had only sufficient to live from day to day, but I
+at least had plenty of every thing; an old woman altered my father's
+clothes for me. Now and then I went with my parents to the theatre,
+where the first representations which I saw were in German. "Das
+Donauweibchen" was the favorite piece of the whole city; there, however,
+I saw, for the first time, Holberg's Village Politicians treated as an
+opera.
+
+The first impression which a theatre and the crowd assembled there made
+upon me was, at all events, no sign of any thing poetical slumbering in
+me; for my first exclamation on seeing so many people, was, "Now, if we
+only had as many casks of butter as there are people here, then I would
+eat lots of butter!" The theatre, however, soon became my favorite
+place, but, as I could only very seldom go there, I acquired the
+friendship of the man who carried out the playbills, and he gave me one
+every day. With this I seated myself in a corner and imagined an entire
+play, according to the name of the piece and the characters in it. That
+was my first, unconscious poetising.
+
+My father's favorite reading was plays and stories, although he also
+read works of history and the Scriptures. He pondered in silent thought
+afterwards upon that which he had read, but my mother did not understand
+him when he talked with her about them, and therefore he grew more and
+more silent. One day, he closed the Bible with the words, "Christ was a
+man like us, but an extraordinary man!" These words horrified my mother,
+and she burst into tears. In my distress I prayed to God that he would
+forgive this fearful blasphemy in my father. "There is no other devil
+than that which we have in our own hearts," I heard my father say one
+day and I made myself miserable about him and his soul; I was therefore
+entirely of the opinion of my mother and the neighbours, when my father,
+one morning, found three scratches on his arm, probably occasioned by
+a nail, that the devil had been to visit him in the night, in order to
+prove to him that he really existed. My father's rambles in the wood
+became more frequent; he had no rest. The events of the war in Germany,
+which he read in the newspapers with eager curiosity, occupied him
+completely. Napoleon was his hero: his rise from obscurity was the
+most beautiful example to him. At that time Denmark was in league with
+France; nothing was talked of but war; my father entered the service as
+a soldier, in hope of returning home a lieutenant. My mother wept. The
+neighbours shrugged their shoulders, and said that it was folly to go
+out to be shot when there was no occasion for it.
+
+The morning on which the corps were to march I heard my father singing
+and talking merrily, but his heart was deeply agitated; I observed that
+by the passionate manner in which he kissed me when he took his leave.
+I lay sick of the measles and alone in the room, when the drums beat and
+my mother accompanied my father, weeping, to the city gate. As soon as
+they were gone my old grandmother came in; she looked at me with her
+mild eyes and said, it would be a good thing if I died; but that God's
+will was always the best.
+
+That was the first day of real sorrow which I remember.
+
+The regiment advanced no farther than Holstein, peace was concluded, and
+the voluntary soldier returned to his work-stool. Everything fell into
+its old course. I played again with my dolls, acted comedies, and always
+in German, because I had only seen them in this language; but my German
+was a sort of gibberish which I made up, and in which there occurred
+only one real German word, and that was "_Besen_," a word which I had
+picked up out of the various dialects which my father brought home from
+Holstein.
+
+"Thou hast indeed some benefit from my travels," said he in joke. "God
+knows whether thou wilt get as far; but that must be thy care. Think
+about it, Hans Christian!" But it was my mother's intention that as long
+as she had any voice in the matter, I should remain at home, and not
+lose my health as he had done.
+
+That was the case with him; his health had suffered. One morning he woke
+in a state of the wildest excitement, and talked only of campaigns and
+Napoleon. He fancied that he had received orders from him to take the
+command. My mother immediately sent me, not to the physician, but to
+a so-called wise woman some miles from Odense. I went to her. She
+questioned me, measured my arm with a woolen thread, made extraordinary
+signs, and at last laid a green twig upon my breast. It was, she said, a
+piece of the same kind of tree upon which the Saviour was crucified.
+
+"Go now," said she, "by the river side towards home. If your father will
+die this time, then you will meet his ghost."
+
+My anxiety and distress may be imagined,--I, who was so full of
+superstition, and whose imagination was so easily excited.
+
+"And thou hast not met anything, hast thou?" inquired my mother when I
+got home. I assured her, with beating heart, that I had not.
+
+My father died the third day after that. His corpse lay on the bed:
+I therefore slept with my mother. A cricket chirped the whole night
+through.
+
+"He is dead," said my mother, addressing it; "thou needest not call him.
+The ice maiden has fetched him."
+
+I understood what she meant. I recollected that, in the winter before,
+when our window panes were frozen, my father pointed to them and showed
+us a figure as that of a maiden with outstretched arms. "She is come to
+fetch me," said he, in jest. And now, when he lay dead on the bed, my
+mother remembered this, and it occupied my thoughts also.
+
+He was buried in St. Knud's churchyard, by the door on the left hand
+side coming from the altar. My grandmother planted roses upon his grave.
+There are now in the selfsame place two strangers' graves, and the grass
+grows green upon them also.
+
+After my father's death I was entirely left to myself. My mother went
+out washing. I sate alone at home with my little theatre, made dolls'
+clothes and read plays. It has been told me that I was always clean and
+nicely dressed. I had grown tall; my hair was long, bright, and almost
+yellow, and I always went bare-headed. There dwelt in our neighborhood
+the widow of a clergyman, Madame Bunkeflod, with the sister of her
+deceased husband. This lady opened to me her door, and hers was the
+first house belonging to the educated class into which I was kindly
+received. The deceased clergyman had written poems, and had gained a
+reputation in Danish literature. His spinning songs were at that time
+in the mouths of the people. In my vignettes to the Danish poets I thus
+sang of him whom my contemporaries had forgotten:--
+
+  Spindles rattle, wheels turn round,
+    Spinning-songs depart;
+  Songs which youth sings soon become
+    Music of the heart.
+
+Here it was that I heard for the first time the word _poet_ spoken, and
+that with so much reverence, as proved it to be something sacred. It is
+true that my father had read Holberg's play to me; but here it was not
+of these that they spoke, but of verses and poetry. "My brother the
+poet," said Bunkeflod's sister, and her eyes sparkled as she said
+it. From her I learned that it was a something glorious, a something
+fortunate, to be a poet. Here, too, for the first time, I read
+Shakspeare, in a bad translation, to be sure; but the bold descriptions,
+the heroic incidents, witches, and ghosts were exactly to my taste. I
+immediately acted Shakspeare's plays on my little puppet theatre. I saw
+Hamlet's ghost, and lived upon the heath with Lear. The more persons
+died in a play, the more interesting I thought it. At this time I wrote
+my first piece: it was nothing less than a tragedy, wherein, as a matter
+of course, everybody died. The subject of it I borrowed from an old song
+about Pyramus and Thisbe; but I had increased the incidents through
+a hermit and his son, who both loved Thisbe, and who both killed
+themselves when she died. Many speeches of the hermit were passages from
+the Bible, taken out of the little catechism, especially from our duty
+to our neighbors. To the piece I gave the title "Abor and Elvira."
+
+"It ought to be called 'Perch (Aborre) and Stockfish,'" said one of our
+neighbors wittily to me, as I came with it to her after having read it
+with great satisfaction and joy to all the people in our street. This
+entirely depressed me, because I felt that she was turning both me and
+my poem to ridicule. With a troubled heart I told it to my mother.
+
+"She only said so," replied my mother, "because her son had not done
+it." I was comforted, and began a new piece, in which a king and queen
+were among the dramatis personae. I thought it was not quite right that
+these dignified personages, as in Shakspeare, should speak like other
+men and women. I asked my mother and different people how a king ought
+properly to speak, but no one knew exactly. They said that it was so
+many years since a king had been in Odense, but that he certainly spoke
+in a foreign language. I procured myself, therefore, a sort of lexicon,
+in which were German, French, and English words with Danish meanings,
+and this helped me. I took a word out of each language, and inserted
+them into the speeches of my king and queen. It was a regular Babel-like
+language, which I considered only suitable for such elevated personages.
+
+I desired now that everybody should hear my piece. It was a real
+felicity to me to read it aloud, and it never occurred to me that others
+should not have the same pleasure in listening to it.
+
+The son of one of our neighbors worked in a cloth manufactory, and every
+week brought home a sum of money. I was at a loose end, people said, and
+got nothing. I was also now to go to the manufactory, "not for the sake
+of the money," my mother said, "but that she might know where I was, and
+what I was doing."
+
+My old grandmother took me to the place, therefore, and was very much
+affected, because, said she, she had not expected to live to see the
+time when I should consort with the poor ragged lads that worked there.
+
+Many of the journeymen who were employed in the manufactory were
+Germans; they sang and were merry fellows, and many a coarse joke of
+theirs filled the place with loud laughter. I heard them, and I there
+learned that, to the innocent ears of a child, the impure remains very
+unintelligible. It took no hold upon my heart. I was possessed at that
+time of a remarkably beautiful and high soprano voice, and I knew it;
+because when I sang in my parents' little garden, the people in the
+street stood and listened, and the fine folks in the garden of the
+states-councillor, which adjoined ours, listened at the fence. When,
+therefore, the people at the manufactory asked me whether I could sing,
+I immediately began, and all the looms stood still: all the journeymen
+listened to me. I had to sing again and again, whilst the other boys had
+my work given them to do. I now told them that I also could act plays,
+and that I knew whole scenes of Holberg and Shakspeare. Everybody liked
+me; and in this way, the first days in the manufactory passed on very
+merrily. One day, however, when I was in my best singing vein, and
+everybody spoke of the extraordinary brilliancy of my voice, one of the
+journeymen said that I was a girl, and not a boy. He seized hold of me.
+I cried and screamed. The other journeymen thought it very amusing,
+and held me fast by my arms and legs. I screamed aloud, and was as
+much ashamed as a girl; and then, darting from them, rushed home to my
+mother, who immediately promised me that I should never go there again.
+
+I again visited Madame Bunkeflod, for whose birthday I invented and made
+a white silk pincushion. I also made an acquaintance with another old
+clergyman's widow in the neighborhood. She permitted me to read aloud
+to her the works which she had from the circulating library. One of
+them began with these words: "It was a tempestuous night; the rain beat
+against the window-panes."
+
+"That is an extraordinary book," said the old lady; and I quite
+innocently asked her how she knew that it was. "I can tell from the
+beginning," said she, "that it will turn out extraordinary."
+
+I regarded her penetration with a sort of reverence.
+
+Once in the harvest time my mother took me with her many miles from
+Odense to a nobleman's seat in the neighborhood of Bogense, her native
+place. The lady who lived there, and with whose parents my mother had
+lived, had said that some time she might come and see her. That was a
+great journey for me: we went most of the way on foot, and required, I
+believe, two days for the journey. The country here made such a strong
+impression upon me, that my most earnest wish was to remain in it, and
+become a countryman. It was just in the hop-picking season; my mother
+and I sat in the barn with a great many country people round a great
+binn, and helped to pick the hops. They told tales as they sat at
+their work, and every one related what wonderful things he had seen or
+experienced. One afternoon I heard an old man among them say that God
+knew every thing, both what had happened and what would happen. That
+idea occupied my whole mind, and towards evening, as I went alone from
+the court, where there was a deep pond, and stood upon some stones which
+were just within the water, the thought passed through my head, whether
+God actually knew everything which was to happen there. Yes, he has now
+determined that I should live and be so many years old, thought I; but,
+if I now were to jump into the water here and drown myself, then it
+would not be as he wished; and all at once I was firmly and resolutely
+determined to drown myself. I ran to where the water was deepest, and
+then a new thought passed through my soul. "It is the devil who wishes
+to have power over me!" I uttered a loud cry, and, running away from
+the place as if I were pursued, fell weeping into my mother's arms. But
+neither she nor any one else could wring from me what was amiss with me.
+
+"He has certainly seen a ghost," said one of the women; and I almost
+believed so myself.
+
+My mother married a second time, a young handicraftsman; but his family,
+who also belonged to the handicraft class, thought that he had married
+below himself, and neither my mother nor myself were permitted to visit
+them. My step-father was a young, grave man, who would have nothing to
+do with my education. I spent my time, therefore, over my peep show and
+my puppet theatre, and my greatest happiness consisted in collecting
+bright colored pieces of cloth and silk, which I cut out myself and
+sewed. My mother regarded it as good exercise preparatory to my becoming
+a tailor, and took up the idea that I certainly was born for it. I, on
+the contrary, said that I would go to the theatre and be an actor, a
+wish which my mother most sedulously opposed, because she knew of no
+other theatre than those of the strolling players and the rope-dancers.
+No, a tailor I must and should be. The only thing which in some measure
+reconciled me to this prospect was, that I should then get so many
+fragments to make up for my theatre.
+
+My passion for reading, the many dramatic scenes which I knew by heart,
+and my remarkably fine voice, had turned upon me in some sort the
+attention of several of the more influential families of Odense. I was
+sent for to their houses, and the peculiar characteristics of my mind
+excited their interest. Among others who noticed me was the Colonel
+Hoegh-Guldberg, who with his family showed me the kindest sympathy; so
+much so, indeed, that he introduced me to the present king, then Prince
+Christian.
+
+I grew rapidly, and was a tall lad, of whom my mother said that she
+could not let him any longer go about without any object in life. I
+was sent, therefore, to the charity school, but learned only religion,
+writing, and arithmetic, and the last badly enough; I could also
+scarcely spell a word correctly. On the master's birthday I always wove
+him a garland and wrote him a poem; he received them half with smiles
+and half as a joke; the last time, however, he scolded me. The street
+lads had also heard from their parents of my peculiar turn of mind,
+and that I was in the habit of going to the houses of the gentry. I was
+therefore one day pursued by a wild crowd of them, who shouted after
+me derisively, "There runs the play-writer!" I hid myself at home in a
+corner, wept, and prayed to God.
+
+My mother said that I must be confirmed, in order that I might be
+apprenticed to the tailor trade, and thus do something rational. She
+loved me with her whole heart, but she did not understand my impulses
+and my endeavors, nor indeed at that time did I myself. The people about
+her always spoke against my odd ways, and turned me to ridicule.
+
+We belonged to the parish of St. Knud, and the candidates for
+confirmation could either enter their names with the prevost or the
+chaplain. The children of the so-called superior families and the
+scholars of the grammar school went to the first, and the children of
+the poor to the second. I, however, announced myself as a candidate
+to the prevost, who was obliged to receive me, although he discovered
+vanity in my placing myself among his catechists, where, although taking
+the lowest place, I was still above those who were under the care of
+the chaplain. I would, however, hope that it was not alone vanity which
+impelled me. I had a sort of fear of the poor boys, who had laughed at
+me, and I always felt as it were an inward drawing towards the scholars
+of the grammar school, whom I regarded as far better than other boys.
+When I saw them playing in the church-yard, I would stand outside the
+railings, and wish that I were but among the fortunate ones,--not for
+the sake of play, but for the sake of the many books they had, and
+for what they might be able to become in the world. With the prevost,
+therefore, I should be able to come together with them, and be as
+they were; but I do not remember a single one of them now, so little
+intercourse would they hold with me. I had daily the feeling of having
+thrust myself in where people thought that I did not belong. One young
+girl, however, there was, and one who was considered too of the highest
+rank, whom I shall afterwards have to mention; she always looked gently
+and kindly at me, and even once gave me a rose. I returned home full of
+happiness, because there was one being who did not overlook and repel
+me.
+
+An old female tailor altered my deceased father's great coat into a
+confirmation suit for me; never before had I worn so good a coat. I
+had also for the first time in my life a pair of boots. My delight was
+extremely great; my only fear was that everybody would not see them, and
+therefore I drew them up over my trousers, and thus marched through the
+church. The boots creaked, and that inwardly pleased me, for thus
+the congregation would hear that they were new. My whole devotion
+was disturbed; I was aware of it, and it caused me a horrible pang of
+conscience that my thoughts should be as much with my new boots as with
+God. I prayed him earnestly from my heart to forgive me, and then again
+I thought about my new boots.
+
+During the last year I had saved together a little sum of money. When
+I counted it over I found it to be thirteen rix dollars banco (about
+thirty shillings) I was quite overjoyed at the possession of so much
+wealth, and as my mother now most resolutely required that I should be
+apprenticed to a tailor, I prayed and besought her that I might make a
+journey to Copenhagen, that I might see the greatest city in the world.
+"What wilt thou do there?" asked my mother.
+
+"I will become famous," returned I, and I then told her all that I
+had read about extraordinary men. "People have," said I, "at first an
+immense deal of adversity to go through, and then they will be famous."
+
+It was a wholly unintelligible impulse that guided me. I wept, I prayed,
+and at last my mother consented, after having first sent for a so-called
+wise woman out of the hospital, that she might read my future fortune by
+the coffee-grounds and cards.
+
+"Your son will become a great man," said the old woman, "and in honor of
+him, Odense will one day be illuminated."
+
+My mother wept when she heard that, and I obtained permission to travel.
+All the neighbors told my mother that it was a dreadful thing to let me,
+at only fourteen years of age, go to Copenhagen, which was such a long
+way off, and such a great and intricate city, and where I knew nobody.
+
+"Yes," replied my mother, "but he lets me have no peace; I have
+therefore given my consent, but I am sure that he will go no further
+than Nyborg; when he gets sight of the rough sea, he will be frightened
+and turn back again."
+
+During the summer before my confirmation, a part of the singers and
+performers of the Theatre Royal had been in Odense, and had given a
+series of operas and tragedies there. The whole city was taken
+with them. I, who was on good terms with the man who delivered the
+play-bills, saw the performances behind the scenes, and had even acted a
+part as page, shepherd, etc., and had spoken a few words. My zeal was
+so great on such occasions, that I stood there fully apparelled when the
+actors arrived to dress. By these means their attention was turned to
+me; my childlike manners and my enthusiasm amused them; they talked
+kindly with me, and I looked up to them as to earthly divinities.
+Everything which I had formerly heard about my musical voice, and my
+recitation of poetry, became intelligible to me. It was the theatre for
+which I was born: it was there that I should become a famous man, and
+for that reason Copenhagen was the goal of my endeavors. I heard a deal
+said about the large theatre in Copenhagen, and that there was to be
+soon what was called the ballet, a something which surpassed both the
+opera and the play; more especially did I hear the solo-dancer, Madame
+Schall, spoken of as the first of all. She therefore appeared to me as
+the queen of everything, and in my imagination I regarded her as the one
+who would be able to do everything for me, if I could only obtain her
+support. Filled with these thoughts, I went to the old printer Iversen,
+one of the most respectable citizens of Odense, and who, as I heard, had
+had considerable intercourse with the actors when they were in the town.
+He, I thought, must of necessity be acquainted with the famous dancer;
+him I would request to give me a letter of introduction to her, and then
+I would commit the rest to God.
+
+The old man saw me for the first time, and heard my petition with much
+kindness; but he dissuaded me most earnestly from it, and said that I
+might learn a trade.
+
+"That would actually be a great sin," returned I.
+
+He was startled at the manner in which I said that, and it prepossessed
+him in my favor; he confessed that he was not personally acquainted with
+the dancer, but still that he would give me a letter to her. I received
+one from him, and now believed the goal to be nearly won.
+
+My mother packed up my clothes in a small bundle, and made a bargain
+with the driver of a post carriage to take me back with him to
+Copenhagen for three rix dollars banco. The afternoon on which we were
+to set out came, and my mother accompanied me to the city gate. Here
+stood my old grandmother; in the last few years her beautiful hair had
+become grey; she fell upon my neck and wept, without being able to speak
+a word. I was myself deeply affected. And thus we parted. I saw her no
+more; she died in the following year.
+
+I do not even know her grave; she sleeps in the poor-house
+burial-ground.
+
+The postilion blew his horn; it was a glorious sunny afternoon, and the
+sunshine soon entered into my gay child-like mind. I delighted in every
+novel object which met my eye, and I was journeying towards the goal of
+my soul's desires. When, however, I arrived at Nyborg on the great Belt,
+and was borne in the ship away from my native island, I then truly felt
+how alone and forlorn I was, and that I had no one else except God in
+heaven to depend upon.
+
+As soon as I set foot on Zealand, I stepped behind a shed, which stood
+on the shore, and falling upon my knees, besought of God to help and
+guide me aright; I felt myself comforted by so doing, and I firmly
+trusted in God and my own good fortune. The whole day and the following
+night I travelled through cities and villages; I stood solitarily by the
+carriage, and ate my bread while it was repacked.--I thought I was far
+away in the wide world.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+On Monday morning, September 5th, 1819, I saw from the heights of
+Frederiksburg, Copenhagen, for the first time. At this place I alighted
+from the carriage, and with my little bundle in my hand, entered the
+city through the castle garden, the long alley and the suburb.
+
+The evening before my arrival had been made memorable by the breaking
+out of the so-called Jews quarrel, which spread through many European
+countries. The whole city was in commotion [Footnote: This remarkable
+disturbance makes a fine incident in Anderson's romance of "Only a
+Fiddler."--M. H.]; every body was in the streets; the noise and tumult
+of Copenhagen far exceeded, therefore, any idea which my imagination had
+formed of this, at that time, to me great city.
+
+With scarcely ten dollars in my pocket, I turned into a small
+public-house. My first ramble was to the theatre. I went round it many
+times; I looked up to its walls, and regarded them almost as a home. One
+of the bill-sellers, who wandered about here each day, observed me, and
+asked me if I would have a bill. I was so wholly ignorant of the world,
+that I thought the man wished to give me one; I therefore accepted his
+offer with thankfulness. He fancied I was making fun of him and was
+angry; so that I was frightened, and hastened from the place which was
+to me the dearest in the city. Little did I then imagine that ten years
+afterwards my first dramatic piece would be represented there, and that
+in this manner I should make my appearance before the Danish public. On
+the following day I dressed myself in my confirmation suit, nor were the
+boots forgotten, although, this time, they were worn, naturally, under
+my trousers; and thus, in my best attire, with a hat on, which fell half
+over my eyes, I hastened to present my letter of introduction to the
+dancer, Madame Schall. Before I rung at the bell, I fell on my knees
+before the door and prayed God that I here might find help and support.
+A maid-servant came down the steps with her basket in her hand; she
+smiled kindly at me, gave me a skilling (Danish), and tripped on.
+Astonished, I looked at her and the money. I had on my confirmation
+suit, and thought I must look very smart. How then could she think that
+I wanted to beg? I called after her.
+
+"Keep it, keep it!" said she to me, in return, and was gone.
+
+At length I was admitted to the dancer; she looked at me in great
+amazement, and then heard what I had to say. She had not the slightest
+knowledge of him from whom the letter came, and my whole appearance and
+behavior seemed very strange to her. I confessed to her my heartfelt
+inclination for the theatre; and upon her asking me what characters I
+thought I could represent, I replied, Cinderella. This piece had been
+performed in Odense by the royal company, and the principal characters
+had so greatly taken my fancy, that I could play the part perfectly from
+memory. In the mean time I asked her permission to take off my boots,
+otherwise I was not light enough for this character; and then taking up
+my broad hat for a tambourine, I began to dance and sing,--
+
+  "Here below, nor rank nor riches,   Are exempt from pain and woe."
+
+My strange gestures and my great activity caused the lady to think me
+out of my mind, and she lost no time in getting rid of me.
+
+From her I went to the manager of the theatre, to ask for an engagement.
+He looked at me, and said that I was "too thin for the theatre."
+
+"Oh," replied I, "if you will only engage me with one hundred rix
+dollars banco salary, then I shall soon get fat!" The manager bade me
+gravely go my way, adding, that they only engaged people of education.
+
+I stood there deeply wounded. I knew no one in all Copenhagen who could
+give me either counsel or consolation. I thought of death as being the
+only thing, and the best thing for me; but even then my thoughts rose
+upwards to God, and with all the undoubting confidence of a child in his
+father, they riveted themselves upon Him. I wept bitterly, and then I
+said to myself, "When everything happens really miserably, then he sends
+help. I have always read so. People must first of all suffer a great
+deal before they can bring anything to accomplishment."
+
+I now went and bought myself a gallery-ticket for the opera of Paul and
+Virginia. The separation of the lovers affected me to such a degree,
+that I burst into violent weeping. A few women, who sat near me,
+consoled me by saying that it was only a play, and nothing to trouble
+oneself about; and then they gave me a sausage sandwich. I had the
+greatest confidence in everybody, and therefore I told them, with the
+utmost openness, that I did not really weep about Paul and Virginia,
+but because I regarded the theatre as my Virginia, and that if I must be
+separated from it, I should be just as wretched as Paul. They looked at
+me, and seemed not to understand my meaning. I then told them why I
+had come to Copenhagen, and how forlorn I was there. One of the women,
+therefore, gave me more, bread andebutter, with fruit and cakes.
+
+On the following morning I paid my bill, and to my infinite trouble
+I saw that my whole wealth consisted in one rix dollar banco. It was
+necessary, therefore, either that I should find some vessel to take me
+home, or put myself to work with some handicraftsman. I considered that
+the last was the wiser of the two, because, if I returned to Odense, I
+must there also put myself to work of a similar kind; besides which, I
+knew very well that the people there would laugh at me if I came back
+again. It was to me a matter of indifference what handicraft trade
+I learned,--I only should make use of it to keep life within me
+in Copenhagen. I bought a newspaper, therefore. I found among the
+advertisements that a cabinet maker was in want of an apprentice. The
+man received me kindly, but said that before I was bound to him he must
+have an attestation, and my baptismal register from Odense; and that
+till these came I could remove to his house, and try how the business
+pleased me. At six o'clock the next morning I went to the workshop:
+several journeymen were there, and two or three apprentices; but the
+master was not come. They fell into merry and idle discourse. I was as
+bashful as a girl, and as they soon perceived this, I was unmercifully
+rallied upon it. Later in the day the rude jests of the young fellows
+went so far, that, in remembrance of the scene at the manufactory, I
+took the resolute determination not to remain a single day longer in
+the workshop. I went down to the master, therefore, and told him that I
+could not stand it; he tried to console me, but in vain: I was too much
+affected, and hastened away.
+
+I now went through the streets; nobody knew me; I was quite forlorn. I
+then bethought myself of having read in a newspaper in Odense the name
+of an Italian, Siboni, who was the director of the Academy of Music in
+Copenhagen. Everybody had praised my voice; perhaps he would assist me
+for its sake; if not, then that very evening I must seek out the master
+of some vessel who would take me home again. At the thoughts of the
+journey home I became still more violently excited, and in this state of
+suffering I hastened to Siboni's house.
+
+It happened that very day that he had a large party to dinner; our
+celebrated composer Weyse was there, the poet Baggesen, and other
+guests. The housekeeper opened the door to me, and to her I not only
+related my wish to be engaged as a singer, but also the whole history
+of my life. She listened to me with the greatest sympathy, and then she
+left me. I waited a long time, and she must have been repeating to the
+company the greater part of what I had said, for, in a while, the door
+opened, and all the guests came out and looked at me. They would have
+me to sing, and Siboni heard me attentively. I gave some scenes out of
+Holberg, and repeated a few poems; and then, all at once, the sense of
+my unhappy condition so overcame me that I burst into tears; the whole
+company applauded.
+
+"I prophesy," said Baggesen, "that one day something will come out of
+him; but do not be vain when, some day, the whole public shall applaud
+thee!" and then he added something about pure, true nature, and that
+this is too often destroyed by years and by intercourse with mankind. I
+did not understand it all.
+
+Siboni promised to cultivate my voice, and that I therefore should
+succeed as singer at the Theatre Royal. It made me very happy; I laughed
+and wept; and as the housekeeper led me out and saw the excitement under
+which I labored, she stroked my cheeks, and said that on the following
+day I should go to Professor Weyse, who meant to do something for me,
+and upon whom I could depend.
+
+I went to Weyse, who himself had risen from poverty; he had deeply
+felt and fully comprehended my unhappy situation, and had raised by a
+subscription seventy rix dollars banco for me. I then wrote my first
+letter to my mother, a letter full of rejoicing, for the good fortune
+of the whole world seemed poured upon me. My mother in her joy showed
+my letter to all her friends; many heard of it with astonishment; others
+laughed at it, for what was to be the end of it? In order to understand
+Siboni it was necessary for me to learn something of German. A woman
+of Copenhagen, with whom I travelled from Odense to this city, and
+who gladly, according to her means, would have supported me, obtained,
+through one of her acquaintance, a language-master, who gratuitously
+gave me some German lessons, and thus I learned a few phrases in that
+language. Siboni received me into his house, and gave me food and
+instruction; but half a year afterwards my voice broke, or was injured,
+in consequence of my being compelled to wear bad shoes through the
+winter, and having besides no warm under-clothing. There was no longer
+any prospect that I should become a fine singer. Siboni told me that
+candidly, and counselled me to go to Odense, and there learn a trade.
+
+I, who in the rich colors of fancy had described to my mother the
+happiness which I actually felt, must now return home and become an
+object of derision! Agonized with this thought, I stood as if crushed
+to the earth. Yet, precisely amid this apparently great un-happiness lay
+the stepping-stones of a better fortune.
+
+As I found myself again abandoned, and was pondering by myself upon what
+was best for me next to do, it occurred to me that the Poet Guldberg, a
+brother of the Colonel of that name in Odense, who had shown me so
+much kindness, lived in Copenhagen. He lived at that time near the new
+church-yard outside the city, of which he has so beautifully sung in his
+poems. I wrote to him, and related to him everything; afterwards I went
+to him myself, and found him surrounded with books and tobacco pipes.
+The strong, warm-hearted man received me kindly; and as he saw by my
+letter how incorrectly I wrote, he promised to give me instruction in
+the Danish tongue; he examined me a little in German, and thought that
+it would be well if he could improve me in this respect also. More than
+this, he made me a present of the profits of a little work which he had
+just then published; it became known, and I believe they exceeded one
+hundred rix dollars banco; the excellent Weyse and others also supported
+me.
+
+It was too expensive for me to lodge at a public house; I was therefore
+obliged to seek for private lodgings. My ignorance of the world led
+me to a widow who lived in one of the most disreputable streets of
+Copenhagen; she was inclined to receive me into her house, and I never
+suspected what kind of world it was which moved around me. She was a
+stern, but active dame; she described to me the other people of the city
+in such horrible colors as made me suppose that I was in the only safe
+haven there. I was to pay twenty rix dollars monthly for one room, which
+was nothing but an empty store-room, without window and light, but I had
+permission to sit in her parlor. I was to make trial of it at first for
+two days, meantime on the following day she told me that I could decide
+to stay or immediately go. I, who so easily attach myself to people,
+already liked her, and felt myself at home with her; but more than
+sixteen dollars per month Weyse had told me I must not pay, and this was
+the sum which I had received from him and Guldberg, so that no surplus
+remained to me for my other expenses. This troubled me very much;
+when she was gone out of the room, I seated myself on the sofa, and
+contemplated the portrait of her deceased husband.
+
+I was so wholly a child, that as the tears rolled down my own cheeks,
+I wetted the eyes of the portrait with my tears, in order that the dead
+man might feel how troubled I was, and influence the heart of his wife.
+She must have seen that nothing more was to be drained out of me, for
+when she returned to the room she said that she would receive me into
+her house for the sixteen rix dollars. I thanked God and the dead man. I
+found myself in the midst of the mysteries of Copenhagen, but I did
+not understand how to interpret them. There was in the house in which
+I lived a friendly young lady, who lived alone, and often wept; every
+evening her old father came and paid her a visit. I opened the door to
+him frequently; he wore a plain sort of coat, had his throat very much
+tied up, and his hat pulled over his eyes. He always drank his tea with
+her, and nobody dared to be present, because he was not fond of company:
+she never seemed very glad at his coming. [Footnote: This character will
+be recognised in Steffen Margaret, in Only a Fiddler.--M. H.] Many years
+afterwards, when I had reached another step on the ladder of life, when
+the refined world of fashionable life was opened before me, I saw
+one evening, in the midst of a brilliantly lighted hall, a polite old
+gentleman covered with orders--that was the old father in the shabby
+coat, he whom I had let in. He had little idea that I had opened the
+door to him when he played his part as guest, but I, on my side, then
+had also no thought but for my own comedy-playing; that is to say, I was
+at that time so much of a child that I played with my puppet-theatre and
+made my dolls' clothes; and in order that I might obtain gaily-colored
+fragments for this purpose, I used to go to the shops and ask for
+patterns of various kinds of stuffs and ribbons. I myself did not
+possess a single farthing; my landlady received all the money each month
+in advance; only now and then, when I did any errands for her, she
+gave me something, and that went in the purchase of paper or for old
+play-books. I was now very happy, and was doubly so because Professor
+Guldberg had induced Lindgron, the first comic actor at the theatre, to
+give me instruction. He gave me several parts in Holberg to learn, such
+as Hendrik, and the Silly Boy, for which I had shown some talent. My
+desire, however, was to play the Correggio. I obtained permission to
+learn this piece in my own way, although Lindgron asked, with comic
+gravity, whether I expected to resemble the great painter? I, however,
+repeated to him the soliloquy in the picture gallery with so much
+feeling, that the old man clapped me on the shoulder and said, "Feeling
+you have; but you must not be an actor, though God knows what else.
+Speak to Guldberg about your learning Latin: that always opens the way
+for a student."
+
+I a student! That was a thought which had never come before into my
+head. The theatre lay nearer to me, and was dearer too; but Latin I
+had also always wished to learn. But before I spoke on the subject to
+Guldberg, I mentioned it to the lady who gave me gratuitous instruction
+in German; but she told me that Latin was the most expensive language in
+the world, and that it was not possible to gain free instruction in
+it. Guldberg, however, managed it so that one of his friends, out of
+kindness, gave me two lessons a week.
+
+The dancer, Dahlen, whose wife at that time was one of the first
+artistes on the Danish boards, opened his house to me. I passed many
+an evening there, and the gentle, warm-hearted lady was kind to me. The
+husband took me with him to the dancing-school, and that was to me one
+step nearer to the theatre. There stood I for whole mornings, with a
+long staff, and stretched my legs; but notwithstanding all my good-will,
+it was Dahlen's opinion that I should never get beyond a figurante.
+One advantage, however, I had gained; I might in an evening make my
+appearance behind the scenes of the theatre; nay, even sit upon the
+farthest bench in the box of the figurantes. It seemed to me as if I had
+got my foot just within the theatre, although I had never yet been upon
+the stage itself.
+
+One night the little opera of the Two Little Savoyards was given; in
+the market scene every one, even the mechanists, might go up to help in
+filling the stage; I heard them say so, and rouging myself a little,
+I went happily up with the others. I was in my ordinary dress; the
+confirmation coat, which still held together, although, with regard to
+brushing and repairs, it lookedebut miserably, and the great hat which
+fell down over my face. I was very conscious of the ill condition of my
+attire, and would have been glad to have concealed it; but, through the
+endeavor to do so, my movements became still more angular. I did not
+dare to hold myself upright, because, by so doing, I exhibited all the
+more plainly the shortness of my waistcoat, which I had outgrown. I had
+the feeling very plainly that people would make themselves merry about
+me; yet, at this moment, I felt nothing but the happiness of stepping
+for the first time before the foot-lamps. My heart beat; I stepped
+forward; there came up one of the singers, who at that time was much
+thought of, but now is forgotten; he took me by the hand, and jeeringly
+wished me happiness on my debut. "Allow me to introduce you to the
+Danish public," said he, and drew me forward to the lamps. The people
+would laugh at me--I felt it; the tears rolled down my cheeks; I tore
+myself loose, and left the stage full of anguish.
+
+Shortly after this, Dahlen arranged a ballet of Armida, in which
+I received a little part: I was a spirit. In this ballet I became
+acquainted with the lady of Professor Heiberg, the wife of the poet, and
+now a highly esteemed actress on the Danish stage; she, then a little
+girl, had also a part in it, and our names stood printed in the bill.
+That was a moment in my life, when my name was printed! I fancied I
+could see it a nimbus of immortality. I was continually looking at the
+printed paper. I carried the programme of the ballet with me at night to
+bed, lay and read my name by candle light--in short, I was happy.
+
+I had now been two years in Copenhagen. The sum of money which had been
+collected for me was expended, but I was ashamed of making known my
+wants and my necessities. I had removed to the house of a woman whose
+husband, when living, was master of a trading-vessel, and there I had
+only lodging and breakfast. Those were heavy, dark days for me.
+
+The lady believed that I went out to dine with various families, whilst
+I only ate a little bread on one of the benches in the royal garden.
+Very rarely did I venture into some of the lowest eating-houses, and
+choose there the least expensive dish. I was, in truth, very forlorn;
+but I did not feel the whole weight of my condition. Every person who
+spoke to me kindly I took for a faithful friend. God was with me in my
+little room; and many a night, when I have said my evening prayer, I
+asked of Him, like a child, "Will things soon be better with me?" I had
+the notion, that as it went with me on New Year's Day, so would it go
+with me through the whole year; and my highest wishes were to obtain a
+part in a play.
+
+It was now New Year's Day. The theatre was closed, and only a half-blind
+porter sat at the entrance to the stage, on which there was not a soul.
+I stole past him with beating heart, got between the movable scenes and
+the curtain, and advanced to the open part of the stage. Here I fell
+down upon my knees, but not a single verse for declamation could I
+recall to my memory. I then said aloud the Lord's Prayer, and went out
+with the persuasion, that because I had spoken from the stage on New
+Year's Day, I should in the course of the year succeed in speaking still
+more, as well as in having a part assigned to me.
+
+During the two years of my residence in Copenhagen I had never been out
+into the open country. Once only had I been in the park, and there I had
+been deeply engrossed by studying the diversions of the people and their
+gay tumult. In the spring of the third year, I went out for the first
+time amid the verdure of a spring morning. It was into the garden of
+the Fredericksberg, the summer residence of Frederick VI. I stood still
+suddenly under the first large budding beech tree. The sun made the
+leaves transparent--there was a fragrance, a freshness--the birds sang.
+I was overcome by it--I shouted aloud for joy, threw my arms around the
+tree and kissed it.
+
+"Is he mad?" said a man close behind me. It was one of the servants
+of the castle. I ran away, shocked at what I had heard, and then went
+thoughtfully and calmly back to the city.
+
+My voice had, in the mean time, in part regained its richness. The
+singing master of the choir-school heard it, offered me a place in
+the school, thinking that, by singing with the choir, I should acquire
+greater freedom in the exercise of my powers on the stage. I thought
+that I could see by this means a new way opened for me. I went from the
+dancing-school into the singing-school, and entered the choir, now as
+a shepherd, and now as a warrior. The theatre was my world. I had
+permission to go in the pit, and thus it fared ill with my Latin. I
+heard many people say that there was no Latin required for singing
+in the choir, and that without the knowledge of this language it was
+possible to become a great actor. I thought there was good sense in
+that, and very often, either with or without reason, excused myself
+from my Latin evening lesson. Guldberg became aware of this, and for the
+first time I received a reprimand which almost crushed me to the earth.
+I fancy that no criminal could suffer more by hearing the sentence
+of death pronounced upon him. My distress of mind must have expressed
+itself in my countenance, for he said "Do not act any more comedy." But
+it was no comedy to me.
+
+I was now to learn Latin no longer. I felt my dependence upon the
+kindness of others in such a degree as I had never done before.
+Occasionally I had had gloomy and earnest thoughts in looking forward
+to my future, because I was in want of the very necessaries of life; at
+other times I had the perfect thoughtlessness of a child.
+
+The widow of the celebrated Danish statesman, Christian Colbj÷rnsen,
+and her daughter, were the first ladies of high rank who cordially
+befriended the poor lad; who listened to me with sympathy, and saw
+me frequently. Mrs. von Colbj÷rnsen resided, during the summer, at
+Bakkehus, where also lived the poet Rahbek and his interesting wife.
+Rahbek never spoke to me; but his lively and kind-hearted wife often
+amused herself with me. I had at that time again begun to write a
+tragedy, which I read aloud to her. Immediately on hearing the first
+scenes, she exclaimed, "But you have actually taken whole passages out
+of Oehlenschl ger and Ingemann."
+
+"Yes, but they are so beautiful!" replied I in my simplicity, and read
+on.
+
+One day, when I was going from her to Mrs. von Colbj÷rnsen, she gave
+me a handful of roses, and said, "Will you take them up to her? It will
+certainly give her pleasure to receive them from the hand of a poet."
+These words were said half in jest; but it was the first time that
+anybody had connected my name with that of poet. It went through me,
+body and soul, and tears filled my eyes. I know that, from this very
+moment, my mind was awoke to writing and poetry. Formerly it had been
+merely an amusement by way of variety from my puppet-theatre.
+
+At Bakkehus lived also Professor Thiele, a young student at that time,
+but even then the editor of the Danish popular legends, and known to
+the public as the solver of Baggesen's riddle, and as the writer of
+beautiful poetry. He was possessed of sentiment, true inspiration, and
+heart. He had calmly and attentively watched the unfolding of my mind,
+until we now became friends. He was one of the few who, at that time,
+spoke the truth of me, when other people were making themselves merry
+at my expense, and having only eyes for that which was ludicrous in me.
+People had called me, in jest, the little orator, and, as such, I was
+an object of curiosity. They found amusement in me, and I mistook every
+smile for a smile of applause. One of my later friends has told me that
+it probably was about this period that he saw me for the first time. It
+was in the drawing-room of a rich tradesman, where people were making
+themselves very merry with me. They desired me to repeat one of my
+poems, and, as I did this with great feeling, the merriment was changed
+into sympathy with me.
+
+I heard it said every day, what a good thing it would be for me if I
+could study. People advised me to devote myself to science, but no one
+moved one step to enable me to do so; it was labor enough for me to keep
+body and soul together. It therefore occurred to me to write a tragedy,
+which I would offer to the Theatre Royal, and would then begin to study
+with the money which I should thus obtain. Whilst Guldberg instructed
+me in Danish, I had written a tragedy from a German story, called The
+Chapel in the Wood; yet as this was done merely as an exercise in the
+language, and, as he forbade me in the most decided manner to bring it
+out, I would not do so. I originated my own material, therefore; and
+within fourteen days I wrote my national tragedy called the Robbers in
+Wissenberg (the name of a little village in Funen.) There was scarcely
+a word in it correctly written, as I had no person to help me, because
+I meant it to be anonymous; there was, nevertheless, one person admitted
+into the secret, namely, the young lady whom I had met with in Odense,
+during my preparation for confirmation, the only one who at that
+time showed me kindness and good-will. It was through her that I was
+introduced to the Colbj÷rnsen family, and thus known and received in all
+those circles of which the one leads into the other. She paid some one
+to prepare a legible copy of my piece, and undertook to present it for
+perusal. After an interval of six weeks, I received it back, accompanied
+by a letter which said the people did not frequently wish to retain
+works which betrayed, in so great a degree, a want of elementary
+knowledge.
+
+It was just at the close of the theatrical season, in May, 1823, that I
+received a letter from the directors, by which I was dismissed from
+the singing and dancing school, the letter adding also, that my
+participation in the school-teaching could lead to no advantage for me,
+but that they wished some of my many friends would enable me to receive
+an education, without which, talent availed nothing. I felt myself
+again, as it were, cast out into the wide world without help and without
+support. It was absolutely necessary that I should write a piece for the
+theatre, and that _must_ be accepted; there was no other salvation for
+me. I wrote, therefore, a tragedy founded on a passage in history, and
+I called it Alfsol. I was delighted with the first act, and with this I
+immediately went to the Danish translator of Shakspeare, Admiral Wulff,
+now deceased, who good-naturedly heard me read it. In after years I
+met with the most cordial reception in his family. At that time I also
+introduced myself to our celebrated physician Oersted, and his house has
+remained to me to this day an affectionate home, to which my heart has
+firmly attached itself, and where I find my oldest and most unchangeable
+friends.
+
+A favorite preacher, the rural dean Gutfeldt, was living at that time,
+and he it was who exerted himself most earnestly for my tragedy, which
+was now finished; and having written a letter of recommendation, he
+sent it to the managers of the theatre. I was suspended between hope and
+fear. In the course of the summer I endured bitter want, but I told it
+to no one, else many a one, whose sympathy I had experienced, would have
+helped me to the utmost of their means. A false shame prevented me from
+confessing what I endured. Still happiness filled my heart. I read then
+for the first time the works of Walter Scott. A new world was opened to
+me: I forgot the reality, and gave to the circulating library that which
+should have provided me with a dinner.
+
+The present conference councillor, Collin, one of the most distinguished
+men of Denmark, who unites with the greatest ability the noblest and
+best heart, to whom I looked up with confidence in all things, who has
+been a second father to me, and in whose children I have found brothers
+and sisters;--this excellent man I saw now for the first time. He was at
+that time director of the Theatre Royal, and people universally told me
+that it would be the best thing for me if he would interest himself on
+my behalf: it was either Oersted or Gutfeldt who first mentioned me to
+him; and now for the first time I went to that house which was to become
+so dear to me. Before the ramparts of Copenhagen were extended, this
+house lay outside the gate, and served as a summer residence to
+the Spanish Ambassador; now, however, it stands, a crooked, angular
+frame-work building, in a respectable street; an old-fashioned wooden
+balcony leads to the entrance, and a great tree spreads its green
+branches over the court and its pointed gables. It was to become a
+paternal house to me. Who does not willingly linger over the description
+of home?
+
+I discovered only the man of business in Collin; his conversation was
+grave and in few words. I went away, without expecting any sympathy from
+this man; and yet it was precisely Collin who in all sincerity thought
+for my advantage, and who worked for it silently, as he had done for
+others, through the whole course of his active life. But at that time I
+did not understand the apparent calmness with which he listened, whilst
+his heart bled for the afflicted, and he always labored for them with
+zeal and success, and knew how to help them. He touched so lightly upon
+my tragedy, which had been sent to him, and on account of which many
+people had overwhelmed me with flattering speeches, that I regarded him
+rather as an enemy than a protector.
+
+In a few day I was sent for by the directors of the theatre, when Rahbek
+gave me back my play as useless for the stage; adding, however, that
+there were so many grains of corn scattered in it, that it was hoped,
+that perhaps, by earnest study, after going to school and the previous
+knowledge of all that is requisite, I might, some time, be able to write
+a work which should be worthy of being acted on the Danish stage.
+
+In order therefore to obtain the means for my support and the necessary
+instruction, Collin recommended me to King Frederick the Sixth, who
+granted to me a certain sum annually for some years; and, by means of
+Collin also, the directors of the high schools allowed me to receive
+free instruction in the grammar school at Slagelse, where just then a
+new, and, as was said, an active rector was appointed. I was almost
+dumb with astonishment: never had I thought that my life would take this
+direction, although I had no correct idea of the path which I had now to
+tread. I was to go with the earliest mail to Slagelse, which lay twelve
+Danish miles from Copenhagen, to the place where also the poets Baggesen
+and Ingemann had gone to school. I was to receive money quarterly from
+Collin; I was to apply to him in all cases, and he it was who was to
+ascertain my industry and my progress.
+
+I went to him the second time to express to him my thanks. Mildly and
+kindly he said to me, "Write to me without restraint about everything
+which you require, and tell me how it goes with you." From this hour I
+struck root in his heart; no father could have been more to me than he
+was, and is; none could have more heartily rejoiced in my happiness,
+and my after reception with the public; none have shared my sorrow more
+kindly; and I am proud to say that one of the most excellent men
+which Denmark possesses feels towards me as towards his own child. His
+beneficence was conferred without his making me feel it painful either
+by word or look. That was not the case with every one to whom, in this
+change of my fortunes, I had to offer my thanks; I was told to think
+of my inconceivable happiness and my poverty; in Collin's words was
+expressed the warm-heartedness of a father, and to him it was that
+properly I was indebted for everything.
+
+The journey was hastily determined upon, and I had yet for myself some
+business to arrange. I had spoken to an acquaintance from Odense who had
+the management of a small printing concern, for a widow, to get "Alfsal"
+printed, that I might, by the sale of the work, make a little money.
+Before, however, the piece was printed, it was necessary that I should
+obtain a certain number of subscribers; but these were not obtained, and
+the manuscript lay in the printing-office, which, at the time I went to
+fetch it away, was shut up. Some years afterwards, however, it suddenly
+made its appearance in print without my knowledge or my desire, in its
+unaltered shape, but without my name.
+
+On a beautiful autumn day I set off with the mail from Copenhagen to
+begin my school-life in Slagelse. A young student, who a month before
+had passed his first examination, and now was travelling home to Jutland
+to exhibit himself there as a student, and to see once more his parents
+and his friends, sate at my side and exulted for joy over the new life
+which now lay before him; he assured me that he should be the most
+unhappy of human beings if he were in my place, and were again beginning
+to go to the grammar school. But I travelled with a good heart towards
+the little city of Zealand. My mother received a joyful letter from
+me. I only wished that my father and the old grandmother yet lived, and
+could hear that I now went to the grammar school.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+When, late in the evening, I arrived at the inn in Slagelse, I asked the
+hostess if there were anything remarkable in the city.
+
+"Yes," said she, "a new English fire-engine and Pastor Bastholm's
+library," and those probably were all the lions in the city. A few
+officers of the Lancers composed the fine-gentleman world. Everybody
+knew what was done in everybody's house, whether a scholar was elevated
+or degraded in his class, and the like. A private theatre, to which,
+at general rehearsal, the scholars of the grammar school and the
+maid-servants of the town had free entrance, furnished rich material for
+conversation. The place was remote from woods, and still farther from
+the coast; but the great post-road went through the city, and the
+post-horn resounded from the rolling carriage.
+
+I boarded with a respectable widow of the educated class, and had a
+little chamber looking out into the garden and field. My place in
+the school was in the lowest class, among little boys:--I knew indeed
+nothing at all.
+
+I was actually like a wild bird which is confined in a cage; I had the
+greatest desire to learn, but for the moment I floundered about, as if
+I had been thrown into the sea; the one wave followed another; grammar,
+geography, mathematics--I felt myself overpowered by them, and feared
+that I should never be able to acquire all these. The rector, who took a
+peculiar delight in turning everything to ridicule, did not, of course,
+make an exception in my case. To me he stood then as a divinity; I
+believed unconditionally every word which he spoke. One day, when I had
+replied incorrectly to his question, and he said that I was stupid, I
+mentioned it to Collin, and told him my anxiety, lest I did not deserve
+all that people had done for me; but he consoled me. Occasionally,
+however, on some subjects of instruction, I began to receive a
+good certificate, and the teachers were heartily kind to me; yet,
+notwithstanding that I advanced, I still lost confidence in myself more
+and more. On one of the first examinations, however, I obtained the
+praise of the rector. He wrote the same in my character-book; and, happy
+in this, I went a few days afterwards to Copenhagen. Guldberg, who saw
+the progress I had made, received me kindly, and commended my zeal; and
+his brother in Odense furnished me the next summer with the means of
+visiting the place of my birth, where I had not been since I left it to
+seek adventures. I crossed the Belt, and went on foot to Odense. When
+I came near enough to see the lofty old church tower, my heart was more
+and more affected; I felt deeply the care of God for me, and I burst
+into tears. My mother rejoiced over me. The families of Iversen and
+Guldberg received me cordially; and in the little streets I saw the
+people open their windows to look after me, for everybody knew how
+remarkably well things had fared with me; nay, I fancied I actually
+stood upon the pinnacle of fortune, when one of the principal citizens,
+who had built a high tower to his house, led me up there, and I looked
+out thence over the city, and the surrounding country, and some old
+women in the hospital below, who had known me from childhood, pointed up
+to me.
+
+As soon, however, as I returned to Slagelse, this halo of glory
+vanished, as well as every thought of it. I may freely confess that I
+was industrious, and I rose, as soon as it was possible, into a higher
+class; but in proportion as I rose did I feel the pressure upon me more
+strongly, and that my endeavors were not sufficiently productive. Many
+an evening, when sleep overcame me, did I wash my head with cold water,
+or run about the lonely little garden, till I was again wakeful, and
+could comprehend the book anew. The rector filled up a portion of
+his hours of teaching with jests, nicknames, and not the happiest of
+witticisms. I was as if paralyzed with anxiety when he entered the room,
+and from that cause my replies often expressed the opposite of
+that which I wished to say, and thereby my anxiety was all the more
+increased. What was to become of me?
+
+In a moment of ill-humor I wrote a letter to the head master, who was
+one of those who was most cordially opposed to me. I said in this letter
+that I regarded myself as a person so little gifted by nature, that it
+was impossible for me to study, and that the people in Copenhagen threw
+away the money which they spent upon me: I besought him therefore to
+counsel me what I should do. The excellent man strengthened me with mild
+words, and wrote to me a most friendly and consolatory letter; he said
+that the rector meant kindly by me--that it was his custom and way of
+acting--that I was making all the progress that people could expect
+from me, and that I need not doubt of my abilities. He told me that he
+himself was a peasant youth of three and twenty, older than I myself
+was, when he began his studies; the misfortune for me was, that I ought
+to have been treated differently to the other scholars, but that this
+could hardly be done in a school; but that things were progressing, and
+that I stood well both with the teachers and my fellow students.
+
+Every Sunday we had to attend the church and hear an old preacher; the
+other scholars learned their lessons in history and mathematics while he
+preached; I learned my task in religion, and thought that, by so doing,
+it was less sinful. The general rehearsals at the private theatre were
+points of light in my school life; they took place in a back building,
+where the lowing of the cows might be heard; the street-decoration was
+a picture of the marketplace of the city, by which means the
+representation had something familiar about it; it amused the
+inhabitants to see their own houses.
+
+On Sunday afternoons it was my delight to go to the castle of
+Antvorskov, at that time only half ruinous, and once a monastery, where
+I pursued the excavating of the ruined cellars, as if it had been a
+Pompeii. I also often rambled to the crucifix of St. Anders, which
+stands upon one of the heights of Slagelse, and which is one of the
+wooden crosses erected in the time of Catholicism in Denmark. St. Anders
+was a priest in Slagelse, and travelled to the Holy Land; on the last
+day he remained so long praying on the holy grave, that the ship sailed
+away without him. Vexed at this circumstance, he walked along the
+shore, where a man met him riding on an ass, and took him up with him.
+Immediately he fell asleep, and when he awoke he heard the bells of
+Slagelse ringing. He lay upon the (Hvileh÷i) hill of rest, where the
+cross now stands. He was at home a year and a day before the ship
+returned, which had sailed away without him, and an angel had borne him
+home. The legend, and the place where he woke, were both favorites
+of mine. From this spot I could see the ocean and Funen. Here I could
+indulge my fancies; when at home, my sense of duty chained my thoughts
+only to my books.
+
+The happiest time, however, was when, once on a Sunday, whilst the wood
+was green, I went to the city of Sor÷, two (Danish) miles from Slagelse,
+and which lies in the midst of woods, surrounded by lakes. Here is an
+academy for the nobility, founded by the poet Holberg. Everything lay in
+a conventual stillness. I visited here the poet Ingemann, who had just
+married, and who held a situation as teacher; he had already received me
+kindly in Copenhagen; but here his reception of me was still more kind.
+His life in this place seemed to me like a beautiful story; flowers
+and vines twined around his window; the rooms were adorned with the
+portraits of distinguished poets, and other pictures. We sailed upon
+the lake with an Aeolian harp made fast to the mast. Ingemann talked so
+cheerfully, and his excellent, amiable wife treated me as if she were
+an elder sister:--I loved these people. Our friendship has grown with
+years. I have been from that time almost every summer a welcome guest
+there, and I have experienced that there are people in whose society one
+is made better, as it were; that which is bitter passes away, and the
+whole world appears in sunlight.
+
+Among the pupils in the academy of nobles, there were two who made
+verses; they knew that I did the same, and they attached themselves
+to me. The one was Petit, who afterwards, certainly with the best
+intention, but not faithfully, translated several of my books; the
+other, the poet Karl Bagger, one of the most gifted of men who has come
+forward in Danish literature, but who has been unjustly judged. His
+poems are full of freshness and originality; his story, "The Life of my
+Brother," is a genial book, by the critique on which the Danish Monthly
+Review of Literature has proved that it does not understand how to
+give judgment. These two academicians were very different from me: life
+rushed rejoicingly through their veins; I was sensitive and childlike.
+In my character-book I always received, as regarded my conduct,
+"remarkably good." On one occasion, however, I only obtained the
+testimony of "very good;" and so anxious and childlike was I, that
+I wrote a letter to Collin on that account, and assured him in grave
+earnestness, that I was perfectly innocent, although I had only obtained
+a character of "very good."
+
+The rector grew weary of his residence in Slagelse; he applied for the
+vacant post of rector in the grammar-school of Helsing÷r, and obtained
+it. He told me of it, and added kindly, that I might write to Collin and
+ask leave to accompany him thither; that I might live in his house, and
+could even now remove to his family; I should then in half a year become
+a student, which could not be the case if I remained behind, and that
+then he would himself give me some private lessons in Latin and Greek.
+On this same occasion he wrote also to Collin; and this letter, which
+I afterwards saw, contained the greatest praise of my industry, of the
+progress I had made, and of my good abilities, which last I imagined
+that he thoroughly mistook, and for the want of which, I myself had so
+often wept. I had no conception that he judged of me so favorably; it
+would have strengthened and relieved me had I known it; whereas, on the
+contrary, his perpetual blame depressed me. I, of course, immediately
+received Collin's permission, and removed to the house of the rector.
+But that, alas! was an unfortunate house.
+
+I accompanied him to Helsing÷r, one of the loveliest places in Denmark,
+close to the Sound, which is at this place not above a mile (Danish)
+broad, and which seems like a blue, swelling river between Denmark and
+Sweden. The ships of all nations sail past daily by hundreds; in winter
+the ice forms a firm bridge between the two countries, and when in
+spring this breaks up, it resembles a floating glacier. The scenery
+here made a lively impression upon me, but I dared only to cast stolen
+glances at it. When the school hours were over, the house door was
+commonly locked; I was obliged to remain in the heated school-room and
+learn my Latin, or else play with the children, or sit in my little
+room; I never went out to visit anybody. My life in this family
+furnishes the most evil dreams to my remembrance. I was almost overcome
+by it, and my prayer to God every evening was, that he would remove this
+cup from me and let me die. I possessed not an atom of confidence
+in myself. I never mentioned in my letters how hard it went with me,
+because the rector found his pleasure in making a jest of me, and
+turning my feelings to ridicule. I never complained of any one, with the
+exception of myself. I knew that they would say in Copenhagen, "He has
+not the desire to do any thing; a fanciful being can do no good with
+realities."
+
+My letters to Collin, written at this time, showed such a gloomy
+despairing state of mind, that they touched him deeply; but people
+imagined that was not to be helped; they fancied that it was my
+disposition, and not, as was the case, that it was the consequence
+of outward influences. My temper of mind was thoroughly buoyant, and
+susceptible of every ray of sunshine; but only on one single holiday in
+the year, when I could go to Copenhagen, was I able to enjoy it.
+
+What a change it was to get for a few days out of the rector's rooms
+into a house in Copenhagen, where all was elegance, cleanliness, and
+full of the comforts of refined life! This was at Admiral Wulff's, whose
+wife felt for me the kindness of a mother, and whose children met me
+with cordiality; they dwelt in a portion of the Castle of Amalienburg,
+and my chamber looked out into the square. I remember the first evening
+there; Aladdin's words passed through my mind, when he looked down from
+his splendid castle into the square, and said, "Here came I as a poor
+lad." My soul was full of gratitude.
+
+ During my whole residence in Slagelse I had scarcely written more than
+four or five poems; two of which, "The Soul," and "To my Mother,"
+will be found printed in my collected works. During my school-time at
+Helsing÷r I wrote only one single poem, "The Dying Child;" a poem which,
+of all my after works, became most popular and most widely circulated. I
+read it to some acquaintance in Copenhagen; some were struck by it, but
+most of them only remarked my Funen dialect, which drops the d in every
+word. I was commended by many; but from the greater number I received
+a lecture on modesty, and that I should not get too great ideas of
+myself--I who really at that time thought nothing of myself. [Footnote:
+How beautifully is all this part of the author's experience reflected
+in that of Antonio, the Improvisatore, whose highly sensitive nature was
+too often wounded by the well-meant lectures of patrons and common-place
+minds.--M. H.]
+
+At the house of Admiral Wulff I saw many men of the most distinguished
+talent, and among them all my mind paid the greatest homage to one--that
+was the poet Adam Oehlenschl ger. I heard his praise resound from every
+mouth around me; I looked up to him with the most pious faith: I
+was happy when one evening, in a large brilliantly-lighted drawing
+room--where I deeply felt that my apparel was the shabbiest there, and
+for that reason I concealed myself behind the long curtains--Oehlenschl
+ger came to me and offered me his hand. I could have fallen before him
+on my knees. I again saw Weyse, and heard him improvise upon the piano.
+Wulff himself read aloud his translations of Byron; and Oehlenschl ger's
+young daughter Charlotte surprised me by her joyous, merry humor.
+
+From such a house as this, I, after a few days, returned to the rector,
+and felt the difference deeply. He also came direct from Copenhagen,
+where he had heard it said that I had read in company one of my own
+poems. He looked at me with a penetrating glance, and commanded me to
+bring him the poem, when, if he found in it one spark of poetry, he
+would forgive me. I tremblingly brought to him "The Dying Child;" he
+read it, and pronounced it to be sentimentality and idle trash. He gave
+way freely to his anger. If he had believed that I wasted my time
+in writing verses, or that I was of a nature which required a severe
+treatment, then his intention would have been good; but he could
+not pretend this. But from this day forward my situation was more
+unfortunate than ever; I suffered so severely in my mind that I was very
+near sinking under it. That was the darkest, the most unhappy time in my
+life.
+
+Just then one of the masters went to Copenhagen, and related to Collin
+exactly what I had to bear, and immediately he removed me from the
+school and from the rector's house. When, in taking leave of him,
+I thanked him for the kindness which I had received from him, the
+passionate man cursed me, and ended by saying that I should never
+become a student, that my verses would grow mouldy on the floor of the
+bookseller's shop, and that I myself should end my days in a mad-house.
+I trembled to my innermost being, and left him.
+
+Several years afterwards, when my writings were read, when the
+Improvisatore first came out, I met him in Copenhagen; he offered me his
+hand in a conciliatory manner, and said that he had erred respecting me,
+and had treated me wrong; but it now was all the same to me. The heavy,
+dark days had also produced their blessing in my life. A young man, who
+afterwards became celebrated in Denmark for his zeal in the Northern
+languages and in history, became my teacher. I hired a little garret; it
+is described in the Fiddler; and in The Picture Book without Pictures,
+people may see that I often received there visits from the moon. I had
+a certain sum allowed for my support; but as instruction was to be paid
+for, I had to make savings in other ways. A few families through the
+week-days gave me a place at their tables. I was a sort of boarder, as
+many another poor student in Copenhagen is still: there was a variety in
+it; it gave an insight into the several kinds of family life, which
+was not without its influence on me. I studied industriously; in
+some particular branches I had considerably distinguished myself in
+Helsing÷r, especially in mathematics; these were, therefore, now much
+more left to myself: everything tended to assist me in my Greek and
+Latin studies; in one direction, however, and that the one in which it
+would least have been expected, did my excellent teacher find much to
+do; namely, in religion. He closely adhered to the literal meaning of
+the Bible; with this I was acquainted, because from my first entrance
+in the school I had clearly understood what was said and taught by it. I
+received gladly, both with feeling and understanding, the doctrine, that
+God is love: everything which opposed this--a burning hell, therefore,
+whose fire endured forever--I could not recognize. Released from the
+distressing existence of the school-bench, I now expressed myself like a
+free man; and my teacher, who was one of the noblest and most amiable
+of human beings, but who adhered firmly to the letter, was often quite
+distressed about me. We disputed, whilst pure flames kindled within our
+hearts. It was nevertheless good for me that I came to this unspoiled,
+highly-gifted young man, who was possessed of a nature as peculiar as my
+own.
+
+That which, on the contrary, was an error in me, and which became very
+perceptible, was a pleasure which I had, not in jesting with, but in
+playing with my best feelings, and in regarding the understanding as the
+most important thing in the world. The rector had completely mistaken my
+undisguisedly candid and sensitive character; my excitable feelings were
+made ridiculous, and thrown back upon themselves; and now, when I could
+freely advance upon the way to my object, this change showed itself in
+me. From severe suffering I did not rush into libertinism, but into an
+erroneous endeavor to appear other than I was. I ridiculed feeling,
+and fancied that I had quite thrown it aside; and yet I could be made
+wretched for a whole day, if I met with a sour countenance where I
+expected a friendly one. Every poem which I had formerly written with
+tears, I now parodied, or gave to it a ludicrous refrain; one of which
+I called "The Lament of the Kitten," another, "The Sick Poet." The few
+poems which I wrote at that time were all of a humorous character: a
+complete change had passed over me; the stunted plant was reset, and now
+began to put forth new shoots.
+
+Wulff's eldest daughter, a very clever and lively girl, understood and
+encouraged the humor, which made itself evident in my few poems; she
+possessed my entire confidence; she protected me like a good sister, and
+had great influence over me, whilst she awoke in me a feeling for the
+comic.
+
+At this time, also, a fresh current of life was sent through the Danish
+literature; for this the people had an interest, and politics played no
+part in it.
+
+Heiberg, who had gained the acknowledged reputation of a poet by his
+excellent works, "Psyche" and "Walter the Potter," had introduced the
+vaudeville upon the Danish stage; it was a Danish vaudeville, blood of
+our blood, and was therefore received with acclamation, and supplanted
+almost everything else. Thalia kept carnival on the Danish stage, and
+Heiberg was her secretary. I made his acquaintance first at Oersted's.
+Refined, eloquent, and the hero of the day, he pleased me in a high
+degree; he was most kind to me, and I visited him; he considered one of
+my humorous poems worthy of a place in his most excellent weekly paper,
+"The Flying Post." Shortly before I had, after a deal of trouble, got
+my poem of "The Dying Child" printed in a paper; none of the many
+publishers of journals, who otherwise accept of the most lamentable
+trash, had the courage to print a poem by a schoolboy. My best known
+poem they printed at that time, accompanied by an excuse for it. Heiberg
+saw it, and gave it in his paper an honorable place. Two humorous poems,
+signed H., were truly my debut with him.
+
+I remember the first evening when the "Flying Post" appeared with my
+verses in it. I was with a family who wished me well, but who regarded
+my poetical talent as quite insignificant, and who found something to
+censure in every line. The master of the house entered with the "Flying
+Post" in his hand.
+
+"This evening," said he, "there are two excellent poems: they are by
+Heiberg; nobody else could write anything like them." And now my
+poems were received with rapture. The daughter, who was in my secret,
+exclaimed, in her delight, that I was the author. They were all struck
+into silence, and were vexed. That wounded me deeply.
+
+One of our least esteemed writers, but a man of rank, who was very
+hospitable, gave me one day a seat at his table. He told me that a
+new year's gift would come out, and that he was applied to for a
+contribution. I said that a little poem of mine, at the wish of the
+publisher, would appear in the same new year's gift.
+
+"What, then, everybody and anybody are to contribute to this book!" said
+the man in vexation: "then he will need nothing from me; I certainly can
+hardly give him anything."
+
+My teacher dwelt at a considerable distance from me. I went to him
+twice each day, and on the way there my thoughts were occupied with my
+lessons. On my return, however, I breathed more freely, and then bright
+poetical ideas passed through my brain, but they were never committed to
+paper; only five or six humorous poems were written in the course of the
+year, and these disturbed me less when they were laid to rest on paper
+than if they had remained in my mind.
+
+In September, 1828, I was a student; and when the examination was over,
+the thousand ideas and thoughts, by which I was pursued on the way to my
+teacher, flew like a swarm of bees out into the world, and, indeed, into
+my first work, "A Journey on Foot to Amack;" a peculiar, humorous book,
+but one which fully exhibited my own individual character at that time,
+my disposition to sport with everything, and to jest in tears over my
+own feelings--a fantastic, gaily-colored tapestry-work. No publisher had
+the courage to bring out that little book; I therefore ventured to do
+it myself, and, in a few days after its appearance, the impression was
+sold. Publisher Keitzel bought from me the second edition; after a while
+he had a third; and besides this, the work was reprinted in Sweden.
+
+Everybody read my book; I heard nothing but praise; I was "a
+student,"--I had attained the highest goal of my wishes. I was in a
+whirl of joy; and in this state I wrote my first dramatic work, "Love on
+the Nicholas Tower, or, What says the Pit?" It was unsuccessful, because
+it satirized that which no longer existed amongst us, namely, the shows
+of the middle ages; besides which, it rather ridiculed the enthusiasm
+for the vaudeville. The subject of it was, in short, as follows:--The
+watchman of the Nicholas Tower, who always spoke as a knight of the
+castle, wished to give his daughter to the watchman of the neighboring
+church-tower; but she loved a young tailor, who had made a journey to
+the grave of Eulenspiegel, and was just now returned, as the punch-bowl
+steamed, and was to be emptied in honor of the young lady's consent
+being given. The lovers escape together to the tailor's herberg, where
+dancing and merriment are going forward. The watchman, however, fetches
+back his daughter; but she had lost her senses, and she assured them
+that she never would recover them, unless she had her tailor. The old
+watchman determines that Fate should decide the affair; but, then, who
+was Fate? The idea then comes into his head that the public shall be
+his Pythia, and that the public shall decide whether she should have the
+tailor or the watchman. They determine, therefore, to send to one of the
+youngest of the poets, and beg him to write the history in the style of
+the vaudeville, a kind of writing which was the most successful at that
+time, and when the piece was brought upon the stage, and the public
+either whistled or hissed, it should be in no wise considered that the
+work of the young author had been unsuccessful, but that it should be
+the voice of Fate, which said, "She shall marry the watchman." If, on
+the contrary, the piece was successful, it indicated that she should
+have the tailor; and this last, remarked the father, must be said in
+prose, in order that the public may understand it. Now every one of
+the characters thought himself on the stage, where in the epilogue
+the lovers besought the public for their applause, whilst the watchman
+begged them either to whistle, or at least to hiss.
+
+My fellow students received the piece with acclamation; they were proud
+of me. I was the second of their body who in this year had brought out
+a piece on the Danish stage; the other was Arnesen, student at the same
+time with me, and author of a vaudeville called "The Intrigue in the
+People's Theatre," a piece which had a great run. We were the two young
+authors of the October examination, two of the sixteen poets which this
+year produced, and whom people in jest divided into the four great and
+the twelve small poets.
+
+I was now a happy human being; I possessed the soul of a poet, and the
+heart of youth; all houses began to be open to me; I flew from circle to
+circle. Still, however, I devoted myself industriously to study, so that
+in September, 1829, I passed my _Examen philologicum et philosophicum_,
+and brought out the first collected edition of my poems, which met with
+great praise. Life lay bright with sunshine before me.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Until now I had only seen a small part of my native land, that is to
+say, a few points in Funen and Zealand, as well as Moen's Klint, which
+last is truly one of our most beautiful places; the beechwoods there
+hang like a garland over the white chalk cliffs, from which a view is
+obtained far over the Baltic. I wished, therefore, in the summer of
+1830, to devote my first literary proceeds to seeing Jutland, and making
+myself more thoroughly acquainted with my own Funen. I had no idea how
+much solidity of mind I should derive from this summer excursion, or
+what a change was about to take place in my inner life.
+
+Jutland, which stretches between the German Ocean and the Baltic,
+until it ends at Skagen in a reef of quicksands, possesses a peculiar
+character. Towards the Baltic extend immense woods and hills; towards
+the North Sea, mountains and quicksands, scenery of a grand and solitary
+character; and between the two, infinite expanses of brown heath, with
+their wandering gipsies, their wailing birds, and their deep solitude,
+which the Danish poet, Steen Blicher, has described in his novels.
+
+This was the first foreign scenery which I had ever seen, and the
+impression, therefore, which it made upon me was very strong. [Footnote:
+This impressive and wild scenery, with its characteristic figures, of
+gipsies etc., is most exquisitely introduced into the author's novel of
+"O. T."; indeed it gives a coloring and tone to the whole work, which
+the reader never can forget. In my opinion Andersen never wrote anything
+finer in the way of description than many parts of this work, though as
+a story it is not equal to his others.--M. H.] In the cities, where
+my "Journey on Foot" and my comic poems were known, I met with a good
+reception. Funen revealed her rural life to me; and, not far from my
+birth-place of Odense, I passed several weeks at the country seat of the
+elder Iversen as a welcome guest. Poems sprung forth upon paper, but
+of the comic fewer and fewer. Sentiment, which I had so often derided,
+would now be avenged. I arrived, in the course of my journey, at the
+house of a rich family in a small city; and here suddenly a new world
+opened before me, an immense world, which yet could be contained in four
+lines, which I wrote at that time:--
+
+  A pair of dark eyes fixed my sight,
+    They were my world, my home, my delight,
+  The soul beamed in them, and childlike peace,
+    And never on earth will their memory cease.
+
+New plans of life occupied me. I would give up writing poetry,--to what
+could it lead? I would study theology, and become a preacher; I had only
+one thought, and that was _she_. But it was self-delusion: she loved
+another; she married him. It was not till several years later that I
+felt and acknowledged that it was best, both for her and for myself,
+that things had fallen out as they were. She had no idea, perhaps, how
+deep my feeling for her had been, or what an influence it produced in
+me. She had become the excellent wife of a good man, and a happy mother.
+God's blessing rest upon her!
+
+In my "Journey on Foot," and in most of my writings, satire had been the
+prevailing characteristic. This displeased many people, who thought that
+this bent of mind could lead to no good purpose. The critics now blamed
+me precisely for that which a far deeper feeling had expelled from my
+breast. A new collection of Poetry, "Fancies and Sketches," which
+was published for the new year, showed satisfactorily what my heart
+suffered. A paraphrase of the history of my own heart appeared in a
+serious vaudeville, "Parting and Meeting," with this difference only,
+that here the love was mutual: the piece was not presented on the stage
+till five years later.
+
+Among my young friends in Copenhagen at that time was Orla Lehmann, who
+afterwards rose higher in popular favor, on account of his political
+efforts than any man in Denmark. Full of animation, eloquent and
+undaunted, his character of mind was one which interested me also. The
+German language was much studied at his father's; they had received
+there Heine's poems, and they were very attractive for young Orla.
+He lived in the country, in the neighborhood of the castle of
+Fredericksberg. I went there to see him, and he sang as I came one of
+Heine's verses, "Thalatta, Thalatta, du eviges Meer." We read Heine
+together; the afternoon and the evening passed, and I was obliged to
+remain there all night; but I had on this evening made the acquaintance
+of a poet, who, as it seemed to me, sang from the soul; he supplanted
+Hoffman, who, as might be seen by my "Journey on Foot," had formerly had
+the greatest influence on me. In my youth there were only three authors
+who as it were infused themselves into my blood,--Walter Scott, Hoffman,
+and Heine.
+
+I betrayed more and more in my writings an unhealthy turn of mind. I
+felt an inclination to seek for the melancholy in life, and to linger
+on the dark side of things. I became sensitive and thought rather of
+the blame than the praise which was lavished on me. My late school
+education, which was forced, and my impulse to become an author whilst
+I was yet a student, make it evident that my first work, the "Journey on
+Foot," was not without grammatical errors. Had I only paid some one
+to correct the press, which was a work I was unaccustomed to, then no
+charge of this kind could have been brought against me. Now, on the
+contrary, people laughed at these errors, and dwelt upon them, passing
+over carelessly that in the book which had merit. I know people who only
+read my poems to find out errors; they noted down, for instance, how
+often I used the word _beautiful,_ or some similar word. A gentleman,
+now a clergyman, at that time a writer of vaudevilles and a critic, was
+not ashamed, in a company where I was, to go through several of my poems
+in this style; so that a little girl of six years old, who heard with
+amazement that he discovered everything to be wrong, took the book, and
+pointing out the conjunction _and,_ said, "There is yet a little word
+about which you have not scolded." He felt what a reproof lay in the
+remark of the child; he looked ashamed and kissed the little one. All
+this wounded me; but I had, since my school-days, become somewhat timid,
+and that caused me to take it all quietly: I was morbidly sensitive, and
+I was good-natured to a fault. Everybody knew it, and some were on
+that account almost cruel to me. Everybody wished to teach me; almost
+everybody said that I was spoiled by praise, and therefore they would
+speak the truth to me. Thus I heard continually of my faults, the real
+and the ideal weaknesses. In the mean time, however, my feelings burst
+forth; and then I said that I would become a poet whom they should see
+honored. But this was regarded only as the crowning mark of the most
+unbearable vanity; and from house to house it was repeated. I was a good
+man, they said, but one of the vainest in existence; and in that very
+time I was often ready wholly to despair of my abilities, and had, as
+in the darkest days of my school-life, a feeling, as if my whole talents
+were a self-deception. I almost believed so; but it was more than I
+could bear, to hear the same thing said, sternly and jeeringly, by
+others; and if I then uttered a proud, an inconsiderate word, it was
+addressed to the scourge with which I was smitten; and when those who
+smite are those we love, then do the scourges become scorpions.
+
+For this reason Collin thought that I should make a little journey,--for
+instance, to North Germany,--in order to divert my mind and furnish me
+with new ideas.
+
+In the spring of 1831, I left Denmark for the first time. I saw L
+bek and Hamburg. Everything astonished me and occupied my mind. I saw
+mountains for the first time,--the Harzgebirge. The world expanded so
+astonishingly before me. My good humor returned to me, as to the bird
+of passage. Sorrow is the flock of sparrows which remains behind, and
+builds in the nests of the birds of passage. But I did not feel myself
+wholly restored.
+
+In Dresden I made acquaintance with Tieck. Ingemann had given me a
+letter to him. I heard him one evening read aloud one of Shakspeare's
+plays. On taking leave of him, he wished me a poet's success, embraced
+and kissed me; which made the deepest impression upon me. The expression
+of his eyes I shall never forget. I left him with tears, and prayed most
+fervently to God for strength to enable me to pursue the way after which
+my whole soul strove--strength, which should enable me to express that
+which I felt in my soul; and that when I next saw Tieck, I might be
+known and valued by him. It was not until several years afterwards, when
+my later works were translated into German, and well received in his
+country, that we saw each other again; I felt the true hand-pressure
+of him who had given to me, in my second father-land, the kiss of
+consecration.
+
+In Berlin, a letter of Oersted's procured me the acquaintance of
+Chamisso. That grave man, with his long locks and honest eyes, opened
+the door to me himself, read the letter, and I know not how it was, but
+we understood each other immediately. I felt perfect confidence in
+him, and told him so, though it was in bad German. Chamisso understood
+Danish; I gave him my poems, and he was the first who translated any of
+them, and thus introduced me into Germany. It was thus he spoke of me
+at that time in the _Morgenblatt_: "Gifted with wit, fancy, humor, and
+a national naivet , Andersen has still in his power tones which awaken
+deeper echoes. He understands, in particular, how with perfect ease, by
+a few slight but graphic touches, to call into existence little pictures
+and landscapes, but which are often so peculiarly local as not to
+interest those who are unfamiliar with the home of the poet. Perhaps
+that which may be translated from him, or which is so already, may be
+the least calculated to give a proper idea of him."
+
+Chamisso became a friend for my whole life. The pleasure which he had in
+my later writings may be seen by the printed letters addressed to me in
+the collected edition of his works.
+
+The little journey in Germany had great influence upon me, as my
+Copenhagen friends acknowledged. The impressions of the journey were
+immediately written down, and I gave them forth under the title of
+"Shadow Pictures." Whether I were actually improved or not, there still
+prevailed at home the same petty pleasure in dragging out my faults, the
+same perpetual schooling of me; and I was weak enough to endure it from
+those who were officious meddlers. I seldom made a joke of it; but if I
+did so, it was called arrogance and vanity, and it was asserted that I
+never would listen to rational people. Such an instructor once asked me
+whether I wrote _Dog_ with a little _d_;--he had found such an error of
+the press in my last work. I replied, jestingly, "Yes, because I here
+spoke of a little dog."
+
+But these are small troubles, people will say. Yes, but they are drops
+which wear hollows in the rock. I speak of it here; I feel a necessity
+to do so; here to protest against the accusation of vanity, which, since
+no other error can be discovered in my private life, is seized upon, and
+even now is thrown at me like an old medal.
+
+From the end of the year 1828, to the beginning of 1839, I maintained
+myself alone by my writings. Denmark is a small country; but few books
+at that time went to Sweden and Norway; and on that account the profit
+could not be great. It was difficult for me to pull through,--doubly
+difficult, because my dress must in some measure accord with the
+circles into which I went. To produce, and always to be producing,
+was destructive, nay, impossible. I translated a few pieces for the
+theatre,--_La Quarantaine_, and _La Reine de seize ans_; and as, at that
+time, a young composer of the name of Hartmann, a grandson of him who
+composed the Danish folks-song of "King Christian stood by the tall,
+tall mast," wished for text to an opera, I was of course ready to write
+it. Through the writings of Hoffman, my attention had been turned to the
+masked comedies of Gozzi: I read _Il Corvo_, and finding that it was an
+excellent subject, I wrote, in a few weeks, my opera-text of the Raven.
+It will sound strange to the ears of countrymen when I say that I,
+at that time, recommended Hartmann; that I gave my word for it, in my
+letter to the theatrical directors, for his being a man of talent, who
+would produce something good. He now takes the first rank among the
+living Danish composers.
+
+I worked up also Walter Scott's "Bride of Lammermoor" for another young
+composer, Bredal. Both operas appeared on the stage; but I was subjected
+to the most merciless criticism, as one who had stultified the labors of
+foreign poets. What people had discovered to be good in me before seemed
+now to be forgotten, and all talent was denied to me. The composer
+Weyse, my earliest benefactor, whom I have already mentioned, was, on
+the contrary, satisfied in the highest degree with my treatment of these
+subjects. He told me that he had wished for a long time to compose an
+opera from Walter Scott's "Kenilworth." He now requested me to commence
+the joint work, and write the text. I had no idea of the summary justice
+which would be dealt to me. I needed money to live, and, what still more
+determined me to it, I felt flattered to have to work with Weyse our
+most celebrated composer. It delighted me that he, who had first spoken
+in my favor at Siboni's house, now, as artist, sought a noble connection
+with me. I had scarcely half finished the text, when I was already
+blamed for having made use of a well-known romance. I wished to give
+it up; but Weyse consoled me, and encouraged me to proceed. Afterwards,
+before he had finished the music, when I was about to travel abroad, I
+committed my fate, as regarded the text, entirely to his hands. He wrote
+whole verses of it, and the altered conclusion is wholly his own. It
+was a peculiarity of that singular man that he liked no book which ended
+sorrowfully. For that reason, Amy must marry Leicester, and Elizabeth
+say, "Proud England, I am thine." I opposed this at the beginning; but
+afterwards I yielded, and the piece was really half-created by Weyse. It
+was brought on the stage, but was not printed, with the exception of
+the songs. To this followed anonymous attacks: the city post brought
+me letters in which the unknown writers scoffed at and derided me. That
+same year I published a new collection of poetry, "The Twelve Months of
+the Year;" and this book, though it was afterwards pronounced to contain
+the greater part of my best lyrical poems, was then condemned as bad.
+
+At that time "The Monthly Review of Literature," though it is now
+gone to its grave, was in its full bloom. At its first appearance, it
+numbered among its co-workers some of the most distinguished names. Its
+want, however, was men who were qualified to speak ably on aesthetic
+works. Unfortunately, everybody fancies himself able to give an opinion
+upon these; but people may write excellently on surgery or pedagogical
+science, and may have a name in those things, and yet be dolts in
+poetry: of this proofs may be seen. By degrees it became more and more
+difficult for the critical bench to find a judge for poetical works.
+The one, however, who, through his extraordinary zeal for writing and
+speaking, was ready at hand, was the historian and states-councillor
+Molbeck, who played, in our time, so great a part in the history of
+Danish criticism, that I must speak of him rather more fully. He is an
+industrious collector, writes extremely correct Danish, and his Danish
+dictionary, let him be reproached with whatever want he may, is a most
+highly useful work; but, as a judge of aesthetic works, he is one-sided,
+and even fanatically devoted to party spirit. He belongs, unfortunately,
+to the men of science, who are only one sixty-fourth of a poet, and who
+are the most incompetent judges of aesthetics. He has, for example,
+by his critiques on Ingemann's romances, shown how far he is below the
+poetry which he censures. He has himself published a volume of poems,
+which belong to the common run of books, "A Ramble through Denmark,"
+written in the _fade_, flowery style of those times, and "A Journey
+through Germany, France, and Italy," which seems to be made up out of
+books, not out of life. He sate in his study, or in the Royal Library,
+where he has a post, when suddenly he became director of the theatre and
+censor of the pieces sent in. He was sickly, one-sided in judgment, and
+irritable: people may imagine the result. He spoke of my first poems
+very favorably; but my star soon sank for another, who was in the
+ascendant, a young lyrical poet, Paludan Muller; and, as he no longer
+loved, he hated me. That is the short history; indeed, in the selfsame
+Monthly Review the very poems which had formerly been praised were
+now condemned by the same judge, when they appeared in a new increased
+edition. There is a Danish proverb, "When the carriage drags, everybody
+pushes behind;" and I proved the truth of it now.
+
+It happened that a new star in Danish literature ascended at this time.
+Heinrich Hertz published his "Letters from the Dead" anonymously: it was
+a mode of driving all the unclean things out of the temple. The deceased
+Baggesen sent polemical letters from Paradise, which resembled in
+the highest degree the style of that author. They contained a sort
+of apotheosis of Heiberg, and in part attacks upon Oehlenschl ger and
+Hauch. The old story about my orthographical errors was again revived;
+my name and my school-days in Slagelse were brought into connection with
+St. Anders.
+
+I was ridiculed, or if people will, I was chastised. Hertz's book went
+through all Denmark; people spoke of nothing but him. It made it still
+more piquant that the author of the work could not be discovered. People
+were enraptured, and justly. Heiberg, in his "Flying Post," defended
+a few aesthetical insignificants, but not me. I felt the wound of the
+sharp knife deeply. My enemies now regarded me as entirely shut out from
+the world of spirits. I however in a short time published a little book,
+"Vignettes to the Danish Poets," in which I characterized the dead and
+the living authors in a few lines each, but only spoke of that which was
+good in them. The book excited attention; it was regarded as one of the
+best of my works; it was imitated, but the critics did not meddle with
+it. It was evident, on this occasion, as had already been the case, that
+the critics never laid hands on those of my works which were the most
+successful.
+
+My affairs were now in their worst condition; and precisely in that same
+year in which a stipend for travelling had been conferred upon Hertz,
+I also had presented a petition for the same purpose. The universal
+opinion was that I had reached the point of culmination, and if I was
+to succeed in travelling it must be at this present time. I felt, what
+since then has become an acknowledged fact, that travelling would be the
+best school for me. In the mean time I was told that to bring it under
+consideration I must endeavor to obtain from the most distinguished
+poets and men of science a kind of recommendation; because this very
+year there were so many distinguished young men who were soliciting a
+stipend, that it would be difficult among these to put in an available
+claim. I therefore obtained recommendations for myself; and I am, so
+far as I know, the only Danish poet who was obliged to produce
+recommendations to prove that he was a poet.
+
+And here also it is remarkable, that the men who recommended me have
+each one made prominent some very different qualification which gave
+me a claim: for instance, Oehlenschl ger, my lyrical power, and the
+earnestness that was in me; Ingemann, my skill in depicting popular
+life; Heiberg declared that, since the days of Wessel, no Danish poet
+had possessed so much humor as myself; Oersted remarked, every one,
+they who were against me as well as those who were for me, agreed on one
+subject, and this was that I was a _true_ poet. Thiele expressed himself
+warmly and enthusiastically about the power which he had seen in me,
+combating against the oppression and the misery of life. I received a
+stipend for travelling; Hertz a larger and I a smaller one: and that
+also was quite in the order of things.
+
+"Now be happy," said my friends, "make yourself aware of your unbounded
+good fortune! Enjoy the present moment, as it will probably be the only
+time in which you will get abroad. You shall hear what people say about
+you while you are travelling, and how we shall defend you; sometimes,
+however, we shall not be able to do that."
+
+It was painful to me to hear such things said; I felt a compulsion of
+soul to be away, that I might, if possible, breathe freely; but sorrow
+is firmly seated on the horse of the rider. More than one sorrow
+oppressed my heart, and although I opened the chambers of my heart to
+the world, one or two of them I keep locked, nevertheless. On setting
+out on my journey, my prayer to God was that I might die far away from
+Denmark, or return strengthened for activity, and in a condition to
+produce works which should win for me and my beloved ones joy and honor.
+
+Precisely at the moment of setting out on my journey, the form of my
+beloved arose in my heart. Among the few whom I have already named,
+there are two who exercised a great influence upon my life and my
+poetry, and these I must more particularly mention. A beloved mother,
+an unusually liberal-minded and well educated lady, Madame L ss c, had
+introduced me into her agreeable circle of friends; she often felt the
+deepest sympathy with me in my troubles; she always turned my attention
+to the beautiful in nature and the poetical in the details of life, and
+as almost everyone regarded me as a poet, she elevated my mind; yes, and
+if there be tenderness and purity in anything which I have written, they
+are among those things for which I have especially to be thankful
+to her. Another character of great importance to me was Collin's
+son Edward. Brought up under fortunate circumstances of life, he was
+possessed of that courage and determination which I wanted. I felt that
+he sincerely loved me, and I full of affection, threw myself upon him
+with my whole soul; he passed on calmly and practically through the
+business of life. I often mistook him at the very moment when he felt
+for me most deeply, and when he would gladly have infused into me a
+portion of his own character,--to me who was as a reed shaken by the
+wind. In the practical part of life, he, the younger, stood actively by
+my side, from the assistance which he gave in my Latin exercises, to
+the arranging the business of bringing out editions of my works. He has
+always remained the same; and were I to enumerate my friends, he would
+be placed by me as the first on the list. When the traveller leaves the
+mountains behind him, then for the first time he sees them in their true
+form: so is it also with friends.
+
+I arrived at Paris by way of Cassel and the Rhine. I retained a vivid
+impression of all that I saw. The idea for a poem fixed itself firmer
+and firmer in my mind; and I hoped, as it became more clearly worked
+out, to propitiate by it my enemies. There is an old Danish folks-song
+of Agnete and the Merman, which bore an affinity to my own state of
+mind, and to the treatment of which I felt an inward impulse. The song
+tells that Agnete wandered solitarily along the shore, when a merman
+rose up from the waves and decoyed her by his speeches. She followed him
+to the bottom of the sea, remained there seven years, and bore him seven
+children. One day, as she sat by the cradle, she heard the church bells
+sounding down to her in the depths of the sea, and a longing seized her
+heart to go to church. By her prayers and tears she induced the merman
+to conduct her to the upper world again, promising soon to return. He
+prayed her not to forget his children, more especially the little one in
+the cradle; stopped up her ears and her mouth, and then led her upwards
+to the sea-shore. When, however, she entered the church, all the holy
+images, as soon as they saw her, a daughter of sin and from the depths
+of the sea, turned themselves round to the walls. She was affrighted,
+and would not return, although the little ones in her home below were
+weeping.
+
+I treated this subject freely, in a lyrical and dramatic manner. I
+will venture to say that the whole grew out of my heart; all the
+recollections of our beechwoods and the open sea were blended in it.
+
+In the midst of the excitement of Paris I lived in the spirit of the
+Danish folks-songs. The most heartfelt gratitude to God filled my soul,
+because I felt that all which I had, I had received through his mercy;
+yet at the same time I took a lively interest in all that surrounded me.
+I was present at one of the July festivals, in their first freshness; it
+was in the year 1833. I saw the unveiling of Napoleon's pillar. I gazed
+on the world-experienced King Louis Philippe, who is evidently defended
+by Providence. I saw the Duke of Orleans, full of health and the
+enjoyment of life, dancing at the gay people's ball, in the gay Maison
+de Ville. Accident led in Paris to my first meeting with Heine, the
+poet, who at that time occupied the throne in my poetical world. When I
+told him how happy this meeting and his kind words made me, he said that
+this could not very well be the case, else I should have sought him out.
+I replied, that I had not done so precisely because I estimated him so
+highly. I should have feared that he might have thought it ridiculous
+in me, an unknown Danish poet, to seek him out; "and," added I, "your
+sarcastic smile would deeply have wounded me." In reply, he said
+something friendly.
+
+Several years afterwards, when we again met in Paris, he gave me a
+cordial reception, and I had a view into the brightly poetical portion
+of his soul.
+
+Paul D port met me with equal kindness. Victor Hugo also received me.
+
+ During my journey to Paris, and the whole month that I spent there, I
+heard not a single word from home. Could my friends perhaps have nothing
+agreeable to tell me? At length, however, a letter arrived; a large
+letter, which cost a large sum in postage. My heart beat with joy and
+yearning impatience; it was, indeed, my first letter. I opened it, but
+I discovered not a single written word, nothing but a Copenhagen
+newspaper, containing a lampoon upon me, and that was sent to me all
+that distance with postage unpaid, probably by the anonymous writer
+himself. This abominable malice wounded me deeply. I have never
+discovered who the author was, perhaps he was one of those who
+afterwards called me friend, and pressed my hand. Some men have base
+thoughts: I also have mine.
+
+It is a weakness of my country-people, that commonly, when abroad,
+during their residence in large cities, they almost live exclusively in
+company together; they must dine together, meet at the theatre, and see
+all the lions of the place in company. Letters are read by each other;
+news of home is received and talked over, and at last they hardly know
+whether they are in a foreign land or their own. I had given way to the
+same weakness in Paris; and in leaving it, therefore, determined for one
+month to board myself in some quiet place in Switzerland, and live only
+among the French, so as to be compelled to speak their language, which
+was necessary to me in the highest degree.
+
+In the little city of Lodi, in a valley of the Jura mountains, where the
+snow fell in August, and the clouds floated below us, was I received by
+the amiable family of a wealthy watchmaker. They would not hear a word
+about payment. I lived among them and their friends as a relation, and
+when we parted the children wept. We had become friends, although I
+could not understand their patois; they shouted loudly into my ear,
+because they fancied I must be deaf, as I could not understand them.
+In the evenings, in that elevated region, there was a repose and a
+stillness in nature, and the sound of the evening bells ascended to
+us from the French frontier. At some distance from the city, stood
+a solitary house, painted white and clean; on descending through two
+cellars, the noise of a millwheel was heard, and the rushing waters of a
+river which flowed on here, hidden from the world. I often visited this
+place in my solitary rambles, and here I finished my poem of "Agnete and
+the Merman," which I had begun in Paris.
+
+I sent home this poem from Lodi; and never, with my earlier or my later
+works, were my hopes so high as they were now. But it was received
+coldly. People said I had done it in imitation of Oehlenschl ger, who
+at one time sent home masterpieces. Within the last few years, I fancy,
+this poem has been somewhat more read, and has met with its friends. It
+was, however, a step forwards, and it decided, as it were, unconsciously
+to me, my pure lyrical phasis. It has been also of late critically
+adjudged in Denmark, that, notwithstanding that on its first appearance
+it excited far less attention than some of my earlier and less
+successful works, still that in this the poetry is of a deeper, fuller,
+and more powerful character than anything which I had hitherto produced.
+
+This poem closes one portion of my life.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+On the 5th of September, 1833, I crossed the Simplon on my way to Italy.
+On the very day, on which, fourteen years before, I had arrived poor and
+helpless in Copenhagen, did I set foot in this country of my longing and
+of my poetical happiness. It happened in this case, as it often does,
+by accident, without any arrangement on my part, as if I had preordained
+lucky days in the year; yet good fortune has so frequently been with me,
+that I perhaps only remind myself of its visits on my own self-elected
+days.
+
+All was sunshine--all was spring! The vine hung in long trails from tree
+to tree; never since have I seen Italy so beautiful. I sailed on Lago
+Maggiore; ascended the cathedral of Milan; passed several days in Genoa,
+and made from thence a journey, rich in the beauties of nature, along
+the shore to Carrara. I had seen statues in Paris, but my eyes were
+closed to them; in Florence, before the Venus de Medici, it was for the
+first time as if scales fell from my eyes; a new world of art disclosed
+itself before me; that was the first fruit of my journey. Here it was
+that I first learned to understand the beauty of form--the spirit which
+reveals itself in form. The life of the people--nature--all was new to
+me; and yet as strangely familiar as if I were come to a home where I
+had lived in my childhood. With a peculiar rapidity did I seize
+upon everything, and entered into its life, whilst a deep northern
+melancholy--it was not home-sickness, but a heavy, unhappy
+feeling--filled my breast. I received the news in Rome, of how little
+the poem of Agnete, which I had sent home, was thought of there; the
+next letter in Rome brought me the news that my mother was dead. I was
+now quite alone in the world.
+
+It was at this time, and in Rome, that my first meeting with Hertz took
+place. In a letter which I had received from Collin, he had said that it
+would give him pleasure to hear that Hertz and I had become friends; but
+even without this wish it would have happened, for Hertz kindly offered
+me his hand, and expressed sympathy with my sorrow. He had, of all those
+with whom I was at that time acquainted, the most variously cultivated
+mind. We had often disputations together, even about the attacks which
+had been made upon me at home as a poet. He, who had himself given me a
+wound, said the following words, which deeply impressed themselves on
+my memory: "Your misfortune is, that you have been obliged to print
+everything; the public has been able to follow you step by step. I
+believe that even, a Goethe himself must have suffered the same fate,
+had he been in your situation." And then he praised my talent for
+seizing upon the characteristics of nature, and giving, by a few
+intuitive sketches, pictures of familiar life. My intercourse with him
+was very instructive to me, and I felt that I had one merciful judge
+more. I travelled in company with him to Naples, where we dwelt together
+in one house.
+
+In Rome I also became first acquainted with Thorwaldsen. Many years
+before, when I had not long been in Copenhagen, and was walking through
+the streets as a poor boy, Thorwaldsen was there too: that was on his
+first return home. We met one another in the street. I knew that he was
+a distinguished man in art; I looked at him, I bowed; he went on, and
+then, suddenly turning round, came back to me, and said, "Where have I
+seen you before? I think we know one another." I replied, "No, we do not
+know one another at all." I now related this story to him in Rome; he
+smiled, pressed my hand, and said, "Yet we felt at that time that
+we should become good friends." I read Agnete to him; and that which
+delighted me in his judgment upon it was the assertion, "It is just,"
+said he, "as if I were walking at home in the woods, and heard the
+Danish lakes;" and then he kissed me.
+
+One day, when he saw how distressed I was, and I related to him about
+the pasquinade which I had received from home in Paris, he gnashed his
+teeth violently, and said, in momentary anger, "Yes, yes, I know the
+people; it would not have gone any better with me if I had remained
+there; I should then, perhaps, not even have obtained permission to set
+up a model. Thank God that I did not need them, for then they know how
+to torment and to annoy." He desired me to keep up a good heart, and
+then things could not fail of going well; and with that he told me of
+some dark passages in his own life, where he in like manner had been
+mortified and unjustly condemned.
+
+After the Carnival, I left Rome for Naples; saw at Capri the blue
+Grotto, which was at that time first discovered; visited the temple at
+Paestum, and returned in the Easter week to Rome, from whence I went
+through Florence and Venice to Vienna and Munich; but I had at that time
+neither mind nor heart for Germany; and when I thought on Denmark, I
+felt fear and distress of mind about the bad reception which I expected
+to find there. Italy, with its scenery and its people's life, occupied
+my soul, and towards this land I felt a yearning. My earlier life, and
+what I had now seen, blended themselves together into an image--into
+poetry, which I was compelled to write down, although I was convinced
+that it would occasion me more trouble than joy, if my necessities at
+home should oblige me to print it. I had written already in Rome the
+first chapter. It was my novel of "The Improvisatore."
+
+At one of my first visits to the theatre at Odense, as a little boy,
+where, as I have already mentioned, the representations were given in
+the German language, I saw the Donauweibchen, and the public applauded
+the actress of the principal part. Homage was paid to her, and she was
+honored; and I vividly remember thinking how happy she must be.
+
+Many years afterwards, when, as a student, I visited Odense, I saw,
+in one of the chambers of the hospital where the poor widows lived and
+where one bed stood by another, a female portrait hanging over one bed
+in a gilt frame. It was Lessing's Emilia Galotti, and represented her as
+pulling the rose to pieces; but the picture was a portrait. It appeared
+singular in contrast with the poverty by which it was surrounded.
+
+"Whom does it represent?" asked I.
+
+"Oh!" said one of the old women, "it is the face of the German lady,
+the poor lady who once was an actress!" And then I saw a little delicate
+woman, whose face was covered with wrinkles, and in an old silk gown
+that once had been black. That was the once celebrated Singer, who, as
+the Donauweibchen, had been applauded by every one. This circumstance
+made an indelible impression upon me, and often occurred to my mind.
+
+In Naples I heard Malibran for the first time. Her singing and acting
+surpassed anything which I had hitherto either heard or seen; and yet
+I thought the while of the miserably poor singer in the hospital of
+Odense: the two figures blended into the Annunciata of the novel. Italy
+was the back ground for that which had been experienced and that which
+was imagined. In August of 1834 I returned to Denmark. I wrote the first
+part of the book at Ingemann's, in Sor÷, in a little chamber in the
+roof, among fragrant lime-trees. I finished it in Copenhagen.
+
+At this time my best friends, even, had almost given me up as a poet;
+they said that they had erred with regard to my talents. It was with
+difficulty that I found a publisher for the book. I received a miserable
+sum of money for it, and the "Improvisatore" made its appearance;
+was read, sold out, and again published. The critics were silent; the
+newspapers said nothing; but I heard all around me of the interest which
+was felt for the work, and the delight that it occasioned. At length the
+poet Carl Bagger, who was at that time the editor of a newspaper, wrote
+the first critique upon it, and began ironically, with the customary
+tirade against me--"that it was all over with this author, who had
+already passed his heyday;"--in short, he went the whole length of the
+tobacco and tea criticism, in order suddenly to dash out, and to express
+his extremely warm enthusiasm for me; and my book. People now laughed
+at me, but I wept. This was my mood of mind. I wept freely, and felt
+gratitude to God and man.
+
+"To the Conference Councillor Collin and to his noble wife, in whom I
+found parents, whose children were brethren and sisters to me,
+whose house was my home, do I here present the best of which I am
+possessed."--So ran the dedication. Many who formerly had been my enemy,
+now changed their opinion; and among these one became my friend, who,
+I hope, will remain so through the whole of my life. That was Hauch the
+poet, one of the noblest characters with whom I am acquainted. He had
+returned home from Italy after a residence of several years abroad, just
+at the time when Heiberg's vaudevilles were intoxicating the inhabitants
+of Copenhagen, and when my "Journey on Foot" was making me a little
+known. He commenced a controversy with Heiberg, and somewhat scoffed
+at me. Nobody called his attention to my better lyrical writings; I was
+described to him as a spoiled, petulant child of fortune. He now read
+my Improvisatore, and feeling that there was something good in me, his
+noble character evinced itself by his writing a cordial letter to me, in
+which he said, that he had done me an injustice, and offered me now the
+hand of reconciliation. From that time we became friends. He used his
+influence for me with the utmost zeal, and has watched my onward career
+with heartfelt friendship. But so little able have many people been to
+understand what is excellent in him, or the noble connection of heart
+between us two, that not long since, when he wrote a novel, and drew in
+it the caricature of a poet, whose vanity ended in insanity, the
+people in Denmark discovered that he had treated me with the greatest
+injustice, because he had described in it my weakness. People must
+not believe that this was the assertion of one single person, or a
+misapprehension of my character; no; and Hauch felt himself compelled to
+write a treatise upon me as a poet, that he might show what a different
+place he assigned to me.
+
+But to return to the "Improvisatore." This book raised my sunken
+fortunes; collected my friends again around me, nay, even obtained
+for me new ones. For the first time I felt that I had obtained a due
+acknowledgment. The book was translated into German by Kruse, with a
+long title, _"Jugendleben und Tr ume eines italienischen Dichter's."_ I
+objected to the title; but he declared that it was necessary in order to
+attract attention to the book.
+
+Bagger had, as already stated, been the first to pass judgment on
+the work; after an interval of some time a second critique made its
+appearance, more courteous, it is true, than I was accustomed to, but
+still passing lightly over the best things in the book and dwelling
+on its deficiencies, and on the number of incorrectly written Italian
+words. And, as Nicolai's well-known book, "Italy as it really is," came
+out just then, people universally said, "Now we shall be able to see
+what it is about which Andersen has written, for from Nicolai a true
+idea of Italy may be obtained for the first time."
+
+It was from Germany that resounded the first decided acknowledgment
+of the merits of my work, or rather perhaps its over estimation. I bow
+myself in joyful gratitude, like a sick man toward the sunshine, when
+my heart is grateful. I am not, as the Danish Monthly Review, in its
+critique of the "Improvisatore," condescended to assert, an unthankful
+man, who exhibits in his work a want of gratitude towards his
+benefactors. I was indeed myself poor Antonio who sighed under the
+burden which I had to bear,--_I,_ the poor lad who ate the bread of
+charity. From Sweden also, later, resounded my praise, and the Swedish
+newspapers contained articles in praise of this work, which within the
+last two years has been equally warmly received in England, where Mary
+Howitt, the poetess, has translated it into English; the same good
+fortune also is said to have attended the book in Holland and Russia.
+Everywhere abroad resounded the loudest acknowledgments of its
+excellence.
+
+There exists in the public a power which is stronger than all the
+critics and cliques. I felt that I stood at home on firmer ground, and
+my spirit again had moments in which it raised its wings for flight.
+In this alternation of feeling between gaiety and ill humor, I wrote my
+next novel, "O. T.," which is regarded by many persons in Denmark as my
+best work;--an estimation which I cannot myself award to it. It contains
+characteristic features of town life. My first Tales appeared before "O.
+T;" but this is not the place in which to speak of them. I felt just at
+this time a strong mental impulse to write, and I believed that I had
+found my true element in novel-writing. In the following year, 1837,
+I published "Only a Fiddler," a book which on my part had been deeply
+pondered over, and the details of which sprang fresh to the paper. My
+design was to show that talent is not genius, and that if the sunshine
+of good fortune be withheld, this must go to the ground, though without
+losing its nobler, better nature. This book likewise had its partisans;
+but still the critics would not vouchsafe to me any encouragement;
+they forgot that with years the boy becomes a man, and that people
+may acquire knowledge in other than the ordinary ways. They could not
+separate themselves from their old preconceived opinions. Whilst "O.
+T." was going through the press it was submitted sheet by sheet to a
+professor of the university, who had himself offered to undertake this
+work, and by two other able men also; notwithstanding all this, the
+Reviews said, "We find the usual grammatical negligence, which we always
+find in Andersen, in this work also." That which contributed likewise to
+place this book in the shade was the circumstance of Heiberg having
+at that time published his Every-day Stories, which were written in
+excellent language, and with good taste and truth. Their own merits, and
+the recommendation of their being Heiberg's, who was the beaming star of
+literature, placed them in the highest rank.
+
+I had however advanced so far, that there no longer existed any doubt as
+to my poetical ability, which people had wholly denied to me before my
+journey to Italy. Still not a single Danish critic had spoken of the
+characteristics which are peculiar to my novels. It was not until my
+works appeared in Swedish that this was done, and then several Swedish
+journals went profoundly into the subject and analyzed my works with
+good and honorable intentions. The case was the same in Germany; and
+from this country too my heart was strengthened to proceed. It was not
+until last year that in Denmark, a man of influence, Hauch the poet,
+spoke of the novels in his already mentioned treatise, and with a few
+touches brought their characteristics prominently forward.
+
+"The principal thing," says he, "in Andersen's best and most elaborate
+works, in those which are distinguished for the richest fancy, the
+deepest feeling, the most lively poetic spirit, is, of talent, or at
+least of a noble nature, which will struggle its way out of narrow and
+depressing circumstances. This is the case with his three novels, and
+with this purpose in view, it is really an important state of existence
+which he describes,--an inner world, which no one understands better
+than he, who has himself, drained out of the bitter cup of suffering
+and renunciation, painful and deep feelings which are closely related
+to those of his own experience, and from which Memory, who, according
+to the old significant myth, is the mother of the Muses, met him hand in
+hand with them. That which he, in these his works, relates to the world,
+deserves assuredly to be listened to with attention; because, at
+the same time that it may be only the most secret inward life of the
+individual, yet it is also the common lot of men of talent and genius,
+at least when these are in needy circumstances, as is the case of
+those who are here placed before our eyes. In so far as in his
+'Improvisatore,' in 'O. T.,' and in 'Only a Fiddler,' he represents not
+only himself, in his own separate individuality, but at the same time
+the momentous combat which so many have to pass through, and which he
+understands so well, because in it his own life has developed itself;
+therefore in no instance can he be said to present to the reader what
+belongs to the world of illusion, but only that which bears witness
+to truth, and which, as is the case with all such testimony, has a
+universal and enduring worth.
+
+"And still more than this, Andersen is not only the defender of talent
+and genius, but, at the same time, of every human heart which is
+unkindly and unjustly treated. And whilst he himself has so painfully
+suffered in that deep combat in which the Laocoon-snakes seize upon the
+outstretched hand; whilst he himself has been compelled to drink from
+that wormwood-steeped bowl which the cold-blooded and arrogant world
+so constantly offers to those who are in depressed circumstances, he is
+fully capable of giving to his delineations in this respect a truth
+and an earnestness, nay, even a tragic and a pain-awakening pathos that
+rarely fails of producing its effect on the sympathizing human heart.
+Who can read that scene in his 'Only a Fiddler,' in which the 'high-bred
+hound,' as the poet expresses it, 'turned away with disgust from
+the broken victuals which the poor youth received as alms, without
+recognizing, at the same time, that this is no game in which vanity
+seeks for a triumph, but that it expresses much more--human nature
+wounded to its inmost depths, which here speaks out its sufferings.'"
+
+Thus is it spoken in Denmark of my works, after an interval of nine or
+ten years; thus speaks the voice of a noble, venerated man. It is with
+me and the critics as it is with wine,--the more years pass before it is
+drunk the better is its flavor.
+
+During the year in which "The Fiddler" came out, I visited for the first
+time the neighboring country of Sweden. I went by the G÷ta canal
+to Stockholm. At that time nobody understood what is now called
+Scandinavian sympathies; there still existed a sort of mistrust
+inherited from the old wars between the two neighbor nations. Little
+was known of Swedish literature, and there were only very few Danes who
+could easily read and understand the Swedish language;--people scarcely
+knew Tegn r's Frithiof and Axel, excepting through translations. I had,
+however, read a few other Swedish authors, and the deceased, unfortunate
+Stagnelius pleased me more as a poet than Tegn r, who represented poetry
+in Sweden. I, who hitherto had only travelled into Germany and southern
+countries, where by this means, the departure from Copenhagen was also
+the departure from my mother tongue, felt, in this respect, almost at
+home in Sweden: the languages are so much akin, that of two persons
+each might read in the language of his own country, and yet the other
+understand him. It seemed to me, as a Dane, that Denmark expanded
+itself; kinship with the people exhibited itself, in many ways, more
+and more; and I felt, livingly, how near akin are Swedes, Danes, and
+Norwegians.
+
+I met with cordial, kind people,--and with these I easily made
+acquaintance. I reckon this journey among the happiest I ever made. I
+had no knowledge of the character of Swedish scenery, and therefore I
+was in the highest degree astonished by the Trollh tta-voyage, and
+by the extremely picturesque situation of Stockholm. It sounds to the
+uninitiated half like a fairy-tale, when one says that the steam-boat
+goes up across the lakes over the mountains, from whence may be seen
+the outstretched pine and beechwoods below. Immense sluices heave up and
+lower the vessel again, whilst the travellers ramble through the woods.
+None of the cascades of Switzerland, none in Italy, not even that of
+Terni, have in them anything so imposing as that of Trollh tta. Such is
+the impression, at all events, which it made on me.
+
+On this journey, and at this last-mentioned place, commenced a very
+interesting acquaintance, and one which has not been without its
+influence on me,--an acquaintance with the Swedish authoress, Fredrika
+Bremer. I had just been speaking with the captain of the steam-boat and
+some of the passengers about the Swedish authors living in Stockholm,
+and I mentioned my desire to see and converse with Miss Bremer.
+
+"You will not meet with her," said the Captain, "as she is at this
+moment on a visit in Norway."
+
+"She will be coming back while I am there," said I in joke; "I always
+am lucky in my journeys, and that which I most wish for is always
+accomplished.
+
+"Hardly this time, however," said the captain.
+
+A few hours after this he came up to me laughing, with the list of the
+newly arrived passengers in his hand. "Lucky fellow," said he aloud,
+"you take good fortune with you; Miss Bremer is here, and sails with us
+to Stockholm."
+
+I received it as a joke; he showed me the list, but still I was
+uncertain. Among the new arrivals, I could see no one who resembled
+an authoress. Evening came on, and about midnight we were on the great
+Wener lake. At sunrise I wished to have a view of this extensive lake,
+the shores of which could scarcely be seen; and for this purpose I left
+the cabin. At the very moment that I did so, another passenger was also
+doing the same, a lady neither young nor old, wrapped in a shawl and
+cloak. I thought to myself, if Miss Bremer is on board, this must be
+she, and fell into discourse with her; she replied politely, but still
+distantly, nor would she directly answer my question, whether she was
+the authoress of the celebrated novels. She asked after my name; was
+acquainted with it, but confessed that she had read none of my works.
+She then inquired whether I had not some of them with me, and I lent
+her a copy of the "Improvisatore," which I had destined for Beskow. She
+vanished immediately with the volumes, and was not again visible all
+morning.
+
+When I again saw her, her countenance was beaming, and she was full of
+cordiality; she pressed my hand, and said that she had read the greater
+part of the first volume, and that she now knew me.
+
+The vessel flew with us across the mountains, through quiet inland
+lakes and forests, till it arrived at the Baltic Sea, where islands
+lie scattered, as in the Archipelago, and where the most remarkable
+transition takes place from naked cliffs to grassy islands, and to
+those on which stand trees and houses. Eddies and breakers make it here
+necessary to take on board a skilful pilot; and there are indeed some
+places where every passenger must sit quietly on his seat, whilst the
+eye of the pilot is riveted upon one point. On shipboard one feels the
+mighty power of nature, which at one moment seizes hold of the vessel
+and the next lets it go again.
+
+Miss Bremer related many legends and many histories, which were
+connected with this or that island, or those farm-premises up aloft on
+the mainland.
+
+In Stockholm, the acquaintance with her increased, and year after year
+the letters which have passed between us have strengthened it. She is a
+noble woman; the great truths of religion, and the poetry which lies in
+the quiet circumstances of life, have penetrated her being.
+
+It was not until after my visit to Stockholm that her Swedish
+translation of my novel came out; my lyrical poems only, and my "Journey
+on Foot," were known to a few authors; these received me with the utmost
+kindness, and the lately deceased Dahlgr n, well known by his humorous
+poems, wrote a song in my honor--in short, I met with hospitality, and
+countenances beaming with Sunday gladness. Sweden and its inhabitants
+became dear to me. The city itself, by its situation and its whole
+picturesque appearance, seemed to me to emulate Naples. Of course,
+this last has the advantage of fine atmosphere, and the sunshine of the
+south; but the view of Stockholm is just as imposing; it has also some
+resemblance to Constantinople, as seen from Pera, only that the minarets
+are wanting. There prevails a great variety of coloring in the capital
+of Sweden; white painted buildings; frame-work houses, with the
+wood-work painted red; barracks of turf, with flowering plants; fir tree
+and birches look out from among the houses, and the churches with their
+balls and towers. The streets in S÷dermalm ascend by flights of
+wooden steps up from the M lar lake, which is all active with smoking
+steam-vessels, and with boats rowed by women in gay-colored dresses.
+
+I had brought with me a letter of introduction from Oersted, to the
+celebrated Berzelius, who gave me a good reception in the old city of
+Upsala. From this place I returned to Stockholm. City, country, and
+people, were all dear to me; it seemed to me, as I said before, that
+the boundaries of my native land had stretched themselves out, and I now
+first felt the kindredship of the three peoples, and in this feeling I
+wrote a Scandinavian song, a hymn of praise for all the three nations,
+for that which was peculiar and best in each one of them.
+
+"One can see that the Swedes made a deal of him," was the first remark
+which I heard at home on this song.
+
+Years pass on; the neighbors understand each other better; Oehlenschl
+ger. Fredrika Bremer, and Tegn r, caused them mutually to read each
+other's authors, and the foolish remains of the old enmity, which had no
+other foundation than that they did not know each other, vanished.
+There now prevails a beautiful, cordial relationship between Sweden and
+Denmark. A Scandinavian club has been established in Stockholm; and
+with this my song came to honor; and it was then said, "it will outlive
+everything that Andersen has written:" which was as unjust as when they
+said that it was only the product of flattered vanity. This song is now
+sung in Sweden as well as in Denmark.
+
+ On my return home I began to study history industriously, and made
+myself still further acquainted with the literature of foreign
+countries. Yet still the volume which afforded me the greatest pleasure
+was that of nature; and in a summer residence among the country-seats of
+Funen, and more especially at Lykkesholm, with its highly romantic
+site in the midst of woods, and at the noble seat of Glorup, from whose
+possessor I met with the most friendly reception, did I acquire more
+true wisdom, assuredly, in my solitary rambles, than I ever could have
+gained from the schools.
+
+The house of the Conference Councillor Collin in Copenhagen was at that
+time, as it has been since, a second father's house to me, and there I
+had parents, and brothers and sisters. The best circles of social life
+were open to me, and the student life interested me: here I mixed in
+the pleasures of youth. The student life of Copenhagen is, besides this,
+different from that of the German cities, and was at this time peculiar
+and full of life. For me this was most perceptible in the students'
+clubs, where students and professors were accustomed to meet each other:
+there was there no boundary drawn between the youthful and elder men of
+letters. In this club were to be found the journals and books of various
+countries; once a week an author would read his last work; a concert or
+some peculiar burlesque entertainment would take place. It was here
+that what may be called the first Danish people'scomedies took their
+origin,--comedies in which the events of the day were worked up always
+in an innocent, but witty and amusing manner. Sometimes dramatic
+representations were given in the presence of ladies for the furtherance
+of some noble purpose, as lately to assist Thorwaldsen's Museum, to
+raise funds for the execution of Bissen's statue in marble, and for
+similar ends. The professors and students were the actors. I also
+appeared several times as an actor, and convinced myself that my terror
+at appearing on the stage was greater than the talent which I perhaps
+possessed. Besides this, I wrote and arranged several pieces, and thus
+gave my assistance. Several scenes from this time, the scenes in the
+students' club, I have worked up in my romance of "O. T." The humor and
+love of life observable in various passages of this book, and in
+the little dramatic pieces written about this time, are owing to the
+influence of the family of Collin, where much good was done me in that
+respect, so that my morbid turn of mind was unable to gain the mastery
+of me. Collin's eldest married daughter, especially, exercised great
+influence over me, by her merry humor and wit. When the mind is yielding
+and elastic, like the expanse of ocean, it readily, like the ocean,
+mirrors its environments.
+
+My writings, in my own country, were now classed among those which
+were always bought and read; therefore for each fresh work I received a
+higher payment. Yet, truly, when you consider what a circumscribed world
+the Danish reading world is, you will see that this payment could not be
+the most liberal. Yet I had to live. Collin, who is one of the men who
+do more than they promise, was my help, my consolation, my support.
+
+At this time the late Count Conrad von Rantzau-Breitenburg, a native
+of Holstein, was Prime Minister in Denmark. He was of a noble, amiable
+nature, a highly educated man, and possessed of a truly chivalrous
+disposition. He carefully observed the movements in German and Danish
+literature. In his youth he had travelled much, and spent a long time
+in Spain and Italy, He read my "Improvisatore" in the original; his
+imagination was powerfully seized by it, and he spoke both at court and
+in his own private circles of my book in the warmest manner. He did not
+stop here; he sought me out, and became my benefactor and friend. One
+forenoon, whilst I was sitting solitarily in my little chamber, this
+friendly man stood before me for the first time. He belonged to that
+class of men who immediately inspire you with confidence; he besought me
+to visit him, and frankly asked me whether there were no means by which
+he could be of use to me. I hinted how oppressive it was to be _forced_
+to write in order to live, always to be forced to think of the morrow,
+and not move free from care, to be able to develop your mind and
+thoughts. He pressed my hand in a friendly manner, and promised to be an
+efficient friend. Collin and Oersted secretly associated themselves with
+him, and became my intercessors.
+
+Already for many years there had existed, under Frederick VI., an
+institution which does the highest honor to the Danish government,
+namely, that beside the considerable sum expended yearly, for the
+travelling expenses of young literary men and artists, a small pension
+shall be awarded to such of them as enjoy no office emoluments. All our
+most important poets have had a share of this assistance,--Oehlenschl
+ger, Ingemann, Heiberg, C. Winther, and others. Hertz had just then
+received such a pension, and his future life made thus the more secure.
+It was my hope and my wish that the same good fortune might be mine--and
+it was. Frederick VI. granted me two hundred rix dollars banco yearly.
+I was filled with gratitude and joy. I was nolonger _forced_ to write in
+order to live; I had a sure support in the possible event of sickness.
+I was less dependent upon the people about me. A new chapter of my life
+began.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+From this day forward, it was as if a more constant sunshine had entered
+my heart. I felt within myself more repose, more certainty; it was clear
+to me, as I glanced back over my earlier life, that a loving Providence
+watched over me, that all was directed for me by a higher Power; and
+the firmer becomes such a conviction, the more secure does a man feel
+himself. My childhood lay behind me, my youthful life began properly
+from this period; hitherto it had been only an arduous swimming against
+the stream. The spring of my life commenced; but still the spring had
+its dark days, its storms, before it advanced to settled summer; it has
+these in order to develop what shall then ripen. That which one of my
+dearest friends wrote to me on one of my later travels abroad, may serve
+as an introduction to what I have here to relate. He wrote in his own
+peculiar style:--"It is your vivid imagination which creates the idea
+of your being despised in Denmark; it is utterly untrue. You and Denmark
+agree admirably, and you would agree still better, if there were in
+Denmark no theatre--_Hinc illae lacrymae!_ This cursed theatre. Is this,
+then, Denmark? and are you, then, nothing but a writer for the theatre?"
+
+Herein lies a solid truth. The theatre has been the cave out of which
+most of the evil storms have burst upon me. They are peculiar people,
+these people of the theatre,--as different, in fact, from others, as
+Bedouins from Germans; from the first pantomimist to the first lover,
+everyone places himself systematically in one scale, and puts all the
+world in the other. The Danish theatre is a good theatre, it may indeed
+be placed on a level with the Burg theatre in Vienna; but the theatre in
+Copenhagen plays too great a part in conversation, and possesses in most
+circles too much importance. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the
+stage and the actors in other great cities, and therefore cannot compare
+them with our theatre; but ours has too little military discipline, and
+this is absolutely necessary where many people have to form a whole,
+even when that whole is an artistical one. The most distinguished
+dramatic poets in Denmark--that is to say, in Copenhagen, for there
+only is a theatre--have their troubles. Those actors and actresses who,
+through talent or the popular favor, take the first rank, very often
+place themselves above both the managers and authors. These must pay
+court to them, or they may ruin a part, or what is still worse, may
+spread abroad an unfavorable opinion of the piece previous to its being
+acted; and thus you have a coffee-house criticism before any one ought
+properly to know anything of the work. It is moreover characteristic of
+the people of Copenhagen, that when a new piece is announced, they do
+not say, "I am glad of it," but, "It will probably be good for nothing;
+it will be hissed off the stage." That hissing-off plays a great part,
+and is an amusement which fills the house; but it is not the bad actor
+who is hissed, no, the author and the composer only are the criminals;
+for them the scaffold is erected. Five minutes is the usual time,
+and the whistles resound, and the lovely women smile and felicitate
+themselves, like the Spanish ladies at their bloody bullfights. All our
+most eminent dramatic writers have been whistled down,--as Oehlenschl
+ger, Heiberg, Oversko, and others; to say nothing of foreign classics,
+as Moli re. In the mean time the theatre is the most profitable sphere
+of labor for the Danish writer, whose public does not extend far beyond
+the frontiers. This had induced me to write the opera-text already
+spoken of, on account of which I was so severely criticised; and an
+internal impulse drove me afterwards to add some other works. Collin
+was no longer manager of the theatre, Councillor of Justice Molbeck had
+taken his place; and the tyranny which now commenced degenerated into
+the comic. I fancy that in course of time the manuscript volumes of the
+censorship, which are preserved in the theatre, and in which Molbeck has
+certainly recorded his judgments on received and rejected pieces, will
+present some remarkable characteristics. Over all that I wrote the staff
+was broken! One way was open to me by which to bring my pieces on the
+stage; and that was to give them to those actors who in summer gave
+representations at their own cost. In the summer of 1839 I wrote the
+vaudeville of "The Invisible One on Sprog÷," to scenery which had been
+painted for another piece which fell through; and the unrestrained
+merriment of the piece gave it such favor with the public, that I
+obtained its acceptance by the manager; and that light sketch still
+maintains itself on the boards, and has survived such a number of
+representations as I had never anticipated.
+
+This approbation, however, procured me no further advantage, for each of
+my succeeding dramatic works received only rejection, and occasioned
+me only mortification. Nevertheless, seized by the idea and the
+circumstances of the little French narrative, "_Les paves_," I
+determined to dramatise it; and as I had often heard that I did not
+possess the assiduity sufficient to work my mat riel well, I resolved to
+labor this drama--"The Mulatto"--from the beginning to the end, in the
+most diligent manner, and to compose it in alternately rhyming verse,
+as was then the fashion. It was a foreign subject of which I availed
+myself; but if verses are music, I at least endeavored to adapt my music
+to the text, and to let the poetry of another diffuse itself through my
+spiritual blood; so that people should not be heard to say, as they had
+done before, regarding the romance of Walter Scott, that the composition
+was cut down and fitted to the stage.
+
+The piece was ready, and declared by able men, old friends, and actors
+who were to appear in it, to be excellent; a rich dramatic capacity lay
+in the mat riel, and my lyrical composition clothed this with so fresh
+a green, that people appeared satisfied. The piece was sent in, and was
+rejected by Molbeck. It was sufficiently known that what he cherished
+for the boards, withered there the first evening; but what he cast away
+as weeds were flowers for the garden--a real consolation for me. The
+assistant-manager, Privy Counsellor of State, Adler, a man of taste and
+liberality, became the patron of my work; and since a very favorable
+opinion of it already prevailed with the public, after I had read it to
+many persons, it was resolved on for representation. I had the honor to
+read it before my present King and Queen, who received me in a very kind
+and friendly manner, and from whom, since that time, I have experienced
+many proofs of favor and cordiality. The day of representation arrived;
+the bills were posted; I had not closed my eyes through the whole night
+from excitement and expectation; the people already stood in throngs
+before the theatre, to procure tickets, when royal messengers
+galloped through the streets, solemn groups collected, the minute guns
+pealed,--Frederick VI. had died this morning!
+
+For two months more was the theatre closed, and was opened under
+Christian VIII., with my drama--"The Mulatto;" which was received with
+the most triumphant acclamation; but I could not at once feel the joy of
+it, I felt only relieved from a state of excitement, and breathed more
+freely.
+
+This piece continued through a series of representations to receive the
+same approbation; many placed this work far above all my former ones,
+and considered that with it began my proper poetical career. It was
+soon translated into the Swedish, and acted with applause at the royal
+theatre in Stockholm. Travelling players introduced it into the smaller
+towns in the neighboring country; a Danish company gave it in the
+original language, in the Swedish city Malm÷, and a troop of students
+from the university town of Lund, welcomed it with enthusiasm. I had
+been for a week previous on a visit at some Swedish country houses,
+where I was entertained with so much cordial kindness that the
+recollection of it will never quit my bosom; and there, in a foreign
+country, I received the first public testimony of honor, and which has
+left upon me the deepest and most inextinguishable impression. I was
+invited by some students of Lund to visit their ancient town. Here
+a public dinner was given to me; speeches were made, toasts were
+pronounced; and as I was in the evening in a family circle, I was
+informed that the students meant to honor me with a serenade.
+
+I felt myself actually overcome by this intelligence; my heart throbbed
+feverishly as I descried the thronging troop, with their blue caps,
+and arm-in-arm approaching the house. I experienced a feeling of
+humiliation; a most lively consciousness of my deficiencies, so that I
+seemed bowed to the very earth at the moment others were elevating me.
+As they all uncovered their heads while I stepped forth, I had need of
+all my thoughts to avoid bursting into tears. In the feeling that I was
+unworthy of all this, I glanced round to see whether a smile did not
+pass over the face of some one, but I could discern nothing of the kind;
+and such a discovery would, at that moment, have inflicted on me the
+deepest wound.
+
+After an hurrah, a speech was delivered, of which I clearly recollect
+the following words:--"When your native land, and the natives of Europe
+offer you their homage, then may you never forget that the first public
+honors were conferred on you by the students of Lund."
+
+When the heart is warm, the strength of the expression is not weighed. I
+felt it deeply, and replied, that from this moment I became aware that
+I must assert a name in order to render myself worthy of these tokens
+of honor. I pressed the hands of those nearest to me, and returned them
+thanks so deep, so heartfelt,--certainly never was an expression of
+thanks more sincere. When I returned to my chamber, I went aside, in
+order to weep out this excitement, this overwhelming sensation. "Think
+no more of it, be joyous with us," said some of my lively Swedish
+friends; but a deep earnestness had entered my soul. Often has the
+memory of this time come back to me; and no noble-minded man, who reads
+these pages will discover a vanity in the fact, that I have lingered so
+long over this moment of life, which scorched the roots of pride rather
+than nourished them.
+
+My drama was now to be brought on the stage at Malm÷; the students
+wished to see it; but I hastened my departure, that I might not be in
+the theatre at the time. With gratitude and joy fly my thoughts towards
+the Swedish University city, but I myself have not been there again
+since. In the Swedish newspapers the honors paid me were mentioned, and
+it was added that the Swedes were not unaware that in my own country
+there was a clique which persecuted me; but that this should not hinder
+my neighbors from offering me the honors which they deemed my due.
+
+It was when I had returned to Copenhagen that I first truly felt how
+cordially I had been received by the Swedes; amongst some of my old and
+tried friends I found the most genuine sympathy. I saw tears in their
+eyes, tears of joy for the honors paid me; and especially, said they,
+for the manner in which I had received them. There is but one manner for
+me; at once, in the midst of joy, I fly with thanks to God.
+
+There were certain persons who smiled at the enthusiasm; certain voices
+raised themselves already against "The Mulatto;"--"the mat riel was
+merely borrowed;" the French narrative was scrupulously studied. That
+exaggerated praise which I had received, now made me sensitive to the
+blame; I could bear it less easily than before, and saw more clearly,
+that it did not spring out of an interest in the matter, but was only
+uttered in order to mortify me. For the rest, my mind was fresh
+and elastic; I conceived precisely at this time the idea of "The
+Picture-Book without Pictures," and worked it out. This little book
+appears, to judge by the reviews and the number of editions, to have
+obtained an extraordinary popularity in Germany; it was also translated
+into Swedish, and dedicated to myself; at home, it was here less
+esteemed; people talked only of The Mulatto; and finally, only of
+the borrowed mat riel of it. I determined, therefore to produce a
+new dramatic work, in which both subject and development, in fact,
+everything should be of my own conception. I had the idea, and now
+wrote the tragedy of The Moorish Maiden, hoping through this to stop the
+mouths of all my detractors, and to assert my place as a dramatic poet.
+I hoped, too, through the income from this, together with the proceeds
+of The Mulatto, to be able to make a fresh journey, not only to Italy,
+but to Greece and Turkey. My first going abroad had more than all
+besides operated towards my intellectual development; I was therefore
+full of the passion for travel, and of the endeavor to acquire more
+knowledge of nature and of human life.
+
+My new piece did not please Heiberg, nor indeed my dramatic endeavors at
+all; his wife--for whom the chief part appeared to me especially to be
+written--refused, and that not in the most friendly manner, to play
+it. Deeply wounded, I went forth. I lamented this to some individuals.
+Whether this was repeated, or whether a complaint against the favorite
+of the public is a crime, enough: from this hour Heiberg became my
+opponent,--he whose intellectual rank I so highly estimated,--he with
+whom I would so willingly have allied myself,--and he who so often--I
+will venture to say it--I had approached with the whole sincerity of my
+nature. I have constantly declared his wife to be so distinguished an
+actress, and continue still so entirely of this opinion, that I would
+not hesitate one moment to assert that she would have a European
+reputation, were the Danish language as widely diffused as the German
+or the French. In tragedy she is, by the spirit and the geniality with
+which she comprehends and fills any part, a most interesting object; and
+in comedy she stands unrivalled.
+
+The wrong may be on my side or not,--no matter: a party was opposed to
+me. I felt myself wounded, excited by many coincident annoyances there.
+I felt uncomfortable in my native country, yes, almost ill. I therefore
+left my piece to its fate, and, suffering and disconcerted, I hastened
+forth. In this mood I wrote a prologue to The Moorish Maiden; which
+betrayed my irritated mind far too palpably. If I would represent this
+portion of my life more clearly and reflectively it would require me to
+penetrate into the mysteries of the theatre, to analyze our aesthetic
+cliques, and to drag into conspicuous notice many individuals, who do
+not belong to publicity. Many persons in my place would, like me, have
+fallen ill, or would have resented it vehemently: perhaps the latter
+would have been the most sensible.
+
+At my departure, many of my young friends amongst the students prepared
+a banquet for me; and amongst the elder ones who were present to
+receive me were Collin, Oehlenschl ger and Oersted. This was somewhat of
+sunshine in the midst of my mortification; songs by Oehlenschl ger and
+Hillerup were sung; and I found cordiality and friendship, as I quitted
+my country in distress. This was in October of 1840.
+
+For the second time I went to Italy and Rome, to Greece and
+Constantinople--a journey which I have described after my own manner in
+A Poet's Bazaar.
+
+In Holstein I continued some days with Count Rantzau-Breitenburg, who
+had before invited me, and whose ancestral castle I now for the
+first time visited. Here I became acquainted with the rich scenery of
+Holstein, heath and moorland, and then hastened by Nuremberg to Munich,
+where I again met with Cornelius and Schelling, and was kindly received
+by Kaulbach and Schelling. I cast a passing glance on the artistic
+life in Munich, but for the most part pursued my own solitary course,
+sometimes filled with the joy of life, but oftener despairing of my
+powers. I possessed a peculiar talent, that of lingering on the gloomy
+side of life, of extracting the bitter from it, of tasting it; and
+understood well, when the whole was exhausted, how to torment myself.
+
+In the winter season I crossed the Brenner, remained some days in
+Florence, which I had before visited for a longer time, and about
+Christmas reached Rome. Here again I saw the noble treasures of art, met
+old friends, and once more passed a Carnival and Moccoli. But not alone
+was I bodily ill; nature around me appeared likewise to sicken; there
+was neither the tranquillity nor the freshness which attended my
+first sojourn in Rome. The rocks quaked, the Tiber twice rose into the
+streets, fever raged, and snatched numbers away. In a few days Prince
+Borghese lost his wife and three sons. Rain and wind prevailed; in
+short, it was dismal, and from home cold lotions only were sent me. My
+letters told me that The Moorish Maiden had several times been
+acted through, and had gone quietly off the stage; but, as was seen
+beforehand, a small public only had been present, and therefore the
+manager had laid the piece aside. Other Copenhagen letters to our
+countrymen in Rome spoke with enthusiasm of a new work by Heiberg; a
+satirical poem--A Soul after Death. It was but just out, they wrote; all
+Copenhagen was full of it, and Andersen was famously handled in it. The
+book was admirable, and I was made ridiculous in it. That was the whole
+which I heard,--all that I knew. No one told me what really was said of
+me; wherein lay the amusement and the ludicrous. It is doubly painful
+to be ridiculed when we don't know wherefore we are so. The information
+operated like molten lead dropped into a wound, and agonized me cruelly.
+It was not till after my return to Denmark that I read this book, and
+found that what was said of me in it, was really nothing in itself which
+was worth laying to heart. It was a jest over my celebrity "from Schonen
+to Hundsr ck", which did not please Heiberg; he therefore sent my
+Mulatto and The Moorish Maiden to the infernal regions, where--and that
+was the most witty conceit--the condemned were doomed to witness the
+performance of both pieces in one evening; and then they could go away
+and lay themselves down quietly. I found the poetry, for the rest, so
+excellent, that I was half induced to write to Heiberg, and to return
+him my thanks for it; but I slept upon this fancy, and when I awoke and
+was more composed, I feared lest such thanks should be misunderstood;
+and so I gave it up.
+
+In Rome, as I have said, I did not see the book; I only heard the arrows
+whizz and felt their wound, but I did not know what the poison was which
+lay concealed in them. It seemed to me that Rome was no joy-bringing
+city; when I was there before, I had also passed dark and bitter days. I
+was ill, for the first time in my life, truly and bodily ill, and I made
+haste to get away.
+
+The Danish poet Holst was then in Rome; he had received this year a
+travelling pension. Hoist had written an elegy on King Frederick VI.,
+which went from mouth to mouth, and awoke an enthusiasm, like that of
+Becker's contemporaneous Rhine song in Germany. He lived in the same
+house with me in Rome, and showed me much sympathy: with him I made the
+journey to Naples, where, notwithstanding it was March, the sun would
+not properly shine, and the snow lay on the hills around. There was
+fever in my blood; I suffered in body and in mind; and I soon lay
+so severely affected by it, that certainly nothing but a speedy
+blood-letting, to which my excellent Neapolitan landlord compelled me,
+saved my life.
+
+In a few days I grew sensibly better; and I now proceeded by a French
+war steamer to Greece. Holst accompanied me on board. It was now as if
+a new life had risen for me; and in truth this was the case; and if this
+does not appear legibly in my later writings, yet it manifested itself
+in my views of life, and in my whole inner development. As I saw my
+European home lie far behind me, it seemed to me as if a stream of
+forgetfulness flowed of all bitter and rankling remembrances: I felt
+health in my blood, health in my thoughts, and freshly and courageously
+I again raised my head.
+
+Like another Switzerland, with a loftier and clearer heaven than the
+Italian, Greece lay before me; nature made a deep and solemn impression
+upon me; I felt the sentiment of standing on the great battle field of
+the world, where nation had striven with nation, and had perished.
+No single poem can embrace such greatness; every scorched-up bed of a
+stream, every height, every stone, has mighty memoirs to relate. How
+little appear the inequalities of daily life in such a place! A kingdom
+of ideas streamed through me, and with such a fulness, that none of them
+fixed themselves on paper. I had a desire to express the idea, that the
+godlike was here on earth to maintain its contest, that it is thrust
+backward, and yet advances again victoriously through all ages; and I
+found in the legend of the Wandering Jew an occasion for it. For twelve
+months this fiction had been emerging from the sea of my thoughts; often
+did it wholly fill me; sometimes I fancied with the alchemists that I
+had dug up the treasure; then again it sank suddenly, and I despaired
+of ever being able to bring it to the light. I felt what a mass of
+knowledge of various kinds I must first acquire. Often at home, when I
+was compelled to hear reproofs on what they call a want of study, I had
+sat deep into the night, and had studied history in Hegel's Philosophy
+of History. I said nothing of this, or other studies, or they would
+immediately have been spoken of, in the manner of an instructive lady,
+who said, that people justly complained that I did not possess learning
+enough. "You have really no mythology" said she; "in all your poems
+there appears no single God. You must pursue mythology; you must read
+Racine and Corneille." That she called learning; and in like manner
+every one had something peculiar to recommend. For my poem of Ahasuerus
+I had read much and noted much, but yet not enough; in Greece, I
+thought, the whole will collect itself into clearness. The poem is not
+yet ready, but I hope that it will become so to my honor; for it happens
+with the children of the spirit, as with the earthly ones,--they grow as
+they sleep.
+
+In Athens I was heartily welcomed by Professor Ross, a native of
+Holstein, and by my countrymen. I found hospitality and a friendly
+feeling in the noble Prokesch-Osten; even the king and queen received me
+most graciously. I celebrated my birthday in the Acropolis.
+
+From Athens I sailed to Smyrna, and with me it was no childish pleasure
+to be able to tread another quarter of the globe. I felt a devotion in
+it, like that which I felt as a child when I entered the old church at
+Odense. I thought on Christ, who bled on this earth; I thought on Homer,
+whose song eternally resounds hence over the earth. The shores of Asia
+preached to me their sermons, and were perhaps more impressive than any
+sermon in any church can be.
+
+In Constantinople I passed eleven interesting days; and according to
+my good fortune in travel, the birthday of Mahomet itself fell exactly
+during my stay there. I saw the grand illumination, which completely
+transported me into the Thousand and One Nights.
+
+Our Danish ambassador lived several miles from Constantinople, and I had
+therefore no opportunity of seeing him; but I found a cordial reception
+with the Austrian internuntius, Baron von St rmer. With him I had a
+German home and friends. I contemplated making my return by the Black
+Sea and up the Danube; but the country was disturbed; it was said there
+had been several thousand Christians murdered. My companions of the
+voyage, in the hotel where I resided, gave up this route of the Danube,
+for which I had the greatest desire, and collectively counselled me
+against it. But in this case I must return again by Greece and Italy--it
+was a severe conflict.
+
+I do not belong to the courageous; I feel fear, especially in little
+dangers; but in great ones, and when an advantage is to be won, then I
+have a will, and it has grown firmer with years. I may tremble, I may
+fear; but I still do that which I consider the most proper to be done.
+I am not ashamed to confess my weakness; I hold that when out of our
+own true conviction we run counter to our inborn fear, we have done our
+duty. I had a strong desire to become acquainted with the interior of
+the country, and to traverse the Danube in its greatest expansion. I
+battled with myself; my imagination pointed to me the most horrible
+circumstances; it was an anxious night. In the morning I took counsel
+with Baron St rmer; and as he was of opinion that I might undertake
+the voyage, I determined upon it. From the moment that I had taken my
+determination, I had the most immovable reliance on Providence, and
+flung myself calmly on my fate. Nothing happened to me. The voyage was
+prosperous, and after the quarantine on the Wallachian frontier, which
+was painful enough to me, I arrived at Vienna on the twenty-first day
+of the journey. The sight of its towers, and the meeting with numerous
+Danes, awoke in me the thought of being speedily again at home. The idea
+bowed down my heart, and sad recollections and mortifications rose up
+within me once more.
+
+In August, 1841, I was again in Copenhagen. There I wrote my
+recollections of travel, under the title of A Poet's Bazaar, in several
+chapters, according to the countries. In various places abroad I had met
+with individuals, as at home, to whom I felt myself attached. A poet is
+like the bird; he gives what he has, and he gives a song. I was desirous
+to give every one of those dear ones such a song. It was a fugitive
+idea, born, may I venture to say, in a grateful mood. Count
+Rantzau-Breitenburg, who had resided in Italy, who loved the land, and
+was become a friend and benefactor to me through my Improvisatore, must
+love that part of the book which treated of his country. To Liszt and
+Thalberg, who had both shown me the greatest friendship, I dedicated
+the portion which contained the voyage up the Danube, because one was a
+Hungarian and the other an Austrian. With these indications, the reader
+will easily be able to trace out the thought which influenced me in the
+choice of each dedication. But these appropriations were, in my native
+country, regarded as a fresh proof of my vanity;--"I wished to figure
+with great names, to name distinguished people as my friends."
+
+The book has been translated into several languages, and the dedications
+with it. I know not how they have been regarded abroad; if I have been
+judged there as in Denmark, I hope that this explanation will change
+the opinion concerning them. In Denmark my Bazaar procured me the most
+handsome remuneration that I have as yet received,--a proof that I
+was at length read there. No regular criticism appeared upon it, if
+we except notices in some daily papers, and afterwards in the poetical
+attempt of a young writer who, a year before, had testified to me in
+writing his love, and his wish to do me honor; but who now, in his first
+public appearance, launched his satirical poem against his friend. I
+was personally attached to this young man, and am so still. He assuredly
+thought more on the popularity he would gain by sailing in the wake
+of Heiberg, than on the pain he would inflict on me. The newspaper
+criticism in Copenhagen was infinitely stupid. It was set down as
+exaggerated, that I could have seen the whole round blue globe of the
+moon in Smyrna at the time of the new moon. That was called fancy and
+extravagance, which there every one sees who can open his eyes. The new
+moon has a dark blue and perfectly round disk.
+
+The Danish critics have generally no open eye for nature: even the
+highest and most cultivated monthly periodical of literature in Denmark
+censured me once because, in a poem I had described a rainbow by
+moonlight. That too was my fancy, which, said they, carried me too far.
+When I said in the Bazaar, "if I were a painter, I would paint this
+bridge; but, as I am no painter, but a poet, I must therefore speak,"
+&c. Upon this the critic says, "He is so vain, that he tells us himself
+that he is a poet." There is something so pitiful in such criticism,
+that one cannot be wounded by it; but even when we are the most
+peaceable of men, we feel a desire to flagellate such wet dogs, who come
+into our rooms and lay themselves down in the best place in them.
+There might be a whole Fool's Chronicle written of all the absurd and
+shameless things which, from my first appearance before the public till
+this moment, I have been compelled to hear.
+
+In the meantime the Bazaar was much read, and made what is called a
+hit. I received, connected with this book, much encouragement and many
+recognitions from individuals of the highest distinction in the realms
+of intellect in my native land.
+
+The journey had strengthened me both in mind and body; I began to show
+indications of a firmer purpose, a more certain judgment. I was now in
+harmony with myself and with mankind around me.
+
+Political life in Denmark had, at that time, arrived at a higher
+development, producing both good and evil fruits. The eloquence which
+had formerly accustomed itself to the Demosthenic mode, that of putting
+little pebbles in the mouth, the little pebbles of every day life, now
+exercised itself more freely on subjects of greater interest. I felt no
+call thereto, and no necessity to mix myself up in such matters; for I
+then believed that the politics of our times were a great misfortune to
+many a poet. Madame, politics are like Venus; they whom she decoys into
+her castle perish. It fares with the writings of these poets as with the
+newspapers: they are seized upon, read, praised, and forgotten. In our
+days every one wishes to rule; the subjective makes its power of value;
+people forget that that which is thought of cannot always be carried
+out, and that many things look very different when contemplated from the
+top of the tree, to what they did when seen from its roots. I will bow
+myself before him who is influenced by a noble conviction, and who only
+desires that which is conducive to good, be he prince or man of the
+people. Politics are no affair of mine. God has imparted to me another
+mission: that I felt, and that I feel still. I met in the so-called
+first families of the country a number of friendly, kind-hearted men,
+who valued the good that was in me, received me into their circles, and
+permitted me to participate in the happiness of their opulent summer
+residences; so that, still feeling independent, I could thoroughly give
+myself up to the pleasures of nature, the solitude of woods, and country
+life. There for the first time I lived wholly among the scenery of
+Denmark, and there I wrote the greater number of my fairy tales. On
+the banks of quiet lakes, amid the woods, on the green grassy pastures,
+where the game sprang past me and the stork paced along on his red
+legs, I heard nothing of politics, nothing of polemics; I heard no one
+practising himself in Hagel's phraseology. Nature, which was around me
+and within me, preached to me of my calling. I spent many happy days at
+the old house of Gisselfeld, formerly a monastery, which stands in the
+deepest solitude of the woods, surrounded with lakes and hills. The
+possessor of this fine place, the old Countess Danneskjold, mother of
+the Duchess of Augustenburg, was an agreeable and excellent lady, I was
+there not as a poor child of the people, but as a cordially-received
+guest. The beeches now overshadow her grave in the midst of that
+pleasant scenery to which her heart was allied.
+
+Close by Gisselfeld, but in a still finer situation, and of much greater
+extent, lies the estate of Bregentoed, which belongs to Count Moltke,
+Danish Minister of Finance. The hospitality which I met with in this
+place, one of the richest and most beautiful of our country, and the
+happy, social life which surrounded me here, have diffused a sunshine
+over my life.
+
+It may appear, perhaps, as if I desired to bring the names of great
+people prominently forward, and make a parade of them; or as if I wished
+in this way to offer a kind of thanks to my benefactors. They need it
+not, and I should be obliged to mention many other names still if this
+were my intention. I speak, however, only of these two places, and of
+Nys÷, which belongs to Baron Stampe, and which has become celebrated
+through Thorwaldsen. Here I lived much with the great sculptor, and here
+I became acquainted with one of my dearest young friends, the future
+possessor of the place.
+
+Knowledge of life in these various circles has had great influence on
+me: among princes, among the nobility, and among the poorest of the
+people, I have met with specimens of noble humanity. We all of us
+resemble each other in that which is good and best.
+
+Winter life in Denmark has likewise its attractions and its rich
+variety. I spent also some time in the country during this season, and
+made myself acquainted with its peculiar characteristics. The greatest
+part of my time, however, I passed in Copenhagen. I felt myself at home
+with the married sons and daughters of Collin, where a number of amiable
+children were growing up. Every year strengthened the bond of friendship
+between myself and the nobly-gifted composer, Hartmann: art and the
+freshness of nature prospered in his house. Collin was my counsellor in
+practical life, and Oersted in my literary affairs. The theatre was, if
+I may so say, my club. I visited it every evening, and in this very year
+I had received a place in the so-called court stalls. An author must,
+as a matter of course, work himself up to it. After the first accepted
+piece he obtains admission to the pit; after the second greater work,
+in the stalls, where the actors have their seats; and after three larger
+works, or a succession of lesser pieces, the poet is advanced to the
+best places. Here were to be found Thorwaldsen, Oehlenschl ger, and
+several older poets; and here also, in 1840,1 obtained a place, after I
+had given in seven pieces. Whilst Thorwaldsen lived, I often, by his own
+wish, sate at his side. Oehlenschl ger was also my neighbor, and in many
+an evening hour, when no one dreamed of it, my soul was steeped in deep
+humility, as I sate between these great spirits. The different periods
+of my life passed before me; the time when I sate on the hindmost bench
+in the box of the female figurantes, as well as that in which, full of
+childish superstition, I knelt down there upon the stage and repeated
+the Lord's Prayer, just before the very place where I now sate among
+the first and the most distinguished men. At the time, perhaps, when a
+countryman of mine thus thought of and passed judgment upon me,--"there
+he sits, between the two great spirits, full of arrogance and pride;" he
+may now perceive by this acknowledgment how unjustly he has judged me.
+Humility, and prayer to God for strength to deserve my happiness, filled
+my heart. May He always enable me to preserve these feelings? I enjoyed
+the friendship of Thorwaldsen as well as of Oehlenschl ger, those two
+most distinguished stars in the horizon of the North. I may here bring
+forward their reflected glory in and around me.
+
+There is in the character of Oehlenschl ger, when he is not seen in the
+circles of the great, where he is quiet and reserved, something so open
+and child-like, that no one can help becoming attached to him. As a
+poet, he holds in the North a position of as great importance as Goethe
+did in Germany. He is in his best works so penetrated by the spirit
+of the North, that through him it has, as it were, ascended upon all
+nations. In foreign countries he is not so much appreciated. The works
+by which he is best known are "Correggio" and "Aladdin;" but assuredly
+his masterly poem of "The Northern Gods" occupied a far higher rank: it
+is our "Iliad." It possesses power, freshness--nay, any expression of
+mine is poor. It is possessed of grandeur; it is the poet Oehlenschl ger
+in the bloom of his soul. Hakon, Jarl, and Palnatoke will live in the
+poetry of Oehlenschl ger as long as mankind endures. Denmark, Norway,
+and Sweden have fully appreciated him, and have shown him that they do
+so, and whenever it is asked who occupies the first place in the kingdom
+of mind, the palm is always awarded to him. He is the true-born poet;
+he appears always young, whilst he himself, the oldest of all, surpasses
+all in the productiveness of his mind. He listened with friendly
+disposition to my first lyrical outpourings; and he acknowledged
+with earnestness and cordiality the poet who told the fairy-tales. My
+Biographer in the Danish Pantheon brought me in contact with Oehlenschl
+ger, when he said, "In our days it is becoming more and more rare for
+any one, by implicitly following those inborn impulses of his soul,
+which make themselves irresistibly felt, to step forward as an artist or
+a poet. He is more frequently fashioned by fate and circumstances than
+apparently destined by nature herself for this office. With the greater
+number of our poets an early acquaintance with passion, early inward
+experience, or outward circumstances, stand instead of the original vein
+of nature, and this cannot in any case be more incontestably proved in
+our own literature than by instancing Oehlenschl ger and Andersen. And
+in this way it may be explained why the former has been so frequently
+the object for the attacks of the critics, and why the latter was first
+properly appreciated as a poet in foreign countries where civilization
+of a longer date has already produced a disinclination for the
+compulsory rule of schools, and has occasioned a reaction towards that
+which is fresh and natural; whilst we Danes, on the contrary, cherish
+a pious respect for the yoke of the schools and the worn-out wisdom of
+maxims."
+
+Thorwaldsen, whom, as I have already said, I had become acquainted
+with in Rome in the years 1833 and 1834, was expected in Denmark in the
+autumn of 1838, and great festive preparations were made in consequence.
+A flag was to wave upon one of the towers of Copenhagen as soon as
+the vessel which brought him should come in sight. It was a national
+festival. Boats decorated with flowers and flags filled the Rhede;
+painters, sculptors, all had their flags with emblems; the students'
+bore a Minerva, the poets' a Pegasus. It was misty weather, and the ship
+was first seen when it was already close by the city, and all poured out
+to meet him. The poets, who, I believe, according to the arrangement
+of Heiberg, had been invited, stood by their boat; Oehlenschl ger and
+Heiberg alone had not arrived. And now guns were fired from the ship,
+which came to anchor, and it was to be feared that Thorwaldsen might
+land before we had gone out to meet him. The wind bore the voice of
+singing over to us: the festive reception had already begun.
+
+I wished to see him, and therefore cried out to the others, "Let us put
+off!"
+
+"Without Oehlenschl ger and Heiberg?" asked some one.
+
+"But they are not arrived, and it will be all over."
+
+One of the poets declared that if these two men were not with us, I
+should not sail under that flag, and pointed up to Pegasus.
+
+"We will throw it in the boat," said I, and took it down from the staff;
+the others now followed me, and came up just as Thorwaldsen reached
+land. We met with Oehlenschl ger and Heiberg in another boat, and they
+came over to us as the enthusiasm began on shore.
+
+The people drew Thorwaldsen's carriage through the streets to his house,
+where everybody who had the slightest acquaintance with him, or with
+the friends of a friend of his, thronged around him. In the evening the
+artists gave him a serenade, and the blaze of the torches illumined
+the garden under the large trees, there was an exultation and joy which
+really and truly was felt. Young and old hastened through the open
+doors, and the joyful old man clasped those whom he knew to his breast,
+gave them his kiss, and pressed their hands. There was a glory round
+Thorwaldsen which kept me timidly back: my heart beat for joy of seeing
+him who had met me when abroad with kindness and consolation, who
+had pressed me to his heart, and had said that we must always remain
+friends. But here in this jubilant crowd, where thousands noticed
+every movement of his, where I too by all these should be observed and
+criticised--yes, criticised as a vain man who now only wished to show
+that he too was acquainted with Thorwaldsen, and that this great man was
+kind and friendly towards him--here, in this dense crowd, I drew myself
+back, and avoided being recognized by him. Some days afterwards, and
+early in the morning, I went to call upon him, and found him as a friend
+who had wondered at not having seen me earlier.
+
+In honor of Thorwaldsen a musical-poetic academy was established, and
+the poets, who were invited to do so by Heiberg, wrote and read each
+one a poem in praise of him who had returned home. I wrote of Jason who
+fetched the golden fleece--that is to say, Jason-Thorwaldsen, who went
+forth to win golden art. A great dinner and a ball closed the festival,
+in which, for the first time in Denmark, popular life and a subject of
+great interest in the realms of art were made public.
+
+From this evening I saw Thorwaldsen almost daily in company or in his
+studio: I often passed several weeks together with him at Nys÷, where
+he seemed to have firmly taken root, and where the greater number of his
+works, executed in Denmark, had their origin. He was of a healthful and
+simple disposition of mind, not without humor, and, therefore, he was
+extremely attached to Holberg the poet: he did not at all enter into the
+troubles and the disruptions of the world.
+
+One morning at Nys÷--at the time when he was working at his own
+statue--I entered his work-room and bade him good morning; he appeared
+as if he did not wish to notice me, and I stole softly away again.
+At breakfast he was very parsimonious in the use of words, and when
+somebody asked him to say something at all events, he replied in his dry
+way:--
+
+"I have said more during this morning than in many whole days, but
+nobody heard me. There I stood, and fancied that Andersen was behind
+me, for he came, and said good morning--so I told him a long story about
+myself and Byron. I thought that he might give one word in reply, and
+turned myself round; and there had I been standing a whole hour and
+chattering aloud to the bare walls."
+
+We all of us besought him to let us hear the whole story yet once more;
+but we had it now very short.
+
+"Oh, that was in Rome," said he, "when I was about to make Byron's
+statue; he placed himself just opposite to me, and began immediately to
+assume quite another countenance to what was customary to him. 'Will not
+you sit still?' said I; 'but you must not make these faces.' 'It is
+my expression,' said Byron. 'Indeed?' said I, and then I made him as
+I wished, and everybody said, when it was finished, that I had hit the
+likeness. When Byron, however, saw it, he said, 'It does not resemble me
+at all; I look more unhappy.'"
+
+"He was, above all things, so desirous of looking extremely unhappy,"
+added Thorwaldsen, with a comic expression.
+
+It afforded the great sculptor pleasure to listen to music after dinner
+with half-shut eyes, and it was his greatest delight when in the evening
+the game of lotto began, which the whole neighborhood of Nys÷ was
+obliged to learn; they only played for glass pieces, and on this account
+I am able to relate a peculiar characteristic of this otherwise great
+man--that he played with the greatest interest on purpose to win. He
+would espouse with warmth and vehemence the part of those from whom
+he believed that he had received an injustice; he opposed himself to
+unfairness and raillery, even against the lady of the house, who for the
+rest had the most childlike sentiments towards him, and who had no
+other thought than how to make everything most agreeable to him. In his
+company I wrote several of my tales for children--for example, "Ole Luck
+Oin," ("Ole Shut Eye,") to which he listened with pleasure and interest.
+Often in the twilight, when the family circle sate in the open garden
+parlor, Thorwaldsen would come softly behind me, and, clapping me on the
+shoulder, would ask, "Shall we little ones hear any tales tonight?"
+
+In his own peculiarly natural manner he bestowed the most bountiful
+praise on my fictions, for their truth; it delighted him to hear the
+same stories over and over again. Often, during his most glorious works,
+would he stand with laughing countenance, and listen to the stories of
+the Top and the Ball, and the Ugly Duckling. I possess a certain talent
+of improvising in my native tongue little poems and songs. This talent
+amused Thorwaldsen very much; and as he had modelled, at Nys÷, Holberg's
+portrait in clay, I was commissioned to make a poem for his work, and he
+received, therefore, the following impromptu:--
+
+  "No more shall Holberg live," by Death was said,
+    "I crush the clay, his soul's bonds heretofore."
+  "And from the formless clay, the cold, the dead,"
+    Cried Thorwaldsen, "shall Holberg live once more."
+
+One morning, when he had just modelled in clay his great bas-relief of
+the Procession to Golgotha, I entered his study.
+
+"Tell me," said he, "does it seem to you that I have dressed Pilate
+properly?"
+
+"You must not say anything to him," said the Baroness, who was always
+with him: "it is right; it is excellent; go away with you!"
+
+Thorwaldsen repeated his question.
+
+"Well, then," said I, "as you ask me, I must confess that it really does
+appear to me as if Pilate were dressed rather as an Egyptian than as a
+Roman."
+
+"It seems to me so too," said Thorwaldsen, seizing the clay with his
+hand, and destroying the figure.
+
+"Now you are guilty of his having annihilated an immortal work,"
+exclaimed the Baroness to me with warmth.
+
+"Then we can make a new immortal work," said he, in a cheerful humor,
+and modelled Pilate as he now remains in the bas-relief in the Ladies'
+Church in Copenhagen.
+
+His last birth-day was celebrated there in the country. I had written a
+merry little song, and it was hardly dry on the paper, when we sang
+it, in the early morning, before his door, accompanied by the music
+of jingling fire-irons, gongs, and bottles rubbed against a basket.
+Thorwaldsen himself, in his morning gown and slippers, opened his door,
+and danced round his chamber; swung round his Raphael's cap, and joined
+in the chorus. There was life and mirth in the strong old man.
+
+On the last day of his life I sate by him at dinner; he was unusually
+good-humored; repeated several witticisms which he had just read in the
+Corsair, a well-known Copenhagen newspaper, and spoke of the journey
+which he should undertake to Italy in the summer. After this we parted;
+he went to the theatre, and I home.
+
+On the following morning the waiter at the hotel where I lived said,
+"that it was a very remarkable thing about Thorwaldsen--that he had died
+yesterday."
+
+"Thorwaldsen!" exclaimed I; "he is not dead, I dined with him
+yesterday."
+
+"People say that he died last evening at the theatre," returned the
+waiter. I fancied that he might be taken ill; but still I felt a strange
+anxiety, and hastened immediately over to his house. There lay his
+corpse stretched out on the bed; the chamber was filled with strangers;
+the floor wet with melted snow; the air stifling; no one said a word:
+the Baroness Stampe sate on the bed and wept bitterly. I stood trembling
+and deeply agitated.
+
+A farewell hymn, which I wrote, and to which Hartmann composed the
+music, was sung by Danish students over his coffin.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+In the summer of 1842, I wrote a little piece for the summer theatre,
+called, "The Bird in the Pear-tree," in which several scenes were acted
+up in the pear-tree. I had called it a dramatic trifle, in order that
+no one might expect either a great work or one of a very elaborate
+character. It was a little sketch, which, after being performed a few
+times, was received with so much applause, that the directors of the
+theatre accepted it; nay, even Mrs. Heiberg, the favorite of the public,
+desired to take a part in it. People had amused themselves; had thought
+the selection of the music excellent. I knew that the piece had stood
+its rehearsal--and then suddenly it was hissed. Some young men, who gave
+the word to hiss, had said to some others, who inquired from them
+their reasons for doing so, that the trifle had too much luck, and then
+Andersen would be getting too mettlesome.
+
+I was not, on this evening, at the theatre myself, and had not the least
+idea of what was going on. On the following I went to the house of one
+of my friends. I had head-ache, and was looking very grave. The lady of
+the house met me with a sympathizing manner, took my hand, and said, "Is
+it really worth while to take it so much to heart? There were only two
+who hissed, the whole house beside took your part."
+
+"Hissed! My part! Have I been hissed?" exclaimed I.
+
+It was quite comic; one person assured me that this hissing had been a
+triumph for me; everybody had joined in acclamation, and "there was only
+one who hissed."
+
+After this, another person came, and I asked him of the number of those
+who hissed. "Two," said he. The next person said "three," and said
+positively there were no more. One of my most veracious friends now made
+his appearance, and I asked him upon his conscience, how many he had
+heard; he laid his hand upon his heart, and said that, at the very
+highest, they were five.
+
+"No," said I, "now I will ask nobody more; the number grows just as with
+Falstaff; here stands one who asserts that there was only one person who
+hissed."
+
+Shocked, and yet inclined to set it all right again, he replied, "Yes,
+that is possible, but then it was a strong, powerful hiss."
+
+By my last works, and through a rational economy, I had now saved a
+small sum of money, which I destined to the purposes of a new journey
+to Paris, where I arrived in the winter of 1843, by way of D sseldorf,
+through Belgium.
+
+Marmier had already, in the _R vue de Paris_, written an article on me,
+_La Vie d'un Po te_. He had also translated several of my poems into
+French, and had actually honored me with a poem which is printed in the
+above-named _R vue_. My name had thus reached, like a sound, the ears of
+some persons in the literary world, and I here met with a surprisingly
+friendly reception.
+
+At Victor Hugo's invitation, I saw his abused _Burggraves_. Mr. and Mrs.
+Ancelot opened their house to me, and there I met Martinez della Rosa
+and other remarkable men of these times. Lamart ne seemed to me, in his
+domestic, and in his whole personal appearance, as the prince of them
+all. On my apologizing because I spoke such bad French, he replied, that
+he was to blame, because he did not understand the northern languages,
+in which, as he had discovered in late years, there existed a fresh and
+vigorous literature, and where the poetical ground was so peculiar that
+you had only to stoop down to find an old golden horn. He asked about
+the Trollh tta canal, and avowed a wish to visit Denmark and Stockholm.
+He recollected also our now reigning king, to whom, when as prince
+he was in Castellamare, he had paid his respects; besides this, he
+exhibited for a Frenchman, an extraordinary acquaintance with names and
+places in Denmark. On my departure he wrote a little poem for me, which
+I preserve amongst my dearest relics.
+
+I generally found the jovial Alexander Dumas in bed, even long after
+mid-day: here he lay, with paper, pen, and ink, and wrote his newest
+drama. I found him thus one day; he nodded kindly to me, and said, "Sit
+down a minute; I have just now a visit from my muse; she will be going
+directly." He wrote on; spoke aloud; shouted a _viva!_ sprang out of
+bed, and said, "The third act is finished!"
+
+One evening he conducted me round into the various theatres, that I
+might see the life behind the scenes. We wandered about, arm in arm,
+along the gay Boulevard.
+
+I also have to thank him for my acquaintance with Rachel. I had not seen
+her act, when Alexander Dumas asked me whether I had the desire to make
+her acquaintance. One evening, when she was to come out as Phedra he led
+me to the stage of the Th atre Fran ais. The Representation had begun,
+and behind the scenes, where a folding screen had formed a sort of room,
+in which stood a table with refreshments, and a few ottomans, sate the
+young girl who, as an author has said, understands how to chisel living
+statues out of Racine's and Corneille's blocks of marble. She was thin
+and slenderly formed, and looked very young. She looked to me there,
+and more particularly so afterwards in her own house, as an image of
+mourning; as a young girl who has just wept out her sorrow, and will
+now let her thoughts repose in quiet. She accosted us kindly in a deep
+powerful voice. In the course of conversation with Dumas, she forgot
+me. I stood there quite superfluous. Dumas observed it, said something
+handsome of me, and on that I ventured to take part in the discourse,
+although I had a depressing feeling that I stood before those who
+perhaps spoke the most beautiful French in all France. I said that I
+truly had seen much that was glorious and interesting, but that I
+had never yet seen a Rachel, and that on her account especially had I
+devoted the profits of my last work to a journey to Paris; and as, in
+conclusion, I added an apology on account of my French, she smiled and
+said, "When you say anything so polite as that which you have just said
+to me, to a Frenchwoman, she will always think that you speak well."
+
+When I told her that her fame had resounded to the North, she declared
+that it was her intention to go to Petersburg and Copenhagen: "and when
+I come to your city", she said, "you must be my defender, as you are the
+only one there whom I know; and in order that we may become acquainted,
+and as you, as you say, are come to Paris especially on my account,
+we must see each other frequently. You will be welcome to me. I see
+my friends at my house every Thursday. But duty calls," said she, and
+offering us her hand, she nodded kindly, and then stood a few paces from
+us on the stage, taller, quite different, and with the expression of the
+tragic muse herself. Joyous acclamations ascended to where we sat.
+
+As a Northlander I cannot accustom myself to the French mode of acting
+tragedy. Rachel plays in this same style, but in her it appears to be
+nature itself; it is as if all the others strove to imitate her. She is
+herself the French tragic muse, the others are only poor human beings.
+When Rachel plays people fancy that all tragedy must be acted in this
+manner. It is in her truth and nature, but under another revelation to
+that with which we are acquainted in the north.
+
+At her house everything is rich and magnificent, perhaps too _recherch
+_. The innermost room was blue-green, with shaded lamps and statuettes
+of French authors. In the salon, properly speaking, the color which
+prevailed principally in the carpets, curtains, and bookcases
+was crimson. She herself was dressed in black, probably as she is
+represented in the well-known English steel engraving of her. Her
+guests consisted of gentlemen, for the greater part artists and men
+of learning. I also heard a few titles amongst them. Richly apparelled
+servants announced the names of the arrivals; tea was drunk and
+refreshments handed round, more in the German than the French style.
+
+Victor Hugo had told me that he found she understood the German
+language. I asked her, and she replied in German, "ich kann es lesen;
+ich bin ja in Lothringen geboren; ich habe deutsche B cher, sehn Sie
+hier!" and she showed me Grillparzer's "Sappho," and then immediately
+continued the conversation in French. She expressed her pleasure in
+acting the part of Sappho, and then spoke of Schiller's "Maria Stuart,"
+which character she has personated in a French version of that play. I
+saw her in this part, and she gave the last act especially with such a
+composure and tragic feeling, that she might have been one of the best
+of German actresses; but it was precisely in this very act that the
+French liked her least.
+
+"My countrymen," said she, "are not accustomed to this manner, and in
+this manner alone can the part be given. No one should be raving when
+the heart is almost broken with sorrow, and when he is about to take an
+everlasting farewell of his friends."
+
+Her drawing-room was, for the most part, decorated with books which were
+splendidly bound and arranged in handsome book-cases behind glass. A
+painting hung on the wall, which represented the interior of the
+theatre in London, where she stood forward on the stage, and flowers
+and garlands were thrown to her across the orchestra. Below this picture
+hung a pretty little book-shelf, holding what I call "the high nobility
+among the poets,"--Goethe, Schiller, Calderon, Shakspeare, &c.
+
+She asked me many questions respecting Germany and Denmark, art, and the
+theatre; and she encouraged me with a kind smile around her grave mouth,
+when I stumbled in French and stopped for a moment to collect myself,
+that I might not stick quite fast.
+
+"Only speak," said she. "It is true that you do not speak French well.
+I have heard many foreigners speak my native language better; but their
+conversation has not been nearly as interesting as yours. I understand
+the sense of your words perfectly, and that is the principal thing which
+interests me in you."
+
+The last time we parted she wrote the following words in my album:
+"L'art c'est le vrai! J'esp re que cet aphorisme ne semblera pas
+paradoxal un crivain si distingu comme M. Andersen."
+
+I perceived amiability of character in Alfred de Vigny. He has married
+an English lady, and that which is best in both nations seemed to unite
+in his house. The last evening which I spent in Paris, he himself, who
+is possessed of intellectual status and worldly wealth, came almost at
+midnight to my lodging in the Rue Richelieu, ascended the many steps,
+and brought me his works under his arm. So much cordiality beamed in
+his eyes and he seemed to be so full of kindness towards me, that I felt
+affected by our separation.
+
+I also became acquainted with the sculptor David. There was a something
+in his demeanor and in his straightforward manner that reminded me of
+Thorwaldsen and Bissen, especially of the latter. We did not meet till
+towards the conclusion of my residence in Paris. He lamented it, and
+said that he would execute a bust of me if I would remain there longer.
+
+When I said, "But you know nothing of me as a poet, and cannot tell
+whether I deserve it or not," he looked earnestly in my face, clapped
+me on the shoulder, and said, "I have, however, read you yourself before
+your books. You are a poet."
+
+At the Countess ----'s, where I met with Balzac, I saw an old lady,
+the expression of whose countenance attracted my attention. There was
+something so animated, so cordial in it, and everybody gathered about
+her. The Countess introduced me to her, and I heard that she was Madame
+Reybaud, the authoress of Les Epaves, the little story which I had made
+use of for my little drama of The Mulatto. I told her all about it, and
+of the representation of the piece, which interested her so much, that
+she became from this evening my especial protectress. We went out
+one evening together and exchanged ideas. She corrected my French and
+allowed me to repeat what did not appear correct to her. She is a lady
+of rich mental endowments, with a clear insight into the world, and she
+showed maternal kindness towards me.
+
+I also again met with Heine. He had married since I was last here. I
+found him in indifferent health; but full of energy, and so friendly
+and so natural in his behavior towards me, that I felt no timidity in
+exhibiting myself to him as I was. One day he had been relating to his
+wife my story of the Constant Tin Soldier, and, whilst he said that I
+was the author of this story, he introduced me to her. She was a lively,
+pretty young lady. A troop of children, who, as Heine says, belonged to
+a neighbor, played about in their room. We two played with them whilst
+Heine copied out one of his last poems for me.
+
+I perceived in him no pain-giving, sarcastic smile; I only heard the
+pulsation of a German heart, which is always perceptible in the songs,
+and which _must_ live.
+
+Through the means of the many people I was acquainted with here, among
+whom I might enumerate many others, as, for instance, Kalkbrenner,
+Gathy, &c., my residence in Paris was made very cheerful and rich in
+pleasure. I did not feel myself like a stranger there: I met with a
+friendly reception among the greatest and best. It was like a payment
+by anticipation of the talent which was in me, and through which they
+expected that I would some time prove them not to have been mistaken.
+
+Whilst I was in Paris, I received from Germany, where already several of
+my works were translated and read, a delightful and encouraging proof
+of friendship. A German family, one of the most highly cultivated and
+amiable with whom I am acquainted, had read my writings with interest,
+especially the little biographical sketch prefixed to Only a Fiddler,
+and felt the heartiest goodwill towards me, with whom they were then not
+personally acquainted. They wrote to me, expressed their thanks for my
+works and the pleasure they had derived from them, and offered me a kind
+welcome to their house if I would visit it on my return home. There was
+a something extremely cordial and natural in this letter, which was
+the first that I received of this kind in Paris, and it also formed a
+remarkable contrast to that which was sent to me from my native land in
+the year 1833, when I was here for the first time.
+
+In this way I found myself, through my writings, adopted, as it were,
+into a family to which since then I gladly betake myself, and where I
+know that it is not only as the poet, but as the man, that I am beloved.
+In how many instances have I not experienced the same kindness in
+foreign countries! I will mention one for the sake of its peculiarity.
+
+There lived in Saxony a wealthy and benevolent family; the lady of the
+house read my romance of Only a Fiddler, and the impression of this book
+was such that she vowed that, if ever, in the course of her life, she
+should meet with a poor child which was possessed of great musical
+talents, she would not allow it to perish as the poor Fiddler had done.
+A musician who had heard her say this, brought to her soon after, not
+one, but two poor boys, assuring her of their talent, and reminding
+her of her promise. She kept her word: both boys were received into
+her house, were educated by her, and are now in the Conservatorium; the
+youngest of them played before me, and I saw that his countenance was
+happy and joyful. The same thing perhaps might have happened; the same
+excellent lady might have befriended these children without my book
+having been written: but notwithstanding this, my book is now connected
+with this as a link in the chain.
+
+On my return home from Paris, I went along the Rhine; I knew that the
+poet Frieligrath, to whom the King of Prussia had given a pension, was
+residing in one of the Rhine towns. The picturesque character of his
+poems had delighted me extremely, and I wished to talk with him. I
+stopped at several towns on the Rhine, and inquired after him. In St.
+Goar, I was shown the house in which he lived. I found him sitting
+at his writing table, and he appeared annoyed at being disturbed by a
+stranger. I did not mention my name; but merely said that I could not
+pass St. Goar without paying my respects to the poet Frieligrath.
+
+"That is very kind of you," said he, in a very cold tone; and then asked
+who I was.
+
+"We have both of us one and the same friend, Chamisso!" replied I, and
+at these words he leapt up exultantly.
+
+"You are then Andersen!" he exclaimed; threw his arms around my neck,
+and his honest eyes beamed with joy.
+
+"Now you will stop several days here," said he. I told him that I could
+only stay a couple of hours, because I was travelling with some of my
+countrymen who were waiting for me.
+
+"You have a great many friends in little St. Goar," said he; "it is but
+a short time since I read aloud your novel of O. T. to a large circle;
+one of these friends I must, at all events, fetch here, and you must
+also see my wife. Yes, indeed, you do not know that you had something to
+do in our being married."
+
+He then related to me how my novel, Only a Fiddler, had caused them to
+exchange letters, and then led to their acquaintance, which acquaintance
+had ended in their being a married couple. He called her, mentioned to
+her my name, and I was regarded as an old friend. Such moments as these
+are a blessing; a mercy of God, a happiness--and how many such, how
+various, have I not enjoyed!
+
+I relate all these, to me, joyful occurrences; they are facts in
+my life: I relate them, as I formerly have related that which was
+miserable, humiliating, and depressing; and if I have done so, in
+the spirit which operated in my soul, it will not be called pride or
+vanity;--neither of them would assuredly be the proper name for it. But
+people may perhaps ask at home, Has Andersen then never been attacked in
+foreign countries? I must reply,--no!
+
+No regular attack has been made upon me, at least they have never at
+home called my attention to any such, and therefore there certainly
+cannot have been anything of the kind;--with the exception of one which
+made its appearance in Germany, but which originated in Denmark, at the
+very moment when I was in Paris.
+
+A certain Mr. Boas made a journey at that time through Scandinavia, and
+wrote a book on the subject. In this he gave a sort of survey of
+Danish literature, which he also published in the journal called Die
+Grenzboten; in this I was very severely handled as a man and as a poet.
+Several other Danish poets also, as for instance, Christian Winter, have
+an equally great right to complain. Mr. Boas had drawn his information
+out of the miserable gossip of every-day life; his work excited
+attention in Copenhagen, and nobody there would allow themselves to be
+considered as his informants; nay even Holst the poet, who, as may be
+seen from the work, travelled with him through Sweden, and had received
+him at his house in Copenhagen, on this occasion published, in one of
+the most widely circulated of our papers, a declaration that he was in
+no way connected with Mr. Boas.
+
+Mr. Boas had in Copenhagen attached himself to a particular clique
+consisting of a few young men; he had heard them full of lively spirits,
+talking during the day, of the Danish poets and their writings; he had
+then gone home, written down what he had heard and afterwards published
+it in his work. This was, to use the mildest term, inconsiderate. That
+my Improvisatore and Only a Fiddler did not please him, is a matter of
+taste, and to that I must submit myself. But when he, before the whole
+of Germany, where probably people will presume that what he has written
+is true, if he declare it to be, as is the case, the universal judgment
+against me in my native land; when he, I say, declared me before the
+whole of Germany, to be the most haughty of men, he inflicts upon me a
+deeper wound than he perhaps imagined. He conveyed the voice of a party,
+formerly hostile to me, into foreign countries. Nor is he true even in
+that which he represents; he gives circumstances as facts, which never
+took place.
+
+In Denmark what he has written could not injure me, and many have
+declared themselves afraid of coming into contact with any one, who
+printed everything which he heard. His book was read in Germany, the
+public of which is now also mine; and I believe, therefore, that I may
+here say how faulty is his view of Danish literature and Danish poets;
+in what manner his book was received in my native land and that people
+there know in what way it was put together. But after I have expressed
+myself thus on this subject I will gladly offer Mr. Boas my hand; and
+if, in his next visit to Denmark, no other poet will receive him, I will
+do my utmost for him; I know that he will not be able to judge me more
+severely when we know each other, than when we knew each other not. His
+judgment would also have been quite of another character had he come to
+Denmark but one year later; things changed very much in a year's time.
+Then the tide had turned in my favor; I then had published my new
+children's stories, of which from that moment to the present there
+prevailed, through the whole of my native land, but one unchanging
+honorable opinion. When the edition of my collection of stories came out
+at Christmas 1843, the reaction began; acknowledgment of my merits were
+made, and favor shown me in Denmark, and from that time I have no cause
+for complaint. I have obtained and I obtain in my own land that which I
+deserve, nay perhaps, much more.
+
+I will now turn to those little stories which in Denmark have been
+placed by every one, without any hesitation, higher than anything else I
+had hitherto written.
+
+In the year 1835, some months after I published the Improvisatore, I
+brought out my first volume of Stories for Children, [Footnote: I find
+it very difficult to give a correct translation of the original word.
+The Danish is _Eventyr_, equivalent to the German _Abentheur_, or
+adventure; but adventures give in English a very different idea to
+this class of stories. The German word _M rchen,_ gives the meaning
+completely, and this we may English by _fairy tale_ or _legend,_ but
+then neither of these words are fully correct with regard to Andersen's
+stories. In my translation of his "Eventyr fortalte for Born," I gave as
+an equivalent title, "Wonderful Stories for Children," and perhaps this
+near as I could come.--M. H.] which at that time was not so very much
+thought of. One monthly critical journal even complained that a young
+author who had just published a work like the Improvisatore, should
+immediately come out with anything so childish as the tales. I reaped a
+harvest of blame, precisely where people ought to have acknowledged the
+advantage of my mind producing something in a new direction. Several of
+my friends, whose judgment was of value to me, counselled me entirely to
+abstain from writing tales, as these were a something for which I had
+no talent. Others were of opinion that I had better, first of all, study
+the French fairy tale. I would willingly have discontinued writing them,
+but they forced themselves from me.
+
+In the volume which I first published, I had, like Mus us, but in my own
+manner, related old stories, which I had heard as a child. The volume
+concluded with one which was original, and which seemed to have given
+the greatest pleasure, although it bore a tolerably near affinity to a
+story of Hoffman's. In my increasing disposition for children's stories,
+I therefore followed my own impulse, and invented them mostly myself. In
+the following year a new volume came out, and soon after that a third,
+in which the longest story, The Little Mermaid, was my own invention.
+This story, in an especial manner, created an interest which was
+only increased by the following volumes. One of these came out every
+Christmas, and before long no Christmas tree could exist without my
+stones.
+
+Some of our first comic actors made the attempt of relating my little
+stories from the stage; it was a complete change from the declamatory
+poetry which had been heard to satiety. The Constant Tin Soldier,
+therefore, the Swineherd, and the Top and Ball, were told from the Royal
+stage, and from those of private theatres, and were well received. In
+order that the reader might be placed in the proper point of view, with
+regard to the manner in which I told the stories, I had called my first
+volume Stories told for Children. I had written my narrative down upon
+paper, exactly in the language, and with the expressions in which I had
+myself related them, by word of mouth, to the little ones, and I had
+arrived at the conviction that people of different ages were equally
+amused with them. The children made themselves merry for the most part
+over what might be called the actors, older people, on the contrary,
+were interested in the deeper meaning. The stories furnished reading for
+children and grown people, and that assuredly is a difficult task for
+those who will write children's stories. They met with open doors and
+open hearts in Denmark; everybody read them. I now removed the words
+"told for children," from my title, and published three volumes of "New
+Stories," all of which were of my own invention, and which were received
+in my own country with the greatest favor. I could not wish it greater;
+I felt a real anxiety in consequence, a fear of not being able to
+justify afterwards such an honorable award of praise.
+
+A refreshing sunshine streamed into my heart; I felt courage and joy,
+and was filled, with a living desire of still more and more developing
+my powers in this direction,--of studying more thoroughly this class
+of writing, and of observing still more attentively the rich wells of
+nature out of which I must create it. If attention be paid to the order
+in which my stories are written, it certainly will be seen that there
+is in them a gradual progression, a clearer working out of the idea, a
+greater discretion in the use of agency, and, if I may so speak, a more
+healthy tone and a more natural freshness may be perceived.
+
+At this period of my life, I made an acquaintance which was of great
+moral and intellectual importance to me. I have already spoken of
+several persons and public characters who have had influence on me as
+the poet; but none of these have had more, nor in a nobler sense of the
+word, than the lady to whom I here turn myself; she, through whom I,
+at the same time, was enabled to forget my own individual self, to feel
+that which is holy in art, and to become acquainted with the command
+which God has given to genius.
+
+I now turn back to the year 1840. One day in the hotel in which I lived
+in Copenhagen, I saw the name of Jenny Lind among those of the strangers
+from Sweden. I was aware at that time that she was the first singer in
+Stockholm. I had been that same year, in this neighbor country, and had
+there met with honor and kindness: I thought, therefore, that it would
+not be unbecoming in me to pay a visit to the young artist. She was, at
+this time, entirely unknown out of Sweden, so that I was convinced that,
+even in Copenhagen, her name was known only by few. She received me very
+courteously, but yet distantly, almost coldly. She was, as she said,
+on a journey with her father to South Sweden, and was come over to
+Copenhagen for a few days in order that she might see this city. We
+again parted distantly, and I had the impression of a very ordinary
+character which soon passed away from my mind.
+
+In the autumn of 1843, Jenny Lind came again to Copenhagen. One of
+my friends, our clever ballet-master, Bournonville, who has married a
+Swedish lady, a friend of Jenny Lind, informed me of her arrival here
+and told me that she remembered me very kindly, and that now she had
+read my writings. He entreated me to go with him to her, and to employ
+all my persuasive art to induce her to take a few parts at the Theatre
+Royal; I should, he said, be then quite enchanted with what I should
+hear.
+
+I was not now received as a stranger; she cordially extended to me her
+hand, and spoke of my writings and of Miss Fredrika Bremer, who also
+was her affectionate friend. The conversation was soon turned to her
+appearance in Copenhagen, and of this Jenny Lind declared that she stood
+in fear.
+
+"I have never made my appearance," said she, "out of Sweden; everybody
+in my native land is so affectionate and kind to me, and if I made my
+appearance in Copenhagen and should be hissed!--I dare not venture on
+it!"
+
+I said, that I, it was true, could not pass judgment on her singing,
+because I had never heard it, neither did I know how she acted, but
+nevertheless, I was convinced that such was the disposition at this
+moment in Copenhagen, that only a moderate voice and some knowledge of
+acting would be successful; I believed that she might safely venture.
+
+Bournonville's persuasion obtained for the Copenhageners the greatest
+enjoyment which they ever had.
+
+Jenny Lind made her first appearance among them as Alice in Robert
+le Diable--it was like a new revelation in the realms of art, the
+youthfully fresh voice forced itself into every heart; here reigned
+truth and nature; everything was full of meaning and intelligence. At
+one concert Jenny Lind sang her Swedish songs; there was something
+so peculiar in this, so bewitching; people thought nothing about
+the concert room; the popular melodies uttered by a being so purely
+feminine, and bearing the universal stamp of genius, exercised their
+omnipotent sway--the whole of Copenhagen was in raptures. Jenny Lind was
+the first singer to whom the Danish students gave a serenade: torches
+blazed around the hospitable villa where the serenade was given: she
+expressed her thanks by again singing some Swedish songs, and I then saw
+her hasten into the darkest corner and weep for emotion.
+
+"Yes, yes," said she, "I will exert myself; I will endeavor, I will be
+better qualified than I am when I again come to Copenhagen."
+
+On the stage, she was the great artiste, who rose above all those around
+her; at home, in her own chamber, a sensitive young girl with all the
+humility and piety of a child.
+
+Her appearance in Copenhagen made an epoch in the history of our opera;
+it showed me art in its sanctity--I had beheld one of its vestals. She
+journeyed back to Stockholm, and from there Fredrika Bremer wrote to
+me:--"With regard to Jenny Lind as a singer, we are both of us perfectly
+agreed; she stands as high as any artist of our time can stand; but as
+yet you do not know her in her full greatness. Speak to her about her
+art, and you will wonder at the expansion of her mind, and will see her
+countenance beaming with inspiration. Converse then with her of God, and
+of the holiness of religion, and you will see tears in those innocent
+eyes; she is great as an artist, but she is still greater in her pure
+human existence!"
+
+In the following year I was in Berlin; the conversation with Meyerbeer
+turned upon Jenny Lind; he had heard her sing the Swedish songs, and was
+transported by them.
+
+"But how does she act?" asked he.
+
+I spoke in raptures of her acting, and gave him at the same time some
+idea of her representation of Alice. He said to me that perhaps it might
+be possible for him to determine her to come to Berlin.
+
+It is sufficiently well known that she made her appearance there, threw
+every one into astonishment and delight, and won for herself in Germany
+a European name. Last autumn she came again to Copenhagen, and the
+enthusiasm was incredible; the glory of renown makes genius perceptible
+to every one. People bivouacked regularly before the theatre, to obtain
+a ticket. Jenny Lind appeared still greater than ever in her art,
+because they had an opportunity of seeing her in many and such extremely
+different parts. Her Norma is plastic; every attitude might serve as the
+most beautiful model to a sculptor, and yet people felt that these
+were the inspiration of the moment, and had not been studied before
+the glass; Norma is no raving Italian; she is the suffering, sorrowing
+woman--the woman possessed of a heart to sacrifice herself for an
+unfortunate rival--the woman to whom, in the violence of the moment,
+the thought may suggest itself of murdering the children of a faithless
+lover, but who is immediately disarmed when she gazes into the eyes of
+the innocent ones.
+
+"Norma, thou holy priestess," sings the chorus, and Jenny Lind has
+comprehended and shows to us this holy priestess in the aria, _Casta
+diva_. In Copenhagen she sang all her parts in Swedish, and the other
+singers sang theirs in Danish, and the two kindred languages mingled
+very beautifully together; there was no jarring; even in the Daughter
+of the Regiment where there is a deal of dialogue, the Swedish had
+something agreeable--and what acting! nay, the word itself is a
+contradiction--it was nature; anything as true never before appeared on
+the stage. She shows us perfectly the true child of nature grown up in
+the camp, but an inborn nobility pervades every movement. The Daughter
+of the Regiment and the Somnambule are certainly Jenny Land's most
+unsurpassable parts; no second can take their places in these beside
+her. People laugh,--they cry; it does them as much good as going to
+church; they become better for it. People feel that God is in art; and
+where God stands before us face to face there is a holy church.
+
+"There will not in a whole century," said Mendelssohn, speaking to me
+of Jenny Lind, "be born another being so gifted as she;" and his words
+expressed my full conviction; one feels as she makes her appearance on
+the stage, that she is a pure vessel, from which a holy draught will be
+presented to us.
+
+There is not anything which can lessen the impression which Jenny Lind's
+greatness on the stage makes, except her own personal character at home.
+An intelligent and child-like disposition exercises here its astonishing
+power; she is happy; belonging, as it were, no longer to the world, a
+peaceful, quiet home, is the object of her thoughts--and yet she loves
+art with her whole soul, and feels her vocation in it. A noble, pious
+disposition like hers cannot be spoiled by homage. On one occasion only
+did I hear her express her joy in her talent and her self-consciousness.
+It was during her last residence in Copenhagen. Almost every evening
+she appeared either in the opera or at concerts; every hour was in
+requisition. She heard of a society, the object of which was, to assist
+unfortunate children, and to take them out of the hands of their parents
+by whom they were misused, and compelled either to beg or steal, and
+to place them in other and better circumstances. Benevolent people
+subscribed annually a small sum each for their support, nevertheless the
+means for this excellent purpose were small.
+
+"But have I not still a disengaged evening?" said she; "let me give a
+night's performance for the benefit of these poor children; but we will
+have double prices!"
+
+Such a performance was given, and returned large proceeds; when she was
+informed of this, and, that by this means, a number of poor children
+would be benefited for several years, her countenance beamed, and the
+tears filled her eyes.
+
+"It is however beautiful," said she, "that I can sing so!"
+
+I value her with the whole feeling of a brother, and I regard myself
+as happy that I know and understand such a spirit. God give to her that
+peace, that quiet happiness which she wishes for herself!
+
+Through Jenny Lind I first became sensible of the holiness there is in
+art; through her I learned that one must forget oneself in the service
+of the Supreme. No books, no men have had a better or a more ennobling
+influence on me as the poet, than Jenny Lind, and I therefore have
+spoken of her so long and so warmly here.
+
+I have made the happy discovery by experience, that inasmuch as art
+and life are more clearly understood by me, so much more sunshine from
+without has streamed into my soul. What blessings have not compensated
+me for the former dark days! Repose and certainty have forced themselves
+into my heart. Such repose can easily unite itself with the changing
+life of travel; I feel myself everywhere at home, attach myself easily
+to people, and they give me in return confidence and cordiality.
+
+In the summer of 1844 I once more visited North Germany. An intellectual
+and amiable family in Oldenburg had invited me in the most friendly
+manner to spend some time at their house. Count von Rantzau-Breitenburg
+repeated also in his letters how welcome I should be to him. I set out
+on the journey, and this journey was, if not one of my longest, still
+one of my most interesting.
+
+I saw the rich marsh-land in its summer luxuriance, and made with
+Rantzau several interesting little excursions. Breitenburg lies in the
+middle of woods on the river St÷r; the steam-voyage to Hamburg gives
+animation to the little river; the situation is picturesque, and life
+in the castle itself is comfortable and pleasant. I could devote myself
+perfectly to reading and poetry, because I was just as free as the
+bird in the air, and I was as much cared for as if I had been a beloved
+relation of the family. Alas it was the last time that I came hither;
+Count Rantzau had, even then, a presentiment of his approaching death.
+One day we met in the garden; he seized my hand, pressed it warmly,
+expressed his pleasure in my talents being acknowledged abroad, and his
+friendship for me, adding, in conclusion, "Yes, my dear young friend,
+God only knows but I have the firm belief that this year is the last
+time when we two shall meet here; my days will soon have run out their
+full course." He looked at me with so grave an expression, that it
+touched my heart deeply, but I knew not what to say. We were near to the
+chapel; he opened a little gate between some thick hedges, and we stood
+in a little garden, in which was a turfed grave and a seat beside it.
+
+"Here you will find me, when you come the next time to Breitenburg,"
+said he, and his sorrowful words were true. He died the following winter
+in Wiesbaden. I lost in him a friend, a protector, a noble excellent
+heart.
+
+When I, on the first occasion, went to Germany, I visited the Hartz and
+the Saxon Switzerland. Goethe was still living. It was my most heartfelt
+wish to see him. It was not far from the Hartz to Weimar, but I had no
+letters of introduction to him, and, at that time, not one line of my
+writings was translated. Many persons had described Goethe to me as a
+very proud man, and the question arose whether indeed he would receive
+me. I doubted it, and determined not to go to Weimar until I should have
+written some work which would convey my name to Germany. I succeeded in
+this, but alas, Goethe was already dead.
+
+I had made the acquaintance of his daughter-in-law Mrs. von Goethe, born
+at Pogwitsch, at the house of Mendelssohn Bartholdy, in Leipsig, on my
+return from Constantinople; this _spirituelle_ lady received me with
+much kindness. She told me that her son Walter had been my friend for
+a long time; that as a boy he had made a whole play out of my
+Improvisatore; that this piece had been performed in Goethe's house;
+and lastly, that Walter, had once wished to go to Copenhagen to make my
+acquaintance. I thus had now friends in Weimar.
+
+An extraordinary desire impelled me to see this city where Goethe,
+Schiller, Wieland, and Herder had lived, and from which so much light
+had streamed forth over the world. I approached that land which had
+been rendered sacred by Luther, by the strife of the Minnesingers on the
+Wartburg, and by the memory of many noble and great events.
+
+On the 24th of June, the birthday of the Grand Duke, I arrived a
+stranger in the friendly town. Everything indicated the festivity which
+was then going forward, and the young prince was received with great
+rejoicing in the theatre, where a new opera was being given. I did not
+think how firmly, the most glorious and the best of all those whom I
+here saw around me, would grow into my heart; how many of my future
+friends sat around me here--how dear this city would become to me--in
+Germany my second home. I was invited by Goethe's worthy friend, the
+excellent Chancellor Muller, and I met with the most cordial reception
+from him. By accident I here met on my first call, with the Kammerherr
+Beaulieu de Marconnay, whom I had known in Oldenburg; he was now placed
+in Weimar. He invited me to remove to his house. In the course of a few
+minutes I was his stationary guest, and I felt "it is good to be here."
+
+There are people whom it only requires a few days to know and to love; I
+won in Beaulieu, in these few days, a friend, as I believe, for my whole
+life. He introduced me into the family circle, the amiable chancellor
+received me equally cordially; and I who had, on my arrival, fancied
+myself quite forlorn, because Mrs. von Goethe and her son Walter were in
+Vienna, was now known in Weimar, and well received in all its circles.
+
+The reigning Grand Duke and Duchess gave me so gracious and kind a
+reception as made a deep impression upon me. After I had been presented,
+I was invited to dine, and soon after received an invitation to
+visit the hereditary Grand Duke and his lady, at the hunting seat of
+Ettersburg, which stands high, and close to an extensive forest. The
+old fashioned furniture within the house, and the distant views from
+the park into the Hartz mountains, produced immediately a peculiar
+impression. All the young peasants had assembled at the castle to
+celebrate the birthday of their beloved young Duke; climbing-poles,
+from which fluttered handkerchiefs and ribbons, were erected; fiddles
+sounded, and people danced merrily under the branches of the large and
+flowering limetrees. Sabbath splendor, contentment and happiness were
+diffused over the whole.
+
+The young andebut new married princely pair seemed to be united by true
+heartfelt sentiment. The heart must be able to forget the star on the
+breast under which it beats, if its possessor wish to remain long free
+and happy in a court; and such a heart, certainly one of the noblest and
+best which beats, is possessed by Karl Alexander of Saxe-Weimar. I had
+the happiness of a sufficient length of time to establish this belief.
+During this, my first residence here, I came several times to the happy
+Ettersburg. The young Duke showed me the garden and the tree on the
+trunk of which Goethe, Schiller, and Wieland had cut their names;
+nay even Jupiter himself had wished to add his to theirs, for his
+thunder-bolt had splintered it in one of the branches.
+
+The intellectual Mrs. von Gross (Amalia Winter), Chancellor von Muller,
+who was able livingly to unroll the times of Goethe and to explain his
+Faust, and the soundly honest and child-like minded Eckermann belonged
+to the circle at Ettersburg. The evenings passed like a spiritual dream;
+alternately some one read aloud; even I ventured, for the first time in
+a foreign language to me, to read one of my own tales--the Constant Tin
+Soldier.
+
+Chancellor von Muller accompanied me to the princely burial-place, where
+Karl August sleeps with his glorious wife, not between Schiller and
+Goethe, as I believed when I wrote--"the prince has made for himself
+a rainbow glory, whilst he stands between the sun and the rushing
+waterfall." Close beside the princely pair, who understood and valued
+that which was great, repose these their immortal friends. Withered
+laurel garlands lay upon the simple brown coffins, of which the whole
+magnificence consists in the immortal names of Goethe and Schiller. In
+life the prince and the poet walked side by side, in death they slumber
+under the same vault. Such a place as this is never effaced from the
+mind; in such a spot those quiet prayers are offered, which God alone
+hears.
+
+I remained above eight days in Weimar; it seemed to me as if I had
+formerly lived in this city; as if it were a beloved home which I must
+now leave. As I drove out of the city, over the bridge and past the
+mill, and for the last time looked back to the city and the castle, a
+deep melancholy took hold on my soul, and it was to me as if a beautiful
+portion of my life here had its close; I thought that the journey, after
+I had left Weimar, could afford me no more pleasure. How often since
+that time has the carrier pigeon, and still more frequently, the mind,
+flown over to this place! Sunshine has streamed forth from Weimar upon
+my poet-life.
+
+From Weimar I went to Leipzig where a truly poetical evening awaited me
+with Robert Schumann. This great composer had a year before surprised me
+by the honor of dedicating to me the music which he had composed to four
+of my songs; the lady of Dr. Frege whose singing, so full of soul, has
+pleased and enchanted so many thousands, accompanied Clara Schumann,
+and the composer and the poet were alone the audience: a little festive
+supper and a mutual interchange of ideas shortened the evening only
+too much. I met with the old, cordial reception at the house of Mr.
+Brockhaus, to which from former visits I had almost accustomed myself.
+The circle of my friends increased in the German cities; but the first
+heart is still that to which we most gladly turn again.
+
+I found in Dresden old friends with youthful feelings; my gifted
+half-countryman Dahl, the Norwegian, who knows how upon canvas to make
+the waterfall rush foaming down, and the birch-tree to grow as in the
+valleys of Norway, and Vogel von Vogelstein, who did me the honor of
+painting my portrait, which was included in the royal collection of
+portraits. The theatre intendant, Herr von L ttichau, provided me every
+evening with a seat in the manager's box; and one of the noblest
+ladies, in the first circles of Dresden, the worthy Baroness von Decken,
+received me as a mother would receive her son. In this character I was
+ever afterwards received in her family and in the amiable circle of her
+friends.
+
+How bright and beautiful is the world! How good are human beings! That
+it is a pleasure to live becomes ever more and more clear to me.
+
+ Beaulieu's younger brother Edmund, who is an officer in the army, came
+one day from Tharand, where he had spent the summer months. I
+accompanied him to various places, spent some happy days among the
+pleasant scenery of the hills, and was received at the same time into
+various families.
+
+I visited with the Baroness Decken, for the first time, the celebrated
+and clever painter Retsch, who has published the bold outlines of
+Goethe, Shakspeare, &c. He lives a sort of Arcadian life among lowly
+vineyards on the way to Meissen. Every year he makes a present to his
+wife, on her birthday, of a new drawing, and always one of his best;
+the collection has grown through a course of years to a valuable album,
+which she, if he die before her, is to publish. Among the many glorious
+ideas there, one struck me as peculiar; the Flight into Egypt. It is
+night; every one sleeps in the picture,--Mary, Joseph, the flowers and
+the shrubs, nay even the ass which carries her--all, except the child
+Jesus, who, with open round countenance, watches over and illumines all.
+I related one of my stories to him, and for this I received a lovely
+drawing,--a beautiful young girl hiding herself behind the mask of an
+old woman; thus should the eternally youthful soul, with its blooming
+loveliness, peep forth from behind the old mask of the fairy-tale.
+Retsch's pictures are rich in thought, full of beauty, and a genial
+spirit.
+
+I enjoyed the country-life of Germany with Major Serre and his amiable
+wife at their splendid residence of Maren; it is not possible for
+any one to exercise greater hospitality than is done by these two
+kind-hearted people. A circle of intelligent, interesting individuals,
+were here assembled; I remained among them above eight days, and there
+became acquainted with Kohl the traveller, and the clever authoress,
+the Countess Hahn-Hahn, in whom I discerned a woman by disposition and
+individual character in whom confidence may be placed. Where one is well
+received there one gladly lingers. I found myself unspeakably happy on
+this little journey in Germany, and became convinced that I was there
+no stranger. It was heart and truth to nature which people valued in my
+writings; and, however excellent and praiseworthy the exterior beauty
+may be, however imposing the maxims of this world's wisdom, still it is
+heart and nature which have least changed by time, and which everybody
+is best able to understand.
+
+I returned home by way of Berlin, where I had not been for several
+years; but the dearest of my friends there--Chamisso, was dead.
+
+  The fair wild swan which flew far o'er the earth,
+  And laid its head upon a wild-swan's breast,
+
+was now flown to a more glorious hemisphere; I saw his children, who
+were now fatherless and motherless. From the young who here surround me,
+I discover that I am grown older; I feel it not in myself. Chamisso's
+sons, whom I saw the last time playing here in the little garden
+with bare necks, came now to meet me with helmet and sword: they were
+officers in the Prussian service. I felt in a moment how the years had
+rolled on, how everything was changed and how one loses so many.
+
+  Yet is it not so hard as people deem,
+    To see their soul's beloved from them riven;
+  God has their dear ones, and in death they seem
+    To form a bridge which leads them up to heaven.
+
+I met with the most cordial reception, and have since then always met
+with the same, in the house of the Minister Savigny, where I became
+acquainted with the clever, singularly gifted Bettina and her lovely
+spiritual-minded daughter. One hour's conversation with Bettina during
+which she was the chief speaker, was so rich and full of interest, that
+I was almost rendered dumb by all this eloquence, this firework of wit.
+The world knows her writings, but another talent which she is possessed
+of, is less generally known, namely her talent for drawing. Here again
+it is the ideas which astonish us. It was thus, I observed, she had
+treated in a sketch an accident which had occurred just before, a young
+man being killed by the fumes of wine. You saw him descending half-naked
+into the cellar, round which lay the wine casks like monsters:
+Bacchanals and Bacchantes danced towards him, seized their victim and
+destroyed him! I know that Thorwaldsen, to whom she once showed all
+her drawings, was in the highest degree astonished by the ideas they
+contained.
+
+It does the heart such good when abroad to find a house, where, when
+immediately you enter, eyes flash like festal lamps, a house where you
+can take peeps into a quiet, happy domestic life--such a house is that
+of Professor Weiss. Yet how many new acquaintance which were found,
+and old acquaintance which were renewed, ought I not to mention! I met
+Cornelius from Rome, Schelling from Munich, my countryman I might almost
+call him; Steffens, the Norwegian, and once again Tieck, whom I had not
+seen since my first visit to Germany. He was very much altered, yet his
+gentle, wise eyes were the same, the shake of his hand was the same. I
+felt that he loved me and wished me well. I must visit him in Potsdam,
+where he lived in ease and comfort. At dinner I became acquainted with
+his brother the sculptor.
+
+From Tieck I learnt how kindly the King and Queen of Prussia were
+disposed towards me; that they had read my romance of Only a Fiddler,
+and inquired from Tieck about me. Meantime their Majesties were absent
+from Berlin. I had arrived the evening before their departure, when that
+abominable attempt was made upon their lives.
+
+I returned to Copenhagen by Stettin in stormy weather, full of the joy
+of life, and again saw my dear friends, and in a few days set off to
+Count Moltke's in Funen, there to spend a few lovely summer days. I here
+received a letter from the Minister Count Rantzau-Breitenburg, who was
+with the King and Queen of Denmark at the watering-place of F÷hr. He
+wrote, saying that he had the pleasure of announcing to me the most
+gracious invitation of their Majesties to F÷hr. This island, as is well
+known, lies in the North Sea, not far from the coast of Sleswick, in
+the neighborhood of the interesting Halligs, those little islands which
+Biernatzky described so charmingly in his novels. Thus, in a manner
+wholly unexpected by me, I should see scenery of a very peculiar
+character even in Denmark.
+
+The favor of my king and Queen made me happy, and I rejoiced to be once
+more in close intimacy with Rantzau. Alas, it was for the last time!
+
+It was just now five and twenty years since I, a poor lad, travelled
+alone and helpless to Copenhagen. Exactly the five and twentieth
+anniversary would be celebrated by my being with my king and queen, to
+whom I was faithfully attached, and whom I at that very time learned to
+love with my whole soul. Everything that surrounded me, man and nature,
+reflected themselves imperishably in my soul. I felt myself, as it were,
+conducted to a point from which I could look forth more distinctly over
+the past five and twenty years, with all the good fortune and happiness
+which they had evolved for me. The reality frequently surpasses the most
+beautiful dream.
+
+I travelled from Funen to Flensborg, which, lying in its great bay, is
+picturesque with woods and hills, and then immediately opens out into
+a solitary heath. Over this I travelled in the bright moonlight. The
+journey across the heath was tedious; the clouds only passed rapidly. We
+went on monotonously through the deep sand, and monotonous was the
+wail of a bird among the shrubby heath. Presently we reached moorlands.
+Long-continued rain had changed meadows and cornfields into great lakes;
+the embankments along which we drove were like morasses; the horses sank
+deeply into them. In many places the light carriage was obliged to be
+supported by the peasants, that it might not fall upon the cottages
+below the embankment. Several hours were consumed over each mile
+(Danish). At length the North Sea with its islands lay before me. The
+whole coast was an embankment, covered for miles with woven straw,
+against which the waves broke. I arrived at high tide. The wind was
+favorable, and in less than an hour I reached F÷hr, which, after my
+difficult journey, appeared to me like a real fairy land.
+
+The largest city, Wyck, in which are the baths, is exactly built like a
+Dutch town. The houses are only one story high, with sloping roofs and
+gables turned to the street. The many strangers there, and the presence
+of the court, gave a peculiar animation to the principal street.
+Well-known faces looked out from almost every house; the Danish flag
+waved, and music was heard. I was soon established in my quarters, and
+every day, until the departure of their Majesties, had I the honor of an
+invitation from them to dinner, as well as to pass the evening in their
+circle. On several evenings I read aloud my little stories (M rchen)
+to the king and queen, and both of them were gracious and affectionate
+towards me. It is so good when a noble human nature will reveal itself
+where otherwise only the king's crown and the purple mantle might be
+discovered. Few people can be more amiable in private life than their
+present Majesties of Denmark. May God bless them and give them joy, even
+as they filled my breast with happiness and sunshine!
+
+I sailed in their train to the largest of the Halligs, those grassy
+runes in the ocean, which bear testimony to a sunken country. The
+violence of the sea has changed the mainland into islands, has riven
+these again, and buried men and villages. Year after year are new
+portions rent away, and, in half a century's time, there will be nothing
+here but sea. The Halligs are now only low islets covered with a dark
+turf, on which a few flocks graze. When the sea rises these are driven
+into the garrets of the houses, and the waves roll over this little
+region, which is miles distant from the shore. Oland, which we visited,
+contains a little town. The houses stand closely side by side, as if,
+in their sore need they would all huddle together. They are all erected
+upon a platform, and have little windows, as in the cabin of a ship.
+There, in the little room, solitary through half the year, sit the wife
+and her daughters spinning. There, however, one always finds a little
+collection of books. I found books in Danish, German, and Frieslandish.
+The people read and work, and the sea rises round the houses, which
+lie like a wreck in the ocean. Sometimes, in the night, a ship, having
+mistaken the lights, drives on here and is stranded.
+
+In the year 1825, a tempestuous tide washed away men and houses. The
+people sat for days and nights half naked upon the roofs, till these
+gave way; nor from F÷hr nor the mainland could help be sent to them.
+The church-yard is half washed away; coffins and corpses were frequently
+exposed to view by the breakers: it is an appalling sight. And yet
+the inhabitants of the Halligs are attached to their little home. They
+cannot remain on the mainland, but are driven thence by home sickness.
+
+We found only one man upon the island, and he had only lately arisen
+from a sick bed. The others were out on long voyages. We were received
+by girls and women. They had erected before the church a triumphal arch
+with flowers which they had fetched from F÷hr; but it was so small and
+low, that one was obliged to go round it; nevertheless they showed by it
+their good will. The queen was deeply affected by their having cut down
+their only shrub, a rose bush, to lay over a marshy place which she
+would have to cross. The girls are pretty, and are dressed in a half
+Oriental fashion. The people trace their descent from Greeks. They wear
+their faces half concealed, and beneath the strips of linen which lie
+upon the head is placed a Greek fez, around which the hair is wound in
+plaits.
+
+On our return, dinner was served on board the royal steamer; and
+afterwards, as we sailed in a glorious sunset through this archipelago,
+the deck of the vessel was changed to a dancing room. Young and old
+danced; servants flew hither and thither with refreshments; sailors
+stood upon the paddle-boxes and took the soundings, and their deep-toned
+voices might be heard giving the depth of the water. The moon rose
+round and large, and the promontory of Amrom assumed the appearance of a
+snow-covered chain of Alps.
+
+I visited afterwards these desolate sand hills: the king went to shoot
+rabbits there. Many years ago a ship was wrecked here, on board of which
+were two rabbits, and from this pair Amrom is now stored with thousands
+of their descendants. At low tide the sea recedes wholly from between
+Amrom and F÷hr, and then people drive across from one island to another;
+but still the time must be well observed and the passage accurately
+known, or else, when the tide comes, he who crosses will be inevitably
+lost. It requires only a few minutes, and then where dry land was large
+ships may sail. We saw a whole row of wagons driving from F÷hr to Amrom.
+Seen upon the white sand and against the blue horizon, they seem to be
+twice as large as they really were. All around were spread out, like
+a net, the sheets of water, as if they held firmly the extent of sand
+which belonged to the ocean and which would be soon overflowed by it.
+This promontory brings to one's memory the mounds of ashes at Vesuvius;
+for here one sinks at every step, the wiry moor-grass not being able to
+bind together the loose sand. The sun shone burningly hot between the
+white sand hills: it was like a journey through the deserts of Africa.
+
+A peculiar kind of rose, and the heath were in flower in the valleys
+between the hills; in other places there was no vegetation whatever;
+nothing but the wet sand on which the waves had left their impress; the
+sea had inscribed on its receding strange hieroglyphics. I gazed from
+one of the highest points over the North Sea; it was ebb-tide; the sea
+had retired above a mile; the vessels lay like dead fishes upon the
+sand, and awaiting the returning tide. A few sailors had clambered down
+and moved about on the sandy ground like black points. Where the sea
+itself kept the white level sand in movement, a long bank elevated
+itself, which, during the time of high-water, is concealed, and upon
+which occur many wrecks. I saw the lofty wooden tower which is here
+erected, and in which a cask is always kept filled with water, and
+a basket supplied with bread and brandy, that the unfortunate human
+beings, who are here stranded, may be able in this place, amid the
+swelling sea, to preserve life for a few days until it is possible to
+rescue them.
+
+To return from such a scene as this to a royal table, a charming
+court-concert, and a little ball in the bath-saloon, as well as to the
+promenade by moonlight, thronged with guests, a little Boulevard, had
+something in it like a fairy tale,--it was a singular contrast.
+
+As I sat on the above-mentioned five-and-twentieth anniversary, on the
+5th of September, at the royal dinner-table, the whole of my former life
+passed in review before my mind. I was obliged to summon all my strength
+to prevent myself bursting into tears. There are moments of thankfulness
+in which, as it were, we feel a desire to press God to our hearts. How
+deeply I felt, at this time, my own nothingness; how all, all, had come
+from him. Rantzau knew what an interesting day this was to me.
+After dinner the king and the queen wished me happiness, and that
+so--_graciously_, is a poor word,--so cordially, so sympathizingly! The
+king wished me happiness in that which I had endured and won. He asked
+me about my first entrance into the world, and I related to him some
+characteristic traits.
+
+In the course of conversation he inquired if I had not some certain
+yearly income; I named the sum to him.
+
+"That is not much," said the king.
+
+"But I do not require much," replied I, "and my writings procure me
+something."
+
+The king, in the kindest manner, inquired farther into my circumstances,
+and closed by saying,
+
+"If I can, in any way, be serviceable to your literary labors, then come
+to me."
+
+In the evening, during the concert, the conversation was renewed, and
+some of those who stood near me reproached me for not having made use of
+my opportunity.
+
+"The king," said they, "put the very words into your mouth."
+
+But I could not, I would not have done it. "If the king," I said, "found
+that I required something more, he could give it to me of his own will."
+
+And I was not mistaken. In the following year King Christian VIII.
+increased my annual stipend, so that with this and that which my
+writings bring in, I can live honorably and free from care. My king gave
+it to me out of the pure good-will of his own heart. King Christian
+is enlightened, clear-sighted, with a mind enlarged by science; the
+gracious sympathy, therefore, which he has felt in my fate is to me
+doubly cheering and ennobling.
+
+The 5th of September was to me a festival-day; even the German visitors
+at the baths honored me by drinking my health in the pump-room.
+
+So many flattering circumstances, some people argue, may easily spoil a
+man, and make him vain. But, no; they do not spoil him, they make him on
+the contrary--better; they purify his mind, and he must thereby feel an
+impulse, a wish, to deserve all that he enjoys. At my parting-audience
+with the queen, she gave me a valuable ring as a remembrance of our
+residence at F÷hr; and the king again expressed himself full of kindness
+and noble sympathy. God bless and preserve this exalted pair!
+
+The Duchess of Augustenburg was at this time also at F÷hr with her two
+eldest daughters. I had daily the happiness of being with them, and
+received repeated invitations to take Augustenburg on my return. For
+this purpose I went from F÷hr to Als, one of the most beautiful islands
+in the Baltic. That little region resembles a blooming garden; luxuriant
+corn and clover-fields are enclosed, with hedges of hazels and wild
+roses; the peasants' houses are surrounded by large apple-orchards, full
+of fruit. Wood and hill alternate. Now we see the ocean, and now the
+narrow Lesser Belt, which resembles a river. The Castle of Augustenburg
+is magnificent, with its garden full of flowers, extending down to
+the very shores of the serpentine bay. I met with the most cordial
+reception, and found the most amiable family-life in the ducal circle.
+I spent fourteen days here, and was present at the birth-day festivities
+of the duchess, which lasted three days; among these festivities was
+racing, and the town and the castle were filled with people.
+
+Happy domestic life is like a beautiful summer's evening; the heart is
+filled with peace; and everything around derives a peculiar glory.
+The full heart says "it is good to be here;" and this I felt at
+Augustenburg.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+In the spring of 1844 I had finished a dramatic tale, "The Flower of
+Fortune." The idea of this was, that it is not the immortal name of the
+artist, nor the splendor of a crown which can make man happy; but that
+happiness is to be found where people, satisfied with little, love and
+are loved again. The scene was perfectly Danish, an idyllian, sunbright
+life, in whose clear heaven two dark pictures are reflected as in
+a dream; the unfortunate Danish poet Ewald and Prince Buris, who is
+tragically sung of in our heroic ballads. I wished to show, in honor
+of our times, the middle ages to have been dark and miserable, as they
+were, but which many poets only represent to us in a beautiful light.
+
+Professor Heiberg, who was appointed censor, declared himself against
+the reception of my piece. During the last years I had met with nothing
+but hostility from this party; I regarded it as personal ill-will, and
+this was to me still more painful than the rejection of the pieces. It
+was painful for me to be placed in a constrained position with regard
+to a poet whom I respected, and towards whom, according to my own
+conviction, I had done everything in order to obtain a friendly
+relationship. A further attempt, however, must be made. I wrote to
+Heiberg, expressed myself candidly, and, as I thought, cordially, and
+entreated him to give me explicitly the reasons for his rejection of the
+piece and for his ill-will towards me. He immediately paid me a visit,
+which I, not being at home when he called, returned on the following
+day, and I was received in the most friendly manner. The visit and the
+conversation belong certainly to the extraordinary, but they occasioned
+an explanation, and I hope led to a better understanding for the future.
+
+He clearly set before me his views in the rejection of my piece. Seen
+from his point of sight they were unquestionably correct; but they were
+not mine, and thus we could not agree. He declared decidedly that he
+cherished no spite against me, and that he acknowledged my talent. I
+mentioned his various attacks upon me, for example, in the Intelligence,
+and that he had denied to me original invention: I imagined, however,
+that I had shown this in my novels; "But of these," said I, "you have
+read none; you, yourself have told me so."
+
+"Yes, that is the truth," replied he; "I have not yet read them, but I
+will do so."
+
+"Since then," continued I, "you have turned me and my Bazaar to ridicule
+in your poem called Denmark, and spoken about my fanaticism for the
+beautiful Dardanelles; and yet I have, precisely in that book, described
+the Dardanelles as not beautiful; it is the Bosphorus which I thought
+beautiful; you seem not to be aware of that; perhaps you have not read
+The Bazaar either?"
+
+"Was it the Bosphorus?" said he, with his own peculiar smile; "yes,
+I had quite forgotten that, and, you see, people do not remember it
+either; the object in this case was only to give you a stab."
+
+This confession sounded so natural, so like him, that I was obliged to
+smile. I looked into his clever eyes, thought how many beautiful things
+he had written, and I could not be angry with him. The conversation
+became more lively, more free, and he said many kind things to me; for
+example, he esteemed my stories very highly, and entreated me frequently
+to visit him. I have become more and more acquainted with his poetical
+temperament, and I fancy that he too will understand mine. We are
+very dissimilar, but we both strive after the same object. Before we
+separated he conducted me to his little observatory; now his dearest
+world. He seems now to live for poetry and now for philosophy, andùfor
+which I fancy he is least of all calculated--for astronomy. I could
+almost sigh and sing,
+
+  Thou wast erewhile the star at which them gazest now!
+
+My dramatic story came at length on the stage, and in the course of the
+season was performed seven times.
+
+As people grow older, however much they may be tossed about in the
+world, some one place must be the true home; even the bird of passage
+has one fixed spot to which it hastens; mine was and is the house of my
+friend Collin. Treated as a son, almost grown up with the children,
+I have become a member of the family; a more heartfelt connection,
+a better home have I never known: a link broke in this chain, and
+precisely in the hour of bereavement, did I feel how firmly I have been
+engrafted here, so that I was regarded as one of the children.
+
+ If I were to give the picture of the mistress of a family who wholly
+loses her own individual _I_ in her husband and children, I must name
+the wife of Collin; with the sympathy of a mother, she also followed me
+in sorrow and in gladness. In the latter years of her life she became
+very deaf, and besides this she had the misfortune of being nearly
+blind. An operation was performed on her sight, which succeeded so well,
+that in the course of the winter she was able to read a letter, and
+this was a cause of grateful joy to her. She longed in an extraordinary
+manner for the first green of spring, and this she saw in her little
+garden.
+
+I parted from her one Sunday evening in health and joy; in the night I
+was awoke; a servant brought me a letter. Collin wrote, "My wife is very
+ill; the children are all assembled here!" I understood it, and hastened
+thither. She slept quietly and without pain; it was the sleep of the
+just; it was death which was approaching so kindly and calmly. On the
+third day she yet lay in that peaceful slumber: then her countenance
+grew pale--and she was dead!
+
+  Thou didst but close thine eyes to gather in
+    The large amount of all thy spiritual bliss;
+  We saw thy slumbers like a little child's.
+     O death! thou art all brightness and not shadow.
+
+Never had I imagined that the departure from this world could be so
+painless, so blessed. A devotion arose in my soul; a conviction of God
+and eternity, which this moment elevated to an epoch in my life. It
+was the first death-bed at which I had been present since my childhood.
+Children, and children's children were assembled. In such moments all is
+holy around us. Her soul was love; she went to love and to God!
+
+At the end of July, the monument of King Frederick VI. was to
+be uncovered at Skanderburg, in the middle of Jutland. I had, by
+solicitation, written the cantata for the festival, to which Hartmann
+had furnished the music, and this was to be sung by Danish students. I
+had been invited to the festival, which thus was to form the object of
+my summer excursion.
+
+Skanderburg lies in one of the most beautiful districts of Denmark.
+Agreeable hills rise covered with vast beech-woods, and a large inland
+lake of a pleasing form extends among them. On the outside of the city,
+close by the church, which is built upon the ruins of an old castle, now
+stands the monument, a work of Thorwaldsen's. The most beautiful moment
+to me at this festival was in the evening, after the unveiling of the
+monument; torches were lighted around it, and threw their unsteady flame
+over the lake; within the woods blazed thousands of lights, and music
+for the dance resounded from the tents. Round about upon the hills,
+between the woods, and high above them, bonfires were lighted at one
+and the same moment, which burned in the night like red stars. There was
+spread over lake and land a pure, a summer fragrance which is peculiar
+to the north, in its beautiful summer nights. The shadows of those who
+passed between the monument and the church, glided gigantically along
+its red walls, as if they were spirits who were taking part in the
+festival.
+
+I returned home. In this year my novel of the Improvisatore was
+translated into English, by the well-known authoress, Mary Howitt,
+and was received by her countrymen with great applause. O. T. and the
+Fiddler soon followed, and met with, as it seemed, the same reception.
+After that appeared a Dutch, and lastly a Russian translation of the
+Improvisatore. That which should never have ventured to have dreamed
+of was accomplished; my writings seem to come forth under a lucky star;
+they fly over all lands. There is something elevating, but at the same
+time, a something terrific in seeing one's thoughts spread so far, and
+among so many people; it is indeed, almost a fearful thing to belong to
+so many. The noble and the good in us becomes a blessing; but the bad,
+one's errors, shoot forth also, and involuntarily the thought forces
+itself from us: God! let me never write down a word of which I shall not
+be able to give an account to thee. A peculiar feeling, a mixture of
+joy and anxiety, fills my heart every time my good genius conveys my
+fictions to a foreign people.
+
+Travelling operates like an invigorating bath to the mind; like a
+Medea-draft which always makes young again. I feel once more an impulse
+for it--not in order to seek up material, as a critic fancied and said,
+in speaking of my Bazaar; there exists a treasury of material in my own
+inner self, and this life is too short to mature this young existence;
+but there needs refreshment of spirit in order to convey it vigorously
+and maturely to paper, and travelling is to me, as I have said, this
+invigorating bath, from which I return as it were younger and stronger.
+
+By prudent economy, and the proceeds of my writings, I was in a
+condition to undertake several journeys during the last year. That
+which for me is the most sunbright, is the one in which these pages were
+written. Esteem, perhaps over-estimation, but especially kindness,
+in short, happiness and pleasure have flowed towards me in abundant
+measure.
+
+I wished to visit Italy for the third time, there to spend a summer,
+that I might become acquainted with the south in its warm season, and
+probably return thence by Spain and France. At the end of October, 1845,
+I left Copenhagen. Formerly I had thought when I set out on a journey,
+God! what wilt thou permit to happen to me on this journey! This time my
+thoughts were, God, what will happen to my friends at home during this
+long time! And I felt a real anxiety. In one year the hearse may drive
+up to the door many times, and whose name may shine upon the coffin! The
+proverb says, when one suddenly feels a cold shudder, "now death passes
+over my grave." The shudder is still colder when the thoughts pass over
+the graves of our best friends.
+
+I spent a few days at Count Moltke's, at Glorup; strolling players were
+acting some of my dramatic works at one of the nearest provincial towns.
+I did not see them; country life firmly withheld me. There is something
+in the late autumn poetically beautiful; when the leaf is fallen from
+the tree, and the sun shines still upon the green grass, and the bird
+twitters, one may often fancy that it is a spring-day; thus certainly
+also has the old man moments in his autumn in which his heart dreams of
+spring.
+
+I passed only one day in Odense--I feel myself there more of a stranger
+than in the great cities of Germany. As a child I was solitary, and had
+therefore no youthful friend; most of the families whom I knew have died
+out; a new generation passes along the streets; and the streets even
+are altered. The later buried have concealed the miserable graves of my
+parents. Everything is changed. I took one of my childhood's rambles to
+the Marian-heights which had belonged to the Iversen family; but this
+family is dispersed; unknown faces looked out from the windows. How many
+youthful thoughts have been here exchanged!
+
+One of the young girls who at that time sat quietly there with beaming
+eyes and listened to my first poem, when I came here in the summer time
+as a scholar from Slagelse, sits now far quieter in noisy Copenhagen,
+and has thence sent out her first writings into the world. Her German
+publisher thought that some introductory words from me might be useful
+to them, and I, the stranger, but the almost too kindly received, have
+introduced the works of this clever girl into Germany.
+
+It is Henriette Hanck of whom I speak, the authoress of "Aunt Anna,"
+and "An Author's Daughter." [Footnote: Since these pages were written, I
+have received from home the news of her death, in July, 1846. She was an
+affectionate daughter to her parents, and was, besides this, possessed
+of a deeply poetical mind. In her I have lost a true friend from the
+years of childhood, one who had felt an interest and a sisterly regard
+for me, both in my good and my evil days.] I visited her birth-place
+when the first little circle paid me homage and gave me joy. But all was
+strange there, I myself a stranger.
+
+The ducal family of Augustenburg was now at Castle Gravenstein; they
+were informed of my arrival, and all the favor and the kindness which
+was shown to me on the former occasion at Augustenburg, was here renewed
+in rich abundance. I remained here fourteen days, and it was as if these
+were an announcement of all the happiness which should meet me when I
+arrived in Germany. The country around here is of the most picturesque
+description; vast woods, cultivated uplands in perpetual variety, with
+the winding shore of the bay and the many quiet inland lakes. Even the
+floating mists of autumn lent to the landscape a some what picturesque,
+something strange to the islander. Everything here is on a larger scale
+than on the island. Beautiful was it without, glorious was it within. I
+wrote here a new little story. The Girl with the Brimstone-matches; the
+only thing which I wrote upon this journey. Receiving the invitation
+to come often to Gravenstein and Augustenburg, I left, with a grateful
+heart, a place where I had spent such beautiful and such happy days.
+
+Now, no longer the traveller goes at a snail's pace through the deep
+sand over the heath; the railroad conveys him in a few hours to Altona
+and Hamburg. The circle of my friends there is increased within the last
+years. The greater part of my time I spent with my oldest friends Count
+Hoik, and the resident Minister Bille, and with Zeise, the excellent
+translator of my stories. Otto Speckter, who is full of genius,
+surprised me by his bold, glorious drawings for my stories; he had made
+a whole collection of them, six only of which were known to me. The
+same natural freshness which shows itself in every one of his works,
+and makes them all little works of art, exhibits itself in his whole
+character. He appears to possess a patriarchal family, an affectionate
+old father, and gifted sisters, who love him with their whole souls. I
+wished one evening to go to the theatre; it was scarcely a quarter of an
+hour before the commencement of the opera: Speckter accompanied me, and
+on our way we came up to an elegant house.
+
+"We must first go in here, dear friend," said he; "a wealthy family
+lives here, friends of mine, and friends of your stories; the children
+will be happy."
+
+"But the opera," said I.
+
+"Only for two minutes," returned he; and drew me into the house,
+mentioned my name, and the circle of children collected around me.
+
+"And now tell us a tale," said he; "only one."
+
+I told one, and then hastened away to the theatre.
+
+"That was an extraordinary visit," said I.
+
+"An excellent one; one entirely out of the common way; one entirely out
+of the common way!" said he exultingly; "only think; the children are
+full of Andersen and his stories; he suddenly makes his appearance
+amongst them, tells one of them himself, and then is gone! vanished!
+That is of itself like a fairy-tale to the children, that will remain
+vividly in their remembrance."
+
+I myself was amused by it.
+
+In Oldenburg my own little room, home-like and comfortable, was awaiting
+me. Hofrath von Eisendecker and his well-informed lady, whom, among all
+my foreign friends I may consider as my most sympathizing, expected
+me. I had promised to remain with them a fortnight, but I stayed much
+longer. A house where the best and the most intellectual people of a
+city meet, is an agreeable place of residence, and such a one had I
+here. A deal of social intercourse prevailed in the little city, and the
+theatre, in which certainly either opera or ballet was given, is one
+of the most excellent in Germany. The ability of Gall, the director, is
+sufficiently known, and unquestionably the nominationof the poet Mosen
+has a great and good influence. I have to thank him for enabling me
+to see one of the classic pieces of Germany, "Nathan the Wise," the
+principal part in which was played by Kaiser, who is as remarkable for
+his deeply studied and excellent tragic acting, as for his readings.
+
+Moses, who somewhat resembles Alexander Dumas, with his half African
+countenance, and brown sparkling eyes, although he was suffering in
+body, was full of life and soul, and we soon understood one another. A
+trait of his little son affected me. He had listened to me with great
+devotion, as I read one of my stories; and when on the last day I was
+there, I took leave, the mother said that he must give me his hand,
+adding, that probably a long time must pass before he would see me
+again, the boy burst into tears. In the evening, when Mosen came into
+the theatre, he said to me, "My little Erick has two tin soldiers; one
+of them he has given me for you, that you may take him with you on your
+journey."
+
+The tin soldier has faithfully accompanied me; he is a Turk: probably
+some day he may relate his travels.
+
+Mosen wrote in the dedication of his "John of Austria," the following
+lines to me:--
+
+  Once a little bird flew over
+    From the north sea's dreary strand;
+  Singing, flew unto me over,
+    Singing M rchen through the land.
+  Farewell! yet again bring hither
+    Thy warm heart and song together.
+
+Here I again met with Mayer, who has described Naples and the
+Neapolitans so charmingly. My little stories interested him so much
+that he had written a little treaties on them for Germany, Kapellmeister
+Pott, and my countryman Jerndorff, belong to my earlier friends. I made
+every day new acquaintance, because all houses were open to me through
+the family with whom I was staying. Even the Grand Duke was so generous
+as to have me invited to a concert at the palace the day after my
+arrival, and later I had the honor of being asked to dinner. I received
+in this foreign court, especially, many unlooked-for favors. At the
+Eisendeckers and at the house of the parents of my friend Beaulieu--the
+Privy-Counsellor Beaulieu, at Oldenburg, I heard several times my little
+stones read in German.
+
+I can read Danish very well, as it ought to be read, and I can give to
+it perfectly the expression which ought to be given in reading; there
+is in the Danish language a power which cannot be transfused into
+a translation; the Danish language is peculiarly excellent for this
+species of fiction. The stories have a something strange to me in
+German; it is difficult for me in reading it to put my Danish soul into
+it; my pronunciation of the German also is feeble, and with particular
+words I must, as it were, use an effort to bring them out--and yet
+people everywhere in Germany have had great interest in hearing me read
+them aloud. I can very well believe that the foreign pronunciation in
+the reading of these tales may be easily permitted, because this foreign
+manner approaches, in this instance, to the childlike; it gives
+a natural coloring to the reading. I saw everywhere that the most
+distinguished men and women of the most highly cultivated minds,
+listened to me with interest; people entreated me to read, and I did so
+willingly. I read for the first time my stories in a foreign tongue,
+and at a foreign court, before the Grand Duke of Oldenburg and a little
+select circle.
+
+The winter soon came on; the meadows which lay under water, and which
+formed large lakes around the city, were already covered with thick
+ice; the skaters flew over it, and I yet remained in Oldenburg among
+my hospitable friends. Days and evenings slid rapidly away; Christmas
+approached, and this season I wished to spend in Berlin. But what are
+distances in our days?--the steam-carriage goes from Hanover to Berlin
+in one day! I must away from the beloved ones, from children and old
+people, who were near, as it were, to my heart.
+
+I was astonished in the highest degree on taking leave of the Grand
+Duke, to receive from him, as a mark of his favor and as a keepsake, a
+valuable ring. I shall always preserve it, like every other remembrance
+of this country, where I have found and where I possess true friends.
+
+When I was in Berlin on the former occasion, I was invited, as the
+author of the Improvisatore, to the Italian Society, into which only
+those who have visited Italy can be admitted. Here I saw Rauch for the
+first time, who with his white hair and his powerful, manly figure,
+is not unlike Thorwaldsen. Nobody introduced me to him, and I did not
+venture to present myself, and therefore walked alone about his studio,
+like the other strangers. Afterwards I became personally acquainted
+with him at the house of the Prussian Ambassador, in Copenhagen; I now
+hastened to him.
+
+He was in the highest degree captivated by my little stories, pressed me
+to his breast, and expressed the highest praise, but which was honestly
+meant. Such a momentary estimation or over-estimation from a man of
+genius erases many a dark shadow from the mind. I received from Rauch my
+first welcome in Berlin: he told me what a large circle of friends I had
+in the capital of Prussia. I must acknowledge that it was so. They were
+of the noblest in mind as well as the first in rank, in art, and in
+science. Alexander von Humboldt, Prince Radziwil, Savigny, and many
+others never to be forgotten.
+
+I had already, on the former occasion, visited the brothers Grimm, but I
+had not at that time made much progress with the acquaintance. I had not
+brought any letters of introduction to them with me, because people had
+told me, and I myself believed it, that if I were known by any body
+in Berlin, it must be the brothers Grimm. I therefore sought out their
+residence. The servant-maid asked me with which of the brothers I wished
+to speak.
+
+"With the one who has written the most," said I, because I did not know,
+at that time, which of them had most interested himself in the M rchen.
+
+"Jacob is the most learned," said the maidservant.
+
+"Well, then, take me to him."
+
+I entered the room, and Jacob Grimm, with his knowing and
+strongly-marked countenance, stood before me.
+
+"I come to you," said I, "without letters of introduction, because I
+hope that my name is not wholly unknown to you."
+
+"Who are you?" asked he.
+
+I told him, and Jacob Grimm said, in a half-embarrassed voice, "I do not
+remember to have heard this name; what have you written?"
+
+It was now my turn to be embarrassed in a high degree: but I now
+mentioned my little stories.
+
+"I do not know them," said he; "but mention to me some other of your
+writings, because I certainly must have heard them spoken of."
+
+I named the titles of several; but he shook his head. I felt myself
+quite unlucky.
+
+"But what must you think of me," said I, "that I come to you as a total
+stranger, and enumerate myself what I have written: you must know me!
+There has been published in Denmark a collection of the M rchen of all
+nations, which is dedicated to you, and in it there is at least one
+story of mine."
+
+"No," said he good-humoredly, but as much embarrassed as myself; "I have
+not read even that, but it delights me to make your acquaintance; allow
+me to conduct you to my brother Wilhelm?"
+
+"No, I thank you," said I, only wishing now to get away; I had fared
+badly enough with one brother. I pressed his hand and hurried from the
+house.
+
+That same month Jacob Grimm went to Copenhagen; immediately on his
+arrival, and while yet in his travelling dress, did the amiable kind man
+hasten up to me. He now knew me, and he came to me with cordiality. I
+was just then standing and packing my clothes in a trunk for a journey
+to the country; I had only a few minutes time: by this means my
+reception of him was just as laconic as had been his of me in Berlin.
+
+Now, however, we met in Berlin as old acquaintance. Jacob Grimm is one
+of those characters whom one must love and attach oneself to.
+
+One evening, as I was reading one of my little stories at the Countess
+Bismark-Bohlen's, there was in the little circle one person in
+particular who listened with evident fellowship of feeling, and
+who expressed himself in a peculiar and sensible manner on the
+subject,--this was Jacob's brother, Wilhelm Grimm.
+
+"I should have known you very well, if you had come to me," said he,
+"the last time you were here."
+
+I saw these two highly-gifted and amiable brothers almost daily; the
+circles into which I was invited seemed also to be theirs, and it was my
+desire and pleasure that they should listen to my little stories, that
+they should participate in them, they whose names will be always spoken
+as long as the German _Volks M rchen_ are read.
+
+The fact of my not being known to Jacob Grimm on my first visit to
+Berlin, had so disconcerted me, that when any one asked me whether I had
+been well received in this city, I shook my head doubtfully and said,
+"but Grimm did not know me."
+
+I was told that Tieck was ill--could see no one; I therefore only
+sent in my card. Some days afterwards I met at a friend's house, where
+Rauch's birth-day was being celebrated, Tieck, the sculptor, who told me
+that his brother had lately waited two hours for me at dinner. I went
+to him and discovered that he had sent me an invitation, which, however,
+had been taken to a wrong inn. A fresh invitation was given, and I
+passed some delightfully cheerful hours with Raumer the historian, and
+with the widow and daughter of Steffens. There is a music in Tieck's
+voice, a spirituality in his intelligent eyes, which age cannot lessen,
+but, on the contrary, must increase. The Elves, perhaps the most
+beautiful story which has been conceived in our time, would alone be
+sufficient, had Tieck written nothing else, to make his name immortal.
+As the author of _M rchen_, I bow myself before him, the elder and The
+master, and who was the first German poet, who many years before pressed
+me to his breast, as if it were to consecrate me, to walk in the same
+path with himself.
+
+The old friends had all to be visited; but the number of new ones grew
+with each day. One invitation followed another. It required considerable
+physical power to support so much good-will. I remained in Berlin
+about three weeks, and the time seemed to pass more rapidly with each
+succeeding day. I was, as it were, overcome by kindness. I, at
+length, had no other prospect for repose than to seat myself in a
+railway-carriage, and fly away out of the country.
+
+And yet amid these social festivities, with all the amiable zeal and
+interest that then was felt for me, I had one disengaged evening; one
+evening on which I suddenly felt solitude in its most oppressive form;
+Christmas-eve, that very evening of all others on which I would
+most willingly witness something festal, willingly stand beside a
+Christmas-tree, gladdening myself with the joy of children, and seeing
+the parents joyfully become children again. Every one of the many
+families in which I in truth felt that I was received as a relation, had
+fancied, as I afterwards discovered, that I must be invited out; but
+I sat quite alone in my room at the inn, and thought on home. I seated
+myself at the open window, and gazed up to the starry heavens, which was
+the Christmas-tree that was lighted for me.
+
+"Father in Heaven," I prayed, as the children do, "what dost thou give
+to me!"
+
+When the friends heard of my solitary Christmas night, there were on the
+following evening many Christmas-trees lighted, and on the last evening
+in the year, there was planted for me alone, a little tree with its
+lights, and its beautiful presents--and that was by Jenny Lind. The
+whole company consisted of herself, her attendant, and me; we three
+children from the north were together on Sylvester-eve, and I was the
+child for which the Christmas-tree was lighted. She rejoiced with the
+feeling of a sister in my good fortune in Berlin; and I felt almost
+pride in the sympathy of such a pure, noble, and womanly being.
+Everywhere her praise resounded, not merely as a singer, but also as a
+woman; the two combined awoke a real enthusiasm for her.
+
+It does one good both in mind and heart to see that which is glorious
+understood and beloved. In one little anecdote contributing to her
+triumph I was myself made the confidant.
+
+One morning as I looked out of my window _unter den Linden_, I saw a man
+under one of the trees, half hidden, and shabbily dressed, who took a
+comb out of his pocket, smoothed his hair, set his neckerchief straight,
+and brushed his coat with his hand; I understood that bashful poverty
+which feels depressed by its shabby dress. A moment after this, there
+was a knock at my door, and this same man entered. It was W----, the
+poet of nature, who is only a poor tailor, but who has a truly poetical
+mind. Rellstab and others in Berlin have mentioned him with honor; there
+is something healthy in his poems, among which several of a sincerely
+religious character may be found. He had read that I was in Berlin, and
+wished now to visit me. We sat together on the sofa and conversed: there
+was such an amiable contentedness, such an unspoiled and good tone of
+mind about him, that I was sorry not to be rich in order that I might do
+something for him. I was ashamed of offering him the little that I could
+give; in any case I wished to put it in as agreeable a form as I could.
+I asked him whether I might invite him to hear Jenny Lind.
+
+"I have already heard her," said he smiling; "I had, it is true, no
+money to buy a ticket; but I went to the leader of the supernumeraries,
+and asked whether I might not act as a supernumerary for one evening in
+Norma: I was accepted and habited as a Roman soldier, with a long sword
+by my side, and thus got to the theatre, where I could hear her better
+than any body else, for I stood close to her. Ah, how she sung, how she
+played! I could not help crying; but they were angry at that: the leader
+forbade and would not let me again make my appearance, because no one
+must weep on the stage."
+
+With the exception of the theatre, I had very little time to visit
+collections of any kind or institutions of art. The able and amiable
+Olfers, however, the Director of the Museum, enabled me to pay a rapid
+but extremely interesting visit to that institution. Olfers himself
+was my conductor; we delayed our steps only for the most interesting
+objects, and there are here not a few of these; his remarks threw light
+upon my mind,--for this therefore I am infinitely obliged to him.
+
+I had the happiness of visiting the Princess of Prussia many times; the
+wing of the castle in which she resided was so comfortable, and yet like
+a fairy palace. The blooming winter-garden, where the fountain splashed
+among the moss at the foot of the statue, was close beside the room in
+which the kind-hearted children smiled with their soft blue eyes. On
+taking leave she honored me with a richly bound album, in which, beneath
+the picture of the palace, she wrote her name. I shall guard this volume
+as a treasure of the soul; it is not the gift which has a value only,
+but also the manner in which it is given. One forenoon I read to her
+several of my little stories, and her noble husband listened kindly:
+Prince P ckler-Muskau also was present.
+
+A few days after my arrival in Berlin, I had the honor to be invited to
+the royal table. As I was better acquainted with Humboldt than any one
+there, and he it was who had particularly interested himself about me, I
+took my place at his side. Not only on account of his high intellectual
+character, and his amiable and polite behavior, but also from his
+infinite kindness towards me, during the whole of my residence in
+Berlin, is he become unchangeably dear to me.
+
+The King received me most graciously, and said that during his stay
+in Copenhagen he had inquired after me, and had heard that I was
+travelling. He expressed a great interest in my novel of Only a Fiddler;
+her Majesty the Queen also showed herself graciously and kindly disposed
+towards me. I had afterwards the happiness of being invited to spend
+an evening at the palace at Potsdam; an evening which is full of rich
+remembrance and never to be forgotten! Besides the ladies and gentlemen
+in waiting, Humboldt and myself were only invited. A seat was assigned
+to me at the table of their Majesties, exactly the place, said the
+Queen, where Oehlenschl ger had sat and read his tragedy of Dina. I read
+four little stories, the Fir-Tree, the Ugly Duckling, the Ball and
+the Top, and The Swineherd. The King listened with great interest, and
+expressed himself most wittily on the subject. He said, how beautiful he
+thought the natural scenery of Denmark, and how excellently he had seen
+one of Holberg's comedies performed.
+
+It was so deliciously pleasant in the royal apartment,--gentle eyes were
+gazing at me, and I felt that they all wished me well. When at night I
+was alone in my chamber, my thoughts were so occupied with this evening,
+and my mind in such a state of excitement, that I could not sleep.
+Everything seemed to me like a fairy tale. Through the whole night the
+chimes sounded in the tower, and the aerial music mingled itself with my
+thoughts.
+
+I received still one more proof of the favor and kindness of the King
+of Prussia towards me, on the evening before my departure from the city.
+The order of the Red Eagle, of the third class, was conferred upon me.
+Such a mark of honor delights certainly every one who receives it.
+I confess candidly that I felt myself honored in a high degree.
+I discerned in it an evident token of the kindness of the noble,
+enlightened King towards me: my heart is filled with gratitude. I
+received this mark of honor exactly on the birth-day of my benefactor
+Collin, the 6th of January; this day has now a twofold festal
+significance for me. May God fill with gladness the mind of the royal
+donor who wished to give me pleasure!
+
+The last evening was spent in a warm-hearted circle, for the greater
+part, of young people. My health was drunk; a poem, Der M rchenk÷nig,
+declaimed. It was not until late in the night that I reached home, that
+I might set off early in the morning by railroad.
+
+I have here given in part a proof of the favor and kindness which
+was shown to me in Berlin: I feel like some one who has received a
+considerable sum for a certain object from a large assembly, and now
+would give an account thereof. I might still add many other names, as
+well from the learned world, as Theodor, M gge, Geibel, H ring, etc.,
+as from the social circle;--the reckoning is too large. God give me
+strength for that which I now have to perform, after I have, as an
+earnest of good will, received such a richly abundant sum.
+
+After a journey of a day and night I was once more in Weimar, with my
+noble Hereditary Grand Duke. What a cordial reception! A heart rich in
+goodness, and a mind full of noble endeavors, live in this young prince.
+I have no words for the infinite favor, which, during my residence here,
+I received daily from the family of the Grand Duke, but my whole heart
+is full of devotion. At the court festival, as well as in the familiar
+family circle, I had many evidences of the esteem in which I was held.
+Beaulieu cared for me with the tenderness of a brother. It was to me
+a month-long Sabbath festival. Never shall I forget the quiet evenings
+spent with him, when friend spoke freely to friend.
+
+My old friends were also unchanged; the wise and able Sch÷ll, as well as
+Schober, joined them also. Jenny Lind came to Weimar; I heard her at the
+court concerts and at the theatre; I visited with her the places which
+are become sacred through Goethe and Schiller: we stood together beside
+their coffins, where Chancellor von Muller led us. The Austrian poet,
+Rollet, who met us here for the first time, wrote on this subject a
+sweet poem, which will serve me as a visible remembrance of this hour
+and this place. People lay lovely flowers in their books, and as such, I
+lay in here this verse of his:--
+
+Weimar, 29th January, 1846.
+
+  M rchen rose, which has so often
+    Charmed me with thy fragrant breath;
+  Where the prince, the poets slumber,
+    Thou hast wreathed the hall of death.
+
+  And with thee beside each coffin,
+    In the death-hushed chamber pale,
+  I beheld a grief-enchanted,
+    Sweetly dreaming nightingale.
+
+  I rejoiced amid the stillness;
+    Gladness through my bosom past,
+  That the gloomy poets' coffins
+    Such a magic crowned at last.
+
+  And thy rose's summer fragrance
+    Floated round that chamber pale,
+  With the gentle melancholy
+    Of the grief-hushed nightingale.
+
+It was in the evening circle of the intellectual Froriep that I met, for
+the first time, with Auerbach, who then chanced to be staying in Weimar.
+His "Village Tales" interested me in the highest degree; I regard them
+as the most poetical, most healthy, and joyous production of the young
+German literature. He himself made the same agreeable impression
+upon me; there is something so frank and straightforward, and yet so
+sagacious, in his whole appearance, I might almost say, that he looks
+himself like a village tale, healthy to the core, body and soul, and his
+eyes beaming with honesty. We soon became friends--and I hope forever.
+
+My stay in Weimar was prolonged; it became ever more difficult to tear
+myself away. The Grand Duke's birth-day occurred at this time, and after
+attending all the festivities to which I was invited, I departed. I
+would and must be in Rome at Easter. Once more in the early morning, I
+saw the Hereditary Grand Duke, and, with a heart full of emotion, bade
+him farewell. Never, in presence of the world, will I forget the high
+position which his birth gives him, but I may say, as the very poorest
+subject may say of a prince, I love him as one who is dearest to my
+heart. God give him joy and bless him in his noble endeavors! A generous
+heart beats beneath the princely star.
+
+Beaulieu accompanied me to Jena. Here a hospitable home awaited me, and
+filled with beautiful memories from the time of Goethe, the house of the
+publisher Frommann. It was his kind, warm-hearted sister, who had shown
+me such sympathy in Berlin; the brother was not here less kind.
+
+The Holstener Michelsen, who has a professorship at Jena, assembled a
+number of friends one evening, and in a graceful and cordial toast for
+me, expressed his sense of the importance of Danish literature, and the
+healthy and natural spirit which flourished in it.
+
+In Michelsen's house I also became acquainted with Professor Hase, who,
+one evening having heard some of my little stories, seemed filled with
+great kindness towards me. What he wrote in this moment of interest on
+an album leaf expresses this sentiment:
+
+"Schelling--not he who now lives in Berlin, but he who lives an immortal
+hero in the world of mind--once said: 'Nature is the visible spirit.'
+This spirit, this unseen nature, last evening was again rendered visible
+to me through your little tales. If on the one hand you penetrate deeply
+into the mysteries of nature; know and understand the language of birds,
+and what are the feelings of a fir-tree or a daisy, so that each seems
+to be there on its own account, and we and our children sympathize with
+them in their joys and sorrows; yet, on the other hand, all is but the
+image of mind; and the human heart in its infinity, trembles and throbs
+throughout. May this fountain in the poet's heart, which God has lent
+you, still for a time pour forth this refreshingly, and may these
+stories in the memories of the Germanic nations, become the legends of
+the people!" That object, for which as a writer of poetical fictions, I
+must strive after, is contained in these last lines.
+
+It is also to Hase and the gifted improvisatore, Professor Wolff of
+Jena, to whom I am most indebted for the appearance of a uniform German
+edition of my writings.
+
+This was all arranged on my arrival at Leipzig: several hours of
+business were added to my traveller's mode of life. The city of
+bookselling presented me with her bouquet, a sum of money; but she
+presented me with even more. I met again with Brockhaus, and passed
+happy hours with Mendelssohn, that glorious man of genius. I heard
+him play again and again; it seemed to me that his eyes, full of soul,
+looked into the very depths of my being. Few men have more the stamp
+of the inward fire than he. A gentle, friendly wife, and beautiful
+children, make his rich, well-appointed house, blessed and pleasant.
+When he rallied me about the Stork, and its frequent appearance in my
+writings, there was something so childlike and amiable revealed in this
+great artist!
+
+I also met again my excellent countryman Gade, whose compositions have
+been so well received in Germany. I took him the text for a new opera
+which I had written, and which I hope to see brought out on the German
+stage. Gade had written the music to my drama of Agnete and the Merman,
+compositions which were very successful. Auerbach, whom I again found
+here, introduced me to many agreeable circles. I met with the composer
+Kalliwoda, and with K hne, whose charming little son immediately won my
+heart.
+
+On my arrival at Dresden I instantly hastened to my motherly friend,
+the Baroness von Decken. That was a joyous hearty welcome! One equally
+cordial I met with from Dahl. I saw once more my Roman friend, the
+poet with word and color, Reineck, and met the kind-hearted Bendemann.
+Professor Grahl painted me. I missed, however, one among my olden
+friends, the poet Brunnow. With life and cordiality he received me the
+last time in his room, where stood lovely flowers; now these grew over
+his grave. It awakens a peculiar feeling, thus for once to meet on
+the journey of life, to understand and love each other, and then to
+part--until the journey for both is ended.
+
+I spent, to me, a highly interesting evening, with the royal family, who
+received me with extraordinary favor. Here also the most happy domestic
+life appeared to reign--a number of amiable children, all belonging to
+Prince Johann, were present. The least of the Princesses, a little girl,
+who knew that I had written the history of the Fir-tree, began very
+confidentially with--"Last Christmas we also had a Fir-tree, and it
+stood here in this room!" Afterwards, when she was led out before the
+other children, and had bade her parents and the King and Queen good
+night, she turned round at the half-closed door, and nodding to me in a
+friendly and familiar manner, said I was her Fairy-tale Prince.
+
+My story of Holger Danske led the conversation to the rich stores of
+legends which the north possesses. I related several, and explained the
+peculiar spirit of the fine scenery of Denmark. Neither in this royal
+palace did I feel the weight of ceremony; soft, gentle eyes shone
+upon me. My last morning in Dresden was spent with the Minister von
+K÷nneritz, where I equally met with the most friendly reception.
+
+The sun shone warm: it was spring who was celebrating her arrival, as
+I rolled out of the dear city. Thought assembled in one amount all the
+many who had rendered my visits so rich and happy: it was spring around
+me, and spring in my heart.
+
+In Prague I had only one acquaintance, Professor Wiesenfeldt. But a
+letter from Dr. Carus in Dresden opened to me the hospitable house of
+Count Thun. The Archduke Stephan received me also in the most gracious
+manner; I found in him a young man full of intellect and heart.
+Besides it was a very interesting point of time when I left Prague. The
+military, who had been stationed there a number of years, were hastening
+to the railway, to leave for Poland, where disturbances had broken out.
+The whole city seemed in movement to take leave of its military friends;
+it was difficult to get through the streets which led to the railway.
+Many thousand soldiers were to be accommodated; at length the train was
+set in motion. All around the whole hill-side was covered with people;
+it looked like the richest Turkey carpet woven of men, women and
+children, all pressed together, head to head, and waving hats and
+handkerchiefs. Such a mass of human beings I never saw before, or at
+least, never at one moment surveyed them: such a spectacle could not be
+painted.
+
+We travelled the whole night through wide Bohemia: at every town stood
+groups of people; it was as though all the inhabitants had assembled
+themselves. Their brown faces, their ragged clothes, the light of their
+torches, their, to me, unintelligible language, gave to the whole a
+stamp of singularity. We flew through tunnel and over viaduct; the
+windows rattled, the signal whistle sounded, the steam horses snorted--I
+laid back my head at last in the carriage, and fell asleep under the
+protection of the god Morpheus.
+
+At Olm tz, where we had fresh carnages, a voice spoke my name--it was
+Walter Goethe! We had travelled together the whole night without knowing
+it. In Vienna we met often. Noble powers, true genius, live in Goethe's
+grandsons, in the composer as well as in the poet; but it is as if the
+greatness of their grandfather pressed upon them. Liszt was in Vienna,
+and invited me to his concert, in which otherwise it would have been
+impossible to find a place. I again heard his improvising of Robert! I
+again heard him, like a spirit of the storm, play with the chords: he
+is an enchanter of sounds who fills the imagination with astonishment.
+Ernst also was here; when I visited him he seized the violin, and this
+sang in tears the secret of a human heart.
+
+I saw the amiable Grillparzer again, and was frequently with the kindly
+Castelli, who just at this time had been made by the King of Denmark
+Knight of the Danebrog Order. He was full of joy at this, and begged me
+to tell my countrymen that every Dane should receive a hearty welcome
+from him. Some future summer he invited me to visit his grand country
+seat. There is something in Castelli so open and honorable, mingled with
+such good-natured humor, that one must like him: he appears to me the
+picture of a thorough Viennese. Under his portrait, which he gave me, he
+wrote the following little improvised verse in the style so peculiarly
+his own:
+
+  This portrait shall ever with loving eyes greet thee,
+    From far shall recall the smile of thy friend;
+  For thou, dearest Dane, 'tis a pleasure to meet thee,
+    Thou art one to be loved and esteemed to the end.
+
+Castelli introduced me to Seidl and Bauernfeld. At the Danisti
+ambassador's, Baron von L÷wenstern, I met Zedlitz. Most of the shining
+stars of Austrian literature I saw glide past me, as people on a railway
+see church towers; you can still say you have seen them; and still
+retaining the simile of the stars, I can say, that in the Concordia
+Society I saw the entire galaxy. Here was a host of young growing
+intellects, and here were men of importance. At the house of Count
+Szechenye, who hospitably invited me, I saw his brother from Pest, whose
+noble activity in Hungary is known. This short meeting I account one
+of the most interesting events of my stay in Vienna; the man revealed
+himself in all his individuality, and his eye said that you must feel
+confidence in him.
+
+At my departure from Dresden her Majesty the Queen of Saxony had asked
+me whether I had introductions to any one at the Court of Vienna, and
+when I told her that I had not, the Queen was so gracious as to write
+a letter to her sister, the Archduchess Sophia of Austria. Her imperial
+Highness summoned me one evening, and received me in the most gracious
+manner. The dowager Empress, the widow of the Emperor Francis I., was
+present, and full of kindness and friendship towards me; also Prince
+Wasa, and the hereditary Archduchess of Hesse-Darmstadt. The remembrance
+of this evening will always remain dear and interesting to me. I read
+several of my little stories aloud--when I wrote them, I thought least
+of all that I should some day read them aloud in the imperial palace.
+
+Before my departure I had still another visit to make, and this was to
+the intellectual authoress, Frau von Weissenthurn. She had just left a
+bed of sickness and was still suffering, but wished to see me. As though
+she were already standing on the threshold of the realm of shades, she
+pressed my hand and said this was the last time we should ever see each
+other. With a soft motherly gaze she looked at me, and at parting her
+penetrating eye followed me to the door.
+
+With railway and diligence my route now led towards Triest. With steam
+the long train of carriages flies along the narrow rocky way, following
+all the windings of the river. One wonders that with all these abrupt
+turnings one is not dashed against the rock, or flung down into the
+roaring stream, and is glad when the journey is happily accomplished.
+But in the slow diligence one wishes its more rapid journey might
+recommence, and praise the powers of the age.
+
+At length Triest and the Adriatic sea lay before us; the Italian
+language sounded in our ears, but yet for me it was not Italy, the land
+of my desire. Meanwhile I was only a stranger here for a few hours; our
+Danish consul, as well as the consuls of Prussia and Oldenburg, to whom
+I was recommended, received me in the best possible manner. Several
+interesting acquaintances were made, especially with the Counts
+O'Donnell and Waldstein, the latter for me as a Dane having a peculiar
+interest, as being the descendant of that unfortunate Confitz Ulfeld
+and the daughter of Christian IV., Eleanore, the noblest of all Danish
+women. Their portraits hung in his room, and Danish memorials of that
+period were shown me. It was the first time I had ever seen Eleanore
+Ulfeld's portrait, and the melancholy smile on her lips seemed to say,
+"Poet, sing and free from chains which a hard age had cast upon him,
+for whom to live and to suffer was my happiness!" Before Oehlenschl ger
+wrote his Dina, which treats of an episode in Ulfeld's life, I was at
+work on this subject, and wished to bring it on the stage, but it was
+then feared this would not be allowed, and I gave it up--since then I
+have only written four lines on Ulfeld:--
+
+  Thy virtue was concealed, not so thy failings,
+  Thus did the world thy greatness never know,
+  Yet still love's glorious monument proclaims it,
+  That the best wife from thee would never go.
+
+On the Adriatic sea I, in thought, was carried back to Ulfeld's time and
+the Danish islands. This meeting with Count Waldstein and his ancestor's
+portrait brought me back to my poet's world, and I almost forgot that
+the following day I could be in the middle of Italy. In beautiful mild
+weather I went with the steam-boat to Ancona.
+
+It was a quiet starlight night, too beautiful to be spent in sleep. In
+the early morning the coast of Italy lay before us, the beautiful blue
+mountains with glittering snow. The sun shone warmly, the grass and the
+trees were so splendidly green. Last evening in Trieste, now in Ancona,
+in a city of the papal states,--that was almost like enchantment! Italy
+in all its picturesque splendor lay once more before me; spring had
+ripened all the fruit trees so that they had burst forth into blossom;
+every blade of grass in the field was filled with sunshine, the elm
+trees stood like caryatides enwreathed with vines, which shot forth
+green leaves, and above the luxuriance of foliage rose the wavelike
+blue mountains with their snow covering. In company with Count Paar from
+Vienna, the most excellent travelling companion, and a young nobleman
+from Hungary, I now travelled on with a vetturino for five days:
+solitary, and more picturesque than habitable inns among the
+Apennines were our night's quarters. At length the Campagna, with its
+thought-awakening desolation, lay before us.
+
+It was the 31st of March, 1846, when I again saw Rome, and for the third
+time in my life should reach this city of the world. I felt so happy,
+so penetrated with thankfulness and joy; how much more God had given me
+than a thousand others--nay, than to many thousands! And even in this
+very feeling there is a blessing--where joy is very great, as in
+the deepest grief, there is only God on whom one can lean! The first
+impression was--I can find no other word for it--adoration. When day
+unrolled for me my beloved Rome, I felt what I cannot express more
+briefly or better than I did in a letter to a friend: "I am growing here
+into the very ruins, I live with the petrified gods, and the roses are
+always blooming, and the church bells ringing--and yet Rome is not
+the Rome it was thirteen years ago when I first was here. It is as if
+everything were modernized, the ruins even, grass and bushes are cleared
+away. Everything is made so neat; the very life of the people seems to
+have retired; I no longer hear the tamborines in the streets, no longer
+see the young girls dancing their Saltarella, even in the Campagna
+intelligence has entered by invisible railroads; the peasant no longer
+believes as he used to do. At the Easter festival I saw great numbers of
+the people from the Campagna standing before St. Peters whilst the
+Pope distributed his blessing, just as though they had been Protestant
+strangers. This was repulsive to my feelings, I felt an impulse to kneel
+before the invisible saint. When I was here thirteen years ago, all
+knelt; now reason had conquered faith. Ten years later, when the
+railways will have brought cities still nearer to each other, Rome will
+be yet more changed. But in all that happens, everything is for the
+best; one always must love Rome; it is like a story book, one is always
+discovering new wonders, and one lives in imagination and reality."
+
+The first time I travelled to Italy I had no eyes for sculpture; in
+Paris the rich pictures drew me away from the statues; for the first
+time when I came to Florence and stood before the Venus de Medicis, I
+felt as Thorwaldsen expressed, "the snow melted away from my eyes;" and
+a new world of art rose before me. And now at my third sojourn in Rome,
+after repeated wanderings through the Vatican, I prize the statues far
+higher than the paintings. But at what other places as at Rome, and to
+some degree in Naples, does this art step forth so grandly into life!
+One is carried away by it, one learns to admire nature in the work of
+art, the beauty of form becomes spiritual.
+
+Among the many clever and beautiful things which I saw exhibited in the
+studios of the young artists, two pieces of sculpture were what most
+deeply impressed themselves on my memory; and these were in the studio
+of my countryman Jerichau. I saw his group of Hercules and Hebe, which
+had been spoken of with such enthusiasm in the Allgemeine Zeitung and
+other German papers, and which, through its antique repose, and its
+glorious beauty, powerfully seized upon me. My imagination was filled
+by it, and yet I must place Jerichau's later group, the Fighting Hunter,
+still higher. It is formed after the model, as though it had sprung from
+nature. There lies in it a truth, a beauty, and a grandeur which I am
+convinced will make his name resound through many lands!
+
+I have known him from the time when he was almost a boy. We were both of
+us born on the same island: he is from the little town of Assens. We met
+in Copenhagen. No one, not even he himself, knew what lay within him;
+and half in jest, half in earnest, he spoke of the combat with himself
+whether he should go to America and become a savage, or to Rome and
+become an artist--painter or sculptor; that he did not yet know. His
+pencil was meanwhile thrown away: he modelled in clay, and my bust was
+the first which he made. He received no travelling stipendium from
+the Academy. As far as I know, it was a noble-minded woman, an artist
+herself, unprovided with means, who, from the interest she felt for the
+spark of genius she observed in him, assisted him so far that he reached
+Italy by means of a trading vessel. In the beginning he worked in
+Thorwaldsen's atelier. During a journey of several years, he has
+doubtless experienced the struggles of genius and the galling fetters of
+want; but now the star of fortune shines upon him. When I came to Rome,
+I found him physically suffering and melancholy. He was unable to bear
+the warm summers of Italy; and many people said he could not recover
+unless he visited the north, breathed the cooler air, and took
+sea-baths. His praises resounded through the papers, glorious works
+stood in his atelier; but man does not live on heavenly bread alone.
+There came one day a Russian Prince, I believe, and he gave a commission
+for the Hunter. Two other commissions followed on the same day.
+Jerichau came full of rejoicing and told this to me. A few days after
+he travelled with his wife, a highly gifted painter, to Denmark, from
+whence, strengthened body and soul, he returned, with the winter, to
+Rome, where the strokes of his chisel will resound so that, I hope, the
+world will hear them. My heart will beat joyfully with them!
+
+I also met in Rome, Kolberg, another Danish sculptor, until now only
+known in Denmark, but there very highly thought of, a scholar of
+Thorwaldsen's and a favorite of that great master. He honored me by
+making my bust. I also sat once more with the kindly K chler, and saw
+the forms fresh as nature spread themselves over the canvas.
+
+I sat once again with the Roman people in the amusing puppet theatre,
+and heard the children's merriment. Among the German artists, as well as
+among the Swedes and my own countrymen, I met with a hearty reception.
+My birth-day was joyfully celebrated. Frau von Goethe, who was in
+Rome, and who chanced to be living in the very house where I brought
+my Improvisatore into the world, and made him spend his first years of
+childhood, sent me from thence a large, true Roman bouquet, a fragrant
+mosaic. The Swedish painter, S÷dermark, proposed my health to the
+company whom the Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians had invited me to meet.
+From my friends I received some pretty pictures and friendly keepsakes.
+
+The Hanoverian minister, K stner, to whose friendship I am indebted
+for many pleasant hours, is an extremely agreeable man, possessed of no
+small talent for poetry, music, and painting. At his house I really saw
+for the first time flower-painting elevated by a poetical idea. In one
+of his rooms he has introduced an arabesque of flowers which presents
+us with the flora of the whole year. It commences with the first spring
+flowers, the crocus, the snow drop, and so on; then come the summer
+flowers, then the autumn, and at length the garland ends with the red
+berries and yellow-brown leaves of December.
+
+Constantly in motion, always striving to employ every moment and to see
+everything, I felt myself at last very much affected by the unceasing
+sirocco. The Roman air did not agree with me, and I hastened, therefore,
+as soon as I had seen the illumination of the dome and the _girandola_,
+immediately after the Easter festival, through Terracina to Naples.
+Count Paar travelled with me. We entered St. Lucia: the sea lay before
+us; Vesuvius blazed. Those were glorious evenings! moonlight nights! It
+was as if the heavens had elevated themselves above and the stars were
+withdrawn. What effect of light! In the north the moon scatters silver
+over the water: here it was gold. The circulating lanterns of the
+lighthouse now exhibited their dazzling light, now were totally
+extinguished. The torches of the fishing-boats threw their
+obelisk-formed blaze along the surface of the water, or else the boat
+concealed them like a black shadow, below which the surface of the water
+was illuminated. One fancied one could see to the bottom, where fishes
+and plants were in motion. Along the street itself thousands of lights
+were burning in the shops of the dealers in fruit and fish. Now came a
+troop of children with lights, and went in procession to the church of
+St. Lucia. Many fell down with their lights; but above the whole stood,
+like the hero of this great drama of light, Vesuvius with his blood-red
+flame and his illumined cloud of smoke.
+
+I visited the islands of Capri and Ischia once more; and, as the heat
+of the sun and the strong sirocco made a longer residence in Naples
+oppressive to me, I went to Sarrento, Tasso's city, where the foliage of
+the vine cast a shade, and where the air appears to me lighter. Here I
+wrote these pages. In Rome, by the bay of Naples and amid the Pyrenees,
+I put on paper the story of my life.
+
+The well-known festival of the Madonna dell' Arco called me again to
+Naples, where I took up my quarters at an hotel in the middle of the
+city, near the Toledo Street, and found an excellent host and hostess.
+I had already resided here, but only in the winter. I had now to see
+Naples in its summer heat and with all its wild tumult, but in what
+degree I had never imagined. The sun shone down with its burning heat
+into the narrow streets, in at the balcony door. It was necessary to
+shut up every place: not a breath of air stirred. Every little corner,
+every spot in the street on which a shadow fell was crowded with working
+handicraftsmen, who chattered loudly and merrily; the carriages rolled
+past; the drivers screamed; the tumult of the people roared like a sea
+in the other streets; the church bells sounded every minute; my opposite
+neighbor, God knows who he was, played the musical scale from morning
+till evening. It was enough to make one lose one's senses!
+
+The sirocco blew its boiling-hot breath and I was perfectly overcome.
+There was not another room to be had at St. Lucia, and the sea-bathing
+seemed rather to weaken than to invigorate me. I went therefore again
+into the country; but the sun burned there with the same beams; yet
+still the air there was more elastic, yet for all that it was to me
+like the poisoned mantle of Hercules, which, as it were, drew out of me
+strength and spirit. I, who had fancied that I must be precisely a child
+of the sun, so firmly did my heart always cling to the south, was forced
+to acknowledge that the snow of the north was in my body, that the snow
+melted, and that I was more and more miserable.
+
+Most strangers felt as I myself did in this, as the Neapolitans
+themselves said, unusually hot summer; the greater number went away. I
+also would have done the same, but I was obliged to wait several days
+for a letter of credit; it had arrived at the right time, but lay
+forgotten in the hands of my banker. Yet there was a deal for me to see
+in Naples; many houses were open to me. I tried whether the will were
+not stronger than the Neapolitan heat, but I fell into such a nervous
+state in consequence, that till the time of my departure I was obliged
+to lie quietly in my hot room, where the night brought no coolness. From
+the morning twilight to midnight roared the noise of bells, the cry
+of the people, the trampling of horses on the stone pavement, and the
+before-mentioned practiser of the scale--it was like being on the rack;
+and this caused me to give up my journey to Spain, especially as I was
+assured, for my consolation, that I should find it just as warm there as
+here. The physician said that, at this season of the year, I could not
+sustain the journey.
+
+I took a berth in the steam-boat Castor for Marseilles; the vessel was
+full to overflowing with passengers; the whole quarter-deck, even the
+best place, was occupied by travelling carriages; under one of these I
+had my bed laid; many people followed my example, and the quarter-deck
+was soon covered with mattresses and carpets. It blew strongly; the wind
+increased, and in the second and third night raged to a perfect storm;
+the ship rolled from side to side like a cask in the open sea; the waves
+dashed on the ship's side and lifted up their broad heads above the
+bulwarks as if they would look in upon us. It was as if the carriages
+under which we lay would crush us to pieces, or else would be washed
+away by the sea. There was a lamentation, but I lay quiet, looked up at
+the driving clouds, and thought upon God and my beloved. When at length
+we reached Genoa most of the passengers went on land: I should have been
+willing enough to have followed their example, that I might go by Milan
+to Switzerland, but my letter of credit was drawn upon Marseilles and
+some Spanish sea-ports. I was obliged to go again on board. The sea was
+calm; the air fresh; it was the most glorious voyage along the charming
+Sardinian coast. Full of strength and new life I arrived at Marseilles,
+and, as I here breathed more easily, my longing to see Spain was again
+renewed. I had laid the plan of seeing this country last, as the bouquet
+of my journey. In the suffering state in which I had been I was obliged
+to give it up, but I was now better. I regarded it therefore as a
+pointing of the finger of heaven that I should be compelled to go to
+Marseilles, and determined to venture upon the journey. The steam-vessel
+to Barcelona had, in the meantime, just sailed, and several days must
+pass before another set out. I determined therefore to travel by short
+days' journeys through the south of France across the Pyrenees.
+
+Before leaving Marseilles, chance favored me with a short meeting with
+one of my friends from the North, and this was Ole Bull! He came from
+America, and was received in France with jubilees and serenades, of
+which I was myself a witness. At the _table d'h te_ in the _H tel des
+Empereurs_, where we both lodged, we flew towards each other. He told
+me what I should have expected least of all, that my works had also many
+friends in America, that people had inquired from him about me with the
+greatest interest, and that the English translations of my romances had
+been reprinted, and spread through the whole country in cheap editions.
+My name flown over the great ocean! I felt myself at this thought quite
+insignificant, but yet glad and happy; wherefore should I, in preference
+to so many thousand others, receive such happiness?
+
+I had and still have a feeling as though I were a poor peasant lad over
+whom a royal mantle is thrown. Yet I was and am made happy by all this!
+Is _this_ vanity, or does it show itself in these expressions of my joy?
+
+Ole Bull went to Algiers, I towards the Pyrenees. Through Provence,
+which looked to me quite Danish, I reached Nismes, where the grandeur
+of the splendid Roman amphitheatre at once carried me back to Italy. The
+memorials of antiquity in the south of France I have never heard praised
+as their greatness and number deserve; the so-called _Maison Quar e_ is
+still standing in all its splendor, like the Theseus Temple at Athens:
+Rome has nothing so well preserved.
+
+In Nismes dwells the baker Reboul, who writes the most charming
+poems: whoever may not chance to know him from these is, however, well
+acquainted with him through Lamartine's Journey to the East. I found him
+at the house, stepped into the bakehouse, and addressed myself to a
+man in shirt sleeves who was putting bread into the oven; it was Reboul
+himself! A noble countenance which expressed a manly character greeted
+me. When I mentioned my name, he was courteous enough to say he was
+acquainted with it through the Revue de Paris, and begged me to visit
+him in the afternoon, when he should be able to entertain me better.
+When I came again I found him in a little room which might be called
+almost elegant, adorned with pictures, casts and books, not alone French
+literature, but translations of the Greek classics. A picture on the
+wall represented his most celebrated poem, "The Dying Child," from
+Marmier's _Chansons du Nord_. He knew I had treated the same subject,
+and I told him that this was written in my school days. If in the
+morning I had found him the industrious baker, he now was the poet
+completely; he spoke with animation of the literature of his country,
+and expressed a wish to see the north, the scenery and intellectual life
+of which seemed to interest him. With great respect I took leave of a
+man whom the Muses have not meanly endowed, and who yet has good sense
+enough, spite of all the homage paid him, to remain steadfast to his
+honest business, and prefer being the most remarkable baker of Nismes to
+losing himself in Paris, after a short triumph, among hundreds of other
+poets.
+
+By railway I now travelled by way of Montpelier to Cette, with that
+rapidity which a train possesses in France; you fly there as though
+for a wager with the wild huntsman. I involuntarily remembered that at
+Basle, at the corner of a street where formerly the celebrated Dance
+of Death was painted, there is written up in large letters "Dance of
+Death," and on the opposite corner "Way to the Railroad." This singular
+juxtaposition just at the frontiers of France, gives play to the fancy;
+in this rushing flight it came into my thoughts; it seemed as though the
+steam whistle gave the signal to the dance. On German railways one does
+not have such wild fancies.
+
+The islander loves the sea as the mountaineer loves his mountains!
+
+Every sea-port town, however small it may be, receives in my eyes a
+peculiar charm from the sea. Was it the sea, in connexion perhaps with
+the Danish tongue, which sounded in my ears in two houses in Cette, that
+made this town so homelike to me? I know not, but I felt more in Denmark
+than in the south of France. When far from your country you enter a
+house where all, from the master and mistress to the servants, speak
+your own language, as was here the case, these home tones have a
+real power of enchantment: like the mantle of Faust, in a moment they
+transport you, house and all, into your own land. Here, however, there
+was no northern summer, but the hot sun of Naples; it might even have
+burnt Faust's cap. The sun's rays destroyed all strength. For many years
+there had not been such a summer, even here; and from the country round
+about arrived accounts of people who had died from the heat: the very
+nights were hot. I was told beforehand I should be unable to bear the
+journey in Spain. I felt this myself, but then Spain was to be the
+bouquet of my journey. I already saw the Pyrenees; the blue mountains
+enticed me--and one morning early I found myself on the steam-boat. The
+sun rose higher; it burnt above, it burnt from the expanse of waters,
+myriads of jelly-like medusas filled the river; it was as though the
+sun's rays had changed the whole sea into a heaving world of animal
+life; I had never before seen anything like it. In the Languedoc canal
+we had all to get into a large boat which had been constructed more for
+goods than for passengers. The deck was coveted with boxes and trunks,
+and these again occupied by people who sought shade under umbrellas.
+It was impossible to move; no railing surrounded this pile of boxes and
+people, which was drawn along by three or four horses attached by long
+ropes. Beneath in the cabins it was as crowded; people sat close to each
+other, like flies in a cup of sugar. A lady who had fainted from the
+heat and tobacco smoke, was carried in and laid upon the only unoccupied
+spot on the floor; she was brought here for air, but here there was
+none, spite of the number of fans in motion; there were no refreshments
+to be had, not even a drink of water, except the warm, yellow water
+which the canal afforded. Over the cabin windows hung booted legs, which
+at the same time that they deprived the cabin of light, seemed to give a
+substance to the oppressive air. Shut up in this place one had also the
+torment of being forced to listen to a man who was always trying to say
+something witty; the stream of words played about his lips as the canal
+water about the boat. I made myself a way through boxes, people, and
+umbrellas, and stood in a boiling hot air; on either side the prospect
+was eternally the same, green grass, a green tree, flood-gates--green
+grass, a green tree, flood-gates--and then again the same; it was enough
+to drive one insane.
+
+At the distance of a half-hour's journey from Beziers we were put on
+land; I felt almost ready to faint, and there was no carriage here,
+for the omnibus had not expected us so early; the sun burnt infernally.
+People say the south of France is a portion of Paradise; under the
+present circumstances it seemed to me a portion of hell with all its
+heat. In Beziers the diligence was waiting, but all the best places were
+already taken; and I here for the first, and I hope for the last
+time, got into the hinder part of such a conveyance. An ugly woman in
+slippers, and with a head-dress a yard high, which she hung up, took her
+seat beside me; and now came a singing sailor who had certainly drunk
+too many healths; then a couple of dirty fellows, whose first manoeuvre
+was to pull off their boots and coats and sit upon them, hot and dirty,
+whilst the thick clouds of dust whirled into the vehicle, and the sun
+burnt and blinded me. It was impossible to endure this farther than
+Narbonne; sick and suffering, I sought rest, but then came gensdarmes
+and demanded my passport, and then just as night began, a fire must
+needs break out in the neighboring village; the fire alarm resounded,
+the fire-engines rolled along, it was just as though all manner of
+tormenting spirits were let loose. From here as far as the Pyrenees
+there followed repeated demands for your passport, so wearisome that
+you know nothing like it even in Italy: they gave you as a reason, the
+nearness to the Spanish frontiers, the number of fugitives from thence,
+and several murders which had taken place in the neighborhood: all
+conduced to make the journey in my then state of health a real torment.
+
+I reached Perpignan. The sun had here also swept the streets of people,
+it was only when night came that they came forth, but then it was like a
+roaring stream, as though a real tumult were about to destroy the
+town. The human crowd moved in waves beneath my windows, a loud shout
+resounded; it pierced through my sick frame. What was that?--what did
+it mean? "Good evening, Mr. Arago!" resounded from the strongest voices,
+thousands repeated it, and music sounded; it was the celebrated
+Arago, who was staying in the room next to mine: the people gave him a
+serenade. Now this was the third I had witnessed on my journey. Arago
+addressed them from the balcony, the shouts of the people filled the
+streets. There are few evenings in my life when I have felt so ill as on
+this one, the tumult went through my nerves; the beautiful singing which
+followed could not refresh me. Ill as I was, I gave up every thought of
+travelling into Spain; I felt it would be impossible for me. Ah, if I
+could only recover strength enough to reach Switzerland! I was filled
+with horror at the idea of the journey back. I was advised to hasten as
+quickly as possible to the Pyrenees, and there breathe the strengthening
+mountain air: the baths of Vernet were recommended as cool and
+excellent, and I had a letter of introduction to the head of the
+establishment there. After an exhausting journey of a night and some
+hours in the morning, I have reached this place, from whence I sent
+these last sheets. The air is so cool, so strengthening, such as I have
+not breathed for months. A few days here have entirely restored me, my
+pen flies again over the paper, and my thoughts towards that wonderful
+Spain. I stand like Moses and see the land before me, yet may not tread
+upon it. But if God so wills it, I will at some future time in the
+winter fly from the north hither into this rich beautiful land, from
+which the sun with his sword of flame now holds me back.
+
+Vernet as yet is not one of the well-known bathing places, although it
+possesses the peculiarity of being visited all the year round. The most
+celebrated visitor last winter was Ibrahim Pacha; his name still lives
+on the lips of the hostess and waiter as the greatest glory of the
+establishment; his rooms were shown first as a curiosity. Among the
+anecdotes current about him is the story of his two French words,
+_merci_ and _tr s bien_, which he pronounced in a perfectly wrong
+manner.
+
+In every respect, Vernet among baths is as yet in a state of innocence;
+it is only in point of great bills that the Commandant has been able to
+raise it on a level with the first in Europe. As for the rest, you live
+here in a solitude, and separated from the world as in no other bathing
+place: for the amusement of the guests nothing in the least has been
+done; this must be sought in wanderings on foot or on donkey-back among
+the mountains; but here all is so peculiar and full of variety, that the
+want of artificial pleasures is the less felt. It is here as though the
+most opposite natural productions had been mingled together,--northern
+and southern, mountain and valley vegetation. From one point you will
+look over vineyards, and up to a mountain which appears a sample card
+of corn fields and green meadows, where the hay stands in cocks; from
+another you will only see the naked, metallic rocks with strange crags
+jutting forth from them, long and narrow as though they were broken
+statues or pillars; now you walk under poplar trees, through small
+meadows, where the balm-mint grows, as thoroughly Danish a production
+as though it were cut out of Zealand; now you stand under shelter of the
+rock, where cypresses and figs spring forth among vine leaves, and see a
+piece of Italy. But the soul of the whole, the pulses which beat audibly
+in millions through the mountain chain, are the springs. There is
+a life, a babbling in the ever-rushing waters! It springs forth
+everywhere, murmurs in the moss, rushes over the great stones. There is
+a movement, a life which it is impossible for words to give; you hear a
+constant rushing chorus of a million strings; above and below you, and
+all around, you hear the babbling of the river nymphs.
+
+High on the cliff, at the edge of a steep precipice, lie the remains of
+a Moorish castle; the clouds hang where hung the balcony; the path along
+which the ass now goes, leads through the hall. From here you can enjoy
+the view over the whole valley, which, long and narrow, seems like a
+river of trees, which winds among the red scorched rocks; and in the
+middle of this green valley rises terrace-like on a hill, the little
+town of Vernet, which only wants minarets to look like a Bulgarian town.
+A miserable church with two long holes as windows, and close to it a
+ruined tower, form the upper portion, then come the dark brown roofs,
+and the dirty grey houses with opened shutters instead of windows--but
+picturesque it certainly is.
+
+But if you enter the town itself--where the apothecary's shop is, is
+also the bookseller's--poverty is the only impression. Almost all the
+houses are built of unhewn stones, piled one upon another, and two or
+three gloomy holes form door and windows through which the swallows
+fly out and in. Wherever I entered, I saw through the worn floor of
+the first story down into a chaotic gloom beneath. On the wall hangs
+generally a bit of fat meat with the hairy skin attached; it was
+explained to me that this was used to rub their shoes with. The
+sleeping-room is painted in the most glaring manner with saints, angels,
+garlands, and crowns _al fresco_, as if done when the art of painting
+was in its greatest state of imperfection.
+
+The people are unusually ugly; the very children are real gnomes; the
+expression of childhood does not soften the clumsy features. But a few
+hours' journey on the other side of the mountains, on the Spanish side,
+there blooms beauty, there flash merry brown eyes. The only poetical
+picture I retain of Vernet was this. In the market-place, under a
+splendidly large tree, a wandering pedlar had spread out all his
+wares,--handkerchiefs, books and pictures,--a whole bazaar, but the
+earth was his table; all the ugly children of the town, burnt through by
+the sun, stood assembled round these splendid things; several old women
+looked out from their open shops; on horses and asses the visitors to
+the bath, ladies and gentlemen, rode by in long procession, whilst
+two little children, half hid behind a heap of planks; played at being
+cocks, and shouted all the time, "kekkeriki!"
+
+Far more of a town, habitable and well-appointed, is the garrison town
+of Villefranche, with its castle of the age of Louis XIV., which lies a
+few hours' journey from this place. The road by Olette to Spain passes
+through it, and there is also some business; many houses attract your
+eye by their beautiful Moorish windows carved in marble. The church
+is built half in the Moorish style, the altars are such as are seen
+in Spanish churches, and the Virgin stands there with the Child, all
+dressed in gold and silver. I visited Villefranche one of the first
+days of my sojourn here; all the visitors made the excursion with me, to
+which end all the horses and asses far and near were brought together;
+horses were put into the Commandant's venerable coach, and it was
+occupied by people within and without, just as though it had been a
+French public vehicle. A most amiable Holsteiner, the best rider of the
+company, the well-known painter Dauzats, a friend of Alexander Dumas's,
+led the train. The forts, the barracks, and the caves were seen; the
+little town of Cornelia also, with its interesting church, was not
+passed over. Everywhere were found traces of the power and art of the
+Moors; everything in this neighborhood speaks more of Spain than France,
+the very language wavers between the two.
+
+And here in this fresh mountain nature, on the frontiers of a land whose
+beauty and defects I am not yet to become acquainted with, I will close
+these pages, which will make in my life a frontier to coming years,
+with their beauty and defects. Before I leave the Pyrenees these written
+pages will fly to Germany, a great section of my life; I myself
+shall follow, and a new and unknown section will begin.--What may it
+unfold?--I know not, but thankfully, hopefully, I look forward. My whole
+life, the bright as well as the gloomy days, led to the best. It is like
+a voyage to some known point,--I stand at the rudder, I have chosen my
+path,--but God rules the storm and the sea. He may direct it otherwise;
+and then, happen what may, it will be the best for me. This faith is
+firmly planted in my breast, and makes me happy.
+
+The story of my life, up to the present hour, lies unrolled before me,
+so rich and beautiful that I could not have invented it. I feel that I
+am a child of good fortune; almost every one meets me full of love and
+candor, and seldom has my confidence in human nature been deceived.
+From the prince to the poorest peasant I have felt the noble human heart
+beat. It is a joy to live and to believe in God and man. Openly and full
+of confidence, as if I sat among dear friends, I have here related the
+story of my life, have spoken both of my sorrows and joys, and have
+expressed my pleasure at each mark of applause and recognition, as I
+believe I might even express it before God himself. But then, whether
+this may be vanity? I know not: my heart was affected and humble at the
+same time, my thought was gratitude to God. That I have related it is
+not alone because such a biographical sketch as this was desired from me
+for the collected edition of my works, but because, as has been already
+said, the history of my life will be the best commentary to all my
+works.
+
+In a few days I shall say farewell to the Pyrenees, and return through
+Switzerland to dear, kind Germany, where so much joy has flowed into my
+life, where I possess so many sympathizing friends, where my writings
+have been so kindly and encouragingly received, and where also
+these sheets will be gently criticized, When the Christmas-tree is
+lighted,--when, as people say, the white bees swarm,--I shall be, God
+willing, again in Denmark with my dear ones, my heart filled with the
+flowers of travel, and strengthened both in body and mind: then will new
+works grow upon paper; may God lay his blessing upon them! He will
+do so. A star of good fortune shines upon me; there are thousands who
+deserve it far more than I; I often myself cannot conceive why I, in
+preference to numberless others, should receive so much joy: may it
+continue to shine! But should it set, perhaps whilst I conclude these
+lines, still it has shone, I have received my rich portion; let it set!
+From this also the best will spring. To God and men my thanks, my love!
+
+Vernet (Department of the East Pyrenees), July, 1846.
+
+H. C. ANDERSEN.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The True Story of My Life, by
+Hans Christian Andersen
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRUE STORY OF MY LIFE ***
+
+***** This file should be named 7007-8.txt or 7007-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/7/0/0/7007/
+
+Produced by Eric Eldred; Juliet Sutherland,the Project
+Manager--a DP text
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+  www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887.  Email
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/7007-8.zip b/7007-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..099d806
--- /dev/null
+++ b/7007-8.zip
diff --git a/7007-h.zip b/7007-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cd6bb7f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/7007-h.zip
diff --git a/7007-h/7007-h.htm b/7007-h/7007-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..463079e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/7007-h/7007-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,7114 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      The True Story of My Life:, by Hans Christian Andersen.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    .side      { float: right; font-size: 75%; width: 25%; padding-left: 0.8em;
+               border-left: dashed thin; margin-left: 0.8em; text-align: left;
+               text-indent: 0; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;
+               font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: solid 1px;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's The True Story of My Life, by Hans Christian Andersen
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The True Story of My Life
+
+Author: Hans Christian Andersen
+
+Translator: Mary Howitt
+
+
+Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7007]
+This file was first posted on February 21, 2003
+Last Updated: June 12, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRUE STORY OF MY LIFE ***
+
+
+
+
+Text file produced by Eric Eldred; Juliet Sutherland,the Project
+Manager--a DP text
+
+HTML file produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      THE TRUE STORY OF MY LIFE:
+    </h1>
+    <h3>
+      A SKETCH
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Hans Christian Andersen.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Translated By Mary Howitt
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="middle">
+      <p>
+        To MESSRS. MUNROE AND CO.
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        Gentlemen,&mdash;I take this opportunity of forwarding to you, the <i>proof
+        sheets</i> of the unpublished Life of Hans Christian Andersen&mdash;translated
+        from a copy transmitted to me for that purpose, by the Author. It is as
+        well to state that this is the Author's Edition, he being participant in
+        the proceeds of this work.
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        I remain, gentlemen,
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        Yours truly,
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        MARY HOWITT.
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        LONDON, June 29, 1847.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      TO
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      JENNY LIND
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      OF
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      THE TRUE STORY OF HER FRIEND'S LIFE
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      IS INSCRIBED
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      IN ADMIRATION OF HER BEAUTIFUL TALENTS
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      AND STILL MORE BEAUTIFUL LIFE,
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      BY
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      MARY HOWITT.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="middle">
+      <p>
+        <b>Project Gutenberg Editor's Note</b>: There are many words in this
+        file with missing letters. These spaces were letters with diacritic
+        marks which at the time of the production of the digital file were not
+        available for the character set of the file. It is hoped someone will be
+        interested enough in this work to supply the missing letters. DW
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <b>CONTENTS</b>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> <b>THE TRUE STORY OF MY LIFE</b> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      PREFACE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      No literary labor is more delightful to me than translating the beautiful
+      thoughts and fancies of Hans Christian Andersen. My heart is in the work,
+      and I feel as if my spirit were kindred to his; just as our Saxon English
+      seems to me eminently fitted to give the simple, pure, and noble
+      sentiments of the Danish mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This True Story of his Life will not be found the least interesting of his
+      writings; indeed, to me it seems one of the most so. It furnishes the key,
+      as it were, to all the rest; and the treasures which it unlocks will be
+      found to be possessed of additional value when viewed through the medium
+      of this introduction. It is gratifying for me to be able to state that the
+      original Author has a personal interest in this English version of his
+      "Life," as I have arranged with my publishers to pay Mr. Andersen a
+      certain sum on the publication of this translation, and the same on all
+      future editions.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      M. H.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      The Elms, Clapton, June 26.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE TRUE STORY OF MY LIFE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      My life is a lovely story, happy and full of incident. If, when I was a
+      boy, and went forth into the world poor and friendless, a good fairy had
+      met me and said, "Choose now thy own course through life, and the object
+      for which thou wilt strive, and then, according to the development of thy
+      mind, and as reason requires, I will guide and defend thee to its
+      attainment," my fate could not, even then, have been directed more
+      happily, more prudently, or better. The history of my life will say to the
+      world what it says to me&mdash;There is a loving God, who directs all
+      things for the best.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My native land, Denmark, is a poetical land, full of popular traditions,
+      old songs, and an eventful history, which has become bound up with that of
+      Sweden and Norway. The Danish islands are possessed of beautiful beech
+      woods, and corn and clover fields: they resemble gardens on a great scale.
+      Upon one of these green islands, Funen, stands Odense, the place of my
+      birth. Odense is called after the pagan god Odin, who, as tradition
+      states, lived here: this place is the capital of the province, and lies
+      twenty-two Danish miles from Copenhagen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the year 1805 there lived here, in a small mean room, a young married
+      couple, who were extremely attached to each other; he was a shoemaker,
+      scarcely twenty-two years old, a man of a richly gifted and truly poetical
+      mind. His wife, a few years older than himself, was ignorant of life and
+      of the world, but possessed a heart full of love. The young man had
+      himself made his shoemaking bench, and the bedstead with which he began
+      housekeeping; this bedstead he had made out of the wooden frame which had
+      borne only a short time before the coffin of the deceased Count Trampe, as
+      he lay in state, and the remnants of the black cloth on the wood work kept
+      the fact still in remembrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Instead of a noble corpse, surrounded by crape and wax-lights, here lay,
+      on the second of April, 1805, a living and weeping child,&mdash;that was
+      myself, Hans Christian Andersen. During the first day of my existence my
+      father is said to have sate by the bed and read aloud in Holberg, but I
+      cried all the time. "Wilt thou go to sleep, or listen quietly?" it is
+      reported that my father asked in joke; but I still cried on; and even in
+      the church, when I was taken to be baptized, I cried so loudly that the
+      preacher, who was a passionate man, said, "The young one screams like a
+      cat!" which words my mother never forgot. A poor emigrant, Gomar, who
+      stood as godfather, consoled her in the mean time by saying that the
+      louder I cried as a child, all the more beautifully should I sing when I
+      grew older.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our little room, which was almost filled with the shoemaker's bench, the
+      bed, and my crib, was the abode of my childhood; the walls, however, were
+      covered with pictures, and over the work-bench was a cupboard containing
+      books and songs; the little kitchen was full of shining plates and metal
+      pans, and by means of a ladder it was possible to go out on the roof,
+      where, in the gutters between and the neighbor's house, there stood a
+      great chest filled with soil, my mother's sole garden, and where she grew
+      her vegetables. In my story of the Snow Queen that garden still blooms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was the only child, and was extremely spoiled, but I continually heard
+      from my mother how very much happier I was than she had been, and that I
+      was brought up like a nobleman's child. She, as a child, had been driven
+      out by her parents to beg, and once when she was not able to do it, she
+      had sate for a whole day under a bridge and wept. I have drawn her
+      character in two different aspects, in old Dominica, in the Improvisatore,
+      and in the mother of Christian, in Only a Fiddler.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My father gratified me in all my wishes. I possessed his whole heart; he
+      lived for me. On Sundays, he made me perspective glasses, theatres, and
+      pictures which could be changed; he read to me from Holberg's plays and
+      the Arabian Tales; it was only in such moments as these that I can
+      remember to have seen him really cheerful, for he never felt himself happy
+      in his life and as a handicrafts-man. His parents had been country people
+      in good circumstances, but upon whom many misfortunes had fallen; the
+      cattle had died; the farm house had been burned down; and lastly, the
+      husband had lost his reason. On this the wife had removed with him to
+      Odense, and there put her son, whose mind was full of intelligence,
+      apprentice to a shoemaker; it could not be otherwise, although it was his
+      ardent wish to be able to attend the Grammar School, where he might have
+      learned Latin. A few well-to-do citizens had at one time spoken of this,
+      of clubbing together a sufficient sum to pay for his board and education,
+      and thus giving him a start in life; but it never went beyond words. My
+      poor father saw his dearest wish unfulfilled; and he never lost the
+      remembrance of it. I recollect that once, as a child, I saw tears in his
+      eyes, and it was when a youth from the Grammar School came to our house to
+      be measured for a new pair of boots, and showed us his books and told us
+      what he learned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That was the path upon which I ought to have gone!" said my father,
+      kissed me passionately, and was silent the whole evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He very seldom associated with his equals. He went out into the woods on
+      Sundays, when he took me with him; he did not talk much when he was out,
+      but would sit silently, sunk in deep thought, whilst I ran about and
+      strung strawberries on a straw, or bound garlands. Only twice in the year,
+      and that in the month of May, when the woods were arrayed in their
+      earliest green, did my mother go with us, and then she wore a cotton gown,
+      which she put on only on these occasions, and when she partook of the
+      Lord's Supper, and which, as long as I can remember, was her holiday gown.
+      She always took home with her from the wood a great many fresh beech
+      boughs, which were then planted behind the polished stone. Later in the
+      year sprigs of St. John's wort were stuck into the chinks of the beams,
+      and we considered their growth as omens whether our lives would be long or
+      short. Green branches and pictures ornamented our little room, which my
+      mother always kept neat and clean; she took great pride in always having
+      the bed-linen and the curtains very white.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mother of my father came daily to our house, were it only for a
+      moment, in order to see her little grandson. I was her joy and her
+      delight. She was a quiet and most amiable old woman, with mild blue eyes
+      and a fine figure, which life had severely tried. From having been the
+      wife of a countryman in easy circumstances she had now fallen into great
+      poverty, and dwelt with her feeble-minded husband in a little house, which
+      was the last, poor remains of their property. I never saw her shed a tear.
+      But it made all the deeper impression upon me when she quietly sighed, and
+      told me about her own mother's mother, how she had been a rich, noble lady
+      in the city of Cassel, and that she had married a "comedy-player," that
+      was as she expressed it, and run away from parents and home, for all of
+      which her posterity had now to do penance. I never can recollect that I
+      heard her mention the family name of her grandmother; but her own maiden
+      name was Nommesen. She was employed to take care of the garden belonging
+      to a lunatic asylum, and every Sunday evening she brought us some flowers,
+      which they gave her permission to take home with her. These flowers
+      adorned my mother's cupboard; but still they were mine, and to me it was
+      allowed to put them in the glass of water. How great was this pleasure!
+      She brought them all to me; she loved me with her whole soul. I knew it,
+      and I understood it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She burned, twice in the year, the green rubbish of the garden; on such
+      occasions she took me with her to the asylum, and I lay upon the great
+      heaps of green leaves and pea-straw. I had many flowers to play with, and&mdash;which
+      was a circumstance upon which I set great importanceù I had here better
+      food to eat than I could expect at home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All such patients as were harmless were permitted to go freely about the
+      court; they often came to us in the garden, and with curiosity and terror
+      I listened to them and followed them about; nay, I even ventured so far as
+      to go with the attendants to those who were raving mad. A long passage led
+      to their cells. On one occasion, when the attendants were out of the way,
+      I lay down upon the floor, and peeped through the crack of the door into
+      one of these cells. I saw within a lady almost naked, lying on her straw
+      bed; her hair hung down over her shoulders, and she sang with a very
+      beautiful voice. All at once she sprang up, and threw herself against the
+      door where I lay; the little valve through which she received her food
+      burst open; she stared down upon me, and stretched out her long arm
+      towards me. I screamed for terror&mdash;I felt the tips of her fingers
+      touching my clothes&mdash;I was half dead when the attendant came; and
+      even in later years that sight and that feeling remained within my soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Close beside the place where the leaves were burned, the poor old women
+      had their spinning-room. I often went in there, and was very soon a
+      favorite. When with these people, I found myself possessed of an eloquence
+      which filled them with astonishment. I had accidentally heard about the
+      internal mechanism of the human frame, of course without understanding
+      anything about it; but all these mysteries were very captivating to me;
+      and with chalk, therefore, I drew a quantity of flourishes on the door,
+      which were to represent the intestines; and my description of the heart
+      and the lungs made the deepest impression. I passed for a remarkably wise
+      child, that would not live long; and they rewarded my eloquence by telling
+      me tales in return; and thus a world as rich as that of the thousand and
+      one nights was revealed to me. The stories told by these old ladies, and
+      the insane figures which I saw around me in the asylum, operated in the
+      meantime so powerfully upon me, that when it grew dark I scarcely dared to
+      go out of the house. I was therefore permitted, generally at sunset, to
+      lay me down in my parents' bed with its long flowered curtains, because
+      the press-bed in which I slept could not conveniently be put down so early
+      in the evening on account of the room it occupied in our small dwelling;
+      and here, in the paternal bed, lay I in a waking dream, as if the actual
+      world did not concern me. I was very much afraid of my weak-minded
+      grandfather. Only once had he ever spoken to me, and then he had made use
+      of the formal pronoun "you." He employed himself in cutting out of wood
+      strange figures, men with beasts' heads, and beasts with wings; these he
+      packed in a basket and carried them out into the country, where he was
+      everywhere well received by the peasant women, because he gave to them and
+      their children these strange toys. One day, when he was returning to
+      Odense, I heard the boys in the street shouting after him; I hid myself
+      behind a flight of steps in terror, for I knew that I was of his flesh and
+      blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every circumstance around me tended to excite my imagination. Odense
+      itself, in those days in which there was not a single steamboat in
+      existence, and when intercourse with other places was much more rare than
+      now, was a totally different city to what it is in our day; a person might
+      have fancied himself living hundreds of years ago, because so many customs
+      prevailed then which belonged to an earlier age. The guilds walked in
+      procession through the town with their harlequin before them with mace and
+      bells; on Shrove Tuesday the butchers led the fattest ox through the
+      streets adorned with garlands, whilst a boy in a white shirt and with
+      great wings on his shoulders rode upon it; the sailors paraded through the
+      city with music and all their flags flying, and then two of the boldest
+      among them stood and wrestled upon a plank placed between two boats, and
+      the one who was not thrown into the water was the victor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That, however, which more particularly stamped itself upon my memory, and
+      became refreshed by after often-repeated relations, was, the abode of the
+      Spaniards in Funen in 1808. It is true that at that time I was but three
+      years old; still I nevertheless perfectly remember the brown foreign men
+      who made disturbances in the streets, and the cannon which were fired. I
+      saw the people lying on straw in a half-tumbledown church, which was near
+      the asylum. One day, a Spanish soldier took me in his arms and pressed a
+      silver image, which he wore upon his breast, to my lips. I remember that
+      my mother was angry at it, because, she said, there was something
+      papistical about it; but the image, and the strange man, who danced me
+      about, kissed me and wept, pleased me: certainly he had children at home
+      in Spain. I saw one of his comrades led to execution; he had killed a
+      Frenchman. Many years afterwards this little circumstance occasioned me to
+      write my little poem, "The Soldier," which Chamisso translated into
+      German, and which afterwards was included in the illustrated people's
+      books of soldier-songs. [Footnote: This same little song, sent to me by
+      the author, was translated by me and published in the 19th No. of Howitt's
+      Journal.&mdash;M. H.] I very seldom played with other boys; even at school
+      I took little interest in their games, but remained sitting within doors.
+      At home I had playthings enough, which my father made for me. My greatest
+      delight was in making clothes for my dolls, or in stretching out one of my
+      mother's aprons between the wall and two sticks before a currant-bush
+      which I had planted in the yard, and thus to gaze in between the
+      sun-illumined leaves. I was a singularly dreamy child, and so constantly
+      went about with my eyes shut, as at last to give the impression of having
+      weak sight, although the sense of sight was especially cultivated by me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sometimes, during the harvest, my mother went into the field to glean. I
+      accompanied her, and we went, like Ruth in the Bible, to glean in the rich
+      fields of Boaz. One day we went to a place, the bailiff of which was well
+      known for being a man of a rude and savage disposition. We saw him coming
+      with a huge whip in his hand, and my mother and all the others ran away. I
+      had wooden shoes on my bare feet, and in my haste I lost these, and then
+      the thorns pricked me so that I could not run, and thus I was left behind
+      and alone. The man came up and lifted his whip to strike me, when I looked
+      him in the face and involuntarily exclaimed,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How dare you strike me, when God can see it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The strong, stern man looked at me, and at once became mild; he patted me
+      on my cheeks, asked me my name, and gave me money.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I brought this to my mother and showed it her, she said to the
+      others, "He is a strange child, my Hans Christian; everybody is kind to
+      him: this bad fellow even has given him money."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I grew up pious and superstitious. I had no idea of want or need; to be
+      sure my parents had only sufficient to live from day to day, but I at
+      least had plenty of every thing; an old woman altered my father's clothes
+      for me. Now and then I went with my parents to the theatre, where the
+      first representations which I saw were in German. "Das Donauweibchen" was
+      the favorite piece of the whole city; there, however, I saw, for the first
+      time, Holberg's Village Politicians treated as an opera.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first impression which a theatre and the crowd assembled there made
+      upon me was, at all events, no sign of any thing poetical slumbering in
+      me; for my first exclamation on seeing so many people, was, "Now, if we
+      only had as many casks of butter as there are people here, then I would
+      eat lots of butter!" The theatre, however, soon became my favorite place,
+      but, as I could only very seldom go there, I acquired the friendship of
+      the man who carried out the playbills, and he gave me one every day. With
+      this I seated myself in a corner and imagined an entire play, according to
+      the name of the piece and the characters in it. That was my first,
+      unconscious poetising.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My father's favorite reading was plays and stories, although he also read
+      works of history and the Scriptures. He pondered in silent thought
+      afterwards upon that which he had read, but my mother did not understand
+      him when he talked with her about them, and therefore he grew more and
+      more silent. One day, he closed the Bible with the words, "Christ was a
+      man like us, but an extraordinary man!" These words horrified my mother,
+      and she burst into tears. In my distress I prayed to God that he would
+      forgive this fearful blasphemy in my father. "There is no other devil than
+      that which we have in our own hearts," I heard my father say one day and I
+      made myself miserable about him and his soul; I was therefore entirely of
+      the opinion of my mother and the neighbours, when my father, one morning,
+      found three scratches on his arm, probably occasioned by a nail, that the
+      devil had been to visit him in the night, in order to prove to him that he
+      really existed. My father's rambles in the wood became more frequent; he
+      had no rest. The events of the war in Germany, which he read in the
+      newspapers with eager curiosity, occupied him completely. Napoleon was his
+      hero: his rise from obscurity was the most beautiful example to him. At
+      that time Denmark was in league with France; nothing was talked of but
+      war; my father entered the service as a soldier, in hope of returning home
+      a lieutenant. My mother wept. The neighbours shrugged their shoulders, and
+      said that it was folly to go out to be shot when there was no occasion for
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The morning on which the corps were to march I heard my father singing and
+      talking merrily, but his heart was deeply agitated; I observed that by the
+      passionate manner in which he kissed me when he took his leave. I lay sick
+      of the measles and alone in the room, when the drums beat and my mother
+      accompanied my father, weeping, to the city gate. As soon as they were
+      gone my old grandmother came in; she looked at me with her mild eyes and
+      said, it would be a good thing if I died; but that God's will was always
+      the best.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That was the first day of real sorrow which I remember.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The regiment advanced no farther than Holstein, peace was concluded, and
+      the voluntary soldier returned to his work-stool. Everything fell into its
+      old course. I played again with my dolls, acted comedies, and always in
+      German, because I had only seen them in this language; but my German was a
+      sort of gibberish which I made up, and in which there occurred only one
+      real German word, and that was "<i>Besen</i>," a word which I had picked
+      up out of the various dialects which my father brought home from Holstein.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou hast indeed some benefit from my travels," said he in joke. "God
+      knows whether thou wilt get as far; but that must be thy care. Think about
+      it, Hans Christian!" But it was my mother's intention that as long as she
+      had any voice in the matter, I should remain at home, and not lose my
+      health as he had done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That was the case with him; his health had suffered. One morning he woke
+      in a state of the wildest excitement, and talked only of campaigns and
+      Napoleon. He fancied that he had received orders from him to take the
+      command. My mother immediately sent me, not to the physician, but to a
+      so-called wise woman some miles from Odense. I went to her. She questioned
+      me, measured my arm with a woolen thread, made extraordinary signs, and at
+      last laid a green twig upon my breast. It was, she said, a piece of the
+      same kind of tree upon which the Saviour was crucified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Go now," said she, "by the river side towards home. If your father will
+      die this time, then you will meet his ghost."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My anxiety and distress may be imagined,&mdash;I, who was so full of
+      superstition, and whose imagination was so easily excited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And thou hast not met anything, hast thou?" inquired my mother when I got
+      home. I assured her, with beating heart, that I had not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My father died the third day after that. His corpse lay on the bed: I
+      therefore slept with my mother. A cricket chirped the whole night through.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He is dead," said my mother, addressing it; "thou needest not call him.
+      The ice maiden has fetched him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I understood what she meant. I recollected that, in the winter before,
+      when our window panes were frozen, my father pointed to them and showed us
+      a figure as that of a maiden with outstretched arms. "She is come to fetch
+      me," said he, in jest. And now, when he lay dead on the bed, my mother
+      remembered this, and it occupied my thoughts also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was buried in St. Knud's churchyard, by the door on the left hand side
+      coming from the altar. My grandmother planted roses upon his grave. There
+      are now in the selfsame place two strangers' graves, and the grass grows
+      green upon them also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After my father's death I was entirely left to myself. My mother went out
+      washing. I sate alone at home with my little theatre, made dolls' clothes
+      and read plays. It has been told me that I was always clean and nicely
+      dressed. I had grown tall; my hair was long, bright, and almost yellow,
+      and I always went bare-headed. There dwelt in our neighborhood the widow
+      of a clergyman, Madame Bunkeflod, with the sister of her deceased husband.
+      This lady opened to me her door, and hers was the first house belonging to
+      the educated class into which I was kindly received. The deceased
+      clergyman had written poems, and had gained a reputation in Danish
+      literature. His spinning songs were at that time in the mouths of the
+      people. In my vignettes to the Danish poets I thus sang of him whom my
+      contemporaries had forgotten:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  Spindles rattle, wheels turn round,
+    Spinning-songs depart;
+  Songs which youth sings soon become
+    Music of the heart.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Here it was that I heard for the first time the word <i>poet</i> spoken,
+      and that with so much reverence, as proved it to be something sacred. It
+      is true that my father had read Holberg's play to me; but here it was not
+      of these that they spoke, but of verses and poetry. "My brother the poet,"
+      said Bunkeflod's sister, and her eyes sparkled as she said it. From her I
+      learned that it was a something glorious, a something fortunate, to be a
+      poet. Here, too, for the first time, I read Shakspeare, in a bad
+      translation, to be sure; but the bold descriptions, the heroic incidents,
+      witches, and ghosts were exactly to my taste. I immediately acted
+      Shakspeare's plays on my little puppet theatre. I saw Hamlet's ghost, and
+      lived upon the heath with Lear. The more persons died in a play, the more
+      interesting I thought it. At this time I wrote my first piece: it was
+      nothing less than a tragedy, wherein, as a matter of course, everybody
+      died. The subject of it I borrowed from an old song about Pyramus and
+      Thisbe; but I had increased the incidents through a hermit and his son,
+      who both loved Thisbe, and who both killed themselves when she died. Many
+      speeches of the hermit were passages from the Bible, taken out of the
+      little catechism, especially from our duty to our neighbors. To the piece
+      I gave the title "Abor and Elvira."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It ought to be called 'Perch (Aborre) and Stockfish,'" said one of our
+      neighbors wittily to me, as I came with it to her after having read it
+      with great satisfaction and joy to all the people in our street. This
+      entirely depressed me, because I felt that she was turning both me and my
+      poem to ridicule. With a troubled heart I told it to my mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She only said so," replied my mother, "because her son had not done it."
+      I was comforted, and began a new piece, in which a king and queen were
+      among the dramatis personae. I thought it was not quite right that these
+      dignified personages, as in Shakspeare, should speak like other men and
+      women. I asked my mother and different people how a king ought properly to
+      speak, but no one knew exactly. They said that it was so many years since
+      a king had been in Odense, but that he certainly spoke in a foreign
+      language. I procured myself, therefore, a sort of lexicon, in which were
+      German, French, and English words with Danish meanings, and this helped
+      me. I took a word out of each language, and inserted them into the
+      speeches of my king and queen. It was a regular Babel-like language, which
+      I considered only suitable for such elevated personages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I desired now that everybody should hear my piece. It was a real felicity
+      to me to read it aloud, and it never occurred to me that others should not
+      have the same pleasure in listening to it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The son of one of our neighbors worked in a cloth manufactory, and every
+      week brought home a sum of money. I was at a loose end, people said, and
+      got nothing. I was also now to go to the manufactory, "not for the sake of
+      the money," my mother said, "but that she might know where I was, and what
+      I was doing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My old grandmother took me to the place, therefore, and was very much
+      affected, because, said she, she had not expected to live to see the time
+      when I should consort with the poor ragged lads that worked there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many of the journeymen who were employed in the manufactory were Germans;
+      they sang and were merry fellows, and many a coarse joke of theirs filled
+      the place with loud laughter. I heard them, and I there learned that, to
+      the innocent ears of a child, the impure remains very unintelligible. It
+      took no hold upon my heart. I was possessed at that time of a remarkably
+      beautiful and high soprano voice, and I knew it; because when I sang in my
+      parents' little garden, the people in the street stood and listened, and
+      the fine folks in the garden of the states-councillor, which adjoined
+      ours, listened at the fence. When, therefore, the people at the
+      manufactory asked me whether I could sing, I immediately began, and all
+      the looms stood still: all the journeymen listened to me. I had to sing
+      again and again, whilst the other boys had my work given them to do. I now
+      told them that I also could act plays, and that I knew whole scenes of
+      Holberg and Shakspeare. Everybody liked me; and in this way, the first
+      days in the manufactory passed on very merrily. One day, however, when I
+      was in my best singing vein, and everybody spoke of the extraordinary
+      brilliancy of my voice, one of the journeymen said that I was a girl, and
+      not a boy. He seized hold of me. I cried and screamed. The other
+      journeymen thought it very amusing, and held me fast by my arms and legs.
+      I screamed aloud, and was as much ashamed as a girl; and then, darting
+      from them, rushed home to my mother, who immediately promised me that I
+      should never go there again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I again visited Madame Bunkeflod, for whose birthday I invented and made a
+      white silk pincushion. I also made an acquaintance with another old
+      clergyman's widow in the neighborhood. She permitted me to read aloud to
+      her the works which she had from the circulating library. One of them
+      began with these words: "It was a tempestuous night; the rain beat against
+      the window-panes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is an extraordinary book," said the old lady; and I quite innocently
+      asked her how she knew that it was. "I can tell from the beginning," said
+      she, "that it will turn out extraordinary."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I regarded her penetration with a sort of reverence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once in the harvest time my mother took me with her many miles from Odense
+      to a nobleman's seat in the neighborhood of Bogense, her native place. The
+      lady who lived there, and with whose parents my mother had lived, had said
+      that some time she might come and see her. That was a great journey for
+      me: we went most of the way on foot, and required, I believe, two days for
+      the journey. The country here made such a strong impression upon me, that
+      my most earnest wish was to remain in it, and become a countryman. It was
+      just in the hop-picking season; my mother and I sat in the barn with a
+      great many country people round a great binn, and helped to pick the hops.
+      They told tales as they sat at their work, and every one related what
+      wonderful things he had seen or experienced. One afternoon I heard an old
+      man among them say that God knew every thing, both what had happened and
+      what would happen. That idea occupied my whole mind, and towards evening,
+      as I went alone from the court, where there was a deep pond, and stood
+      upon some stones which were just within the water, the thought passed
+      through my head, whether God actually knew everything which was to happen
+      there. Yes, he has now determined that I should live and be so many years
+      old, thought I; but, if I now were to jump into the water here and drown
+      myself, then it would not be as he wished; and all at once I was firmly
+      and resolutely determined to drown myself. I ran to where the water was
+      deepest, and then a new thought passed through my soul. "It is the devil
+      who wishes to have power over me!" I uttered a loud cry, and, running away
+      from the place as if I were pursued, fell weeping into my mother's arms.
+      But neither she nor any one else could wring from me what was amiss with
+      me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He has certainly seen a ghost," said one of the women; and I almost
+      believed so myself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My mother married a second time, a young handicraftsman; but his family,
+      who also belonged to the handicraft class, thought that he had married
+      below himself, and neither my mother nor myself were permitted to visit
+      them. My step-father was a young, grave man, who would have nothing to do
+      with my education. I spent my time, therefore, over my peep show and my
+      puppet theatre, and my greatest happiness consisted in collecting bright
+      colored pieces of cloth and silk, which I cut out myself and sewed. My
+      mother regarded it as good exercise preparatory to my becoming a tailor,
+      and took up the idea that I certainly was born for it. I, on the contrary,
+      said that I would go to the theatre and be an actor, a wish which my
+      mother most sedulously opposed, because she knew of no other theatre than
+      those of the strolling players and the rope-dancers. No, a tailor I must
+      and should be. The only thing which in some measure reconciled me to this
+      prospect was, that I should then get so many fragments to make up for my
+      theatre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My passion for reading, the many dramatic scenes which I knew by heart,
+      and my remarkably fine voice, had turned upon me in some sort the
+      attention of several of the more influential families of Odense. I was
+      sent for to their houses, and the peculiar characteristics of my mind
+      excited their interest. Among others who noticed me was the Colonel
+      Hoegh-Guldberg, who with his family showed me the kindest sympathy; so
+      much so, indeed, that he introduced me to the present king, then Prince
+      Christian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I grew rapidly, and was a tall lad, of whom my mother said that she could
+      not let him any longer go about without any object in life. I was sent,
+      therefore, to the charity school, but learned only religion, writing, and
+      arithmetic, and the last badly enough; I could also scarcely spell a word
+      correctly. On the master's birthday I always wove him a garland and wrote
+      him a poem; he received them half with smiles and half as a joke; the last
+      time, however, he scolded me. The street lads had also heard from their
+      parents of my peculiar turn of mind, and that I was in the habit of going
+      to the houses of the gentry. I was therefore one day pursued by a wild
+      crowd of them, who shouted after me derisively, "There runs the
+      play-writer!" I hid myself at home in a corner, wept, and prayed to God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My mother said that I must be confirmed, in order that I might be
+      apprenticed to the tailor trade, and thus do something rational. She loved
+      me with her whole heart, but she did not understand my impulses and my
+      endeavors, nor indeed at that time did I myself. The people about her
+      always spoke against my odd ways, and turned me to ridicule.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We belonged to the parish of St. Knud, and the candidates for confirmation
+      could either enter their names with the prevost or the chaplain. The
+      children of the so-called superior families and the scholars of the
+      grammar school went to the first, and the children of the poor to the
+      second. I, however, announced myself as a candidate to the prevost, who
+      was obliged to receive me, although he discovered vanity in my placing
+      myself among his catechists, where, although taking the lowest place, I
+      was still above those who were under the care of the chaplain. I would,
+      however, hope that it was not alone vanity which impelled me. I had a sort
+      of fear of the poor boys, who had laughed at me, and I always felt as it
+      were an inward drawing towards the scholars of the grammar school, whom I
+      regarded as far better than other boys. When I saw them playing in the
+      church-yard, I would stand outside the railings, and wish that I were but
+      among the fortunate ones,&mdash;not for the sake of play, but for the sake
+      of the many books they had, and for what they might be able to become in
+      the world. With the prevost, therefore, I should be able to come together
+      with them, and be as they were; but I do not remember a single one of them
+      now, so little intercourse would they hold with me. I had daily the
+      feeling of having thrust myself in where people thought that I did not
+      belong. One young girl, however, there was, and one who was considered too
+      of the highest rank, whom I shall afterwards have to mention; she always
+      looked gently and kindly at me, and even once gave me a rose. I returned
+      home full of happiness, because there was one being who did not overlook
+      and repel me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An old female tailor altered my deceased father's great coat into a
+      confirmation suit for me; never before had I worn so good a coat. I had
+      also for the first time in my life a pair of boots. My delight was
+      extremely great; my only fear was that everybody would not see them, and
+      therefore I drew them up over my trousers, and thus marched through the
+      church. The boots creaked, and that inwardly pleased me, for thus the
+      congregation would hear that they were new. My whole devotion was
+      disturbed; I was aware of it, and it caused me a horrible pang of
+      conscience that my thoughts should be as much with my new boots as with
+      God. I prayed him earnestly from my heart to forgive me, and then again I
+      thought about my new boots.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the last year I had saved together a little sum of money. When I
+      counted it over I found it to be thirteen rix dollars banco (about thirty
+      shillings) I was quite overjoyed at the possession of so much wealth, and
+      as my mother now most resolutely required that I should be apprenticed to
+      a tailor, I prayed and besought her that I might make a journey to
+      Copenhagen, that I might see the greatest city in the world. "What wilt
+      thou do there?" asked my mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will become famous," returned I, and I then told her all that I had
+      read about extraordinary men. "People have," said I, "at first an immense
+      deal of adversity to go through, and then they will be famous."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a wholly unintelligible impulse that guided me. I wept, I prayed,
+      and at last my mother consented, after having first sent for a so-called
+      wise woman out of the hospital, that she might read my future fortune by
+      the coffee-grounds and cards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your son will become a great man," said the old woman, "and in honor of
+      him, Odense will one day be illuminated."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My mother wept when she heard that, and I obtained permission to travel.
+      All the neighbors told my mother that it was a dreadful thing to let me,
+      at only fourteen years of age, go to Copenhagen, which was such a long way
+      off, and such a great and intricate city, and where I knew nobody.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," replied my mother, "but he lets me have no peace; I have therefore
+      given my consent, but I am sure that he will go no further than Nyborg;
+      when he gets sight of the rough sea, he will be frightened and turn back
+      again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the summer before my confirmation, a part of the singers and
+      performers of the Theatre Royal had been in Odense, and had given a series
+      of operas and tragedies there. The whole city was taken with them. I, who
+      was on good terms with the man who delivered the play-bills, saw the
+      performances behind the scenes, and had even acted a part as page,
+      shepherd, etc., and had spoken a few words. My zeal was so great on such
+      occasions, that I stood there fully apparelled when the actors arrived to
+      dress. By these means their attention was turned to me; my childlike
+      manners and my enthusiasm amused them; they talked kindly with me, and I
+      looked up to them as to earthly divinities. Everything which I had
+      formerly heard about my musical voice, and my recitation of poetry, became
+      intelligible to me. It was the theatre for which I was born: it was there
+      that I should become a famous man, and for that reason Copenhagen was the
+      goal of my endeavors. I heard a deal said about the large theatre in
+      Copenhagen, and that there was to be soon what was called the ballet, a
+      something which surpassed both the opera and the play; more especially did
+      I hear the solo-dancer, Madame Schall, spoken of as the first of all. She
+      therefore appeared to me as the queen of everything, and in my imagination
+      I regarded her as the one who would be able to do everything for me, if I
+      could only obtain her support. Filled with these thoughts, I went to the
+      old printer Iversen, one of the most respectable citizens of Odense, and
+      who, as I heard, had had considerable intercourse with the actors when
+      they were in the town. He, I thought, must of necessity be acquainted with
+      the famous dancer; him I would request to give me a letter of introduction
+      to her, and then I would commit the rest to God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man saw me for the first time, and heard my petition with much
+      kindness; but he dissuaded me most earnestly from it, and said that I
+      might learn a trade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That would actually be a great sin," returned I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was startled at the manner in which I said that, and it prepossessed
+      him in my favor; he confessed that he was not personally acquainted with
+      the dancer, but still that he would give me a letter to her. I received
+      one from him, and now believed the goal to be nearly won.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My mother packed up my clothes in a small bundle, and made a bargain with
+      the driver of a post carriage to take me back with him to Copenhagen for
+      three rix dollars banco. The afternoon on which we were to set out came,
+      and my mother accompanied me to the city gate. Here stood my old
+      grandmother; in the last few years her beautiful hair had become grey; she
+      fell upon my neck and wept, without being able to speak a word. I was
+      myself deeply affected. And thus we parted. I saw her no more; she died in
+      the following year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I do not even know her grave; she sleeps in the poor-house burial-ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The postilion blew his horn; it was a glorious sunny afternoon, and the
+      sunshine soon entered into my gay child-like mind. I delighted in every
+      novel object which met my eye, and I was journeying towards the goal of my
+      soul's desires. When, however, I arrived at Nyborg on the great Belt, and
+      was borne in the ship away from my native island, I then truly felt how
+      alone and forlorn I was, and that I had no one else except God in heaven
+      to depend upon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as I set foot on Zealand, I stepped behind a shed, which stood on
+      the shore, and falling upon my knees, besought of God to help and guide me
+      aright; I felt myself comforted by so doing, and I firmly trusted in God
+      and my own good fortune. The whole day and the following night I travelled
+      through cities and villages; I stood solitarily by the carriage, and ate
+      my bread while it was repacked.&mdash;I thought I was far away in the wide
+      world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      On Monday morning, September 5th, 1819, I saw from the heights of
+      Frederiksburg, Copenhagen, for the first time. At this place I alighted
+      from the carriage, and with my little bundle in my hand, entered the city
+      through the castle garden, the long alley and the suburb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The evening before my arrival had been made memorable by the breaking out
+      of the so-called Jews quarrel, which spread through many European
+      countries. The whole city was in commotion [Footnote: This remarkable
+      disturbance makes a fine incident in Anderson's romance of "Only a
+      Fiddler."&mdash;M. H.]; every body was in the streets; the noise and
+      tumult of Copenhagen far exceeded, therefore, any idea which my
+      imagination had formed of this, at that time, to me great city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With scarcely ten dollars in my pocket, I turned into a small
+      public-house. My first ramble was to the theatre. I went round it many
+      times; I looked up to its walls, and regarded them almost as a home. One
+      of the bill-sellers, who wandered about here each day, observed me, and
+      asked me if I would have a bill. I was so wholly ignorant of the world,
+      that I thought the man wished to give me one; I therefore accepted his
+      offer with thankfulness. He fancied I was making fun of him and was angry;
+      so that I was frightened, and hastened from the place which was to me the
+      dearest in the city. Little did I then imagine that ten years afterwards
+      my first dramatic piece would be represented there, and that in this
+      manner I should make my appearance before the Danish public. On the
+      following day I dressed myself in my confirmation suit, nor were the boots
+      forgotten, although, this time, they were worn, naturally, under my
+      trousers; and thus, in my best attire, with a hat on, which fell half over
+      my eyes, I hastened to present my letter of introduction to the dancer,
+      Madame Schall. Before I rung at the bell, I fell on my knees before the
+      door and prayed God that I here might find help and support. A
+      maid-servant came down the steps with her basket in her hand; she smiled
+      kindly at me, gave me a skilling (Danish), and tripped on. Astonished, I
+      looked at her and the money. I had on my confirmation suit, and thought I
+      must look very smart. How then could she think that I wanted to beg? I
+      called after her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Keep it, keep it!" said she to me, in return, and was gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length I was admitted to the dancer; she looked at me in great
+      amazement, and then heard what I had to say. She had not the slightest
+      knowledge of him from whom the letter came, and my whole appearance and
+      behavior seemed very strange to her. I confessed to her my heartfelt
+      inclination for the theatre; and upon her asking me what characters I
+      thought I could represent, I replied, Cinderella. This piece had been
+      performed in Odense by the royal company, and the principal characters had
+      so greatly taken my fancy, that I could play the part perfectly from
+      memory. In the mean time I asked her permission to take off my boots,
+      otherwise I was not light enough for this character; and then taking up my
+      broad hat for a tambourine, I began to dance and sing,&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  "Here below, nor rank nor riches,   Are exempt from pain and woe."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      My strange gestures and my great activity caused the lady to think me out
+      of my mind, and she lost no time in getting rid of me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From her I went to the manager of the theatre, to ask for an engagement.
+      He looked at me, and said that I was "too thin for the theatre."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh," replied I, "if you will only engage me with one hundred rix dollars
+      banco salary, then I shall soon get fat!" The manager bade me gravely go
+      my way, adding, that they only engaged people of education.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I stood there deeply wounded. I knew no one in all Copenhagen who could
+      give me either counsel or consolation. I thought of death as being the
+      only thing, and the best thing for me; but even then my thoughts rose
+      upwards to God, and with all the undoubting confidence of a child in his
+      father, they riveted themselves upon Him. I wept bitterly, and then I said
+      to myself, "When everything happens really miserably, then he sends help.
+      I have always read so. People must first of all suffer a great deal before
+      they can bring anything to accomplishment."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I now went and bought myself a gallery-ticket for the opera of Paul and
+      Virginia. The separation of the lovers affected me to such a degree, that
+      I burst into violent weeping. A few women, who sat near me, consoled me by
+      saying that it was only a play, and nothing to trouble oneself about; and
+      then they gave me a sausage sandwich. I had the greatest confidence in
+      everybody, and therefore I told them, with the utmost openness, that I did
+      not really weep about Paul and Virginia, but because I regarded the
+      theatre as my Virginia, and that if I must be separated from it, I should
+      be just as wretched as Paul. They looked at me, and seemed not to
+      understand my meaning. I then told them why I had come to Copenhagen, and
+      how forlorn I was there. One of the women, therefore, gave me more, bread
+      andebutter, with fruit and cakes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the following morning I paid my bill, and to my infinite trouble I saw
+      that my whole wealth consisted in one rix dollar banco. It was necessary,
+      therefore, either that I should find some vessel to take me home, or put
+      myself to work with some handicraftsman. I considered that the last was
+      the wiser of the two, because, if I returned to Odense, I must there also
+      put myself to work of a similar kind; besides which, I knew very well that
+      the people there would laugh at me if I came back again. It was to me a
+      matter of indifference what handicraft trade I learned,&mdash;I only
+      should make use of it to keep life within me in Copenhagen. I bought a
+      newspaper, therefore. I found among the advertisements that a cabinet
+      maker was in want of an apprentice. The man received me kindly, but said
+      that before I was bound to him he must have an attestation, and my
+      baptismal register from Odense; and that till these came I could remove to
+      his house, and try how the business pleased me. At six o'clock the next
+      morning I went to the workshop: several journeymen were there, and two or
+      three apprentices; but the master was not come. They fell into merry and
+      idle discourse. I was as bashful as a girl, and as they soon perceived
+      this, I was unmercifully rallied upon it. Later in the day the rude jests
+      of the young fellows went so far, that, in remembrance of the scene at the
+      manufactory, I took the resolute determination not to remain a single day
+      longer in the workshop. I went down to the master, therefore, and told him
+      that I could not stand it; he tried to console me, but in vain: I was too
+      much affected, and hastened away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I now went through the streets; nobody knew me; I was quite forlorn. I
+      then bethought myself of having read in a newspaper in Odense the name of
+      an Italian, Siboni, who was the director of the Academy of Music in
+      Copenhagen. Everybody had praised my voice; perhaps he would assist me for
+      its sake; if not, then that very evening I must seek out the master of
+      some vessel who would take me home again. At the thoughts of the journey
+      home I became still more violently excited, and in this state of suffering
+      I hastened to Siboni's house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It happened that very day that he had a large party to dinner; our
+      celebrated composer Weyse was there, the poet Baggesen, and other guests.
+      The housekeeper opened the door to me, and to her I not only related my
+      wish to be engaged as a singer, but also the whole history of my life. She
+      listened to me with the greatest sympathy, and then she left me. I waited
+      a long time, and she must have been repeating to the company the greater
+      part of what I had said, for, in a while, the door opened, and all the
+      guests came out and looked at me. They would have me to sing, and Siboni
+      heard me attentively. I gave some scenes out of Holberg, and repeated a
+      few poems; and then, all at once, the sense of my unhappy condition so
+      overcame me that I burst into tears; the whole company applauded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I prophesy," said Baggesen, "that one day something will come out of him;
+      but do not be vain when, some day, the whole public shall applaud thee!"
+      and then he added something about pure, true nature, and that this is too
+      often destroyed by years and by intercourse with mankind. I did not
+      understand it all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Siboni promised to cultivate my voice, and that I therefore should succeed
+      as singer at the Theatre Royal. It made me very happy; I laughed and wept;
+      and as the housekeeper led me out and saw the excitement under which I
+      labored, she stroked my cheeks, and said that on the following day I
+      should go to Professor Weyse, who meant to do something for me, and upon
+      whom I could depend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I went to Weyse, who himself had risen from poverty; he had deeply felt
+      and fully comprehended my unhappy situation, and had raised by a
+      subscription seventy rix dollars banco for me. I then wrote my first letter
+      to my mother, a letter full of rejoicing, for the good fortune of the
+      whole world seemed poured upon me. My mother in her joy showed my letter
+      to all her friends; many heard of it with astonishment; others laughed at
+      it, for what was to be the end of it? In order to understand Siboni it was
+      necessary for me to learn something of German. A woman of Copenhagen, with
+      whom I travelled from Odense to this city, and who gladly, according to
+      her means, would have supported me, obtained, through one of her
+      acquaintance, a language-master, who gratuitously gave me some German
+      lessons, and thus I learned a few phrases in that language. Siboni
+      received me into his house, and gave me food and instruction; but half a
+      year afterwards my voice broke, or was injured, in consequence of my being
+      compelled to wear bad shoes through the winter, and having besides no warm
+      under-clothing. There was no longer any prospect that I should become a
+      fine singer. Siboni told me that candidly, and counselled me to go to
+      Odense, and there learn a trade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I, who in the rich colors of fancy had described to my mother the
+      happiness which I actually felt, must now return home and become an object
+      of derision! Agonized with this thought, I stood as if crushed to the
+      earth. Yet, precisely amid this apparently great un-happiness lay the
+      stepping-stones of a better fortune.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I found myself again abandoned, and was pondering by myself upon what
+      was best for me next to do, it occurred to me that the Poet Guldberg, a
+      brother of the Colonel of that name in Odense, who had shown me so much
+      kindness, lived in Copenhagen. He lived at that time near the new
+      church-yard outside the city, of which he has so beautifully sung in his
+      poems. I wrote to him, and related to him everything; afterwards I went to
+      him myself, and found him surrounded with books and tobacco pipes. The
+      strong, warm-hearted man received me kindly; and as he saw by my letter
+      how incorrectly I wrote, he promised to give me instruction in the Danish
+      tongue; he examined me a little in German, and thought that it would be
+      well if he could improve me in this respect also. More than this, he made
+      me a present of the profits of a little work which he had just then
+      published; it became known, and I believe they exceeded one hundred rix
+      dollars banco; the excellent Weyse and others also supported me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was too expensive for me to lodge at a public house; I was therefore
+      obliged to seek for private lodgings. My ignorance of the world led me to
+      a widow who lived in one of the most disreputable streets of Copenhagen;
+      she was inclined to receive me into her house, and I never suspected what
+      kind of world it was which moved around me. She was a stern, but active
+      dame; she described to me the other people of the city in such horrible
+      colors as made me suppose that I was in the only safe haven there. I was
+      to pay twenty rix dollars monthly for one room, which was nothing but an
+      empty store-room, without window and light, but I had permission to sit in
+      her parlor. I was to make trial of it at first for two days, meantime on
+      the following day she told me that I could decide to stay or immediately
+      go. I, who so easily attach myself to people, already liked her, and felt
+      myself at home with her; but more than sixteen dollars per month Weyse had
+      told me I must not pay, and this was the sum which I had received from him
+      and Guldberg, so that no surplus remained to me for my other expenses.
+      This troubled me very much; when she was gone out of the room, I seated
+      myself on the sofa, and contemplated the portrait of her deceased husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was so wholly a child, that as the tears rolled down my own cheeks, I
+      wetted the eyes of the portrait with my tears, in order that the dead man
+      might feel how troubled I was, and influence the heart of his wife. She
+      must have seen that nothing more was to be drained out of me, for when she
+      returned to the room she said that she would receive me into her house for
+      the sixteen rix dollars. I thanked God and the dead man. I found myself in
+      the midst of the mysteries of Copenhagen, but I did not understand how to
+      interpret them. There was in the house in which I lived a friendly young
+      lady, who lived alone, and often wept; every evening her old father came
+      and paid her a visit. I opened the door to him frequently; he wore a plain
+      sort of coat, had his throat very much tied up, and his hat pulled over
+      his eyes. He always drank his tea with her, and nobody dared to be
+      present, because he was not fond of company: she never seemed very glad at
+      his coming. [Footnote: This character will be recognised in Steffen
+      Margaret, in Only a Fiddler.&mdash;M. H.] Many years afterwards, when I
+      had reached another step on the ladder of life, when the refined world of
+      fashionable life was opened before me, I saw one evening, in the midst of
+      a brilliantly lighted hall, a polite old gentleman covered with orders&mdash;that
+      was the old father in the shabby coat, he whom I had let in. He had little
+      idea that I had opened the door to him when he played his part as guest,
+      but I, on my side, then had also no thought but for my own comedy-playing;
+      that is to say, I was at that time so much of a child that I played with
+      my puppet-theatre and made my dolls' clothes; and in order that I might
+      obtain gaily-colored fragments for this purpose, I used to go to the shops
+      and ask for patterns of various kinds of stuffs and ribbons. I myself did
+      not possess a single farthing; my landlady received all the money each
+      month in advance; only now and then, when I did any errands for her, she
+      gave me something, and that went in the purchase of paper or for old
+      play-books. I was now very happy, and was doubly so because Professor
+      Guldberg had induced Lindgron, the first comic actor at the theatre, to
+      give me instruction. He gave me several parts in Holberg to learn, such as
+      Hendrik, and the Silly Boy, for which I had shown some talent. My desire,
+      however, was to play the Correggio. I obtained permission to learn this
+      piece in my own way, although Lindgron asked, with comic gravity, whether
+      I expected to resemble the great painter? I, however, repeated to him the
+      soliloquy in the picture gallery with so much feeling, that the old man
+      clapped me on the shoulder and said, "Feeling you have; but you must not
+      be an actor, though God knows what else. Speak to Guldberg about your
+      learning Latin: that always opens the way for a student."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I a student! That was a thought which had never come before into my head.
+      The theatre lay nearer to me, and was dearer too; but Latin I had also
+      always wished to learn. But before I spoke on the subject to Guldberg, I
+      mentioned it to the lady who gave me gratuitous instruction in German; but
+      she told me that Latin was the most expensive language in the world, and
+      that it was not possible to gain free instruction in it. Guldberg,
+      however, managed it so that one of his friends, out of kindness, gave me
+      two lessons a week.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dancer, Dahlen, whose wife at that time was one of the first artistes
+      on the Danish boards, opened his house to me. I passed many an evening
+      there, and the gentle, warm-hearted lady was kind to me. The husband took
+      me with him to the dancing-school, and that was to me one step nearer to
+      the theatre. There stood I for whole mornings, with a long staff, and
+      stretched my legs; but notwithstanding all my good-will, it was Dahlen's
+      opinion that I should never get beyond a figurante. One advantage,
+      however, I had gained; I might in an evening make my appearance behind the
+      scenes of the theatre; nay, even sit upon the farthest bench in the box of
+      the figurantes. It seemed to me as if I had got my foot just within the
+      theatre, although I had never yet been upon the stage itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One night the little opera of the Two Little Savoyards was given; in the
+      market scene every one, even the mechanists, might go up to help in
+      filling the stage; I heard them say so, and rouging myself a little, I
+      went happily up with the others. I was in my ordinary dress; the
+      confirmation coat, which still held together, although, with regard to
+      brushing and repairs, it lookedebut miserably, and the great hat which
+      fell down over my face. I was very conscious of the ill condition of my
+      attire, and would have been glad to have concealed it; but, through the
+      endeavor to do so, my movements became still more angular. I did not dare
+      to hold myself upright, because, by so doing, I exhibited all the more
+      plainly the shortness of my waistcoat, which I had outgrown. I had the
+      feeling very plainly that people would make themselves merry about me;
+      yet, at this moment, I felt nothing but the happiness of stepping for the
+      first time before the foot-lamps. My heart beat; I stepped forward; there
+      came up one of the singers, who at that time was much thought of, but now
+      is forgotten; he took me by the hand, and jeeringly wished me happiness on
+      my debut. "Allow me to introduce you to the Danish public," said he, and
+      drew me forward to the lamps. The people would laugh at me&mdash;I felt
+      it; the tears rolled down my cheeks; I tore myself loose, and left the
+      stage full of anguish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shortly after this, Dahlen arranged a ballet of Armida, in which I
+      received a little part: I was a spirit. In this ballet I became acquainted
+      with the lady of Professor Heiberg, the wife of the poet, and now a highly
+      esteemed actress on the Danish stage; she, then a little girl, had also a
+      part in it, and our names stood printed in the bill. That was a moment in
+      my life, when my name was printed! I fancied I could see it a nimbus of
+      immortality. I was continually looking at the printed paper. I carried the
+      programme of the ballet with me at night to bed, lay and read my name by
+      candle light&mdash;in short, I was happy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had now been two years in Copenhagen. The sum of money which had been
+      collected for me was expended, but I was ashamed of making known my wants
+      and my necessities. I had removed to the house of a woman whose husband,
+      when living, was master of a trading-vessel, and there I had only lodging
+      and breakfast. Those were heavy, dark days for me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lady believed that I went out to dine with various families, whilst I
+      only ate a little bread on one of the benches in the royal garden. Very
+      rarely did I venture into some of the lowest eating-houses, and choose
+      there the least expensive dish. I was, in truth, very forlorn; but I did
+      not feel the whole weight of my condition. Every person who spoke to me
+      kindly I took for a faithful friend. God was with me in my little room;
+      and many a night, when I have said my evening prayer, I asked of Him, like
+      a child, "Will things soon be better with me?" I had the notion, that as
+      it went with me on New Year's Day, so would it go with me through the
+      whole year; and my highest wishes were to obtain a part in a play.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now New Year's Day. The theatre was closed, and only a half-blind
+      porter sat at the entrance to the stage, on which there was not a soul. I
+      stole past him with beating heart, got between the movable scenes and the
+      curtain, and advanced to the open part of the stage. Here I fell down upon
+      my knees, but not a single verse for declamation could I recall to my
+      memory. I then said aloud the Lord's Prayer, and went out with the
+      persuasion, that because I had spoken from the stage on New Year's Day, I
+      should in the course of the year succeed in speaking still more, as well
+      as in having a part assigned to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the two years of my residence in Copenhagen I had never been out
+      into the open country. Once only had I been in the park, and there I had
+      been deeply engrossed by studying the diversions of the people and their
+      gay tumult. In the spring of the third year, I went out for the first time
+      amid the verdure of a spring morning. It was into the garden of the
+      Fredericksberg, the summer residence of Frederick VI. I stood still
+      suddenly under the first large budding beech tree. The sun made the leaves
+      transparent&mdash;there was a fragrance, a freshness&mdash;the birds sang.
+      I was overcome by it&mdash;I shouted aloud for joy, threw my arms around
+      the tree and kissed it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is he mad?" said a man close behind me. It was one of the servants of the
+      castle. I ran away, shocked at what I had heard, and then went
+      thoughtfully and calmly back to the city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My voice had, in the mean time, in part regained its richness. The singing
+      master of the choir-school heard it, offered me a place in the school,
+      thinking that, by singing with the choir, I should acquire greater freedom
+      in the exercise of my powers on the stage. I thought that I could see by
+      this means a new way opened for me. I went from the dancing-school into
+      the singing-school, and entered the choir, now as a shepherd, and now as a
+      warrior. The theatre was my world. I had permission to go in the pit, and
+      thus it fared ill with my Latin. I heard many people say that there was no
+      Latin required for singing in the choir, and that without the knowledge of
+      this language it was possible to become a great actor. I thought there was
+      good sense in that, and very often, either with or without reason, excused
+      myself from my Latin evening lesson. Guldberg became aware of this, and
+      for the first time I received a reprimand which almost crushed me to the
+      earth. I fancy that no criminal could suffer more by hearing the sentence
+      of death pronounced upon him. My distress of mind must have expressed
+      itself in my countenance, for he said "Do not act any more comedy." But it
+      was no comedy to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was now to learn Latin no longer. I felt my dependence upon the kindness
+      of others in such a degree as I had never done before. Occasionally I had
+      had gloomy and earnest thoughts in looking forward to my future, because I
+      was in want of the very necessaries of life; at other times I had the
+      perfect thoughtlessness of a child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The widow of the celebrated Danish statesman, Christian Colbj÷rnsen, and
+      her daughter, were the first ladies of high rank who cordially befriended
+      the poor lad; who listened to me with sympathy, and saw me frequently.
+      Mrs. von Colbj÷rnsen resided, during the summer, at Bakkehus, where also
+      lived the poet Rahbek and his interesting wife. Rahbek never spoke to me;
+      but his lively and kind-hearted wife often amused herself with me. I had
+      at that time again begun to write a tragedy, which I read aloud to her.
+      Immediately on hearing the first scenes, she exclaimed, "But you have
+      actually taken whole passages out of Oehlenschl ger and Ingemann."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, but they are so beautiful!" replied I in my simplicity, and read on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day, when I was going from her to Mrs. von Colbj÷rnsen, she gave me a
+      handful of roses, and said, "Will you take them up to her? It will
+      certainly give her pleasure to receive them from the hand of a poet."
+      These words were said half in jest; but it was the first time that anybody
+      had connected my name with that of poet. It went through me, body and
+      soul, and tears filled my eyes. I know that, from this very moment, my
+      mind was awoke to writing and poetry. Formerly it had been merely an
+      amusement by way of variety from my puppet-theatre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Bakkehus lived also Professor Thiele, a young student at that time, but
+      even then the editor of the Danish popular legends, and known to the
+      public as the solver of Baggesen's riddle, and as the writer of beautiful
+      poetry. He was possessed of sentiment, true inspiration, and heart. He had
+      calmly and attentively watched the unfolding of my mind, until we now
+      became friends. He was one of the few who, at that time, spoke the truth
+      of me, when other people were making themselves merry at my expense, and
+      having only eyes for that which was ludicrous in me. People had called me,
+      in jest, the little orator, and, as such, I was an object of curiosity.
+      They found amusement in me, and I mistook every smile for a smile of
+      applause. One of my later friends has told me that it probably was about
+      this period that he saw me for the first time. It was in the drawing-room
+      of a rich tradesman, where people were making themselves very merry with
+      me. They desired me to repeat one of my poems, and, as I did this with
+      great feeling, the merriment was changed into sympathy with me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I heard it said every day, what a good thing it would be for me if I could
+      study. People advised me to devote myself to science, but no one moved one
+      step to enable me to do so; it was labor enough for me to keep body and
+      soul together. It therefore occurred to me to write a tragedy, which I
+      would offer to the Theatre Royal, and would then begin to study with the
+      money which I should thus obtain. Whilst Guldberg instructed me in Danish,
+      I had written a tragedy from a German story, called The Chapel in the
+      Wood; yet as this was done merely as an exercise in the language, and, as
+      he forbade me in the most decided manner to bring it out, I would not do
+      so. I originated my own material, therefore; and within fourteen days I
+      wrote my national tragedy called the Robbers in Wissenberg (the name of a
+      little village in Funen.) There was scarcely a word in it correctly
+      written, as I had no person to help me, because I meant it to be
+      anonymous; there was, nevertheless, one person admitted into the secret,
+      namely, the young lady whom I had met with in Odense, during my
+      preparation for confirmation, the only one who at that time showed me
+      kindness and good-will. It was through her that I was introduced to the
+      Colbj÷rnsen family, and thus known and received in all those circles of
+      which the one leads into the other. She paid some one to prepare a legible
+      copy of my piece, and undertook to present it for perusal. After an
+      interval of six weeks, I received it back, accompanied by a letter which
+      said the people did not frequently wish to retain works which betrayed, in
+      so great a degree, a want of elementary knowledge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was just at the close of the theatrical season, in May, 1823, that I
+      received a letter from the directors, by which I was dismissed from the
+      singing and dancing school, the letter adding also, that my participation
+      in the school-teaching could lead to no advantage for me, but that they
+      wished some of my many friends would enable me to receive an education,
+      without which, talent availed nothing. I felt myself again, as it were,
+      cast out into the wide world without help and without support. It was
+      absolutely necessary that I should write a piece for the theatre, and that
+      <i>must</i> be accepted; there was no other salvation for me. I wrote,
+      therefore, a tragedy founded on a passage in history, and I called it
+      Alfsol. I was delighted with the first act, and with this I immediately
+      went to the Danish translator of Shakspeare, Admiral Wulff, now deceased,
+      who good-naturedly heard me read it. In after years I met with the most
+      cordial reception in his family. At that time I also introduced myself to
+      our celebrated physician Oersted, and his house has remained to me to this
+      day an affectionate home, to which my heart has firmly attached itself,
+      and where I find my oldest and most unchangeable friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A favorite preacher, the rural dean Gutfeldt, was living at that time, and
+      he it was who exerted himself most earnestly for my tragedy, which was now
+      finished; and having written a letter of recommendation, he sent it to the
+      managers of the theatre. I was suspended between hope and fear. In the
+      course of the summer I endured bitter want, but I told it to no one, else
+      many a one, whose sympathy I had experienced, would have helped me to the
+      utmost of their means. A false shame prevented me from confessing what I
+      endured. Still happiness filled my heart. I read then for the first time
+      the works of Walter Scott. A new world was opened to me: I forgot the
+      reality, and gave to the circulating library that which should have
+      provided me with a dinner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The present conference councillor, Collin, one of the most distinguished
+      men of Denmark, who unites with the greatest ability the noblest and best
+      heart, to whom I looked up with confidence in all things, who has been a
+      second father to me, and in whose children I have found brothers and
+      sisters;&mdash;this excellent man I saw now for the first time. He was at
+      that time director of the Theatre Royal, and people universally told me
+      that it would be the best thing for me if he would interest himself on my
+      behalf: it was either Oersted or Gutfeldt who first mentioned me to him;
+      and now for the first time I went to that house which was to become so
+      dear to me. Before the ramparts of Copenhagen were extended, this house
+      lay outside the gate, and served as a summer residence to the Spanish
+      Ambassador; now, however, it stands, a crooked, angular frame-work
+      building, in a respectable street; an old-fashioned wooden balcony leads
+      to the entrance, and a great tree spreads its green branches over the
+      court and its pointed gables. It was to become a paternal house to me. Who
+      does not willingly linger over the description of home?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I discovered only the man of business in Collin; his conversation was
+      grave and in few words. I went away, without expecting any sympathy from
+      this man; and yet it was precisely Collin who in all sincerity thought for
+      my advantage, and who worked for it silently, as he had done for others,
+      through the whole course of his active life. But at that time I did not
+      understand the apparent calmness with which he listened, whilst his heart
+      bled for the afflicted, and he always labored for them with zeal and
+      success, and knew how to help them. He touched so lightly upon my tragedy,
+      which had been sent to him, and on account of which many people had
+      overwhelmed me with flattering speeches, that I regarded him rather as an
+      enemy than a protector.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few day I was sent for by the directors of the theatre, when Rahbek
+      gave me back my play as useless for the stage; adding, however, that there
+      were so many grains of corn scattered in it, that it was hoped, that
+      perhaps, by earnest study, after going to school and the previous
+      knowledge of all that is requisite, I might, some time, be able to write a
+      work which should be worthy of being acted on the Danish stage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In order therefore to obtain the means for my support and the necessary
+      instruction, Collin recommended me to King Frederick the Sixth, who
+      granted to me a certain sum annually for some years; and, by means of
+      Collin also, the directors of the high schools allowed me to receive free
+      instruction in the grammar school at Slagelse, where just then a new, and,
+      as was said, an active rector was appointed. I was almost dumb with
+      astonishment: never had I thought that my life would take this direction,
+      although I had no correct idea of the path which I had now to tread. I was
+      to go with the earliest mail to Slagelse, which lay twelve Danish miles
+      from Copenhagen, to the place where also the poets Baggesen and Ingemann
+      had gone to school. I was to receive money quarterly from Collin; I was to
+      apply to him in all cases, and he it was who was to ascertain my industry
+      and my progress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I went to him the second time to express to him my thanks. Mildly and
+      kindly he said to me, "Write to me without restraint about everything
+      which you require, and tell me how it goes with you." From this hour I
+      struck root in his heart; no father could have been more to me than he
+      was, and is; none could have more heartily rejoiced in my happiness, and
+      my after reception with the public; none have shared my sorrow more
+      kindly; and I am proud to say that one of the most excellent men which
+      Denmark possesses feels towards me as towards his own child. His
+      beneficence was conferred without his making me feel it painful either by
+      word or look. That was not the case with every one to whom, in this change
+      of my fortunes, I had to offer my thanks; I was told to think of my
+      inconceivable happiness and my poverty; in Collin's words was expressed
+      the warm-heartedness of a father, and to him it was that properly I was
+      indebted for everything.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The journey was hastily determined upon, and I had yet for myself some
+      business to arrange. I had spoken to an acquaintance from Odense who had
+      the management of a small printing concern, for a widow, to get "Alfsal"
+      printed, that I might, by the sale of the work, make a little money.
+      Before, however, the piece was printed, it was necessary that I should
+      obtain a certain number of subscribers; but these were not obtained, and
+      the manuscript lay in the printing-office, which, at the time I went to
+      fetch it away, was shut up. Some years afterwards, however, it suddenly
+      made its appearance in print without my knowledge or my desire, in its
+      unaltered shape, but without my name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On a beautiful autumn day I set off with the mail from Copenhagen to begin
+      my school-life in Slagelse. A young student, who a month before had passed
+      his first examination, and now was travelling home to Jutland to exhibit
+      himself there as a student, and to see once more his parents and his
+      friends, sate at my side and exulted for joy over the new life which now
+      lay before him; he assured me that he should be the most unhappy of human
+      beings if he were in my place, and were again beginning to go to the
+      grammar school. But I travelled with a good heart towards the little city
+      of Zealand. My mother received a joyful letter from me. I only wished that
+      my father and the old grandmother yet lived, and could hear that I now
+      went to the grammar school.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      When, late in the evening, I arrived at the inn in Slagelse, I asked the
+      hostess if there were anything remarkable in the city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said she, "a new English fire-engine and Pastor Bastholm's
+      library," and those probably were all the lions in the city. A few
+      officers of the Lancers composed the fine-gentleman world. Everybody knew
+      what was done in everybody's house, whether a scholar was elevated or
+      degraded in his class, and the like. A private theatre, to which, at
+      general rehearsal, the scholars of the grammar school and the
+      maid-servants of the town had free entrance, furnished rich material for
+      conversation. The place was remote from woods, and still farther from the
+      coast; but the great post-road went through the city, and the post-horn
+      resounded from the rolling carriage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I boarded with a respectable widow of the educated class, and had a little
+      chamber looking out into the garden and field. My place in the school was
+      in the lowest class, among little boys:&mdash;I knew indeed nothing at
+      all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was actually like a wild bird which is confined in a cage; I had the
+      greatest desire to learn, but for the moment I floundered about, as if I
+      had been thrown into the sea; the one wave followed another; grammar,
+      geography, mathematics&mdash;I felt myself overpowered by them, and feared
+      that I should never be able to acquire all these. The rector, who took a
+      peculiar delight in turning everything to ridicule, did not, of course,
+      make an exception in my case. To me he stood then as a divinity; I
+      believed unconditionally every word which he spoke. One day, when I had
+      replied incorrectly to his question, and he said that I was stupid, I
+      mentioned it to Collin, and told him my anxiety, lest I did not deserve
+      all that people had done for me; but he consoled me. Occasionally,
+      however, on some subjects of instruction, I began to receive a good
+      certificate, and the teachers were heartily kind to me; yet,
+      notwithstanding that I advanced, I still lost confidence in myself more
+      and more. On one of the first examinations, however, I obtained the praise
+      of the rector. He wrote the same in my character-book; and, happy in this,
+      I went a few days afterwards to Copenhagen. Guldberg, who saw the progress
+      I had made, received me kindly, and commended my zeal; and his brother in
+      Odense furnished me the next summer with the means of visiting the place
+      of my birth, where I had not been since I left it to seek adventures. I
+      crossed the Belt, and went on foot to Odense. When I came near enough to
+      see the lofty old church tower, my heart was more and more affected; I
+      felt deeply the care of God for me, and I burst into tears. My mother
+      rejoiced over me. The families of Iversen and Guldberg received me
+      cordially; and in the little streets I saw the people open their windows
+      to look after me, for everybody knew how remarkably well things had fared
+      with me; nay, I fancied I actually stood upon the pinnacle of fortune,
+      when one of the principal citizens, who had built a high tower to his
+      house, led me up there, and I looked out thence over the city, and the
+      surrounding country, and some old women in the hospital below, who had
+      known me from childhood, pointed up to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon, however, as I returned to Slagelse, this halo of glory vanished,
+      as well as every thought of it. I may freely confess that I was
+      industrious, and I rose, as soon as it was possible, into a higher class;
+      but in proportion as I rose did I feel the pressure upon me more strongly,
+      and that my endeavors were not sufficiently productive. Many an evening,
+      when sleep overcame me, did I wash my head with cold water, or run about
+      the lonely little garden, till I was again wakeful, and could comprehend
+      the book anew. The rector filled up a portion of his hours of teaching
+      with jests, nicknames, and not the happiest of witticisms. I was as if
+      paralyzed with anxiety when he entered the room, and from that cause my
+      replies often expressed the opposite of that which I wished to say, and
+      thereby my anxiety was all the more increased. What was to become of me?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a moment of ill-humor I wrote a letter to the head master, who was one
+      of those who was most cordially opposed to me. I said in this letter that
+      I regarded myself as a person so little gifted by nature, that it was
+      impossible for me to study, and that the people in Copenhagen threw away
+      the money which they spent upon me: I besought him therefore to counsel me
+      what I should do. The excellent man strengthened me with mild words, and
+      wrote to me a most friendly and consolatory letter; he said that the
+      rector meant kindly by me&mdash;that it was his custom and way of acting&mdash;that
+      I was making all the progress that people could expect from me, and that I
+      need not doubt of my abilities. He told me that he himself was a peasant
+      youth of three and twenty, older than I myself was, when he began his
+      studies; the misfortune for me was, that I ought to have been treated
+      differently to the other scholars, but that this could hardly be done in a
+      school; but that things were progressing, and that I stood well both with
+      the teachers and my fellow students.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every Sunday we had to attend the church and hear an old preacher; the
+      other scholars learned their lessons in history and mathematics while he
+      preached; I learned my task in religion, and thought that, by so doing, it
+      was less sinful. The general rehearsals at the private theatre were points
+      of light in my school life; they took place in a back building, where the
+      lowing of the cows might be heard; the street-decoration was a picture of
+      the marketplace of the city, by which means the representation had
+      something familiar about it; it amused the inhabitants to see their own
+      houses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On Sunday afternoons it was my delight to go to the castle of Antvorskov,
+      at that time only half ruinous, and once a monastery, where I pursued the
+      excavating of the ruined cellars, as if it had been a Pompeii. I also
+      often rambled to the crucifix of St. Anders, which stands upon one of the
+      heights of Slagelse, and which is one of the wooden crosses erected in the
+      time of Catholicism in Denmark. St. Anders was a priest in Slagelse, and
+      travelled to the Holy Land; on the last day he remained so long praying on
+      the holy grave, that the ship sailed away without him. Vexed at this
+      circumstance, he walked along the shore, where a man met him riding on an
+      ass, and took him up with him. Immediately he fell asleep, and when he
+      awoke he heard the bells of Slagelse ringing. He lay upon the (Hvileh÷i)
+      hill of rest, where the cross now stands. He was at home a year and a day
+      before the ship returned, which had sailed away without him, and an angel
+      had borne him home. The legend, and the place where he woke, were both
+      favorites of mine. From this spot I could see the ocean and Funen. Here I
+      could indulge my fancies; when at home, my sense of duty chained my
+      thoughts only to my books.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The happiest time, however, was when, once on a Sunday, whilst the wood
+      was green, I went to the city of Sor÷, two (Danish) miles from Slagelse,
+      and which lies in the midst of woods, surrounded by lakes. Here is an
+      academy for the nobility, founded by the poet Holberg. Everything lay in a
+      conventual stillness. I visited here the poet Ingemann, who had just
+      married, and who held a situation as teacher; he had already received me
+      kindly in Copenhagen; but here his reception of me was still more kind.
+      His life in this place seemed to me like a beautiful story; flowers and
+      vines twined around his window; the rooms were adorned with the portraits
+      of distinguished poets, and other pictures. We sailed upon the lake with
+      an Aeolian harp made fast to the mast. Ingemann talked so cheerfully, and
+      his excellent, amiable wife treated me as if she were an elder sister:&mdash;I
+      loved these people. Our friendship has grown with years. I have been from
+      that time almost every summer a welcome guest there, and I have
+      experienced that there are people in whose society one is made better, as
+      it were; that which is bitter passes away, and the whole world appears in
+      sunlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the pupils in the academy of nobles, there were two who made verses;
+      they knew that I did the same, and they attached themselves to me. The one
+      was Petit, who afterwards, certainly with the best intention, but not
+      faithfully, translated several of my books; the other, the poet Karl
+      Bagger, one of the most gifted of men who has come forward in Danish
+      literature, but who has been unjustly judged. His poems are full of
+      freshness and originality; his story, "The Life of my Brother," is a
+      genial book, by the critique on which the Danish Monthly Review of
+      Literature has proved that it does not understand how to give judgment.
+      These two academicians were very different from me: life rushed
+      rejoicingly through their veins; I was sensitive and childlike. In my
+      character-book I always received, as regarded my conduct, "remarkably
+      good." On one occasion, however, I only obtained the testimony of "very
+      good;" and so anxious and childlike was I, that I wrote a letter to Collin
+      on that account, and assured him in grave earnestness, that I was
+      perfectly innocent, although I had only obtained a character of "very
+      good."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rector grew weary of his residence in Slagelse; he applied for the
+      vacant post of rector in the grammar-school of Helsing÷r, and obtained it.
+      He told me of it, and added kindly, that I might write to Collin and ask
+      leave to accompany him thither; that I might live in his house, and could
+      even now remove to his family; I should then in half a year become a
+      student, which could not be the case if I remained behind, and that then
+      he would himself give me some private lessons in Latin and Greek. On this
+      same occasion he wrote also to Collin; and this letter, which I afterwards
+      saw, contained the greatest praise of my industry, of the progress I had
+      made, and of my good abilities, which last I imagined that he thoroughly
+      mistook, and for the want of which, I myself had so often wept. I had no
+      conception that he judged of me so favorably; it would have strengthened
+      and relieved me had I known it; whereas, on the contrary, his perpetual
+      blame depressed me. I, of course, immediately received Collin's
+      permission, and removed to the house of the rector. But that, alas! was an
+      unfortunate house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I accompanied him to Helsing÷r, one of the loveliest places in Denmark,
+      close to the Sound, which is at this place not above a mile (Danish)
+      broad, and which seems like a blue, swelling river between Denmark and
+      Sweden. The ships of all nations sail past daily by hundreds; in winter
+      the ice forms a firm bridge between the two countries, and when in spring
+      this breaks up, it resembles a floating glacier. The scenery here made a
+      lively impression upon me, but I dared only to cast stolen glances at it.
+      When the school hours were over, the house door was commonly locked; I was
+      obliged to remain in the heated school-room and learn my Latin, or else
+      play with the children, or sit in my little room; I never went out to
+      visit anybody. My life in this family furnishes the most evil dreams to my
+      remembrance. I was almost overcome by it, and my prayer to God every
+      evening was, that he would remove this cup from me and let me die. I
+      possessed not an atom of confidence in myself. I never mentioned in my
+      letters how hard it went with me, because the rector found his pleasure in
+      making a jest of me, and turning my feelings to ridicule. I never
+      complained of any one, with the exception of myself. I knew that they
+      would say in Copenhagen, "He has not the desire to do any thing; a
+      fanciful being can do no good with realities."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My letters to Collin, written at this time, showed such a gloomy
+      despairing state of mind, that they touched him deeply; but people
+      imagined that was not to be helped; they fancied that it was my
+      disposition, and not, as was the case, that it was the consequence of
+      outward influences. My temper of mind was thoroughly buoyant, and
+      susceptible of every ray of sunshine; but only on one single holiday in
+      the year, when I could go to Copenhagen, was I able to enjoy it.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+What a change it was to get for a few days out of the rector's rooms
+into a house in Copenhagen, where all was elegance, cleanliness, and
+full of the comforts of refined life! This was at Admiral Wulff's, whose
+wife felt for me the kindness of a mother, and whose children met me
+with cordiality; they dwelt in a portion of the Castle of Amalienburg,
+and my chamber looked out into the square. I remember the first evening
+there; Aladdin's words passed through my mind, when he looked down from
+his splendid castle into the square, and said, "Here came I as a poor
+lad." My soul was full of gratitude.
+
+ During my whole residence in Slagelse I had scarcely written more than
+four or five poems; two of which, "The Soul," and "To my Mother,"
+will be found printed in my collected works. During my school-time at
+Helsing÷r I wrote only one single poem, "The Dying Child;" a poem which,
+of all my after works, became most popular and most widely circulated. I
+read it to some acquaintance in Copenhagen; some were struck by it, but
+most of them only remarked my Funen dialect, which drops the d in every
+word. I was commended by many; but from the greater number I received
+a lecture on modesty, and that I should not get too great ideas of
+myself&mdash;I who really at that time thought nothing of myself. [Footnote:
+How beautifully is all this part of the author's experience reflected
+in that of Antonio, the Improvisatore, whose highly sensitive nature was
+too often wounded by the well-meant lectures of patrons and common-place
+minds.&mdash;M. H.]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      At the house of Admiral Wulff I saw many men of the most distinguished
+      talent, and among them all my mind paid the greatest homage to one&mdash;that
+      was the poet Adam Oehlenschl ger. I heard his praise resound from every
+      mouth around me; I looked up to him with the most pious faith: I was happy
+      when one evening, in a large brilliantly-lighted drawing room&mdash;where
+      I deeply felt that my apparel was the shabbiest there, and for that reason
+      I concealed myself behind the long curtains&mdash;Oehlenschl ger came to
+      me and offered me his hand. I could have fallen before him on my knees. I
+      again saw Weyse, and heard him improvise upon the piano. Wulff himself
+      read aloud his translations of Byron; and Oehlenschl ger's young daughter
+      Charlotte surprised me by her joyous, merry humor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From such a house as this, I, after a few days, returned to the rector,
+      and felt the difference deeply. He also came direct from Copenhagen, where
+      he had heard it said that I had read in company one of my own poems. He
+      looked at me with a penetrating glance, and commanded me to bring him the
+      poem, when, if he found in it one spark of poetry, he would forgive me. I
+      tremblingly brought to him "The Dying Child;" he read it, and pronounced
+      it to be sentimentality and idle trash. He gave way freely to his anger.
+      If he had believed that I wasted my time in writing verses, or that I was
+      of a nature which required a severe treatment, then his intention would
+      have been good; but he could not pretend this. But from this day forward
+      my situation was more unfortunate than ever; I suffered so severely in my
+      mind that I was very near sinking under it. That was the darkest, the most
+      unhappy time in my life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then one of the masters went to Copenhagen, and related to Collin
+      exactly what I had to bear, and immediately he removed me from the school
+      and from the rector's house. When, in taking leave of him, I thanked him
+      for the kindness which I had received from him, the passionate man cursed
+      me, and ended by saying that I should never become a student, that my
+      verses would grow mouldy on the floor of the bookseller's shop, and that I
+      myself should end my days in a mad-house. I trembled to my innermost
+      being, and left him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Several years afterwards, when my writings were read, when the
+      Improvisatore first came out, I met him in Copenhagen; he offered me his
+      hand in a conciliatory manner, and said that he had erred respecting me,
+      and had treated me wrong; but it now was all the same to me. The heavy,
+      dark days had also produced their blessing in my life. A young man, who
+      afterwards became celebrated in Denmark for his zeal in the Northern
+      languages and in history, became my teacher. I hired a little garret; it
+      is described in the Fiddler; and in The Picture Book without Pictures,
+      people may see that I often received there visits from the moon. I had a
+      certain sum allowed for my support; but as instruction was to be paid for,
+      I had to make savings in other ways. A few families through the week-days
+      gave me a place at their tables. I was a sort of boarder, as many another
+      poor student in Copenhagen is still: there was a variety in it; it gave an
+      insight into the several kinds of family life, which was not without its
+      influence on me. I studied industriously; in some particular branches I
+      had considerably distinguished myself in Helsing÷r, especially in
+      mathematics; these were, therefore, now much more left to myself:
+      everything tended to assist me in my Greek and Latin studies; in one
+      direction, however, and that the one in which it would least have been
+      expected, did my excellent teacher find much to do; namely, in religion.
+      He closely adhered to the literal meaning of the Bible; with this I was
+      acquainted, because from my first entrance in the school I had clearly
+      understood what was said and taught by it. I received gladly, both with
+      feeling and understanding, the doctrine, that God is love: everything
+      which opposed this&mdash;a burning hell, therefore, whose fire endured
+      forever&mdash;I could not recognize. Released from the distressing
+      existence of the school-bench, I now expressed myself like a free man; and
+      my teacher, who was one of the noblest and most amiable of human beings,
+      but who adhered firmly to the letter, was often quite distressed about me.
+      We disputed, whilst pure flames kindled within our hearts. It was
+      nevertheless good for me that I came to this unspoiled, highly-gifted
+      young man, who was possessed of a nature as peculiar as my own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That which, on the contrary, was an error in me, and which became very
+      perceptible, was a pleasure which I had, not in jesting with, but in
+      playing with my best feelings, and in regarding the understanding as the
+      most important thing in the world. The rector had completely mistaken my
+      undisguisedly candid and sensitive character; my excitable feelings were
+      made ridiculous, and thrown back upon themselves; and now, when I could
+      freely advance upon the way to my object, this change showed itself in me.
+      From severe suffering I did not rush into libertinism, but into an
+      erroneous endeavor to appear other than I was. I ridiculed feeling, and
+      fancied that I had quite thrown it aside; and yet I could be made wretched
+      for a whole day, if I met with a sour countenance where I expected a
+      friendly one. Every poem which I had formerly written with tears, I now
+      parodied, or gave to it a ludicrous refrain; one of which I called "The
+      Lament of the Kitten," another, "The Sick Poet." The few poems which I
+      wrote at that time were all of a humorous character: a complete change had
+      passed over me; the stunted plant was reset, and now began to put forth
+      new shoots.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wulff's eldest daughter, a very clever and lively girl, understood and
+      encouraged the humor, which made itself evident in my few poems; she
+      possessed my entire confidence; she protected me like a good sister, and
+      had great influence over me, whilst she awoke in me a feeling for the
+      comic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this time, also, a fresh current of life was sent through the Danish
+      literature; for this the people had an interest, and politics played no
+      part in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Heiberg, who had gained the acknowledged reputation of a poet by his
+      excellent works, "Psyche" and "Walter the Potter," had introduced the
+      vaudeville upon the Danish stage; it was a Danish vaudeville, blood of our
+      blood, and was therefore received with acclamation, and supplanted almost
+      everything else. Thalia kept carnival on the Danish stage, and Heiberg was
+      her secretary. I made his acquaintance first at Oersted's. Refined,
+      eloquent, and the hero of the day, he pleased me in a high degree; he was
+      most kind to me, and I visited him; he considered one of my humorous poems
+      worthy of a place in his most excellent weekly paper, "The Flying Post."
+      Shortly before I had, after a deal of trouble, got my poem of "The Dying
+      Child" printed in a paper; none of the many publishers of journals, who
+      otherwise accept of the most lamentable trash, had the courage to print a
+      poem by a schoolboy. My best known poem they printed at that time,
+      accompanied by an excuse for it. Heiberg saw it, and gave it in his paper
+      an honorable place. Two humorous poems, signed H., were truly my debut
+      with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I remember the first evening when the "Flying Post" appeared with my
+      verses in it. I was with a family who wished me well, but who regarded my
+      poetical talent as quite insignificant, and who found something to censure
+      in every line. The master of the house entered with the "Flying Post" in
+      his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This evening," said he, "there are two excellent poems: they are by
+      Heiberg; nobody else could write anything like them." And now my poems
+      were received with rapture. The daughter, who was in my secret, exclaimed,
+      in her delight, that I was the author. They were all struck into silence,
+      and were vexed. That wounded me deeply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of our least esteemed writers, but a man of rank, who was very
+      hospitable, gave me one day a seat at his table. He told me that a new
+      year's gift would come out, and that he was applied to for a contribution.
+      I said that a little poem of mine, at the wish of the publisher, would
+      appear in the same new year's gift.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What, then, everybody and anybody are to contribute to this book!" said
+      the man in vexation: "then he will need nothing from me; I certainly can
+      hardly give him anything."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My teacher dwelt at a considerable distance from me. I went to him twice
+      each day, and on the way there my thoughts were occupied with my lessons.
+      On my return, however, I breathed more freely, and then bright poetical
+      ideas passed through my brain, but they were never committed to paper;
+      only five or six humorous poems were written in the course of the year,
+      and these disturbed me less when they were laid to rest on paper than if
+      they had remained in my mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In September, 1828, I was a student; and when the examination was over,
+      the thousand ideas and thoughts, by which I was pursued on the way to my
+      teacher, flew like a swarm of bees out into the world, and, indeed, into
+      my first work, "A Journey on Foot to Amack;" a peculiar, humorous book,
+      but one which fully exhibited my own individual character at that time, my
+      disposition to sport with everything, and to jest in tears over my own
+      feelings&mdash;a fantastic, gaily-colored tapestry-work. No publisher had
+      the courage to bring out that little book; I therefore ventured to do it
+      myself, and, in a few days after its appearance, the impression was sold.
+      Publisher Keitzel bought from me the second edition; after a while he had
+      a third; and besides this, the work was reprinted in Sweden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everybody read my book; I heard nothing but praise; I was "a student,"&mdash;I
+      had attained the highest goal of my wishes. I was in a whirl of joy; and
+      in this state I wrote my first dramatic work, "Love on the Nicholas Tower,
+      or, What says the Pit?" It was unsuccessful, because it satirized that
+      which no longer existed amongst us, namely, the shows of the middle ages;
+      besides which, it rather ridiculed the enthusiasm for the vaudeville. The
+      subject of it was, in short, as follows:&mdash;The watchman of the
+      Nicholas Tower, who always spoke as a knight of the castle, wished to give
+      his daughter to the watchman of the neighboring church-tower; but she
+      loved a young tailor, who had made a journey to the grave of Eulenspiegel,
+      and was just now returned, as the punch-bowl steamed, and was to be
+      emptied in honor of the young lady's consent being given. The lovers
+      escape together to the tailor's herberg, where dancing and merriment are
+      going forward. The watchman, however, fetches back his daughter; but she
+      had lost her senses, and she assured them that she never would recover
+      them, unless she had her tailor. The old watchman determines that Fate
+      should decide the affair; but, then, who was Fate? The idea then comes
+      into his head that the public shall be his Pythia, and that the public
+      shall decide whether she should have the tailor or the watchman. They
+      determine, therefore, to send to one of the youngest of the poets, and beg
+      him to write the history in the style of the vaudeville, a kind of writing
+      which was the most successful at that time, and when the piece was brought
+      upon the stage, and the public either whistled or hissed, it should be in
+      no wise considered that the work of the young author had been
+      unsuccessful, but that it should be the voice of Fate, which said, "She
+      shall marry the watchman." If, on the contrary, the piece was successful,
+      it indicated that she should have the tailor; and this last, remarked the
+      father, must be said in prose, in order that the public may understand it.
+      Now every one of the characters thought himself on the stage, where in the
+      epilogue the lovers besought the public for their applause, whilst the
+      watchman begged them either to whistle, or at least to hiss.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My fellow students received the piece with acclamation; they were proud of
+      me. I was the second of their body who in this year had brought out a
+      piece on the Danish stage; the other was Arnesen, student at the same time
+      with me, and author of a vaudeville called "The Intrigue in the People's
+      Theatre," a piece which had a great run. We were the two young authors of
+      the October examination, two of the sixteen poets which this year
+      produced, and whom people in jest divided into the four great and the
+      twelve small poets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was now a happy human being; I possessed the soul of a poet, and the
+      heart of youth; all houses began to be open to me; I flew from circle to
+      circle. Still, however, I devoted myself industriously to study, so that
+      in September, 1829, I passed my <i>Examen philologicum et philosophicum</i>,
+      and brought out the first collected edition of my poems, which met with
+      great praise. Life lay bright with sunshine before me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Until now I had only seen a small part of my native land, that is to say,
+      a few points in Funen and Zealand, as well as Moen's Klint, which last is
+      truly one of our most beautiful places; the beechwoods there hang like a
+      garland over the white chalk cliffs, from which a view is obtained far
+      over the Baltic. I wished, therefore, in the summer of 1830, to devote my
+      first literary proceeds to seeing Jutland, and making myself more
+      thoroughly acquainted with my own Funen. I had no idea how much solidity
+      of mind I should derive from this summer excursion, or what a change was
+      about to take place in my inner life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jutland, which stretches between the German Ocean and the Baltic, until it
+      ends at Skagen in a reef of quicksands, possesses a peculiar character.
+      Towards the Baltic extend immense woods and hills; towards the North Sea,
+      mountains and quicksands, scenery of a grand and solitary character; and
+      between the two, infinite expanses of brown heath, with their wandering
+      gipsies, their wailing birds, and their deep solitude, which the Danish
+      poet, Steen Blicher, has described in his novels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the first foreign scenery which I had ever seen, and the
+      impression, therefore, which it made upon me was very strong. [Footnote:
+      This impressive and wild scenery, with its characteristic figures, of
+      gipsies etc., is most exquisitely introduced into the author's novel of
+      "O. T."; indeed it gives a coloring and tone to the whole work, which the
+      reader never can forget. In my opinion Andersen never wrote anything finer
+      in the way of description than many parts of this work, though as a story
+      it is not equal to his others.&mdash;M. H.] In the cities, where my
+      "Journey on Foot" and my comic poems were known, I met with a good
+      reception. Funen revealed her rural life to me; and, not far from my
+      birth-place of Odense, I passed several weeks at the country seat of the
+      elder Iversen as a welcome guest. Poems sprung forth upon paper, but of
+      the comic fewer and fewer. Sentiment, which I had so often derided, would
+      now be avenged. I arrived, in the course of my journey, at the house of a
+      rich family in a small city; and here suddenly a new world opened before
+      me, an immense world, which yet could be contained in four lines, which I
+      wrote at that time:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  A pair of dark eyes fixed my sight,
+    They were my world, my home, my delight,
+  The soul beamed in them, and childlike peace,
+    And never on earth will their memory cease.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      New plans of life occupied me. I would give up writing poetry,&mdash;to
+      what could it lead? I would study theology, and become a preacher; I had
+      only one thought, and that was <i>she</i>. But it was self-delusion: she
+      loved another; she married him. It was not till several years later that I
+      felt and acknowledged that it was best, both for her and for myself, that
+      things had fallen out as they were. She had no idea, perhaps, how deep my
+      feeling for her had been, or what an influence it produced in me. She had
+      become the excellent wife of a good man, and a happy mother. God's
+      blessing rest upon her!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In my "Journey on Foot," and in most of my writings, satire had been the
+      prevailing characteristic. This displeased many people, who thought that
+      this bent of mind could lead to no good purpose. The critics now blamed me
+      precisely for that which a far deeper feeling had expelled from my breast.
+      A new collection of Poetry, "Fancies and Sketches," which was published
+      for the new year, showed satisfactorily what my heart suffered. A
+      paraphrase of the history of my own heart appeared in a serious
+      vaudeville, "Parting and Meeting," with this difference only, that here
+      the love was mutual: the piece was not presented on the stage till five
+      years later.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among my young friends in Copenhagen at that time was Orla Lehmann, who
+      afterwards rose higher in popular favor, on account of his political
+      efforts than any man in Denmark. Full of animation, eloquent and
+      undaunted, his character of mind was one which interested me also. The
+      German language was much studied at his father's; they had received there
+      Heine's poems, and they were very attractive for young Orla. He lived in
+      the country, in the neighborhood of the castle of Fredericksberg. I went
+      there to see him, and he sang as I came one of Heine's verses, "Thalatta,
+      Thalatta, du eviges Meer." We read Heine together; the afternoon and the
+      evening passed, and I was obliged to remain there all night; but I had on
+      this evening made the acquaintance of a poet, who, as it seemed to me,
+      sang from the soul; he supplanted Hoffman, who, as might be seen by my
+      "Journey on Foot," had formerly had the greatest influence on me. In my
+      youth there were only three authors who as it were infused themselves into
+      my blood,&mdash;Walter Scott, Hoffman, and Heine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I betrayed more and more in my writings an unhealthy turn of mind. I felt
+      an inclination to seek for the melancholy in life, and to linger on the
+      dark side of things. I became sensitive and thought rather of the blame
+      than the praise which was lavished on me. My late school education, which
+      was forced, and my impulse to become an author whilst I was yet a student,
+      make it evident that my first work, the "Journey on Foot," was not without
+      grammatical errors. Had I only paid some one to correct the press, which
+      was a work I was unaccustomed to, then no charge of this kind could have
+      been brought against me. Now, on the contrary, people laughed at these
+      errors, and dwelt upon them, passing over carelessly that in the book
+      which had merit. I know people who only read my poems to find out errors;
+      they noted down, for instance, how often I used the word <i>beautiful,</i>
+      or some similar word. A gentleman, now a clergyman, at that time a writer
+      of vaudevilles and a critic, was not ashamed, in a company where I was, to
+      go through several of my poems in this style; so that a little girl of six
+      years old, who heard with amazement that he discovered everything to be
+      wrong, took the book, and pointing out the conjunction <i>and,</i> said,
+      "There is yet a little word about which you have not scolded." He felt
+      what a reproof lay in the remark of the child; he looked ashamed and
+      kissed the little one. All this wounded me; but I had, since my
+      school-days, become somewhat timid, and that caused me to take it all
+      quietly: I was morbidly sensitive, and I was good-natured to a fault.
+      Everybody knew it, and some were on that account almost cruel to me.
+      Everybody wished to teach me; almost everybody said that I was spoiled by
+      praise, and therefore they would speak the truth to me. Thus I heard
+      continually of my faults, the real and the ideal weaknesses. In the mean
+      time, however, my feelings burst forth; and then I said that I would
+      become a poet whom they should see honored. But this was regarded only as
+      the crowning mark of the most unbearable vanity; and from house to house
+      it was repeated. I was a good man, they said, but one of the vainest in
+      existence; and in that very time I was often ready wholly to despair of my
+      abilities, and had, as in the darkest days of my school-life, a feeling,
+      as if my whole talents were a self-deception. I almost believed so; but it
+      was more than I could bear, to hear the same thing said, sternly and
+      jeeringly, by others; and if I then uttered a proud, an inconsiderate
+      word, it was addressed to the scourge with which I was smitten; and when
+      those who smite are those we love, then do the scourges become scorpions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For this reason Collin thought that I should make a little journey,&mdash;for
+      instance, to North Germany,&mdash;in order to divert my mind and furnish
+      me with new ideas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the spring of 1831, I left Denmark for the first time. I saw L bek and
+      Hamburg. Everything astonished me and occupied my mind. I saw mountains
+      for the first time,&mdash;the Harzgebirge. The world expanded so
+      astonishingly before me. My good humor returned to me, as to the bird of
+      passage. Sorrow is the flock of sparrows which remains behind, and builds
+      in the nests of the birds of passage. But I did not feel myself wholly
+      restored.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Dresden I made acquaintance with Tieck. Ingemann had given me a letter
+      to him. I heard him one evening read aloud one of Shakspeare's plays. On
+      taking leave of him, he wished me a poet's success, embraced and kissed
+      me; which made the deepest impression upon me. The expression of his eyes
+      I shall never forget. I left him with tears, and prayed most fervently to
+      God for strength to enable me to pursue the way after which my whole soul
+      strove&mdash;strength, which should enable me to express that which I felt
+      in my soul; and that when I next saw Tieck, I might be known and valued by
+      him. It was not until several years afterwards, when my later works were
+      translated into German, and well received in his country, that we saw each
+      other again; I felt the true hand-pressure of him who had given to me, in
+      my second father-land, the kiss of consecration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Berlin, a letter of Oersted's procured me the acquaintance of Chamisso.
+      That grave man, with his long locks and honest eyes, opened the door to me
+      himself, read the letter, and I know not how it was, but we understood
+      each other immediately. I felt perfect confidence in him, and told him so,
+      though it was in bad German. Chamisso understood Danish; I gave him my
+      poems, and he was the first who translated any of them, and thus
+      introduced me into Germany. It was thus he spoke of me at that time in the
+      <i>Morgenblatt</i>: "Gifted with wit, fancy, humor, and a national naivet
+      , Andersen has still in his power tones which awaken deeper echoes. He
+      understands, in particular, how with perfect ease, by a few slight but
+      graphic touches, to call into existence little pictures and landscapes,
+      but which are often so peculiarly local as not to interest those who are
+      unfamiliar with the home of the poet. Perhaps that which may be translated
+      from him, or which is so already, may be the least calculated to give a
+      proper idea of him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Chamisso became a friend for my whole life. The pleasure which he had in
+      my later writings may be seen by the printed letters addressed to me in
+      the collected edition of his works.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The little journey in Germany had great influence upon me, as my
+      Copenhagen friends acknowledged. The impressions of the journey were
+      immediately written down, and I gave them forth under the title of "Shadow
+      Pictures." Whether I were actually improved or not, there still prevailed
+      at home the same petty pleasure in dragging out my faults, the same
+      perpetual schooling of me; and I was weak enough to endure it from those
+      who were officious meddlers. I seldom made a joke of it; but if I did so,
+      it was called arrogance and vanity, and it was asserted that I never would
+      listen to rational people. Such an instructor once asked me whether I
+      wrote <i>Dog</i> with a little <i>d</i>;&mdash;he had found such an error
+      of the press in my last work. I replied, jestingly, "Yes, because I here
+      spoke of a little dog."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But these are small troubles, people will say. Yes, but they are drops
+      which wear hollows in the rock. I speak of it here; I feel a necessity to
+      do so; here to protest against the accusation of vanity, which, since no
+      other error can be discovered in my private life, is seized upon, and even
+      now is thrown at me like an old medal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the end of the year 1828, to the beginning of 1839, I maintained
+      myself alone by my writings. Denmark is a small country; but few books at
+      that time went to Sweden and Norway; and on that account the profit could
+      not be great. It was difficult for me to pull through,&mdash;doubly
+      difficult, because my dress must in some measure accord with the circles
+      into which I went. To produce, and always to be producing, was
+      destructive, nay, impossible. I translated a few pieces for the theatre,&mdash;<i>La
+      Quarantaine</i>, and <i>La Reine de seize ans</i>; and as, at that time, a
+      young composer of the name of Hartmann, a grandson of him who composed the
+      Danish folks-song of "King Christian stood by the tall, tall mast," wished
+      for text to an opera, I was of course ready to write it. Through the
+      writings of Hoffman, my attention had been turned to the masked comedies
+      of Gozzi: I read <i>Il Corvo</i>, and finding that it was an excellent
+      subject, I wrote, in a few weeks, my opera-text of the Raven. It will
+      sound strange to the ears of countrymen when I say that I, at that time,
+      recommended Hartmann; that I gave my word for it, in my letter to the
+      theatrical directors, for his being a man of talent, who would produce
+      something good. He now takes the first rank among the living Danish
+      composers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I worked up also Walter Scott's "Bride of Lammermoor" for another young
+      composer, Bredal. Both operas appeared on the stage; but I was subjected
+      to the most merciless criticism, as one who had stultified the labors of
+      foreign poets. What people had discovered to be good in me before seemed
+      now to be forgotten, and all talent was denied to me. The composer Weyse,
+      my earliest benefactor, whom I have already mentioned, was, on the
+      contrary, satisfied in the highest degree with my treatment of these
+      subjects. He told me that he had wished for a long time to compose an
+      opera from Walter Scott's "Kenilworth." He now requested me to commence
+      the joint work, and write the text. I had no idea of the summary justice
+      which would be dealt to me. I needed money to live, and, what still more
+      determined me to it, I felt flattered to have to work with Weyse our most
+      celebrated composer. It delighted me that he, who had first spoken in my
+      favor at Siboni's house, now, as artist, sought a noble connection with
+      me. I had scarcely half finished the text, when I was already blamed for
+      having made use of a well-known romance. I wished to give it up; but Weyse
+      consoled me, and encouraged me to proceed. Afterwards, before he had
+      finished the music, when I was about to travel abroad, I committed my
+      fate, as regarded the text, entirely to his hands. He wrote whole verses
+      of it, and the altered conclusion is wholly his own. It was a peculiarity
+      of that singular man that he liked no book which ended sorrowfully. For
+      that reason, Amy must marry Leicester, and Elizabeth say, "Proud England,
+      I am thine." I opposed this at the beginning; but afterwards I yielded,
+      and the piece was really half-created by Weyse. It was brought on the
+      stage, but was not printed, with the exception of the songs. To this
+      followed anonymous attacks: the city post brought me letters in which the
+      unknown writers scoffed at and derided me. That same year I published a
+      new collection of poetry, "The Twelve Months of the Year;" and this book,
+      though it was afterwards pronounced to contain the greater part of my best
+      lyrical poems, was then condemned as bad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that time "The Monthly Review of Literature," though it is now gone to
+      its grave, was in its full bloom. At its first appearance, it numbered
+      among its co-workers some of the most distinguished names. Its want,
+      however, was men who were qualified to speak ably on aesthetic works.
+      Unfortunately, everybody fancies himself able to give an opinion upon
+      these; but people may write excellently on surgery or pedagogical science,
+      and may have a name in those things, and yet be dolts in poetry: of this
+      proofs may be seen. By degrees it became more and more difficult for the
+      critical bench to find a judge for poetical works. The one, however, who,
+      through his extraordinary zeal for writing and speaking, was ready at
+      hand, was the historian and states-councillor Molbeck, who played, in our
+      time, so great a part in the history of Danish criticism, that I must
+      speak of him rather more fully. He is an industrious collector, writes
+      extremely correct Danish, and his Danish dictionary, let him be reproached
+      with whatever want he may, is a most highly useful work; but, as a judge
+      of aesthetic works, he is one-sided, and even fanatically devoted to party
+      spirit. He belongs, unfortunately, to the men of science, who are only one
+      sixty-fourth of a poet, and who are the most incompetent judges of
+      aesthetics. He has, for example, by his critiques on Ingemann's romances,
+      shown how far he is below the poetry which he censures. He has himself
+      published a volume of poems, which belong to the common run of books, "A
+      Ramble through Denmark," written in the <i>fade</i>, flowery style of
+      those times, and "A Journey through Germany, France, and Italy," which
+      seems to be made up out of books, not out of life. He sate in his study,
+      or in the Royal Library, where he has a post, when suddenly he became
+      director of the theatre and censor of the pieces sent in. He was sickly,
+      one-sided in judgment, and irritable: people may imagine the result. He
+      spoke of my first poems very favorably; but my star soon sank for another,
+      who was in the ascendant, a young lyrical poet, Paludan Muller; and, as he
+      no longer loved, he hated me. That is the short history; indeed, in the
+      selfsame Monthly Review the very poems which had formerly been praised
+      were now condemned by the same judge, when they appeared in a new
+      increased edition. There is a Danish proverb, "When the carriage drags,
+      everybody pushes behind;" and I proved the truth of it now.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It happened that a new star in Danish literature ascended at this time.
+      Heinrich Hertz published his "Letters from the Dead" anonymously: it was a
+      mode of driving all the unclean things out of the temple. The deceased
+      Baggesen sent polemical letters from Paradise, which resembled in the
+      highest degree the style of that author. They contained a sort of
+      apotheosis of Heiberg, and in part attacks upon Oehlenschl ger and Hauch.
+      The old story about my orthographical errors was again revived; my name
+      and my school-days in Slagelse were brought into connection with St.
+      Anders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was ridiculed, or if people will, I was chastised. Hertz's book went
+      through all Denmark; people spoke of nothing but him. It made it still
+      more piquant that the author of the work could not be discovered. People
+      were enraptured, and justly. Heiberg, in his "Flying Post," defended a few
+      aesthetical insignificants, but not me. I felt the wound of the sharp
+      knife deeply. My enemies now regarded me as entirely shut out from the
+      world of spirits. I however in a short time published a little book,
+      "Vignettes to the Danish Poets," in which I characterized the dead and the
+      living authors in a few lines each, but only spoke of that which was good
+      in them. The book excited attention; it was regarded as one of the best of
+      my works; it was imitated, but the critics did not meddle with it. It was
+      evident, on this occasion, as had already been the case, that the critics
+      never laid hands on those of my works which were the most successful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My affairs were now in their worst condition; and precisely in that same
+      year in which a stipend for travelling had been conferred upon Hertz, I
+      also had presented a petition for the same purpose. The universal opinion
+      was that I had reached the point of culmination, and if I was to succeed
+      in travelling it must be at this present time. I felt, what since then has
+      become an acknowledged fact, that travelling would be the best school for
+      me. In the mean time I was told that to bring it under consideration I
+      must endeavor to obtain from the most distinguished poets and men of
+      science a kind of recommendation; because this very year there were so
+      many distinguished young men who were soliciting a stipend, that it would
+      be difficult among these to put in an available claim. I therefore
+      obtained recommendations for myself; and I am, so far as I know, the only
+      Danish poet who was obliged to produce recommendations to prove that he
+      was a poet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And here also it is remarkable, that the men who recommended me have each
+      one made prominent some very different qualification which gave me a
+      claim: for instance, Oehlenschl ger, my lyrical power, and the earnestness
+      that was in me; Ingemann, my skill in depicting popular life; Heiberg
+      declared that, since the days of Wessel, no Danish poet had possessed so
+      much humor as myself; Oersted remarked, every one, they who were against
+      me as well as those who were for me, agreed on one subject, and this was
+      that I was a <i>true</i> poet. Thiele expressed himself warmly and
+      enthusiastically about the power which he had seen in me, combating
+      against the oppression and the misery of life. I received a stipend for
+      travelling; Hertz a larger and I a smaller one: and that also was quite in
+      the order of things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now be happy," said my friends, "make yourself aware of your unbounded
+      good fortune! Enjoy the present moment, as it will probably be the only
+      time in which you will get abroad. You shall hear what people say about
+      you while you are travelling, and how we shall defend you; sometimes,
+      however, we shall not be able to do that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was painful to me to hear such things said; I felt a compulsion of soul
+      to be away, that I might, if possible, breathe freely; but sorrow is
+      firmly seated on the horse of the rider. More than one sorrow oppressed my
+      heart, and although I opened the chambers of my heart to the world, one or
+      two of them I keep locked, nevertheless. On setting out on my journey, my
+      prayer to God was that I might die far away from Denmark, or return
+      strengthened for activity, and in a condition to produce works which
+      should win for me and my beloved ones joy and honor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Precisely at the moment of setting out on my journey, the form of my
+      beloved arose in my heart. Among the few whom I have already named, there
+      are two who exercised a great influence upon my life and my poetry, and
+      these I must more particularly mention. A beloved mother, an unusually
+      liberal-minded and well educated lady, Madame L ss c, had introduced me
+      into her agreeable circle of friends; she often felt the deepest sympathy
+      with me in my troubles; she always turned my attention to the beautiful in
+      nature and the poetical in the details of life, and as almost everyone
+      regarded me as a poet, she elevated my mind; yes, and if there be
+      tenderness and purity in anything which I have written, they are among
+      those things for which I have especially to be thankful to her. Another
+      character of great importance to me was Collin's son Edward. Brought up
+      under fortunate circumstances of life, he was possessed of that courage
+      and determination which I wanted. I felt that he sincerely loved me, and I
+      full of affection, threw myself upon him with my whole soul; he passed on
+      calmly and practically through the business of life. I often mistook him
+      at the very moment when he felt for me most deeply, and when he would
+      gladly have infused into me a portion of his own character,&mdash;to me
+      who was as a reed shaken by the wind. In the practical part of life, he,
+      the younger, stood actively by my side, from the assistance which he gave
+      in my Latin exercises, to the arranging the business of bringing out
+      editions of my works. He has always remained the same; and were I to
+      enumerate my friends, he would be placed by me as the first on the list.
+      When the traveller leaves the mountains behind him, then for the first
+      time he sees them in their true form: so is it also with friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I arrived at Paris by way of Cassel and the Rhine. I retained a vivid
+      impression of all that I saw. The idea for a poem fixed itself firmer and
+      firmer in my mind; and I hoped, as it became more clearly worked out, to
+      propitiate by it my enemies. There is an old Danish folks-song of Agnete
+      and the Merman, which bore an affinity to my own state of mind, and to the
+      treatment of which I felt an inward impulse. The song tells that Agnete
+      wandered solitarily along the shore, when a merman rose up from the waves
+      and decoyed her by his speeches. She followed him to the bottom of the
+      sea, remained there seven years, and bore him seven children. One day, as
+      she sat by the cradle, she heard the church bells sounding down to her in
+      the depths of the sea, and a longing seized her heart to go to church. By
+      her prayers and tears she induced the merman to conduct her to the upper
+      world again, promising soon to return. He prayed her not to forget his
+      children, more especially the little one in the cradle; stopped up her
+      ears and her mouth, and then led her upwards to the sea-shore. When,
+      however, she entered the church, all the holy images, as soon as they saw
+      her, a daughter of sin and from the depths of the sea, turned themselves
+      round to the walls. She was affrighted, and would not return, although the
+      little ones in her home below were weeping.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I treated this subject freely, in a lyrical and dramatic manner. I will
+      venture to say that the whole grew out of my heart; all the recollections
+      of our beechwoods and the open sea were blended in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the midst of the excitement of Paris I lived in the spirit of the
+      Danish folks-songs. The most heartfelt gratitude to God filled my soul,
+      because I felt that all which I had, I had received through his mercy; yet
+      at the same time I took a lively interest in all that surrounded me. I was
+      present at one of the July festivals, in their first freshness; it was in
+      the year 1833. I saw the unveiling of Napoleon's pillar. I gazed on the
+      world-experienced King Louis Philippe, who is evidently defended by
+      Providence. I saw the Duke of Orleans, full of health and the enjoyment of
+      life, dancing at the gay people's ball, in the gay Maison de Ville.
+      Accident led in Paris to my first meeting with Heine, the poet, who at
+      that time occupied the throne in my poetical world. When I told him how
+      happy this meeting and his kind words made me, he said that this could not
+      very well be the case, else I should have sought him out. I replied, that
+      I had not done so precisely because I estimated him so highly. I should
+      have feared that he might have thought it ridiculous in me, an unknown
+      Danish poet, to seek him out; "and," added I, "your sarcastic smile would
+      deeply have wounded me." In reply, he said something friendly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Several years afterwards, when we again met in Paris, he gave me a cordial
+      reception, and I had a view into the brightly poetical portion of his
+      soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Paul D port met me with equal kindness. Victor Hugo also received me.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+ During my journey to Paris, and the whole month that I spent there, I
+heard not a single word from home. Could my friends perhaps have nothing
+agreeable to tell me? At length, however, a letter arrived; a large
+letter, which cost a large sum in postage. My heart beat with joy and
+yearning impatience; it was, indeed, my first letter. I opened it, but
+I discovered not a single written word, nothing but a Copenhagen
+newspaper, containing a lampoon upon me, and that was sent to me all
+that distance with postage unpaid, probably by the anonymous writer
+himself. This abominable malice wounded me deeply. I have never
+discovered who the author was, perhaps he was one of those who
+afterwards called me friend, and pressed my hand. Some men have base
+thoughts: I also have mine.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It is a weakness of my country-people, that commonly, when abroad, during
+      their residence in large cities, they almost live exclusively in company
+      together; they must dine together, meet at the theatre, and see all the
+      lions of the place in company. Letters are read by each other; news of
+      home is received and talked over, and at last they hardly know whether
+      they are in a foreign land or their own. I had given way to the same
+      weakness in Paris; and in leaving it, therefore, determined for one month
+      to board myself in some quiet place in Switzerland, and live only among
+      the French, so as to be compelled to speak their language, which was
+      necessary to me in the highest degree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the little city of Lodi, in a valley of the Jura mountains, where the
+      snow fell in August, and the clouds floated below us, was I received by
+      the amiable family of a wealthy watchmaker. They would not hear a word
+      about payment. I lived among them and their friends as a relation, and
+      when we parted the children wept. We had become friends, although I could
+      not understand their patois; they shouted loudly into my ear, because they
+      fancied I must be deaf, as I could not understand them. In the evenings,
+      in that elevated region, there was a repose and a stillness in nature, and
+      the sound of the evening bells ascended to us from the French frontier. At
+      some distance from the city, stood a solitary house, painted white and
+      clean; on descending through two cellars, the noise of a millwheel was
+      heard, and the rushing waters of a river which flowed on here, hidden from
+      the world. I often visited this place in my solitary rambles, and here I
+      finished my poem of "Agnete and the Merman," which I had begun in Paris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I sent home this poem from Lodi; and never, with my earlier or my later
+      works, were my hopes so high as they were now. But it was received coldly.
+      People said I had done it in imitation of Oehlenschl ger, who at one time
+      sent home masterpieces. Within the last few years, I fancy, this poem has
+      been somewhat more read, and has met with its friends. It was, however, a
+      step forwards, and it decided, as it were, unconsciously to me, my pure
+      lyrical phasis. It has been also of late critically adjudged in Denmark,
+      that, notwithstanding that on its first appearance it excited far less
+      attention than some of my earlier and less successful works, still that in
+      this the poetry is of a deeper, fuller, and more powerful character than
+      anything which I had hitherto produced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This poem closes one portion of my life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      On the 5th of September, 1833, I crossed the Simplon on my way to Italy.
+      On the very day, on which, fourteen years before, I had arrived poor and
+      helpless in Copenhagen, did I set foot in this country of my longing and
+      of my poetical happiness. It happened in this case, as it often does, by
+      accident, without any arrangement on my part, as if I had preordained
+      lucky days in the year; yet good fortune has so frequently been with me,
+      that I perhaps only remind myself of its visits on my own self-elected
+      days.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All was sunshine&mdash;all was spring! The vine hung in long trails from
+      tree to tree; never since have I seen Italy so beautiful. I sailed on Lago
+      Maggiore; ascended the cathedral of Milan; passed several days in Genoa,
+      and made from thence a journey, rich in the beauties of nature, along the
+      shore to Carrara. I had seen statues in Paris, but my eyes were closed to
+      them; in Florence, before the Venus de Medici, it was for the first time
+      as if scales fell from my eyes; a new world of art disclosed itself before
+      me; that was the first fruit of my journey. Here it was that I first
+      learned to understand the beauty of form&mdash;the spirit which reveals
+      itself in form. The life of the people&mdash;nature&mdash;all was new to
+      me; and yet as strangely familiar as if I were come to a home where I had
+      lived in my childhood. With a peculiar rapidity did I seize upon
+      everything, and entered into its life, whilst a deep northern melancholy&mdash;it
+      was not home-sickness, but a heavy, unhappy feeling&mdash;filled my
+      breast. I received the news in Rome, of how little the poem of Agnete,
+      which I had sent home, was thought of there; the next letter in Rome
+      brought me the news that my mother was dead. I was now quite alone in the
+      world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was at this time, and in Rome, that my first meeting with Hertz took
+      place. In a letter which I had received from Collin, he had said that it
+      would give him pleasure to hear that Hertz and I had become friends; but
+      even without this wish it would have happened, for Hertz kindly offered me
+      his hand, and expressed sympathy with my sorrow. He had, of all those with
+      whom I was at that time acquainted, the most variously cultivated mind. We
+      had often disputations together, even about the attacks which had been
+      made upon me at home as a poet. He, who had himself given me a wound, said
+      the following words, which deeply impressed themselves on my memory: "Your
+      misfortune is, that you have been obliged to print everything; the public
+      has been able to follow you step by step. I believe that even, a Goethe
+      himself must have suffered the same fate, had he been in your situation."
+      And then he praised my talent for seizing upon the characteristics of
+      nature, and giving, by a few intuitive sketches, pictures of familiar
+      life. My intercourse with him was very instructive to me, and I felt that
+      I had one merciful judge more. I travelled in company with him to Naples,
+      where we dwelt together in one house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Rome I also became first acquainted with Thorwaldsen. Many years
+      before, when I had not long been in Copenhagen, and was walking through
+      the streets as a poor boy, Thorwaldsen was there too: that was on his
+      first return home. We met one another in the street. I knew that he was a
+      distinguished man in art; I looked at him, I bowed; he went on, and then,
+      suddenly turning round, came back to me, and said, "Where have I seen you
+      before? I think we know one another." I replied, "No, we do not know one
+      another at all." I now related this story to him in Rome; he smiled,
+      pressed my hand, and said, "Yet we felt at that time that we should become
+      good friends." I read Agnete to him; and that which delighted me in his
+      judgment upon it was the assertion, "It is just," said he, "as if I were
+      walking at home in the woods, and heard the Danish lakes;" and then he
+      kissed me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day, when he saw how distressed I was, and I related to him about the
+      pasquinade which I had received from home in Paris, he gnashed his teeth
+      violently, and said, in momentary anger, "Yes, yes, I know the people; it
+      would not have gone any better with me if I had remained there; I should
+      then, perhaps, not even have obtained permission to set up a model. Thank
+      God that I did not need them, for then they know how to torment and to
+      annoy." He desired me to keep up a good heart, and then things could not
+      fail of going well; and with that he told me of some dark passages in his
+      own life, where he in like manner had been mortified and unjustly
+      condemned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the Carnival, I left Rome for Naples; saw at Capri the blue Grotto,
+      which was at that time first discovered; visited the temple at Paestum,
+      and returned in the Easter week to Rome, from whence I went through
+      Florence and Venice to Vienna and Munich; but I had at that time neither
+      mind nor heart for Germany; and when I thought on Denmark, I felt fear and
+      distress of mind about the bad reception which I expected to find there.
+      Italy, with its scenery and its people's life, occupied my soul, and
+      towards this land I felt a yearning. My earlier life, and what I had now
+      seen, blended themselves together into an image&mdash;into poetry, which I
+      was compelled to write down, although I was convinced that it would
+      occasion me more trouble than joy, if my necessities at home should oblige
+      me to print it. I had written already in Rome the first chapter. It was my
+      novel of "The Improvisatore."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At one of my first visits to the theatre at Odense, as a little boy,
+      where, as I have already mentioned, the representations were given in the
+      German language, I saw the Donauweibchen, and the public applauded the
+      actress of the principal part. Homage was paid to her, and she was
+      honored; and I vividly remember thinking how happy she must be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many years afterwards, when, as a student, I visited Odense, I saw, in one
+      of the chambers of the hospital where the poor widows lived and where one
+      bed stood by another, a female portrait hanging over one bed in a gilt
+      frame. It was Lessing's Emilia Galotti, and represented her as pulling the
+      rose to pieces; but the picture was a portrait. It appeared singular in
+      contrast with the poverty by which it was surrounded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Whom does it represent?" asked I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh!" said one of the old women, "it is the face of the German lady, the
+      poor lady who once was an actress!" And then I saw a little delicate
+      woman, whose face was covered with wrinkles, and in an old silk gown that
+      once had been black. That was the once celebrated Singer, who, as the
+      Donauweibchen, had been applauded by every one. This circumstance made an
+      indelible impression upon me, and often occurred to my mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Naples I heard Malibran for the first time. Her singing and acting
+      surpassed anything which I had hitherto either heard or seen; and yet I
+      thought the while of the miserably poor singer in the hospital of Odense:
+      the two figures blended into the Annunciata of the novel. Italy was the
+      back ground for that which had been experienced and that which was
+      imagined. In August of 1834 I returned to Denmark. I wrote the first part
+      of the book at Ingemann's, in Sor÷, in a little chamber in the roof, among
+      fragrant lime-trees. I finished it in Copenhagen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this time my best friends, even, had almost given me up as a poet; they
+      said that they had erred with regard to my talents. It was with difficulty
+      that I found a publisher for the book. I received a miserable sum of money
+      for it, and the "Improvisatore" made its appearance; was read, sold out,
+      and again published. The critics were silent; the newspapers said nothing;
+      but I heard all around me of the interest which was felt for the work, and
+      the delight that it occasioned. At length the poet Carl Bagger, who was at
+      that time the editor of a newspaper, wrote the first critique upon it, and
+      began ironically, with the customary tirade against me&mdash;"that it was
+      all over with this author, who had already passed his heyday;"&mdash;in
+      short, he went the whole length of the tobacco and tea criticism, in order
+      suddenly to dash out, and to express his extremely warm enthusiasm for me;
+      and my book. People now laughed at me, but I wept. This was my mood of
+      mind. I wept freely, and felt gratitude to God and man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To the Conference Councillor Collin and to his noble wife, in whom I
+      found parents, whose children were brethren and sisters to me, whose house
+      was my home, do I here present the best of which I am possessed."&mdash;So
+      ran the dedication. Many who formerly had been my enemy, now changed their
+      opinion; and among these one became my friend, who, I hope, will remain so
+      through the whole of my life. That was Hauch the poet, one of the noblest
+      characters with whom I am acquainted. He had returned home from Italy
+      after a residence of several years abroad, just at the time when Heiberg's
+      vaudevilles were intoxicating the inhabitants of Copenhagen, and when my
+      "Journey on Foot" was making me a little known. He commenced a controversy
+      with Heiberg, and somewhat scoffed at me. Nobody called his attention to
+      my better lyrical writings; I was described to him as a spoiled, petulant
+      child of fortune. He now read my Improvisatore, and feeling that there was
+      something good in me, his noble character evinced itself by his writing a
+      cordial letter to me, in which he said, that he had done me an injustice,
+      and offered me now the hand of reconciliation. From that time we became
+      friends. He used his influence for me with the utmost zeal, and has
+      watched my onward career with heartfelt friendship. But so little able
+      have many people been to understand what is excellent in him, or the noble
+      connection of heart between us two, that not long since, when he wrote a
+      novel, and drew in it the caricature of a poet, whose vanity ended in
+      insanity, the people in Denmark discovered that he had treated me with the
+      greatest injustice, because he had described in it my weakness. People
+      must not believe that this was the assertion of one single person, or a
+      misapprehension of my character; no; and Hauch felt himself compelled to
+      write a treatise upon me as a poet, that he might show what a different
+      place he assigned to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But to return to the "Improvisatore." This book raised my sunken fortunes;
+      collected my friends again around me, nay, even obtained for me new ones.
+      For the first time I felt that I had obtained a due acknowledgment. The
+      book was translated into German by Kruse, with a long title, <i>"Jugendleben
+      und Tr ume eines italienischen Dichter's."</i> I objected to the title;
+      but he declared that it was necessary in order to attract attention to the
+      book.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bagger had, as already stated, been the first to pass judgment on the
+      work; after an interval of some time a second critique made its
+      appearance, more courteous, it is true, than I was accustomed to, but
+      still passing lightly over the best things in the book and dwelling on its
+      deficiencies, and on the number of incorrectly written Italian words. And,
+      as Nicolai's well-known book, "Italy as it really is," came out just then,
+      people universally said, "Now we shall be able to see what it is about
+      which Andersen has written, for from Nicolai a true idea of Italy may be
+      obtained for the first time."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was from Germany that resounded the first decided acknowledgment of the
+      merits of my work, or rather perhaps its over estimation. I bow myself in
+      joyful gratitude, like a sick man toward the sunshine, when my heart is
+      grateful. I am not, as the Danish Monthly Review, in its critique of the
+      "Improvisatore," condescended to assert, an unthankful man, who exhibits
+      in his work a want of gratitude towards his benefactors. I was indeed
+      myself poor Antonio who sighed under the burden which I had to bear,&mdash;<i>I,</i>
+      the poor lad who ate the bread of charity. From Sweden also, later,
+      resounded my praise, and the Swedish newspapers contained articles in
+      praise of this work, which within the last two years has been equally
+      warmly received in England, where Mary Howitt, the poetess, has translated
+      it into English; the same good fortune also is said to have attended the
+      book in Holland and Russia. Everywhere abroad resounded the loudest
+      acknowledgments of its excellence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There exists in the public a power which is stronger than all the critics
+      and cliques. I felt that I stood at home on firmer ground, and my spirit
+      again had moments in which it raised its wings for flight. In this
+      alternation of feeling between gaiety and ill humor, I wrote my next
+      novel, "O. T.," which is regarded by many persons in Denmark as my best
+      work;&mdash;an estimation which I cannot myself award to it. It contains
+      characteristic features of town life. My first Tales appeared before "O.
+      T;" but this is not the place in which to speak of them. I felt just at
+      this time a strong mental impulse to write, and I believed that I had
+      found my true element in novel-writing. In the following year, 1837, I
+      published "Only a Fiddler," a book which on my part had been deeply
+      pondered over, and the details of which sprang fresh to the paper. My
+      design was to show that talent is not genius, and that if the sunshine of
+      good fortune be withheld, this must go to the ground, though without
+      losing its nobler, better nature. This book likewise had its partisans;
+      but still the critics would not vouchsafe to me any encouragement; they
+      forgot that with years the boy becomes a man, and that people may acquire
+      knowledge in other than the ordinary ways. They could not separate
+      themselves from their old preconceived opinions. Whilst "O. T." was going
+      through the press it was submitted sheet by sheet to a professor of the
+      university, who had himself offered to undertake this work, and by two
+      other able men also; notwithstanding all this, the Reviews said, "We find
+      the usual grammatical negligence, which we always find in Andersen, in
+      this work also." That which contributed likewise to place this book in the
+      shade was the circumstance of Heiberg having at that time published his
+      Every-day Stories, which were written in excellent language, and with good
+      taste and truth. Their own merits, and the recommendation of their being
+      Heiberg's, who was the beaming star of literature, placed them in the
+      highest rank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had however advanced so far, that there no longer existed any doubt as
+      to my poetical ability, which people had wholly denied to me before my
+      journey to Italy. Still not a single Danish critic had spoken of the
+      characteristics which are peculiar to my novels. It was not until my works
+      appeared in Swedish that this was done, and then several Swedish journals
+      went profoundly into the subject and analyzed my works with good and
+      honorable intentions. The case was the same in Germany; and from this
+      country too my heart was strengthened to proceed. It was not until last
+      year that in Denmark, a man of influence, Hauch the poet, spoke of the
+      novels in his already mentioned treatise, and with a few touches brought
+      their characteristics prominently forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The principal thing," says he, "in Andersen's best and most elaborate
+      works, in those which are distinguished for the richest fancy, the deepest
+      feeling, the most lively poetic spirit, is, of talent, or at least of a
+      noble nature, which will struggle its way out of narrow and depressing
+      circumstances. This is the case with his three novels, and with this
+      purpose in view, it is really an important state of existence which he
+      describes,&mdash;an inner world, which no one understands better than he,
+      who has himself, drained out of the bitter cup of suffering and
+      renunciation, painful and deep feelings which are closely related to those
+      of his own experience, and from which Memory, who, according to the old
+      significant myth, is the mother of the Muses, met him hand in hand with
+      them. That which he, in these his works, relates to the world, deserves
+      assuredly to be listened to with attention; because, at the same time that
+      it may be only the most secret inward life of the individual, yet it is
+      also the common lot of men of talent and genius, at least when these are
+      in needy circumstances, as is the case of those who are here placed before
+      our eyes. In so far as in his 'Improvisatore,' in 'O. T.,' and in 'Only a
+      Fiddler,' he represents not only himself, in his own separate
+      individuality, but at the same time the momentous combat which so many
+      have to pass through, and which he understands so well, because in it his
+      own life has developed itself; therefore in no instance can he be said to
+      present to the reader what belongs to the world of illusion, but only that
+      which bears witness to truth, and which, as is the case with all such
+      testimony, has a universal and enduring worth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And still more than this, Andersen is not only the defender of talent and
+      genius, but, at the same time, of every human heart which is unkindly and
+      unjustly treated. And whilst he himself has so painfully suffered in that
+      deep combat in which the Laocoon-snakes seize upon the outstretched hand;
+      whilst he himself has been compelled to drink from that wormwood-steeped
+      bowl which the cold-blooded and arrogant world so constantly offers to
+      those who are in depressed circumstances, he is fully capable of giving to
+      his delineations in this respect a truth and an earnestness, nay, even a
+      tragic and a pain-awakening pathos that rarely fails of producing its
+      effect on the sympathizing human heart. Who can read that scene in his
+      'Only a Fiddler,' in which the 'high-bred hound,' as the poet expresses
+      it, 'turned away with disgust from the broken victuals which the poor
+      youth received as alms, without recognizing, at the same time, that this
+      is no game in which vanity seeks for a triumph, but that it expresses much
+      more&mdash;human nature wounded to its inmost depths, which here speaks
+      out its sufferings.'"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus is it spoken in Denmark of my works, after an interval of nine or ten
+      years; thus speaks the voice of a noble, venerated man. It is with me and
+      the critics as it is with wine,&mdash;the more years pass before it is
+      drunk the better is its flavor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the year in which "The Fiddler" came out, I visited for the first
+      time the neighboring country of Sweden. I went by the G÷ta canal to
+      Stockholm. At that time nobody understood what is now called Scandinavian
+      sympathies; there still existed a sort of mistrust inherited from the old
+      wars between the two neighbor nations. Little was known of Swedish
+      literature, and there were only very few Danes who could easily read and
+      understand the Swedish language;&mdash;people scarcely knew Tegn r's
+      Frithiof and Axel, excepting through translations. I had, however, read a
+      few other Swedish authors, and the deceased, unfortunate Stagnelius
+      pleased me more as a poet than Tegn r, who represented poetry in Sweden.
+      I, who hitherto had only travelled into Germany and southern countries,
+      where by this means, the departure from Copenhagen was also the departure
+      from my mother tongue, felt, in this respect, almost at home in Sweden:
+      the languages are so much akin, that of two persons each might read in the
+      language of his own country, and yet the other understand him. It seemed
+      to me, as a Dane, that Denmark expanded itself; kinship with the people
+      exhibited itself, in many ways, more and more; and I felt, livingly, how
+      near akin are Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I met with cordial, kind people,&mdash;and with these I easily made
+      acquaintance. I reckon this journey among the happiest I ever made. I had
+      no knowledge of the character of Swedish scenery, and therefore I was in
+      the highest degree astonished by the Trollh tta-voyage, and by the
+      extremely picturesque situation of Stockholm. It sounds to the uninitiated
+      half like a fairy-tale, when one says that the steam-boat goes up across
+      the lakes over the mountains, from whence may be seen the outstretched
+      pine and beechwoods below. Immense sluices heave up and lower the vessel
+      again, whilst the travellers ramble through the woods. None of the
+      cascades of Switzerland, none in Italy, not even that of Terni, have in
+      them anything so imposing as that of Trollh tta. Such is the impression,
+      at all events, which it made on me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On this journey, and at this last-mentioned place, commenced a very
+      interesting acquaintance, and one which has not been without its influence
+      on me,&mdash;an acquaintance with the Swedish authoress, Fredrika Bremer.
+      I had just been speaking with the captain of the steam-boat and some of
+      the passengers about the Swedish authors living in Stockholm, and I
+      mentioned my desire to see and converse with Miss Bremer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You will not meet with her," said the Captain, "as she is at this moment
+      on a visit in Norway."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She will be coming back while I am there," said I in joke; "I always am
+      lucky in my journeys, and that which I most wish for is always
+      accomplished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hardly this time, however," said the captain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few hours after this he came up to me laughing, with the list of the
+      newly arrived passengers in his hand. "Lucky fellow," said he aloud, "you
+      take good fortune with you; Miss Bremer is here, and sails with us to
+      Stockholm."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received it as a joke; he showed me the list, but still I was uncertain.
+      Among the new arrivals, I could see no one who resembled an authoress.
+      Evening came on, and about midnight we were on the great Wener lake. At
+      sunrise I wished to have a view of this extensive lake, the shores of
+      which could scarcely be seen; and for this purpose I left the cabin. At
+      the very moment that I did so, another passenger was also doing the same,
+      a lady neither young nor old, wrapped in a shawl and cloak. I thought to
+      myself, if Miss Bremer is on board, this must be she, and fell into
+      discourse with her; she replied politely, but still distantly, nor would
+      she directly answer my question, whether she was the authoress of the
+      celebrated novels. She asked after my name; was acquainted with it, but
+      confessed that she had read none of my works. She then inquired whether I
+      had not some of them with me, and I lent her a copy of the
+      "Improvisatore," which I had destined for Beskow. She vanished immediately
+      with the volumes, and was not again visible all morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I again saw her, her countenance was beaming, and she was full of
+      cordiality; she pressed my hand, and said that she had read the greater
+      part of the first volume, and that she now knew me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The vessel flew with us across the mountains, through quiet inland lakes
+      and forests, till it arrived at the Baltic Sea, where islands lie
+      scattered, as in the Archipelago, and where the most remarkable transition
+      takes place from naked cliffs to grassy islands, and to those on which
+      stand trees and houses. Eddies and breakers make it here necessary to take
+      on board a skilful pilot; and there are indeed some places where every
+      passenger must sit quietly on his seat, whilst the eye of the pilot is
+      riveted upon one point. On shipboard one feels the mighty power of nature,
+      which at one moment seizes hold of the vessel and the next lets it go
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Bremer related many legends and many histories, which were connected
+      with this or that island, or those farm-premises up aloft on the mainland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Stockholm, the acquaintance with her increased, and year after year the
+      letters which have passed between us have strengthened it. She is a noble
+      woman; the great truths of religion, and the poetry which lies in the
+      quiet circumstances of life, have penetrated her being.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not until after my visit to Stockholm that her Swedish translation
+      of my novel came out; my lyrical poems only, and my "Journey on Foot,"
+      were known to a few authors; these received me with the utmost kindness,
+      and the lately deceased Dahlgr n, well known by his humorous poems, wrote
+      a song in my honor&mdash;in short, I met with hospitality, and
+      countenances beaming with Sunday gladness. Sweden and its inhabitants
+      became dear to me. The city itself, by its situation and its whole
+      picturesque appearance, seemed to me to emulate Naples. Of course, this
+      last has the advantage of fine atmosphere, and the sunshine of the south;
+      but the view of Stockholm is just as imposing; it has also some
+      resemblance to Constantinople, as seen from Pera, only that the minarets
+      are wanting. There prevails a great variety of coloring in the capital of
+      Sweden; white painted buildings; frame-work houses, with the wood-work
+      painted red; barracks of turf, with flowering plants; fir tree and birches
+      look out from among the houses, and the churches with their balls and
+      towers. The streets in S÷dermalm ascend by flights of wooden steps up from
+      the M lar lake, which is all active with smoking steam-vessels, and with
+      boats rowed by women in gay-colored dresses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had brought with me a letter of introduction from Oersted, to the
+      celebrated Berzelius, who gave me a good reception in the old city of
+      Upsala. From this place I returned to Stockholm. City, country, and
+      people, were all dear to me; it seemed to me, as I said before, that the
+      boundaries of my native land had stretched themselves out, and I now first
+      felt the kindredship of the three peoples, and in this feeling I wrote a
+      Scandinavian song, a hymn of praise for all the three nations, for that
+      which was peculiar and best in each one of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "One can see that the Swedes made a deal of him," was the first remark
+      which I heard at home on this song.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+Years pass on; the neighbors understand each other better; Oehlenschl
+ger. Fredrika Bremer, and Tegn r, caused them mutually to read each
+other's authors, and the foolish remains of the old enmity, which had no
+other foundation than that they did not know each other, vanished.
+There now prevails a beautiful, cordial relationship between Sweden and
+Denmark. A Scandinavian club has been established in Stockholm; and
+with this my song came to honor; and it was then said, "it will outlive
+everything that Andersen has written:" which was as unjust as when they
+said that it was only the product of flattered vanity. This song is now
+sung in Sweden as well as in Denmark.
+
+ On my return home I began to study history industriously, and made
+myself still further acquainted with the literature of foreign
+countries. Yet still the volume which afforded me the greatest pleasure
+was that of nature; and in a summer residence among the country-seats of
+Funen, and more especially at Lykkesholm, with its highly romantic
+site in the midst of woods, and at the noble seat of Glorup, from whose
+possessor I met with the most friendly reception, did I acquire more
+true wisdom, assuredly, in my solitary rambles, than I ever could have
+gained from the schools.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The house of the Conference Councillor Collin in Copenhagen was at that
+      time, as it has been since, a second father's house to me, and there I had
+      parents, and brothers and sisters. The best circles of social life were
+      open to me, and the student life interested me: here I mixed in the
+      pleasures of youth. The student life of Copenhagen is, besides this,
+      different from that of the German cities, and was at this time peculiar
+      and full of life. For me this was most perceptible in the students' clubs,
+      where students and professors were accustomed to meet each other: there
+      was there no boundary drawn between the youthful and elder men of letters.
+      In this club were to be found the journals and books of various countries;
+      once a week an author would read his last work; a concert or some peculiar
+      burlesque entertainment would take place. It was here that what may be
+      called the first Danish people'scomedies took their origin,&mdash;comedies
+      in which the events of the day were worked up always in an innocent, but
+      witty and amusing manner. Sometimes dramatic representations were given in
+      the presence of ladies for the furtherance of some noble purpose, as
+      lately to assist Thorwaldsen's Museum, to raise funds for the execution of
+      Bissen's statue in marble, and for similar ends. The professors and
+      students were the actors. I also appeared several times as an actor, and
+      convinced myself that my terror at appearing on the stage was greater than
+      the talent which I perhaps possessed. Besides this, I wrote and arranged
+      several pieces, and thus gave my assistance. Several scenes from this
+      time, the scenes in the students' club, I have worked up in my romance of
+      "O. T." The humor and love of life observable in various passages of this
+      book, and in the little dramatic pieces written about this time, are owing
+      to the influence of the family of Collin, where much good was done me in
+      that respect, so that my morbid turn of mind was unable to gain the
+      mastery of me. Collin's eldest married daughter, especially, exercised
+      great influence over me, by her merry humor and wit. When the mind is
+      yielding and elastic, like the expanse of ocean, it readily, like the
+      ocean, mirrors its environments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My writings, in my own country, were now classed among those which were
+      always bought and read; therefore for each fresh work I received a higher
+      payment. Yet, truly, when you consider what a circumscribed world the
+      Danish reading world is, you will see that this payment could not be the
+      most liberal. Yet I had to live. Collin, who is one of the men who do more
+      than they promise, was my help, my consolation, my support.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this time the late Count Conrad von Rantzau-Breitenburg, a native of
+      Holstein, was Prime Minister in Denmark. He was of a noble, amiable
+      nature, a highly educated man, and possessed of a truly chivalrous
+      disposition. He carefully observed the movements in German and Danish
+      literature. In his youth he had travelled much, and spent a long time in
+      Spain and Italy, He read my "Improvisatore" in the original; his
+      imagination was powerfully seized by it, and he spoke both at court and in
+      his own private circles of my book in the warmest manner. He did not stop
+      here; he sought me out, and became my benefactor and friend. One forenoon,
+      whilst I was sitting solitarily in my little chamber, this friendly man
+      stood before me for the first time. He belonged to that class of men who
+      immediately inspire you with confidence; he besought me to visit him, and
+      frankly asked me whether there were no means by which he could be of use
+      to me. I hinted how oppressive it was to be <i>forced</i> to write in
+      order to live, always to be forced to think of the morrow, and not move
+      free from care, to be able to develop your mind and thoughts. He pressed
+      my hand in a friendly manner, and promised to be an efficient friend.
+      Collin and Oersted secretly associated themselves with him, and became my
+      intercessors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Already for many years there had existed, under Frederick VI., an
+      institution which does the highest honor to the Danish government, namely,
+      that beside the considerable sum expended yearly, for the travelling
+      expenses of young literary men and artists, a small pension shall be
+      awarded to such of them as enjoy no office emoluments. All our most
+      important poets have had a share of this assistance,&mdash;Oehlenschl ger,
+      Ingemann, Heiberg, C. Winther, and others. Hertz had just then received
+      such a pension, and his future life made thus the more secure. It was my
+      hope and my wish that the same good fortune might be mine&mdash;and it
+      was. Frederick VI. granted me two hundred rix dollars banco yearly. I was
+      filled with gratitude and joy. I was nolonger <i>forced</i> to write in
+      order to live; I had a sure support in the possible event of sickness. I
+      was less dependent upon the people about me. A new chapter of my life
+      began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      From this day forward, it was as if a more constant sunshine had entered
+      my heart. I felt within myself more repose, more certainty; it was clear
+      to me, as I glanced back over my earlier life, that a loving Providence
+      watched over me, that all was directed for me by a higher Power; and the
+      firmer becomes such a conviction, the more secure does a man feel himself.
+      My childhood lay behind me, my youthful life began properly from this
+      period; hitherto it had been only an arduous swimming against the stream.
+      The spring of my life commenced; but still the spring had its dark days,
+      its storms, before it advanced to settled summer; it has these in order to
+      develop what shall then ripen. That which one of my dearest friends wrote
+      to me on one of my later travels abroad, may serve as an introduction to
+      what I have here to relate. He wrote in his own peculiar style:&mdash;"It
+      is your vivid imagination which creates the idea of your being despised in
+      Denmark; it is utterly untrue. You and Denmark agree admirably, and you
+      would agree still better, if there were in Denmark no theatre&mdash;<i>Hinc
+      illae lacrymae!</i> This cursed theatre. Is this, then, Denmark? and are
+      you, then, nothing but a writer for the theatre?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Herein lies a solid truth. The theatre has been the cave out of which most
+      of the evil storms have burst upon me. They are peculiar people, these
+      people of the theatre,&mdash;as different, in fact, from others, as
+      Bedouins from Germans; from the first pantomimist to the first lover,
+      everyone places himself systematically in one scale, and puts all the
+      world in the other. The Danish theatre is a good theatre, it may indeed be
+      placed on a level with the Burg theatre in Vienna; but the theatre in
+      Copenhagen plays too great a part in conversation, and possesses in most
+      circles too much importance. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the
+      stage and the actors in other great cities, and therefore cannot compare
+      them with our theatre; but ours has too little military discipline, and
+      this is absolutely necessary where many people have to form a whole, even
+      when that whole is an artistical one. The most distinguished dramatic
+      poets in Denmark&mdash;that is to say, in Copenhagen, for there only is a
+      theatre&mdash;have their troubles. Those actors and actresses who, through
+      talent or the popular favor, take the first rank, very often place
+      themselves above both the managers and authors. These must pay court to
+      them, or they may ruin a part, or what is still worse, may spread abroad
+      an unfavorable opinion of the piece previous to its being acted; and thus
+      you have a coffee-house criticism before any one ought properly to know
+      anything of the work. It is moreover characteristic of the people of
+      Copenhagen, that when a new piece is announced, they do not say, "I am
+      glad of it," but, "It will probably be good for nothing; it will be hissed
+      off the stage." That hissing-off plays a great part, and is an amusement
+      which fills the house; but it is not the bad actor who is hissed, no, the
+      author and the composer only are the criminals; for them the scaffold is
+      erected. Five minutes is the usual time, and the whistles resound, and the
+      lovely women smile and felicitate themselves, like the Spanish ladies at
+      their bloody bullfights. All our most eminent dramatic writers have been
+      whistled down,&mdash;as Oehlenschl ger, Heiberg, Oversko, and others; to
+      say nothing of foreign classics, as Moli re. In the mean time the theatre
+      is the most profitable sphere of labor for the Danish writer, whose public
+      does not extend far beyond the frontiers. This had induced me to write the
+      opera-text already spoken of, on account of which I was so severely
+      criticised; and an internal impulse drove me afterwards to add some other
+      works. Collin was no longer manager of the theatre, Councillor of Justice
+      Molbeck had taken his place; and the tyranny which now commenced
+      degenerated into the comic. I fancy that in course of time the manuscript
+      volumes of the censorship, which are preserved in the theatre, and in
+      which Molbeck has certainly recorded his judgments on received and
+      rejected pieces, will present some remarkable characteristics. Over all
+      that I wrote the staff was broken! One way was open to me by which to
+      bring my pieces on the stage; and that was to give them to those actors
+      who in summer gave representations at their own cost. In the summer of
+      1839 I wrote the vaudeville of "The Invisible One on Sprog÷," to scenery
+      which had been painted for another piece which fell through; and the
+      unrestrained merriment of the piece gave it such favor with the public,
+      that I obtained its acceptance by the manager; and that light sketch still
+      maintains itself on the boards, and has survived such a number of
+      representations as I had never anticipated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This approbation, however, procured me no further advantage, for each of
+      my succeeding dramatic works received only rejection, and occasioned me
+      only mortification. Nevertheless, seized by the idea and the circumstances
+      of the little French narrative, "<i>Les paves</i>," I determined to
+      dramatise it; and as I had often heard that I did not possess the
+      assiduity sufficient to work my mat riel well, I resolved to labor this
+      drama&mdash;"The Mulatto"&mdash;from the beginning to the end, in the most
+      diligent manner, and to compose it in alternately rhyming verse, as was
+      then the fashion. It was a foreign subject of which I availed myself; but
+      if verses are music, I at least endeavored to adapt my music to the text,
+      and to let the poetry of another diffuse itself through my spiritual
+      blood; so that people should not be heard to say, as they had done before,
+      regarding the romance of Walter Scott, that the composition was cut down
+      and fitted to the stage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The piece was ready, and declared by able men, old friends, and actors who
+      were to appear in it, to be excellent; a rich dramatic capacity lay in the
+      mat riel, and my lyrical composition clothed this with so fresh a green,
+      that people appeared satisfied. The piece was sent in, and was rejected by
+      Molbeck. It was sufficiently known that what he cherished for the boards,
+      withered there the first evening; but what he cast away as weeds were
+      flowers for the garden&mdash;a real consolation for me. The
+      assistant-manager, Privy Counsellor of State, Adler, a man of taste and
+      liberality, became the patron of my work; and since a very favorable
+      opinion of it already prevailed with the public, after I had read it to
+      many persons, it was resolved on for representation. I had the honor to
+      read it before my present King and Queen, who received me in a very kind
+      and friendly manner, and from whom, since that time, I have experienced
+      many proofs of favor and cordiality. The day of representation arrived;
+      the bills were posted; I had not closed my eyes through the whole night
+      from excitement and expectation; the people already stood in throngs
+      before the theatre, to procure tickets, when royal messengers galloped
+      through the streets, solemn groups collected, the minute guns pealed,&mdash;Frederick
+      VI. had died this morning!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For two months more was the theatre closed, and was opened under Christian
+      VIII., with my drama&mdash;"The Mulatto;" which was received with the most
+      triumphant acclamation; but I could not at once feel the joy of it, I felt
+      only relieved from a state of excitement, and breathed more freely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This piece continued through a series of representations to receive the
+      same approbation; many placed this work far above all my former ones, and
+      considered that with it began my proper poetical career. It was soon
+      translated into the Swedish, and acted with applause at the royal theatre
+      in Stockholm. Travelling players introduced it into the smaller towns in
+      the neighboring country; a Danish company gave it in the original
+      language, in the Swedish city Malm÷, and a troop of students from the
+      university town of Lund, welcomed it with enthusiasm. I had been for a
+      week previous on a visit at some Swedish country houses, where I was
+      entertained with so much cordial kindness that the recollection of it will
+      never quit my bosom; and there, in a foreign country, I received the first
+      public testimony of honor, and which has left upon me the deepest and most
+      inextinguishable impression. I was invited by some students of Lund to
+      visit their ancient town. Here a public dinner was given to me; speeches
+      were made, toasts were pronounced; and as I was in the evening in a family
+      circle, I was informed that the students meant to honor me with a
+      serenade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I felt myself actually overcome by this intelligence; my heart throbbed
+      feverishly as I descried the thronging troop, with their blue caps, and
+      arm-in-arm approaching the house. I experienced a feeling of humiliation;
+      a most lively consciousness of my deficiencies, so that I seemed bowed to
+      the very earth at the moment others were elevating me. As they all
+      uncovered their heads while I stepped forth, I had need of all my thoughts
+      to avoid bursting into tears. In the feeling that I was unworthy of all
+      this, I glanced round to see whether a smile did not pass over the face of
+      some one, but I could discern nothing of the kind; and such a discovery
+      would, at that moment, have inflicted on me the deepest wound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After an hurrah, a speech was delivered, of which I clearly recollect the
+      following words:&mdash;"When your native land, and the natives of Europe
+      offer you their homage, then may you never forget that the first public
+      honors were conferred on you by the students of Lund."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the heart is warm, the strength of the expression is not weighed. I
+      felt it deeply, and replied, that from this moment I became aware that I
+      must assert a name in order to render myself worthy of these tokens of
+      honor. I pressed the hands of those nearest to me, and returned them
+      thanks so deep, so heartfelt,&mdash;certainly never was an expression of
+      thanks more sincere. When I returned to my chamber, I went aside, in order
+      to weep out this excitement, this overwhelming sensation. "Think no more
+      of it, be joyous with us," said some of my lively Swedish friends; but a
+      deep earnestness had entered my soul. Often has the memory of this time
+      come back to me; and no noble-minded man, who reads these pages will
+      discover a vanity in the fact, that I have lingered so long over this
+      moment of life, which scorched the roots of pride rather than nourished
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My drama was now to be brought on the stage at Malm÷; the students wished
+      to see it; but I hastened my departure, that I might not be in the theatre
+      at the time. With gratitude and joy fly my thoughts towards the Swedish
+      University city, but I myself have not been there again since. In the
+      Swedish newspapers the honors paid me were mentioned, and it was added
+      that the Swedes were not unaware that in my own country there was a clique
+      which persecuted me; but that this should not hinder my neighbors from
+      offering me the honors which they deemed my due.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was when I had returned to Copenhagen that I first truly felt how
+      cordially I had been received by the Swedes; amongst some of my old and
+      tried friends I found the most genuine sympathy. I saw tears in their
+      eyes, tears of joy for the honors paid me; and especially, said they, for
+      the manner in which I had received them. There is but one manner for me;
+      at once, in the midst of joy, I fly with thanks to God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were certain persons who smiled at the enthusiasm; certain voices
+      raised themselves already against "The Mulatto;"&mdash;"the mat riel was
+      merely borrowed;" the French narrative was scrupulously studied. That
+      exaggerated praise which I had received, now made me sensitive to the
+      blame; I could bear it less easily than before, and saw more clearly, that
+      it did not spring out of an interest in the matter, but was only uttered
+      in order to mortify me. For the rest, my mind was fresh and elastic; I
+      conceived precisely at this time the idea of "The Picture-Book without
+      Pictures," and worked it out. This little book appears, to judge by the
+      reviews and the number of editions, to have obtained an extraordinary
+      popularity in Germany; it was also translated into Swedish, and dedicated
+      to myself; at home, it was here less esteemed; people talked only of The
+      Mulatto; and finally, only of the borrowed mat riel of it. I determined,
+      therefore to produce a new dramatic work, in which both subject and
+      development, in fact, everything should be of my own conception. I had the
+      idea, and now wrote the tragedy of The Moorish Maiden, hoping through this
+      to stop the mouths of all my detractors, and to assert my place as a
+      dramatic poet. I hoped, too, through the income from this, together with
+      the proceeds of The Mulatto, to be able to make a fresh journey, not only
+      to Italy, but to Greece and Turkey. My first going abroad had more than
+      all besides operated towards my intellectual development; I was therefore
+      full of the passion for travel, and of the endeavor to acquire more
+      knowledge of nature and of human life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My new piece did not please Heiberg, nor indeed my dramatic endeavors at
+      all; his wife&mdash;for whom the chief part appeared to me especially to
+      be written&mdash;refused, and that not in the most friendly manner, to
+      play it. Deeply wounded, I went forth. I lamented this to some
+      individuals. Whether this was repeated, or whether a complaint against the
+      favorite of the public is a crime, enough: from this hour Heiberg became
+      my opponent,&mdash;he whose intellectual rank I so highly estimated,&mdash;he
+      with whom I would so willingly have allied myself,&mdash;and he who so
+      often&mdash;I will venture to say it&mdash;I had approached with the whole
+      sincerity of my nature. I have constantly declared his wife to be so
+      distinguished an actress, and continue still so entirely of this opinion,
+      that I would not hesitate one moment to assert that she would have a
+      European reputation, were the Danish language as widely diffused as the
+      German or the French. In tragedy she is, by the spirit and the geniality
+      with which she comprehends and fills any part, a most interesting object;
+      and in comedy she stands unrivalled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wrong may be on my side or not,&mdash;no matter: a party was opposed
+      to me. I felt myself wounded, excited by many coincident annoyances there.
+      I felt uncomfortable in my native country, yes, almost ill. I therefore
+      left my piece to its fate, and, suffering and disconcerted, I hastened
+      forth. In this mood I wrote a prologue to The Moorish Maiden; which
+      betrayed my irritated mind far too palpably. If I would represent this
+      portion of my life more clearly and reflectively it would require me to
+      penetrate into the mysteries of the theatre, to analyze our aesthetic
+      cliques, and to drag into conspicuous notice many individuals, who do not
+      belong to publicity. Many persons in my place would, like me, have fallen
+      ill, or would have resented it vehemently: perhaps the latter would have
+      been the most sensible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At my departure, many of my young friends amongst the students prepared a
+      banquet for me; and amongst the elder ones who were present to receive me
+      were Collin, Oehlenschl ger and Oersted. This was somewhat of sunshine in
+      the midst of my mortification; songs by Oehlenschl ger and Hillerup were
+      sung; and I found cordiality and friendship, as I quitted my country in
+      distress. This was in October of 1840.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the second time I went to Italy and Rome, to Greece and Constantinople&mdash;a
+      journey which I have described after my own manner in A Poet's Bazaar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Holstein I continued some days with Count Rantzau-Breitenburg, who had
+      before invited me, and whose ancestral castle I now for the first time
+      visited. Here I became acquainted with the rich scenery of Holstein, heath
+      and moorland, and then hastened by Nuremberg to Munich, where I again met
+      with Cornelius and Schelling, and was kindly received by Kaulbach and
+      Schelling. I cast a passing glance on the artistic life in Munich, but for
+      the most part pursued my own solitary course, sometimes filled with the
+      joy of life, but oftener despairing of my powers. I possessed a peculiar
+      talent, that of lingering on the gloomy side of life, of extracting the
+      bitter from it, of tasting it; and understood well, when the whole was
+      exhausted, how to torment myself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the winter season I crossed the Brenner, remained some days in
+      Florence, which I had before visited for a longer time, and about
+      Christmas reached Rome. Here again I saw the noble treasures of art, met
+      old friends, and once more passed a Carnival and Moccoli. But not alone
+      was I bodily ill; nature around me appeared likewise to sicken; there was
+      neither the tranquillity nor the freshness which attended my first sojourn
+      in Rome. The rocks quaked, the Tiber twice rose into the streets, fever
+      raged, and snatched numbers away. In a few days Prince Borghese lost his
+      wife and three sons. Rain and wind prevailed; in short, it was dismal, and
+      from home cold lotions only were sent me. My letters told me that The
+      Moorish Maiden had several times been acted through, and had gone quietly
+      off the stage; but, as was seen beforehand, a small public only had been
+      present, and therefore the manager had laid the piece aside. Other
+      Copenhagen letters to our countrymen in Rome spoke with enthusiasm of a
+      new work by Heiberg; a satirical poem&mdash;A Soul after Death. It was but
+      just out, they wrote; all Copenhagen was full of it, and Andersen was
+      famously handled in it. The book was admirable, and I was made ridiculous
+      in it. That was the whole which I heard,&mdash;all that I knew. No one
+      told me what really was said of me; wherein lay the amusement and the
+      ludicrous. It is doubly painful to be ridiculed when we don't know
+      wherefore we are so. The information operated like molten lead dropped
+      into a wound, and agonized me cruelly. It was not till after my return to
+      Denmark that I read this book, and found that what was said of me in it,
+      was really nothing in itself which was worth laying to heart. It was a
+      jest over my celebrity "from Schonen to Hundsr ck", which did not please
+      Heiberg; he therefore sent my Mulatto and The Moorish Maiden to the
+      infernal regions, where&mdash;and that was the most witty conceit&mdash;the
+      condemned were doomed to witness the performance of both pieces in one
+      evening; and then they could go away and lay themselves down quietly. I
+      found the poetry, for the rest, so excellent, that I was half induced to
+      write to Heiberg, and to return him my thanks for it; but I slept upon
+      this fancy, and when I awoke and was more composed, I feared lest such
+      thanks should be misunderstood; and so I gave it up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Rome, as I have said, I did not see the book; I only heard the arrows
+      whizz and felt their wound, but I did not know what the poison was which
+      lay concealed in them. It seemed to me that Rome was no joy-bringing city;
+      when I was there before, I had also passed dark and bitter days. I was
+      ill, for the first time in my life, truly and bodily ill, and I made haste
+      to get away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Danish poet Holst was then in Rome; he had received this year a
+      travelling pension. Hoist had written an elegy on King Frederick VI.,
+      which went from mouth to mouth, and awoke an enthusiasm, like that of
+      Becker's contemporaneous Rhine song in Germany. He lived in the same house
+      with me in Rome, and showed me much sympathy: with him I made the journey
+      to Naples, where, notwithstanding it was March, the sun would not properly
+      shine, and the snow lay on the hills around. There was fever in my blood;
+      I suffered in body and in mind; and I soon lay so severely affected by it,
+      that certainly nothing but a speedy blood-letting, to which my excellent
+      Neapolitan landlord compelled me, saved my life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few days I grew sensibly better; and I now proceeded by a French war
+      steamer to Greece. Holst accompanied me on board. It was now as if a new
+      life had risen for me; and in truth this was the case; and if this does
+      not appear legibly in my later writings, yet it manifested itself in my
+      views of life, and in my whole inner development. As I saw my European
+      home lie far behind me, it seemed to me as if a stream of forgetfulness
+      flowed of all bitter and rankling remembrances: I felt health in my blood,
+      health in my thoughts, and freshly and courageously I again raised my
+      head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Like another Switzerland, with a loftier and clearer heaven than the
+      Italian, Greece lay before me; nature made a deep and solemn impression
+      upon me; I felt the sentiment of standing on the great battle field of the
+      world, where nation had striven with nation, and had perished. No single
+      poem can embrace such greatness; every scorched-up bed of a stream, every
+      height, every stone, has mighty memoirs to relate. How little appear the
+      inequalities of daily life in such a place! A kingdom of ideas streamed
+      through me, and with such a fulness, that none of them fixed themselves on
+      paper. I had a desire to express the idea, that the godlike was here on
+      earth to maintain its contest, that it is thrust backward, and yet
+      advances again victoriously through all ages; and I found in the legend of
+      the Wandering Jew an occasion for it. For twelve months this fiction had
+      been emerging from the sea of my thoughts; often did it wholly fill me;
+      sometimes I fancied with the alchemists that I had dug up the treasure;
+      then again it sank suddenly, and I despaired of ever being able to bring
+      it to the light. I felt what a mass of knowledge of various kinds I must
+      first acquire. Often at home, when I was compelled to hear reproofs on
+      what they call a want of study, I had sat deep into the night, and had
+      studied history in Hegel's Philosophy of History. I said nothing of this,
+      or other studies, or they would immediately have been spoken of, in the
+      manner of an instructive lady, who said, that people justly complained
+      that I did not possess learning enough. "You have really no mythology"
+      said she; "in all your poems there appears no single God. You must pursue
+      mythology; you must read Racine and Corneille." That she called learning;
+      and in like manner every one had something peculiar to recommend. For my
+      poem of Ahasuerus I had read much and noted much, but yet not enough; in
+      Greece, I thought, the whole will collect itself into clearness. The poem
+      is not yet ready, but I hope that it will become so to my honor; for it
+      happens with the children of the spirit, as with the earthly ones,&mdash;they
+      grow as they sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Athens I was heartily welcomed by Professor Ross, a native of Holstein,
+      and by my countrymen. I found hospitality and a friendly feeling in the
+      noble Prokesch-Osten; even the king and queen received me most graciously.
+      I celebrated my birthday in the Acropolis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From Athens I sailed to Smyrna, and with me it was no childish pleasure to
+      be able to tread another quarter of the globe. I felt a devotion in it,
+      like that which I felt as a child when I entered the old church at Odense.
+      I thought on Christ, who bled on this earth; I thought on Homer, whose
+      song eternally resounds hence over the earth. The shores of Asia preached
+      to me their sermons, and were perhaps more impressive than any sermon in
+      any church can be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Constantinople I passed eleven interesting days; and according to my
+      good fortune in travel, the birthday of Mahomet itself fell exactly during
+      my stay there. I saw the grand illumination, which completely transported
+      me into the Thousand and One Nights.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our Danish ambassador lived several miles from Constantinople, and I had
+      therefore no opportunity of seeing him; but I found a cordial reception
+      with the Austrian internuntius, Baron von St rmer. With him I had a German
+      home and friends. I contemplated making my return by the Black Sea and up
+      the Danube; but the country was disturbed; it was said there had been
+      several thousand Christians murdered. My companions of the voyage, in the
+      hotel where I resided, gave up this route of the Danube, for which I had
+      the greatest desire, and collectively counselled me against it. But in
+      this case I must return again by Greece and Italy&mdash;it was a severe
+      conflict.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I do not belong to the courageous; I feel fear, especially in little
+      dangers; but in great ones, and when an advantage is to be won, then I
+      have a will, and it has grown firmer with years. I may tremble, I may
+      fear; but I still do that which I consider the most proper to be done. I
+      am not ashamed to confess my weakness; I hold that when out of our own
+      true conviction we run counter to our inborn fear, we have done our duty.
+      I had a strong desire to become acquainted with the interior of the
+      country, and to traverse the Danube in its greatest expansion. I battled
+      with myself; my imagination pointed to me the most horrible circumstances;
+      it was an anxious night. In the morning I took counsel with Baron St rmer;
+      and as he was of opinion that I might undertake the voyage, I determined
+      upon it. From the moment that I had taken my determination, I had the most
+      immovable reliance on Providence, and flung myself calmly on my fate.
+      Nothing happened to me. The voyage was prosperous, and after the
+      quarantine on the Wallachian frontier, which was painful enough to me, I
+      arrived at Vienna on the twenty-first day of the journey. The sight of its
+      towers, and the meeting with numerous Danes, awoke in me the thought of
+      being speedily again at home. The idea bowed down my heart, and sad
+      recollections and mortifications rose up within me once more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In August, 1841, I was again in Copenhagen. There I wrote my recollections
+      of travel, under the title of A Poet's Bazaar, in several chapters,
+      according to the countries. In various places abroad I had met with
+      individuals, as at home, to whom I felt myself attached. A poet is like
+      the bird; he gives what he has, and he gives a song. I was desirous to
+      give every one of those dear ones such a song. It was a fugitive idea,
+      born, may I venture to say, in a grateful mood. Count Rantzau-Breitenburg,
+      who had resided in Italy, who loved the land, and was become a friend and
+      benefactor to me through my Improvisatore, must love that part of the book
+      which treated of his country. To Liszt and Thalberg, who had both shown me
+      the greatest friendship, I dedicated the portion which contained the
+      voyage up the Danube, because one was a Hungarian and the other an
+      Austrian. With these indications, the reader will easily be able to trace
+      out the thought which influenced me in the choice of each dedication. But
+      these appropriations were, in my native country, regarded as a fresh proof
+      of my vanity;&mdash;"I wished to figure with great names, to name
+      distinguished people as my friends."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The book has been translated into several languages, and the dedications
+      with it. I know not how they have been regarded abroad; if I have been
+      judged there as in Denmark, I hope that this explanation will change the
+      opinion concerning them. In Denmark my Bazaar procured me the most
+      handsome remuneration that I have as yet received,&mdash;a proof that I
+      was at length read there. No regular criticism appeared upon it, if we
+      except notices in some daily papers, and afterwards in the poetical
+      attempt of a young writer who, a year before, had testified to me in
+      writing his love, and his wish to do me honor; but who now, in his first
+      public appearance, launched his satirical poem against his friend. I was
+      personally attached to this young man, and am so still. He assuredly
+      thought more on the popularity he would gain by sailing in the wake of
+      Heiberg, than on the pain he would inflict on me. The newspaper criticism
+      in Copenhagen was infinitely stupid. It was set down as exaggerated, that
+      I could have seen the whole round blue globe of the moon in Smyrna at the
+      time of the new moon. That was called fancy and extravagance, which there
+      every one sees who can open his eyes. The new moon has a dark blue and
+      perfectly round disk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Danish critics have generally no open eye for nature: even the highest
+      and most cultivated monthly periodical of literature in Denmark censured
+      me once because, in a poem I had described a rainbow by moonlight. That
+      too was my fancy, which, said they, carried me too far. When I said in the
+      Bazaar, "if I were a painter, I would paint this bridge; but, as I am no
+      painter, but a poet, I must therefore speak," &amp;c. Upon this the critic
+      says, "He is so vain, that he tells us himself that he is a poet." There
+      is something so pitiful in such criticism, that one cannot be wounded by
+      it; but even when we are the most peaceable of men, we feel a desire to
+      flagellate such wet dogs, who come into our rooms and lay themselves down
+      in the best place in them. There might be a whole Fool's Chronicle written
+      of all the absurd and shameless things which, from my first appearance
+      before the public till this moment, I have been compelled to hear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meantime the Bazaar was much read, and made what is called a hit. I
+      received, connected with this book, much encouragement and many
+      recognitions from individuals of the highest distinction in the realms of
+      intellect in my native land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The journey had strengthened me both in mind and body; I began to show
+      indications of a firmer purpose, a more certain judgment. I was now in
+      harmony with myself and with mankind around me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Political life in Denmark had, at that time, arrived at a higher
+      development, producing both good and evil fruits. The eloquence which had
+      formerly accustomed itself to the Demosthenic mode, that of putting little
+      pebbles in the mouth, the little pebbles of every day life, now exercised
+      itself more freely on subjects of greater interest. I felt no call
+      thereto, and no necessity to mix myself up in such matters; for I then
+      believed that the politics of our times were a great misfortune to many a
+      poet. Madame, politics are like Venus; they whom she decoys into her
+      castle perish. It fares with the writings of these poets as with the
+      newspapers: they are seized upon, read, praised, and forgotten. In our
+      days every one wishes to rule; the subjective makes its power of value;
+      people forget that that which is thought of cannot always be carried out,
+      and that many things look very different when contemplated from the top of
+      the tree, to what they did when seen from its roots. I will bow myself
+      before him who is influenced by a noble conviction, and who only desires
+      that which is conducive to good, be he prince or man of the people.
+      Politics are no affair of mine. God has imparted to me another mission:
+      that I felt, and that I feel still. I met in the so-called first families
+      of the country a number of friendly, kind-hearted men, who valued the good
+      that was in me, received me into their circles, and permitted me to
+      participate in the happiness of their opulent summer residences; so that,
+      still feeling independent, I could thoroughly give myself up to the
+      pleasures of nature, the solitude of woods, and country life. There for
+      the first time I lived wholly among the scenery of Denmark, and there I
+      wrote the greater number of my fairy tales. On the banks of quiet lakes,
+      amid the woods, on the green grassy pastures, where the game sprang past
+      me and the stork paced along on his red legs, I heard nothing of politics,
+      nothing of polemics; I heard no one practising himself in Hagel's
+      phraseology. Nature, which was around me and within me, preached to me of
+      my calling. I spent many happy days at the old house of Gisselfeld,
+      formerly a monastery, which stands in the deepest solitude of the woods,
+      surrounded with lakes and hills. The possessor of this fine place, the old
+      Countess Danneskjold, mother of the Duchess of Augustenburg, was an
+      agreeable and excellent lady, I was there not as a poor child of the
+      people, but as a cordially-received guest. The beeches now overshadow her
+      grave in the midst of that pleasant scenery to which her heart was allied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Close by Gisselfeld, but in a still finer situation, and of much greater
+      extent, lies the estate of Bregentoed, which belongs to Count Moltke,
+      Danish Minister of Finance. The hospitality which I met with in this
+      place, one of the richest and most beautiful of our country, and the
+      happy, social life which surrounded me here, have diffused a sunshine over
+      my life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may appear, perhaps, as if I desired to bring the names of great people
+      prominently forward, and make a parade of them; or as if I wished in this
+      way to offer a kind of thanks to my benefactors. They need it not, and I
+      should be obliged to mention many other names still if this were my
+      intention. I speak, however, only of these two places, and of Nys÷, which
+      belongs to Baron Stampe, and which has become celebrated through
+      Thorwaldsen. Here I lived much with the great sculptor, and here I became
+      acquainted with one of my dearest young friends, the future possessor of
+      the place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Knowledge of life in these various circles has had great influence on me:
+      among princes, among the nobility, and among the poorest of the people, I
+      have met with specimens of noble humanity. We all of us resemble each
+      other in that which is good and best.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Winter life in Denmark has likewise its attractions and its rich variety.
+      I spent also some time in the country during this season, and made myself
+      acquainted with its peculiar characteristics. The greatest part of my
+      time, however, I passed in Copenhagen. I felt myself at home with the
+      married sons and daughters of Collin, where a number of amiable children
+      were growing up. Every year strengthened the bond of friendship between
+      myself and the nobly-gifted composer, Hartmann: art and the freshness of
+      nature prospered in his house. Collin was my counsellor in practical life,
+      and Oersted in my literary affairs. The theatre was, if I may so say, my
+      club. I visited it every evening, and in this very year I had received a
+      place in the so-called court stalls. An author must, as a matter of
+      course, work himself up to it. After the first accepted piece he obtains
+      admission to the pit; after the second greater work, in the stalls, where
+      the actors have their seats; and after three larger works, or a succession
+      of lesser pieces, the poet is advanced to the best places. Here were to be
+      found Thorwaldsen, Oehlenschl ger, and several older poets; and here also,
+      in 1840,1 obtained a place, after I had given in seven pieces. Whilst
+      Thorwaldsen lived, I often, by his own wish, sate at his side. Oehlenschl
+      ger was also my neighbor, and in many an evening hour, when no one dreamed
+      of it, my soul was steeped in deep humility, as I sate between these great
+      spirits. The different periods of my life passed before me; the time when
+      I sate on the hindmost bench in the box of the female figurantes, as well
+      as that in which, full of childish superstition, I knelt down there upon
+      the stage and repeated the Lord's Prayer, just before the very place where
+      I now sate among the first and the most distinguished men. At the time,
+      perhaps, when a countryman of mine thus thought of and passed judgment
+      upon me,&mdash;"there he sits, between the two great spirits, full of
+      arrogance and pride;" he may now perceive by this acknowledgment how
+      unjustly he has judged me. Humility, and prayer to God for strength to
+      deserve my happiness, filled my heart. May He always enable me to preserve
+      these feelings? I enjoyed the friendship of Thorwaldsen as well as of
+      Oehlenschl ger, those two most distinguished stars in the horizon of the
+      North. I may here bring forward their reflected glory in and around me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is in the character of Oehlenschl ger, when he is not seen in the
+      circles of the great, where he is quiet and reserved, something so open
+      and child-like, that no one can help becoming attached to him. As a poet,
+      he holds in the North a position of as great importance as Goethe did in
+      Germany. He is in his best works so penetrated by the spirit of the North,
+      that through him it has, as it were, ascended upon all nations. In foreign
+      countries he is not so much appreciated. The works by which he is best
+      known are "Correggio" and "Aladdin;" but assuredly his masterly poem of
+      "The Northern Gods" occupied a far higher rank: it is our "Iliad." It
+      possesses power, freshness&mdash;nay, any expression of mine is poor. It
+      is possessed of grandeur; it is the poet Oehlenschl ger in the bloom of
+      his soul. Hakon, Jarl, and Palnatoke will live in the poetry of Oehlenschl
+      ger as long as mankind endures. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have fully
+      appreciated him, and have shown him that they do so, and whenever it is
+      asked who occupies the first place in the kingdom of mind, the palm is
+      always awarded to him. He is the true-born poet; he appears always young,
+      whilst he himself, the oldest of all, surpasses all in the productiveness
+      of his mind. He listened with friendly disposition to my first lyrical
+      outpourings; and he acknowledged with earnestness and cordiality the poet
+      who told the fairy-tales. My Biographer in the Danish Pantheon brought me
+      in contact with Oehlenschl ger, when he said, "In our days it is becoming
+      more and more rare for any one, by implicitly following those inborn
+      impulses of his soul, which make themselves irresistibly felt, to step
+      forward as an artist or a poet. He is more frequently fashioned by fate
+      and circumstances than apparently destined by nature herself for this
+      office. With the greater number of our poets an early acquaintance with
+      passion, early inward experience, or outward circumstances, stand instead
+      of the original vein of nature, and this cannot in any case be more
+      incontestably proved in our own literature than by instancing Oehlenschl
+      ger and Andersen. And in this way it may be explained why the former has
+      been so frequently the object for the attacks of the critics, and why the
+      latter was first properly appreciated as a poet in foreign countries where
+      civilization of a longer date has already produced a disinclination for
+      the compulsory rule of schools, and has occasioned a reaction towards that
+      which is fresh and natural; whilst we Danes, on the contrary, cherish a
+      pious respect for the yoke of the schools and the worn-out wisdom of
+      maxims."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thorwaldsen, whom, as I have already said, I had become acquainted with in
+      Rome in the years 1833 and 1834, was expected in Denmark in the autumn of
+      1838, and great festive preparations were made in consequence. A flag was
+      to wave upon one of the towers of Copenhagen as soon as the vessel which
+      brought him should come in sight. It was a national festival. Boats
+      decorated with flowers and flags filled the Rhede; painters, sculptors,
+      all had their flags with emblems; the students' bore a Minerva, the poets'
+      a Pegasus. It was misty weather, and the ship was first seen when it was
+      already close by the city, and all poured out to meet him. The poets, who,
+      I believe, according to the arrangement of Heiberg, had been invited,
+      stood by their boat; Oehlenschl ger and Heiberg alone had not arrived. And
+      now guns were fired from the ship, which came to anchor, and it was to be
+      feared that Thorwaldsen might land before we had gone out to meet him. The
+      wind bore the voice of singing over to us: the festive reception had
+      already begun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wished to see him, and therefore cried out to the others, "Let us put
+      off!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Without Oehlenschl ger and Heiberg?" asked some one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But they are not arrived, and it will be all over."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the poets declared that if these two men were not with us, I should
+      not sail under that flag, and pointed up to Pegasus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We will throw it in the boat," said I, and took it down from the staff;
+      the others now followed me, and came up just as Thorwaldsen reached land.
+      We met with Oehlenschl ger and Heiberg in another boat, and they came over
+      to us as the enthusiasm began on shore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The people drew Thorwaldsen's carriage through the streets to his house,
+      where everybody who had the slightest acquaintance with him, or with the
+      friends of a friend of his, thronged around him. In the evening the
+      artists gave him a serenade, and the blaze of the torches illumined the
+      garden under the large trees, there was an exultation and joy which really
+      and truly was felt. Young and old hastened through the open doors, and the
+      joyful old man clasped those whom he knew to his breast, gave them his
+      kiss, and pressed their hands. There was a glory round Thorwaldsen which
+      kept me timidly back: my heart beat for joy of seeing him who had met me
+      when abroad with kindness and consolation, who had pressed me to his
+      heart, and had said that we must always remain friends. But here in this
+      jubilant crowd, where thousands noticed every movement of his, where I too
+      by all these should be observed and criticised&mdash;yes, criticised as a
+      vain man who now only wished to show that he too was acquainted with
+      Thorwaldsen, and that this great man was kind and friendly towards him&mdash;here,
+      in this dense crowd, I drew myself back, and avoided being recognized by
+      him. Some days afterwards, and early in the morning, I went to call upon
+      him, and found him as a friend who had wondered at not having seen me
+      earlier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In honor of Thorwaldsen a musical-poetic academy was established, and the
+      poets, who were invited to do so by Heiberg, wrote and read each one a
+      poem in praise of him who had returned home. I wrote of Jason who fetched
+      the golden fleece&mdash;that is to say, Jason-Thorwaldsen, who went forth
+      to win golden art. A great dinner and a ball closed the festival, in
+      which, for the first time in Denmark, popular life and a subject of great
+      interest in the realms of art were made public.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From this evening I saw Thorwaldsen almost daily in company or in his
+      studio: I often passed several weeks together with him at Nys÷, where he
+      seemed to have firmly taken root, and where the greater number of his
+      works, executed in Denmark, had their origin. He was of a healthful and
+      simple disposition of mind, not without humor, and, therefore, he was
+      extremely attached to Holberg the poet: he did not at all enter into the
+      troubles and the disruptions of the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One morning at Nys÷&mdash;at the time when he was working at his own
+      statue&mdash;I entered his work-room and bade him good morning; he
+      appeared as if he did not wish to notice me, and I stole softly away
+      again. At breakfast he was very parsimonious in the use of words, and when
+      somebody asked him to say something at all events, he replied in his dry
+      way:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have said more during this morning than in many whole days, but nobody
+      heard me. There I stood, and fancied that Andersen was behind me, for he
+      came, and said good morning&mdash;so I told him a long story about myself
+      and Byron. I thought that he might give one word in reply, and turned
+      myself round; and there had I been standing a whole hour and chattering
+      aloud to the bare walls."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We all of us besought him to let us hear the whole story yet once more;
+      but we had it now very short.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, that was in Rome," said he, "when I was about to make Byron's statue;
+      he placed himself just opposite to me, and began immediately to assume
+      quite another countenance to what was customary to him. 'Will not you sit
+      still?' said I; 'but you must not make these faces.' 'It is my
+      expression,' said Byron. 'Indeed?' said I, and then I made him as I
+      wished, and everybody said, when it was finished, that I had hit the
+      likeness. When Byron, however, saw it, he said, 'It does not resemble me
+      at all; I look more unhappy.'"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He was, above all things, so desirous of looking extremely unhappy,"
+      added Thorwaldsen, with a comic expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It afforded the great sculptor pleasure to listen to music after dinner
+      with half-shut eyes, and it was his greatest delight when in the evening
+      the game of lotto began, which the whole neighborhood of Nys÷ was obliged
+      to learn; they only played for glass pieces, and on this account I am able
+      to relate a peculiar characteristic of this otherwise great man&mdash;that
+      he played with the greatest interest on purpose to win. He would espouse
+      with warmth and vehemence the part of those from whom he believed that he
+      had received an injustice; he opposed himself to unfairness and raillery,
+      even against the lady of the house, who for the rest had the most
+      childlike sentiments towards him, and who had no other thought than how to
+      make everything most agreeable to him. In his company I wrote several of
+      my tales for children&mdash;for example, "Ole Luck Oin," ("Ole Shut Eye,")
+      to which he listened with pleasure and interest. Often in the twilight,
+      when the family circle sate in the open garden parlor, Thorwaldsen would
+      come softly behind me, and, clapping me on the shoulder, would ask, "Shall
+      we little ones hear any tales tonight?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In his own peculiarly natural manner he bestowed the most bountiful praise
+      on my fictions, for their truth; it delighted him to hear the same stories
+      over and over again. Often, during his most glorious works, would he stand
+      with laughing countenance, and listen to the stories of the Top and the
+      Ball, and the Ugly Duckling. I possess a certain talent of improvising in
+      my native tongue little poems and songs. This talent amused Thorwaldsen
+      very much; and as he had modelled, at Nys÷, Holberg's portrait in clay, I
+      was commissioned to make a poem for his work, and he received, therefore,
+      the following impromptu:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  "No more shall Holberg live," by Death was said,
+    "I crush the clay, his soul's bonds heretofore."
+  "And from the formless clay, the cold, the dead,"
+    Cried Thorwaldsen, "shall Holberg live once more."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      One morning, when he had just modelled in clay his great bas-relief of the
+      Procession to Golgotha, I entered his study.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tell me," said he, "does it seem to you that I have dressed Pilate
+      properly?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You must not say anything to him," said the Baroness, who was always with
+      him: "it is right; it is excellent; go away with you!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thorwaldsen repeated his question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, then," said I, "as you ask me, I must confess that it really does
+      appear to me as if Pilate were dressed rather as an Egyptian than as a
+      Roman."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It seems to me so too," said Thorwaldsen, seizing the clay with his hand,
+      and destroying the figure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now you are guilty of his having annihilated an immortal work," exclaimed
+      the Baroness to me with warmth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then we can make a new immortal work," said he, in a cheerful humor, and
+      modelled Pilate as he now remains in the bas-relief in the Ladies' Church
+      in Copenhagen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His last birth-day was celebrated there in the country. I had written a
+      merry little song, and it was hardly dry on the paper, when we sang it, in
+      the early morning, before his door, accompanied by the music of jingling
+      fire-irons, gongs, and bottles rubbed against a basket. Thorwaldsen
+      himself, in his morning gown and slippers, opened his door, and danced
+      round his chamber; swung round his Raphael's cap, and joined in the
+      chorus. There was life and mirth in the strong old man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the last day of his life I sate by him at dinner; he was unusually
+      good-humored; repeated several witticisms which he had just read in the
+      Corsair, a well-known Copenhagen newspaper, and spoke of the journey which
+      he should undertake to Italy in the summer. After this we parted; he went
+      to the theatre, and I home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the following morning the waiter at the hotel where I lived said, "that
+      it was a very remarkable thing about Thorwaldsen&mdash;that he had died
+      yesterday."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thorwaldsen!" exclaimed I; "he is not dead, I dined with him yesterday."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "People say that he died last evening at the theatre," returned the
+      waiter. I fancied that he might be taken ill; but still I felt a strange
+      anxiety, and hastened immediately over to his house. There lay his corpse
+      stretched out on the bed; the chamber was filled with strangers; the floor
+      wet with melted snow; the air stifling; no one said a word: the Baroness
+      Stampe sate on the bed and wept bitterly. I stood trembling and deeply
+      agitated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A farewell hymn, which I wrote, and to which Hartmann composed the music,
+      was sung by Danish students over his coffin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      In the summer of 1842, I wrote a little piece for the summer theatre,
+      called, "The Bird in the Pear-tree," in which several scenes were acted up
+      in the pear-tree. I had called it a dramatic trifle, in order that no one
+      might expect either a great work or one of a very elaborate character. It
+      was a little sketch, which, after being performed a few times, was
+      received with so much applause, that the directors of the theatre accepted
+      it; nay, even Mrs. Heiberg, the favorite of the public, desired to take a
+      part in it. People had amused themselves; had thought the selection of the
+      music excellent. I knew that the piece had stood its rehearsal&mdash;and
+      then suddenly it was hissed. Some young men, who gave the word to hiss,
+      had said to some others, who inquired from them their reasons for doing
+      so, that the trifle had too much luck, and then Andersen would be getting
+      too mettlesome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was not, on this evening, at the theatre myself, and had not the least
+      idea of what was going on. On the following I went to the house of one of
+      my friends. I had head-ache, and was looking very grave. The lady of the
+      house met me with a sympathizing manner, took my hand, and said, "Is it
+      really worth while to take it so much to heart? There were only two who
+      hissed, the whole house beside took your part."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hissed! My part! Have I been hissed?" exclaimed I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was quite comic; one person assured me that this hissing had been a
+      triumph for me; everybody had joined in acclamation, and "there was only
+      one who hissed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After this, another person came, and I asked him of the number of those
+      who hissed. "Two," said he. The next person said "three," and said
+      positively there were no more. One of my most veracious friends now made
+      his appearance, and I asked him upon his conscience, how many he had
+      heard; he laid his hand upon his heart, and said that, at the very
+      highest, they were five.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," said I, "now I will ask nobody more; the number grows just as with
+      Falstaff; here stands one who asserts that there was only one person who
+      hissed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shocked, and yet inclined to set it all right again, he replied, "Yes,
+      that is possible, but then it was a strong, powerful hiss."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By my last works, and through a rational economy, I had now saved a small
+      sum of money, which I destined to the purposes of a new journey to Paris,
+      where I arrived in the winter of 1843, by way of D sseldorf, through
+      Belgium.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Marmier had already, in the <i>R vue de Paris</i>, written an article on
+      me, <i>La Vie d'un Po te</i>. He had also translated several of my poems
+      into French, and had actually honored me with a poem which is printed in
+      the above-named <i>R vue</i>. My name had thus reached, like a sound, the
+      ears of some persons in the literary world, and I here met with a
+      surprisingly friendly reception.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Victor Hugo's invitation, I saw his abused <i>Burggraves</i>. Mr. and
+      Mrs. Ancelot opened their house to me, and there I met Martinez della Rosa
+      and other remarkable men of these times. Lamart ne seemed to me, in his
+      domestic, and in his whole personal appearance, as the prince of them all.
+      On my apologizing because I spoke such bad French, he replied, that he was
+      to blame, because he did not understand the northern languages, in which,
+      as he had discovered in late years, there existed a fresh and vigorous
+      literature, and where the poetical ground was so peculiar that you had
+      only to stoop down to find an old golden horn. He asked about the Trollh
+      tta canal, and avowed a wish to visit Denmark and Stockholm. He
+      recollected also our now reigning king, to whom, when as prince he was in
+      Castellamare, he had paid his respects; besides this, he exhibited for a
+      Frenchman, an extraordinary acquaintance with names and places in Denmark.
+      On my departure he wrote a little poem for me, which I preserve amongst my
+      dearest relics.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I generally found the jovial Alexander Dumas in bed, even long after
+      mid-day: here he lay, with paper, pen, and ink, and wrote his newest
+      drama. I found him thus one day; he nodded kindly to me, and said, "Sit
+      down a minute; I have just now a visit from my muse; she will be going
+      directly." He wrote on; spoke aloud; shouted a <i>viva!</i> sprang out of
+      bed, and said, "The third act is finished!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One evening he conducted me round into the various theatres, that I might
+      see the life behind the scenes. We wandered about, arm in arm, along the
+      gay Boulevard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I also have to thank him for my acquaintance with Rachel. I had not seen
+      her act, when Alexander Dumas asked me whether I had the desire to make
+      her acquaintance. One evening, when she was to come out as Phedra he led
+      me to the stage of the Th atre Fran ais. The Representation had begun, and
+      behind the scenes, where a folding screen had formed a sort of room, in
+      which stood a table with refreshments, and a few ottomans, sate the young
+      girl who, as an author has said, understands how to chisel living statues
+      out of Racine's and Corneille's blocks of marble. She was thin and
+      slenderly formed, and looked very young. She looked to me there, and more
+      particularly so afterwards in her own house, as an image of mourning; as a
+      young girl who has just wept out her sorrow, and will now let her thoughts
+      repose in quiet. She accosted us kindly in a deep powerful voice. In the
+      course of conversation with Dumas, she forgot me. I stood there quite
+      superfluous. Dumas observed it, said something handsome of me, and on that
+      I ventured to take part in the discourse, although I had a depressing
+      feeling that I stood before those who perhaps spoke the most beautiful
+      French in all France. I said that I truly had seen much that was glorious
+      and interesting, but that I had never yet seen a Rachel, and that on her
+      account especially had I devoted the profits of my last work to a journey
+      to Paris; and as, in conclusion, I added an apology on account of my
+      French, she smiled and said, "When you say anything so polite as that
+      which you have just said to me, to a Frenchwoman, she will always think
+      that you speak well."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I told her that her fame had resounded to the North, she declared
+      that it was her intention to go to Petersburg and Copenhagen: "and when I
+      come to your city", she said, "you must be my defender, as you are the
+      only one there whom I know; and in order that we may become acquainted,
+      and as you, as you say, are come to Paris especially on my account, we
+      must see each other frequently. You will be welcome to me. I see my
+      friends at my house every Thursday. But duty calls," said she, and
+      offering us her hand, she nodded kindly, and then stood a few paces from
+      us on the stage, taller, quite different, and with the expression of the
+      tragic muse herself. Joyous acclamations ascended to where we sat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As a Northlander I cannot accustom myself to the French mode of acting
+      tragedy. Rachel plays in this same style, but in her it appears to be
+      nature itself; it is as if all the others strove to imitate her. She is
+      herself the French tragic muse, the others are only poor human beings.
+      When Rachel plays people fancy that all tragedy must be acted in this
+      manner. It is in her truth and nature, but under another revelation to
+      that with which we are acquainted in the north.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At her house everything is rich and magnificent, perhaps too <i>recherch
+      </i>. The innermost room was blue-green, with shaded lamps and statuettes
+      of French authors. In the salon, properly speaking, the color which
+      prevailed principally in the carpets, curtains, and bookcases was crimson.
+      She herself was dressed in black, probably as she is represented in the
+      well-known English steel engraving of her. Her guests consisted of
+      gentlemen, for the greater part artists and men of learning. I also heard
+      a few titles amongst them. Richly apparelled servants announced the names
+      of the arrivals; tea was drunk and refreshments handed round, more in the
+      German than the French style.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Victor Hugo had told me that he found she understood the German language.
+      I asked her, and she replied in German, "ich kann es lesen; ich bin ja in
+      Lothringen geboren; ich habe deutsche B cher, sehn Sie hier!" and she
+      showed me Grillparzer's "Sappho," and then immediately continued the
+      conversation in French. She expressed her pleasure in acting the part of
+      Sappho, and then spoke of Schiller's "Maria Stuart," which character she
+      has personated in a French version of that play. I saw her in this part,
+      and she gave the last act especially with such a composure and tragic
+      feeling, that she might have been one of the best of German actresses; but
+      it was precisely in this very act that the French liked her least.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My countrymen," said she, "are not accustomed to this manner, and in this
+      manner alone can the part be given. No one should be raving when the heart
+      is almost broken with sorrow, and when he is about to take an everlasting
+      farewell of his friends."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her drawing-room was, for the most part, decorated with books which were
+      splendidly bound and arranged in handsome book-cases behind glass. A
+      painting hung on the wall, which represented the interior of the theatre
+      in London, where she stood forward on the stage, and flowers and garlands
+      were thrown to her across the orchestra. Below this picture hung a pretty
+      little book-shelf, holding what I call "the high nobility among the
+      poets,"&mdash;Goethe, Schiller, Calderon, Shakspeare, &amp;c.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She asked me many questions respecting Germany and Denmark, art, and the
+      theatre; and she encouraged me with a kind smile around her grave mouth,
+      when I stumbled in French and stopped for a moment to collect myself, that
+      I might not stick quite fast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Only speak," said she. "It is true that you do not speak French well. I
+      have heard many foreigners speak my native language better; but their
+      conversation has not been nearly as interesting as yours. I understand the
+      sense of your words perfectly, and that is the principal thing which
+      interests me in you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The last time we parted she wrote the following words in my album: "L'art
+      c'est le vrai! J'esp re que cet aphorisme ne semblera pas paradoxal un
+      crivain si distingu comme M. Andersen."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I perceived amiability of character in Alfred de Vigny. He has married an
+      English lady, and that which is best in both nations seemed to unite in
+      his house. The last evening which I spent in Paris, he himself, who is
+      possessed of intellectual status and worldly wealth, came almost at
+      midnight to my lodging in the Rue Richelieu, ascended the many steps, and
+      brought me his works under his arm. So much cordiality beamed in his eyes
+      and he seemed to be so full of kindness towards me, that I felt affected
+      by our separation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I also became acquainted with the sculptor David. There was a something in
+      his demeanor and in his straightforward manner that reminded me of
+      Thorwaldsen and Bissen, especially of the latter. We did not meet till
+      towards the conclusion of my residence in Paris. He lamented it, and said
+      that he would execute a bust of me if I would remain there longer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I said, "But you know nothing of me as a poet, and cannot tell
+      whether I deserve it or not," he looked earnestly in my face, clapped me
+      on the shoulder, and said, "I have, however, read you yourself before your
+      books. You are a poet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the Countess &mdash;&mdash;'s, where I met with Balzac, I saw an old
+      lady, the expression of whose countenance attracted my attention. There
+      was something so animated, so cordial in it, and everybody gathered about
+      her. The Countess introduced me to her, and I heard that she was Madame
+      Reybaud, the authoress of Les Epaves, the little story which I had made
+      use of for my little drama of The Mulatto. I told her all about it, and of
+      the representation of the piece, which interested her so much, that she
+      became from this evening my especial protectress. We went out one evening
+      together and exchanged ideas. She corrected my French and allowed me to
+      repeat what did not appear correct to her. She is a lady of rich mental
+      endowments, with a clear insight into the world, and she showed maternal
+      kindness towards me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I also again met with Heine. He had married since I was last here. I found
+      him in indifferent health; but full of energy, and so friendly and so
+      natural in his behavior towards me, that I felt no timidity in exhibiting
+      myself to him as I was. One day he had been relating to his wife my story
+      of the Constant Tin Soldier, and, whilst he said that I was the author of
+      this story, he introduced me to her. She was a lively, pretty young lady.
+      A troop of children, who, as Heine says, belonged to a neighbor, played
+      about in their room. We two played with them whilst Heine copied out one
+      of his last poems for me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I perceived in him no pain-giving, sarcastic smile; I only heard the
+      pulsation of a German heart, which is always perceptible in the songs, and
+      which <i>must</i> live.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Through the means of the many people I was acquainted with here, among
+      whom I might enumerate many others, as, for instance, Kalkbrenner, Gathy,
+      &amp;c., my residence in Paris was made very cheerful and rich in
+      pleasure. I did not feel myself like a stranger there: I met with a
+      friendly reception among the greatest and best. It was like a payment by
+      anticipation of the talent which was in me, and through which they
+      expected that I would some time prove them not to have been mistaken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst I was in Paris, I received from Germany, where already several of
+      my works were translated and read, a delightful and encouraging proof of
+      friendship. A German family, one of the most highly cultivated and amiable
+      with whom I am acquainted, had read my writings with interest, especially
+      the little biographical sketch prefixed to Only a Fiddler, and felt the
+      heartiest goodwill towards me, with whom they were then not personally
+      acquainted. They wrote to me, expressed their thanks for my works and the
+      pleasure they had derived from them, and offered me a kind welcome to
+      their house if I would visit it on my return home. There was a something
+      extremely cordial and natural in this letter, which was the first that I
+      received of this kind in Paris, and it also formed a remarkable contrast
+      to that which was sent to me from my native land in the year 1833, when I
+      was here for the first time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this way I found myself, through my writings, adopted, as it were, into
+      a family to which since then I gladly betake myself, and where I know that
+      it is not only as the poet, but as the man, that I am beloved. In how many
+      instances have I not experienced the same kindness in foreign countries! I
+      will mention one for the sake of its peculiarity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There lived in Saxony a wealthy and benevolent family; the lady of the
+      house read my romance of Only a Fiddler, and the impression of this book
+      was such that she vowed that, if ever, in the course of her life, she
+      should meet with a poor child which was possessed of great musical
+      talents, she would not allow it to perish as the poor Fiddler had done. A
+      musician who had heard her say this, brought to her soon after, not one,
+      but two poor boys, assuring her of their talent, and reminding her of her
+      promise. She kept her word: both boys were received into her house, were
+      educated by her, and are now in the Conservatorium; the youngest of them
+      played before me, and I saw that his countenance was happy and joyful. The
+      same thing perhaps might have happened; the same excellent lady might have
+      befriended these children without my book having been written: but
+      notwithstanding this, my book is now connected with this as a link in the
+      chain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On my return home from Paris, I went along the Rhine; I knew that the poet
+      Frieligrath, to whom the King of Prussia had given a pension, was residing
+      in one of the Rhine towns. The picturesque character of his poems had
+      delighted me extremely, and I wished to talk with him. I stopped at
+      several towns on the Rhine, and inquired after him. In St. Goar, I was
+      shown the house in which he lived. I found him sitting at his writing
+      table, and he appeared annoyed at being disturbed by a stranger. I did not
+      mention my name; but merely said that I could not pass St. Goar without
+      paying my respects to the poet Frieligrath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is very kind of you," said he, in a very cold tone; and then asked
+      who I was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We have both of us one and the same friend, Chamisso!" replied I, and at
+      these words he leapt up exultantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are then Andersen!" he exclaimed; threw his arms around my neck, and
+      his honest eyes beamed with joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now you will stop several days here," said he. I told him that I could
+      only stay a couple of hours, because I was travelling with some of my
+      countrymen who were waiting for me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have a great many friends in little St. Goar," said he; "it is but a
+      short time since I read aloud your novel of O. T. to a large circle; one
+      of these friends I must, at all events, fetch here, and you must also see
+      my wife. Yes, indeed, you do not know that you had something to do in our
+      being married."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He then related to me how my novel, Only a Fiddler, had caused them to
+      exchange letters, and then led to their acquaintance, which acquaintance
+      had ended in their being a married couple. He called her, mentioned to her
+      my name, and I was regarded as an old friend. Such moments as these are a
+      blessing; a mercy of God, a happiness&mdash;and how many such, how
+      various, have I not enjoyed!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I relate all these, to me, joyful occurrences; they are facts in my life:
+      I relate them, as I formerly have related that which was miserable,
+      humiliating, and depressing; and if I have done so, in the spirit which
+      operated in my soul, it will not be called pride or vanity;&mdash;neither
+      of them would assuredly be the proper name for it. But people may perhaps
+      ask at home, Has Andersen then never been attacked in foreign countries? I
+      must reply,&mdash;no!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No regular attack has been made upon me, at least they have never at home
+      called my attention to any such, and therefore there certainly cannot have
+      been anything of the kind;&mdash;with the exception of one which made its
+      appearance in Germany, but which originated in Denmark, at the very moment
+      when I was in Paris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A certain Mr. Boas made a journey at that time through Scandinavia, and
+      wrote a book on the subject. In this he gave a sort of survey of Danish
+      literature, which he also published in the journal called Die Grenzboten;
+      in this I was very severely handled as a man and as a poet. Several other
+      Danish poets also, as for instance, Christian Winter, have an equally
+      great right to complain. Mr. Boas had drawn his information out of the
+      miserable gossip of every-day life; his work excited attention in
+      Copenhagen, and nobody there would allow themselves to be considered as
+      his informants; nay even Holst the poet, who, as may be seen from the
+      work, travelled with him through Sweden, and had received him at his house
+      in Copenhagen, on this occasion published, in one of the most widely
+      circulated of our papers, a declaration that he was in no way connected
+      with Mr. Boas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Boas had in Copenhagen attached himself to a particular clique
+      consisting of a few young men; he had heard them full of lively spirits,
+      talking during the day, of the Danish poets and their writings; he had
+      then gone home, written down what he had heard and afterwards published it
+      in his work. This was, to use the mildest term, inconsiderate. That my
+      Improvisatore and Only a Fiddler did not please him, is a matter of taste,
+      and to that I must submit myself. But when he, before the whole of
+      Germany, where probably people will presume that what he has written is
+      true, if he declare it to be, as is the case, the universal judgment
+      against me in my native land; when he, I say, declared me before the whole
+      of Germany, to be the most haughty of men, he inflicts upon me a deeper
+      wound than he perhaps imagined. He conveyed the voice of a party, formerly
+      hostile to me, into foreign countries. Nor is he true even in that which
+      he represents; he gives circumstances as facts, which never took place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Denmark what he has written could not injure me, and many have declared
+      themselves afraid of coming into contact with any one, who printed
+      everything which he heard. His book was read in Germany, the public of
+      which is now also mine; and I believe, therefore, that I may here say how
+      faulty is his view of Danish literature and Danish poets; in what manner
+      his book was received in my native land and that people there know in what
+      way it was put together. But after I have expressed myself thus on this
+      subject I will gladly offer Mr. Boas my hand; and if, in his next visit to
+      Denmark, no other poet will receive him, I will do my utmost for him; I
+      know that he will not be able to judge me more severely when we know each
+      other, than when we knew each other not. His judgment would also have been
+      quite of another character had he come to Denmark but one year later;
+      things changed very much in a year's time. Then the tide had turned in my
+      favor; I then had published my new children's stories, of which from that
+      moment to the present there prevailed, through the whole of my native
+      land, but one unchanging honorable opinion. When the edition of my
+      collection of stories came out at Christmas 1843, the reaction began;
+      acknowledgment of my merits were made, and favor shown me in Denmark, and
+      from that time I have no cause for complaint. I have obtained and I obtain
+      in my own land that which I deserve, nay perhaps, much more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I will now turn to those little stories which in Denmark have been placed
+      by every one, without any hesitation, higher than anything else I had
+      hitherto written.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the year 1835, some months after I published the Improvisatore, I
+      brought out my first volume of Stories for Children, [Footnote: I find it
+      very difficult to give a correct translation of the original word. The
+      Danish is <i>Eventyr</i>, equivalent to the German <i>Abentheur</i>, or
+      adventure; but adventures give in English a very different idea to this
+      class of stories. The German word <i>M rchen,</i> gives the meaning
+      completely, and this we may English by <i>fairy tale</i> or <i>legend,</i>
+      but then neither of these words are fully correct with regard to
+      Andersen's stories. In my translation of his "Eventyr fortalte for Born,"
+      I gave as an equivalent title, "Wonderful Stories for Children," and
+      perhaps this near as I could come.&mdash;M. H.] which at that time was not
+      so very much thought of. One monthly critical journal even complained that
+      a young author who had just published a work like the Improvisatore,
+      should immediately come out with anything so childish as the tales. I
+      reaped a harvest of blame, precisely where people ought to have
+      acknowledged the advantage of my mind producing something in a new
+      direction. Several of my friends, whose judgment was of value to me,
+      counselled me entirely to abstain from writing tales, as these were a
+      something for which I had no talent. Others were of opinion that I had
+      better, first of all, study the French fairy tale. I would willingly have
+      discontinued writing them, but they forced themselves from me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the volume which I first published, I had, like Mus us, but in my own
+      manner, related old stories, which I had heard as a child. The volume
+      concluded with one which was original, and which seemed to have given the
+      greatest pleasure, although it bore a tolerably near affinity to a story
+      of Hoffman's. In my increasing disposition for children's stories, I
+      therefore followed my own impulse, and invented them mostly myself. In the
+      following year a new volume came out, and soon after that a third, in
+      which the longest story, The Little Mermaid, was my own invention. This
+      story, in an especial manner, created an interest which was only increased
+      by the following volumes. One of these came out every Christmas, and
+      before long no Christmas tree could exist without my stones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some of our first comic actors made the attempt of relating my little
+      stories from the stage; it was a complete change from the declamatory
+      poetry which had been heard to satiety. The Constant Tin Soldier,
+      therefore, the Swineherd, and the Top and Ball, were told from the Royal
+      stage, and from those of private theatres, and were well received. In
+      order that the reader might be placed in the proper point of view, with
+      regard to the manner in which I told the stories, I had called my first
+      volume Stories told for Children. I had written my narrative down upon
+      paper, exactly in the language, and with the expressions in which I had
+      myself related them, by word of mouth, to the little ones, and I had
+      arrived at the conviction that people of different ages were equally
+      amused with them. The children made themselves merry for the most part
+      over what might be called the actors, older people, on the contrary, were
+      interested in the deeper meaning. The stories furnished reading for
+      children and grown people, and that assuredly is a difficult task for
+      those who will write children's stories. They met with open doors and open
+      hearts in Denmark; everybody read them. I now removed the words "told for
+      children," from my title, and published three volumes of "New Stories,"
+      all of which were of my own invention, and which were received in my own
+      country with the greatest favor. I could not wish it greater; I felt a
+      real anxiety in consequence, a fear of not being able to justify
+      afterwards such an honorable award of praise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A refreshing sunshine streamed into my heart; I felt courage and joy, and
+      was filled, with a living desire of still more and more developing my
+      powers in this direction,&mdash;of studying more thoroughly this class of
+      writing, and of observing still more attentively the rich wells of nature
+      out of which I must create it. If attention be paid to the order in which
+      my stories are written, it certainly will be seen that there is in them a
+      gradual progression, a clearer working out of the idea, a greater
+      discretion in the use of agency, and, if I may so speak, a more healthy
+      tone and a more natural freshness may be perceived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this period of my life, I made an acquaintance which was of great moral
+      and intellectual importance to me. I have already spoken of several
+      persons and public characters who have had influence on me as the poet;
+      but none of these have had more, nor in a nobler sense of the word, than
+      the lady to whom I here turn myself; she, through whom I, at the same
+      time, was enabled to forget my own individual self, to feel that which is
+      holy in art, and to become acquainted with the command which God has given
+      to genius.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I now turn back to the year 1840. One day in the hotel in which I lived in
+      Copenhagen, I saw the name of Jenny Lind among those of the strangers from
+      Sweden. I was aware at that time that she was the first singer in
+      Stockholm. I had been that same year, in this neighbor country, and had
+      there met with honor and kindness: I thought, therefore, that it would not
+      be unbecoming in me to pay a visit to the young artist. She was, at this
+      time, entirely unknown out of Sweden, so that I was convinced that, even
+      in Copenhagen, her name was known only by few. She received me very
+      courteously, but yet distantly, almost coldly. She was, as she said, on a
+      journey with her father to South Sweden, and was come over to Copenhagen
+      for a few days in order that she might see this city. We again parted
+      distantly, and I had the impression of a very ordinary character which
+      soon passed away from my mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the autumn of 1843, Jenny Lind came again to Copenhagen. One of my
+      friends, our clever ballet-master, Bournonville, who has married a Swedish
+      lady, a friend of Jenny Lind, informed me of her arrival here and told me
+      that she remembered me very kindly, and that now she had read my writings.
+      He entreated me to go with him to her, and to employ all my persuasive art
+      to induce her to take a few parts at the Theatre Royal; I should, he said,
+      be then quite enchanted with what I should hear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was not now received as a stranger; she cordially extended to me her
+      hand, and spoke of my writings and of Miss Fredrika Bremer, who also was
+      her affectionate friend. The conversation was soon turned to her
+      appearance in Copenhagen, and of this Jenny Lind declared that she stood
+      in fear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have never made my appearance," said she, "out of Sweden; everybody in
+      my native land is so affectionate and kind to me, and if I made my
+      appearance in Copenhagen and should be hissed!&mdash;I dare not venture on
+      it!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I said, that I, it was true, could not pass judgment on her singing,
+      because I had never heard it, neither did I know how she acted, but
+      nevertheless, I was convinced that such was the disposition at this moment
+      in Copenhagen, that only a moderate voice and some knowledge of acting
+      would be successful; I believed that she might safely venture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bournonville's persuasion obtained for the Copenhageners the greatest
+      enjoyment which they ever had.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jenny Lind made her first appearance among them as Alice in Robert le
+      Diable&mdash;it was like a new revelation in the realms of art, the
+      youthfully fresh voice forced itself into every heart; here reigned truth
+      and nature; everything was full of meaning and intelligence. At one
+      concert Jenny Lind sang her Swedish songs; there was something so peculiar
+      in this, so bewitching; people thought nothing about the concert room; the
+      popular melodies uttered by a being so purely feminine, and bearing the
+      universal stamp of genius, exercised their omnipotent sway&mdash;the whole
+      of Copenhagen was in raptures. Jenny Lind was the first singer to whom the
+      Danish students gave a serenade: torches blazed around the hospitable
+      villa where the serenade was given: she expressed her thanks by again
+      singing some Swedish songs, and I then saw her hasten into the darkest
+      corner and weep for emotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, yes," said she, "I will exert myself; I will endeavor, I will be
+      better qualified than I am when I again come to Copenhagen."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the stage, she was the great artiste, who rose above all those around
+      her; at home, in her own chamber, a sensitive young girl with all the
+      humility and piety of a child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her appearance in Copenhagen made an epoch in the history of our opera; it
+      showed me art in its sanctity&mdash;I had beheld one of its vestals. She
+      journeyed back to Stockholm, and from there Fredrika Bremer wrote to me:&mdash;"With
+      regard to Jenny Lind as a singer, we are both of us perfectly agreed; she
+      stands as high as any artist of our time can stand; but as yet you do not
+      know her in her full greatness. Speak to her about her art, and you will
+      wonder at the expansion of her mind, and will see her countenance beaming
+      with inspiration. Converse then with her of God, and of the holiness of
+      religion, and you will see tears in those innocent eyes; she is great as
+      an artist, but she is still greater in her pure human existence!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the following year I was in Berlin; the conversation with Meyerbeer
+      turned upon Jenny Lind; he had heard her sing the Swedish songs, and was
+      transported by them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But how does she act?" asked he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I spoke in raptures of her acting, and gave him at the same time some idea
+      of her representation of Alice. He said to me that perhaps it might be
+      possible for him to determine her to come to Berlin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is sufficiently well known that she made her appearance there, threw
+      every one into astonishment and delight, and won for herself in Germany a
+      European name. Last autumn she came again to Copenhagen, and the
+      enthusiasm was incredible; the glory of renown makes genius perceptible to
+      every one. People bivouacked regularly before the theatre, to obtain a
+      ticket. Jenny Lind appeared still greater than ever in her art, because
+      they had an opportunity of seeing her in many and such extremely different
+      parts. Her Norma is plastic; every attitude might serve as the most
+      beautiful model to a sculptor, and yet people felt that these were the
+      inspiration of the moment, and had not been studied before the glass;
+      Norma is no raving Italian; she is the suffering, sorrowing woman&mdash;the
+      woman possessed of a heart to sacrifice herself for an unfortunate rival&mdash;the
+      woman to whom, in the violence of the moment, the thought may suggest
+      itself of murdering the children of a faithless lover, but who is
+      immediately disarmed when she gazes into the eyes of the innocent ones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Norma, thou holy priestess," sings the chorus, and Jenny Lind has
+      comprehended and shows to us this holy priestess in the aria, <i>Casta
+      diva</i>. In Copenhagen she sang all her parts in Swedish, and the other
+      singers sang theirs in Danish, and the two kindred languages mingled very
+      beautifully together; there was no jarring; even in the Daughter of the
+      Regiment where there is a deal of dialogue, the Swedish had something
+      agreeable&mdash;and what acting! nay, the word itself is a contradiction&mdash;it
+      was nature; anything as true never before appeared on the stage. She shows
+      us perfectly the true child of nature grown up in the camp, but an inborn
+      nobility pervades every movement. The Daughter of the Regiment and the
+      Somnambule are certainly Jenny Land's most unsurpassable parts; no second
+      can take their places in these beside her. People laugh,&mdash;they cry;
+      it does them as much good as going to church; they become better for it.
+      People feel that God is in art; and where God stands before us face to
+      face there is a holy church.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There will not in a whole century," said Mendelssohn, speaking to me of
+      Jenny Lind, "be born another being so gifted as she;" and his words
+      expressed my full conviction; one feels as she makes her appearance on the
+      stage, that she is a pure vessel, from which a holy draught will be
+      presented to us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is not anything which can lessen the impression which Jenny Lind's
+      greatness on the stage makes, except her own personal character at home.
+      An intelligent and child-like disposition exercises here its astonishing
+      power; she is happy; belonging, as it were, no longer to the world, a
+      peaceful, quiet home, is the object of her thoughts&mdash;and yet she
+      loves art with her whole soul, and feels her vocation in it. A noble,
+      pious disposition like hers cannot be spoiled by homage. On one occasion
+      only did I hear her express her joy in her talent and her
+      self-consciousness. It was during her last residence in Copenhagen. Almost
+      every evening she appeared either in the opera or at concerts; every hour
+      was in requisition. She heard of a society, the object of which was, to
+      assist unfortunate children, and to take them out of the hands of their
+      parents by whom they were misused, and compelled either to beg or steal,
+      and to place them in other and better circumstances. Benevolent people
+      subscribed annually a small sum each for their support, nevertheless the
+      means for this excellent purpose were small.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But have I not still a disengaged evening?" said she; "let me give a
+      night's performance for the benefit of these poor children; but we will
+      have double prices!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such a performance was given, and returned large proceeds; when she was
+      informed of this, and, that by this means, a number of poor children would
+      be benefited for several years, her countenance beamed, and the tears
+      filled her eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is however beautiful," said she, "that I can sing so!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I value her with the whole feeling of a brother, and I regard myself as
+      happy that I know and understand such a spirit. God give to her that
+      peace, that quiet happiness which she wishes for herself!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Through Jenny Lind I first became sensible of the holiness there is in
+      art; through her I learned that one must forget oneself in the service of
+      the Supreme. No books, no men have had a better or a more ennobling
+      influence on me as the poet, than Jenny Lind, and I therefore have spoken
+      of her so long and so warmly here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have made the happy discovery by experience, that inasmuch as art and
+      life are more clearly understood by me, so much more sunshine from without
+      has streamed into my soul. What blessings have not compensated me for the
+      former dark days! Repose and certainty have forced themselves into my
+      heart. Such repose can easily unite itself with the changing life of
+      travel; I feel myself everywhere at home, attach myself easily to people,
+      and they give me in return confidence and cordiality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the summer of 1844 I once more visited North Germany. An intellectual
+      and amiable family in Oldenburg had invited me in the most friendly manner
+      to spend some time at their house. Count von Rantzau-Breitenburg repeated
+      also in his letters how welcome I should be to him. I set out on the
+      journey, and this journey was, if not one of my longest, still one of my
+      most interesting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I saw the rich marsh-land in its summer luxuriance, and made with Rantzau
+      several interesting little excursions. Breitenburg lies in the middle of
+      woods on the river St÷r; the steam-voyage to Hamburg gives animation to
+      the little river; the situation is picturesque, and life in the castle
+      itself is comfortable and pleasant. I could devote myself perfectly to
+      reading and poetry, because I was just as free as the bird in the air, and
+      I was as much cared for as if I had been a beloved relation of the family.
+      Alas it was the last time that I came hither; Count Rantzau had, even
+      then, a presentiment of his approaching death. One day we met in the
+      garden; he seized my hand, pressed it warmly, expressed his pleasure in my
+      talents being acknowledged abroad, and his friendship for me, adding, in
+      conclusion, "Yes, my dear young friend, God only knows but I have the firm
+      belief that this year is the last time when we two shall meet here; my
+      days will soon have run out their full course." He looked at me with so
+      grave an expression, that it touched my heart deeply, but I knew not what
+      to say. We were near to the chapel; he opened a little gate between some
+      thick hedges, and we stood in a little garden, in which was a turfed grave
+      and a seat beside it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Here you will find me, when you come the next time to Breitenburg," said
+      he, and his sorrowful words were true. He died the following winter in
+      Wiesbaden. I lost in him a friend, a protector, a noble excellent heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I, on the first occasion, went to Germany, I visited the Hartz and
+      the Saxon Switzerland. Goethe was still living. It was my most heartfelt
+      wish to see him. It was not far from the Hartz to Weimar, but I had no
+      letters of introduction to him, and, at that time, not one line of my
+      writings was translated. Many persons had described Goethe to me as a very
+      proud man, and the question arose whether indeed he would receive me. I
+      doubted it, and determined not to go to Weimar until I should have written
+      some work which would convey my name to Germany. I succeeded in this, but
+      alas, Goethe was already dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had made the acquaintance of his daughter-in-law Mrs. von Goethe, born
+      at Pogwitsch, at the house of Mendelssohn Bartholdy, in Leipsig, on my
+      return from Constantinople; this <i>spirituelle</i> lady received me with
+      much kindness. She told me that her son Walter had been my friend for a
+      long time; that as a boy he had made a whole play out of my Improvisatore;
+      that this piece had been performed in Goethe's house; and lastly, that
+      Walter, had once wished to go to Copenhagen to make my acquaintance. I
+      thus had now friends in Weimar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An extraordinary desire impelled me to see this city where Goethe,
+      Schiller, Wieland, and Herder had lived, and from which so much light had
+      streamed forth over the world. I approached that land which had been
+      rendered sacred by Luther, by the strife of the Minnesingers on the
+      Wartburg, and by the memory of many noble and great events.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 24th of June, the birthday of the Grand Duke, I arrived a stranger
+      in the friendly town. Everything indicated the festivity which was then
+      going forward, and the young prince was received with great rejoicing in
+      the theatre, where a new opera was being given. I did not think how
+      firmly, the most glorious and the best of all those whom I here saw around
+      me, would grow into my heart; how many of my future friends sat around me
+      here&mdash;how dear this city would become to me&mdash;in Germany my
+      second home. I was invited by Goethe's worthy friend, the excellent
+      Chancellor Muller, and I met with the most cordial reception from him. By
+      accident I here met on my first call, with the Kammerherr Beaulieu de
+      Marconnay, whom I had known in Oldenburg; he was now placed in Weimar. He
+      invited me to remove to his house. In the course of a few minutes I was
+      his stationary guest, and I felt "it is good to be here."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are people whom it only requires a few days to know and to love; I
+      won in Beaulieu, in these few days, a friend, as I believe, for my whole
+      life. He introduced me into the family circle, the amiable chancellor
+      received me equally cordially; and I who had, on my arrival, fancied
+      myself quite forlorn, because Mrs. von Goethe and her son Walter were in
+      Vienna, was now known in Weimar, and well received in all its circles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reigning Grand Duke and Duchess gave me so gracious and kind a
+      reception as made a deep impression upon me. After I had been presented, I
+      was invited to dine, and soon after received an invitation to visit the
+      hereditary Grand Duke and his lady, at the hunting seat of Ettersburg,
+      which stands high, and close to an extensive forest. The old fashioned
+      furniture within the house, and the distant views from the park into the
+      Hartz mountains, produced immediately a peculiar impression. All the young
+      peasants had assembled at the castle to celebrate the birthday of their
+      beloved young Duke; climbing-poles, from which fluttered handkerchiefs and
+      ribbons, were erected; fiddles sounded, and people danced merrily under
+      the branches of the large and flowering limetrees. Sabbath splendor,
+      contentment and happiness were diffused over the whole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young andebut new married princely pair seemed to be united by true
+      heartfelt sentiment. The heart must be able to forget the star on the
+      breast under which it beats, if its possessor wish to remain long free and
+      happy in a court; and such a heart, certainly one of the noblest and best
+      which beats, is possessed by Karl Alexander of Saxe-Weimar. I had the
+      happiness of a sufficient length of time to establish this belief. During
+      this, my first residence here, I came several times to the happy
+      Ettersburg. The young Duke showed me the garden and the tree on the trunk
+      of which Goethe, Schiller, and Wieland had cut their names; nay even
+      Jupiter himself had wished to add his to theirs, for his thunder-bolt had
+      splintered it in one of the branches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The intellectual Mrs. von Gross (Amalia Winter), Chancellor von Muller,
+      who was able livingly to unroll the times of Goethe and to explain his
+      Faust, and the soundly honest and child-like minded Eckermann belonged to
+      the circle at Ettersburg. The evenings passed like a spiritual dream;
+      alternately some one read aloud; even I ventured, for the first time in a
+      foreign language to me, to read one of my own tales&mdash;the Constant Tin
+      Soldier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Chancellor von Muller accompanied me to the princely burial-place, where
+      Karl August sleeps with his glorious wife, not between Schiller and
+      Goethe, as I believed when I wrote&mdash;"the prince has made for himself
+      a rainbow glory, whilst he stands between the sun and the rushing
+      waterfall." Close beside the princely pair, who understood and valued that
+      which was great, repose these their immortal friends. Withered laurel
+      garlands lay upon the simple brown coffins, of which the whole
+      magnificence consists in the immortal names of Goethe and Schiller. In
+      life the prince and the poet walked side by side, in death they slumber
+      under the same vault. Such a place as this is never effaced from the mind;
+      in such a spot those quiet prayers are offered, which God alone hears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I remained above eight days in Weimar; it seemed to me as if I had
+      formerly lived in this city; as if it were a beloved home which I must now
+      leave. As I drove out of the city, over the bridge and past the mill, and
+      for the last time looked back to the city and the castle, a deep
+      melancholy took hold on my soul, and it was to me as if a beautiful
+      portion of my life here had its close; I thought that the journey, after I
+      had left Weimar, could afford me no more pleasure. How often since that
+      time has the carrier pigeon, and still more frequently, the mind, flown
+      over to this place! Sunshine has streamed forth from Weimar upon my
+      poet-life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From Weimar I went to Leipzig where a truly poetical evening awaited me
+      with Robert Schumann. This great composer had a year before surprised me
+      by the honor of dedicating to me the music which he had composed to four
+      of my songs; the lady of Dr. Frege whose singing, so full of soul, has
+      pleased and enchanted so many thousands, accompanied Clara Schumann, and
+      the composer and the poet were alone the audience: a little festive supper
+      and a mutual interchange of ideas shortened the evening only too much. I
+      met with the old, cordial reception at the house of Mr. Brockhaus, to
+      which from former visits I had almost accustomed myself. The circle of my
+      friends increased in the German cities; but the first heart is still that
+      to which we most gladly turn again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I found in Dresden old friends with youthful feelings; my gifted
+      half-countryman Dahl, the Norwegian, who knows how upon canvas to make the
+      waterfall rush foaming down, and the birch-tree to grow as in the valleys
+      of Norway, and Vogel von Vogelstein, who did me the honor of painting my
+      portrait, which was included in the royal collection of portraits. The
+      theatre intendant, Herr von L ttichau, provided me every evening with a
+      seat in the manager's box; and one of the noblest ladies, in the first
+      circles of Dresden, the worthy Baroness von Decken, received me as a
+      mother would receive her son. In this character I was ever afterwards
+      received in her family and in the amiable circle of her friends.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+How bright and beautiful is the world! How good are human beings! That
+it is a pleasure to live becomes ever more and more clear to me.
+
+ Beaulieu's younger brother Edmund, who is an officer in the army, came
+one day from Tharand, where he had spent the summer months. I
+accompanied him to various places, spent some happy days among the
+pleasant scenery of the hills, and was received at the same time into
+various families.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I visited with the Baroness Decken, for the first time, the celebrated and
+      clever painter Retsch, who has published the bold outlines of Goethe,
+      Shakspeare, &amp;c. He lives a sort of Arcadian life among lowly vineyards
+      on the way to Meissen. Every year he makes a present to his wife, on her
+      birthday, of a new drawing, and always one of his best; the collection has
+      grown through a course of years to a valuable album, which she, if he die
+      before her, is to publish. Among the many glorious ideas there, one struck
+      me as peculiar; the Flight into Egypt. It is night; every one sleeps in
+      the picture,&mdash;Mary, Joseph, the flowers and the shrubs, nay even the
+      ass which carries her&mdash;all, except the child Jesus, who, with open
+      round countenance, watches over and illumines all. I related one of my
+      stories to him, and for this I received a lovely drawing,&mdash;a
+      beautiful young girl hiding herself behind the mask of an old woman; thus
+      should the eternally youthful soul, with its blooming loveliness, peep
+      forth from behind the old mask of the fairy-tale. Retsch's pictures are
+      rich in thought, full of beauty, and a genial spirit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I enjoyed the country-life of Germany with Major Serre and his amiable
+      wife at their splendid residence of Maren; it is not possible for any one
+      to exercise greater hospitality than is done by these two kind-hearted
+      people. A circle of intelligent, interesting individuals, were here
+      assembled; I remained among them above eight days, and there became
+      acquainted with Kohl the traveller, and the clever authoress, the Countess
+      Hahn-Hahn, in whom I discerned a woman by disposition and individual
+      character in whom confidence may be placed. Where one is well received
+      there one gladly lingers. I found myself unspeakably happy on this little
+      journey in Germany, and became convinced that I was there no stranger. It
+      was heart and truth to nature which people valued in my writings; and,
+      however excellent and praiseworthy the exterior beauty may be, however
+      imposing the maxims of this world's wisdom, still it is heart and nature
+      which have least changed by time, and which everybody is best able to
+      understand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I returned home by way of Berlin, where I had not been for several years;
+      but the dearest of my friends there&mdash;Chamisso, was dead.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  The fair wild swan which flew far o'er the earth,
+  And laid its head upon a wild-swan's breast,
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      was now flown to a more glorious hemisphere; I saw his children, who were
+      now fatherless and motherless. From the young who here surround me, I
+      discover that I am grown older; I feel it not in myself. Chamisso's sons,
+      whom I saw the last time playing here in the little garden with bare
+      necks, came now to meet me with helmet and sword: they were officers in
+      the Prussian service. I felt in a moment how the years had rolled on, how
+      everything was changed and how one loses so many.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  Yet is it not so hard as people deem,
+    To see their soul's beloved from them riven;
+  God has their dear ones, and in death they seem
+    To form a bridge which leads them up to heaven.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I met with the most cordial reception, and have since then always met with
+      the same, in the house of the Minister Savigny, where I became acquainted
+      with the clever, singularly gifted Bettina and her lovely spiritual-minded
+      daughter. One hour's conversation with Bettina during which she was the
+      chief speaker, was so rich and full of interest, that I was almost
+      rendered dumb by all this eloquence, this firework of wit. The world knows
+      her writings, but another talent which she is possessed of, is less
+      generally known, namely her talent for drawing. Here again it is the ideas
+      which astonish us. It was thus, I observed, she had treated in a sketch an
+      accident which had occurred just before, a young man being killed by the
+      fumes of wine. You saw him descending half-naked into the cellar, round
+      which lay the wine casks like monsters: Bacchanals and Bacchantes danced
+      towards him, seized their victim and destroyed him! I know that
+      Thorwaldsen, to whom she once showed all her drawings, was in the highest
+      degree astonished by the ideas they contained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It does the heart such good when abroad to find a house, where, when
+      immediately you enter, eyes flash like festal lamps, a house where you can
+      take peeps into a quiet, happy domestic life&mdash;such a house is that of
+      Professor Weiss. Yet how many new acquaintance which were found, and old
+      acquaintance which were renewed, ought I not to mention! I met Cornelius
+      from Rome, Schelling from Munich, my countryman I might almost call him;
+      Steffens, the Norwegian, and once again Tieck, whom I had not seen since
+      my first visit to Germany. He was very much altered, yet his gentle, wise
+      eyes were the same, the shake of his hand was the same. I felt that he
+      loved me and wished me well. I must visit him in Potsdam, where he lived
+      in ease and comfort. At dinner I became acquainted with his brother the
+      sculptor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From Tieck I learnt how kindly the King and Queen of Prussia were disposed
+      towards me; that they had read my romance of Only a Fiddler, and inquired
+      from Tieck about me. Meantime their Majesties were absent from Berlin. I
+      had arrived the evening before their departure, when that abominable
+      attempt was made upon their lives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I returned to Copenhagen by Stettin in stormy weather, full of the joy of
+      life, and again saw my dear friends, and in a few days set off to Count
+      Moltke's in Funen, there to spend a few lovely summer days. I here
+      received a letter from the Minister Count Rantzau-Breitenburg, who was
+      with the King and Queen of Denmark at the watering-place of F÷hr. He
+      wrote, saying that he had the pleasure of announcing to me the most
+      gracious invitation of their Majesties to F÷hr. This island, as is well
+      known, lies in the North Sea, not far from the coast of Sleswick, in the
+      neighborhood of the interesting Halligs, those little islands which
+      Biernatzky described so charmingly in his novels. Thus, in a manner wholly
+      unexpected by me, I should see scenery of a very peculiar character even
+      in Denmark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The favor of my king and Queen made me happy, and I rejoiced to be once
+      more in close intimacy with Rantzau. Alas, it was for the last time!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was just now five and twenty years since I, a poor lad, travelled alone
+      and helpless to Copenhagen. Exactly the five and twentieth anniversary
+      would be celebrated by my being with my king and queen, to whom I was
+      faithfully attached, and whom I at that very time learned to love with my
+      whole soul. Everything that surrounded me, man and nature, reflected
+      themselves imperishably in my soul. I felt myself, as it were, conducted
+      to a point from which I could look forth more distinctly over the past
+      five and twenty years, with all the good fortune and happiness which they
+      had evolved for me. The reality frequently surpasses the most beautiful
+      dream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I travelled from Funen to Flensborg, which, lying in its great bay, is
+      picturesque with woods and hills, and then immediately opens out into a
+      solitary heath. Over this I travelled in the bright moonlight. The journey
+      across the heath was tedious; the clouds only passed rapidly. We went on
+      monotonously through the deep sand, and monotonous was the wail of a bird
+      among the shrubby heath. Presently we reached moorlands. Long-continued
+      rain had changed meadows and cornfields into great lakes; the embankments
+      along which we drove were like morasses; the horses sank deeply into them.
+      In many places the light carriage was obliged to be supported by the
+      peasants, that it might not fall upon the cottages below the embankment.
+      Several hours were consumed over each mile (Danish). At length the North
+      Sea with its islands lay before me. The whole coast was an embankment,
+      covered for miles with woven straw, against which the waves broke. I
+      arrived at high tide. The wind was favorable, and in less than an hour I
+      reached F÷hr, which, after my difficult journey, appeared to me like a
+      real fairy land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The largest city, Wyck, in which are the baths, is exactly built like a
+      Dutch town. The houses are only one story high, with sloping roofs and
+      gables turned to the street. The many strangers there, and the presence of
+      the court, gave a peculiar animation to the principal street. Well-known
+      faces looked out from almost every house; the Danish flag waved, and music
+      was heard. I was soon established in my quarters, and every day, until the
+      departure of their Majesties, had I the honor of an invitation from them
+      to dinner, as well as to pass the evening in their circle. On several
+      evenings I read aloud my little stories (M rchen) to the king and queen,
+      and both of them were gracious and affectionate towards me. It is so good
+      when a noble human nature will reveal itself where otherwise only the
+      king's crown and the purple mantle might be discovered. Few people can be
+      more amiable in private life than their present Majesties of Denmark. May
+      God bless them and give them joy, even as they filled my breast with
+      happiness and sunshine!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I sailed in their train to the largest of the Halligs, those grassy runes
+      in the ocean, which bear testimony to a sunken country. The violence of
+      the sea has changed the mainland into islands, has riven these again, and
+      buried men and villages. Year after year are new portions rent away, and,
+      in half a century's time, there will be nothing here but sea. The Halligs
+      are now only low islets covered with a dark turf, on which a few flocks
+      graze. When the sea rises these are driven into the garrets of the houses,
+      and the waves roll over this little region, which is miles distant from
+      the shore. Oland, which we visited, contains a little town. The houses
+      stand closely side by side, as if, in their sore need they would all
+      huddle together. They are all erected upon a platform, and have little
+      windows, as in the cabin of a ship. There, in the little room, solitary
+      through half the year, sit the wife and her daughters spinning. There,
+      however, one always finds a little collection of books. I found books in
+      Danish, German, and Frieslandish. The people read and work, and the sea
+      rises round the houses, which lie like a wreck in the ocean. Sometimes, in
+      the night, a ship, having mistaken the lights, drives on here and is
+      stranded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the year 1825, a tempestuous tide washed away men and houses. The
+      people sat for days and nights half naked upon the roofs, till these gave
+      way; nor from F÷hr nor the mainland could help be sent to them. The
+      church-yard is half washed away; coffins and corpses were frequently
+      exposed to view by the breakers: it is an appalling sight. And yet the
+      inhabitants of the Halligs are attached to their little home. They cannot
+      remain on the mainland, but are driven thence by home sickness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We found only one man upon the island, and he had only lately arisen from
+      a sick bed. The others were out on long voyages. We were received by girls
+      and women. They had erected before the church a triumphal arch with
+      flowers which they had fetched from F÷hr; but it was so small and low,
+      that one was obliged to go round it; nevertheless they showed by it their
+      good will. The queen was deeply affected by their having cut down their
+      only shrub, a rose bush, to lay over a marshy place which she would have
+      to cross. The girls are pretty, and are dressed in a half Oriental
+      fashion. The people trace their descent from Greeks. They wear their faces
+      half concealed, and beneath the strips of linen which lie upon the head is
+      placed a Greek fez, around which the hair is wound in plaits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On our return, dinner was served on board the royal steamer; and
+      afterwards, as we sailed in a glorious sunset through this archipelago,
+      the deck of the vessel was changed to a dancing room. Young and old
+      danced; servants flew hither and thither with refreshments; sailors stood
+      upon the paddle-boxes and took the soundings, and their deep-toned voices
+      might be heard giving the depth of the water. The moon rose round and
+      large, and the promontory of Amrom assumed the appearance of a
+      snow-covered chain of Alps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I visited afterwards these desolate sand hills: the king went to shoot
+      rabbits there. Many years ago a ship was wrecked here, on board of which
+      were two rabbits, and from this pair Amrom is now stored with thousands of
+      their descendants. At low tide the sea recedes wholly from between Amrom
+      and F÷hr, and then people drive across from one island to another; but
+      still the time must be well observed and the passage accurately known, or
+      else, when the tide comes, he who crosses will be inevitably lost. It
+      requires only a few minutes, and then where dry land was large ships may
+      sail. We saw a whole row of wagons driving from F÷hr to Amrom. Seen upon
+      the white sand and against the blue horizon, they seem to be twice as
+      large as they really were. All around were spread out, like a net, the
+      sheets of water, as if they held firmly the extent of sand which belonged
+      to the ocean and which would be soon overflowed by it. This promontory
+      brings to one's memory the mounds of ashes at Vesuvius; for here one sinks
+      at every step, the wiry moor-grass not being able to bind together the
+      loose sand. The sun shone burningly hot between the white sand hills: it
+      was like a journey through the deserts of Africa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A peculiar kind of rose, and the heath were in flower in the valleys
+      between the hills; in other places there was no vegetation whatever;
+      nothing but the wet sand on which the waves had left their impress; the
+      sea had inscribed on its receding strange hieroglyphics. I gazed from one
+      of the highest points over the North Sea; it was ebb-tide; the sea had
+      retired above a mile; the vessels lay like dead fishes upon the sand, and
+      awaiting the returning tide. A few sailors had clambered down and moved
+      about on the sandy ground like black points. Where the sea itself kept the
+      white level sand in movement, a long bank elevated itself, which, during
+      the time of high-water, is concealed, and upon which occur many wrecks. I
+      saw the lofty wooden tower which is here erected, and in which a cask is
+      always kept filled with water, and a basket supplied with bread and
+      brandy, that the unfortunate human beings, who are here stranded, may be
+      able in this place, amid the swelling sea, to preserve life for a few days
+      until it is possible to rescue them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To return from such a scene as this to a royal table, a charming
+      court-concert, and a little ball in the bath-saloon, as well as to the
+      promenade by moonlight, thronged with guests, a little Boulevard, had
+      something in it like a fairy tale,&mdash;it was a singular contrast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I sat on the above-mentioned five-and-twentieth anniversary, on the 5th
+      of September, at the royal dinner-table, the whole of my former life
+      passed in review before my mind. I was obliged to summon all my strength
+      to prevent myself bursting into tears. There are moments of thankfulness
+      in which, as it were, we feel a desire to press God to our hearts. How
+      deeply I felt, at this time, my own nothingness; how all, all, had come
+      from him. Rantzau knew what an interesting day this was to me. After
+      dinner the king and the queen wished me happiness, and that so&mdash;<i>graciously</i>,
+      is a poor word,&mdash;so cordially, so sympathizingly! The king wished me
+      happiness in that which I had endured and won. He asked me about my first
+      entrance into the world, and I related to him some characteristic traits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the course of conversation he inquired if I had not some certain yearly
+      income; I named the sum to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is not much," said the king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But I do not require much," replied I, "and my writings procure me
+      something."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The king, in the kindest manner, inquired farther into my circumstances,
+      and closed by saying,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If I can, in any way, be serviceable to your literary labors, then come
+      to me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the evening, during the concert, the conversation was renewed, and some
+      of those who stood near me reproached me for not having made use of my
+      opportunity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The king," said they, "put the very words into your mouth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But I could not, I would not have done it. "If the king," I said, "found
+      that I required something more, he could give it to me of his own will."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And I was not mistaken. In the following year King Christian VIII.
+      increased my annual stipend, so that with this and that which my writings
+      bring in, I can live honorably and free from care. My king gave it to me
+      out of the pure good-will of his own heart. King Christian is enlightened,
+      clear-sighted, with a mind enlarged by science; the gracious sympathy,
+      therefore, which he has felt in my fate is to me doubly cheering and
+      ennobling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The 5th of September was to me a festival-day; even the German visitors at
+      the baths honored me by drinking my health in the pump-room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So many flattering circumstances, some people argue, may easily spoil a
+      man, and make him vain. But, no; they do not spoil him, they make him on
+      the contrary&mdash;better; they purify his mind, and he must thereby feel
+      an impulse, a wish, to deserve all that he enjoys. At my parting-audience
+      with the queen, she gave me a valuable ring as a remembrance of our
+      residence at F÷hr; and the king again expressed himself full of kindness
+      and noble sympathy. God bless and preserve this exalted pair!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duchess of Augustenburg was at this time also at F÷hr with her two
+      eldest daughters. I had daily the happiness of being with them, and
+      received repeated invitations to take Augustenburg on my return. For this
+      purpose I went from F÷hr to Als, one of the most beautiful islands in the
+      Baltic. That little region resembles a blooming garden; luxuriant corn and
+      clover-fields are enclosed, with hedges of hazels and wild roses; the
+      peasants' houses are surrounded by large apple-orchards, full of fruit.
+      Wood and hill alternate. Now we see the ocean, and now the narrow Lesser
+      Belt, which resembles a river. The Castle of Augustenburg is magnificent,
+      with its garden full of flowers, extending down to the very shores of the
+      serpentine bay. I met with the most cordial reception, and found the most
+      amiable family-life in the ducal circle. I spent fourteen days here, and
+      was present at the birth-day festivities of the duchess, which lasted
+      three days; among these festivities was racing, and the town and the
+      castle were filled with people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Happy domestic life is like a beautiful summer's evening; the heart is
+      filled with peace; and everything around derives a peculiar glory. The
+      full heart says "it is good to be here;" and this I felt at Augustenburg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      In the spring of 1844 I had finished a dramatic tale, "The Flower of
+      Fortune." The idea of this was, that it is not the immortal name of the
+      artist, nor the splendor of a crown which can make man happy; but that
+      happiness is to be found where people, satisfied with little, love and are
+      loved again. The scene was perfectly Danish, an idyllian, sunbright life,
+      in whose clear heaven two dark pictures are reflected as in a dream; the
+      unfortunate Danish poet Ewald and Prince Buris, who is tragically sung of
+      in our heroic ballads. I wished to show, in honor of our times, the middle
+      ages to have been dark and miserable, as they were, but which many poets
+      only represent to us in a beautiful light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Professor Heiberg, who was appointed censor, declared himself against the
+      reception of my piece. During the last years I had met with nothing but
+      hostility from this party; I regarded it as personal ill-will, and this
+      was to me still more painful than the rejection of the pieces. It was
+      painful for me to be placed in a constrained position with regard to a
+      poet whom I respected, and towards whom, according to my own conviction, I
+      had done everything in order to obtain a friendly relationship. A further
+      attempt, however, must be made. I wrote to Heiberg, expressed myself
+      candidly, and, as I thought, cordially, and entreated him to give me
+      explicitly the reasons for his rejection of the piece and for his ill-will
+      towards me. He immediately paid me a visit, which I, not being at home
+      when he called, returned on the following day, and I was received in the
+      most friendly manner. The visit and the conversation belong certainly to
+      the extraordinary, but they occasioned an explanation, and I hope led to a
+      better understanding for the future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He clearly set before me his views in the rejection of my piece. Seen from
+      his point of sight they were unquestionably correct; but they were not
+      mine, and thus we could not agree. He declared decidedly that he cherished
+      no spite against me, and that he acknowledged my talent. I mentioned his
+      various attacks upon me, for example, in the Intelligence, and that he had
+      denied to me original invention: I imagined, however, that I had shown
+      this in my novels; "But of these," said I, "you have read none; you,
+      yourself have told me so."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, that is the truth," replied he; "I have not yet read them, but I
+      will do so."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Since then," continued I, "you have turned me and my Bazaar to ridicule
+      in your poem called Denmark, and spoken about my fanaticism for the
+      beautiful Dardanelles; and yet I have, precisely in that book, described
+      the Dardanelles as not beautiful; it is the Bosphorus which I thought
+      beautiful; you seem not to be aware of that; perhaps you have not read The
+      Bazaar either?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Was it the Bosphorus?" said he, with his own peculiar smile; "yes, I had
+      quite forgotten that, and, you see, people do not remember it either; the
+      object in this case was only to give you a stab."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This confession sounded so natural, so like him, that I was obliged to
+      smile. I looked into his clever eyes, thought how many beautiful things he
+      had written, and I could not be angry with him. The conversation became
+      more lively, more free, and he said many kind things to me; for example,
+      he esteemed my stories very highly, and entreated me frequently to visit
+      him. I have become more and more acquainted with his poetical temperament,
+      and I fancy that he too will understand mine. We are very dissimilar, but
+      we both strive after the same object. Before we separated he conducted me
+      to his little observatory; now his dearest world. He seems now to live for
+      poetry and now for philosophy, andùfor which I fancy he is least of all
+      calculated&mdash;for astronomy. I could almost sigh and sing,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  Thou wast erewhile the star at which them gazest now!
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      My dramatic story came at length on the stage, and in the course of the
+      season was performed seven times.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+As people grow older, however much they may be tossed about in the
+world, some one place must be the true home; even the bird of passage
+has one fixed spot to which it hastens; mine was and is the house of my
+friend Collin. Treated as a son, almost grown up with the children,
+I have become a member of the family; a more heartfelt connection,
+a better home have I never known: a link broke in this chain, and
+precisely in the hour of bereavement, did I feel how firmly I have been
+engrafted here, so that I was regarded as one of the children.
+
+ If I were to give the picture of the mistress of a family who wholly
+loses her own individual <i>I</i> in her husband and children, I must name
+the wife of Collin; with the sympathy of a mother, she also followed me
+in sorrow and in gladness. In the latter years of her life she became
+very deaf, and besides this she had the misfortune of being nearly
+blind. An operation was performed on her sight, which succeeded so well,
+that in the course of the winter she was able to read a letter, and
+this was a cause of grateful joy to her. She longed in an extraordinary
+manner for the first green of spring, and this she saw in her little
+garden.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I parted from her one Sunday evening in health and joy; in the night I was
+      awoke; a servant brought me a letter. Collin wrote, "My wife is very ill;
+      the children are all assembled here!" I understood it, and hastened
+      thither. She slept quietly and without pain; it was the sleep of the just;
+      it was death which was approaching so kindly and calmly. On the third day
+      she yet lay in that peaceful slumber: then her countenance grew pale&mdash;and
+      she was dead!
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  Thou didst but close thine eyes to gather in
+    The large amount of all thy spiritual bliss;
+  We saw thy slumbers like a little child's.
+     O death! thou art all brightness and not shadow.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Never had I imagined that the departure from this world could be so
+      painless, so blessed. A devotion arose in my soul; a conviction of God and
+      eternity, which this moment elevated to an epoch in my life. It was the
+      first death-bed at which I had been present since my childhood. Children,
+      and children's children were assembled. In such moments all is holy around
+      us. Her soul was love; she went to love and to God!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the end of July, the monument of King Frederick VI. was to be uncovered
+      at Skanderburg, in the middle of Jutland. I had, by solicitation, written
+      the cantata for the festival, to which Hartmann had furnished the music,
+      and this was to be sung by Danish students. I had been invited to the
+      festival, which thus was to form the object of my summer excursion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Skanderburg lies in one of the most beautiful districts of Denmark.
+      Agreeable hills rise covered with vast beech-woods, and a large inland
+      lake of a pleasing form extends among them. On the outside of the city,
+      close by the church, which is built upon the ruins of an old castle, now
+      stands the monument, a work of Thorwaldsen's. The most beautiful moment to
+      me at this festival was in the evening, after the unveiling of the
+      monument; torches were lighted around it, and threw their unsteady flame
+      over the lake; within the woods blazed thousands of lights, and music for
+      the dance resounded from the tents. Round about upon the hills, between
+      the woods, and high above them, bonfires were lighted at one and the same
+      moment, which burned in the night like red stars. There was spread over
+      lake and land a pure, a summer fragrance which is peculiar to the north,
+      in its beautiful summer nights. The shadows of those who passed between
+      the monument and the church, glided gigantically along its red walls, as
+      if they were spirits who were taking part in the festival.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I returned home. In this year my novel of the Improvisatore was translated
+      into English, by the well-known authoress, Mary Howitt, and was received
+      by her countrymen with great applause. O. T. and the Fiddler soon
+      followed, and met with, as it seemed, the same reception. After that
+      appeared a Dutch, and lastly a Russian translation of the Improvisatore.
+      That which should never have ventured to have dreamed of was accomplished;
+      my writings seem to come forth under a lucky star; they fly over all
+      lands. There is something elevating, but at the same time, a something
+      terrific in seeing one's thoughts spread so far, and among so many people;
+      it is indeed, almost a fearful thing to belong to so many. The noble and
+      the good in us becomes a blessing; but the bad, one's errors, shoot forth
+      also, and involuntarily the thought forces itself from us: God! let me
+      never write down a word of which I shall not be able to give an account to
+      thee. A peculiar feeling, a mixture of joy and anxiety, fills my heart
+      every time my good genius conveys my fictions to a foreign people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Travelling operates like an invigorating bath to the mind; like a
+      Medea-draft which always makes young again. I feel once more an impulse
+      for it&mdash;not in order to seek up material, as a critic fancied and
+      said, in speaking of my Bazaar; there exists a treasury of material in my
+      own inner self, and this life is too short to mature this young existence;
+      but there needs refreshment of spirit in order to convey it vigorously and
+      maturely to paper, and travelling is to me, as I have said, this
+      invigorating bath, from which I return as it were younger and stronger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By prudent economy, and the proceeds of my writings, I was in a condition
+      to undertake several journeys during the last year. That which for me is
+      the most sunbright, is the one in which these pages were written. Esteem,
+      perhaps over-estimation, but especially kindness, in short, happiness and
+      pleasure have flowed towards me in abundant measure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wished to visit Italy for the third time, there to spend a summer, that
+      I might become acquainted with the south in its warm season, and probably
+      return thence by Spain and France. At the end of October, 1845, I left
+      Copenhagen. Formerly I had thought when I set out on a journey, God! what
+      wilt thou permit to happen to me on this journey! This time my thoughts
+      were, God, what will happen to my friends at home during this long time!
+      And I felt a real anxiety. In one year the hearse may drive up to the door
+      many times, and whose name may shine upon the coffin! The proverb says,
+      when one suddenly feels a cold shudder, "now death passes over my grave."
+      The shudder is still colder when the thoughts pass over the graves of our
+      best friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I spent a few days at Count Moltke's, at Glorup; strolling players were
+      acting some of my dramatic works at one of the nearest provincial towns. I
+      did not see them; country life firmly withheld me. There is something in
+      the late autumn poetically beautiful; when the leaf is fallen from the
+      tree, and the sun shines still upon the green grass, and the bird
+      twitters, one may often fancy that it is a spring-day; thus certainly also
+      has the old man moments in his autumn in which his heart dreams of spring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I passed only one day in Odense&mdash;I feel myself there more of a
+      stranger than in the great cities of Germany. As a child I was solitary,
+      and had therefore no youthful friend; most of the families whom I knew
+      have died out; a new generation passes along the streets; and the streets
+      even are altered. The later buried have concealed the miserable graves of
+      my parents. Everything is changed. I took one of my childhood's rambles to
+      the Marian-heights which had belonged to the Iversen family; but this
+      family is dispersed; unknown faces looked out from the windows. How many
+      youthful thoughts have been here exchanged!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the young girls who at that time sat quietly there with beaming
+      eyes and listened to my first poem, when I came here in the summer time as
+      a scholar from Slagelse, sits now far quieter in noisy Copenhagen, and has
+      thence sent out her first writings into the world. Her German publisher
+      thought that some introductory words from me might be useful to them, and
+      I, the stranger, but the almost too kindly received, have introduced the
+      works of this clever girl into Germany.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is Henriette Hanck of whom I speak, the authoress of "Aunt Anna," and
+      "An Author's Daughter." [Footnote: Since these pages were written, I have
+      received from home the news of her death, in July, 1846. She was an
+      affectionate daughter to her parents, and was, besides this, possessed of
+      a deeply poetical mind. In her I have lost a true friend from the years of
+      childhood, one who had felt an interest and a sisterly regard for me, both
+      in my good and my evil days.] I visited her birth-place when the first
+      little circle paid me homage and gave me joy. But all was strange there, I
+      myself a stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ducal family of Augustenburg was now at Castle Gravenstein; they were
+      informed of my arrival, and all the favor and the kindness which was shown
+      to me on the former occasion at Augustenburg, was here renewed in rich
+      abundance. I remained here fourteen days, and it was as if these were an
+      announcement of all the happiness which should meet me when I arrived in
+      Germany. The country around here is of the most picturesque description;
+      vast woods, cultivated uplands in perpetual variety, with the winding
+      shore of the bay and the many quiet inland lakes. Even the floating mists
+      of autumn lent to the landscape a some what picturesque, something strange
+      to the islander. Everything here is on a larger scale than on the island.
+      Beautiful was it without, glorious was it within. I wrote here a new
+      little story. The Girl with the Brimstone-matches; the only thing which I
+      wrote upon this journey. Receiving the invitation to come often to
+      Gravenstein and Augustenburg, I left, with a grateful heart, a place where
+      I had spent such beautiful and such happy days.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, no longer the traveller goes at a snail's pace through the deep sand
+      over the heath; the railroad conveys him in a few hours to Altona and
+      Hamburg. The circle of my friends there is increased within the last
+      years. The greater part of my time I spent with my oldest friends Count
+      Hoik, and the resident Minister Bille, and with Zeise, the excellent
+      translator of my stories. Otto Speckter, who is full of genius, surprised
+      me by his bold, glorious drawings for my stories; he had made a whole
+      collection of them, six only of which were known to me. The same natural
+      freshness which shows itself in every one of his works, and makes them all
+      little works of art, exhibits itself in his whole character. He appears to
+      possess a patriarchal family, an affectionate old father, and gifted
+      sisters, who love him with their whole souls. I wished one evening to go
+      to the theatre; it was scarcely a quarter of an hour before the
+      commencement of the opera: Speckter accompanied me, and on our way we came
+      up to an elegant house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We must first go in here, dear friend," said he; "a wealthy family lives
+      here, friends of mine, and friends of your stories; the children will be
+      happy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But the opera," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Only for two minutes," returned he; and drew me into the house, mentioned
+      my name, and the circle of children collected around me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And now tell us a tale," said he; "only one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told one, and then hastened away to the theatre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That was an extraordinary visit," said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "An excellent one; one entirely out of the common way; one entirely out of
+      the common way!" said he exultingly; "only think; the children are full of
+      Andersen and his stories; he suddenly makes his appearance amongst them,
+      tells one of them himself, and then is gone! vanished! That is of itself
+      like a fairy-tale to the children, that will remain vividly in their
+      remembrance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I myself was amused by it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Oldenburg my own little room, home-like and comfortable, was awaiting
+      me. Hofrath von Eisendecker and his well-informed lady, whom, among all my
+      foreign friends I may consider as my most sympathizing, expected me. I had
+      promised to remain with them a fortnight, but I stayed much longer. A
+      house where the best and the most intellectual people of a city meet, is
+      an agreeable place of residence, and such a one had I here. A deal of
+      social intercourse prevailed in the little city, and the theatre, in which
+      certainly either opera or ballet was given, is one of the most excellent
+      in Germany. The ability of Gall, the director, is sufficiently known, and
+      unquestionably the nominationof the poet Mosen has a great and good
+      influence. I have to thank him for enabling me to see one of the classic
+      pieces of Germany, "Nathan the Wise," the principal part in which was
+      played by Kaiser, who is as remarkable for his deeply studied and
+      excellent tragic acting, as for his readings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Moses, who somewhat resembles Alexander Dumas, with his half African
+      countenance, and brown sparkling eyes, although he was suffering in body,
+      was full of life and soul, and we soon understood one another. A trait of
+      his little son affected me. He had listened to me with great devotion, as
+      I read one of my stories; and when on the last day I was there, I took
+      leave, the mother said that he must give me his hand, adding, that
+      probably a long time must pass before he would see me again, the boy burst
+      into tears. In the evening, when Mosen came into the theatre, he said to
+      me, "My little Erick has two tin soldiers; one of them he has given me for
+      you, that you may take him with you on your journey."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tin soldier has faithfully accompanied me; he is a Turk: probably some
+      day he may relate his travels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mosen wrote in the dedication of his "John of Austria," the following
+      lines to me:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  Once a little bird flew over
+    From the north sea's dreary strand;
+  Singing, flew unto me over,
+    Singing M rchen through the land.
+  Farewell! yet again bring hither
+    Thy warm heart and song together.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Here I again met with Mayer, who has described Naples and the Neapolitans
+      so charmingly. My little stories interested him so much that he had
+      written a little treaties on them for Germany, Kapellmeister Pott, and my
+      countryman Jerndorff, belong to my earlier friends. I made every day new
+      acquaintance, because all houses were open to me through the family with
+      whom I was staying. Even the Grand Duke was so generous as to have me
+      invited to a concert at the palace the day after my arrival, and later I
+      had the honor of being asked to dinner. I received in this foreign court,
+      especially, many unlooked-for favors. At the Eisendeckers and at the house
+      of the parents of my friend Beaulieu&mdash;the Privy-Counsellor Beaulieu,
+      at Oldenburg, I heard several times my little stones read in German.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I can read Danish very well, as it ought to be read, and I can give to it
+      perfectly the expression which ought to be given in reading; there is in
+      the Danish language a power which cannot be transfused into a translation;
+      the Danish language is peculiarly excellent for this species of fiction.
+      The stories have a something strange to me in German; it is difficult for
+      me in reading it to put my Danish soul into it; my pronunciation of the
+      German also is feeble, and with particular words I must, as it were, use
+      an effort to bring them out&mdash;and yet people everywhere in Germany
+      have had great interest in hearing me read them aloud. I can very well
+      believe that the foreign pronunciation in the reading of these tales may
+      be easily permitted, because this foreign manner approaches, in this
+      instance, to the childlike; it gives a natural coloring to the reading. I
+      saw everywhere that the most distinguished men and women of the most
+      highly cultivated minds, listened to me with interest; people entreated me
+      to read, and I did so willingly. I read for the first time my stories in a
+      foreign tongue, and at a foreign court, before the Grand Duke of Oldenburg
+      and a little select circle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The winter soon came on; the meadows which lay under water, and which
+      formed large lakes around the city, were already covered with thick ice;
+      the skaters flew over it, and I yet remained in Oldenburg among my
+      hospitable friends. Days and evenings slid rapidly away; Christmas
+      approached, and this season I wished to spend in Berlin. But what are
+      distances in our days?&mdash;the steam-carriage goes from Hanover to
+      Berlin in one day! I must away from the beloved ones, from children and
+      old people, who were near, as it were, to my heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was astonished in the highest degree on taking leave of the Grand Duke,
+      to receive from him, as a mark of his favor and as a keepsake, a valuable
+      ring. I shall always preserve it, like every other remembrance of this
+      country, where I have found and where I possess true friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I was in Berlin on the former occasion, I was invited, as the author
+      of the Improvisatore, to the Italian Society, into which only those who
+      have visited Italy can be admitted. Here I saw Rauch for the first time,
+      who with his white hair and his powerful, manly figure, is not unlike
+      Thorwaldsen. Nobody introduced me to him, and I did not venture to present
+      myself, and therefore walked alone about his studio, like the other
+      strangers. Afterwards I became personally acquainted with him at the house
+      of the Prussian Ambassador, in Copenhagen; I now hastened to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was in the highest degree captivated by my little stories, pressed me
+      to his breast, and expressed the highest praise, but which was honestly
+      meant. Such a momentary estimation or over-estimation from a man of genius
+      erases many a dark shadow from the mind. I received from Rauch my first
+      welcome in Berlin: he told me what a large circle of friends I had in the
+      capital of Prussia. I must acknowledge that it was so. They were of the
+      noblest in mind as well as the first in rank, in art, and in science.
+      Alexander von Humboldt, Prince Radziwil, Savigny, and many others never to
+      be forgotten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had already, on the former occasion, visited the brothers Grimm, but I
+      had not at that time made much progress with the acquaintance. I had not
+      brought any letters of introduction to them with me, because people had
+      told me, and I myself believed it, that if I were known by any body in
+      Berlin, it must be the brothers Grimm. I therefore sought out their
+      residence. The servant-maid asked me with which of the brothers I wished
+      to speak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "With the one who has written the most," said I, because I did not know,
+      at that time, which of them had most interested himself in the M rchen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Jacob is the most learned," said the maidservant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, then, take me to him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I entered the room, and Jacob Grimm, with his knowing and strongly-marked
+      countenance, stood before me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I come to you," said I, "without letters of introduction, because I hope
+      that my name is not wholly unknown to you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who are you?" asked he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him, and Jacob Grimm said, in a half-embarrassed voice, "I do not
+      remember to have heard this name; what have you written?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now my turn to be embarrassed in a high degree: but I now mentioned
+      my little stories.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I do not know them," said he; "but mention to me some other of your
+      writings, because I certainly must have heard them spoken of."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I named the titles of several; but he shook his head. I felt myself quite
+      unlucky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But what must you think of me," said I, "that I come to you as a total
+      stranger, and enumerate myself what I have written: you must know me!
+      There has been published in Denmark a collection of the M rchen of all
+      nations, which is dedicated to you, and in it there is at least one story
+      of mine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," said he good-humoredly, but as much embarrassed as myself; "I have
+      not read even that, but it delights me to make your acquaintance; allow me
+      to conduct you to my brother Wilhelm?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, I thank you," said I, only wishing now to get away; I had fared badly
+      enough with one brother. I pressed his hand and hurried from the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That same month Jacob Grimm went to Copenhagen; immediately on his
+      arrival, and while yet in his travelling dress, did the amiable kind man
+      hasten up to me. He now knew me, and he came to me with cordiality. I was
+      just then standing and packing my clothes in a trunk for a journey to the
+      country; I had only a few minutes time: by this means my reception of him
+      was just as laconic as had been his of me in Berlin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, however, we met in Berlin as old acquaintance. Jacob Grimm is one of
+      those characters whom one must love and attach oneself to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One evening, as I was reading one of my little stories at the Countess
+      Bismark-Bohlen's, there was in the little circle one person in particular
+      who listened with evident fellowship of feeling, and who expressed himself
+      in a peculiar and sensible manner on the subject,&mdash;this was Jacob's
+      brother, Wilhelm Grimm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I should have known you very well, if you had come to me," said he, "the
+      last time you were here."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I saw these two highly-gifted and amiable brothers almost daily; the
+      circles into which I was invited seemed also to be theirs, and it was my
+      desire and pleasure that they should listen to my little stories, that
+      they should participate in them, they whose names will be always spoken as
+      long as the German <i>Volks M rchen</i> are read.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fact of my not being known to Jacob Grimm on my first visit to Berlin,
+      had so disconcerted me, that when any one asked me whether I had been well
+      received in this city, I shook my head doubtfully and said, "but Grimm did
+      not know me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was told that Tieck was ill&mdash;could see no one; I therefore only
+      sent in my card. Some days afterwards I met at a friend's house, where
+      Rauch's birth-day was being celebrated, Tieck, the sculptor, who told me
+      that his brother had lately waited two hours for me at dinner. I went to
+      him and discovered that he had sent me an invitation, which, however, had
+      been taken to a wrong inn. A fresh invitation was given, and I passed some
+      delightfully cheerful hours with Raumer the historian, and with the widow
+      and daughter of Steffens. There is a music in Tieck's voice, a
+      spirituality in his intelligent eyes, which age cannot lessen, but, on the
+      contrary, must increase. The Elves, perhaps the most beautiful story which
+      has been conceived in our time, would alone be sufficient, had Tieck
+      written nothing else, to make his name immortal. As the author of <i>M
+      rchen</i>, I bow myself before him, the elder and The master, and who was
+      the first German poet, who many years before pressed me to his breast, as
+      if it were to consecrate me, to walk in the same path with himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old friends had all to be visited; but the number of new ones grew
+      with each day. One invitation followed another. It required considerable
+      physical power to support so much good-will. I remained in Berlin about
+      three weeks, and the time seemed to pass more rapidly with each succeeding
+      day. I was, as it were, overcome by kindness. I, at length, had no other
+      prospect for repose than to seat myself in a railway-carriage, and fly
+      away out of the country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And yet amid these social festivities, with all the amiable zeal and
+      interest that then was felt for me, I had one disengaged evening; one
+      evening on which I suddenly felt solitude in its most oppressive form;
+      Christmas-eve, that very evening of all others on which I would most
+      willingly witness something festal, willingly stand beside a
+      Christmas-tree, gladdening myself with the joy of children, and seeing the
+      parents joyfully become children again. Every one of the many families in
+      which I in truth felt that I was received as a relation, had fancied, as I
+      afterwards discovered, that I must be invited out; but I sat quite alone
+      in my room at the inn, and thought on home. I seated myself at the open
+      window, and gazed up to the starry heavens, which was the Christmas-tree
+      that was lighted for me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Father in Heaven," I prayed, as the children do, "what dost thou give to
+      me!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the friends heard of my solitary Christmas night, there were on the
+      following evening many Christmas-trees lighted, and on the last evening in
+      the year, there was planted for me alone, a little tree with its lights,
+      and its beautiful presents&mdash;and that was by Jenny Lind. The whole
+      company consisted of herself, her attendant, and me; we three children
+      from the north were together on Sylvester-eve, and I was the child for
+      which the Christmas-tree was lighted. She rejoiced with the feeling of a
+      sister in my good fortune in Berlin; and I felt almost pride in the
+      sympathy of such a pure, noble, and womanly being. Everywhere her praise
+      resounded, not merely as a singer, but also as a woman; the two combined
+      awoke a real enthusiasm for her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It does one good both in mind and heart to see that which is glorious
+      understood and beloved. In one little anecdote contributing to her triumph
+      I was myself made the confidant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One morning as I looked out of my window <i>unter den Linden</i>, I saw a
+      man under one of the trees, half hidden, and shabbily dressed, who took a
+      comb out of his pocket, smoothed his hair, set his neckerchief straight,
+      and brushed his coat with his hand; I understood that bashful poverty
+      which feels depressed by its shabby dress. A moment after this, there was
+      a knock at my door, and this same man entered. It was W&mdash;&mdash;, the
+      poet of nature, who is only a poor tailor, but who has a truly poetical
+      mind. Rellstab and others in Berlin have mentioned him with honor; there
+      is something healthy in his poems, among which several of a sincerely
+      religious character may be found. He had read that I was in Berlin, and
+      wished now to visit me. We sat together on the sofa and conversed: there
+      was such an amiable contentedness, such an unspoiled and good tone of mind
+      about him, that I was sorry not to be rich in order that I might do
+      something for him. I was ashamed of offering him the little that I could
+      give; in any case I wished to put it in as agreeable a form as I could. I
+      asked him whether I might invite him to hear Jenny Lind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have already heard her," said he smiling; "I had, it is true, no money
+      to buy a ticket; but I went to the leader of the supernumeraries, and
+      asked whether I might not act as a supernumerary for one evening in Norma:
+      I was accepted and habited as a Roman soldier, with a long sword by my
+      side, and thus got to the theatre, where I could hear her better than any
+      body else, for I stood close to her. Ah, how she sung, how she played! I
+      could not help crying; but they were angry at that: the leader forbade and
+      would not let me again make my appearance, because no one must weep on the
+      stage."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the exception of the theatre, I had very little time to visit
+      collections of any kind or institutions of art. The able and amiable
+      Olfers, however, the Director of the Museum, enabled me to pay a rapid but
+      extremely interesting visit to that institution. Olfers himself was my
+      conductor; we delayed our steps only for the most interesting objects, and
+      there are here not a few of these; his remarks threw light upon my mind,&mdash;for
+      this therefore I am infinitely obliged to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had the happiness of visiting the Princess of Prussia many times; the
+      wing of the castle in which she resided was so comfortable, and yet like a
+      fairy palace. The blooming winter-garden, where the fountain splashed
+      among the moss at the foot of the statue, was close beside the room in
+      which the kind-hearted children smiled with their soft blue eyes. On
+      taking leave she honored me with a richly bound album, in which, beneath
+      the picture of the palace, she wrote her name. I shall guard this volume
+      as a treasure of the soul; it is not the gift which has a value only, but
+      also the manner in which it is given. One forenoon I read to her several
+      of my little stories, and her noble husband listened kindly: Prince P
+      ckler-Muskau also was present.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few days after my arrival in Berlin, I had the honor to be invited to
+      the royal table. As I was better acquainted with Humboldt than any one
+      there, and he it was who had particularly interested himself about me, I
+      took my place at his side. Not only on account of his high intellectual
+      character, and his amiable and polite behavior, but also from his infinite
+      kindness towards me, during the whole of my residence in Berlin, is he
+      become unchangeably dear to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King received me most graciously, and said that during his stay in
+      Copenhagen he had inquired after me, and had heard that I was travelling.
+      He expressed a great interest in my novel of Only a Fiddler; her Majesty
+      the Queen also showed herself graciously and kindly disposed towards me. I
+      had afterwards the happiness of being invited to spend an evening at the
+      palace at Potsdam; an evening which is full of rich remembrance and never
+      to be forgotten! Besides the ladies and gentlemen in waiting, Humboldt and
+      myself were only invited. A seat was assigned to me at the table of their
+      Majesties, exactly the place, said the Queen, where Oehlenschl ger had sat
+      and read his tragedy of Dina. I read four little stories, the Fir-Tree,
+      the Ugly Duckling, the Ball and the Top, and The Swineherd. The King
+      listened with great interest, and expressed himself most wittily on the
+      subject. He said, how beautiful he thought the natural scenery of Denmark,
+      and how excellently he had seen one of Holberg's comedies performed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was so deliciously pleasant in the royal apartment,&mdash;gentle eyes
+      were gazing at me, and I felt that they all wished me well. When at night
+      I was alone in my chamber, my thoughts were so occupied with this evening,
+      and my mind in such a state of excitement, that I could not sleep.
+      Everything seemed to me like a fairy tale. Through the whole night the
+      chimes sounded in the tower, and the aerial music mingled itself with my
+      thoughts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received still one more proof of the favor and kindness of the King of
+      Prussia towards me, on the evening before my departure from the city. The
+      order of the Red Eagle, of the third class, was conferred upon me. Such a
+      mark of honor delights certainly every one who receives it. I confess
+      candidly that I felt myself honored in a high degree. I discerned in it an
+      evident token of the kindness of the noble, enlightened King towards me:
+      my heart is filled with gratitude. I received this mark of honor exactly
+      on the birth-day of my benefactor Collin, the 6th of January; this day has
+      now a twofold festal significance for me. May God fill with gladness the
+      mind of the royal donor who wished to give me pleasure!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The last evening was spent in a warm-hearted circle, for the greater part,
+      of young people. My health was drunk; a poem, Der M rchenk÷nig, declaimed.
+      It was not until late in the night that I reached home, that I might set
+      off early in the morning by railroad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have here given in part a proof of the favor and kindness which was
+      shown to me in Berlin: I feel like some one who has received a
+      considerable sum for a certain object from a large assembly, and now would
+      give an account thereof. I might still add many other names, as well from
+      the learned world, as Theodor, M gge, Geibel, H ring, etc., as from the
+      social circle;&mdash;the reckoning is too large. God give me strength for
+      that which I now have to perform, after I have, as an earnest of good
+      will, received such a richly abundant sum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a journey of a day and night I was once more in Weimar, with my
+      noble Hereditary Grand Duke. What a cordial reception! A heart rich in
+      goodness, and a mind full of noble endeavors, live in this young prince. I
+      have no words for the infinite favor, which, during my residence here, I
+      received daily from the family of the Grand Duke, but my whole heart is
+      full of devotion. At the court festival, as well as in the familiar family
+      circle, I had many evidences of the esteem in which I was held. Beaulieu
+      cared for me with the tenderness of a brother. It was to me a month-long
+      Sabbath festival. Never shall I forget the quiet evenings spent with him,
+      when friend spoke freely to friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My old friends were also unchanged; the wise and able Sch÷ll, as well as
+      Schober, joined them also. Jenny Lind came to Weimar; I heard her at the
+      court concerts and at the theatre; I visited with her the places which are
+      become sacred through Goethe and Schiller: we stood together beside their
+      coffins, where Chancellor von Muller led us. The Austrian poet, Rollet,
+      who met us here for the first time, wrote on this subject a sweet poem,
+      which will serve me as a visible remembrance of this hour and this place.
+      People lay lovely flowers in their books, and as such, I lay in here this
+      verse of his:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Weimar, 29th January, 1846.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  M rchen rose, which has so often
+    Charmed me with thy fragrant breath;
+  Where the prince, the poets slumber,
+    Thou hast wreathed the hall of death.
+
+  And with thee beside each coffin,
+    In the death-hushed chamber pale,
+  I beheld a grief-enchanted,
+    Sweetly dreaming nightingale.
+
+  I rejoiced amid the stillness;
+    Gladness through my bosom past,
+  That the gloomy poets' coffins
+    Such a magic crowned at last.
+
+  And thy rose's summer fragrance
+    Floated round that chamber pale,
+  With the gentle melancholy
+    Of the grief-hushed nightingale.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It was in the evening circle of the intellectual Froriep that I met, for
+      the first time, with Auerbach, who then chanced to be staying in Weimar.
+      His "Village Tales" interested me in the highest degree; I regard them as
+      the most poetical, most healthy, and joyous production of the young German
+      literature. He himself made the same agreeable impression upon me; there
+      is something so frank and straightforward, and yet so sagacious, in his
+      whole appearance, I might almost say, that he looks himself like a village
+      tale, healthy to the core, body and soul, and his eyes beaming with
+      honesty. We soon became friends&mdash;and I hope forever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My stay in Weimar was prolonged; it became ever more difficult to tear
+      myself away. The Grand Duke's birth-day occurred at this time, and after
+      attending all the festivities to which I was invited, I departed. I would
+      and must be in Rome at Easter. Once more in the early morning, I saw the
+      Hereditary Grand Duke, and, with a heart full of emotion, bade him
+      farewell. Never, in presence of the world, will I forget the high position
+      which his birth gives him, but I may say, as the very poorest subject may
+      say of a prince, I love him as one who is dearest to my heart. God give
+      him joy and bless him in his noble endeavors! A generous heart beats
+      beneath the princely star.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beaulieu accompanied me to Jena. Here a hospitable home awaited me, and
+      filled with beautiful memories from the time of Goethe, the house of the
+      publisher Frommann. It was his kind, warm-hearted sister, who had shown me
+      such sympathy in Berlin; the brother was not here less kind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Holstener Michelsen, who has a professorship at Jena, assembled a
+      number of friends one evening, and in a graceful and cordial toast for me,
+      expressed his sense of the importance of Danish literature, and the
+      healthy and natural spirit which flourished in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Michelsen's house I also became acquainted with Professor Hase, who,
+      one evening having heard some of my little stories, seemed filled with
+      great kindness towards me. What he wrote in this moment of interest on an
+      album leaf expresses this sentiment:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Schelling&mdash;not he who now lives in Berlin, but he who lives an
+      immortal hero in the world of mind&mdash;once said: 'Nature is the visible
+      spirit.' This spirit, this unseen nature, last evening was again rendered
+      visible to me through your little tales. If on the one hand you penetrate
+      deeply into the mysteries of nature; know and understand the language of
+      birds, and what are the feelings of a fir-tree or a daisy, so that each
+      seems to be there on its own account, and we and our children sympathize
+      with them in their joys and sorrows; yet, on the other hand, all is but
+      the image of mind; and the human heart in its infinity, trembles and
+      throbs throughout. May this fountain in the poet's heart, which God has
+      lent you, still for a time pour forth this refreshingly, and may these
+      stories in the memories of the Germanic nations, become the legends of the
+      people!" That object, for which as a writer of poetical fictions, I must
+      strive after, is contained in these last lines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is also to Hase and the gifted improvisatore, Professor Wolff of Jena,
+      to whom I am most indebted for the appearance of a uniform German edition
+      of my writings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was all arranged on my arrival at Leipzig: several hours of business
+      were added to my traveller's mode of life. The city of bookselling
+      presented me with her bouquet, a sum of money; but she presented me with
+      even more. I met again with Brockhaus, and passed happy hours with
+      Mendelssohn, that glorious man of genius. I heard him play again and
+      again; it seemed to me that his eyes, full of soul, looked into the very
+      depths of my being. Few men have more the stamp of the inward fire than
+      he. A gentle, friendly wife, and beautiful children, make his rich,
+      well-appointed house, blessed and pleasant. When he rallied me about the
+      Stork, and its frequent appearance in my writings, there was something so
+      childlike and amiable revealed in this great artist!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I also met again my excellent countryman Gade, whose compositions have
+      been so well received in Germany. I took him the text for a new opera
+      which I had written, and which I hope to see brought out on the German
+      stage. Gade had written the music to my drama of Agnete and the Merman,
+      compositions which were very successful. Auerbach, whom I again found
+      here, introduced me to many agreeable circles. I met with the composer
+      Kalliwoda, and with K hne, whose charming little son immediately won my
+      heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On my arrival at Dresden I instantly hastened to my motherly friend, the
+      Baroness von Decken. That was a joyous hearty welcome! One equally cordial
+      I met with from Dahl. I saw once more my Roman friend, the poet with word
+      and color, Reineck, and met the kind-hearted Bendemann. Professor Grahl
+      painted me. I missed, however, one among my olden friends, the poet
+      Brunnow. With life and cordiality he received me the last time in his
+      room, where stood lovely flowers; now these grew over his grave. It
+      awakens a peculiar feeling, thus for once to meet on the journey of life,
+      to understand and love each other, and then to part&mdash;until the
+      journey for both is ended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I spent, to me, a highly interesting evening, with the royal family, who
+      received me with extraordinary favor. Here also the most happy domestic
+      life appeared to reign&mdash;a number of amiable children, all belonging
+      to Prince Johann, were present. The least of the Princesses, a little
+      girl, who knew that I had written the history of the Fir-tree, began very
+      confidentially with&mdash;"Last Christmas we also had a Fir-tree, and it
+      stood here in this room!" Afterwards, when she was led out before the
+      other children, and had bade her parents and the King and Queen good
+      night, she turned round at the half-closed door, and nodding to me in a
+      friendly and familiar manner, said I was her Fairy-tale Prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My story of Holger Danske led the conversation to the rich stores of
+      legends which the north possesses. I related several, and explained the
+      peculiar spirit of the fine scenery of Denmark. Neither in this royal
+      palace did I feel the weight of ceremony; soft, gentle eyes shone upon me.
+      My last morning in Dresden was spent with the Minister von K÷nneritz,
+      where I equally met with the most friendly reception.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun shone warm: it was spring who was celebrating her arrival, as I
+      rolled out of the dear city. Thought assembled in one amount all the many
+      who had rendered my visits so rich and happy: it was spring around me, and
+      spring in my heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Prague I had only one acquaintance, Professor Wiesenfeldt. But a letter
+      from Dr. Carus in Dresden opened to me the hospitable house of Count Thun.
+      The Archduke Stephan received me also in the most gracious manner; I found
+      in him a young man full of intellect and heart. Besides it was a very
+      interesting point of time when I left Prague. The military, who had been
+      stationed there a number of years, were hastening to the railway, to leave
+      for Poland, where disturbances had broken out. The whole city seemed in
+      movement to take leave of its military friends; it was difficult to get
+      through the streets which led to the railway. Many thousand soldiers were
+      to be accommodated; at length the train was set in motion. All around the
+      whole hill-side was covered with people; it looked like the richest Turkey
+      carpet woven of men, women and children, all pressed together, head to
+      head, and waving hats and handkerchiefs. Such a mass of human beings I
+      never saw before, or at least, never at one moment surveyed them: such a
+      spectacle could not be painted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We travelled the whole night through wide Bohemia: at every town stood
+      groups of people; it was as though all the inhabitants had assembled
+      themselves. Their brown faces, their ragged clothes, the light of their
+      torches, their, to me, unintelligible language, gave to the whole a stamp
+      of singularity. We flew through tunnel and over viaduct; the windows
+      rattled, the signal whistle sounded, the steam horses snorted&mdash;I laid
+      back my head at last in the carriage, and fell asleep under the protection
+      of the god Morpheus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Olm tz, where we had fresh carnages, a voice spoke my name&mdash;it was
+      Walter Goethe! We had travelled together the whole night without knowing
+      it. In Vienna we met often. Noble powers, true genius, live in Goethe's
+      grandsons, in the composer as well as in the poet; but it is as if the
+      greatness of their grandfather pressed upon them. Liszt was in Vienna, and
+      invited me to his concert, in which otherwise it would have been
+      impossible to find a place. I again heard his improvising of Robert! I
+      again heard him, like a spirit of the storm, play with the chords: he is
+      an enchanter of sounds who fills the imagination with astonishment. Ernst
+      also was here; when I visited him he seized the violin, and this sang in
+      tears the secret of a human heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I saw the amiable Grillparzer again, and was frequently with the kindly
+      Castelli, who just at this time had been made by the King of Denmark
+      Knight of the Danebrog Order. He was full of joy at this, and begged me to
+      tell my countrymen that every Dane should receive a hearty welcome from
+      him. Some future summer he invited me to visit his grand country seat.
+      There is something in Castelli so open and honorable, mingled with such
+      good-natured humor, that one must like him: he appears to me the picture
+      of a thorough Viennese. Under his portrait, which he gave me, he wrote the
+      following little improvised verse in the style so peculiarly his own:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  This portrait shall ever with loving eyes greet thee,
+    From far shall recall the smile of thy friend;
+  For thou, dearest Dane, 'tis a pleasure to meet thee,
+    Thou art one to be loved and esteemed to the end.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Castelli introduced me to Seidl and Bauernfeld. At the Danisti
+      ambassador's, Baron von L÷wenstern, I met Zedlitz. Most of the shining
+      stars of Austrian literature I saw glide past me, as people on a railway
+      see church towers; you can still say you have seen them; and still
+      retaining the simile of the stars, I can say, that in the Concordia
+      Society I saw the entire galaxy. Here was a host of young growing
+      intellects, and here were men of importance. At the house of Count
+      Szechenye, who hospitably invited me, I saw his brother from Pest, whose
+      noble activity in Hungary is known. This short meeting I account one of
+      the most interesting events of my stay in Vienna; the man revealed himself
+      in all his individuality, and his eye said that you must feel confidence
+      in him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At my departure from Dresden her Majesty the Queen of Saxony had asked me
+      whether I had introductions to any one at the Court of Vienna, and when I
+      told her that I had not, the Queen was so gracious as to write a letter to
+      her sister, the Archduchess Sophia of Austria. Her imperial Highness
+      summoned me one evening, and received me in the most gracious manner. The
+      dowager Empress, the widow of the Emperor Francis I., was present, and
+      full of kindness and friendship towards me; also Prince Wasa, and the
+      hereditary Archduchess of Hesse-Darmstadt. The remembrance of this evening
+      will always remain dear and interesting to me. I read several of my little
+      stories aloud&mdash;when I wrote them, I thought least of all that I
+      should some day read them aloud in the imperial palace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before my departure I had still another visit to make, and this was to the
+      intellectual authoress, Frau von Weissenthurn. She had just left a bed of
+      sickness and was still suffering, but wished to see me. As though she were
+      already standing on the threshold of the realm of shades, she pressed my
+      hand and said this was the last time we should ever see each other. With a
+      soft motherly gaze she looked at me, and at parting her penetrating eye
+      followed me to the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With railway and diligence my route now led towards Triest. With steam the
+      long train of carriages flies along the narrow rocky way, following all
+      the windings of the river. One wonders that with all these abrupt turnings
+      one is not dashed against the rock, or flung down into the roaring stream,
+      and is glad when the journey is happily accomplished. But in the slow
+      diligence one wishes its more rapid journey might recommence, and praise
+      the powers of the age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length Triest and the Adriatic sea lay before us; the Italian language
+      sounded in our ears, but yet for me it was not Italy, the land of my
+      desire. Meanwhile I was only a stranger here for a few hours; our Danish
+      consul, as well as the consuls of Prussia and Oldenburg, to whom I was
+      recommended, received me in the best possible manner. Several interesting
+      acquaintances were made, especially with the Counts O'Donnell and
+      Waldstein, the latter for me as a Dane having a peculiar interest, as
+      being the descendant of that unfortunate Confitz Ulfeld and the daughter
+      of Christian IV., Eleanore, the noblest of all Danish women. Their
+      portraits hung in his room, and Danish memorials of that period were shown
+      me. It was the first time I had ever seen Eleanore Ulfeld's portrait, and
+      the melancholy smile on her lips seemed to say, "Poet, sing and free from
+      chains which a hard age had cast upon him, for whom to live and to suffer
+      was my happiness!" Before Oehlenschl ger wrote his Dina, which treats of
+      an episode in Ulfeld's life, I was at work on this subject, and wished to
+      bring it on the stage, but it was then feared this would not be allowed,
+      and I gave it up&mdash;since then I have only written four lines on
+      Ulfeld:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  Thy virtue was concealed, not so thy failings,
+  Thus did the world thy greatness never know,
+  Yet still love's glorious monument proclaims it,
+  That the best wife from thee would never go.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      On the Adriatic sea I, in thought, was carried back to Ulfeld's time and
+      the Danish islands. This meeting with Count Waldstein and his ancestor's
+      portrait brought me back to my poet's world, and I almost forgot that the
+      following day I could be in the middle of Italy. In beautiful mild weather
+      I went with the steam-boat to Ancona.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a quiet starlight night, too beautiful to be spent in sleep. In the
+      early morning the coast of Italy lay before us, the beautiful blue
+      mountains with glittering snow. The sun shone warmly, the grass and the
+      trees were so splendidly green. Last evening in Trieste, now in Ancona, in
+      a city of the papal states,&mdash;that was almost like enchantment! Italy
+      in all its picturesque splendor lay once more before me; spring had
+      ripened all the fruit trees so that they had burst forth into blossom;
+      every blade of grass in the field was filled with sunshine, the elm trees
+      stood like caryatides enwreathed with vines, which shot forth green
+      leaves, and above the luxuriance of foliage rose the wavelike blue
+      mountains with their snow covering. In company with Count Paar from
+      Vienna, the most excellent travelling companion, and a young nobleman from
+      Hungary, I now travelled on with a vetturino for five days: solitary, and
+      more picturesque than habitable inns among the Apennines were our night's
+      quarters. At length the Campagna, with its thought-awakening desolation,
+      lay before us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the 31st of March, 1846, when I again saw Rome, and for the third
+      time in my life should reach this city of the world. I felt so happy, so
+      penetrated with thankfulness and joy; how much more God had given me than
+      a thousand others&mdash;nay, than to many thousands! And even in this very
+      feeling there is a blessing&mdash;where joy is very great, as in the
+      deepest grief, there is only God on whom one can lean! The first
+      impression was&mdash;I can find no other word for it&mdash;adoration. When
+      day unrolled for me my beloved Rome, I felt what I cannot express more
+      briefly or better than I did in a letter to a friend: "I am growing here
+      into the very ruins, I live with the petrified gods, and the roses are
+      always blooming, and the church bells ringing&mdash;and yet Rome is not
+      the Rome it was thirteen years ago when I first was here. It is as if
+      everything were modernized, the ruins even, grass and bushes are cleared
+      away. Everything is made so neat; the very life of the people seems to
+      have retired; I no longer hear the tamborines in the streets, no longer
+      see the young girls dancing their Saltarella, even in the Campagna
+      intelligence has entered by invisible railroads; the peasant no longer
+      believes as he used to do. At the Easter festival I saw great numbers of
+      the people from the Campagna standing before St. Peters whilst the Pope
+      distributed his blessing, just as though they had been Protestant
+      strangers. This was repulsive to my feelings, I felt an impulse to kneel
+      before the invisible saint. When I was here thirteen years ago, all knelt;
+      now reason had conquered faith. Ten years later, when the railways will
+      have brought cities still nearer to each other, Rome will be yet more
+      changed. But in all that happens, everything is for the best; one always
+      must love Rome; it is like a story book, one is always discovering new
+      wonders, and one lives in imagination and reality."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first time I travelled to Italy I had no eyes for sculpture; in Paris
+      the rich pictures drew me away from the statues; for the first time when I
+      came to Florence and stood before the Venus de Medicis, I felt as
+      Thorwaldsen expressed, "the snow melted away from my eyes;" and a new
+      world of art rose before me. And now at my third sojourn in Rome, after
+      repeated wanderings through the Vatican, I prize the statues far higher
+      than the paintings. But at what other places as at Rome, and to some
+      degree in Naples, does this art step forth so grandly into life! One is
+      carried away by it, one learns to admire nature in the work of art, the
+      beauty of form becomes spiritual.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the many clever and beautiful things which I saw exhibited in the
+      studios of the young artists, two pieces of sculpture were what most
+      deeply impressed themselves on my memory; and these were in the studio of
+      my countryman Jerichau. I saw his group of Hercules and Hebe, which had
+      been spoken of with such enthusiasm in the Allgemeine Zeitung and other
+      German papers, and which, through its antique repose, and its glorious
+      beauty, powerfully seized upon me. My imagination was filled by it, and
+      yet I must place Jerichau's later group, the Fighting Hunter, still
+      higher. It is formed after the model, as though it had sprung from nature.
+      There lies in it a truth, a beauty, and a grandeur which I am convinced
+      will make his name resound through many lands!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have known him from the time when he was almost a boy. We were both of
+      us born on the same island: he is from the little town of Assens. We met
+      in Copenhagen. No one, not even he himself, knew what lay within him; and
+      half in jest, half in earnest, he spoke of the combat with himself whether
+      he should go to America and become a savage, or to Rome and become an
+      artist&mdash;painter or sculptor; that he did not yet know. His pencil was
+      meanwhile thrown away: he modelled in clay, and my bust was the first
+      which he made. He received no travelling stipendium from the Academy. As
+      far as I know, it was a noble-minded woman, an artist herself, unprovided
+      with means, who, from the interest she felt for the spark of genius she
+      observed in him, assisted him so far that he reached Italy by means of a
+      trading vessel. In the beginning he worked in Thorwaldsen's atelier.
+      During a journey of several years, he has doubtless experienced the
+      struggles of genius and the galling fetters of want; but now the star of
+      fortune shines upon him. When I came to Rome, I found him physically
+      suffering and melancholy. He was unable to bear the warm summers of Italy;
+      and many people said he could not recover unless he visited the north,
+      breathed the cooler air, and took sea-baths. His praises resounded through
+      the papers, glorious works stood in his atelier; but man does not live on
+      heavenly bread alone. There came one day a Russian Prince, I believe, and
+      he gave a commission for the Hunter. Two other commissions followed on the
+      same day. Jerichau came full of rejoicing and told this to me. A few days
+      after he travelled with his wife, a highly gifted painter, to Denmark,
+      from whence, strengthened body and soul, he returned, with the winter, to
+      Rome, where the strokes of his chisel will resound so that, I hope, the
+      world will hear them. My heart will beat joyfully with them!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I also met in Rome, Kolberg, another Danish sculptor, until now only known
+      in Denmark, but there very highly thought of, a scholar of Thorwaldsen's
+      and a favorite of that great master. He honored me by making my bust. I
+      also sat once more with the kindly K chler, and saw the forms fresh as
+      nature spread themselves over the canvas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I sat once again with the Roman people in the amusing puppet theatre, and
+      heard the children's merriment. Among the German artists, as well as among
+      the Swedes and my own countrymen, I met with a hearty reception. My
+      birth-day was joyfully celebrated. Frau von Goethe, who was in Rome, and
+      who chanced to be living in the very house where I brought my
+      Improvisatore into the world, and made him spend his first years of
+      childhood, sent me from thence a large, true Roman bouquet, a fragrant
+      mosaic. The Swedish painter, S÷dermark, proposed my health to the company
+      whom the Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians had invited me to meet. From my
+      friends I received some pretty pictures and friendly keepsakes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Hanoverian minister, K stner, to whose friendship I am indebted for
+      many pleasant hours, is an extremely agreeable man, possessed of no small
+      talent for poetry, music, and painting. At his house I really saw for the
+      first time flower-painting elevated by a poetical idea. In one of his
+      rooms he has introduced an arabesque of flowers which presents us with the
+      flora of the whole year. It commences with the first spring flowers, the
+      crocus, the snow drop, and so on; then come the summer flowers, then the
+      autumn, and at length the garland ends with the red berries and
+      yellow-brown leaves of December.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Constantly in motion, always striving to employ every moment and to see
+      everything, I felt myself at last very much affected by the unceasing
+      sirocco. The Roman air did not agree with me, and I hastened, therefore,
+      as soon as I had seen the illumination of the dome and the <i>girandola</i>,
+      immediately after the Easter festival, through Terracina to Naples. Count
+      Paar travelled with me. We entered St. Lucia: the sea lay before us;
+      Vesuvius blazed. Those were glorious evenings! moonlight nights! It was as
+      if the heavens had elevated themselves above and the stars were withdrawn.
+      What effect of light! In the north the moon scatters silver over the
+      water: here it was gold. The circulating lanterns of the lighthouse now
+      exhibited their dazzling light, now were totally extinguished. The torches
+      of the fishing-boats threw their obelisk-formed blaze along the surface of
+      the water, or else the boat concealed them like a black shadow, below
+      which the surface of the water was illuminated. One fancied one could see
+      to the bottom, where fishes and plants were in motion. Along the street
+      itself thousands of lights were burning in the shops of the dealers in
+      fruit and fish. Now came a troop of children with lights, and went in
+      procession to the church of St. Lucia. Many fell down with their lights;
+      but above the whole stood, like the hero of this great drama of light,
+      Vesuvius with his blood-red flame and his illumined cloud of smoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I visited the islands of Capri and Ischia once more; and, as the heat of
+      the sun and the strong sirocco made a longer residence in Naples
+      oppressive to me, I went to Sarrento, Tasso's city, where the foliage of
+      the vine cast a shade, and where the air appears to me lighter. Here I
+      wrote these pages. In Rome, by the bay of Naples and amid the Pyrenees, I
+      put on paper the story of my life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The well-known festival of the Madonna dell' Arco called me again to
+      Naples, where I took up my quarters at an hotel in the middle of the city,
+      near the Toledo Street, and found an excellent host and hostess. I had
+      already resided here, but only in the winter. I had now to see Naples in
+      its summer heat and with all its wild tumult, but in what degree I had
+      never imagined. The sun shone down with its burning heat into the narrow
+      streets, in at the balcony door. It was necessary to shut up every place:
+      not a breath of air stirred. Every little corner, every spot in the street
+      on which a shadow fell was crowded with working handicraftsmen, who
+      chattered loudly and merrily; the carriages rolled past; the drivers
+      screamed; the tumult of the people roared like a sea in the other streets;
+      the church bells sounded every minute; my opposite neighbor, God knows who
+      he was, played the musical scale from morning till evening. It was enough
+      to make one lose one's senses!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sirocco blew its boiling-hot breath and I was perfectly overcome.
+      There was not another room to be had at St. Lucia, and the sea-bathing
+      seemed rather to weaken than to invigorate me. I went therefore again into
+      the country; but the sun burned there with the same beams; yet still the
+      air there was more elastic, yet for all that it was to me like the
+      poisoned mantle of Hercules, which, as it were, drew out of me strength
+      and spirit. I, who had fancied that I must be precisely a child of the
+      sun, so firmly did my heart always cling to the south, was forced to
+      acknowledge that the snow of the north was in my body, that the snow
+      melted, and that I was more and more miserable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Most strangers felt as I myself did in this, as the Neapolitans themselves
+      said, unusually hot summer; the greater number went away. I also would
+      have done the same, but I was obliged to wait several days for a letter of
+      credit; it had arrived at the right time, but lay forgotten in the hands
+      of my banker. Yet there was a deal for me to see in Naples; many houses
+      were open to me. I tried whether the will were not stronger than the
+      Neapolitan heat, but I fell into such a nervous state in consequence, that
+      till the time of my departure I was obliged to lie quietly in my hot room,
+      where the night brought no coolness. From the morning twilight to midnight
+      roared the noise of bells, the cry of the people, the trampling of horses
+      on the stone pavement, and the before-mentioned practiser of the scale&mdash;it
+      was like being on the rack; and this caused me to give up my journey to
+      Spain, especially as I was assured, for my consolation, that I should find
+      it just as warm there as here. The physician said that, at this season of
+      the year, I could not sustain the journey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I took a berth in the steam-boat Castor for Marseilles; the vessel was
+      full to overflowing with passengers; the whole quarter-deck, even the best
+      place, was occupied by travelling carriages; under one of these I had my
+      bed laid; many people followed my example, and the quarter-deck was soon
+      covered with mattresses and carpets. It blew strongly; the wind increased,
+      and in the second and third night raged to a perfect storm; the ship
+      rolled from side to side like a cask in the open sea; the waves dashed on
+      the ship's side and lifted up their broad heads above the bulwarks as if
+      they would look in upon us. It was as if the carriages under which we lay
+      would crush us to pieces, or else would be washed away by the sea. There
+      was a lamentation, but I lay quiet, looked up at the driving clouds, and
+      thought upon God and my beloved. When at length we reached Genoa most of
+      the passengers went on land: I should have been willing enough to have
+      followed their example, that I might go by Milan to Switzerland, but my
+      letter of credit was drawn upon Marseilles and some Spanish sea-ports. I
+      was obliged to go again on board. The sea was calm; the air fresh; it was
+      the most glorious voyage along the charming Sardinian coast. Full of
+      strength and new life I arrived at Marseilles, and, as I here breathed
+      more easily, my longing to see Spain was again renewed. I had laid the
+      plan of seeing this country last, as the bouquet of my journey. In the
+      suffering state in which I had been I was obliged to give it up, but I was
+      now better. I regarded it therefore as a pointing of the finger of heaven
+      that I should be compelled to go to Marseilles, and determined to venture
+      upon the journey. The steam-vessel to Barcelona had, in the meantime, just
+      sailed, and several days must pass before another set out. I determined
+      therefore to travel by short days' journeys through the south of France
+      across the Pyrenees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before leaving Marseilles, chance favored me with a short meeting with one
+      of my friends from the North, and this was Ole Bull! He came from America,
+      and was received in France with jubilees and serenades, of which I was
+      myself a witness. At the <i>table d'h te</i> in the <i>H tel des Empereurs</i>,
+      where we both lodged, we flew towards each other. He told me what I should
+      have expected least of all, that my works had also many friends in
+      America, that people had inquired from him about me with the greatest
+      interest, and that the English translations of my romances had been
+      reprinted, and spread through the whole country in cheap editions. My name
+      flown over the great ocean! I felt myself at this thought quite
+      insignificant, but yet glad and happy; wherefore should I, in preference
+      to so many thousand others, receive such happiness?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had and still have a feeling as though I were a poor peasant lad over
+      whom a royal mantle is thrown. Yet I was and am made happy by all this! Is
+      <i>this</i> vanity, or does it show itself in these expressions of my joy?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ole Bull went to Algiers, I towards the Pyrenees. Through Provence, which
+      looked to me quite Danish, I reached Nismes, where the grandeur of the
+      splendid Roman amphitheatre at once carried me back to Italy. The
+      memorials of antiquity in the south of France I have never heard praised
+      as their greatness and number deserve; the so-called <i>Maison Quar e</i>
+      is still standing in all its splendor, like the Theseus Temple at Athens:
+      Rome has nothing so well preserved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Nismes dwells the baker Reboul, who writes the most charming poems:
+      whoever may not chance to know him from these is, however, well acquainted
+      with him through Lamartine's Journey to the East. I found him at the
+      house, stepped into the bakehouse, and addressed myself to a man in shirt
+      sleeves who was putting bread into the oven; it was Reboul himself! A
+      noble countenance which expressed a manly character greeted me. When I
+      mentioned my name, he was courteous enough to say he was acquainted with
+      it through the Revue de Paris, and begged me to visit him in the
+      afternoon, when he should be able to entertain me better. When I came
+      again I found him in a little room which might be called almost elegant,
+      adorned with pictures, casts and books, not alone French literature, but
+      translations of the Greek classics. A picture on the wall represented his
+      most celebrated poem, "The Dying Child," from Marmier's <i>Chansons du
+      Nord</i>. He knew I had treated the same subject, and I told him that this
+      was written in my school days. If in the morning I had found him the
+      industrious baker, he now was the poet completely; he spoke with animation
+      of the literature of his country, and expressed a wish to see the north,
+      the scenery and intellectual life of which seemed to interest him. With
+      great respect I took leave of a man whom the Muses have not meanly
+      endowed, and who yet has good sense enough, spite of all the homage paid
+      him, to remain steadfast to his honest business, and prefer being the most
+      remarkable baker of Nismes to losing himself in Paris, after a short
+      triumph, among hundreds of other poets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By railway I now travelled by way of Montpelier to Cette, with that
+      rapidity which a train possesses in France; you fly there as though for a
+      wager with the wild huntsman. I involuntarily remembered that at Basle, at
+      the corner of a street where formerly the celebrated Dance of Death was
+      painted, there is written up in large letters "Dance of Death," and on the
+      opposite corner "Way to the Railroad." This singular juxtaposition just at
+      the frontiers of France, gives play to the fancy; in this rushing flight
+      it came into my thoughts; it seemed as though the steam whistle gave the
+      signal to the dance. On German railways one does not have such wild
+      fancies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The islander loves the sea as the mountaineer loves his mountains!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every sea-port town, however small it may be, receives in my eyes a
+      peculiar charm from the sea. Was it the sea, in connexion perhaps with the
+      Danish tongue, which sounded in my ears in two houses in Cette, that made
+      this town so homelike to me? I know not, but I felt more in Denmark than
+      in the south of France. When far from your country you enter a house where
+      all, from the master and mistress to the servants, speak your own
+      language, as was here the case, these home tones have a real power of
+      enchantment: like the mantle of Faust, in a moment they transport you,
+      house and all, into your own land. Here, however, there was no northern
+      summer, but the hot sun of Naples; it might even have burnt Faust's cap.
+      The sun's rays destroyed all strength. For many years there had not been
+      such a summer, even here; and from the country round about arrived
+      accounts of people who had died from the heat: the very nights were hot. I
+      was told beforehand I should be unable to bear the journey in Spain. I
+      felt this myself, but then Spain was to be the bouquet of my journey. I
+      already saw the Pyrenees; the blue mountains enticed me&mdash;and one
+      morning early I found myself on the steam-boat. The sun rose higher; it
+      burnt above, it burnt from the expanse of waters, myriads of jelly-like
+      medusas filled the river; it was as though the sun's rays had changed the
+      whole sea into a heaving world of animal life; I had never before seen
+      anything like it. In the Languedoc canal we had all to get into a large
+      boat which had been constructed more for goods than for passengers. The
+      deck was coveted with boxes and trunks, and these again occupied by people
+      who sought shade under umbrellas. It was impossible to move; no railing
+      surrounded this pile of boxes and people, which was drawn along by three
+      or four horses attached by long ropes. Beneath in the cabins it was as
+      crowded; people sat close to each other, like flies in a cup of sugar. A
+      lady who had fainted from the heat and tobacco smoke, was carried in and
+      laid upon the only unoccupied spot on the floor; she was brought here for
+      air, but here there was none, spite of the number of fans in motion; there
+      were no refreshments to be had, not even a drink of water, except the
+      warm, yellow water which the canal afforded. Over the cabin windows hung
+      booted legs, which at the same time that they deprived the cabin of light,
+      seemed to give a substance to the oppressive air. Shut up in this place
+      one had also the torment of being forced to listen to a man who was always
+      trying to say something witty; the stream of words played about his lips
+      as the canal water about the boat. I made myself a way through boxes,
+      people, and umbrellas, and stood in a boiling hot air; on either side the
+      prospect was eternally the same, green grass, a green tree, flood-gates&mdash;green
+      grass, a green tree, flood-gates&mdash;and then again the same; it was
+      enough to drive one insane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the distance of a half-hour's journey from Beziers we were put on land;
+      I felt almost ready to faint, and there was no carriage here, for the
+      omnibus had not expected us so early; the sun burnt infernally. People say
+      the south of France is a portion of Paradise; under the present
+      circumstances it seemed to me a portion of hell with all its heat. In
+      Beziers the diligence was waiting, but all the best places were already
+      taken; and I here for the first, and I hope for the last time, got into
+      the hinder part of such a conveyance. An ugly woman in slippers, and with
+      a head-dress a yard high, which she hung up, took her seat beside me; and
+      now came a singing sailor who had certainly drunk too many healths; then a
+      couple of dirty fellows, whose first manoeuvre was to pull off their boots
+      and coats and sit upon them, hot and dirty, whilst the thick clouds of
+      dust whirled into the vehicle, and the sun burnt and blinded me. It was
+      impossible to endure this farther than Narbonne; sick and suffering, I
+      sought rest, but then came gensdarmes and demanded my passport, and then
+      just as night began, a fire must needs break out in the neighboring
+      village; the fire alarm resounded, the fire-engines rolled along, it was
+      just as though all manner of tormenting spirits were let loose. From here
+      as far as the Pyrenees there followed repeated demands for your passport,
+      so wearisome that you know nothing like it even in Italy: they gave you as
+      a reason, the nearness to the Spanish frontiers, the number of fugitives
+      from thence, and several murders which had taken place in the
+      neighborhood: all conduced to make the journey in my then state of health
+      a real torment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I reached Perpignan. The sun had here also swept the streets of people, it
+      was only when night came that they came forth, but then it was like a
+      roaring stream, as though a real tumult were about to destroy the town.
+      The human crowd moved in waves beneath my windows, a loud shout resounded;
+      it pierced through my sick frame. What was that?&mdash;what did it mean?
+      "Good evening, Mr. Arago!" resounded from the strongest voices, thousands
+      repeated it, and music sounded; it was the celebrated Arago, who was
+      staying in the room next to mine: the people gave him a serenade. Now this
+      was the third I had witnessed on my journey. Arago addressed them from the
+      balcony, the shouts of the people filled the streets. There are few
+      evenings in my life when I have felt so ill as on this one, the tumult
+      went through my nerves; the beautiful singing which followed could not
+      refresh me. Ill as I was, I gave up every thought of travelling into
+      Spain; I felt it would be impossible for me. Ah, if I could only recover
+      strength enough to reach Switzerland! I was filled with horror at the idea
+      of the journey back. I was advised to hasten as quickly as possible to the
+      Pyrenees, and there breathe the strengthening mountain air: the baths of
+      Vernet were recommended as cool and excellent, and I had a letter of
+      introduction to the head of the establishment there. After an exhausting
+      journey of a night and some hours in the morning, I have reached this
+      place, from whence I sent these last sheets. The air is so cool, so
+      strengthening, such as I have not breathed for months. A few days here
+      have entirely restored me, my pen flies again over the paper, and my
+      thoughts towards that wonderful Spain. I stand like Moses and see the land
+      before me, yet may not tread upon it. But if God so wills it, I will at
+      some future time in the winter fly from the north hither into this rich
+      beautiful land, from which the sun with his sword of flame now holds me
+      back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Vernet as yet is not one of the well-known bathing places, although it
+      possesses the peculiarity of being visited all the year round. The most
+      celebrated visitor last winter was Ibrahim Pacha; his name still lives on
+      the lips of the hostess and waiter as the greatest glory of the
+      establishment; his rooms were shown first as a curiosity. Among the
+      anecdotes current about him is the story of his two French words, <i>merci</i>
+      and <i>tr s bien</i>, which he pronounced in a perfectly wrong manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In every respect, Vernet among baths is as yet in a state of innocence; it
+      is only in point of great bills that the Commandant has been able to raise
+      it on a level with the first in Europe. As for the rest, you live here in
+      a solitude, and separated from the world as in no other bathing place: for
+      the amusement of the guests nothing in the least has been done; this must
+      be sought in wanderings on foot or on donkey-back among the mountains; but
+      here all is so peculiar and full of variety, that the want of artificial
+      pleasures is the less felt. It is here as though the most opposite natural
+      productions had been mingled together,&mdash;northern and southern,
+      mountain and valley vegetation. From one point you will look over
+      vineyards, and up to a mountain which appears a sample card of corn fields
+      and green meadows, where the hay stands in cocks; from another you will
+      only see the naked, metallic rocks with strange crags jutting forth from
+      them, long and narrow as though they were broken statues or pillars; now
+      you walk under poplar trees, through small meadows, where the balm-mint
+      grows, as thoroughly Danish a production as though it were cut out of
+      Zealand; now you stand under shelter of the rock, where cypresses and figs
+      spring forth among vine leaves, and see a piece of Italy. But the soul of
+      the whole, the pulses which beat audibly in millions through the mountain
+      chain, are the springs. There is a life, a babbling in the ever-rushing
+      waters! It springs forth everywhere, murmurs in the moss, rushes over the
+      great stones. There is a movement, a life which it is impossible for words
+      to give; you hear a constant rushing chorus of a million strings; above
+      and below you, and all around, you hear the babbling of the river nymphs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      High on the cliff, at the edge of a steep precipice, lie the remains of a
+      Moorish castle; the clouds hang where hung the balcony; the path along
+      which the ass now goes, leads through the hall. From here you can enjoy
+      the view over the whole valley, which, long and narrow, seems like a river
+      of trees, which winds among the red scorched rocks; and in the middle of
+      this green valley rises terrace-like on a hill, the little town of Vernet,
+      which only wants minarets to look like a Bulgarian town. A miserable
+      church with two long holes as windows, and close to it a ruined tower,
+      form the upper portion, then come the dark brown roofs, and the dirty grey
+      houses with opened shutters instead of windows&mdash;but picturesque it
+      certainly is.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But if you enter the town itself&mdash;where the apothecary's shop is, is
+      also the bookseller's&mdash;poverty is the only impression. Almost all the
+      houses are built of unhewn stones, piled one upon another, and two or
+      three gloomy holes form door and windows through which the swallows fly
+      out and in. Wherever I entered, I saw through the worn floor of the first
+      story down into a chaotic gloom beneath. On the wall hangs generally a bit
+      of fat meat with the hairy skin attached; it was explained to me that this
+      was used to rub their shoes with. The sleeping-room is painted in the most
+      glaring manner with saints, angels, garlands, and crowns <i>al fresco</i>,
+      as if done when the art of painting was in its greatest state of
+      imperfection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The people are unusually ugly; the very children are real gnomes; the
+      expression of childhood does not soften the clumsy features. But a few
+      hours' journey on the other side of the mountains, on the Spanish side,
+      there blooms beauty, there flash merry brown eyes. The only poetical
+      picture I retain of Vernet was this. In the market-place, under a
+      splendidly large tree, a wandering pedlar had spread out all his wares,&mdash;handkerchiefs,
+      books and pictures,&mdash;a whole bazaar, but the earth was his table; all
+      the ugly children of the town, burnt through by the sun, stood assembled
+      round these splendid things; several old women looked out from their open
+      shops; on horses and asses the visitors to the bath, ladies and gentlemen,
+      rode by in long procession, whilst two little children, half hid behind a
+      heap of planks; played at being cocks, and shouted all the time,
+      "kekkeriki!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Far more of a town, habitable and well-appointed, is the garrison town of
+      Villefranche, with its castle of the age of Louis XIV., which lies a few
+      hours' journey from this place. The road by Olette to Spain passes through
+      it, and there is also some business; many houses attract your eye by their
+      beautiful Moorish windows carved in marble. The church is built half in
+      the Moorish style, the altars are such as are seen in Spanish churches,
+      and the Virgin stands there with the Child, all dressed in gold and
+      silver. I visited Villefranche one of the first days of my sojourn here;
+      all the visitors made the excursion with me, to which end all the horses
+      and asses far and near were brought together; horses were put into the
+      Commandant's venerable coach, and it was occupied by people within and
+      without, just as though it had been a French public vehicle. A most
+      amiable Holsteiner, the best rider of the company, the well-known painter
+      Dauzats, a friend of Alexander Dumas's, led the train. The forts, the
+      barracks, and the caves were seen; the little town of Cornelia also, with
+      its interesting church, was not passed over. Everywhere were found traces
+      of the power and art of the Moors; everything in this neighborhood speaks
+      more of Spain than France, the very language wavers between the two.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And here in this fresh mountain nature, on the frontiers of a land whose
+      beauty and defects I am not yet to become acquainted with, I will close
+      these pages, which will make in my life a frontier to coming years, with
+      their beauty and defects. Before I leave the Pyrenees these written pages
+      will fly to Germany, a great section of my life; I myself shall follow,
+      and a new and unknown section will begin.&mdash;What may it unfold?&mdash;I
+      know not, but thankfully, hopefully, I look forward. My whole life, the
+      bright as well as the gloomy days, led to the best. It is like a voyage to
+      some known point,&mdash;I stand at the rudder, I have chosen my path,&mdash;but
+      God rules the storm and the sea. He may direct it otherwise; and then,
+      happen what may, it will be the best for me. This faith is firmly planted
+      in my breast, and makes me happy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The story of my life, up to the present hour, lies unrolled before me, so
+      rich and beautiful that I could not have invented it. I feel that I am a
+      child of good fortune; almost every one meets me full of love and candor,
+      and seldom has my confidence in human nature been deceived. From the
+      prince to the poorest peasant I have felt the noble human heart beat. It
+      is a joy to live and to believe in God and man. Openly and full of
+      confidence, as if I sat among dear friends, I have here related the story
+      of my life, have spoken both of my sorrows and joys, and have expressed my
+      pleasure at each mark of applause and recognition, as I believe I might
+      even express it before God himself. But then, whether this may be vanity?
+      I know not: my heart was affected and humble at the same time, my thought
+      was gratitude to God. That I have related it is not alone because such a
+      biographical sketch as this was desired from me for the collected edition
+      of my works, but because, as has been already said, the history of my life
+      will be the best commentary to all my works.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few days I shall say farewell to the Pyrenees, and return through
+      Switzerland to dear, kind Germany, where so much joy has flowed into my
+      life, where I possess so many sympathizing friends, where my writings have
+      been so kindly and encouragingly received, and where also these sheets
+      will be gently criticized, When the Christmas-tree is lighted,&mdash;when,
+      as people say, the white bees swarm,&mdash;I shall be, God willing, again
+      in Denmark with my dear ones, my heart filled with the flowers of travel,
+      and strengthened both in body and mind: then will new works grow upon
+      paper; may God lay his blessing upon them! He will do so. A star of good
+      fortune shines upon me; there are thousands who deserve it far more than
+      I; I often myself cannot conceive why I, in preference to numberless
+      others, should receive so much joy: may it continue to shine! But should
+      it set, perhaps whilst I conclude these lines, still it has shone, I have
+      received my rich portion; let it set! From this also the best will spring.
+      To God and men my thanks, my love!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Vernet (Department of the East Pyrenees), July, 1846.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      H. C. ANDERSEN.
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The True Story of My Life, by
+Hans Christian Andersen
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRUE STORY OF MY LIFE ***
+
+***** This file should be named 7007-h.htm or 7007-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/7/0/0/7007/
+
+
+Text file produced by Eric Eldred; Juliet Sutherland,the Project
+Manager--a DP text
+
+HTML file produced by David Widger
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+  www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887.  Email
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+  </body>
+</html>
diff --git a/7007.txt b/7007.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ccd260b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/7007.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,6435 @@
+Project Gutenberg's The True Story of My Life, by Hans Christian Andersen
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The True Story of My Life
+
+Author: Hans Christian Andersen
+
+Translator: Mary Howitt
+
+
+Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7007]
+This file was first posted on February 21, 2003
+Last Updated: June 12, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRUE STORY OF MY LIFE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Eric Eldred; Juliet Sutherland,the Project
+Manager--a DP text
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE TRUE STORY OF MY LIFE:
+
+A SKETCH
+
+By Hans Christian Andersen.
+
+Translated By Mary Howitt
+
+
+
+To MESSRS. MUNROE AND CO.
+
+Gentlemen,--I take this opportunity of forwarding to you, the _proof
+sheets_ of the unpublished Life of Hans Christian Andersen--translated
+from a copy transmitted to me for that purpose, by the Author. It is as
+well to state that this is the Author's Edition, he being participant in
+the proceeds of this work.
+
+I remain, gentlemen,
+
+Yours truly,
+
+MARY HOWITT.
+
+LONDON, June 29, 1847.
+
+
+
+TO
+
+JENNY LIND
+
+THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION
+
+OF
+
+THE TRUE STORY OF HER FRIEND'S LIFE
+
+IS INSCRIBED
+
+IN ADMIRATION OF HER BEAUTIFUL TALENTS
+
+AND STILL MORE BEAUTIFUL LIFE,
+
+BY
+
+MARY HOWITT.
+
+
+
+Project Gutenberg Editor's Note: There are many words in this file with
+missing letters. These spaces were letters with diacritic marks which
+at the time of the production of the digital file were not available
+for the character set of the file.  It is hoped that someone will be
+interested enough in this work to supply these missing letters.  DW
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+No literary labor is more delightful to me than translating the
+beautiful thoughts and fancies of Hans Christian Andersen. My heart is
+in the work, and I feel as if my spirit were kindred to his; just as our
+Saxon English seems to me eminently fitted to give the simple, pure, and
+noble sentiments of the Danish mind.
+
+This True Story of his Life will not be found the least interesting of
+his writings; indeed, to me it seems one of the most so. It furnishes
+the key, as it were, to all the rest; and the treasures which it unlocks
+will be found to be possessed of additional value when viewed through
+the medium of this introduction. It is gratifying for me to be able to
+state that the original Author has a personal interest in this English
+version of his "Life," as I have arranged with my publishers to pay Mr.
+Andersen a certain sum on the publication of this translation, and the
+same on all future editions.
+
+M. H.
+
+The Elms, Clapton, June 26.
+
+
+
+
+THE TRUE STORY OF MY LIFE
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+My life is a lovely story, happy and full of incident. If, when I was a
+boy, and went forth into the world poor and friendless, a good fairy had
+met me and said, "Choose now thy own course through life, and the object
+for which thou wilt strive, and then, according to the development of
+thy mind, and as reason requires, I will guide and defend thee to its
+attainment," my fate could not, even then, have been directed more
+happily, more prudently, or better. The history of my life will say to
+the world what it says to me--There is a loving God, who directs all
+things for the best.
+
+My native land, Denmark, is a poetical land, full of popular traditions,
+old songs, and an eventful history, which has become bound up with that
+of Sweden and Norway. The Danish islands are possessed of beautiful
+beech woods, and corn and clover fields: they resemble gardens on a
+great scale. Upon one of these green islands, Funen, stands Odense, the
+place of my birth. Odense is called after the pagan god Odin, who, as
+tradition states, lived here: this place is the capital of the province,
+and lies twenty-two Danish miles from Copenhagen.
+
+In the year 1805 there lived here, in a small mean room, a young married
+couple, who were extremely attached to each other; he was a shoemaker,
+scarcely twenty-two years old, a man of a richly gifted and truly
+poetical mind. His wife, a few years older than himself, was ignorant of
+life and of the world, but possessed a heart full of love. The young man
+had himself made his shoemaking bench, and the bedstead with which he
+began housekeeping; this bedstead he had made out of the wooden frame
+which had borne only a short time before the coffin of the deceased
+Count Trampe, as he lay in state, and the remnants of the black cloth on
+the wood work kept the fact still in remembrance.
+
+Instead of a noble corpse, surrounded by crape and wax-lights, here
+lay, on the second of April, 1805, a living and weeping child,--that was
+myself, Hans Christian Andersen. During the first day of my existence my
+father is said to have sate by the bed and read aloud in Holberg, but
+I cried all the time. "Wilt thou go to sleep, or listen quietly?" it is
+reported that my father asked in joke; but I still cried on; and even in
+the church, when I was taken to be baptized, I cried so loudly that the
+preacher, who was a passionate man, said, "The young one screams like
+a cat!" which words my mother never forgot. A poor emigrant, Gomar, who
+stood as godfather, consoled her in the mean time by saying that the
+louder I cried as a child, all the more beautifully should I sing when I
+grew older.
+
+Our little room, which was almost filled with the shoemaker's bench,
+the bed, and my crib, was the abode of my childhood; the walls, however,
+were covered with pictures, and over the work-bench was a cupboard
+containing books and songs; the little kitchen was full of shining
+plates and metal pans, and by means of a ladder it was possible to go
+out on the roof, where, in the gutters between and the neighbor's house,
+there stood a great chest filled with soil, my mother's sole garden, and
+where she grew her vegetables. In my story of the Snow Queen that garden
+still blooms.
+
+I was the only child, and was extremely spoiled, but I continually heard
+from my mother how very much happier I was than she had been, and that I
+was brought up like a nobleman's child. She, as a child, had been driven
+out by her parents to beg, and once when she was not able to do it,
+she had sate for a whole day under a bridge and wept. I have drawn
+her character in two different aspects, in old Dominica, in the
+Improvisatore, and in the mother of Christian, in Only a Fiddler.
+
+My father gratified me in all my wishes. I possessed his whole heart; he
+lived for me. On Sundays, he made me perspective glasses, theatres, and
+pictures which could be changed; he read to me from Holberg's plays
+and the Arabian Tales; it was only in such moments as these that I can
+remember to have seen him really cheerful, for he never felt himself
+happy in his life and as a handicrafts-man. His parents had been country
+people in good circumstances, but upon whom many misfortunes had fallen;
+the cattle had died; the farm house had been burned down; and lastly,
+the husband had lost his reason. On this the wife had removed with him
+to Odense, and there put her son, whose mind was full of intelligence,
+apprentice to a shoemaker; it could not be otherwise, although it was
+his ardent wish to be able to attend the Grammar School, where he might
+have learned Latin. A few well-to-do citizens had at one time spoken
+of this, of clubbing together a sufficient sum to pay for his board and
+education, and thus giving him a start in life; but it never went beyond
+words. My poor father saw his dearest wish unfulfilled; and he never
+lost the remembrance of it. I recollect that once, as a child, I saw
+tears in his eyes, and it was when a youth from the Grammar School came
+to our house to be measured for a new pair of boots, and showed us his
+books and told us what he learned.
+
+"That was the path upon which I ought to have gone!" said my father,
+kissed me passionately, and was silent the whole evening.
+
+He very seldom associated with his equals. He went out into the woods on
+Sundays, when he took me with him; he did not talk much when he was out,
+but would sit silently, sunk in deep thought, whilst I ran about and
+strung strawberries on a straw, or bound garlands. Only twice in the
+year, and that in the month of May, when the woods were arrayed in their
+earliest green, did my mother go with us, and then she wore a cotton
+gown, which she put on only on these occasions, and when she partook of
+the Lord's Supper, and which, as long as I can remember, was her holiday
+gown. She always took home with her from the wood a great many fresh
+beech boughs, which were then planted behind the polished stone. Later
+in the year sprigs of St. John's wort were stuck into the chinks of the
+beams, and we considered their growth as omens whether our lives would
+be long or short. Green branches and pictures ornamented our little
+room, which my mother always kept neat and clean; she took great pride
+in always having the bed-linen and the curtains very white.
+
+The mother of my father came daily to our house, were it only for a
+moment, in order to see her little grandson. I was her joy and her
+delight. She was a quiet and most amiable old woman, with mild blue eyes
+and a fine figure, which life had severely tried. From having been the
+wife of a countryman in easy circumstances she had now fallen into great
+poverty, and dwelt with her feeble-minded husband in a little house,
+which was the last, poor remains of their property. I never saw her shed
+a tear. But it made all the deeper impression upon me when she quietly
+sighed, and told me about her own mother's mother, how she had been
+a rich, noble lady in the city of Cassel, and that she had married a
+"comedy-player," that was as she expressed it, and run away from parents
+and home, for all of which her posterity had now to do penance. I
+never can recollect that I heard her mention the family name of her
+grandmother; but her own maiden name was Nommesen. She was employed to
+take care of the garden belonging to a lunatic asylum, and every Sunday
+evening she brought us some flowers, which they gave her permission
+to take home with her. These flowers adorned my mother's cupboard; but
+still they were mine, and to me it was allowed to put them in the glass
+of water. How great was this pleasure! She brought them all to me; she
+loved me with her whole soul. I knew it, and I understood it.
+
+She burned, twice in the year, the green rubbish of the garden; on such
+occasions she took me with her to the asylum, and I lay upon the great
+heaps of green leaves and pea-straw. I had many flowers to play with,
+and--which was a circumstance upon which I set great importanceu I had
+here better food to eat than I could expect at home.
+
+All such patients as were harmless were permitted to go freely about
+the court; they often came to us in the garden, and with curiosity and
+terror I listened to them and followed them about; nay, I even ventured
+so far as to go with the attendants to those who were raving mad. A long
+passage led to their cells. On one occasion, when the attendants were
+out of the way, I lay down upon the floor, and peeped through the crack
+of the door into one of these cells. I saw within a lady almost naked,
+lying on her straw bed; her hair hung down over her shoulders, and she
+sang with a very beautiful voice. All at once she sprang up, and threw
+herself against the door where I lay; the little valve through which she
+received her food burst open; she stared down upon me, and stretched out
+her long arm towards me. I screamed for terror--I felt the tips of her
+fingers touching my clothes--I was half dead when the attendant came;
+and even in later years that sight and that feeling remained within my
+soul.
+
+Close beside the place where the leaves were burned, the poor old women
+had their spinning-room. I often went in there, and was very soon
+a favorite. When with these people, I found myself possessed of an
+eloquence which filled them with astonishment. I had accidentally heard
+about the internal mechanism of the human frame, of course without
+understanding anything about it; but all these mysteries were very
+captivating to me; and with chalk, therefore, I drew a quantity of
+flourishes on the door, which were to represent the intestines; and my
+description of the heart and the lungs made the deepest impression. I
+passed for a remarkably wise child, that would not live long; and they
+rewarded my eloquence by telling me tales in return; and thus a world
+as rich as that of the thousand and one nights was revealed to me. The
+stories told by these old ladies, and the insane figures which I saw
+around me in the asylum, operated in the meantime so powerfully upon me,
+that when it grew dark I scarcely dared to go out of the house. I was
+therefore permitted, generally at sunset, to lay me down in my parents'
+bed with its long flowered curtains, because the press-bed in which
+I slept could not conveniently be put down so early in the evening on
+account of the room it occupied in our small dwelling; and here, in the
+paternal bed, lay I in a waking dream, as if the actual world did not
+concern me. I was very much afraid of my weak-minded grandfather. Only
+once had he ever spoken to me, and then he had made use of the formal
+pronoun "you." He employed himself in cutting out of wood strange
+figures, men with beasts' heads, and beasts with wings; these he
+packed in a basket and carried them out into the country, where he was
+everywhere well received by the peasant women, because he gave to them
+and their children these strange toys. One day, when he was returning to
+Odense, I heard the boys in the street shouting after him; I hid myself
+behind a flight of steps in terror, for I knew that I was of his flesh
+and blood.
+
+Every circumstance around me tended to excite my imagination. Odense
+itself, in those days in which there was not a single steamboat in
+existence, and when intercourse with other places was much more rare
+than now, was a totally different city to what it is in our day; a
+person might have fancied himself living hundreds of years ago, because
+so many customs prevailed then which belonged to an earlier age. The
+guilds walked in procession through the town with their harlequin before
+them with mace and bells; on Shrove Tuesday the butchers led the fattest
+ox through the streets adorned with garlands, whilst a boy in a white
+shirt and with great wings on his shoulders rode upon it; the sailors
+paraded through the city with music and all their flags flying, and then
+two of the boldest among them stood and wrestled upon a plank placed
+between two boats, and the one who was not thrown into the water was the
+victor.
+
+That, however, which more particularly stamped itself upon my memory,
+and became refreshed by after often-repeated relations, was, the abode
+of the Spaniards in Funen in 1808. It is true that at that time I was
+but three years old; still I nevertheless perfectly remember the brown
+foreign men who made disturbances in the streets, and the cannon which
+were fired. I saw the people lying on straw in a half-tumbledown church,
+which was near the asylum. One day, a Spanish soldier took me in his
+arms and pressed a silver image, which he wore upon his breast, to my
+lips. I remember that my mother was angry at it, because, she said,
+there was something papistical about it; but the image, and the strange
+man, who danced me about, kissed me and wept, pleased me: certainly
+he had children at home in Spain. I saw one of his comrades led to
+execution; he had killed a Frenchman. Many years afterwards this little
+circumstance occasioned me to write my little poem, "The Soldier," which
+Chamisso translated into German, and which afterwards was included in
+the illustrated people's books of soldier-songs. [Footnote: This
+same little song, sent to me by the author, was translated by me and
+published in the 19th No. of Howitt's Journal.--M. H.] I very seldom
+played with other boys; even at school I took little interest in their
+games, but remained sitting within doors. At home I had playthings
+enough, which my father made for me. My greatest delight was in making
+clothes for my dolls, or in stretching out one of my mother's aprons
+between the wall and two sticks before a currant-bush which I had
+planted in the yard, and thus to gaze in between the sun-illumined
+leaves. I was a singularly dreamy child, and so constantly went about
+with my eyes shut, as at last to give the impression of having weak
+sight, although the sense of sight was especially cultivated by me.
+
+Sometimes, during the harvest, my mother went into the field to glean.
+I accompanied her, and we went, like Ruth in the Bible, to glean in the
+rich fields of Boaz. One day we went to a place, the bailiff of which
+was well known for being a man of a rude and savage disposition. We
+saw him coming with a huge whip in his hand, and my mother and all the
+others ran away. I had wooden shoes on my bare feet, and in my haste I
+lost these, and then the thorns pricked me so that I could not run, and
+thus I was left behind and alone. The man came up and lifted his whip to
+strike me, when I looked him in the face and involuntarily exclaimed,--
+
+"How dare you strike me, when God can see it?"
+
+The strong, stern man looked at me, and at once became mild; he patted
+me on my cheeks, asked me my name, and gave me money.
+
+When I brought this to my mother and showed it her, she said to the
+others, "He is a strange child, my Hans Christian; everybody is kind to
+him: this bad fellow even has given him money."
+
+I grew up pious and superstitious. I had no idea of want or need; to be
+sure my parents had only sufficient to live from day to day, but I
+at least had plenty of every thing; an old woman altered my father's
+clothes for me. Now and then I went with my parents to the theatre,
+where the first representations which I saw were in German. "Das
+Donauweibchen" was the favorite piece of the whole city; there, however,
+I saw, for the first time, Holberg's Village Politicians treated as an
+opera.
+
+The first impression which a theatre and the crowd assembled there made
+upon me was, at all events, no sign of any thing poetical slumbering in
+me; for my first exclamation on seeing so many people, was, "Now, if we
+only had as many casks of butter as there are people here, then I would
+eat lots of butter!" The theatre, however, soon became my favorite
+place, but, as I could only very seldom go there, I acquired the
+friendship of the man who carried out the playbills, and he gave me one
+every day. With this I seated myself in a corner and imagined an entire
+play, according to the name of the piece and the characters in it. That
+was my first, unconscious poetising.
+
+My father's favorite reading was plays and stories, although he also
+read works of history and the Scriptures. He pondered in silent thought
+afterwards upon that which he had read, but my mother did not understand
+him when he talked with her about them, and therefore he grew more and
+more silent. One day, he closed the Bible with the words, "Christ was a
+man like us, but an extraordinary man!" These words horrified my mother,
+and she burst into tears. In my distress I prayed to God that he would
+forgive this fearful blasphemy in my father. "There is no other devil
+than that which we have in our own hearts," I heard my father say one
+day and I made myself miserable about him and his soul; I was therefore
+entirely of the opinion of my mother and the neighbours, when my father,
+one morning, found three scratches on his arm, probably occasioned by
+a nail, that the devil had been to visit him in the night, in order to
+prove to him that he really existed. My father's rambles in the wood
+became more frequent; he had no rest. The events of the war in Germany,
+which he read in the newspapers with eager curiosity, occupied him
+completely. Napoleon was his hero: his rise from obscurity was the
+most beautiful example to him. At that time Denmark was in league with
+France; nothing was talked of but war; my father entered the service as
+a soldier, in hope of returning home a lieutenant. My mother wept. The
+neighbours shrugged their shoulders, and said that it was folly to go
+out to be shot when there was no occasion for it.
+
+The morning on which the corps were to march I heard my father singing
+and talking merrily, but his heart was deeply agitated; I observed that
+by the passionate manner in which he kissed me when he took his leave.
+I lay sick of the measles and alone in the room, when the drums beat and
+my mother accompanied my father, weeping, to the city gate. As soon as
+they were gone my old grandmother came in; she looked at me with her
+mild eyes and said, it would be a good thing if I died; but that God's
+will was always the best.
+
+That was the first day of real sorrow which I remember.
+
+The regiment advanced no farther than Holstein, peace was concluded, and
+the voluntary soldier returned to his work-stool. Everything fell into
+its old course. I played again with my dolls, acted comedies, and always
+in German, because I had only seen them in this language; but my German
+was a sort of gibberish which I made up, and in which there occurred
+only one real German word, and that was "_Besen_," a word which I had
+picked up out of the various dialects which my father brought home from
+Holstein.
+
+"Thou hast indeed some benefit from my travels," said he in joke. "God
+knows whether thou wilt get as far; but that must be thy care. Think
+about it, Hans Christian!" But it was my mother's intention that as long
+as she had any voice in the matter, I should remain at home, and not
+lose my health as he had done.
+
+That was the case with him; his health had suffered. One morning he woke
+in a state of the wildest excitement, and talked only of campaigns and
+Napoleon. He fancied that he had received orders from him to take the
+command. My mother immediately sent me, not to the physician, but to
+a so-called wise woman some miles from Odense. I went to her. She
+questioned me, measured my arm with a woolen thread, made extraordinary
+signs, and at last laid a green twig upon my breast. It was, she said, a
+piece of the same kind of tree upon which the Saviour was crucified.
+
+"Go now," said she, "by the river side towards home. If your father will
+die this time, then you will meet his ghost."
+
+My anxiety and distress may be imagined,--I, who was so full of
+superstition, and whose imagination was so easily excited.
+
+"And thou hast not met anything, hast thou?" inquired my mother when I
+got home. I assured her, with beating heart, that I had not.
+
+My father died the third day after that. His corpse lay on the bed:
+I therefore slept with my mother. A cricket chirped the whole night
+through.
+
+"He is dead," said my mother, addressing it; "thou needest not call him.
+The ice maiden has fetched him."
+
+I understood what she meant. I recollected that, in the winter before,
+when our window panes were frozen, my father pointed to them and showed
+us a figure as that of a maiden with outstretched arms. "She is come to
+fetch me," said he, in jest. And now, when he lay dead on the bed, my
+mother remembered this, and it occupied my thoughts also.
+
+He was buried in St. Knud's churchyard, by the door on the left hand
+side coming from the altar. My grandmother planted roses upon his grave.
+There are now in the selfsame place two strangers' graves, and the grass
+grows green upon them also.
+
+After my father's death I was entirely left to myself. My mother went
+out washing. I sate alone at home with my little theatre, made dolls'
+clothes and read plays. It has been told me that I was always clean and
+nicely dressed. I had grown tall; my hair was long, bright, and almost
+yellow, and I always went bare-headed. There dwelt in our neighborhood
+the widow of a clergyman, Madame Bunkeflod, with the sister of her
+deceased husband. This lady opened to me her door, and hers was the
+first house belonging to the educated class into which I was kindly
+received. The deceased clergyman had written poems, and had gained a
+reputation in Danish literature. His spinning songs were at that time
+in the mouths of the people. In my vignettes to the Danish poets I thus
+sang of him whom my contemporaries had forgotten:--
+
+  Spindles rattle, wheels turn round,
+    Spinning-songs depart;
+  Songs which youth sings soon become
+    Music of the heart.
+
+Here it was that I heard for the first time the word _poet_ spoken, and
+that with so much reverence, as proved it to be something sacred. It is
+true that my father had read Holberg's play to me; but here it was not
+of these that they spoke, but of verses and poetry. "My brother the
+poet," said Bunkeflod's sister, and her eyes sparkled as she said
+it. From her I learned that it was a something glorious, a something
+fortunate, to be a poet. Here, too, for the first time, I read
+Shakspeare, in a bad translation, to be sure; but the bold descriptions,
+the heroic incidents, witches, and ghosts were exactly to my taste. I
+immediately acted Shakspeare's plays on my little puppet theatre. I saw
+Hamlet's ghost, and lived upon the heath with Lear. The more persons
+died in a play, the more interesting I thought it. At this time I wrote
+my first piece: it was nothing less than a tragedy, wherein, as a matter
+of course, everybody died. The subject of it I borrowed from an old song
+about Pyramus and Thisbe; but I had increased the incidents through
+a hermit and his son, who both loved Thisbe, and who both killed
+themselves when she died. Many speeches of the hermit were passages from
+the Bible, taken out of the little catechism, especially from our duty
+to our neighbors. To the piece I gave the title "Abor and Elvira."
+
+"It ought to be called 'Perch (Aborre) and Stockfish,'" said one of our
+neighbors wittily to me, as I came with it to her after having read it
+with great satisfaction and joy to all the people in our street. This
+entirely depressed me, because I felt that she was turning both me and
+my poem to ridicule. With a troubled heart I told it to my mother.
+
+"She only said so," replied my mother, "because her son had not done
+it." I was comforted, and began a new piece, in which a king and queen
+were among the dramatis personae. I thought it was not quite right that
+these dignified personages, as in Shakspeare, should speak like other
+men and women. I asked my mother and different people how a king ought
+properly to speak, but no one knew exactly. They said that it was so
+many years since a king had been in Odense, but that he certainly spoke
+in a foreign language. I procured myself, therefore, a sort of lexicon,
+in which were German, French, and English words with Danish meanings,
+and this helped me. I took a word out of each language, and inserted
+them into the speeches of my king and queen. It was a regular Babel-like
+language, which I considered only suitable for such elevated personages.
+
+I desired now that everybody should hear my piece. It was a real
+felicity to me to read it aloud, and it never occurred to me that others
+should not have the same pleasure in listening to it.
+
+The son of one of our neighbors worked in a cloth manufactory, and every
+week brought home a sum of money. I was at a loose end, people said, and
+got nothing. I was also now to go to the manufactory, "not for the sake
+of the money," my mother said, "but that she might know where I was, and
+what I was doing."
+
+My old grandmother took me to the place, therefore, and was very much
+affected, because, said she, she had not expected to live to see the
+time when I should consort with the poor ragged lads that worked there.
+
+Many of the journeymen who were employed in the manufactory were
+Germans; they sang and were merry fellows, and many a coarse joke of
+theirs filled the place with loud laughter. I heard them, and I there
+learned that, to the innocent ears of a child, the impure remains very
+unintelligible. It took no hold upon my heart. I was possessed at that
+time of a remarkably beautiful and high soprano voice, and I knew it;
+because when I sang in my parents' little garden, the people in the
+street stood and listened, and the fine folks in the garden of the
+states-councillor, which adjoined ours, listened at the fence. When,
+therefore, the people at the manufactory asked me whether I could sing,
+I immediately began, and all the looms stood still: all the journeymen
+listened to me. I had to sing again and again, whilst the other boys had
+my work given them to do. I now told them that I also could act plays,
+and that I knew whole scenes of Holberg and Shakspeare. Everybody liked
+me; and in this way, the first days in the manufactory passed on very
+merrily. One day, however, when I was in my best singing vein, and
+everybody spoke of the extraordinary brilliancy of my voice, one of the
+journeymen said that I was a girl, and not a boy. He seized hold of me.
+I cried and screamed. The other journeymen thought it very amusing,
+and held me fast by my arms and legs. I screamed aloud, and was as
+much ashamed as a girl; and then, darting from them, rushed home to my
+mother, who immediately promised me that I should never go there again.
+
+I again visited Madame Bunkeflod, for whose birthday I invented and made
+a white silk pincushion. I also made an acquaintance with another old
+clergyman's widow in the neighborhood. She permitted me to read aloud
+to her the works which she had from the circulating library. One of
+them began with these words: "It was a tempestuous night; the rain beat
+against the window-panes."
+
+"That is an extraordinary book," said the old lady; and I quite
+innocently asked her how she knew that it was. "I can tell from the
+beginning," said she, "that it will turn out extraordinary."
+
+I regarded her penetration with a sort of reverence.
+
+Once in the harvest time my mother took me with her many miles from
+Odense to a nobleman's seat in the neighborhood of Bogense, her native
+place. The lady who lived there, and with whose parents my mother had
+lived, had said that some time she might come and see her. That was a
+great journey for me: we went most of the way on foot, and required, I
+believe, two days for the journey. The country here made such a strong
+impression upon me, that my most earnest wish was to remain in it, and
+become a countryman. It was just in the hop-picking season; my mother
+and I sat in the barn with a great many country people round a great
+binn, and helped to pick the hops. They told tales as they sat at
+their work, and every one related what wonderful things he had seen or
+experienced. One afternoon I heard an old man among them say that God
+knew every thing, both what had happened and what would happen. That
+idea occupied my whole mind, and towards evening, as I went alone from
+the court, where there was a deep pond, and stood upon some stones which
+were just within the water, the thought passed through my head, whether
+God actually knew everything which was to happen there. Yes, he has now
+determined that I should live and be so many years old, thought I; but,
+if I now were to jump into the water here and drown myself, then it
+would not be as he wished; and all at once I was firmly and resolutely
+determined to drown myself. I ran to where the water was deepest, and
+then a new thought passed through my soul. "It is the devil who wishes
+to have power over me!" I uttered a loud cry, and, running away from
+the place as if I were pursued, fell weeping into my mother's arms. But
+neither she nor any one else could wring from me what was amiss with me.
+
+"He has certainly seen a ghost," said one of the women; and I almost
+believed so myself.
+
+My mother married a second time, a young handicraftsman; but his family,
+who also belonged to the handicraft class, thought that he had married
+below himself, and neither my mother nor myself were permitted to visit
+them. My step-father was a young, grave man, who would have nothing to
+do with my education. I spent my time, therefore, over my peep show and
+my puppet theatre, and my greatest happiness consisted in collecting
+bright colored pieces of cloth and silk, which I cut out myself and
+sewed. My mother regarded it as good exercise preparatory to my becoming
+a tailor, and took up the idea that I certainly was born for it. I, on
+the contrary, said that I would go to the theatre and be an actor, a
+wish which my mother most sedulously opposed, because she knew of no
+other theatre than those of the strolling players and the rope-dancers.
+No, a tailor I must and should be. The only thing which in some measure
+reconciled me to this prospect was, that I should then get so many
+fragments to make up for my theatre.
+
+My passion for reading, the many dramatic scenes which I knew by heart,
+and my remarkably fine voice, had turned upon me in some sort the
+attention of several of the more influential families of Odense. I was
+sent for to their houses, and the peculiar characteristics of my mind
+excited their interest. Among others who noticed me was the Colonel
+Hoegh-Guldberg, who with his family showed me the kindest sympathy; so
+much so, indeed, that he introduced me to the present king, then Prince
+Christian.
+
+I grew rapidly, and was a tall lad, of whom my mother said that she
+could not let him any longer go about without any object in life. I
+was sent, therefore, to the charity school, but learned only religion,
+writing, and arithmetic, and the last badly enough; I could also
+scarcely spell a word correctly. On the master's birthday I always wove
+him a garland and wrote him a poem; he received them half with smiles
+and half as a joke; the last time, however, he scolded me. The street
+lads had also heard from their parents of my peculiar turn of mind,
+and that I was in the habit of going to the houses of the gentry. I was
+therefore one day pursued by a wild crowd of them, who shouted after
+me derisively, "There runs the play-writer!" I hid myself at home in a
+corner, wept, and prayed to God.
+
+My mother said that I must be confirmed, in order that I might be
+apprenticed to the tailor trade, and thus do something rational. She
+loved me with her whole heart, but she did not understand my impulses
+and my endeavors, nor indeed at that time did I myself. The people about
+her always spoke against my odd ways, and turned me to ridicule.
+
+We belonged to the parish of St. Knud, and the candidates for
+confirmation could either enter their names with the prevost or the
+chaplain. The children of the so-called superior families and the
+scholars of the grammar school went to the first, and the children of
+the poor to the second. I, however, announced myself as a candidate
+to the prevost, who was obliged to receive me, although he discovered
+vanity in my placing myself among his catechists, where, although taking
+the lowest place, I was still above those who were under the care of
+the chaplain. I would, however, hope that it was not alone vanity which
+impelled me. I had a sort of fear of the poor boys, who had laughed at
+me, and I always felt as it were an inward drawing towards the scholars
+of the grammar school, whom I regarded as far better than other boys.
+When I saw them playing in the church-yard, I would stand outside the
+railings, and wish that I were but among the fortunate ones,--not for
+the sake of play, but for the sake of the many books they had, and
+for what they might be able to become in the world. With the prevost,
+therefore, I should be able to come together with them, and be as
+they were; but I do not remember a single one of them now, so little
+intercourse would they hold with me. I had daily the feeling of having
+thrust myself in where people thought that I did not belong. One young
+girl, however, there was, and one who was considered too of the highest
+rank, whom I shall afterwards have to mention; she always looked gently
+and kindly at me, and even once gave me a rose. I returned home full of
+happiness, because there was one being who did not overlook and repel
+me.
+
+An old female tailor altered my deceased father's great coat into a
+confirmation suit for me; never before had I worn so good a coat. I
+had also for the first time in my life a pair of boots. My delight was
+extremely great; my only fear was that everybody would not see them, and
+therefore I drew them up over my trousers, and thus marched through the
+church. The boots creaked, and that inwardly pleased me, for thus
+the congregation would hear that they were new. My whole devotion
+was disturbed; I was aware of it, and it caused me a horrible pang of
+conscience that my thoughts should be as much with my new boots as with
+God. I prayed him earnestly from my heart to forgive me, and then again
+I thought about my new boots.
+
+During the last year I had saved together a little sum of money. When
+I counted it over I found it to be thirteen rix dollars banco (about
+thirty shillings) I was quite overjoyed at the possession of so much
+wealth, and as my mother now most resolutely required that I should be
+apprenticed to a tailor, I prayed and besought her that I might make a
+journey to Copenhagen, that I might see the greatest city in the world.
+"What wilt thou do there?" asked my mother.
+
+"I will become famous," returned I, and I then told her all that I
+had read about extraordinary men. "People have," said I, "at first an
+immense deal of adversity to go through, and then they will be famous."
+
+It was a wholly unintelligible impulse that guided me. I wept, I prayed,
+and at last my mother consented, after having first sent for a so-called
+wise woman out of the hospital, that she might read my future fortune by
+the coffee-grounds and cards.
+
+"Your son will become a great man," said the old woman, "and in honor of
+him, Odense will one day be illuminated."
+
+My mother wept when she heard that, and I obtained permission to travel.
+All the neighbors told my mother that it was a dreadful thing to let me,
+at only fourteen years of age, go to Copenhagen, which was such a long
+way off, and such a great and intricate city, and where I knew nobody.
+
+"Yes," replied my mother, "but he lets me have no peace; I have
+therefore given my consent, but I am sure that he will go no further
+than Nyborg; when he gets sight of the rough sea, he will be frightened
+and turn back again."
+
+During the summer before my confirmation, a part of the singers and
+performers of the Theatre Royal had been in Odense, and had given a
+series of operas and tragedies there. The whole city was taken
+with them. I, who was on good terms with the man who delivered the
+play-bills, saw the performances behind the scenes, and had even acted a
+part as page, shepherd, etc., and had spoken a few words. My zeal was
+so great on such occasions, that I stood there fully apparelled when the
+actors arrived to dress. By these means their attention was turned to
+me; my childlike manners and my enthusiasm amused them; they talked
+kindly with me, and I looked up to them as to earthly divinities.
+Everything which I had formerly heard about my musical voice, and my
+recitation of poetry, became intelligible to me. It was the theatre for
+which I was born: it was there that I should become a famous man, and
+for that reason Copenhagen was the goal of my endeavors. I heard a deal
+said about the large theatre in Copenhagen, and that there was to be
+soon what was called the ballet, a something which surpassed both the
+opera and the play; more especially did I hear the solo-dancer, Madame
+Schall, spoken of as the first of all. She therefore appeared to me as
+the queen of everything, and in my imagination I regarded her as the one
+who would be able to do everything for me, if I could only obtain her
+support. Filled with these thoughts, I went to the old printer Iversen,
+one of the most respectable citizens of Odense, and who, as I heard, had
+had considerable intercourse with the actors when they were in the town.
+He, I thought, must of necessity be acquainted with the famous dancer;
+him I would request to give me a letter of introduction to her, and then
+I would commit the rest to God.
+
+The old man saw me for the first time, and heard my petition with much
+kindness; but he dissuaded me most earnestly from it, and said that I
+might learn a trade.
+
+"That would actually be a great sin," returned I.
+
+He was startled at the manner in which I said that, and it prepossessed
+him in my favor; he confessed that he was not personally acquainted with
+the dancer, but still that he would give me a letter to her. I received
+one from him, and now believed the goal to be nearly won.
+
+My mother packed up my clothes in a small bundle, and made a bargain
+with the driver of a post carriage to take me back with him to
+Copenhagen for three rix dollars banco. The afternoon on which we were
+to set out came, and my mother accompanied me to the city gate. Here
+stood my old grandmother; in the last few years her beautiful hair had
+become grey; she fell upon my neck and wept, without being able to speak
+a word. I was myself deeply affected. And thus we parted. I saw her no
+more; she died in the following year.
+
+I do not even know her grave; she sleeps in the poor-house
+burial-ground.
+
+The postilion blew his horn; it was a glorious sunny afternoon, and the
+sunshine soon entered into my gay child-like mind. I delighted in every
+novel object which met my eye, and I was journeying towards the goal of
+my soul's desires. When, however, I arrived at Nyborg on the great Belt,
+and was borne in the ship away from my native island, I then truly felt
+how alone and forlorn I was, and that I had no one else except God in
+heaven to depend upon.
+
+As soon as I set foot on Zealand, I stepped behind a shed, which stood
+on the shore, and falling upon my knees, besought of God to help and
+guide me aright; I felt myself comforted by so doing, and I firmly
+trusted in God and my own good fortune. The whole day and the following
+night I travelled through cities and villages; I stood solitarily by the
+carriage, and ate my bread while it was repacked.--I thought I was far
+away in the wide world.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+On Monday morning, September 5th, 1819, I saw from the heights of
+Frederiksburg, Copenhagen, for the first time. At this place I alighted
+from the carriage, and with my little bundle in my hand, entered the
+city through the castle garden, the long alley and the suburb.
+
+The evening before my arrival had been made memorable by the breaking
+out of the so-called Jews quarrel, which spread through many European
+countries. The whole city was in commotion [Footnote: This remarkable
+disturbance makes a fine incident in Anderson's romance of "Only a
+Fiddler."--M. H.]; every body was in the streets; the noise and tumult
+of Copenhagen far exceeded, therefore, any idea which my imagination had
+formed of this, at that time, to me great city.
+
+With scarcely ten dollars in my pocket, I turned into a small
+public-house. My first ramble was to the theatre. I went round it many
+times; I looked up to its walls, and regarded them almost as a home. One
+of the bill-sellers, who wandered about here each day, observed me, and
+asked me if I would have a bill. I was so wholly ignorant of the world,
+that I thought the man wished to give me one; I therefore accepted his
+offer with thankfulness. He fancied I was making fun of him and was
+angry; so that I was frightened, and hastened from the place which was
+to me the dearest in the city. Little did I then imagine that ten years
+afterwards my first dramatic piece would be represented there, and that
+in this manner I should make my appearance before the Danish public. On
+the following day I dressed myself in my confirmation suit, nor were the
+boots forgotten, although, this time, they were worn, naturally, under
+my trousers; and thus, in my best attire, with a hat on, which fell half
+over my eyes, I hastened to present my letter of introduction to the
+dancer, Madame Schall. Before I rung at the bell, I fell on my knees
+before the door and prayed God that I here might find help and support.
+A maid-servant came down the steps with her basket in her hand; she
+smiled kindly at me, gave me a skilling (Danish), and tripped on.
+Astonished, I looked at her and the money. I had on my confirmation
+suit, and thought I must look very smart. How then could she think that
+I wanted to beg? I called after her.
+
+"Keep it, keep it!" said she to me, in return, and was gone.
+
+At length I was admitted to the dancer; she looked at me in great
+amazement, and then heard what I had to say. She had not the slightest
+knowledge of him from whom the letter came, and my whole appearance and
+behavior seemed very strange to her. I confessed to her my heartfelt
+inclination for the theatre; and upon her asking me what characters I
+thought I could represent, I replied, Cinderella. This piece had been
+performed in Odense by the royal company, and the principal characters
+had so greatly taken my fancy, that I could play the part perfectly from
+memory. In the mean time I asked her permission to take off my boots,
+otherwise I was not light enough for this character; and then taking up
+my broad hat for a tambourine, I began to dance and sing,--
+
+  "Here below, nor rank nor riches,   Are exempt from pain and woe."
+
+My strange gestures and my great activity caused the lady to think me
+out of my mind, and she lost no time in getting rid of me.
+
+From her I went to the manager of the theatre, to ask for an engagement.
+He looked at me, and said that I was "too thin for the theatre."
+
+"Oh," replied I, "if you will only engage me with one hundred rix
+dollars banco salary, then I shall soon get fat!" The manager bade me
+gravely go my way, adding, that they only engaged people of education.
+
+I stood there deeply wounded. I knew no one in all Copenhagen who could
+give me either counsel or consolation. I thought of death as being the
+only thing, and the best thing for me; but even then my thoughts rose
+upwards to God, and with all the undoubting confidence of a child in his
+father, they riveted themselves upon Him. I wept bitterly, and then I
+said to myself, "When everything happens really miserably, then he sends
+help. I have always read so. People must first of all suffer a great
+deal before they can bring anything to accomplishment."
+
+I now went and bought myself a gallery-ticket for the opera of Paul and
+Virginia. The separation of the lovers affected me to such a degree,
+that I burst into violent weeping. A few women, who sat near me,
+consoled me by saying that it was only a play, and nothing to trouble
+oneself about; and then they gave me a sausage sandwich. I had the
+greatest confidence in everybody, and therefore I told them, with the
+utmost openness, that I did not really weep about Paul and Virginia,
+but because I regarded the theatre as my Virginia, and that if I must be
+separated from it, I should be just as wretched as Paul. They looked at
+me, and seemed not to understand my meaning. I then told them why I
+had come to Copenhagen, and how forlorn I was there. One of the women,
+therefore, gave me more, bread andebutter, with fruit and cakes.
+
+On the following morning I paid my bill, and to my infinite trouble
+I saw that my whole wealth consisted in one rix dollar banco. It was
+necessary, therefore, either that I should find some vessel to take me
+home, or put myself to work with some handicraftsman. I considered that
+the last was the wiser of the two, because, if I returned to Odense, I
+must there also put myself to work of a similar kind; besides which, I
+knew very well that the people there would laugh at me if I came back
+again. It was to me a matter of indifference what handicraft trade
+I learned,--I only should make use of it to keep life within me
+in Copenhagen. I bought a newspaper, therefore. I found among the
+advertisements that a cabinet maker was in want of an apprentice. The
+man received me kindly, but said that before I was bound to him he must
+have an attestation, and my baptismal register from Odense; and that
+till these came I could remove to his house, and try how the business
+pleased me. At six o'clock the next morning I went to the workshop:
+several journeymen were there, and two or three apprentices; but the
+master was not come. They fell into merry and idle discourse. I was as
+bashful as a girl, and as they soon perceived this, I was unmercifully
+rallied upon it. Later in the day the rude jests of the young fellows
+went so far, that, in remembrance of the scene at the manufactory, I
+took the resolute determination not to remain a single day longer in
+the workshop. I went down to the master, therefore, and told him that I
+could not stand it; he tried to console me, but in vain: I was too much
+affected, and hastened away.
+
+I now went through the streets; nobody knew me; I was quite forlorn. I
+then bethought myself of having read in a newspaper in Odense the name
+of an Italian, Siboni, who was the director of the Academy of Music in
+Copenhagen. Everybody had praised my voice; perhaps he would assist me
+for its sake; if not, then that very evening I must seek out the master
+of some vessel who would take me home again. At the thoughts of the
+journey home I became still more violently excited, and in this state of
+suffering I hastened to Siboni's house.
+
+It happened that very day that he had a large party to dinner; our
+celebrated composer Weyse was there, the poet Baggesen, and other
+guests. The housekeeper opened the door to me, and to her I not only
+related my wish to be engaged as a singer, but also the whole history
+of my life. She listened to me with the greatest sympathy, and then she
+left me. I waited a long time, and she must have been repeating to the
+company the greater part of what I had said, for, in a while, the door
+opened, and all the guests came out and looked at me. They would have
+me to sing, and Siboni heard me attentively. I gave some scenes out of
+Holberg, and repeated a few poems; and then, all at once, the sense of
+my unhappy condition so overcame me that I burst into tears; the whole
+company applauded.
+
+"I prophesy," said Baggesen, "that one day something will come out of
+him; but do not be vain when, some day, the whole public shall applaud
+thee!" and then he added something about pure, true nature, and that
+this is too often destroyed by years and by intercourse with mankind. I
+did not understand it all.
+
+Siboni promised to cultivate my voice, and that I therefore should
+succeed as singer at the Theatre Royal. It made me very happy; I laughed
+and wept; and as the housekeeper led me out and saw the excitement under
+which I labored, she stroked my cheeks, and said that on the following
+day I should go to Professor Weyse, who meant to do something for me,
+and upon whom I could depend.
+
+I went to Weyse, who himself had risen from poverty; he had deeply
+felt and fully comprehended my unhappy situation, and had raised by a
+subscription seventy rix dollars banco for me. I then wrote my first
+letter to my mother, a letter full of rejoicing, for the good fortune
+of the whole world seemed poured upon me. My mother in her joy showed
+my letter to all her friends; many heard of it with astonishment; others
+laughed at it, for what was to be the end of it? In order to understand
+Siboni it was necessary for me to learn something of German. A woman
+of Copenhagen, with whom I travelled from Odense to this city, and
+who gladly, according to her means, would have supported me, obtained,
+through one of her acquaintance, a language-master, who gratuitously
+gave me some German lessons, and thus I learned a few phrases in that
+language. Siboni received me into his house, and gave me food and
+instruction; but half a year afterwards my voice broke, or was injured,
+in consequence of my being compelled to wear bad shoes through the
+winter, and having besides no warm under-clothing. There was no longer
+any prospect that I should become a fine singer. Siboni told me that
+candidly, and counselled me to go to Odense, and there learn a trade.
+
+I, who in the rich colors of fancy had described to my mother the
+happiness which I actually felt, must now return home and become an
+object of derision! Agonized with this thought, I stood as if crushed
+to the earth. Yet, precisely amid this apparently great un-happiness lay
+the stepping-stones of a better fortune.
+
+As I found myself again abandoned, and was pondering by myself upon what
+was best for me next to do, it occurred to me that the Poet Guldberg, a
+brother of the Colonel of that name in Odense, who had shown me so
+much kindness, lived in Copenhagen. He lived at that time near the new
+church-yard outside the city, of which he has so beautifully sung in his
+poems. I wrote to him, and related to him everything; afterwards I went
+to him myself, and found him surrounded with books and tobacco pipes.
+The strong, warm-hearted man received me kindly; and as he saw by my
+letter how incorrectly I wrote, he promised to give me instruction in
+the Danish tongue; he examined me a little in German, and thought that
+it would be well if he could improve me in this respect also. More than
+this, he made me a present of the profits of a little work which he had
+just then published; it became known, and I believe they exceeded one
+hundred rix dollars banco; the excellent Weyse and others also supported
+me.
+
+It was too expensive for me to lodge at a public house; I was therefore
+obliged to seek for private lodgings. My ignorance of the world led
+me to a widow who lived in one of the most disreputable streets of
+Copenhagen; she was inclined to receive me into her house, and I never
+suspected what kind of world it was which moved around me. She was a
+stern, but active dame; she described to me the other people of the city
+in such horrible colors as made me suppose that I was in the only safe
+haven there. I was to pay twenty rix dollars monthly for one room, which
+was nothing but an empty store-room, without window and light, but I had
+permission to sit in her parlor. I was to make trial of it at first for
+two days, meantime on the following day she told me that I could decide
+to stay or immediately go. I, who so easily attach myself to people,
+already liked her, and felt myself at home with her; but more than
+sixteen dollars per month Weyse had told me I must not pay, and this was
+the sum which I had received from him and Guldberg, so that no surplus
+remained to me for my other expenses. This troubled me very much;
+when she was gone out of the room, I seated myself on the sofa, and
+contemplated the portrait of her deceased husband.
+
+I was so wholly a child, that as the tears rolled down my own cheeks,
+I wetted the eyes of the portrait with my tears, in order that the dead
+man might feel how troubled I was, and influence the heart of his wife.
+She must have seen that nothing more was to be drained out of me, for
+when she returned to the room she said that she would receive me into
+her house for the sixteen rix dollars. I thanked God and the dead man. I
+found myself in the midst of the mysteries of Copenhagen, but I did
+not understand how to interpret them. There was in the house in which
+I lived a friendly young lady, who lived alone, and often wept; every
+evening her old father came and paid her a visit. I opened the door to
+him frequently; he wore a plain sort of coat, had his throat very much
+tied up, and his hat pulled over his eyes. He always drank his tea with
+her, and nobody dared to be present, because he was not fond of company:
+she never seemed very glad at his coming. [Footnote: This character will
+be recognised in Steffen Margaret, in Only a Fiddler.--M. H.] Many years
+afterwards, when I had reached another step on the ladder of life, when
+the refined world of fashionable life was opened before me, I saw
+one evening, in the midst of a brilliantly lighted hall, a polite old
+gentleman covered with orders--that was the old father in the shabby
+coat, he whom I had let in. He had little idea that I had opened the
+door to him when he played his part as guest, but I, on my side, then
+had also no thought but for my own comedy-playing; that is to say, I was
+at that time so much of a child that I played with my puppet-theatre and
+made my dolls' clothes; and in order that I might obtain gaily-colored
+fragments for this purpose, I used to go to the shops and ask for
+patterns of various kinds of stuffs and ribbons. I myself did not
+possess a single farthing; my landlady received all the money each month
+in advance; only now and then, when I did any errands for her, she
+gave me something, and that went in the purchase of paper or for old
+play-books. I was now very happy, and was doubly so because Professor
+Guldberg had induced Lindgron, the first comic actor at the theatre, to
+give me instruction. He gave me several parts in Holberg to learn, such
+as Hendrik, and the Silly Boy, for which I had shown some talent. My
+desire, however, was to play the Correggio. I obtained permission to
+learn this piece in my own way, although Lindgron asked, with comic
+gravity, whether I expected to resemble the great painter? I, however,
+repeated to him the soliloquy in the picture gallery with so much
+feeling, that the old man clapped me on the shoulder and said, "Feeling
+you have; but you must not be an actor, though God knows what else.
+Speak to Guldberg about your learning Latin: that always opens the way
+for a student."
+
+I a student! That was a thought which had never come before into my
+head. The theatre lay nearer to me, and was dearer too; but Latin I
+had also always wished to learn. But before I spoke on the subject to
+Guldberg, I mentioned it to the lady who gave me gratuitous instruction
+in German; but she told me that Latin was the most expensive language in
+the world, and that it was not possible to gain free instruction in
+it. Guldberg, however, managed it so that one of his friends, out of
+kindness, gave me two lessons a week.
+
+The dancer, Dahlen, whose wife at that time was one of the first
+artistes on the Danish boards, opened his house to me. I passed many
+an evening there, and the gentle, warm-hearted lady was kind to me. The
+husband took me with him to the dancing-school, and that was to me one
+step nearer to the theatre. There stood I for whole mornings, with a
+long staff, and stretched my legs; but notwithstanding all my good-will,
+it was Dahlen's opinion that I should never get beyond a figurante.
+One advantage, however, I had gained; I might in an evening make my
+appearance behind the scenes of the theatre; nay, even sit upon the
+farthest bench in the box of the figurantes. It seemed to me as if I had
+got my foot just within the theatre, although I had never yet been upon
+the stage itself.
+
+One night the little opera of the Two Little Savoyards was given; in
+the market scene every one, even the mechanists, might go up to help in
+filling the stage; I heard them say so, and rouging myself a little,
+I went happily up with the others. I was in my ordinary dress; the
+confirmation coat, which still held together, although, with regard to
+brushing and repairs, it lookedebut miserably, and the great hat which
+fell down over my face. I was very conscious of the ill condition of my
+attire, and would have been glad to have concealed it; but, through the
+endeavor to do so, my movements became still more angular. I did not
+dare to hold myself upright, because, by so doing, I exhibited all the
+more plainly the shortness of my waistcoat, which I had outgrown. I had
+the feeling very plainly that people would make themselves merry about
+me; yet, at this moment, I felt nothing but the happiness of stepping
+for the first time before the foot-lamps. My heart beat; I stepped
+forward; there came up one of the singers, who at that time was much
+thought of, but now is forgotten; he took me by the hand, and jeeringly
+wished me happiness on my debut. "Allow me to introduce you to the
+Danish public," said he, and drew me forward to the lamps. The people
+would laugh at me--I felt it; the tears rolled down my cheeks; I tore
+myself loose, and left the stage full of anguish.
+
+Shortly after this, Dahlen arranged a ballet of Armida, in which
+I received a little part: I was a spirit. In this ballet I became
+acquainted with the lady of Professor Heiberg, the wife of the poet, and
+now a highly esteemed actress on the Danish stage; she, then a little
+girl, had also a part in it, and our names stood printed in the bill.
+That was a moment in my life, when my name was printed! I fancied I
+could see it a nimbus of immortality. I was continually looking at the
+printed paper. I carried the programme of the ballet with me at night to
+bed, lay and read my name by candle light--in short, I was happy.
+
+I had now been two years in Copenhagen. The sum of money which had been
+collected for me was expended, but I was ashamed of making known my
+wants and my necessities. I had removed to the house of a woman whose
+husband, when living, was master of a trading-vessel, and there I had
+only lodging and breakfast. Those were heavy, dark days for me.
+
+The lady believed that I went out to dine with various families, whilst
+I only ate a little bread on one of the benches in the royal garden.
+Very rarely did I venture into some of the lowest eating-houses, and
+choose there the least expensive dish. I was, in truth, very forlorn;
+but I did not feel the whole weight of my condition. Every person who
+spoke to me kindly I took for a faithful friend. God was with me in my
+little room; and many a night, when I have said my evening prayer, I
+asked of Him, like a child, "Will things soon be better with me?" I had
+the notion, that as it went with me on New Year's Day, so would it go
+with me through the whole year; and my highest wishes were to obtain a
+part in a play.
+
+It was now New Year's Day. The theatre was closed, and only a half-blind
+porter sat at the entrance to the stage, on which there was not a soul.
+I stole past him with beating heart, got between the movable scenes and
+the curtain, and advanced to the open part of the stage. Here I fell
+down upon my knees, but not a single verse for declamation could I
+recall to my memory. I then said aloud the Lord's Prayer, and went out
+with the persuasion, that because I had spoken from the stage on New
+Year's Day, I should in the course of the year succeed in speaking still
+more, as well as in having a part assigned to me.
+
+During the two years of my residence in Copenhagen I had never been out
+into the open country. Once only had I been in the park, and there I had
+been deeply engrossed by studying the diversions of the people and their
+gay tumult. In the spring of the third year, I went out for the first
+time amid the verdure of a spring morning. It was into the garden of
+the Fredericksberg, the summer residence of Frederick VI. I stood still
+suddenly under the first large budding beech tree. The sun made the
+leaves transparent--there was a fragrance, a freshness--the birds sang.
+I was overcome by it--I shouted aloud for joy, threw my arms around the
+tree and kissed it.
+
+"Is he mad?" said a man close behind me. It was one of the servants
+of the castle. I ran away, shocked at what I had heard, and then went
+thoughtfully and calmly back to the city.
+
+My voice had, in the mean time, in part regained its richness. The
+singing master of the choir-school heard it, offered me a place in
+the school, thinking that, by singing with the choir, I should acquire
+greater freedom in the exercise of my powers on the stage. I thought
+that I could see by this means a new way opened for me. I went from the
+dancing-school into the singing-school, and entered the choir, now as
+a shepherd, and now as a warrior. The theatre was my world. I had
+permission to go in the pit, and thus it fared ill with my Latin. I
+heard many people say that there was no Latin required for singing
+in the choir, and that without the knowledge of this language it was
+possible to become a great actor. I thought there was good sense in
+that, and very often, either with or without reason, excused myself
+from my Latin evening lesson. Guldberg became aware of this, and for the
+first time I received a reprimand which almost crushed me to the earth.
+I fancy that no criminal could suffer more by hearing the sentence
+of death pronounced upon him. My distress of mind must have expressed
+itself in my countenance, for he said "Do not act any more comedy." But
+it was no comedy to me.
+
+I was now to learn Latin no longer. I felt my dependence upon the
+kindness of others in such a degree as I had never done before.
+Occasionally I had had gloomy and earnest thoughts in looking forward
+to my future, because I was in want of the very necessaries of life; at
+other times I had the perfect thoughtlessness of a child.
+
+The widow of the celebrated Danish statesman, Christian Colbj/rnsen,
+and her daughter, were the first ladies of high rank who cordially
+befriended the poor lad; who listened to me with sympathy, and saw
+me frequently. Mrs. von Colbj/rnsen resided, during the summer, at
+Bakkehus, where also lived the poet Rahbek and his interesting wife.
+Rahbek never spoke to me; but his lively and kind-hearted wife often
+amused herself with me. I had at that time again begun to write a
+tragedy, which I read aloud to her. Immediately on hearing the first
+scenes, she exclaimed, "But you have actually taken whole passages out
+of Oehlenschl ger and Ingemann."
+
+"Yes, but they are so beautiful!" replied I in my simplicity, and read
+on.
+
+One day, when I was going from her to Mrs. von Colbj/rnsen, she gave
+me a handful of roses, and said, "Will you take them up to her? It will
+certainly give her pleasure to receive them from the hand of a poet."
+These words were said half in jest; but it was the first time that
+anybody had connected my name with that of poet. It went through me,
+body and soul, and tears filled my eyes. I know that, from this very
+moment, my mind was awoke to writing and poetry. Formerly it had been
+merely an amusement by way of variety from my puppet-theatre.
+
+At Bakkehus lived also Professor Thiele, a young student at that time,
+but even then the editor of the Danish popular legends, and known to
+the public as the solver of Baggesen's riddle, and as the writer of
+beautiful poetry. He was possessed of sentiment, true inspiration, and
+heart. He had calmly and attentively watched the unfolding of my mind,
+until we now became friends. He was one of the few who, at that time,
+spoke the truth of me, when other people were making themselves merry
+at my expense, and having only eyes for that which was ludicrous in me.
+People had called me, in jest, the little orator, and, as such, I was
+an object of curiosity. They found amusement in me, and I mistook every
+smile for a smile of applause. One of my later friends has told me that
+it probably was about this period that he saw me for the first time. It
+was in the drawing-room of a rich tradesman, where people were making
+themselves very merry with me. They desired me to repeat one of my
+poems, and, as I did this with great feeling, the merriment was changed
+into sympathy with me.
+
+I heard it said every day, what a good thing it would be for me if I
+could study. People advised me to devote myself to science, but no one
+moved one step to enable me to do so; it was labor enough for me to keep
+body and soul together. It therefore occurred to me to write a tragedy,
+which I would offer to the Theatre Royal, and would then begin to study
+with the money which I should thus obtain. Whilst Guldberg instructed
+me in Danish, I had written a tragedy from a German story, called The
+Chapel in the Wood; yet as this was done merely as an exercise in the
+language, and, as he forbade me in the most decided manner to bring it
+out, I would not do so. I originated my own material, therefore; and
+within fourteen days I wrote my national tragedy called the Robbers in
+Wissenberg (the name of a little village in Funen.) There was scarcely
+a word in it correctly written, as I had no person to help me, because
+I meant it to be anonymous; there was, nevertheless, one person admitted
+into the secret, namely, the young lady whom I had met with in Odense,
+during my preparation for confirmation, the only one who at that
+time showed me kindness and good-will. It was through her that I was
+introduced to the Colbj/rnsen family, and thus known and received in all
+those circles of which the one leads into the other. She paid some one
+to prepare a legible copy of my piece, and undertook to present it for
+perusal. After an interval of six weeks, I received it back, accompanied
+by a letter which said the people did not frequently wish to retain
+works which betrayed, in so great a degree, a want of elementary
+knowledge.
+
+It was just at the close of the theatrical season, in May, 1823, that I
+received a letter from the directors, by which I was dismissed from
+the singing and dancing school, the letter adding also, that my
+participation in the school-teaching could lead to no advantage for me,
+but that they wished some of my many friends would enable me to receive
+an education, without which, talent availed nothing. I felt myself
+again, as it were, cast out into the wide world without help and without
+support. It was absolutely necessary that I should write a piece for the
+theatre, and that _must_ be accepted; there was no other salvation for
+me. I wrote, therefore, a tragedy founded on a passage in history, and
+I called it Alfsol. I was delighted with the first act, and with this I
+immediately went to the Danish translator of Shakspeare, Admiral Wulff,
+now deceased, who good-naturedly heard me read it. In after years I
+met with the most cordial reception in his family. At that time I also
+introduced myself to our celebrated physician Oersted, and his house has
+remained to me to this day an affectionate home, to which my heart has
+firmly attached itself, and where I find my oldest and most unchangeable
+friends.
+
+A favorite preacher, the rural dean Gutfeldt, was living at that time,
+and he it was who exerted himself most earnestly for my tragedy, which
+was now finished; and having written a letter of recommendation, he
+sent it to the managers of the theatre. I was suspended between hope and
+fear. In the course of the summer I endured bitter want, but I told it
+to no one, else many a one, whose sympathy I had experienced, would have
+helped me to the utmost of their means. A false shame prevented me from
+confessing what I endured. Still happiness filled my heart. I read then
+for the first time the works of Walter Scott. A new world was opened to
+me: I forgot the reality, and gave to the circulating library that which
+should have provided me with a dinner.
+
+The present conference councillor, Collin, one of the most distinguished
+men of Denmark, who unites with the greatest ability the noblest and
+best heart, to whom I looked up with confidence in all things, who has
+been a second father to me, and in whose children I have found brothers
+and sisters;--this excellent man I saw now for the first time. He was at
+that time director of the Theatre Royal, and people universally told me
+that it would be the best thing for me if he would interest himself on
+my behalf: it was either Oersted or Gutfeldt who first mentioned me to
+him; and now for the first time I went to that house which was to become
+so dear to me. Before the ramparts of Copenhagen were extended, this
+house lay outside the gate, and served as a summer residence to
+the Spanish Ambassador; now, however, it stands, a crooked, angular
+frame-work building, in a respectable street; an old-fashioned wooden
+balcony leads to the entrance, and a great tree spreads its green
+branches over the court and its pointed gables. It was to become a
+paternal house to me. Who does not willingly linger over the description
+of home?
+
+I discovered only the man of business in Collin; his conversation was
+grave and in few words. I went away, without expecting any sympathy from
+this man; and yet it was precisely Collin who in all sincerity thought
+for my advantage, and who worked for it silently, as he had done for
+others, through the whole course of his active life. But at that time I
+did not understand the apparent calmness with which he listened, whilst
+his heart bled for the afflicted, and he always labored for them with
+zeal and success, and knew how to help them. He touched so lightly upon
+my tragedy, which had been sent to him, and on account of which many
+people had overwhelmed me with flattering speeches, that I regarded him
+rather as an enemy than a protector.
+
+In a few day I was sent for by the directors of the theatre, when Rahbek
+gave me back my play as useless for the stage; adding, however, that
+there were so many grains of corn scattered in it, that it was hoped,
+that perhaps, by earnest study, after going to school and the previous
+knowledge of all that is requisite, I might, some time, be able to write
+a work which should be worthy of being acted on the Danish stage.
+
+In order therefore to obtain the means for my support and the necessary
+instruction, Collin recommended me to King Frederick the Sixth, who
+granted to me a certain sum annually for some years; and, by means of
+Collin also, the directors of the high schools allowed me to receive
+free instruction in the grammar school at Slagelse, where just then a
+new, and, as was said, an active rector was appointed. I was almost
+dumb with astonishment: never had I thought that my life would take this
+direction, although I had no correct idea of the path which I had now to
+tread. I was to go with the earliest mail to Slagelse, which lay twelve
+Danish miles from Copenhagen, to the place where also the poets Baggesen
+and Ingemann had gone to school. I was to receive money quarterly from
+Collin; I was to apply to him in all cases, and he it was who was to
+ascertain my industry and my progress.
+
+I went to him the second time to express to him my thanks. Mildly and
+kindly he said to me, "Write to me without restraint about everything
+which you require, and tell me how it goes with you." From this hour I
+struck root in his heart; no father could have been more to me than he
+was, and is; none could have more heartily rejoiced in my happiness,
+and my after reception with the public; none have shared my sorrow more
+kindly; and I am proud to say that one of the most excellent men
+which Denmark possesses feels towards me as towards his own child. His
+beneficence was conferred without his making me feel it painful either
+by word or look. That was not the case with every one to whom, in this
+change of my fortunes, I had to offer my thanks; I was told to think
+of my inconceivable happiness and my poverty; in Collin's words was
+expressed the warm-heartedness of a father, and to him it was that
+properly I was indebted for everything.
+
+The journey was hastily determined upon, and I had yet for myself some
+business to arrange. I had spoken to an acquaintance from Odense who had
+the management of a small printing concern, for a widow, to get "Alfsal"
+printed, that I might, by the sale of the work, make a little money.
+Before, however, the piece was printed, it was necessary that I should
+obtain a certain number of subscribers; but these were not obtained, and
+the manuscript lay in the printing-office, which, at the time I went to
+fetch it away, was shut up. Some years afterwards, however, it suddenly
+made its appearance in print without my knowledge or my desire, in its
+unaltered shape, but without my name.
+
+On a beautiful autumn day I set off with the mail from Copenhagen to
+begin my school-life in Slagelse. A young student, who a month before
+had passed his first examination, and now was travelling home to Jutland
+to exhibit himself there as a student, and to see once more his parents
+and his friends, sate at my side and exulted for joy over the new life
+which now lay before him; he assured me that he should be the most
+unhappy of human beings if he were in my place, and were again beginning
+to go to the grammar school. But I travelled with a good heart towards
+the little city of Zealand. My mother received a joyful letter from
+me. I only wished that my father and the old grandmother yet lived, and
+could hear that I now went to the grammar school.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+When, late in the evening, I arrived at the inn in Slagelse, I asked the
+hostess if there were anything remarkable in the city.
+
+"Yes," said she, "a new English fire-engine and Pastor Bastholm's
+library," and those probably were all the lions in the city. A few
+officers of the Lancers composed the fine-gentleman world. Everybody
+knew what was done in everybody's house, whether a scholar was elevated
+or degraded in his class, and the like. A private theatre, to which,
+at general rehearsal, the scholars of the grammar school and the
+maid-servants of the town had free entrance, furnished rich material for
+conversation. The place was remote from woods, and still farther from
+the coast; but the great post-road went through the city, and the
+post-horn resounded from the rolling carriage.
+
+I boarded with a respectable widow of the educated class, and had a
+little chamber looking out into the garden and field. My place in
+the school was in the lowest class, among little boys:--I knew indeed
+nothing at all.
+
+I was actually like a wild bird which is confined in a cage; I had the
+greatest desire to learn, but for the moment I floundered about, as if
+I had been thrown into the sea; the one wave followed another; grammar,
+geography, mathematics--I felt myself overpowered by them, and feared
+that I should never be able to acquire all these. The rector, who took a
+peculiar delight in turning everything to ridicule, did not, of course,
+make an exception in my case. To me he stood then as a divinity; I
+believed unconditionally every word which he spoke. One day, when I had
+replied incorrectly to his question, and he said that I was stupid, I
+mentioned it to Collin, and told him my anxiety, lest I did not deserve
+all that people had done for me; but he consoled me. Occasionally,
+however, on some subjects of instruction, I began to receive a
+good certificate, and the teachers were heartily kind to me; yet,
+notwithstanding that I advanced, I still lost confidence in myself more
+and more. On one of the first examinations, however, I obtained the
+praise of the rector. He wrote the same in my character-book; and, happy
+in this, I went a few days afterwards to Copenhagen. Guldberg, who saw
+the progress I had made, received me kindly, and commended my zeal; and
+his brother in Odense furnished me the next summer with the means of
+visiting the place of my birth, where I had not been since I left it to
+seek adventures. I crossed the Belt, and went on foot to Odense. When
+I came near enough to see the lofty old church tower, my heart was more
+and more affected; I felt deeply the care of God for me, and I burst
+into tears. My mother rejoiced over me. The families of Iversen and
+Guldberg received me cordially; and in the little streets I saw the
+people open their windows to look after me, for everybody knew how
+remarkably well things had fared with me; nay, I fancied I actually
+stood upon the pinnacle of fortune, when one of the principal citizens,
+who had built a high tower to his house, led me up there, and I looked
+out thence over the city, and the surrounding country, and some old
+women in the hospital below, who had known me from childhood, pointed up
+to me.
+
+As soon, however, as I returned to Slagelse, this halo of glory
+vanished, as well as every thought of it. I may freely confess that I
+was industrious, and I rose, as soon as it was possible, into a higher
+class; but in proportion as I rose did I feel the pressure upon me more
+strongly, and that my endeavors were not sufficiently productive. Many
+an evening, when sleep overcame me, did I wash my head with cold water,
+or run about the lonely little garden, till I was again wakeful, and
+could comprehend the book anew. The rector filled up a portion of
+his hours of teaching with jests, nicknames, and not the happiest of
+witticisms. I was as if paralyzed with anxiety when he entered the room,
+and from that cause my replies often expressed the opposite of
+that which I wished to say, and thereby my anxiety was all the more
+increased. What was to become of me?
+
+In a moment of ill-humor I wrote a letter to the head master, who was
+one of those who was most cordially opposed to me. I said in this letter
+that I regarded myself as a person so little gifted by nature, that it
+was impossible for me to study, and that the people in Copenhagen threw
+away the money which they spent upon me: I besought him therefore to
+counsel me what I should do. The excellent man strengthened me with mild
+words, and wrote to me a most friendly and consolatory letter; he said
+that the rector meant kindly by me--that it was his custom and way of
+acting--that I was making all the progress that people could expect
+from me, and that I need not doubt of my abilities. He told me that he
+himself was a peasant youth of three and twenty, older than I myself
+was, when he began his studies; the misfortune for me was, that I ought
+to have been treated differently to the other scholars, but that this
+could hardly be done in a school; but that things were progressing, and
+that I stood well both with the teachers and my fellow students.
+
+Every Sunday we had to attend the church and hear an old preacher; the
+other scholars learned their lessons in history and mathematics while he
+preached; I learned my task in religion, and thought that, by so doing,
+it was less sinful. The general rehearsals at the private theatre were
+points of light in my school life; they took place in a back building,
+where the lowing of the cows might be heard; the street-decoration was
+a picture of the marketplace of the city, by which means the
+representation had something familiar about it; it amused the
+inhabitants to see their own houses.
+
+On Sunday afternoons it was my delight to go to the castle of
+Antvorskov, at that time only half ruinous, and once a monastery, where
+I pursued the excavating of the ruined cellars, as if it had been a
+Pompeii. I also often rambled to the crucifix of St. Anders, which
+stands upon one of the heights of Slagelse, and which is one of the
+wooden crosses erected in the time of Catholicism in Denmark. St. Anders
+was a priest in Slagelse, and travelled to the Holy Land; on the last
+day he remained so long praying on the holy grave, that the ship sailed
+away without him. Vexed at this circumstance, he walked along the
+shore, where a man met him riding on an ass, and took him up with him.
+Immediately he fell asleep, and when he awoke he heard the bells of
+Slagelse ringing. He lay upon the (Hvileh/i) hill of rest, where the
+cross now stands. He was at home a year and a day before the ship
+returned, which had sailed away without him, and an angel had borne him
+home. The legend, and the place where he woke, were both favorites
+of mine. From this spot I could see the ocean and Funen. Here I could
+indulge my fancies; when at home, my sense of duty chained my thoughts
+only to my books.
+
+The happiest time, however, was when, once on a Sunday, whilst the wood
+was green, I went to the city of Sor/, two (Danish) miles from Slagelse,
+and which lies in the midst of woods, surrounded by lakes. Here is an
+academy for the nobility, founded by the poet Holberg. Everything lay in
+a conventual stillness. I visited here the poet Ingemann, who had just
+married, and who held a situation as teacher; he had already received me
+kindly in Copenhagen; but here his reception of me was still more kind.
+His life in this place seemed to me like a beautiful story; flowers
+and vines twined around his window; the rooms were adorned with the
+portraits of distinguished poets, and other pictures. We sailed upon
+the lake with an Aeolian harp made fast to the mast. Ingemann talked so
+cheerfully, and his excellent, amiable wife treated me as if she were
+an elder sister:--I loved these people. Our friendship has grown with
+years. I have been from that time almost every summer a welcome guest
+there, and I have experienced that there are people in whose society one
+is made better, as it were; that which is bitter passes away, and the
+whole world appears in sunlight.
+
+Among the pupils in the academy of nobles, there were two who made
+verses; they knew that I did the same, and they attached themselves
+to me. The one was Petit, who afterwards, certainly with the best
+intention, but not faithfully, translated several of my books; the
+other, the poet Karl Bagger, one of the most gifted of men who has come
+forward in Danish literature, but who has been unjustly judged. His
+poems are full of freshness and originality; his story, "The Life of my
+Brother," is a genial book, by the critique on which the Danish Monthly
+Review of Literature has proved that it does not understand how to
+give judgment. These two academicians were very different from me: life
+rushed rejoicingly through their veins; I was sensitive and childlike.
+In my character-book I always received, as regarded my conduct,
+"remarkably good." On one occasion, however, I only obtained the
+testimony of "very good;" and so anxious and childlike was I, that
+I wrote a letter to Collin on that account, and assured him in grave
+earnestness, that I was perfectly innocent, although I had only obtained
+a character of "very good."
+
+The rector grew weary of his residence in Slagelse; he applied for the
+vacant post of rector in the grammar-school of Helsing/r, and obtained
+it. He told me of it, and added kindly, that I might write to Collin and
+ask leave to accompany him thither; that I might live in his house, and
+could even now remove to his family; I should then in half a year become
+a student, which could not be the case if I remained behind, and that
+then he would himself give me some private lessons in Latin and Greek.
+On this same occasion he wrote also to Collin; and this letter, which
+I afterwards saw, contained the greatest praise of my industry, of the
+progress I had made, and of my good abilities, which last I imagined
+that he thoroughly mistook, and for the want of which, I myself had so
+often wept. I had no conception that he judged of me so favorably; it
+would have strengthened and relieved me had I known it; whereas, on the
+contrary, his perpetual blame depressed me. I, of course, immediately
+received Collin's permission, and removed to the house of the rector.
+But that, alas! was an unfortunate house.
+
+I accompanied him to Helsing/r, one of the loveliest places in Denmark,
+close to the Sound, which is at this place not above a mile (Danish)
+broad, and which seems like a blue, swelling river between Denmark and
+Sweden. The ships of all nations sail past daily by hundreds; in winter
+the ice forms a firm bridge between the two countries, and when in
+spring this breaks up, it resembles a floating glacier. The scenery
+here made a lively impression upon me, but I dared only to cast stolen
+glances at it. When the school hours were over, the house door was
+commonly locked; I was obliged to remain in the heated school-room and
+learn my Latin, or else play with the children, or sit in my little
+room; I never went out to visit anybody. My life in this family
+furnishes the most evil dreams to my remembrance. I was almost overcome
+by it, and my prayer to God every evening was, that he would remove this
+cup from me and let me die. I possessed not an atom of confidence
+in myself. I never mentioned in my letters how hard it went with me,
+because the rector found his pleasure in making a jest of me, and
+turning my feelings to ridicule. I never complained of any one, with the
+exception of myself. I knew that they would say in Copenhagen, "He has
+not the desire to do any thing; a fanciful being can do no good with
+realities."
+
+My letters to Collin, written at this time, showed such a gloomy
+despairing state of mind, that they touched him deeply; but people
+imagined that was not to be helped; they fancied that it was my
+disposition, and not, as was the case, that it was the consequence
+of outward influences. My temper of mind was thoroughly buoyant, and
+susceptible of every ray of sunshine; but only on one single holiday in
+the year, when I could go to Copenhagen, was I able to enjoy it.
+
+What a change it was to get for a few days out of the rector's rooms
+into a house in Copenhagen, where all was elegance, cleanliness, and
+full of the comforts of refined life! This was at Admiral Wulff's, whose
+wife felt for me the kindness of a mother, and whose children met me
+with cordiality; they dwelt in a portion of the Castle of Amalienburg,
+and my chamber looked out into the square. I remember the first evening
+there; Aladdin's words passed through my mind, when he looked down from
+his splendid castle into the square, and said, "Here came I as a poor
+lad." My soul was full of gratitude.
+
+ During my whole residence in Slagelse I had scarcely written more than
+four or five poems; two of which, "The Soul," and "To my Mother,"
+will be found printed in my collected works. During my school-time at
+Helsing/r I wrote only one single poem, "The Dying Child;" a poem which,
+of all my after works, became most popular and most widely circulated. I
+read it to some acquaintance in Copenhagen; some were struck by it, but
+most of them only remarked my Funen dialect, which drops the d in every
+word. I was commended by many; but from the greater number I received
+a lecture on modesty, and that I should not get too great ideas of
+myself--I who really at that time thought nothing of myself. [Footnote:
+How beautifully is all this part of the author's experience reflected
+in that of Antonio, the Improvisatore, whose highly sensitive nature was
+too often wounded by the well-meant lectures of patrons and common-place
+minds.--M. H.]
+
+At the house of Admiral Wulff I saw many men of the most distinguished
+talent, and among them all my mind paid the greatest homage to one--that
+was the poet Adam Oehlenschl ger. I heard his praise resound from every
+mouth around me; I looked up to him with the most pious faith: I
+was happy when one evening, in a large brilliantly-lighted drawing
+room--where I deeply felt that my apparel was the shabbiest there, and
+for that reason I concealed myself behind the long curtains--Oehlenschl
+ger came to me and offered me his hand. I could have fallen before him
+on my knees. I again saw Weyse, and heard him improvise upon the piano.
+Wulff himself read aloud his translations of Byron; and Oehlenschl ger's
+young daughter Charlotte surprised me by her joyous, merry humor.
+
+From such a house as this, I, after a few days, returned to the rector,
+and felt the difference deeply. He also came direct from Copenhagen,
+where he had heard it said that I had read in company one of my own
+poems. He looked at me with a penetrating glance, and commanded me to
+bring him the poem, when, if he found in it one spark of poetry, he
+would forgive me. I tremblingly brought to him "The Dying Child;" he
+read it, and pronounced it to be sentimentality and idle trash. He gave
+way freely to his anger. If he had believed that I wasted my time
+in writing verses, or that I was of a nature which required a severe
+treatment, then his intention would have been good; but he could
+not pretend this. But from this day forward my situation was more
+unfortunate than ever; I suffered so severely in my mind that I was very
+near sinking under it. That was the darkest, the most unhappy time in my
+life.
+
+Just then one of the masters went to Copenhagen, and related to Collin
+exactly what I had to bear, and immediately he removed me from the
+school and from the rector's house. When, in taking leave of him,
+I thanked him for the kindness which I had received from him, the
+passionate man cursed me, and ended by saying that I should never
+become a student, that my verses would grow mouldy on the floor of the
+bookseller's shop, and that I myself should end my days in a mad-house.
+I trembled to my innermost being, and left him.
+
+Several years afterwards, when my writings were read, when the
+Improvisatore first came out, I met him in Copenhagen; he offered me his
+hand in a conciliatory manner, and said that he had erred respecting me,
+and had treated me wrong; but it now was all the same to me. The heavy,
+dark days had also produced their blessing in my life. A young man, who
+afterwards became celebrated in Denmark for his zeal in the Northern
+languages and in history, became my teacher. I hired a little garret; it
+is described in the Fiddler; and in The Picture Book without Pictures,
+people may see that I often received there visits from the moon. I had
+a certain sum allowed for my support; but as instruction was to be paid
+for, I had to make savings in other ways. A few families through the
+week-days gave me a place at their tables. I was a sort of boarder, as
+many another poor student in Copenhagen is still: there was a variety in
+it; it gave an insight into the several kinds of family life, which
+was not without its influence on me. I studied industriously; in
+some particular branches I had considerably distinguished myself in
+Helsing/r, especially in mathematics; these were, therefore, now much
+more left to myself: everything tended to assist me in my Greek and
+Latin studies; in one direction, however, and that the one in which it
+would least have been expected, did my excellent teacher find much to
+do; namely, in religion. He closely adhered to the literal meaning of
+the Bible; with this I was acquainted, because from my first entrance
+in the school I had clearly understood what was said and taught by it. I
+received gladly, both with feeling and understanding, the doctrine, that
+God is love: everything which opposed this--a burning hell, therefore,
+whose fire endured forever--I could not recognize. Released from the
+distressing existence of the school-bench, I now expressed myself like a
+free man; and my teacher, who was one of the noblest and most amiable
+of human beings, but who adhered firmly to the letter, was often quite
+distressed about me. We disputed, whilst pure flames kindled within our
+hearts. It was nevertheless good for me that I came to this unspoiled,
+highly-gifted young man, who was possessed of a nature as peculiar as my
+own.
+
+That which, on the contrary, was an error in me, and which became very
+perceptible, was a pleasure which I had, not in jesting with, but in
+playing with my best feelings, and in regarding the understanding as the
+most important thing in the world. The rector had completely mistaken my
+undisguisedly candid and sensitive character; my excitable feelings were
+made ridiculous, and thrown back upon themselves; and now, when I could
+freely advance upon the way to my object, this change showed itself in
+me. From severe suffering I did not rush into libertinism, but into an
+erroneous endeavor to appear other than I was. I ridiculed feeling,
+and fancied that I had quite thrown it aside; and yet I could be made
+wretched for a whole day, if I met with a sour countenance where I
+expected a friendly one. Every poem which I had formerly written with
+tears, I now parodied, or gave to it a ludicrous refrain; one of which
+I called "The Lament of the Kitten," another, "The Sick Poet." The few
+poems which I wrote at that time were all of a humorous character: a
+complete change had passed over me; the stunted plant was reset, and now
+began to put forth new shoots.
+
+Wulff's eldest daughter, a very clever and lively girl, understood and
+encouraged the humor, which made itself evident in my few poems; she
+possessed my entire confidence; she protected me like a good sister, and
+had great influence over me, whilst she awoke in me a feeling for the
+comic.
+
+At this time, also, a fresh current of life was sent through the Danish
+literature; for this the people had an interest, and politics played no
+part in it.
+
+Heiberg, who had gained the acknowledged reputation of a poet by his
+excellent works, "Psyche" and "Walter the Potter," had introduced the
+vaudeville upon the Danish stage; it was a Danish vaudeville, blood of
+our blood, and was therefore received with acclamation, and supplanted
+almost everything else. Thalia kept carnival on the Danish stage, and
+Heiberg was her secretary. I made his acquaintance first at Oersted's.
+Refined, eloquent, and the hero of the day, he pleased me in a high
+degree; he was most kind to me, and I visited him; he considered one of
+my humorous poems worthy of a place in his most excellent weekly paper,
+"The Flying Post." Shortly before I had, after a deal of trouble, got
+my poem of "The Dying Child" printed in a paper; none of the many
+publishers of journals, who otherwise accept of the most lamentable
+trash, had the courage to print a poem by a schoolboy. My best known
+poem they printed at that time, accompanied by an excuse for it. Heiberg
+saw it, and gave it in his paper an honorable place. Two humorous poems,
+signed H., were truly my debut with him.
+
+I remember the first evening when the "Flying Post" appeared with my
+verses in it. I was with a family who wished me well, but who regarded
+my poetical talent as quite insignificant, and who found something to
+censure in every line. The master of the house entered with the "Flying
+Post" in his hand.
+
+"This evening," said he, "there are two excellent poems: they are by
+Heiberg; nobody else could write anything like them." And now my
+poems were received with rapture. The daughter, who was in my secret,
+exclaimed, in her delight, that I was the author. They were all struck
+into silence, and were vexed. That wounded me deeply.
+
+One of our least esteemed writers, but a man of rank, who was very
+hospitable, gave me one day a seat at his table. He told me that a
+new year's gift would come out, and that he was applied to for a
+contribution. I said that a little poem of mine, at the wish of the
+publisher, would appear in the same new year's gift.
+
+"What, then, everybody and anybody are to contribute to this book!" said
+the man in vexation: "then he will need nothing from me; I certainly can
+hardly give him anything."
+
+My teacher dwelt at a considerable distance from me. I went to him
+twice each day, and on the way there my thoughts were occupied with my
+lessons. On my return, however, I breathed more freely, and then bright
+poetical ideas passed through my brain, but they were never committed to
+paper; only five or six humorous poems were written in the course of the
+year, and these disturbed me less when they were laid to rest on paper
+than if they had remained in my mind.
+
+In September, 1828, I was a student; and when the examination was over,
+the thousand ideas and thoughts, by which I was pursued on the way to my
+teacher, flew like a swarm of bees out into the world, and, indeed, into
+my first work, "A Journey on Foot to Amack;" a peculiar, humorous book,
+but one which fully exhibited my own individual character at that time,
+my disposition to sport with everything, and to jest in tears over my
+own feelings--a fantastic, gaily-colored tapestry-work. No publisher had
+the courage to bring out that little book; I therefore ventured to do
+it myself, and, in a few days after its appearance, the impression was
+sold. Publisher Keitzel bought from me the second edition; after a while
+he had a third; and besides this, the work was reprinted in Sweden.
+
+Everybody read my book; I heard nothing but praise; I was "a
+student,"--I had attained the highest goal of my wishes. I was in a
+whirl of joy; and in this state I wrote my first dramatic work, "Love on
+the Nicholas Tower, or, What says the Pit?" It was unsuccessful, because
+it satirized that which no longer existed amongst us, namely, the shows
+of the middle ages; besides which, it rather ridiculed the enthusiasm
+for the vaudeville. The subject of it was, in short, as follows:--The
+watchman of the Nicholas Tower, who always spoke as a knight of the
+castle, wished to give his daughter to the watchman of the neighboring
+church-tower; but she loved a young tailor, who had made a journey to
+the grave of Eulenspiegel, and was just now returned, as the punch-bowl
+steamed, and was to be emptied in honor of the young lady's consent
+being given. The lovers escape together to the tailor's herberg, where
+dancing and merriment are going forward. The watchman, however, fetches
+back his daughter; but she had lost her senses, and she assured them
+that she never would recover them, unless she had her tailor. The old
+watchman determines that Fate should decide the affair; but, then, who
+was Fate? The idea then comes into his head that the public shall be
+his Pythia, and that the public shall decide whether she should have the
+tailor or the watchman. They determine, therefore, to send to one of the
+youngest of the poets, and beg him to write the history in the style of
+the vaudeville, a kind of writing which was the most successful at that
+time, and when the piece was brought upon the stage, and the public
+either whistled or hissed, it should be in no wise considered that the
+work of the young author had been unsuccessful, but that it should be
+the voice of Fate, which said, "She shall marry the watchman." If, on
+the contrary, the piece was successful, it indicated that she should
+have the tailor; and this last, remarked the father, must be said in
+prose, in order that the public may understand it. Now every one of
+the characters thought himself on the stage, where in the epilogue
+the lovers besought the public for their applause, whilst the watchman
+begged them either to whistle, or at least to hiss.
+
+My fellow students received the piece with acclamation; they were proud
+of me. I was the second of their body who in this year had brought out
+a piece on the Danish stage; the other was Arnesen, student at the same
+time with me, and author of a vaudeville called "The Intrigue in the
+People's Theatre," a piece which had a great run. We were the two young
+authors of the October examination, two of the sixteen poets which this
+year produced, and whom people in jest divided into the four great and
+the twelve small poets.
+
+I was now a happy human being; I possessed the soul of a poet, and the
+heart of youth; all houses began to be open to me; I flew from circle to
+circle. Still, however, I devoted myself industriously to study, so that
+in September, 1829, I passed my _Examen philologicum et philosophicum_,
+and brought out the first collected edition of my poems, which met with
+great praise. Life lay bright with sunshine before me.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Until now I had only seen a small part of my native land, that is to
+say, a few points in Funen and Zealand, as well as Moen's Klint, which
+last is truly one of our most beautiful places; the beechwoods there
+hang like a garland over the white chalk cliffs, from which a view is
+obtained far over the Baltic. I wished, therefore, in the summer of
+1830, to devote my first literary proceeds to seeing Jutland, and making
+myself more thoroughly acquainted with my own Funen. I had no idea how
+much solidity of mind I should derive from this summer excursion, or
+what a change was about to take place in my inner life.
+
+Jutland, which stretches between the German Ocean and the Baltic,
+until it ends at Skagen in a reef of quicksands, possesses a peculiar
+character. Towards the Baltic extend immense woods and hills; towards
+the North Sea, mountains and quicksands, scenery of a grand and solitary
+character; and between the two, infinite expanses of brown heath, with
+their wandering gipsies, their wailing birds, and their deep solitude,
+which the Danish poet, Steen Blicher, has described in his novels.
+
+This was the first foreign scenery which I had ever seen, and the
+impression, therefore, which it made upon me was very strong. [Footnote:
+This impressive and wild scenery, with its characteristic figures, of
+gipsies etc., is most exquisitely introduced into the author's novel of
+"O. T."; indeed it gives a coloring and tone to the whole work, which
+the reader never can forget. In my opinion Andersen never wrote anything
+finer in the way of description than many parts of this work, though as
+a story it is not equal to his others.--M. H.] In the cities, where
+my "Journey on Foot" and my comic poems were known, I met with a good
+reception. Funen revealed her rural life to me; and, not far from my
+birth-place of Odense, I passed several weeks at the country seat of the
+elder Iversen as a welcome guest. Poems sprung forth upon paper, but
+of the comic fewer and fewer. Sentiment, which I had so often derided,
+would now be avenged. I arrived, in the course of my journey, at the
+house of a rich family in a small city; and here suddenly a new world
+opened before me, an immense world, which yet could be contained in four
+lines, which I wrote at that time:--
+
+  A pair of dark eyes fixed my sight,
+    They were my world, my home, my delight,
+  The soul beamed in them, and childlike peace,
+    And never on earth will their memory cease.
+
+New plans of life occupied me. I would give up writing poetry,--to what
+could it lead? I would study theology, and become a preacher; I had only
+one thought, and that was _she_. But it was self-delusion: she loved
+another; she married him. It was not till several years later that I
+felt and acknowledged that it was best, both for her and for myself,
+that things had fallen out as they were. She had no idea, perhaps, how
+deep my feeling for her had been, or what an influence it produced in
+me. She had become the excellent wife of a good man, and a happy mother.
+God's blessing rest upon her!
+
+In my "Journey on Foot," and in most of my writings, satire had been the
+prevailing characteristic. This displeased many people, who thought that
+this bent of mind could lead to no good purpose. The critics now blamed
+me precisely for that which a far deeper feeling had expelled from my
+breast. A new collection of Poetry, "Fancies and Sketches," which
+was published for the new year, showed satisfactorily what my heart
+suffered. A paraphrase of the history of my own heart appeared in a
+serious vaudeville, "Parting and Meeting," with this difference only,
+that here the love was mutual: the piece was not presented on the stage
+till five years later.
+
+Among my young friends in Copenhagen at that time was Orla Lehmann, who
+afterwards rose higher in popular favor, on account of his political
+efforts than any man in Denmark. Full of animation, eloquent and
+undaunted, his character of mind was one which interested me also. The
+German language was much studied at his father's; they had received
+there Heine's poems, and they were very attractive for young Orla.
+He lived in the country, in the neighborhood of the castle of
+Fredericksberg. I went there to see him, and he sang as I came one of
+Heine's verses, "Thalatta, Thalatta, du eviges Meer." We read Heine
+together; the afternoon and the evening passed, and I was obliged to
+remain there all night; but I had on this evening made the acquaintance
+of a poet, who, as it seemed to me, sang from the soul; he supplanted
+Hoffman, who, as might be seen by my "Journey on Foot," had formerly had
+the greatest influence on me. In my youth there were only three authors
+who as it were infused themselves into my blood,--Walter Scott, Hoffman,
+and Heine.
+
+I betrayed more and more in my writings an unhealthy turn of mind. I
+felt an inclination to seek for the melancholy in life, and to linger
+on the dark side of things. I became sensitive and thought rather of
+the blame than the praise which was lavished on me. My late school
+education, which was forced, and my impulse to become an author whilst
+I was yet a student, make it evident that my first work, the "Journey on
+Foot," was not without grammatical errors. Had I only paid some one
+to correct the press, which was a work I was unaccustomed to, then no
+charge of this kind could have been brought against me. Now, on the
+contrary, people laughed at these errors, and dwelt upon them, passing
+over carelessly that in the book which had merit. I know people who only
+read my poems to find out errors; they noted down, for instance, how
+often I used the word _beautiful,_ or some similar word. A gentleman,
+now a clergyman, at that time a writer of vaudevilles and a critic, was
+not ashamed, in a company where I was, to go through several of my poems
+in this style; so that a little girl of six years old, who heard with
+amazement that he discovered everything to be wrong, took the book, and
+pointing out the conjunction _and,_ said, "There is yet a little word
+about which you have not scolded." He felt what a reproof lay in the
+remark of the child; he looked ashamed and kissed the little one. All
+this wounded me; but I had, since my school-days, become somewhat timid,
+and that caused me to take it all quietly: I was morbidly sensitive, and
+I was good-natured to a fault. Everybody knew it, and some were on
+that account almost cruel to me. Everybody wished to teach me; almost
+everybody said that I was spoiled by praise, and therefore they would
+speak the truth to me. Thus I heard continually of my faults, the real
+and the ideal weaknesses. In the mean time, however, my feelings burst
+forth; and then I said that I would become a poet whom they should see
+honored. But this was regarded only as the crowning mark of the most
+unbearable vanity; and from house to house it was repeated. I was a good
+man, they said, but one of the vainest in existence; and in that very
+time I was often ready wholly to despair of my abilities, and had, as
+in the darkest days of my school-life, a feeling, as if my whole talents
+were a self-deception. I almost believed so; but it was more than I
+could bear, to hear the same thing said, sternly and jeeringly, by
+others; and if I then uttered a proud, an inconsiderate word, it was
+addressed to the scourge with which I was smitten; and when those who
+smite are those we love, then do the scourges become scorpions.
+
+For this reason Collin thought that I should make a little journey,--for
+instance, to North Germany,--in order to divert my mind and furnish me
+with new ideas.
+
+In the spring of 1831, I left Denmark for the first time. I saw L
+bek and Hamburg. Everything astonished me and occupied my mind. I saw
+mountains for the first time,--the Harzgebirge. The world expanded so
+astonishingly before me. My good humor returned to me, as to the bird
+of passage. Sorrow is the flock of sparrows which remains behind, and
+builds in the nests of the birds of passage. But I did not feel myself
+wholly restored.
+
+In Dresden I made acquaintance with Tieck. Ingemann had given me a
+letter to him. I heard him one evening read aloud one of Shakspeare's
+plays. On taking leave of him, he wished me a poet's success, embraced
+and kissed me; which made the deepest impression upon me. The expression
+of his eyes I shall never forget. I left him with tears, and prayed most
+fervently to God for strength to enable me to pursue the way after which
+my whole soul strove--strength, which should enable me to express that
+which I felt in my soul; and that when I next saw Tieck, I might be
+known and valued by him. It was not until several years afterwards, when
+my later works were translated into German, and well received in his
+country, that we saw each other again; I felt the true hand-pressure
+of him who had given to me, in my second father-land, the kiss of
+consecration.
+
+In Berlin, a letter of Oersted's procured me the acquaintance of
+Chamisso. That grave man, with his long locks and honest eyes, opened
+the door to me himself, read the letter, and I know not how it was, but
+we understood each other immediately. I felt perfect confidence in
+him, and told him so, though it was in bad German. Chamisso understood
+Danish; I gave him my poems, and he was the first who translated any of
+them, and thus introduced me into Germany. It was thus he spoke of me
+at that time in the _Morgenblatt_: "Gifted with wit, fancy, humor, and
+a national naivet , Andersen has still in his power tones which awaken
+deeper echoes. He understands, in particular, how with perfect ease, by
+a few slight but graphic touches, to call into existence little pictures
+and landscapes, but which are often so peculiarly local as not to
+interest those who are unfamiliar with the home of the poet. Perhaps
+that which may be translated from him, or which is so already, may be
+the least calculated to give a proper idea of him."
+
+Chamisso became a friend for my whole life. The pleasure which he had in
+my later writings may be seen by the printed letters addressed to me in
+the collected edition of his works.
+
+The little journey in Germany had great influence upon me, as my
+Copenhagen friends acknowledged. The impressions of the journey were
+immediately written down, and I gave them forth under the title of
+"Shadow Pictures." Whether I were actually improved or not, there still
+prevailed at home the same petty pleasure in dragging out my faults, the
+same perpetual schooling of me; and I was weak enough to endure it from
+those who were officious meddlers. I seldom made a joke of it; but if I
+did so, it was called arrogance and vanity, and it was asserted that I
+never would listen to rational people. Such an instructor once asked me
+whether I wrote _Dog_ with a little _d_;--he had found such an error of
+the press in my last work. I replied, jestingly, "Yes, because I here
+spoke of a little dog."
+
+But these are small troubles, people will say. Yes, but they are drops
+which wear hollows in the rock. I speak of it here; I feel a necessity
+to do so; here to protest against the accusation of vanity, which, since
+no other error can be discovered in my private life, is seized upon, and
+even now is thrown at me like an old medal.
+
+From the end of the year 1828, to the beginning of 1839, I maintained
+myself alone by my writings. Denmark is a small country; but few books
+at that time went to Sweden and Norway; and on that account the profit
+could not be great. It was difficult for me to pull through,--doubly
+difficult, because my dress must in some measure accord with the
+circles into which I went. To produce, and always to be producing,
+was destructive, nay, impossible. I translated a few pieces for the
+theatre,--_La Quarantaine_, and _La Reine de seize ans_; and as, at that
+time, a young composer of the name of Hartmann, a grandson of him who
+composed the Danish folks-song of "King Christian stood by the tall,
+tall mast," wished for text to an opera, I was of course ready to write
+it. Through the writings of Hoffman, my attention had been turned to the
+masked comedies of Gozzi: I read _Il Corvo_, and finding that it was an
+excellent subject, I wrote, in a few weeks, my opera-text of the Raven.
+It will sound strange to the ears of countrymen when I say that I,
+at that time, recommended Hartmann; that I gave my word for it, in my
+letter to the theatrical directors, for his being a man of talent, who
+would produce something good. He now takes the first rank among the
+living Danish composers.
+
+I worked up also Walter Scott's "Bride of Lammermoor" for another young
+composer, Bredal. Both operas appeared on the stage; but I was subjected
+to the most merciless criticism, as one who had stultified the labors of
+foreign poets. What people had discovered to be good in me before seemed
+now to be forgotten, and all talent was denied to me. The composer
+Weyse, my earliest benefactor, whom I have already mentioned, was, on
+the contrary, satisfied in the highest degree with my treatment of these
+subjects. He told me that he had wished for a long time to compose an
+opera from Walter Scott's "Kenilworth." He now requested me to commence
+the joint work, and write the text. I had no idea of the summary justice
+which would be dealt to me. I needed money to live, and, what still more
+determined me to it, I felt flattered to have to work with Weyse our
+most celebrated composer. It delighted me that he, who had first spoken
+in my favor at Siboni's house, now, as artist, sought a noble connection
+with me. I had scarcely half finished the text, when I was already
+blamed for having made use of a well-known romance. I wished to give
+it up; but Weyse consoled me, and encouraged me to proceed. Afterwards,
+before he had finished the music, when I was about to travel abroad, I
+committed my fate, as regarded the text, entirely to his hands. He wrote
+whole verses of it, and the altered conclusion is wholly his own. It
+was a peculiarity of that singular man that he liked no book which ended
+sorrowfully. For that reason, Amy must marry Leicester, and Elizabeth
+say, "Proud England, I am thine." I opposed this at the beginning; but
+afterwards I yielded, and the piece was really half-created by Weyse. It
+was brought on the stage, but was not printed, with the exception of
+the songs. To this followed anonymous attacks: the city post brought
+me letters in which the unknown writers scoffed at and derided me. That
+same year I published a new collection of poetry, "The Twelve Months of
+the Year;" and this book, though it was afterwards pronounced to contain
+the greater part of my best lyrical poems, was then condemned as bad.
+
+At that time "The Monthly Review of Literature," though it is now
+gone to its grave, was in its full bloom. At its first appearance, it
+numbered among its co-workers some of the most distinguished names. Its
+want, however, was men who were qualified to speak ably on aesthetic
+works. Unfortunately, everybody fancies himself able to give an opinion
+upon these; but people may write excellently on surgery or pedagogical
+science, and may have a name in those things, and yet be dolts in
+poetry: of this proofs may be seen. By degrees it became more and more
+difficult for the critical bench to find a judge for poetical works.
+The one, however, who, through his extraordinary zeal for writing and
+speaking, was ready at hand, was the historian and states-councillor
+Molbeck, who played, in our time, so great a part in the history of
+Danish criticism, that I must speak of him rather more fully. He is an
+industrious collector, writes extremely correct Danish, and his Danish
+dictionary, let him be reproached with whatever want he may, is a most
+highly useful work; but, as a judge of aesthetic works, he is one-sided,
+and even fanatically devoted to party spirit. He belongs, unfortunately,
+to the men of science, who are only one sixty-fourth of a poet, and who
+are the most incompetent judges of aesthetics. He has, for example,
+by his critiques on Ingemann's romances, shown how far he is below the
+poetry which he censures. He has himself published a volume of poems,
+which belong to the common run of books, "A Ramble through Denmark,"
+written in the _fade_, flowery style of those times, and "A Journey
+through Germany, France, and Italy," which seems to be made up out of
+books, not out of life. He sate in his study, or in the Royal Library,
+where he has a post, when suddenly he became director of the theatre and
+censor of the pieces sent in. He was sickly, one-sided in judgment, and
+irritable: people may imagine the result. He spoke of my first poems
+very favorably; but my star soon sank for another, who was in the
+ascendant, a young lyrical poet, Paludan Muller; and, as he no longer
+loved, he hated me. That is the short history; indeed, in the selfsame
+Monthly Review the very poems which had formerly been praised were
+now condemned by the same judge, when they appeared in a new increased
+edition. There is a Danish proverb, "When the carriage drags, everybody
+pushes behind;" and I proved the truth of it now.
+
+It happened that a new star in Danish literature ascended at this time.
+Heinrich Hertz published his "Letters from the Dead" anonymously: it was
+a mode of driving all the unclean things out of the temple. The deceased
+Baggesen sent polemical letters from Paradise, which resembled in
+the highest degree the style of that author. They contained a sort
+of apotheosis of Heiberg, and in part attacks upon Oehlenschl ger and
+Hauch. The old story about my orthographical errors was again revived;
+my name and my school-days in Slagelse were brought into connection with
+St. Anders.
+
+I was ridiculed, or if people will, I was chastised. Hertz's book went
+through all Denmark; people spoke of nothing but him. It made it still
+more piquant that the author of the work could not be discovered. People
+were enraptured, and justly. Heiberg, in his "Flying Post," defended
+a few aesthetical insignificants, but not me. I felt the wound of the
+sharp knife deeply. My enemies now regarded me as entirely shut out from
+the world of spirits. I however in a short time published a little book,
+"Vignettes to the Danish Poets," in which I characterized the dead and
+the living authors in a few lines each, but only spoke of that which was
+good in them. The book excited attention; it was regarded as one of the
+best of my works; it was imitated, but the critics did not meddle with
+it. It was evident, on this occasion, as had already been the case, that
+the critics never laid hands on those of my works which were the most
+successful.
+
+My affairs were now in their worst condition; and precisely in that same
+year in which a stipend for travelling had been conferred upon Hertz,
+I also had presented a petition for the same purpose. The universal
+opinion was that I had reached the point of culmination, and if I was
+to succeed in travelling it must be at this present time. I felt, what
+since then has become an acknowledged fact, that travelling would be the
+best school for me. In the mean time I was told that to bring it under
+consideration I must endeavor to obtain from the most distinguished
+poets and men of science a kind of recommendation; because this very
+year there were so many distinguished young men who were soliciting a
+stipend, that it would be difficult among these to put in an available
+claim. I therefore obtained recommendations for myself; and I am, so
+far as I know, the only Danish poet who was obliged to produce
+recommendations to prove that he was a poet.
+
+And here also it is remarkable, that the men who recommended me have
+each one made prominent some very different qualification which gave
+me a claim: for instance, Oehlenschl ger, my lyrical power, and the
+earnestness that was in me; Ingemann, my skill in depicting popular
+life; Heiberg declared that, since the days of Wessel, no Danish poet
+had possessed so much humor as myself; Oersted remarked, every one,
+they who were against me as well as those who were for me, agreed on one
+subject, and this was that I was a _true_ poet. Thiele expressed himself
+warmly and enthusiastically about the power which he had seen in me,
+combating against the oppression and the misery of life. I received a
+stipend for travelling; Hertz a larger and I a smaller one: and that
+also was quite in the order of things.
+
+"Now be happy," said my friends, "make yourself aware of your unbounded
+good fortune! Enjoy the present moment, as it will probably be the only
+time in which you will get abroad. You shall hear what people say about
+you while you are travelling, and how we shall defend you; sometimes,
+however, we shall not be able to do that."
+
+It was painful to me to hear such things said; I felt a compulsion of
+soul to be away, that I might, if possible, breathe freely; but sorrow
+is firmly seated on the horse of the rider. More than one sorrow
+oppressed my heart, and although I opened the chambers of my heart to
+the world, one or two of them I keep locked, nevertheless. On setting
+out on my journey, my prayer to God was that I might die far away from
+Denmark, or return strengthened for activity, and in a condition to
+produce works which should win for me and my beloved ones joy and honor.
+
+Precisely at the moment of setting out on my journey, the form of my
+beloved arose in my heart. Among the few whom I have already named,
+there are two who exercised a great influence upon my life and my
+poetry, and these I must more particularly mention. A beloved mother,
+an unusually liberal-minded and well educated lady, Madame L ss c, had
+introduced me into her agreeable circle of friends; she often felt the
+deepest sympathy with me in my troubles; she always turned my attention
+to the beautiful in nature and the poetical in the details of life, and
+as almost everyone regarded me as a poet, she elevated my mind; yes, and
+if there be tenderness and purity in anything which I have written, they
+are among those things for which I have especially to be thankful
+to her. Another character of great importance to me was Collin's
+son Edward. Brought up under fortunate circumstances of life, he was
+possessed of that courage and determination which I wanted. I felt that
+he sincerely loved me, and I full of affection, threw myself upon him
+with my whole soul; he passed on calmly and practically through the
+business of life. I often mistook him at the very moment when he felt
+for me most deeply, and when he would gladly have infused into me a
+portion of his own character,--to me who was as a reed shaken by the
+wind. In the practical part of life, he, the younger, stood actively by
+my side, from the assistance which he gave in my Latin exercises, to
+the arranging the business of bringing out editions of my works. He has
+always remained the same; and were I to enumerate my friends, he would
+be placed by me as the first on the list. When the traveller leaves the
+mountains behind him, then for the first time he sees them in their true
+form: so is it also with friends.
+
+I arrived at Paris by way of Cassel and the Rhine. I retained a vivid
+impression of all that I saw. The idea for a poem fixed itself firmer
+and firmer in my mind; and I hoped, as it became more clearly worked
+out, to propitiate by it my enemies. There is an old Danish folks-song
+of Agnete and the Merman, which bore an affinity to my own state of
+mind, and to the treatment of which I felt an inward impulse. The song
+tells that Agnete wandered solitarily along the shore, when a merman
+rose up from the waves and decoyed her by his speeches. She followed him
+to the bottom of the sea, remained there seven years, and bore him seven
+children. One day, as she sat by the cradle, she heard the church bells
+sounding down to her in the depths of the sea, and a longing seized her
+heart to go to church. By her prayers and tears she induced the merman
+to conduct her to the upper world again, promising soon to return. He
+prayed her not to forget his children, more especially the little one in
+the cradle; stopped up her ears and her mouth, and then led her upwards
+to the sea-shore. When, however, she entered the church, all the holy
+images, as soon as they saw her, a daughter of sin and from the depths
+of the sea, turned themselves round to the walls. She was affrighted,
+and would not return, although the little ones in her home below were
+weeping.
+
+I treated this subject freely, in a lyrical and dramatic manner. I
+will venture to say that the whole grew out of my heart; all the
+recollections of our beechwoods and the open sea were blended in it.
+
+In the midst of the excitement of Paris I lived in the spirit of the
+Danish folks-songs. The most heartfelt gratitude to God filled my soul,
+because I felt that all which I had, I had received through his mercy;
+yet at the same time I took a lively interest in all that surrounded me.
+I was present at one of the July festivals, in their first freshness; it
+was in the year 1833. I saw the unveiling of Napoleon's pillar. I gazed
+on the world-experienced King Louis Philippe, who is evidently defended
+by Providence. I saw the Duke of Orleans, full of health and the
+enjoyment of life, dancing at the gay people's ball, in the gay Maison
+de Ville. Accident led in Paris to my first meeting with Heine, the
+poet, who at that time occupied the throne in my poetical world. When I
+told him how happy this meeting and his kind words made me, he said that
+this could not very well be the case, else I should have sought him out.
+I replied, that I had not done so precisely because I estimated him so
+highly. I should have feared that he might have thought it ridiculous
+in me, an unknown Danish poet, to seek him out; "and," added I, "your
+sarcastic smile would deeply have wounded me." In reply, he said
+something friendly.
+
+Several years afterwards, when we again met in Paris, he gave me a
+cordial reception, and I had a view into the brightly poetical portion
+of his soul.
+
+Paul D port met me with equal kindness. Victor Hugo also received me.
+
+ During my journey to Paris, and the whole month that I spent there, I
+heard not a single word from home. Could my friends perhaps have nothing
+agreeable to tell me? At length, however, a letter arrived; a large
+letter, which cost a large sum in postage. My heart beat with joy and
+yearning impatience; it was, indeed, my first letter. I opened it, but
+I discovered not a single written word, nothing but a Copenhagen
+newspaper, containing a lampoon upon me, and that was sent to me all
+that distance with postage unpaid, probably by the anonymous writer
+himself. This abominable malice wounded me deeply. I have never
+discovered who the author was, perhaps he was one of those who
+afterwards called me friend, and pressed my hand. Some men have base
+thoughts: I also have mine.
+
+It is a weakness of my country-people, that commonly, when abroad,
+during their residence in large cities, they almost live exclusively in
+company together; they must dine together, meet at the theatre, and see
+all the lions of the place in company. Letters are read by each other;
+news of home is received and talked over, and at last they hardly know
+whether they are in a foreign land or their own. I had given way to the
+same weakness in Paris; and in leaving it, therefore, determined for one
+month to board myself in some quiet place in Switzerland, and live only
+among the French, so as to be compelled to speak their language, which
+was necessary to me in the highest degree.
+
+In the little city of Lodi, in a valley of the Jura mountains, where the
+snow fell in August, and the clouds floated below us, was I received by
+the amiable family of a wealthy watchmaker. They would not hear a word
+about payment. I lived among them and their friends as a relation, and
+when we parted the children wept. We had become friends, although I
+could not understand their patois; they shouted loudly into my ear,
+because they fancied I must be deaf, as I could not understand them.
+In the evenings, in that elevated region, there was a repose and a
+stillness in nature, and the sound of the evening bells ascended to
+us from the French frontier. At some distance from the city, stood
+a solitary house, painted white and clean; on descending through two
+cellars, the noise of a millwheel was heard, and the rushing waters of a
+river which flowed on here, hidden from the world. I often visited this
+place in my solitary rambles, and here I finished my poem of "Agnete and
+the Merman," which I had begun in Paris.
+
+I sent home this poem from Lodi; and never, with my earlier or my later
+works, were my hopes so high as they were now. But it was received
+coldly. People said I had done it in imitation of Oehlenschl ger, who
+at one time sent home masterpieces. Within the last few years, I fancy,
+this poem has been somewhat more read, and has met with its friends. It
+was, however, a step forwards, and it decided, as it were, unconsciously
+to me, my pure lyrical phasis. It has been also of late critically
+adjudged in Denmark, that, notwithstanding that on its first appearance
+it excited far less attention than some of my earlier and less
+successful works, still that in this the poetry is of a deeper, fuller,
+and more powerful character than anything which I had hitherto produced.
+
+This poem closes one portion of my life.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+On the 5th of September, 1833, I crossed the Simplon on my way to Italy.
+On the very day, on which, fourteen years before, I had arrived poor and
+helpless in Copenhagen, did I set foot in this country of my longing and
+of my poetical happiness. It happened in this case, as it often does,
+by accident, without any arrangement on my part, as if I had preordained
+lucky days in the year; yet good fortune has so frequently been with me,
+that I perhaps only remind myself of its visits on my own self-elected
+days.
+
+All was sunshine--all was spring! The vine hung in long trails from tree
+to tree; never since have I seen Italy so beautiful. I sailed on Lago
+Maggiore; ascended the cathedral of Milan; passed several days in Genoa,
+and made from thence a journey, rich in the beauties of nature, along
+the shore to Carrara. I had seen statues in Paris, but my eyes were
+closed to them; in Florence, before the Venus de Medici, it was for the
+first time as if scales fell from my eyes; a new world of art disclosed
+itself before me; that was the first fruit of my journey. Here it was
+that I first learned to understand the beauty of form--the spirit which
+reveals itself in form. The life of the people--nature--all was new to
+me; and yet as strangely familiar as if I were come to a home where I
+had lived in my childhood. With a peculiar rapidity did I seize
+upon everything, and entered into its life, whilst a deep northern
+melancholy--it was not home-sickness, but a heavy, unhappy
+feeling--filled my breast. I received the news in Rome, of how little
+the poem of Agnete, which I had sent home, was thought of there; the
+next letter in Rome brought me the news that my mother was dead. I was
+now quite alone in the world.
+
+It was at this time, and in Rome, that my first meeting with Hertz took
+place. In a letter which I had received from Collin, he had said that it
+would give him pleasure to hear that Hertz and I had become friends; but
+even without this wish it would have happened, for Hertz kindly offered
+me his hand, and expressed sympathy with my sorrow. He had, of all those
+with whom I was at that time acquainted, the most variously cultivated
+mind. We had often disputations together, even about the attacks which
+had been made upon me at home as a poet. He, who had himself given me a
+wound, said the following words, which deeply impressed themselves on
+my memory: "Your misfortune is, that you have been obliged to print
+everything; the public has been able to follow you step by step. I
+believe that even, a Goethe himself must have suffered the same fate,
+had he been in your situation." And then he praised my talent for
+seizing upon the characteristics of nature, and giving, by a few
+intuitive sketches, pictures of familiar life. My intercourse with him
+was very instructive to me, and I felt that I had one merciful judge
+more. I travelled in company with him to Naples, where we dwelt together
+in one house.
+
+In Rome I also became first acquainted with Thorwaldsen. Many years
+before, when I had not long been in Copenhagen, and was walking through
+the streets as a poor boy, Thorwaldsen was there too: that was on his
+first return home. We met one another in the street. I knew that he was
+a distinguished man in art; I looked at him, I bowed; he went on, and
+then, suddenly turning round, came back to me, and said, "Where have I
+seen you before? I think we know one another." I replied, "No, we do not
+know one another at all." I now related this story to him in Rome; he
+smiled, pressed my hand, and said, "Yet we felt at that time that
+we should become good friends." I read Agnete to him; and that which
+delighted me in his judgment upon it was the assertion, "It is just,"
+said he, "as if I were walking at home in the woods, and heard the
+Danish lakes;" and then he kissed me.
+
+One day, when he saw how distressed I was, and I related to him about
+the pasquinade which I had received from home in Paris, he gnashed his
+teeth violently, and said, in momentary anger, "Yes, yes, I know the
+people; it would not have gone any better with me if I had remained
+there; I should then, perhaps, not even have obtained permission to set
+up a model. Thank God that I did not need them, for then they know how
+to torment and to annoy." He desired me to keep up a good heart, and
+then things could not fail of going well; and with that he told me of
+some dark passages in his own life, where he in like manner had been
+mortified and unjustly condemned.
+
+After the Carnival, I left Rome for Naples; saw at Capri the blue
+Grotto, which was at that time first discovered; visited the temple at
+Paestum, and returned in the Easter week to Rome, from whence I went
+through Florence and Venice to Vienna and Munich; but I had at that time
+neither mind nor heart for Germany; and when I thought on Denmark, I
+felt fear and distress of mind about the bad reception which I expected
+to find there. Italy, with its scenery and its people's life, occupied
+my soul, and towards this land I felt a yearning. My earlier life, and
+what I had now seen, blended themselves together into an image--into
+poetry, which I was compelled to write down, although I was convinced
+that it would occasion me more trouble than joy, if my necessities at
+home should oblige me to print it. I had written already in Rome the
+first chapter. It was my novel of "The Improvisatore."
+
+At one of my first visits to the theatre at Odense, as a little boy,
+where, as I have already mentioned, the representations were given in
+the German language, I saw the Donauweibchen, and the public applauded
+the actress of the principal part. Homage was paid to her, and she was
+honored; and I vividly remember thinking how happy she must be.
+
+Many years afterwards, when, as a student, I visited Odense, I saw,
+in one of the chambers of the hospital where the poor widows lived and
+where one bed stood by another, a female portrait hanging over one bed
+in a gilt frame. It was Lessing's Emilia Galotti, and represented her as
+pulling the rose to pieces; but the picture was a portrait. It appeared
+singular in contrast with the poverty by which it was surrounded.
+
+"Whom does it represent?" asked I.
+
+"Oh!" said one of the old women, "it is the face of the German lady,
+the poor lady who once was an actress!" And then I saw a little delicate
+woman, whose face was covered with wrinkles, and in an old silk gown
+that once had been black. That was the once celebrated Singer, who, as
+the Donauweibchen, had been applauded by every one. This circumstance
+made an indelible impression upon me, and often occurred to my mind.
+
+In Naples I heard Malibran for the first time. Her singing and acting
+surpassed anything which I had hitherto either heard or seen; and yet
+I thought the while of the miserably poor singer in the hospital of
+Odense: the two figures blended into the Annunciata of the novel. Italy
+was the back ground for that which had been experienced and that which
+was imagined. In August of 1834 I returned to Denmark. I wrote the first
+part of the book at Ingemann's, in Sor/, in a little chamber in the
+roof, among fragrant lime-trees. I finished it in Copenhagen.
+
+At this time my best friends, even, had almost given me up as a poet;
+they said that they had erred with regard to my talents. It was with
+difficulty that I found a publisher for the book. I received a miserable
+sum of money for it, and the "Improvisatore" made its appearance;
+was read, sold out, and again published. The critics were silent; the
+newspapers said nothing; but I heard all around me of the interest which
+was felt for the work, and the delight that it occasioned. At length the
+poet Carl Bagger, who was at that time the editor of a newspaper, wrote
+the first critique upon it, and began ironically, with the customary
+tirade against me--"that it was all over with this author, who had
+already passed his heyday;"--in short, he went the whole length of the
+tobacco and tea criticism, in order suddenly to dash out, and to express
+his extremely warm enthusiasm for me; and my book. People now laughed
+at me, but I wept. This was my mood of mind. I wept freely, and felt
+gratitude to God and man.
+
+"To the Conference Councillor Collin and to his noble wife, in whom I
+found parents, whose children were brethren and sisters to me,
+whose house was my home, do I here present the best of which I am
+possessed."--So ran the dedication. Many who formerly had been my enemy,
+now changed their opinion; and among these one became my friend, who,
+I hope, will remain so through the whole of my life. That was Hauch the
+poet, one of the noblest characters with whom I am acquainted. He had
+returned home from Italy after a residence of several years abroad, just
+at the time when Heiberg's vaudevilles were intoxicating the inhabitants
+of Copenhagen, and when my "Journey on Foot" was making me a little
+known. He commenced a controversy with Heiberg, and somewhat scoffed
+at me. Nobody called his attention to my better lyrical writings; I was
+described to him as a spoiled, petulant child of fortune. He now read
+my Improvisatore, and feeling that there was something good in me, his
+noble character evinced itself by his writing a cordial letter to me, in
+which he said, that he had done me an injustice, and offered me now the
+hand of reconciliation. From that time we became friends. He used his
+influence for me with the utmost zeal, and has watched my onward career
+with heartfelt friendship. But so little able have many people been to
+understand what is excellent in him, or the noble connection of heart
+between us two, that not long since, when he wrote a novel, and drew in
+it the caricature of a poet, whose vanity ended in insanity, the
+people in Denmark discovered that he had treated me with the greatest
+injustice, because he had described in it my weakness. People must
+not believe that this was the assertion of one single person, or a
+misapprehension of my character; no; and Hauch felt himself compelled to
+write a treatise upon me as a poet, that he might show what a different
+place he assigned to me.
+
+But to return to the "Improvisatore." This book raised my sunken
+fortunes; collected my friends again around me, nay, even obtained
+for me new ones. For the first time I felt that I had obtained a due
+acknowledgment. The book was translated into German by Kruse, with a
+long title, _"Jugendleben und Tr ume eines italienischen Dichter's."_ I
+objected to the title; but he declared that it was necessary in order to
+attract attention to the book.
+
+Bagger had, as already stated, been the first to pass judgment on
+the work; after an interval of some time a second critique made its
+appearance, more courteous, it is true, than I was accustomed to, but
+still passing lightly over the best things in the book and dwelling
+on its deficiencies, and on the number of incorrectly written Italian
+words. And, as Nicolai's well-known book, "Italy as it really is," came
+out just then, people universally said, "Now we shall be able to see
+what it is about which Andersen has written, for from Nicolai a true
+idea of Italy may be obtained for the first time."
+
+It was from Germany that resounded the first decided acknowledgment
+of the merits of my work, or rather perhaps its over estimation. I bow
+myself in joyful gratitude, like a sick man toward the sunshine, when
+my heart is grateful. I am not, as the Danish Monthly Review, in its
+critique of the "Improvisatore," condescended to assert, an unthankful
+man, who exhibits in his work a want of gratitude towards his
+benefactors. I was indeed myself poor Antonio who sighed under the
+burden which I had to bear,--_I,_ the poor lad who ate the bread of
+charity. From Sweden also, later, resounded my praise, and the Swedish
+newspapers contained articles in praise of this work, which within the
+last two years has been equally warmly received in England, where Mary
+Howitt, the poetess, has translated it into English; the same good
+fortune also is said to have attended the book in Holland and Russia.
+Everywhere abroad resounded the loudest acknowledgments of its
+excellence.
+
+There exists in the public a power which is stronger than all the
+critics and cliques. I felt that I stood at home on firmer ground, and
+my spirit again had moments in which it raised its wings for flight.
+In this alternation of feeling between gaiety and ill humor, I wrote my
+next novel, "O. T.," which is regarded by many persons in Denmark as my
+best work;--an estimation which I cannot myself award to it. It contains
+characteristic features of town life. My first Tales appeared before "O.
+T;" but this is not the place in which to speak of them. I felt just at
+this time a strong mental impulse to write, and I believed that I had
+found my true element in novel-writing. In the following year, 1837,
+I published "Only a Fiddler," a book which on my part had been deeply
+pondered over, and the details of which sprang fresh to the paper. My
+design was to show that talent is not genius, and that if the sunshine
+of good fortune be withheld, this must go to the ground, though without
+losing its nobler, better nature. This book likewise had its partisans;
+but still the critics would not vouchsafe to me any encouragement;
+they forgot that with years the boy becomes a man, and that people
+may acquire knowledge in other than the ordinary ways. They could not
+separate themselves from their old preconceived opinions. Whilst "O.
+T." was going through the press it was submitted sheet by sheet to a
+professor of the university, who had himself offered to undertake this
+work, and by two other able men also; notwithstanding all this, the
+Reviews said, "We find the usual grammatical negligence, which we always
+find in Andersen, in this work also." That which contributed likewise to
+place this book in the shade was the circumstance of Heiberg having
+at that time published his Every-day Stories, which were written in
+excellent language, and with good taste and truth. Their own merits, and
+the recommendation of their being Heiberg's, who was the beaming star of
+literature, placed them in the highest rank.
+
+I had however advanced so far, that there no longer existed any doubt as
+to my poetical ability, which people had wholly denied to me before my
+journey to Italy. Still not a single Danish critic had spoken of the
+characteristics which are peculiar to my novels. It was not until my
+works appeared in Swedish that this was done, and then several Swedish
+journals went profoundly into the subject and analyzed my works with
+good and honorable intentions. The case was the same in Germany; and
+from this country too my heart was strengthened to proceed. It was not
+until last year that in Denmark, a man of influence, Hauch the poet,
+spoke of the novels in his already mentioned treatise, and with a few
+touches brought their characteristics prominently forward.
+
+"The principal thing," says he, "in Andersen's best and most elaborate
+works, in those which are distinguished for the richest fancy, the
+deepest feeling, the most lively poetic spirit, is, of talent, or at
+least of a noble nature, which will struggle its way out of narrow and
+depressing circumstances. This is the case with his three novels, and
+with this purpose in view, it is really an important state of existence
+which he describes,--an inner world, which no one understands better
+than he, who has himself, drained out of the bitter cup of suffering
+and renunciation, painful and deep feelings which are closely related
+to those of his own experience, and from which Memory, who, according
+to the old significant myth, is the mother of the Muses, met him hand in
+hand with them. That which he, in these his works, relates to the world,
+deserves assuredly to be listened to with attention; because, at
+the same time that it may be only the most secret inward life of the
+individual, yet it is also the common lot of men of talent and genius,
+at least when these are in needy circumstances, as is the case of
+those who are here placed before our eyes. In so far as in his
+'Improvisatore,' in 'O. T.,' and in 'Only a Fiddler,' he represents not
+only himself, in his own separate individuality, but at the same time
+the momentous combat which so many have to pass through, and which he
+understands so well, because in it his own life has developed itself;
+therefore in no instance can he be said to present to the reader what
+belongs to the world of illusion, but only that which bears witness
+to truth, and which, as is the case with all such testimony, has a
+universal and enduring worth.
+
+"And still more than this, Andersen is not only the defender of talent
+and genius, but, at the same time, of every human heart which is
+unkindly and unjustly treated. And whilst he himself has so painfully
+suffered in that deep combat in which the Laocoon-snakes seize upon the
+outstretched hand; whilst he himself has been compelled to drink from
+that wormwood-steeped bowl which the cold-blooded and arrogant world
+so constantly offers to those who are in depressed circumstances, he is
+fully capable of giving to his delineations in this respect a truth
+and an earnestness, nay, even a tragic and a pain-awakening pathos that
+rarely fails of producing its effect on the sympathizing human heart.
+Who can read that scene in his 'Only a Fiddler,' in which the 'high-bred
+hound,' as the poet expresses it, 'turned away with disgust from
+the broken victuals which the poor youth received as alms, without
+recognizing, at the same time, that this is no game in which vanity
+seeks for a triumph, but that it expresses much more--human nature
+wounded to its inmost depths, which here speaks out its sufferings.'"
+
+Thus is it spoken in Denmark of my works, after an interval of nine or
+ten years; thus speaks the voice of a noble, venerated man. It is with
+me and the critics as it is with wine,--the more years pass before it is
+drunk the better is its flavor.
+
+During the year in which "The Fiddler" came out, I visited for the first
+time the neighboring country of Sweden. I went by the G/ta canal
+to Stockholm. At that time nobody understood what is now called
+Scandinavian sympathies; there still existed a sort of mistrust
+inherited from the old wars between the two neighbor nations. Little
+was known of Swedish literature, and there were only very few Danes who
+could easily read and understand the Swedish language;--people scarcely
+knew Tegn r's Frithiof and Axel, excepting through translations. I had,
+however, read a few other Swedish authors, and the deceased, unfortunate
+Stagnelius pleased me more as a poet than Tegn r, who represented poetry
+in Sweden. I, who hitherto had only travelled into Germany and southern
+countries, where by this means, the departure from Copenhagen was also
+the departure from my mother tongue, felt, in this respect, almost at
+home in Sweden: the languages are so much akin, that of two persons
+each might read in the language of his own country, and yet the other
+understand him. It seemed to me, as a Dane, that Denmark expanded
+itself; kinship with the people exhibited itself, in many ways, more
+and more; and I felt, livingly, how near akin are Swedes, Danes, and
+Norwegians.
+
+I met with cordial, kind people,--and with these I easily made
+acquaintance. I reckon this journey among the happiest I ever made. I
+had no knowledge of the character of Swedish scenery, and therefore I
+was in the highest degree astonished by the Trollh tta-voyage, and
+by the extremely picturesque situation of Stockholm. It sounds to the
+uninitiated half like a fairy-tale, when one says that the steam-boat
+goes up across the lakes over the mountains, from whence may be seen
+the outstretched pine and beechwoods below. Immense sluices heave up and
+lower the vessel again, whilst the travellers ramble through the woods.
+None of the cascades of Switzerland, none in Italy, not even that of
+Terni, have in them anything so imposing as that of Trollh tta. Such is
+the impression, at all events, which it made on me.
+
+On this journey, and at this last-mentioned place, commenced a very
+interesting acquaintance, and one which has not been without its
+influence on me,--an acquaintance with the Swedish authoress, Fredrika
+Bremer. I had just been speaking with the captain of the steam-boat and
+some of the passengers about the Swedish authors living in Stockholm,
+and I mentioned my desire to see and converse with Miss Bremer.
+
+"You will not meet with her," said the Captain, "as she is at this
+moment on a visit in Norway."
+
+"She will be coming back while I am there," said I in joke; "I always
+am lucky in my journeys, and that which I most wish for is always
+accomplished.
+
+"Hardly this time, however," said the captain.
+
+A few hours after this he came up to me laughing, with the list of the
+newly arrived passengers in his hand. "Lucky fellow," said he aloud,
+"you take good fortune with you; Miss Bremer is here, and sails with us
+to Stockholm."
+
+I received it as a joke; he showed me the list, but still I was
+uncertain. Among the new arrivals, I could see no one who resembled
+an authoress. Evening came on, and about midnight we were on the great
+Wener lake. At sunrise I wished to have a view of this extensive lake,
+the shores of which could scarcely be seen; and for this purpose I left
+the cabin. At the very moment that I did so, another passenger was also
+doing the same, a lady neither young nor old, wrapped in a shawl and
+cloak. I thought to myself, if Miss Bremer is on board, this must be
+she, and fell into discourse with her; she replied politely, but still
+distantly, nor would she directly answer my question, whether she was
+the authoress of the celebrated novels. She asked after my name; was
+acquainted with it, but confessed that she had read none of my works.
+She then inquired whether I had not some of them with me, and I lent
+her a copy of the "Improvisatore," which I had destined for Beskow. She
+vanished immediately with the volumes, and was not again visible all
+morning.
+
+When I again saw her, her countenance was beaming, and she was full of
+cordiality; she pressed my hand, and said that she had read the greater
+part of the first volume, and that she now knew me.
+
+The vessel flew with us across the mountains, through quiet inland
+lakes and forests, till it arrived at the Baltic Sea, where islands
+lie scattered, as in the Archipelago, and where the most remarkable
+transition takes place from naked cliffs to grassy islands, and to
+those on which stand trees and houses. Eddies and breakers make it here
+necessary to take on board a skilful pilot; and there are indeed some
+places where every passenger must sit quietly on his seat, whilst the
+eye of the pilot is riveted upon one point. On shipboard one feels the
+mighty power of nature, which at one moment seizes hold of the vessel
+and the next lets it go again.
+
+Miss Bremer related many legends and many histories, which were
+connected with this or that island, or those farm-premises up aloft on
+the mainland.
+
+In Stockholm, the acquaintance with her increased, and year after year
+the letters which have passed between us have strengthened it. She is a
+noble woman; the great truths of religion, and the poetry which lies in
+the quiet circumstances of life, have penetrated her being.
+
+It was not until after my visit to Stockholm that her Swedish
+translation of my novel came out; my lyrical poems only, and my "Journey
+on Foot," were known to a few authors; these received me with the utmost
+kindness, and the lately deceased Dahlgr n, well known by his humorous
+poems, wrote a song in my honor--in short, I met with hospitality, and
+countenances beaming with Sunday gladness. Sweden and its inhabitants
+became dear to me. The city itself, by its situation and its whole
+picturesque appearance, seemed to me to emulate Naples. Of course,
+this last has the advantage of fine atmosphere, and the sunshine of the
+south; but the view of Stockholm is just as imposing; it has also some
+resemblance to Constantinople, as seen from Pera, only that the minarets
+are wanting. There prevails a great variety of coloring in the capital
+of Sweden; white painted buildings; frame-work houses, with the
+wood-work painted red; barracks of turf, with flowering plants; fir tree
+and birches look out from among the houses, and the churches with their
+balls and towers. The streets in S/dermalm ascend by flights of
+wooden steps up from the M lar lake, which is all active with smoking
+steam-vessels, and with boats rowed by women in gay-colored dresses.
+
+I had brought with me a letter of introduction from Oersted, to the
+celebrated Berzelius, who gave me a good reception in the old city of
+Upsala. From this place I returned to Stockholm. City, country, and
+people, were all dear to me; it seemed to me, as I said before, that
+the boundaries of my native land had stretched themselves out, and I now
+first felt the kindredship of the three peoples, and in this feeling I
+wrote a Scandinavian song, a hymn of praise for all the three nations,
+for that which was peculiar and best in each one of them.
+
+"One can see that the Swedes made a deal of him," was the first remark
+which I heard at home on this song.
+
+Years pass on; the neighbors understand each other better; Oehlenschl
+ger. Fredrika Bremer, and Tegn r, caused them mutually to read each
+other's authors, and the foolish remains of the old enmity, which had no
+other foundation than that they did not know each other, vanished.
+There now prevails a beautiful, cordial relationship between Sweden and
+Denmark. A Scandinavian club has been established in Stockholm; and
+with this my song came to honor; and it was then said, "it will outlive
+everything that Andersen has written:" which was as unjust as when they
+said that it was only the product of flattered vanity. This song is now
+sung in Sweden as well as in Denmark.
+
+ On my return home I began to study history industriously, and made
+myself still further acquainted with the literature of foreign
+countries. Yet still the volume which afforded me the greatest pleasure
+was that of nature; and in a summer residence among the country-seats of
+Funen, and more especially at Lykkesholm, with its highly romantic
+site in the midst of woods, and at the noble seat of Glorup, from whose
+possessor I met with the most friendly reception, did I acquire more
+true wisdom, assuredly, in my solitary rambles, than I ever could have
+gained from the schools.
+
+The house of the Conference Councillor Collin in Copenhagen was at that
+time, as it has been since, a second father's house to me, and there I
+had parents, and brothers and sisters. The best circles of social life
+were open to me, and the student life interested me: here I mixed in
+the pleasures of youth. The student life of Copenhagen is, besides this,
+different from that of the German cities, and was at this time peculiar
+and full of life. For me this was most perceptible in the students'
+clubs, where students and professors were accustomed to meet each other:
+there was there no boundary drawn between the youthful and elder men of
+letters. In this club were to be found the journals and books of various
+countries; once a week an author would read his last work; a concert or
+some peculiar burlesque entertainment would take place. It was here
+that what may be called the first Danish people'scomedies took their
+origin,--comedies in which the events of the day were worked up always
+in an innocent, but witty and amusing manner. Sometimes dramatic
+representations were given in the presence of ladies for the furtherance
+of some noble purpose, as lately to assist Thorwaldsen's Museum, to
+raise funds for the execution of Bissen's statue in marble, and for
+similar ends. The professors and students were the actors. I also
+appeared several times as an actor, and convinced myself that my terror
+at appearing on the stage was greater than the talent which I perhaps
+possessed. Besides this, I wrote and arranged several pieces, and thus
+gave my assistance. Several scenes from this time, the scenes in the
+students' club, I have worked up in my romance of "O. T." The humor and
+love of life observable in various passages of this book, and in
+the little dramatic pieces written about this time, are owing to the
+influence of the family of Collin, where much good was done me in that
+respect, so that my morbid turn of mind was unable to gain the mastery
+of me. Collin's eldest married daughter, especially, exercised great
+influence over me, by her merry humor and wit. When the mind is yielding
+and elastic, like the expanse of ocean, it readily, like the ocean,
+mirrors its environments.
+
+My writings, in my own country, were now classed among those which
+were always bought and read; therefore for each fresh work I received a
+higher payment. Yet, truly, when you consider what a circumscribed world
+the Danish reading world is, you will see that this payment could not be
+the most liberal. Yet I had to live. Collin, who is one of the men who
+do more than they promise, was my help, my consolation, my support.
+
+At this time the late Count Conrad von Rantzau-Breitenburg, a native
+of Holstein, was Prime Minister in Denmark. He was of a noble, amiable
+nature, a highly educated man, and possessed of a truly chivalrous
+disposition. He carefully observed the movements in German and Danish
+literature. In his youth he had travelled much, and spent a long time
+in Spain and Italy, He read my "Improvisatore" in the original; his
+imagination was powerfully seized by it, and he spoke both at court and
+in his own private circles of my book in the warmest manner. He did not
+stop here; he sought me out, and became my benefactor and friend. One
+forenoon, whilst I was sitting solitarily in my little chamber, this
+friendly man stood before me for the first time. He belonged to that
+class of men who immediately inspire you with confidence; he besought me
+to visit him, and frankly asked me whether there were no means by which
+he could be of use to me. I hinted how oppressive it was to be _forced_
+to write in order to live, always to be forced to think of the morrow,
+and not move free from care, to be able to develop your mind and
+thoughts. He pressed my hand in a friendly manner, and promised to be an
+efficient friend. Collin and Oersted secretly associated themselves with
+him, and became my intercessors.
+
+Already for many years there had existed, under Frederick VI., an
+institution which does the highest honor to the Danish government,
+namely, that beside the considerable sum expended yearly, for the
+travelling expenses of young literary men and artists, a small pension
+shall be awarded to such of them as enjoy no office emoluments. All our
+most important poets have had a share of this assistance,--Oehlenschl
+ger, Ingemann, Heiberg, C. Winther, and others. Hertz had just then
+received such a pension, and his future life made thus the more secure.
+It was my hope and my wish that the same good fortune might be mine--and
+it was. Frederick VI. granted me two hundred rix dollars banco yearly.
+I was filled with gratitude and joy. I was nolonger _forced_ to write in
+order to live; I had a sure support in the possible event of sickness.
+I was less dependent upon the people about me. A new chapter of my life
+began.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+From this day forward, it was as if a more constant sunshine had entered
+my heart. I felt within myself more repose, more certainty; it was clear
+to me, as I glanced back over my earlier life, that a loving Providence
+watched over me, that all was directed for me by a higher Power; and
+the firmer becomes such a conviction, the more secure does a man feel
+himself. My childhood lay behind me, my youthful life began properly
+from this period; hitherto it had been only an arduous swimming against
+the stream. The spring of my life commenced; but still the spring had
+its dark days, its storms, before it advanced to settled summer; it has
+these in order to develop what shall then ripen. That which one of my
+dearest friends wrote to me on one of my later travels abroad, may serve
+as an introduction to what I have here to relate. He wrote in his own
+peculiar style:--"It is your vivid imagination which creates the idea
+of your being despised in Denmark; it is utterly untrue. You and Denmark
+agree admirably, and you would agree still better, if there were in
+Denmark no theatre--_Hinc illae lacrymae!_ This cursed theatre. Is this,
+then, Denmark? and are you, then, nothing but a writer for the theatre?"
+
+Herein lies a solid truth. The theatre has been the cave out of which
+most of the evil storms have burst upon me. They are peculiar people,
+these people of the theatre,--as different, in fact, from others, as
+Bedouins from Germans; from the first pantomimist to the first lover,
+everyone places himself systematically in one scale, and puts all the
+world in the other. The Danish theatre is a good theatre, it may indeed
+be placed on a level with the Burg theatre in Vienna; but the theatre in
+Copenhagen plays too great a part in conversation, and possesses in most
+circles too much importance. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the
+stage and the actors in other great cities, and therefore cannot compare
+them with our theatre; but ours has too little military discipline, and
+this is absolutely necessary where many people have to form a whole,
+even when that whole is an artistical one. The most distinguished
+dramatic poets in Denmark--that is to say, in Copenhagen, for there
+only is a theatre--have their troubles. Those actors and actresses who,
+through talent or the popular favor, take the first rank, very often
+place themselves above both the managers and authors. These must pay
+court to them, or they may ruin a part, or what is still worse, may
+spread abroad an unfavorable opinion of the piece previous to its being
+acted; and thus you have a coffee-house criticism before any one ought
+properly to know anything of the work. It is moreover characteristic of
+the people of Copenhagen, that when a new piece is announced, they do
+not say, "I am glad of it," but, "It will probably be good for nothing;
+it will be hissed off the stage." That hissing-off plays a great part,
+and is an amusement which fills the house; but it is not the bad actor
+who is hissed, no, the author and the composer only are the criminals;
+for them the scaffold is erected. Five minutes is the usual time,
+and the whistles resound, and the lovely women smile and felicitate
+themselves, like the Spanish ladies at their bloody bullfights. All our
+most eminent dramatic writers have been whistled down,--as Oehlenschl
+ger, Heiberg, Oversko, and others; to say nothing of foreign classics,
+as Moli re. In the mean time the theatre is the most profitable sphere
+of labor for the Danish writer, whose public does not extend far beyond
+the frontiers. This had induced me to write the opera-text already
+spoken of, on account of which I was so severely criticised; and an
+internal impulse drove me afterwards to add some other works. Collin
+was no longer manager of the theatre, Councillor of Justice Molbeck had
+taken his place; and the tyranny which now commenced degenerated into
+the comic. I fancy that in course of time the manuscript volumes of the
+censorship, which are preserved in the theatre, and in which Molbeck has
+certainly recorded his judgments on received and rejected pieces, will
+present some remarkable characteristics. Over all that I wrote the staff
+was broken! One way was open to me by which to bring my pieces on the
+stage; and that was to give them to those actors who in summer gave
+representations at their own cost. In the summer of 1839 I wrote the
+vaudeville of "The Invisible One on Sprog/," to scenery which had been
+painted for another piece which fell through; and the unrestrained
+merriment of the piece gave it such favor with the public, that I
+obtained its acceptance by the manager; and that light sketch still
+maintains itself on the boards, and has survived such a number of
+representations as I had never anticipated.
+
+This approbation, however, procured me no further advantage, for each of
+my succeeding dramatic works received only rejection, and occasioned
+me only mortification. Nevertheless, seized by the idea and the
+circumstances of the little French narrative, "_Les paves_," I
+determined to dramatise it; and as I had often heard that I did not
+possess the assiduity sufficient to work my mat riel well, I resolved to
+labor this drama--"The Mulatto"--from the beginning to the end, in the
+most diligent manner, and to compose it in alternately rhyming verse,
+as was then the fashion. It was a foreign subject of which I availed
+myself; but if verses are music, I at least endeavored to adapt my music
+to the text, and to let the poetry of another diffuse itself through my
+spiritual blood; so that people should not be heard to say, as they had
+done before, regarding the romance of Walter Scott, that the composition
+was cut down and fitted to the stage.
+
+The piece was ready, and declared by able men, old friends, and actors
+who were to appear in it, to be excellent; a rich dramatic capacity lay
+in the mat riel, and my lyrical composition clothed this with so fresh
+a green, that people appeared satisfied. The piece was sent in, and was
+rejected by Molbeck. It was sufficiently known that what he cherished
+for the boards, withered there the first evening; but what he cast away
+as weeds were flowers for the garden--a real consolation for me. The
+assistant-manager, Privy Counsellor of State, Adler, a man of taste and
+liberality, became the patron of my work; and since a very favorable
+opinion of it already prevailed with the public, after I had read it to
+many persons, it was resolved on for representation. I had the honor to
+read it before my present King and Queen, who received me in a very kind
+and friendly manner, and from whom, since that time, I have experienced
+many proofs of favor and cordiality. The day of representation arrived;
+the bills were posted; I had not closed my eyes through the whole night
+from excitement and expectation; the people already stood in throngs
+before the theatre, to procure tickets, when royal messengers
+galloped through the streets, solemn groups collected, the minute guns
+pealed,--Frederick VI. had died this morning!
+
+For two months more was the theatre closed, and was opened under
+Christian VIII., with my drama--"The Mulatto;" which was received with
+the most triumphant acclamation; but I could not at once feel the joy of
+it, I felt only relieved from a state of excitement, and breathed more
+freely.
+
+This piece continued through a series of representations to receive the
+same approbation; many placed this work far above all my former ones,
+and considered that with it began my proper poetical career. It was
+soon translated into the Swedish, and acted with applause at the royal
+theatre in Stockholm. Travelling players introduced it into the smaller
+towns in the neighboring country; a Danish company gave it in the
+original language, in the Swedish city Malm/, and a troop of students
+from the university town of Lund, welcomed it with enthusiasm. I had
+been for a week previous on a visit at some Swedish country houses,
+where I was entertained with so much cordial kindness that the
+recollection of it will never quit my bosom; and there, in a foreign
+country, I received the first public testimony of honor, and which has
+left upon me the deepest and most inextinguishable impression. I was
+invited by some students of Lund to visit their ancient town. Here
+a public dinner was given to me; speeches were made, toasts were
+pronounced; and as I was in the evening in a family circle, I was
+informed that the students meant to honor me with a serenade.
+
+I felt myself actually overcome by this intelligence; my heart throbbed
+feverishly as I descried the thronging troop, with their blue caps,
+and arm-in-arm approaching the house. I experienced a feeling of
+humiliation; a most lively consciousness of my deficiencies, so that I
+seemed bowed to the very earth at the moment others were elevating me.
+As they all uncovered their heads while I stepped forth, I had need of
+all my thoughts to avoid bursting into tears. In the feeling that I was
+unworthy of all this, I glanced round to see whether a smile did not
+pass over the face of some one, but I could discern nothing of the kind;
+and such a discovery would, at that moment, have inflicted on me the
+deepest wound.
+
+After an hurrah, a speech was delivered, of which I clearly recollect
+the following words:--"When your native land, and the natives of Europe
+offer you their homage, then may you never forget that the first public
+honors were conferred on you by the students of Lund."
+
+When the heart is warm, the strength of the expression is not weighed. I
+felt it deeply, and replied, that from this moment I became aware that
+I must assert a name in order to render myself worthy of these tokens
+of honor. I pressed the hands of those nearest to me, and returned them
+thanks so deep, so heartfelt,--certainly never was an expression of
+thanks more sincere. When I returned to my chamber, I went aside, in
+order to weep out this excitement, this overwhelming sensation. "Think
+no more of it, be joyous with us," said some of my lively Swedish
+friends; but a deep earnestness had entered my soul. Often has the
+memory of this time come back to me; and no noble-minded man, who reads
+these pages will discover a vanity in the fact, that I have lingered so
+long over this moment of life, which scorched the roots of pride rather
+than nourished them.
+
+My drama was now to be brought on the stage at Malm/; the students
+wished to see it; but I hastened my departure, that I might not be in
+the theatre at the time. With gratitude and joy fly my thoughts towards
+the Swedish University city, but I myself have not been there again
+since. In the Swedish newspapers the honors paid me were mentioned, and
+it was added that the Swedes were not unaware that in my own country
+there was a clique which persecuted me; but that this should not hinder
+my neighbors from offering me the honors which they deemed my due.
+
+It was when I had returned to Copenhagen that I first truly felt how
+cordially I had been received by the Swedes; amongst some of my old and
+tried friends I found the most genuine sympathy. I saw tears in their
+eyes, tears of joy for the honors paid me; and especially, said they,
+for the manner in which I had received them. There is but one manner for
+me; at once, in the midst of joy, I fly with thanks to God.
+
+There were certain persons who smiled at the enthusiasm; certain voices
+raised themselves already against "The Mulatto;"--"the mat riel was
+merely borrowed;" the French narrative was scrupulously studied. That
+exaggerated praise which I had received, now made me sensitive to the
+blame; I could bear it less easily than before, and saw more clearly,
+that it did not spring out of an interest in the matter, but was only
+uttered in order to mortify me. For the rest, my mind was fresh
+and elastic; I conceived precisely at this time the idea of "The
+Picture-Book without Pictures," and worked it out. This little book
+appears, to judge by the reviews and the number of editions, to have
+obtained an extraordinary popularity in Germany; it was also translated
+into Swedish, and dedicated to myself; at home, it was here less
+esteemed; people talked only of The Mulatto; and finally, only of
+the borrowed mat riel of it. I determined, therefore to produce a
+new dramatic work, in which both subject and development, in fact,
+everything should be of my own conception. I had the idea, and now
+wrote the tragedy of The Moorish Maiden, hoping through this to stop the
+mouths of all my detractors, and to assert my place as a dramatic poet.
+I hoped, too, through the income from this, together with the proceeds
+of The Mulatto, to be able to make a fresh journey, not only to Italy,
+but to Greece and Turkey. My first going abroad had more than all
+besides operated towards my intellectual development; I was therefore
+full of the passion for travel, and of the endeavor to acquire more
+knowledge of nature and of human life.
+
+My new piece did not please Heiberg, nor indeed my dramatic endeavors at
+all; his wife--for whom the chief part appeared to me especially to be
+written--refused, and that not in the most friendly manner, to play
+it. Deeply wounded, I went forth. I lamented this to some individuals.
+Whether this was repeated, or whether a complaint against the favorite
+of the public is a crime, enough: from this hour Heiberg became my
+opponent,--he whose intellectual rank I so highly estimated,--he with
+whom I would so willingly have allied myself,--and he who so often--I
+will venture to say it--I had approached with the whole sincerity of my
+nature. I have constantly declared his wife to be so distinguished an
+actress, and continue still so entirely of this opinion, that I would
+not hesitate one moment to assert that she would have a European
+reputation, were the Danish language as widely diffused as the German
+or the French. In tragedy she is, by the spirit and the geniality with
+which she comprehends and fills any part, a most interesting object; and
+in comedy she stands unrivalled.
+
+The wrong may be on my side or not,--no matter: a party was opposed to
+me. I felt myself wounded, excited by many coincident annoyances there.
+I felt uncomfortable in my native country, yes, almost ill. I therefore
+left my piece to its fate, and, suffering and disconcerted, I hastened
+forth. In this mood I wrote a prologue to The Moorish Maiden; which
+betrayed my irritated mind far too palpably. If I would represent this
+portion of my life more clearly and reflectively it would require me to
+penetrate into the mysteries of the theatre, to analyze our aesthetic
+cliques, and to drag into conspicuous notice many individuals, who do
+not belong to publicity. Many persons in my place would, like me, have
+fallen ill, or would have resented it vehemently: perhaps the latter
+would have been the most sensible.
+
+At my departure, many of my young friends amongst the students prepared
+a banquet for me; and amongst the elder ones who were present to
+receive me were Collin, Oehlenschl ger and Oersted. This was somewhat of
+sunshine in the midst of my mortification; songs by Oehlenschl ger and
+Hillerup were sung; and I found cordiality and friendship, as I quitted
+my country in distress. This was in October of 1840.
+
+For the second time I went to Italy and Rome, to Greece and
+Constantinople--a journey which I have described after my own manner in
+A Poet's Bazaar.
+
+In Holstein I continued some days with Count Rantzau-Breitenburg, who
+had before invited me, and whose ancestral castle I now for the
+first time visited. Here I became acquainted with the rich scenery of
+Holstein, heath and moorland, and then hastened by Nuremberg to Munich,
+where I again met with Cornelius and Schelling, and was kindly received
+by Kaulbach and Schelling. I cast a passing glance on the artistic
+life in Munich, but for the most part pursued my own solitary course,
+sometimes filled with the joy of life, but oftener despairing of my
+powers. I possessed a peculiar talent, that of lingering on the gloomy
+side of life, of extracting the bitter from it, of tasting it; and
+understood well, when the whole was exhausted, how to torment myself.
+
+In the winter season I crossed the Brenner, remained some days in
+Florence, which I had before visited for a longer time, and about
+Christmas reached Rome. Here again I saw the noble treasures of art, met
+old friends, and once more passed a Carnival and Moccoli. But not alone
+was I bodily ill; nature around me appeared likewise to sicken; there
+was neither the tranquillity nor the freshness which attended my
+first sojourn in Rome. The rocks quaked, the Tiber twice rose into the
+streets, fever raged, and snatched numbers away. In a few days Prince
+Borghese lost his wife and three sons. Rain and wind prevailed; in
+short, it was dismal, and from home cold lotions only were sent me. My
+letters told me that The Moorish Maiden had several times been
+acted through, and had gone quietly off the stage; but, as was seen
+beforehand, a small public only had been present, and therefore the
+manager had laid the piece aside. Other Copenhagen letters to our
+countrymen in Rome spoke with enthusiasm of a new work by Heiberg; a
+satirical poem--A Soul after Death. It was but just out, they wrote; all
+Copenhagen was full of it, and Andersen was famously handled in it. The
+book was admirable, and I was made ridiculous in it. That was the whole
+which I heard,--all that I knew. No one told me what really was said of
+me; wherein lay the amusement and the ludicrous. It is doubly painful
+to be ridiculed when we don't know wherefore we are so. The information
+operated like molten lead dropped into a wound, and agonized me cruelly.
+It was not till after my return to Denmark that I read this book, and
+found that what was said of me in it, was really nothing in itself which
+was worth laying to heart. It was a jest over my celebrity "from Schonen
+to Hundsr ck", which did not please Heiberg; he therefore sent my
+Mulatto and The Moorish Maiden to the infernal regions, where--and that
+was the most witty conceit--the condemned were doomed to witness the
+performance of both pieces in one evening; and then they could go away
+and lay themselves down quietly. I found the poetry, for the rest, so
+excellent, that I was half induced to write to Heiberg, and to return
+him my thanks for it; but I slept upon this fancy, and when I awoke and
+was more composed, I feared lest such thanks should be misunderstood;
+and so I gave it up.
+
+In Rome, as I have said, I did not see the book; I only heard the arrows
+whizz and felt their wound, but I did not know what the poison was which
+lay concealed in them. It seemed to me that Rome was no joy-bringing
+city; when I was there before, I had also passed dark and bitter days. I
+was ill, for the first time in my life, truly and bodily ill, and I made
+haste to get away.
+
+The Danish poet Holst was then in Rome; he had received this year a
+travelling pension. Hoist had written an elegy on King Frederick VI.,
+which went from mouth to mouth, and awoke an enthusiasm, like that of
+Becker's contemporaneous Rhine song in Germany. He lived in the same
+house with me in Rome, and showed me much sympathy: with him I made the
+journey to Naples, where, notwithstanding it was March, the sun would
+not properly shine, and the snow lay on the hills around. There was
+fever in my blood; I suffered in body and in mind; and I soon lay
+so severely affected by it, that certainly nothing but a speedy
+blood-letting, to which my excellent Neapolitan landlord compelled me,
+saved my life.
+
+In a few days I grew sensibly better; and I now proceeded by a French
+war steamer to Greece. Holst accompanied me on board. It was now as if
+a new life had risen for me; and in truth this was the case; and if this
+does not appear legibly in my later writings, yet it manifested itself
+in my views of life, and in my whole inner development. As I saw my
+European home lie far behind me, it seemed to me as if a stream of
+forgetfulness flowed of all bitter and rankling remembrances: I felt
+health in my blood, health in my thoughts, and freshly and courageously
+I again raised my head.
+
+Like another Switzerland, with a loftier and clearer heaven than the
+Italian, Greece lay before me; nature made a deep and solemn impression
+upon me; I felt the sentiment of standing on the great battle field of
+the world, where nation had striven with nation, and had perished.
+No single poem can embrace such greatness; every scorched-up bed of a
+stream, every height, every stone, has mighty memoirs to relate. How
+little appear the inequalities of daily life in such a place! A kingdom
+of ideas streamed through me, and with such a fulness, that none of them
+fixed themselves on paper. I had a desire to express the idea, that the
+godlike was here on earth to maintain its contest, that it is thrust
+backward, and yet advances again victoriously through all ages; and I
+found in the legend of the Wandering Jew an occasion for it. For twelve
+months this fiction had been emerging from the sea of my thoughts; often
+did it wholly fill me; sometimes I fancied with the alchemists that I
+had dug up the treasure; then again it sank suddenly, and I despaired
+of ever being able to bring it to the light. I felt what a mass of
+knowledge of various kinds I must first acquire. Often at home, when I
+was compelled to hear reproofs on what they call a want of study, I had
+sat deep into the night, and had studied history in Hegel's Philosophy
+of History. I said nothing of this, or other studies, or they would
+immediately have been spoken of, in the manner of an instructive lady,
+who said, that people justly complained that I did not possess learning
+enough. "You have really no mythology" said she; "in all your poems
+there appears no single God. You must pursue mythology; you must read
+Racine and Corneille." That she called learning; and in like manner
+every one had something peculiar to recommend. For my poem of Ahasuerus
+I had read much and noted much, but yet not enough; in Greece, I
+thought, the whole will collect itself into clearness. The poem is not
+yet ready, but I hope that it will become so to my honor; for it happens
+with the children of the spirit, as with the earthly ones,--they grow as
+they sleep.
+
+In Athens I was heartily welcomed by Professor Ross, a native of
+Holstein, and by my countrymen. I found hospitality and a friendly
+feeling in the noble Prokesch-Osten; even the king and queen received me
+most graciously. I celebrated my birthday in the Acropolis.
+
+From Athens I sailed to Smyrna, and with me it was no childish pleasure
+to be able to tread another quarter of the globe. I felt a devotion in
+it, like that which I felt as a child when I entered the old church at
+Odense. I thought on Christ, who bled on this earth; I thought on Homer,
+whose song eternally resounds hence over the earth. The shores of Asia
+preached to me their sermons, and were perhaps more impressive than any
+sermon in any church can be.
+
+In Constantinople I passed eleven interesting days; and according to
+my good fortune in travel, the birthday of Mahomet itself fell exactly
+during my stay there. I saw the grand illumination, which completely
+transported me into the Thousand and One Nights.
+
+Our Danish ambassador lived several miles from Constantinople, and I had
+therefore no opportunity of seeing him; but I found a cordial reception
+with the Austrian internuntius, Baron von St rmer. With him I had a
+German home and friends. I contemplated making my return by the Black
+Sea and up the Danube; but the country was disturbed; it was said there
+had been several thousand Christians murdered. My companions of the
+voyage, in the hotel where I resided, gave up this route of the Danube,
+for which I had the greatest desire, and collectively counselled me
+against it. But in this case I must return again by Greece and Italy--it
+was a severe conflict.
+
+I do not belong to the courageous; I feel fear, especially in little
+dangers; but in great ones, and when an advantage is to be won, then I
+have a will, and it has grown firmer with years. I may tremble, I may
+fear; but I still do that which I consider the most proper to be done.
+I am not ashamed to confess my weakness; I hold that when out of our
+own true conviction we run counter to our inborn fear, we have done our
+duty. I had a strong desire to become acquainted with the interior of
+the country, and to traverse the Danube in its greatest expansion. I
+battled with myself; my imagination pointed to me the most horrible
+circumstances; it was an anxious night. In the morning I took counsel
+with Baron St rmer; and as he was of opinion that I might undertake
+the voyage, I determined upon it. From the moment that I had taken my
+determination, I had the most immovable reliance on Providence, and
+flung myself calmly on my fate. Nothing happened to me. The voyage was
+prosperous, and after the quarantine on the Wallachian frontier, which
+was painful enough to me, I arrived at Vienna on the twenty-first day
+of the journey. The sight of its towers, and the meeting with numerous
+Danes, awoke in me the thought of being speedily again at home. The idea
+bowed down my heart, and sad recollections and mortifications rose up
+within me once more.
+
+In August, 1841, I was again in Copenhagen. There I wrote my
+recollections of travel, under the title of A Poet's Bazaar, in several
+chapters, according to the countries. In various places abroad I had met
+with individuals, as at home, to whom I felt myself attached. A poet is
+like the bird; he gives what he has, and he gives a song. I was desirous
+to give every one of those dear ones such a song. It was a fugitive
+idea, born, may I venture to say, in a grateful mood. Count
+Rantzau-Breitenburg, who had resided in Italy, who loved the land, and
+was become a friend and benefactor to me through my Improvisatore, must
+love that part of the book which treated of his country. To Liszt and
+Thalberg, who had both shown me the greatest friendship, I dedicated
+the portion which contained the voyage up the Danube, because one was a
+Hungarian and the other an Austrian. With these indications, the reader
+will easily be able to trace out the thought which influenced me in the
+choice of each dedication. But these appropriations were, in my native
+country, regarded as a fresh proof of my vanity;--"I wished to figure
+with great names, to name distinguished people as my friends."
+
+The book has been translated into several languages, and the dedications
+with it. I know not how they have been regarded abroad; if I have been
+judged there as in Denmark, I hope that this explanation will change
+the opinion concerning them. In Denmark my Bazaar procured me the most
+handsome remuneration that I have as yet received,--a proof that I
+was at length read there. No regular criticism appeared upon it, if
+we except notices in some daily papers, and afterwards in the poetical
+attempt of a young writer who, a year before, had testified to me in
+writing his love, and his wish to do me honor; but who now, in his first
+public appearance, launched his satirical poem against his friend. I
+was personally attached to this young man, and am so still. He assuredly
+thought more on the popularity he would gain by sailing in the wake
+of Heiberg, than on the pain he would inflict on me. The newspaper
+criticism in Copenhagen was infinitely stupid. It was set down as
+exaggerated, that I could have seen the whole round blue globe of the
+moon in Smyrna at the time of the new moon. That was called fancy and
+extravagance, which there every one sees who can open his eyes. The new
+moon has a dark blue and perfectly round disk.
+
+The Danish critics have generally no open eye for nature: even the
+highest and most cultivated monthly periodical of literature in Denmark
+censured me once because, in a poem I had described a rainbow by
+moonlight. That too was my fancy, which, said they, carried me too far.
+When I said in the Bazaar, "if I were a painter, I would paint this
+bridge; but, as I am no painter, but a poet, I must therefore speak,"
+&c. Upon this the critic says, "He is so vain, that he tells us himself
+that he is a poet." There is something so pitiful in such criticism,
+that one cannot be wounded by it; but even when we are the most
+peaceable of men, we feel a desire to flagellate such wet dogs, who come
+into our rooms and lay themselves down in the best place in them.
+There might be a whole Fool's Chronicle written of all the absurd and
+shameless things which, from my first appearance before the public till
+this moment, I have been compelled to hear.
+
+In the meantime the Bazaar was much read, and made what is called a
+hit. I received, connected with this book, much encouragement and many
+recognitions from individuals of the highest distinction in the realms
+of intellect in my native land.
+
+The journey had strengthened me both in mind and body; I began to show
+indications of a firmer purpose, a more certain judgment. I was now in
+harmony with myself and with mankind around me.
+
+Political life in Denmark had, at that time, arrived at a higher
+development, producing both good and evil fruits. The eloquence which
+had formerly accustomed itself to the Demosthenic mode, that of putting
+little pebbles in the mouth, the little pebbles of every day life, now
+exercised itself more freely on subjects of greater interest. I felt no
+call thereto, and no necessity to mix myself up in such matters; for I
+then believed that the politics of our times were a great misfortune to
+many a poet. Madame, politics are like Venus; they whom she decoys into
+her castle perish. It fares with the writings of these poets as with the
+newspapers: they are seized upon, read, praised, and forgotten. In our
+days every one wishes to rule; the subjective makes its power of value;
+people forget that that which is thought of cannot always be carried
+out, and that many things look very different when contemplated from the
+top of the tree, to what they did when seen from its roots. I will bow
+myself before him who is influenced by a noble conviction, and who only
+desires that which is conducive to good, be he prince or man of the
+people. Politics are no affair of mine. God has imparted to me another
+mission: that I felt, and that I feel still. I met in the so-called
+first families of the country a number of friendly, kind-hearted men,
+who valued the good that was in me, received me into their circles, and
+permitted me to participate in the happiness of their opulent summer
+residences; so that, still feeling independent, I could thoroughly give
+myself up to the pleasures of nature, the solitude of woods, and country
+life. There for the first time I lived wholly among the scenery of
+Denmark, and there I wrote the greater number of my fairy tales. On
+the banks of quiet lakes, amid the woods, on the green grassy pastures,
+where the game sprang past me and the stork paced along on his red
+legs, I heard nothing of politics, nothing of polemics; I heard no one
+practising himself in Hagel's phraseology. Nature, which was around me
+and within me, preached to me of my calling. I spent many happy days at
+the old house of Gisselfeld, formerly a monastery, which stands in the
+deepest solitude of the woods, surrounded with lakes and hills. The
+possessor of this fine place, the old Countess Danneskjold, mother of
+the Duchess of Augustenburg, was an agreeable and excellent lady, I was
+there not as a poor child of the people, but as a cordially-received
+guest. The beeches now overshadow her grave in the midst of that
+pleasant scenery to which her heart was allied.
+
+Close by Gisselfeld, but in a still finer situation, and of much greater
+extent, lies the estate of Bregentoed, which belongs to Count Moltke,
+Danish Minister of Finance. The hospitality which I met with in this
+place, one of the richest and most beautiful of our country, and the
+happy, social life which surrounded me here, have diffused a sunshine
+over my life.
+
+It may appear, perhaps, as if I desired to bring the names of great
+people prominently forward, and make a parade of them; or as if I wished
+in this way to offer a kind of thanks to my benefactors. They need it
+not, and I should be obliged to mention many other names still if this
+were my intention. I speak, however, only of these two places, and of
+Nys/, which belongs to Baron Stampe, and which has become celebrated
+through Thorwaldsen. Here I lived much with the great sculptor, and here
+I became acquainted with one of my dearest young friends, the future
+possessor of the place.
+
+Knowledge of life in these various circles has had great influence on
+me: among princes, among the nobility, and among the poorest of the
+people, I have met with specimens of noble humanity. We all of us
+resemble each other in that which is good and best.
+
+Winter life in Denmark has likewise its attractions and its rich
+variety. I spent also some time in the country during this season, and
+made myself acquainted with its peculiar characteristics. The greatest
+part of my time, however, I passed in Copenhagen. I felt myself at home
+with the married sons and daughters of Collin, where a number of amiable
+children were growing up. Every year strengthened the bond of friendship
+between myself and the nobly-gifted composer, Hartmann: art and the
+freshness of nature prospered in his house. Collin was my counsellor in
+practical life, and Oersted in my literary affairs. The theatre was, if
+I may so say, my club. I visited it every evening, and in this very year
+I had received a place in the so-called court stalls. An author must,
+as a matter of course, work himself up to it. After the first accepted
+piece he obtains admission to the pit; after the second greater work,
+in the stalls, where the actors have their seats; and after three larger
+works, or a succession of lesser pieces, the poet is advanced to the
+best places. Here were to be found Thorwaldsen, Oehlenschl ger, and
+several older poets; and here also, in 1840,1 obtained a place, after I
+had given in seven pieces. Whilst Thorwaldsen lived, I often, by his own
+wish, sate at his side. Oehlenschl ger was also my neighbor, and in many
+an evening hour, when no one dreamed of it, my soul was steeped in deep
+humility, as I sate between these great spirits. The different periods
+of my life passed before me; the time when I sate on the hindmost bench
+in the box of the female figurantes, as well as that in which, full of
+childish superstition, I knelt down there upon the stage and repeated
+the Lord's Prayer, just before the very place where I now sate among
+the first and the most distinguished men. At the time, perhaps, when a
+countryman of mine thus thought of and passed judgment upon me,--"there
+he sits, between the two great spirits, full of arrogance and pride;" he
+may now perceive by this acknowledgment how unjustly he has judged me.
+Humility, and prayer to God for strength to deserve my happiness, filled
+my heart. May He always enable me to preserve these feelings? I enjoyed
+the friendship of Thorwaldsen as well as of Oehlenschl ger, those two
+most distinguished stars in the horizon of the North. I may here bring
+forward their reflected glory in and around me.
+
+There is in the character of Oehlenschl ger, when he is not seen in the
+circles of the great, where he is quiet and reserved, something so open
+and child-like, that no one can help becoming attached to him. As a
+poet, he holds in the North a position of as great importance as Goethe
+did in Germany. He is in his best works so penetrated by the spirit
+of the North, that through him it has, as it were, ascended upon all
+nations. In foreign countries he is not so much appreciated. The works
+by which he is best known are "Correggio" and "Aladdin;" but assuredly
+his masterly poem of "The Northern Gods" occupied a far higher rank: it
+is our "Iliad." It possesses power, freshness--nay, any expression of
+mine is poor. It is possessed of grandeur; it is the poet Oehlenschl ger
+in the bloom of his soul. Hakon, Jarl, and Palnatoke will live in the
+poetry of Oehlenschl ger as long as mankind endures. Denmark, Norway,
+and Sweden have fully appreciated him, and have shown him that they do
+so, and whenever it is asked who occupies the first place in the kingdom
+of mind, the palm is always awarded to him. He is the true-born poet;
+he appears always young, whilst he himself, the oldest of all, surpasses
+all in the productiveness of his mind. He listened with friendly
+disposition to my first lyrical outpourings; and he acknowledged
+with earnestness and cordiality the poet who told the fairy-tales. My
+Biographer in the Danish Pantheon brought me in contact with Oehlenschl
+ger, when he said, "In our days it is becoming more and more rare for
+any one, by implicitly following those inborn impulses of his soul,
+which make themselves irresistibly felt, to step forward as an artist or
+a poet. He is more frequently fashioned by fate and circumstances than
+apparently destined by nature herself for this office. With the greater
+number of our poets an early acquaintance with passion, early inward
+experience, or outward circumstances, stand instead of the original vein
+of nature, and this cannot in any case be more incontestably proved in
+our own literature than by instancing Oehlenschl ger and Andersen. And
+in this way it may be explained why the former has been so frequently
+the object for the attacks of the critics, and why the latter was first
+properly appreciated as a poet in foreign countries where civilization
+of a longer date has already produced a disinclination for the
+compulsory rule of schools, and has occasioned a reaction towards that
+which is fresh and natural; whilst we Danes, on the contrary, cherish
+a pious respect for the yoke of the schools and the worn-out wisdom of
+maxims."
+
+Thorwaldsen, whom, as I have already said, I had become acquainted
+with in Rome in the years 1833 and 1834, was expected in Denmark in the
+autumn of 1838, and great festive preparations were made in consequence.
+A flag was to wave upon one of the towers of Copenhagen as soon as
+the vessel which brought him should come in sight. It was a national
+festival. Boats decorated with flowers and flags filled the Rhede;
+painters, sculptors, all had their flags with emblems; the students'
+bore a Minerva, the poets' a Pegasus. It was misty weather, and the ship
+was first seen when it was already close by the city, and all poured out
+to meet him. The poets, who, I believe, according to the arrangement
+of Heiberg, had been invited, stood by their boat; Oehlenschl ger and
+Heiberg alone had not arrived. And now guns were fired from the ship,
+which came to anchor, and it was to be feared that Thorwaldsen might
+land before we had gone out to meet him. The wind bore the voice of
+singing over to us: the festive reception had already begun.
+
+I wished to see him, and therefore cried out to the others, "Let us put
+off!"
+
+"Without Oehlenschl ger and Heiberg?" asked some one.
+
+"But they are not arrived, and it will be all over."
+
+One of the poets declared that if these two men were not with us, I
+should not sail under that flag, and pointed up to Pegasus.
+
+"We will throw it in the boat," said I, and took it down from the staff;
+the others now followed me, and came up just as Thorwaldsen reached
+land. We met with Oehlenschl ger and Heiberg in another boat, and they
+came over to us as the enthusiasm began on shore.
+
+The people drew Thorwaldsen's carriage through the streets to his house,
+where everybody who had the slightest acquaintance with him, or with
+the friends of a friend of his, thronged around him. In the evening the
+artists gave him a serenade, and the blaze of the torches illumined
+the garden under the large trees, there was an exultation and joy which
+really and truly was felt. Young and old hastened through the open
+doors, and the joyful old man clasped those whom he knew to his breast,
+gave them his kiss, and pressed their hands. There was a glory round
+Thorwaldsen which kept me timidly back: my heart beat for joy of seeing
+him who had met me when abroad with kindness and consolation, who
+had pressed me to his heart, and had said that we must always remain
+friends. But here in this jubilant crowd, where thousands noticed
+every movement of his, where I too by all these should be observed and
+criticised--yes, criticised as a vain man who now only wished to show
+that he too was acquainted with Thorwaldsen, and that this great man was
+kind and friendly towards him--here, in this dense crowd, I drew myself
+back, and avoided being recognized by him. Some days afterwards, and
+early in the morning, I went to call upon him, and found him as a friend
+who had wondered at not having seen me earlier.
+
+In honor of Thorwaldsen a musical-poetic academy was established, and
+the poets, who were invited to do so by Heiberg, wrote and read each
+one a poem in praise of him who had returned home. I wrote of Jason who
+fetched the golden fleece--that is to say, Jason-Thorwaldsen, who went
+forth to win golden art. A great dinner and a ball closed the festival,
+in which, for the first time in Denmark, popular life and a subject of
+great interest in the realms of art were made public.
+
+From this evening I saw Thorwaldsen almost daily in company or in his
+studio: I often passed several weeks together with him at Nys/, where
+he seemed to have firmly taken root, and where the greater number of his
+works, executed in Denmark, had their origin. He was of a healthful and
+simple disposition of mind, not without humor, and, therefore, he was
+extremely attached to Holberg the poet: he did not at all enter into the
+troubles and the disruptions of the world.
+
+One morning at Nys/--at the time when he was working at his own
+statue--I entered his work-room and bade him good morning; he appeared
+as if he did not wish to notice me, and I stole softly away again.
+At breakfast he was very parsimonious in the use of words, and when
+somebody asked him to say something at all events, he replied in his dry
+way:--
+
+"I have said more during this morning than in many whole days, but
+nobody heard me. There I stood, and fancied that Andersen was behind
+me, for he came, and said good morning--so I told him a long story about
+myself and Byron. I thought that he might give one word in reply, and
+turned myself round; and there had I been standing a whole hour and
+chattering aloud to the bare walls."
+
+We all of us besought him to let us hear the whole story yet once more;
+but we had it now very short.
+
+"Oh, that was in Rome," said he, "when I was about to make Byron's
+statue; he placed himself just opposite to me, and began immediately to
+assume quite another countenance to what was customary to him. 'Will not
+you sit still?' said I; 'but you must not make these faces.' 'It is
+my expression,' said Byron. 'Indeed?' said I, and then I made him as
+I wished, and everybody said, when it was finished, that I had hit the
+likeness. When Byron, however, saw it, he said, 'It does not resemble me
+at all; I look more unhappy.'"
+
+"He was, above all things, so desirous of looking extremely unhappy,"
+added Thorwaldsen, with a comic expression.
+
+It afforded the great sculptor pleasure to listen to music after dinner
+with half-shut eyes, and it was his greatest delight when in the evening
+the game of lotto began, which the whole neighborhood of Nys/ was
+obliged to learn; they only played for glass pieces, and on this account
+I am able to relate a peculiar characteristic of this otherwise great
+man--that he played with the greatest interest on purpose to win. He
+would espouse with warmth and vehemence the part of those from whom
+he believed that he had received an injustice; he opposed himself to
+unfairness and raillery, even against the lady of the house, who for the
+rest had the most childlike sentiments towards him, and who had no
+other thought than how to make everything most agreeable to him. In his
+company I wrote several of my tales for children--for example, "Ole Luck
+Oin," ("Ole Shut Eye,") to which he listened with pleasure and interest.
+Often in the twilight, when the family circle sate in the open garden
+parlor, Thorwaldsen would come softly behind me, and, clapping me on the
+shoulder, would ask, "Shall we little ones hear any tales tonight?"
+
+In his own peculiarly natural manner he bestowed the most bountiful
+praise on my fictions, for their truth; it delighted him to hear the
+same stories over and over again. Often, during his most glorious works,
+would he stand with laughing countenance, and listen to the stories of
+the Top and the Ball, and the Ugly Duckling. I possess a certain talent
+of improvising in my native tongue little poems and songs. This talent
+amused Thorwaldsen very much; and as he had modelled, at Nys/, Holberg's
+portrait in clay, I was commissioned to make a poem for his work, and he
+received, therefore, the following impromptu:--
+
+  "No more shall Holberg live," by Death was said,
+    "I crush the clay, his soul's bonds heretofore."
+  "And from the formless clay, the cold, the dead,"
+    Cried Thorwaldsen, "shall Holberg live once more."
+
+One morning, when he had just modelled in clay his great bas-relief of
+the Procession to Golgotha, I entered his study.
+
+"Tell me," said he, "does it seem to you that I have dressed Pilate
+properly?"
+
+"You must not say anything to him," said the Baroness, who was always
+with him: "it is right; it is excellent; go away with you!"
+
+Thorwaldsen repeated his question.
+
+"Well, then," said I, "as you ask me, I must confess that it really does
+appear to me as if Pilate were dressed rather as an Egyptian than as a
+Roman."
+
+"It seems to me so too," said Thorwaldsen, seizing the clay with his
+hand, and destroying the figure.
+
+"Now you are guilty of his having annihilated an immortal work,"
+exclaimed the Baroness to me with warmth.
+
+"Then we can make a new immortal work," said he, in a cheerful humor,
+and modelled Pilate as he now remains in the bas-relief in the Ladies'
+Church in Copenhagen.
+
+His last birth-day was celebrated there in the country. I had written a
+merry little song, and it was hardly dry on the paper, when we sang
+it, in the early morning, before his door, accompanied by the music
+of jingling fire-irons, gongs, and bottles rubbed against a basket.
+Thorwaldsen himself, in his morning gown and slippers, opened his door,
+and danced round his chamber; swung round his Raphael's cap, and joined
+in the chorus. There was life and mirth in the strong old man.
+
+On the last day of his life I sate by him at dinner; he was unusually
+good-humored; repeated several witticisms which he had just read in the
+Corsair, a well-known Copenhagen newspaper, and spoke of the journey
+which he should undertake to Italy in the summer. After this we parted;
+he went to the theatre, and I home.
+
+On the following morning the waiter at the hotel where I lived said,
+"that it was a very remarkable thing about Thorwaldsen--that he had died
+yesterday."
+
+"Thorwaldsen!" exclaimed I; "he is not dead, I dined with him
+yesterday."
+
+"People say that he died last evening at the theatre," returned the
+waiter. I fancied that he might be taken ill; but still I felt a strange
+anxiety, and hastened immediately over to his house. There lay his
+corpse stretched out on the bed; the chamber was filled with strangers;
+the floor wet with melted snow; the air stifling; no one said a word:
+the Baroness Stampe sate on the bed and wept bitterly. I stood trembling
+and deeply agitated.
+
+A farewell hymn, which I wrote, and to which Hartmann composed the
+music, was sung by Danish students over his coffin.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+In the summer of 1842, I wrote a little piece for the summer theatre,
+called, "The Bird in the Pear-tree," in which several scenes were acted
+up in the pear-tree. I had called it a dramatic trifle, in order that
+no one might expect either a great work or one of a very elaborate
+character. It was a little sketch, which, after being performed a few
+times, was received with so much applause, that the directors of the
+theatre accepted it; nay, even Mrs. Heiberg, the favorite of the public,
+desired to take a part in it. People had amused themselves; had thought
+the selection of the music excellent. I knew that the piece had stood
+its rehearsal--and then suddenly it was hissed. Some young men, who gave
+the word to hiss, had said to some others, who inquired from them
+their reasons for doing so, that the trifle had too much luck, and then
+Andersen would be getting too mettlesome.
+
+I was not, on this evening, at the theatre myself, and had not the least
+idea of what was going on. On the following I went to the house of one
+of my friends. I had head-ache, and was looking very grave. The lady of
+the house met me with a sympathizing manner, took my hand, and said, "Is
+it really worth while to take it so much to heart? There were only two
+who hissed, the whole house beside took your part."
+
+"Hissed! My part! Have I been hissed?" exclaimed I.
+
+It was quite comic; one person assured me that this hissing had been a
+triumph for me; everybody had joined in acclamation, and "there was only
+one who hissed."
+
+After this, another person came, and I asked him of the number of those
+who hissed. "Two," said he. The next person said "three," and said
+positively there were no more. One of my most veracious friends now made
+his appearance, and I asked him upon his conscience, how many he had
+heard; he laid his hand upon his heart, and said that, at the very
+highest, they were five.
+
+"No," said I, "now I will ask nobody more; the number grows just as with
+Falstaff; here stands one who asserts that there was only one person who
+hissed."
+
+Shocked, and yet inclined to set it all right again, he replied, "Yes,
+that is possible, but then it was a strong, powerful hiss."
+
+By my last works, and through a rational economy, I had now saved a
+small sum of money, which I destined to the purposes of a new journey
+to Paris, where I arrived in the winter of 1843, by way of D sseldorf,
+through Belgium.
+
+Marmier had already, in the _R vue de Paris_, written an article on me,
+_La Vie d'un Po te_. He had also translated several of my poems into
+French, and had actually honored me with a poem which is printed in the
+above-named _R vue_. My name had thus reached, like a sound, the ears of
+some persons in the literary world, and I here met with a surprisingly
+friendly reception.
+
+At Victor Hugo's invitation, I saw his abused _Burggraves_. Mr. and Mrs.
+Ancelot opened their house to me, and there I met Martinez della Rosa
+and other remarkable men of these times. Lamart ne seemed to me, in his
+domestic, and in his whole personal appearance, as the prince of them
+all. On my apologizing because I spoke such bad French, he replied, that
+he was to blame, because he did not understand the northern languages,
+in which, as he had discovered in late years, there existed a fresh and
+vigorous literature, and where the poetical ground was so peculiar that
+you had only to stoop down to find an old golden horn. He asked about
+the Trollh tta canal, and avowed a wish to visit Denmark and Stockholm.
+He recollected also our now reigning king, to whom, when as prince
+he was in Castellamare, he had paid his respects; besides this, he
+exhibited for a Frenchman, an extraordinary acquaintance with names and
+places in Denmark. On my departure he wrote a little poem for me, which
+I preserve amongst my dearest relics.
+
+I generally found the jovial Alexander Dumas in bed, even long after
+mid-day: here he lay, with paper, pen, and ink, and wrote his newest
+drama. I found him thus one day; he nodded kindly to me, and said, "Sit
+down a minute; I have just now a visit from my muse; she will be going
+directly." He wrote on; spoke aloud; shouted a _viva!_ sprang out of
+bed, and said, "The third act is finished!"
+
+One evening he conducted me round into the various theatres, that I
+might see the life behind the scenes. We wandered about, arm in arm,
+along the gay Boulevard.
+
+I also have to thank him for my acquaintance with Rachel. I had not seen
+her act, when Alexander Dumas asked me whether I had the desire to make
+her acquaintance. One evening, when she was to come out as Phedra he led
+me to the stage of the Th atre Fran ais. The Representation had begun,
+and behind the scenes, where a folding screen had formed a sort of room,
+in which stood a table with refreshments, and a few ottomans, sate the
+young girl who, as an author has said, understands how to chisel living
+statues out of Racine's and Corneille's blocks of marble. She was thin
+and slenderly formed, and looked very young. She looked to me there,
+and more particularly so afterwards in her own house, as an image of
+mourning; as a young girl who has just wept out her sorrow, and will
+now let her thoughts repose in quiet. She accosted us kindly in a deep
+powerful voice. In the course of conversation with Dumas, she forgot
+me. I stood there quite superfluous. Dumas observed it, said something
+handsome of me, and on that I ventured to take part in the discourse,
+although I had a depressing feeling that I stood before those who
+perhaps spoke the most beautiful French in all France. I said that I
+truly had seen much that was glorious and interesting, but that I
+had never yet seen a Rachel, and that on her account especially had I
+devoted the profits of my last work to a journey to Paris; and as, in
+conclusion, I added an apology on account of my French, she smiled and
+said, "When you say anything so polite as that which you have just said
+to me, to a Frenchwoman, she will always think that you speak well."
+
+When I told her that her fame had resounded to the North, she declared
+that it was her intention to go to Petersburg and Copenhagen: "and when
+I come to your city", she said, "you must be my defender, as you are the
+only one there whom I know; and in order that we may become acquainted,
+and as you, as you say, are come to Paris especially on my account,
+we must see each other frequently. You will be welcome to me. I see
+my friends at my house every Thursday. But duty calls," said she, and
+offering us her hand, she nodded kindly, and then stood a few paces from
+us on the stage, taller, quite different, and with the expression of the
+tragic muse herself. Joyous acclamations ascended to where we sat.
+
+As a Northlander I cannot accustom myself to the French mode of acting
+tragedy. Rachel plays in this same style, but in her it appears to be
+nature itself; it is as if all the others strove to imitate her. She is
+herself the French tragic muse, the others are only poor human beings.
+When Rachel plays people fancy that all tragedy must be acted in this
+manner. It is in her truth and nature, but under another revelation to
+that with which we are acquainted in the north.
+
+At her house everything is rich and magnificent, perhaps too _recherch
+_. The innermost room was blue-green, with shaded lamps and statuettes
+of French authors. In the salon, properly speaking, the color which
+prevailed principally in the carpets, curtains, and bookcases
+was crimson. She herself was dressed in black, probably as she is
+represented in the well-known English steel engraving of her. Her
+guests consisted of gentlemen, for the greater part artists and men
+of learning. I also heard a few titles amongst them. Richly apparelled
+servants announced the names of the arrivals; tea was drunk and
+refreshments handed round, more in the German than the French style.
+
+Victor Hugo had told me that he found she understood the German
+language. I asked her, and she replied in German, "ich kann es lesen;
+ich bin ja in Lothringen geboren; ich habe deutsche B cher, sehn Sie
+hier!" and she showed me Grillparzer's "Sappho," and then immediately
+continued the conversation in French. She expressed her pleasure in
+acting the part of Sappho, and then spoke of Schiller's "Maria Stuart,"
+which character she has personated in a French version of that play. I
+saw her in this part, and she gave the last act especially with such a
+composure and tragic feeling, that she might have been one of the best
+of German actresses; but it was precisely in this very act that the
+French liked her least.
+
+"My countrymen," said she, "are not accustomed to this manner, and in
+this manner alone can the part be given. No one should be raving when
+the heart is almost broken with sorrow, and when he is about to take an
+everlasting farewell of his friends."
+
+Her drawing-room was, for the most part, decorated with books which were
+splendidly bound and arranged in handsome book-cases behind glass. A
+painting hung on the wall, which represented the interior of the
+theatre in London, where she stood forward on the stage, and flowers
+and garlands were thrown to her across the orchestra. Below this picture
+hung a pretty little book-shelf, holding what I call "the high nobility
+among the poets,"--Goethe, Schiller, Calderon, Shakspeare, &c.
+
+She asked me many questions respecting Germany and Denmark, art, and the
+theatre; and she encouraged me with a kind smile around her grave mouth,
+when I stumbled in French and stopped for a moment to collect myself,
+that I might not stick quite fast.
+
+"Only speak," said she. "It is true that you do not speak French well.
+I have heard many foreigners speak my native language better; but their
+conversation has not been nearly as interesting as yours. I understand
+the sense of your words perfectly, and that is the principal thing which
+interests me in you."
+
+The last time we parted she wrote the following words in my album:
+"L'art c'est le vrai! J'esp re que cet aphorisme ne semblera pas
+paradoxal un crivain si distingu comme M. Andersen."
+
+I perceived amiability of character in Alfred de Vigny. He has married
+an English lady, and that which is best in both nations seemed to unite
+in his house. The last evening which I spent in Paris, he himself, who
+is possessed of intellectual status and worldly wealth, came almost at
+midnight to my lodging in the Rue Richelieu, ascended the many steps,
+and brought me his works under his arm. So much cordiality beamed in
+his eyes and he seemed to be so full of kindness towards me, that I felt
+affected by our separation.
+
+I also became acquainted with the sculptor David. There was a something
+in his demeanor and in his straightforward manner that reminded me of
+Thorwaldsen and Bissen, especially of the latter. We did not meet till
+towards the conclusion of my residence in Paris. He lamented it, and
+said that he would execute a bust of me if I would remain there longer.
+
+When I said, "But you know nothing of me as a poet, and cannot tell
+whether I deserve it or not," he looked earnestly in my face, clapped
+me on the shoulder, and said, "I have, however, read you yourself before
+your books. You are a poet."
+
+At the Countess ----'s, where I met with Balzac, I saw an old lady,
+the expression of whose countenance attracted my attention. There was
+something so animated, so cordial in it, and everybody gathered about
+her. The Countess introduced me to her, and I heard that she was Madame
+Reybaud, the authoress of Les Epaves, the little story which I had made
+use of for my little drama of The Mulatto. I told her all about it, and
+of the representation of the piece, which interested her so much, that
+she became from this evening my especial protectress. We went out
+one evening together and exchanged ideas. She corrected my French and
+allowed me to repeat what did not appear correct to her. She is a lady
+of rich mental endowments, with a clear insight into the world, and she
+showed maternal kindness towards me.
+
+I also again met with Heine. He had married since I was last here. I
+found him in indifferent health; but full of energy, and so friendly
+and so natural in his behavior towards me, that I felt no timidity in
+exhibiting myself to him as I was. One day he had been relating to his
+wife my story of the Constant Tin Soldier, and, whilst he said that I
+was the author of this story, he introduced me to her. She was a lively,
+pretty young lady. A troop of children, who, as Heine says, belonged to
+a neighbor, played about in their room. We two played with them whilst
+Heine copied out one of his last poems for me.
+
+I perceived in him no pain-giving, sarcastic smile; I only heard the
+pulsation of a German heart, which is always perceptible in the songs,
+and which _must_ live.
+
+Through the means of the many people I was acquainted with here, among
+whom I might enumerate many others, as, for instance, Kalkbrenner,
+Gathy, &c., my residence in Paris was made very cheerful and rich in
+pleasure. I did not feel myself like a stranger there: I met with a
+friendly reception among the greatest and best. It was like a payment
+by anticipation of the talent which was in me, and through which they
+expected that I would some time prove them not to have been mistaken.
+
+Whilst I was in Paris, I received from Germany, where already several of
+my works were translated and read, a delightful and encouraging proof
+of friendship. A German family, one of the most highly cultivated and
+amiable with whom I am acquainted, had read my writings with interest,
+especially the little biographical sketch prefixed to Only a Fiddler,
+and felt the heartiest goodwill towards me, with whom they were then not
+personally acquainted. They wrote to me, expressed their thanks for my
+works and the pleasure they had derived from them, and offered me a kind
+welcome to their house if I would visit it on my return home. There was
+a something extremely cordial and natural in this letter, which was
+the first that I received of this kind in Paris, and it also formed a
+remarkable contrast to that which was sent to me from my native land in
+the year 1833, when I was here for the first time.
+
+In this way I found myself, through my writings, adopted, as it were,
+into a family to which since then I gladly betake myself, and where I
+know that it is not only as the poet, but as the man, that I am beloved.
+In how many instances have I not experienced the same kindness in
+foreign countries! I will mention one for the sake of its peculiarity.
+
+There lived in Saxony a wealthy and benevolent family; the lady of the
+house read my romance of Only a Fiddler, and the impression of this book
+was such that she vowed that, if ever, in the course of her life, she
+should meet with a poor child which was possessed of great musical
+talents, she would not allow it to perish as the poor Fiddler had done.
+A musician who had heard her say this, brought to her soon after, not
+one, but two poor boys, assuring her of their talent, and reminding
+her of her promise. She kept her word: both boys were received into
+her house, were educated by her, and are now in the Conservatorium; the
+youngest of them played before me, and I saw that his countenance was
+happy and joyful. The same thing perhaps might have happened; the same
+excellent lady might have befriended these children without my book
+having been written: but notwithstanding this, my book is now connected
+with this as a link in the chain.
+
+On my return home from Paris, I went along the Rhine; I knew that the
+poet Frieligrath, to whom the King of Prussia had given a pension, was
+residing in one of the Rhine towns. The picturesque character of his
+poems had delighted me extremely, and I wished to talk with him. I
+stopped at several towns on the Rhine, and inquired after him. In St.
+Goar, I was shown the house in which he lived. I found him sitting
+at his writing table, and he appeared annoyed at being disturbed by a
+stranger. I did not mention my name; but merely said that I could not
+pass St. Goar without paying my respects to the poet Frieligrath.
+
+"That is very kind of you," said he, in a very cold tone; and then asked
+who I was.
+
+"We have both of us one and the same friend, Chamisso!" replied I, and
+at these words he leapt up exultantly.
+
+"You are then Andersen!" he exclaimed; threw his arms around my neck,
+and his honest eyes beamed with joy.
+
+"Now you will stop several days here," said he. I told him that I could
+only stay a couple of hours, because I was travelling with some of my
+countrymen who were waiting for me.
+
+"You have a great many friends in little St. Goar," said he; "it is but
+a short time since I read aloud your novel of O. T. to a large circle;
+one of these friends I must, at all events, fetch here, and you must
+also see my wife. Yes, indeed, you do not know that you had something to
+do in our being married."
+
+He then related to me how my novel, Only a Fiddler, had caused them to
+exchange letters, and then led to their acquaintance, which acquaintance
+had ended in their being a married couple. He called her, mentioned to
+her my name, and I was regarded as an old friend. Such moments as these
+are a blessing; a mercy of God, a happiness--and how many such, how
+various, have I not enjoyed!
+
+I relate all these, to me, joyful occurrences; they are facts in
+my life: I relate them, as I formerly have related that which was
+miserable, humiliating, and depressing; and if I have done so, in
+the spirit which operated in my soul, it will not be called pride or
+vanity;--neither of them would assuredly be the proper name for it. But
+people may perhaps ask at home, Has Andersen then never been attacked in
+foreign countries? I must reply,--no!
+
+No regular attack has been made upon me, at least they have never at
+home called my attention to any such, and therefore there certainly
+cannot have been anything of the kind;--with the exception of one which
+made its appearance in Germany, but which originated in Denmark, at the
+very moment when I was in Paris.
+
+A certain Mr. Boas made a journey at that time through Scandinavia, and
+wrote a book on the subject. In this he gave a sort of survey of
+Danish literature, which he also published in the journal called Die
+Grenzboten; in this I was very severely handled as a man and as a poet.
+Several other Danish poets also, as for instance, Christian Winter, have
+an equally great right to complain. Mr. Boas had drawn his information
+out of the miserable gossip of every-day life; his work excited
+attention in Copenhagen, and nobody there would allow themselves to be
+considered as his informants; nay even Holst the poet, who, as may be
+seen from the work, travelled with him through Sweden, and had received
+him at his house in Copenhagen, on this occasion published, in one of
+the most widely circulated of our papers, a declaration that he was in
+no way connected with Mr. Boas.
+
+Mr. Boas had in Copenhagen attached himself to a particular clique
+consisting of a few young men; he had heard them full of lively spirits,
+talking during the day, of the Danish poets and their writings; he had
+then gone home, written down what he had heard and afterwards published
+it in his work. This was, to use the mildest term, inconsiderate. That
+my Improvisatore and Only a Fiddler did not please him, is a matter of
+taste, and to that I must submit myself. But when he, before the whole
+of Germany, where probably people will presume that what he has written
+is true, if he declare it to be, as is the case, the universal judgment
+against me in my native land; when he, I say, declared me before the
+whole of Germany, to be the most haughty of men, he inflicts upon me a
+deeper wound than he perhaps imagined. He conveyed the voice of a party,
+formerly hostile to me, into foreign countries. Nor is he true even in
+that which he represents; he gives circumstances as facts, which never
+took place.
+
+In Denmark what he has written could not injure me, and many have
+declared themselves afraid of coming into contact with any one, who
+printed everything which he heard. His book was read in Germany, the
+public of which is now also mine; and I believe, therefore, that I may
+here say how faulty is his view of Danish literature and Danish poets;
+in what manner his book was received in my native land and that people
+there know in what way it was put together. But after I have expressed
+myself thus on this subject I will gladly offer Mr. Boas my hand; and
+if, in his next visit to Denmark, no other poet will receive him, I will
+do my utmost for him; I know that he will not be able to judge me more
+severely when we know each other, than when we knew each other not. His
+judgment would also have been quite of another character had he come to
+Denmark but one year later; things changed very much in a year's time.
+Then the tide had turned in my favor; I then had published my new
+children's stories, of which from that moment to the present there
+prevailed, through the whole of my native land, but one unchanging
+honorable opinion. When the edition of my collection of stories came out
+at Christmas 1843, the reaction began; acknowledgment of my merits were
+made, and favor shown me in Denmark, and from that time I have no cause
+for complaint. I have obtained and I obtain in my own land that which I
+deserve, nay perhaps, much more.
+
+I will now turn to those little stories which in Denmark have been
+placed by every one, without any hesitation, higher than anything else I
+had hitherto written.
+
+In the year 1835, some months after I published the Improvisatore, I
+brought out my first volume of Stories for Children, [Footnote: I find
+it very difficult to give a correct translation of the original word.
+The Danish is _Eventyr_, equivalent to the German _Abentheur_, or
+adventure; but adventures give in English a very different idea to
+this class of stories. The German word _M rchen,_ gives the meaning
+completely, and this we may English by _fairy tale_ or _legend,_ but
+then neither of these words are fully correct with regard to Andersen's
+stories. In my translation of his "Eventyr fortalte for Born," I gave as
+an equivalent title, "Wonderful Stories for Children," and perhaps this
+near as I could come.--M. H.] which at that time was not so very much
+thought of. One monthly critical journal even complained that a young
+author who had just published a work like the Improvisatore, should
+immediately come out with anything so childish as the tales. I reaped a
+harvest of blame, precisely where people ought to have acknowledged the
+advantage of my mind producing something in a new direction. Several of
+my friends, whose judgment was of value to me, counselled me entirely to
+abstain from writing tales, as these were a something for which I had
+no talent. Others were of opinion that I had better, first of all, study
+the French fairy tale. I would willingly have discontinued writing them,
+but they forced themselves from me.
+
+In the volume which I first published, I had, like Mus us, but in my own
+manner, related old stories, which I had heard as a child. The volume
+concluded with one which was original, and which seemed to have given
+the greatest pleasure, although it bore a tolerably near affinity to a
+story of Hoffman's. In my increasing disposition for children's stories,
+I therefore followed my own impulse, and invented them mostly myself. In
+the following year a new volume came out, and soon after that a third,
+in which the longest story, The Little Mermaid, was my own invention.
+This story, in an especial manner, created an interest which was
+only increased by the following volumes. One of these came out every
+Christmas, and before long no Christmas tree could exist without my
+stones.
+
+Some of our first comic actors made the attempt of relating my little
+stories from the stage; it was a complete change from the declamatory
+poetry which had been heard to satiety. The Constant Tin Soldier,
+therefore, the Swineherd, and the Top and Ball, were told from the Royal
+stage, and from those of private theatres, and were well received. In
+order that the reader might be placed in the proper point of view, with
+regard to the manner in which I told the stories, I had called my first
+volume Stories told for Children. I had written my narrative down upon
+paper, exactly in the language, and with the expressions in which I had
+myself related them, by word of mouth, to the little ones, and I had
+arrived at the conviction that people of different ages were equally
+amused with them. The children made themselves merry for the most part
+over what might be called the actors, older people, on the contrary,
+were interested in the deeper meaning. The stories furnished reading for
+children and grown people, and that assuredly is a difficult task for
+those who will write children's stories. They met with open doors and
+open hearts in Denmark; everybody read them. I now removed the words
+"told for children," from my title, and published three volumes of "New
+Stories," all of which were of my own invention, and which were received
+in my own country with the greatest favor. I could not wish it greater;
+I felt a real anxiety in consequence, a fear of not being able to
+justify afterwards such an honorable award of praise.
+
+A refreshing sunshine streamed into my heart; I felt courage and joy,
+and was filled, with a living desire of still more and more developing
+my powers in this direction,--of studying more thoroughly this class
+of writing, and of observing still more attentively the rich wells of
+nature out of which I must create it. If attention be paid to the order
+in which my stories are written, it certainly will be seen that there
+is in them a gradual progression, a clearer working out of the idea, a
+greater discretion in the use of agency, and, if I may so speak, a more
+healthy tone and a more natural freshness may be perceived.
+
+At this period of my life, I made an acquaintance which was of great
+moral and intellectual importance to me. I have already spoken of
+several persons and public characters who have had influence on me as
+the poet; but none of these have had more, nor in a nobler sense of the
+word, than the lady to whom I here turn myself; she, through whom I,
+at the same time, was enabled to forget my own individual self, to feel
+that which is holy in art, and to become acquainted with the command
+which God has given to genius.
+
+I now turn back to the year 1840. One day in the hotel in which I lived
+in Copenhagen, I saw the name of Jenny Lind among those of the strangers
+from Sweden. I was aware at that time that she was the first singer in
+Stockholm. I had been that same year, in this neighbor country, and had
+there met with honor and kindness: I thought, therefore, that it would
+not be unbecoming in me to pay a visit to the young artist. She was, at
+this time, entirely unknown out of Sweden, so that I was convinced that,
+even in Copenhagen, her name was known only by few. She received me very
+courteously, but yet distantly, almost coldly. She was, as she said,
+on a journey with her father to South Sweden, and was come over to
+Copenhagen for a few days in order that she might see this city. We
+again parted distantly, and I had the impression of a very ordinary
+character which soon passed away from my mind.
+
+In the autumn of 1843, Jenny Lind came again to Copenhagen. One of
+my friends, our clever ballet-master, Bournonville, who has married a
+Swedish lady, a friend of Jenny Lind, informed me of her arrival here
+and told me that she remembered me very kindly, and that now she had
+read my writings. He entreated me to go with him to her, and to employ
+all my persuasive art to induce her to take a few parts at the Theatre
+Royal; I should, he said, be then quite enchanted with what I should
+hear.
+
+I was not now received as a stranger; she cordially extended to me her
+hand, and spoke of my writings and of Miss Fredrika Bremer, who also
+was her affectionate friend. The conversation was soon turned to her
+appearance in Copenhagen, and of this Jenny Lind declared that she stood
+in fear.
+
+"I have never made my appearance," said she, "out of Sweden; everybody
+in my native land is so affectionate and kind to me, and if I made my
+appearance in Copenhagen and should be hissed!--I dare not venture on
+it!"
+
+I said, that I, it was true, could not pass judgment on her singing,
+because I had never heard it, neither did I know how she acted, but
+nevertheless, I was convinced that such was the disposition at this
+moment in Copenhagen, that only a moderate voice and some knowledge of
+acting would be successful; I believed that she might safely venture.
+
+Bournonville's persuasion obtained for the Copenhageners the greatest
+enjoyment which they ever had.
+
+Jenny Lind made her first appearance among them as Alice in Robert
+le Diable--it was like a new revelation in the realms of art, the
+youthfully fresh voice forced itself into every heart; here reigned
+truth and nature; everything was full of meaning and intelligence. At
+one concert Jenny Lind sang her Swedish songs; there was something
+so peculiar in this, so bewitching; people thought nothing about
+the concert room; the popular melodies uttered by a being so purely
+feminine, and bearing the universal stamp of genius, exercised their
+omnipotent sway--the whole of Copenhagen was in raptures. Jenny Lind was
+the first singer to whom the Danish students gave a serenade: torches
+blazed around the hospitable villa where the serenade was given: she
+expressed her thanks by again singing some Swedish songs, and I then saw
+her hasten into the darkest corner and weep for emotion.
+
+"Yes, yes," said she, "I will exert myself; I will endeavor, I will be
+better qualified than I am when I again come to Copenhagen."
+
+On the stage, she was the great artiste, who rose above all those around
+her; at home, in her own chamber, a sensitive young girl with all the
+humility and piety of a child.
+
+Her appearance in Copenhagen made an epoch in the history of our opera;
+it showed me art in its sanctity--I had beheld one of its vestals. She
+journeyed back to Stockholm, and from there Fredrika Bremer wrote to
+me:--"With regard to Jenny Lind as a singer, we are both of us perfectly
+agreed; she stands as high as any artist of our time can stand; but as
+yet you do not know her in her full greatness. Speak to her about her
+art, and you will wonder at the expansion of her mind, and will see her
+countenance beaming with inspiration. Converse then with her of God, and
+of the holiness of religion, and you will see tears in those innocent
+eyes; she is great as an artist, but she is still greater in her pure
+human existence!"
+
+In the following year I was in Berlin; the conversation with Meyerbeer
+turned upon Jenny Lind; he had heard her sing the Swedish songs, and was
+transported by them.
+
+"But how does she act?" asked he.
+
+I spoke in raptures of her acting, and gave him at the same time some
+idea of her representation of Alice. He said to me that perhaps it might
+be possible for him to determine her to come to Berlin.
+
+It is sufficiently well known that she made her appearance there, threw
+every one into astonishment and delight, and won for herself in Germany
+a European name. Last autumn she came again to Copenhagen, and the
+enthusiasm was incredible; the glory of renown makes genius perceptible
+to every one. People bivouacked regularly before the theatre, to obtain
+a ticket. Jenny Lind appeared still greater than ever in her art,
+because they had an opportunity of seeing her in many and such extremely
+different parts. Her Norma is plastic; every attitude might serve as the
+most beautiful model to a sculptor, and yet people felt that these
+were the inspiration of the moment, and had not been studied before
+the glass; Norma is no raving Italian; she is the suffering, sorrowing
+woman--the woman possessed of a heart to sacrifice herself for an
+unfortunate rival--the woman to whom, in the violence of the moment,
+the thought may suggest itself of murdering the children of a faithless
+lover, but who is immediately disarmed when she gazes into the eyes of
+the innocent ones.
+
+"Norma, thou holy priestess," sings the chorus, and Jenny Lind has
+comprehended and shows to us this holy priestess in the aria, _Casta
+diva_. In Copenhagen she sang all her parts in Swedish, and the other
+singers sang theirs in Danish, and the two kindred languages mingled
+very beautifully together; there was no jarring; even in the Daughter
+of the Regiment where there is a deal of dialogue, the Swedish had
+something agreeable--and what acting! nay, the word itself is a
+contradiction--it was nature; anything as true never before appeared on
+the stage. She shows us perfectly the true child of nature grown up in
+the camp, but an inborn nobility pervades every movement. The Daughter
+of the Regiment and the Somnambule are certainly Jenny Land's most
+unsurpassable parts; no second can take their places in these beside
+her. People laugh,--they cry; it does them as much good as going to
+church; they become better for it. People feel that God is in art; and
+where God stands before us face to face there is a holy church.
+
+"There will not in a whole century," said Mendelssohn, speaking to me
+of Jenny Lind, "be born another being so gifted as she;" and his words
+expressed my full conviction; one feels as she makes her appearance on
+the stage, that she is a pure vessel, from which a holy draught will be
+presented to us.
+
+There is not anything which can lessen the impression which Jenny Lind's
+greatness on the stage makes, except her own personal character at home.
+An intelligent and child-like disposition exercises here its astonishing
+power; she is happy; belonging, as it were, no longer to the world, a
+peaceful, quiet home, is the object of her thoughts--and yet she loves
+art with her whole soul, and feels her vocation in it. A noble, pious
+disposition like hers cannot be spoiled by homage. On one occasion only
+did I hear her express her joy in her talent and her self-consciousness.
+It was during her last residence in Copenhagen. Almost every evening
+she appeared either in the opera or at concerts; every hour was in
+requisition. She heard of a society, the object of which was, to assist
+unfortunate children, and to take them out of the hands of their parents
+by whom they were misused, and compelled either to beg or steal, and
+to place them in other and better circumstances. Benevolent people
+subscribed annually a small sum each for their support, nevertheless the
+means for this excellent purpose were small.
+
+"But have I not still a disengaged evening?" said she; "let me give a
+night's performance for the benefit of these poor children; but we will
+have double prices!"
+
+Such a performance was given, and returned large proceeds; when she was
+informed of this, and, that by this means, a number of poor children
+would be benefited for several years, her countenance beamed, and the
+tears filled her eyes.
+
+"It is however beautiful," said she, "that I can sing so!"
+
+I value her with the whole feeling of a brother, and I regard myself
+as happy that I know and understand such a spirit. God give to her that
+peace, that quiet happiness which she wishes for herself!
+
+Through Jenny Lind I first became sensible of the holiness there is in
+art; through her I learned that one must forget oneself in the service
+of the Supreme. No books, no men have had a better or a more ennobling
+influence on me as the poet, than Jenny Lind, and I therefore have
+spoken of her so long and so warmly here.
+
+I have made the happy discovery by experience, that inasmuch as art
+and life are more clearly understood by me, so much more sunshine from
+without has streamed into my soul. What blessings have not compensated
+me for the former dark days! Repose and certainty have forced themselves
+into my heart. Such repose can easily unite itself with the changing
+life of travel; I feel myself everywhere at home, attach myself easily
+to people, and they give me in return confidence and cordiality.
+
+In the summer of 1844 I once more visited North Germany. An intellectual
+and amiable family in Oldenburg had invited me in the most friendly
+manner to spend some time at their house. Count von Rantzau-Breitenburg
+repeated also in his letters how welcome I should be to him. I set out
+on the journey, and this journey was, if not one of my longest, still
+one of my most interesting.
+
+I saw the rich marsh-land in its summer luxuriance, and made with
+Rantzau several interesting little excursions. Breitenburg lies in the
+middle of woods on the river St/r; the steam-voyage to Hamburg gives
+animation to the little river; the situation is picturesque, and life
+in the castle itself is comfortable and pleasant. I could devote myself
+perfectly to reading and poetry, because I was just as free as the
+bird in the air, and I was as much cared for as if I had been a beloved
+relation of the family. Alas it was the last time that I came hither;
+Count Rantzau had, even then, a presentiment of his approaching death.
+One day we met in the garden; he seized my hand, pressed it warmly,
+expressed his pleasure in my talents being acknowledged abroad, and his
+friendship for me, adding, in conclusion, "Yes, my dear young friend,
+God only knows but I have the firm belief that this year is the last
+time when we two shall meet here; my days will soon have run out their
+full course." He looked at me with so grave an expression, that it
+touched my heart deeply, but I knew not what to say. We were near to the
+chapel; he opened a little gate between some thick hedges, and we stood
+in a little garden, in which was a turfed grave and a seat beside it.
+
+"Here you will find me, when you come the next time to Breitenburg,"
+said he, and his sorrowful words were true. He died the following winter
+in Wiesbaden. I lost in him a friend, a protector, a noble excellent
+heart.
+
+When I, on the first occasion, went to Germany, I visited the Hartz and
+the Saxon Switzerland. Goethe was still living. It was my most heartfelt
+wish to see him. It was not far from the Hartz to Weimar, but I had no
+letters of introduction to him, and, at that time, not one line of my
+writings was translated. Many persons had described Goethe to me as a
+very proud man, and the question arose whether indeed he would receive
+me. I doubted it, and determined not to go to Weimar until I should have
+written some work which would convey my name to Germany. I succeeded in
+this, but alas, Goethe was already dead.
+
+I had made the acquaintance of his daughter-in-law Mrs. von Goethe, born
+at Pogwitsch, at the house of Mendelssohn Bartholdy, in Leipsig, on my
+return from Constantinople; this _spirituelle_ lady received me with
+much kindness. She told me that her son Walter had been my friend for
+a long time; that as a boy he had made a whole play out of my
+Improvisatore; that this piece had been performed in Goethe's house;
+and lastly, that Walter, had once wished to go to Copenhagen to make my
+acquaintance. I thus had now friends in Weimar.
+
+An extraordinary desire impelled me to see this city where Goethe,
+Schiller, Wieland, and Herder had lived, and from which so much light
+had streamed forth over the world. I approached that land which had
+been rendered sacred by Luther, by the strife of the Minnesingers on the
+Wartburg, and by the memory of many noble and great events.
+
+On the 24th of June, the birthday of the Grand Duke, I arrived a
+stranger in the friendly town. Everything indicated the festivity which
+was then going forward, and the young prince was received with great
+rejoicing in the theatre, where a new opera was being given. I did not
+think how firmly, the most glorious and the best of all those whom I
+here saw around me, would grow into my heart; how many of my future
+friends sat around me here--how dear this city would become to me--in
+Germany my second home. I was invited by Goethe's worthy friend, the
+excellent Chancellor Muller, and I met with the most cordial reception
+from him. By accident I here met on my first call, with the Kammerherr
+Beaulieu de Marconnay, whom I had known in Oldenburg; he was now placed
+in Weimar. He invited me to remove to his house. In the course of a few
+minutes I was his stationary guest, and I felt "it is good to be here."
+
+There are people whom it only requires a few days to know and to love; I
+won in Beaulieu, in these few days, a friend, as I believe, for my whole
+life. He introduced me into the family circle, the amiable chancellor
+received me equally cordially; and I who had, on my arrival, fancied
+myself quite forlorn, because Mrs. von Goethe and her son Walter were in
+Vienna, was now known in Weimar, and well received in all its circles.
+
+The reigning Grand Duke and Duchess gave me so gracious and kind a
+reception as made a deep impression upon me. After I had been presented,
+I was invited to dine, and soon after received an invitation to
+visit the hereditary Grand Duke and his lady, at the hunting seat of
+Ettersburg, which stands high, and close to an extensive forest. The
+old fashioned furniture within the house, and the distant views from
+the park into the Hartz mountains, produced immediately a peculiar
+impression. All the young peasants had assembled at the castle to
+celebrate the birthday of their beloved young Duke; climbing-poles,
+from which fluttered handkerchiefs and ribbons, were erected; fiddles
+sounded, and people danced merrily under the branches of the large and
+flowering limetrees. Sabbath splendor, contentment and happiness were
+diffused over the whole.
+
+The young andebut new married princely pair seemed to be united by true
+heartfelt sentiment. The heart must be able to forget the star on the
+breast under which it beats, if its possessor wish to remain long free
+and happy in a court; and such a heart, certainly one of the noblest and
+best which beats, is possessed by Karl Alexander of Saxe-Weimar. I had
+the happiness of a sufficient length of time to establish this belief.
+During this, my first residence here, I came several times to the happy
+Ettersburg. The young Duke showed me the garden and the tree on the
+trunk of which Goethe, Schiller, and Wieland had cut their names;
+nay even Jupiter himself had wished to add his to theirs, for his
+thunder-bolt had splintered it in one of the branches.
+
+The intellectual Mrs. von Gross (Amalia Winter), Chancellor von Muller,
+who was able livingly to unroll the times of Goethe and to explain his
+Faust, and the soundly honest and child-like minded Eckermann belonged
+to the circle at Ettersburg. The evenings passed like a spiritual dream;
+alternately some one read aloud; even I ventured, for the first time in
+a foreign language to me, to read one of my own tales--the Constant Tin
+Soldier.
+
+Chancellor von Muller accompanied me to the princely burial-place, where
+Karl August sleeps with his glorious wife, not between Schiller and
+Goethe, as I believed when I wrote--"the prince has made for himself
+a rainbow glory, whilst he stands between the sun and the rushing
+waterfall." Close beside the princely pair, who understood and valued
+that which was great, repose these their immortal friends. Withered
+laurel garlands lay upon the simple brown coffins, of which the whole
+magnificence consists in the immortal names of Goethe and Schiller. In
+life the prince and the poet walked side by side, in death they slumber
+under the same vault. Such a place as this is never effaced from the
+mind; in such a spot those quiet prayers are offered, which God alone
+hears.
+
+I remained above eight days in Weimar; it seemed to me as if I had
+formerly lived in this city; as if it were a beloved home which I must
+now leave. As I drove out of the city, over the bridge and past the
+mill, and for the last time looked back to the city and the castle, a
+deep melancholy took hold on my soul, and it was to me as if a beautiful
+portion of my life here had its close; I thought that the journey, after
+I had left Weimar, could afford me no more pleasure. How often since
+that time has the carrier pigeon, and still more frequently, the mind,
+flown over to this place! Sunshine has streamed forth from Weimar upon
+my poet-life.
+
+From Weimar I went to Leipzig where a truly poetical evening awaited me
+with Robert Schumann. This great composer had a year before surprised me
+by the honor of dedicating to me the music which he had composed to four
+of my songs; the lady of Dr. Frege whose singing, so full of soul, has
+pleased and enchanted so many thousands, accompanied Clara Schumann,
+and the composer and the poet were alone the audience: a little festive
+supper and a mutual interchange of ideas shortened the evening only
+too much. I met with the old, cordial reception at the house of Mr.
+Brockhaus, to which from former visits I had almost accustomed myself.
+The circle of my friends increased in the German cities; but the first
+heart is still that to which we most gladly turn again.
+
+I found in Dresden old friends with youthful feelings; my gifted
+half-countryman Dahl, the Norwegian, who knows how upon canvas to make
+the waterfall rush foaming down, and the birch-tree to grow as in the
+valleys of Norway, and Vogel von Vogelstein, who did me the honor of
+painting my portrait, which was included in the royal collection of
+portraits. The theatre intendant, Herr von L ttichau, provided me every
+evening with a seat in the manager's box; and one of the noblest
+ladies, in the first circles of Dresden, the worthy Baroness von Decken,
+received me as a mother would receive her son. In this character I was
+ever afterwards received in her family and in the amiable circle of her
+friends.
+
+How bright and beautiful is the world! How good are human beings! That
+it is a pleasure to live becomes ever more and more clear to me.
+
+ Beaulieu's younger brother Edmund, who is an officer in the army, came
+one day from Tharand, where he had spent the summer months. I
+accompanied him to various places, spent some happy days among the
+pleasant scenery of the hills, and was received at the same time into
+various families.
+
+I visited with the Baroness Decken, for the first time, the celebrated
+and clever painter Retsch, who has published the bold outlines of
+Goethe, Shakspeare, &c. He lives a sort of Arcadian life among lowly
+vineyards on the way to Meissen. Every year he makes a present to his
+wife, on her birthday, of a new drawing, and always one of his best;
+the collection has grown through a course of years to a valuable album,
+which she, if he die before her, is to publish. Among the many glorious
+ideas there, one struck me as peculiar; the Flight into Egypt. It is
+night; every one sleeps in the picture,--Mary, Joseph, the flowers and
+the shrubs, nay even the ass which carries her--all, except the child
+Jesus, who, with open round countenance, watches over and illumines all.
+I related one of my stories to him, and for this I received a lovely
+drawing,--a beautiful young girl hiding herself behind the mask of an
+old woman; thus should the eternally youthful soul, with its blooming
+loveliness, peep forth from behind the old mask of the fairy-tale.
+Retsch's pictures are rich in thought, full of beauty, and a genial
+spirit.
+
+I enjoyed the country-life of Germany with Major Serre and his amiable
+wife at their splendid residence of Maren; it is not possible for
+any one to exercise greater hospitality than is done by these two
+kind-hearted people. A circle of intelligent, interesting individuals,
+were here assembled; I remained among them above eight days, and there
+became acquainted with Kohl the traveller, and the clever authoress,
+the Countess Hahn-Hahn, in whom I discerned a woman by disposition and
+individual character in whom confidence may be placed. Where one is well
+received there one gladly lingers. I found myself unspeakably happy on
+this little journey in Germany, and became convinced that I was there
+no stranger. It was heart and truth to nature which people valued in my
+writings; and, however excellent and praiseworthy the exterior beauty
+may be, however imposing the maxims of this world's wisdom, still it is
+heart and nature which have least changed by time, and which everybody
+is best able to understand.
+
+I returned home by way of Berlin, where I had not been for several
+years; but the dearest of my friends there--Chamisso, was dead.
+
+  The fair wild swan which flew far o'er the earth,
+  And laid its head upon a wild-swan's breast,
+
+was now flown to a more glorious hemisphere; I saw his children, who
+were now fatherless and motherless. From the young who here surround me,
+I discover that I am grown older; I feel it not in myself. Chamisso's
+sons, whom I saw the last time playing here in the little garden
+with bare necks, came now to meet me with helmet and sword: they were
+officers in the Prussian service. I felt in a moment how the years had
+rolled on, how everything was changed and how one loses so many.
+
+  Yet is it not so hard as people deem,
+    To see their soul's beloved from them riven;
+  God has their dear ones, and in death they seem
+    To form a bridge which leads them up to heaven.
+
+I met with the most cordial reception, and have since then always met
+with the same, in the house of the Minister Savigny, where I became
+acquainted with the clever, singularly gifted Bettina and her lovely
+spiritual-minded daughter. One hour's conversation with Bettina during
+which she was the chief speaker, was so rich and full of interest, that
+I was almost rendered dumb by all this eloquence, this firework of wit.
+The world knows her writings, but another talent which she is possessed
+of, is less generally known, namely her talent for drawing. Here again
+it is the ideas which astonish us. It was thus, I observed, she had
+treated in a sketch an accident which had occurred just before, a young
+man being killed by the fumes of wine. You saw him descending half-naked
+into the cellar, round which lay the wine casks like monsters:
+Bacchanals and Bacchantes danced towards him, seized their victim and
+destroyed him! I know that Thorwaldsen, to whom she once showed all
+her drawings, was in the highest degree astonished by the ideas they
+contained.
+
+It does the heart such good when abroad to find a house, where, when
+immediately you enter, eyes flash like festal lamps, a house where you
+can take peeps into a quiet, happy domestic life--such a house is that
+of Professor Weiss. Yet how many new acquaintance which were found,
+and old acquaintance which were renewed, ought I not to mention! I met
+Cornelius from Rome, Schelling from Munich, my countryman I might almost
+call him; Steffens, the Norwegian, and once again Tieck, whom I had not
+seen since my first visit to Germany. He was very much altered, yet his
+gentle, wise eyes were the same, the shake of his hand was the same. I
+felt that he loved me and wished me well. I must visit him in Potsdam,
+where he lived in ease and comfort. At dinner I became acquainted with
+his brother the sculptor.
+
+From Tieck I learnt how kindly the King and Queen of Prussia were
+disposed towards me; that they had read my romance of Only a Fiddler,
+and inquired from Tieck about me. Meantime their Majesties were absent
+from Berlin. I had arrived the evening before their departure, when that
+abominable attempt was made upon their lives.
+
+I returned to Copenhagen by Stettin in stormy weather, full of the joy
+of life, and again saw my dear friends, and in a few days set off to
+Count Moltke's in Funen, there to spend a few lovely summer days. I here
+received a letter from the Minister Count Rantzau-Breitenburg, who was
+with the King and Queen of Denmark at the watering-place of F/hr. He
+wrote, saying that he had the pleasure of announcing to me the most
+gracious invitation of their Majesties to F/hr. This island, as is well
+known, lies in the North Sea, not far from the coast of Sleswick, in
+the neighborhood of the interesting Halligs, those little islands which
+Biernatzky described so charmingly in his novels. Thus, in a manner
+wholly unexpected by me, I should see scenery of a very peculiar
+character even in Denmark.
+
+The favor of my king and Queen made me happy, and I rejoiced to be once
+more in close intimacy with Rantzau. Alas, it was for the last time!
+
+It was just now five and twenty years since I, a poor lad, travelled
+alone and helpless to Copenhagen. Exactly the five and twentieth
+anniversary would be celebrated by my being with my king and queen, to
+whom I was faithfully attached, and whom I at that very time learned to
+love with my whole soul. Everything that surrounded me, man and nature,
+reflected themselves imperishably in my soul. I felt myself, as it were,
+conducted to a point from which I could look forth more distinctly over
+the past five and twenty years, with all the good fortune and happiness
+which they had evolved for me. The reality frequently surpasses the most
+beautiful dream.
+
+I travelled from Funen to Flensborg, which, lying in its great bay, is
+picturesque with woods and hills, and then immediately opens out into
+a solitary heath. Over this I travelled in the bright moonlight. The
+journey across the heath was tedious; the clouds only passed rapidly. We
+went on monotonously through the deep sand, and monotonous was the
+wail of a bird among the shrubby heath. Presently we reached moorlands.
+Long-continued rain had changed meadows and cornfields into great lakes;
+the embankments along which we drove were like morasses; the horses sank
+deeply into them. In many places the light carriage was obliged to be
+supported by the peasants, that it might not fall upon the cottages
+below the embankment. Several hours were consumed over each mile
+(Danish). At length the North Sea with its islands lay before me. The
+whole coast was an embankment, covered for miles with woven straw,
+against which the waves broke. I arrived at high tide. The wind was
+favorable, and in less than an hour I reached F/hr, which, after my
+difficult journey, appeared to me like a real fairy land.
+
+The largest city, Wyck, in which are the baths, is exactly built like a
+Dutch town. The houses are only one story high, with sloping roofs and
+gables turned to the street. The many strangers there, and the presence
+of the court, gave a peculiar animation to the principal street.
+Well-known faces looked out from almost every house; the Danish flag
+waved, and music was heard. I was soon established in my quarters, and
+every day, until the departure of their Majesties, had I the honor of an
+invitation from them to dinner, as well as to pass the evening in their
+circle. On several evenings I read aloud my little stories (M rchen)
+to the king and queen, and both of them were gracious and affectionate
+towards me. It is so good when a noble human nature will reveal itself
+where otherwise only the king's crown and the purple mantle might be
+discovered. Few people can be more amiable in private life than their
+present Majesties of Denmark. May God bless them and give them joy, even
+as they filled my breast with happiness and sunshine!
+
+I sailed in their train to the largest of the Halligs, those grassy
+runes in the ocean, which bear testimony to a sunken country. The
+violence of the sea has changed the mainland into islands, has riven
+these again, and buried men and villages. Year after year are new
+portions rent away, and, in half a century's time, there will be nothing
+here but sea. The Halligs are now only low islets covered with a dark
+turf, on which a few flocks graze. When the sea rises these are driven
+into the garrets of the houses, and the waves roll over this little
+region, which is miles distant from the shore. Oland, which we visited,
+contains a little town. The houses stand closely side by side, as if,
+in their sore need they would all huddle together. They are all erected
+upon a platform, and have little windows, as in the cabin of a ship.
+There, in the little room, solitary through half the year, sit the wife
+and her daughters spinning. There, however, one always finds a little
+collection of books. I found books in Danish, German, and Frieslandish.
+The people read and work, and the sea rises round the houses, which
+lie like a wreck in the ocean. Sometimes, in the night, a ship, having
+mistaken the lights, drives on here and is stranded.
+
+In the year 1825, a tempestuous tide washed away men and houses. The
+people sat for days and nights half naked upon the roofs, till these
+gave way; nor from F/hr nor the mainland could help be sent to them.
+The church-yard is half washed away; coffins and corpses were frequently
+exposed to view by the breakers: it is an appalling sight. And yet
+the inhabitants of the Halligs are attached to their little home. They
+cannot remain on the mainland, but are driven thence by home sickness.
+
+We found only one man upon the island, and he had only lately arisen
+from a sick bed. The others were out on long voyages. We were received
+by girls and women. They had erected before the church a triumphal arch
+with flowers which they had fetched from F/hr; but it was so small and
+low, that one was obliged to go round it; nevertheless they showed by it
+their good will. The queen was deeply affected by their having cut down
+their only shrub, a rose bush, to lay over a marshy place which she
+would have to cross. The girls are pretty, and are dressed in a half
+Oriental fashion. The people trace their descent from Greeks. They wear
+their faces half concealed, and beneath the strips of linen which lie
+upon the head is placed a Greek fez, around which the hair is wound in
+plaits.
+
+On our return, dinner was served on board the royal steamer; and
+afterwards, as we sailed in a glorious sunset through this archipelago,
+the deck of the vessel was changed to a dancing room. Young and old
+danced; servants flew hither and thither with refreshments; sailors
+stood upon the paddle-boxes and took the soundings, and their deep-toned
+voices might be heard giving the depth of the water. The moon rose
+round and large, and the promontory of Amrom assumed the appearance of a
+snow-covered chain of Alps.
+
+I visited afterwards these desolate sand hills: the king went to shoot
+rabbits there. Many years ago a ship was wrecked here, on board of which
+were two rabbits, and from this pair Amrom is now stored with thousands
+of their descendants. At low tide the sea recedes wholly from between
+Amrom and F/hr, and then people drive across from one island to another;
+but still the time must be well observed and the passage accurately
+known, or else, when the tide comes, he who crosses will be inevitably
+lost. It requires only a few minutes, and then where dry land was large
+ships may sail. We saw a whole row of wagons driving from F/hr to Amrom.
+Seen upon the white sand and against the blue horizon, they seem to be
+twice as large as they really were. All around were spread out, like
+a net, the sheets of water, as if they held firmly the extent of sand
+which belonged to the ocean and which would be soon overflowed by it.
+This promontory brings to one's memory the mounds of ashes at Vesuvius;
+for here one sinks at every step, the wiry moor-grass not being able to
+bind together the loose sand. The sun shone burningly hot between the
+white sand hills: it was like a journey through the deserts of Africa.
+
+A peculiar kind of rose, and the heath were in flower in the valleys
+between the hills; in other places there was no vegetation whatever;
+nothing but the wet sand on which the waves had left their impress; the
+sea had inscribed on its receding strange hieroglyphics. I gazed from
+one of the highest points over the North Sea; it was ebb-tide; the sea
+had retired above a mile; the vessels lay like dead fishes upon the
+sand, and awaiting the returning tide. A few sailors had clambered down
+and moved about on the sandy ground like black points. Where the sea
+itself kept the white level sand in movement, a long bank elevated
+itself, which, during the time of high-water, is concealed, and upon
+which occur many wrecks. I saw the lofty wooden tower which is here
+erected, and in which a cask is always kept filled with water, and
+a basket supplied with bread and brandy, that the unfortunate human
+beings, who are here stranded, may be able in this place, amid the
+swelling sea, to preserve life for a few days until it is possible to
+rescue them.
+
+To return from such a scene as this to a royal table, a charming
+court-concert, and a little ball in the bath-saloon, as well as to the
+promenade by moonlight, thronged with guests, a little Boulevard, had
+something in it like a fairy tale,--it was a singular contrast.
+
+As I sat on the above-mentioned five-and-twentieth anniversary, on the
+5th of September, at the royal dinner-table, the whole of my former life
+passed in review before my mind. I was obliged to summon all my strength
+to prevent myself bursting into tears. There are moments of thankfulness
+in which, as it were, we feel a desire to press God to our hearts. How
+deeply I felt, at this time, my own nothingness; how all, all, had come
+from him. Rantzau knew what an interesting day this was to me.
+After dinner the king and the queen wished me happiness, and that
+so--_graciously_, is a poor word,--so cordially, so sympathizingly! The
+king wished me happiness in that which I had endured and won. He asked
+me about my first entrance into the world, and I related to him some
+characteristic traits.
+
+In the course of conversation he inquired if I had not some certain
+yearly income; I named the sum to him.
+
+"That is not much," said the king.
+
+"But I do not require much," replied I, "and my writings procure me
+something."
+
+The king, in the kindest manner, inquired farther into my circumstances,
+and closed by saying,
+
+"If I can, in any way, be serviceable to your literary labors, then come
+to me."
+
+In the evening, during the concert, the conversation was renewed, and
+some of those who stood near me reproached me for not having made use of
+my opportunity.
+
+"The king," said they, "put the very words into your mouth."
+
+But I could not, I would not have done it. "If the king," I said, "found
+that I required something more, he could give it to me of his own will."
+
+And I was not mistaken. In the following year King Christian VIII.
+increased my annual stipend, so that with this and that which my
+writings bring in, I can live honorably and free from care. My king gave
+it to me out of the pure good-will of his own heart. King Christian
+is enlightened, clear-sighted, with a mind enlarged by science; the
+gracious sympathy, therefore, which he has felt in my fate is to me
+doubly cheering and ennobling.
+
+The 5th of September was to me a festival-day; even the German visitors
+at the baths honored me by drinking my health in the pump-room.
+
+So many flattering circumstances, some people argue, may easily spoil a
+man, and make him vain. But, no; they do not spoil him, they make him on
+the contrary--better; they purify his mind, and he must thereby feel an
+impulse, a wish, to deserve all that he enjoys. At my parting-audience
+with the queen, she gave me a valuable ring as a remembrance of our
+residence at F/hr; and the king again expressed himself full of kindness
+and noble sympathy. God bless and preserve this exalted pair!
+
+The Duchess of Augustenburg was at this time also at F/hr with her two
+eldest daughters. I had daily the happiness of being with them, and
+received repeated invitations to take Augustenburg on my return. For
+this purpose I went from F/hr to Als, one of the most beautiful islands
+in the Baltic. That little region resembles a blooming garden; luxuriant
+corn and clover-fields are enclosed, with hedges of hazels and wild
+roses; the peasants' houses are surrounded by large apple-orchards, full
+of fruit. Wood and hill alternate. Now we see the ocean, and now the
+narrow Lesser Belt, which resembles a river. The Castle of Augustenburg
+is magnificent, with its garden full of flowers, extending down to
+the very shores of the serpentine bay. I met with the most cordial
+reception, and found the most amiable family-life in the ducal circle.
+I spent fourteen days here, and was present at the birth-day festivities
+of the duchess, which lasted three days; among these festivities was
+racing, and the town and the castle were filled with people.
+
+Happy domestic life is like a beautiful summer's evening; the heart is
+filled with peace; and everything around derives a peculiar glory.
+The full heart says "it is good to be here;" and this I felt at
+Augustenburg.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+In the spring of 1844 I had finished a dramatic tale, "The Flower of
+Fortune." The idea of this was, that it is not the immortal name of the
+artist, nor the splendor of a crown which can make man happy; but that
+happiness is to be found where people, satisfied with little, love and
+are loved again. The scene was perfectly Danish, an idyllian, sunbright
+life, in whose clear heaven two dark pictures are reflected as in
+a dream; the unfortunate Danish poet Ewald and Prince Buris, who is
+tragically sung of in our heroic ballads. I wished to show, in honor
+of our times, the middle ages to have been dark and miserable, as they
+were, but which many poets only represent to us in a beautiful light.
+
+Professor Heiberg, who was appointed censor, declared himself against
+the reception of my piece. During the last years I had met with nothing
+but hostility from this party; I regarded it as personal ill-will, and
+this was to me still more painful than the rejection of the pieces. It
+was painful for me to be placed in a constrained position with regard
+to a poet whom I respected, and towards whom, according to my own
+conviction, I had done everything in order to obtain a friendly
+relationship. A further attempt, however, must be made. I wrote to
+Heiberg, expressed myself candidly, and, as I thought, cordially, and
+entreated him to give me explicitly the reasons for his rejection of the
+piece and for his ill-will towards me. He immediately paid me a visit,
+which I, not being at home when he called, returned on the following
+day, and I was received in the most friendly manner. The visit and the
+conversation belong certainly to the extraordinary, but they occasioned
+an explanation, and I hope led to a better understanding for the future.
+
+He clearly set before me his views in the rejection of my piece. Seen
+from his point of sight they were unquestionably correct; but they were
+not mine, and thus we could not agree. He declared decidedly that he
+cherished no spite against me, and that he acknowledged my talent. I
+mentioned his various attacks upon me, for example, in the Intelligence,
+and that he had denied to me original invention: I imagined, however,
+that I had shown this in my novels; "But of these," said I, "you have
+read none; you, yourself have told me so."
+
+"Yes, that is the truth," replied he; "I have not yet read them, but I
+will do so."
+
+"Since then," continued I, "you have turned me and my Bazaar to ridicule
+in your poem called Denmark, and spoken about my fanaticism for the
+beautiful Dardanelles; and yet I have, precisely in that book, described
+the Dardanelles as not beautiful; it is the Bosphorus which I thought
+beautiful; you seem not to be aware of that; perhaps you have not read
+The Bazaar either?"
+
+"Was it the Bosphorus?" said he, with his own peculiar smile; "yes,
+I had quite forgotten that, and, you see, people do not remember it
+either; the object in this case was only to give you a stab."
+
+This confession sounded so natural, so like him, that I was obliged to
+smile. I looked into his clever eyes, thought how many beautiful things
+he had written, and I could not be angry with him. The conversation
+became more lively, more free, and he said many kind things to me; for
+example, he esteemed my stories very highly, and entreated me frequently
+to visit him. I have become more and more acquainted with his poetical
+temperament, and I fancy that he too will understand mine. We are
+very dissimilar, but we both strive after the same object. Before we
+separated he conducted me to his little observatory; now his dearest
+world. He seems now to live for poetry and now for philosophy, andufor
+which I fancy he is least of all calculated--for astronomy. I could
+almost sigh and sing,
+
+  Thou wast erewhile the star at which them gazest now!
+
+My dramatic story came at length on the stage, and in the course of the
+season was performed seven times.
+
+As people grow older, however much they may be tossed about in the
+world, some one place must be the true home; even the bird of passage
+has one fixed spot to which it hastens; mine was and is the house of my
+friend Collin. Treated as a son, almost grown up with the children,
+I have become a member of the family; a more heartfelt connection,
+a better home have I never known: a link broke in this chain, and
+precisely in the hour of bereavement, did I feel how firmly I have been
+engrafted here, so that I was regarded as one of the children.
+
+ If I were to give the picture of the mistress of a family who wholly
+loses her own individual _I_ in her husband and children, I must name
+the wife of Collin; with the sympathy of a mother, she also followed me
+in sorrow and in gladness. In the latter years of her life she became
+very deaf, and besides this she had the misfortune of being nearly
+blind. An operation was performed on her sight, which succeeded so well,
+that in the course of the winter she was able to read a letter, and
+this was a cause of grateful joy to her. She longed in an extraordinary
+manner for the first green of spring, and this she saw in her little
+garden.
+
+I parted from her one Sunday evening in health and joy; in the night I
+was awoke; a servant brought me a letter. Collin wrote, "My wife is very
+ill; the children are all assembled here!" I understood it, and hastened
+thither. She slept quietly and without pain; it was the sleep of the
+just; it was death which was approaching so kindly and calmly. On the
+third day she yet lay in that peaceful slumber: then her countenance
+grew pale--and she was dead!
+
+  Thou didst but close thine eyes to gather in
+    The large amount of all thy spiritual bliss;
+  We saw thy slumbers like a little child's.
+     O death! thou art all brightness and not shadow.
+
+Never had I imagined that the departure from this world could be so
+painless, so blessed. A devotion arose in my soul; a conviction of God
+and eternity, which this moment elevated to an epoch in my life. It
+was the first death-bed at which I had been present since my childhood.
+Children, and children's children were assembled. In such moments all is
+holy around us. Her soul was love; she went to love and to God!
+
+At the end of July, the monument of King Frederick VI. was to
+be uncovered at Skanderburg, in the middle of Jutland. I had, by
+solicitation, written the cantata for the festival, to which Hartmann
+had furnished the music, and this was to be sung by Danish students. I
+had been invited to the festival, which thus was to form the object of
+my summer excursion.
+
+Skanderburg lies in one of the most beautiful districts of Denmark.
+Agreeable hills rise covered with vast beech-woods, and a large inland
+lake of a pleasing form extends among them. On the outside of the city,
+close by the church, which is built upon the ruins of an old castle, now
+stands the monument, a work of Thorwaldsen's. The most beautiful moment
+to me at this festival was in the evening, after the unveiling of the
+monument; torches were lighted around it, and threw their unsteady flame
+over the lake; within the woods blazed thousands of lights, and music
+for the dance resounded from the tents. Round about upon the hills,
+between the woods, and high above them, bonfires were lighted at one
+and the same moment, which burned in the night like red stars. There was
+spread over lake and land a pure, a summer fragrance which is peculiar
+to the north, in its beautiful summer nights. The shadows of those who
+passed between the monument and the church, glided gigantically along
+its red walls, as if they were spirits who were taking part in the
+festival.
+
+I returned home. In this year my novel of the Improvisatore was
+translated into English, by the well-known authoress, Mary Howitt,
+and was received by her countrymen with great applause. O. T. and the
+Fiddler soon followed, and met with, as it seemed, the same reception.
+After that appeared a Dutch, and lastly a Russian translation of the
+Improvisatore. That which should never have ventured to have dreamed
+of was accomplished; my writings seem to come forth under a lucky star;
+they fly over all lands. There is something elevating, but at the same
+time, a something terrific in seeing one's thoughts spread so far, and
+among so many people; it is indeed, almost a fearful thing to belong to
+so many. The noble and the good in us becomes a blessing; but the bad,
+one's errors, shoot forth also, and involuntarily the thought forces
+itself from us: God! let me never write down a word of which I shall not
+be able to give an account to thee. A peculiar feeling, a mixture of
+joy and anxiety, fills my heart every time my good genius conveys my
+fictions to a foreign people.
+
+Travelling operates like an invigorating bath to the mind; like a
+Medea-draft which always makes young again. I feel once more an impulse
+for it--not in order to seek up material, as a critic fancied and said,
+in speaking of my Bazaar; there exists a treasury of material in my own
+inner self, and this life is too short to mature this young existence;
+but there needs refreshment of spirit in order to convey it vigorously
+and maturely to paper, and travelling is to me, as I have said, this
+invigorating bath, from which I return as it were younger and stronger.
+
+By prudent economy, and the proceeds of my writings, I was in a
+condition to undertake several journeys during the last year. That
+which for me is the most sunbright, is the one in which these pages were
+written. Esteem, perhaps over-estimation, but especially kindness,
+in short, happiness and pleasure have flowed towards me in abundant
+measure.
+
+I wished to visit Italy for the third time, there to spend a summer,
+that I might become acquainted with the south in its warm season, and
+probably return thence by Spain and France. At the end of October, 1845,
+I left Copenhagen. Formerly I had thought when I set out on a journey,
+God! what wilt thou permit to happen to me on this journey! This time my
+thoughts were, God, what will happen to my friends at home during this
+long time! And I felt a real anxiety. In one year the hearse may drive
+up to the door many times, and whose name may shine upon the coffin! The
+proverb says, when one suddenly feels a cold shudder, "now death passes
+over my grave." The shudder is still colder when the thoughts pass over
+the graves of our best friends.
+
+I spent a few days at Count Moltke's, at Glorup; strolling players were
+acting some of my dramatic works at one of the nearest provincial towns.
+I did not see them; country life firmly withheld me. There is something
+in the late autumn poetically beautiful; when the leaf is fallen from
+the tree, and the sun shines still upon the green grass, and the bird
+twitters, one may often fancy that it is a spring-day; thus certainly
+also has the old man moments in his autumn in which his heart dreams of
+spring.
+
+I passed only one day in Odense--I feel myself there more of a stranger
+than in the great cities of Germany. As a child I was solitary, and had
+therefore no youthful friend; most of the families whom I knew have died
+out; a new generation passes along the streets; and the streets even
+are altered. The later buried have concealed the miserable graves of my
+parents. Everything is changed. I took one of my childhood's rambles to
+the Marian-heights which had belonged to the Iversen family; but this
+family is dispersed; unknown faces looked out from the windows. How many
+youthful thoughts have been here exchanged!
+
+One of the young girls who at that time sat quietly there with beaming
+eyes and listened to my first poem, when I came here in the summer time
+as a scholar from Slagelse, sits now far quieter in noisy Copenhagen,
+and has thence sent out her first writings into the world. Her German
+publisher thought that some introductory words from me might be useful
+to them, and I, the stranger, but the almost too kindly received, have
+introduced the works of this clever girl into Germany.
+
+It is Henriette Hanck of whom I speak, the authoress of "Aunt Anna,"
+and "An Author's Daughter." [Footnote: Since these pages were written, I
+have received from home the news of her death, in July, 1846. She was an
+affectionate daughter to her parents, and was, besides this, possessed
+of a deeply poetical mind. In her I have lost a true friend from the
+years of childhood, one who had felt an interest and a sisterly regard
+for me, both in my good and my evil days.] I visited her birth-place
+when the first little circle paid me homage and gave me joy. But all was
+strange there, I myself a stranger.
+
+The ducal family of Augustenburg was now at Castle Gravenstein; they
+were informed of my arrival, and all the favor and the kindness which
+was shown to me on the former occasion at Augustenburg, was here renewed
+in rich abundance. I remained here fourteen days, and it was as if these
+were an announcement of all the happiness which should meet me when I
+arrived in Germany. The country around here is of the most picturesque
+description; vast woods, cultivated uplands in perpetual variety, with
+the winding shore of the bay and the many quiet inland lakes. Even the
+floating mists of autumn lent to the landscape a some what picturesque,
+something strange to the islander. Everything here is on a larger scale
+than on the island. Beautiful was it without, glorious was it within. I
+wrote here a new little story. The Girl with the Brimstone-matches; the
+only thing which I wrote upon this journey. Receiving the invitation
+to come often to Gravenstein and Augustenburg, I left, with a grateful
+heart, a place where I had spent such beautiful and such happy days.
+
+Now, no longer the traveller goes at a snail's pace through the deep
+sand over the heath; the railroad conveys him in a few hours to Altona
+and Hamburg. The circle of my friends there is increased within the last
+years. The greater part of my time I spent with my oldest friends Count
+Hoik, and the resident Minister Bille, and with Zeise, the excellent
+translator of my stories. Otto Speckter, who is full of genius,
+surprised me by his bold, glorious drawings for my stories; he had made
+a whole collection of them, six only of which were known to me. The
+same natural freshness which shows itself in every one of his works,
+and makes them all little works of art, exhibits itself in his whole
+character. He appears to possess a patriarchal family, an affectionate
+old father, and gifted sisters, who love him with their whole souls. I
+wished one evening to go to the theatre; it was scarcely a quarter of an
+hour before the commencement of the opera: Speckter accompanied me, and
+on our way we came up to an elegant house.
+
+"We must first go in here, dear friend," said he; "a wealthy family
+lives here, friends of mine, and friends of your stories; the children
+will be happy."
+
+"But the opera," said I.
+
+"Only for two minutes," returned he; and drew me into the house,
+mentioned my name, and the circle of children collected around me.
+
+"And now tell us a tale," said he; "only one."
+
+I told one, and then hastened away to the theatre.
+
+"That was an extraordinary visit," said I.
+
+"An excellent one; one entirely out of the common way; one entirely out
+of the common way!" said he exultingly; "only think; the children are
+full of Andersen and his stories; he suddenly makes his appearance
+amongst them, tells one of them himself, and then is gone! vanished!
+That is of itself like a fairy-tale to the children, that will remain
+vividly in their remembrance."
+
+I myself was amused by it.
+
+In Oldenburg my own little room, home-like and comfortable, was awaiting
+me. Hofrath von Eisendecker and his well-informed lady, whom, among all
+my foreign friends I may consider as my most sympathizing, expected
+me. I had promised to remain with them a fortnight, but I stayed much
+longer. A house where the best and the most intellectual people of a
+city meet, is an agreeable place of residence, and such a one had I
+here. A deal of social intercourse prevailed in the little city, and the
+theatre, in which certainly either opera or ballet was given, is one
+of the most excellent in Germany. The ability of Gall, the director, is
+sufficiently known, and unquestionably the nominationof the poet Mosen
+has a great and good influence. I have to thank him for enabling me
+to see one of the classic pieces of Germany, "Nathan the Wise," the
+principal part in which was played by Kaiser, who is as remarkable for
+his deeply studied and excellent tragic acting, as for his readings.
+
+Moses, who somewhat resembles Alexander Dumas, with his half African
+countenance, and brown sparkling eyes, although he was suffering in
+body, was full of life and soul, and we soon understood one another. A
+trait of his little son affected me. He had listened to me with great
+devotion, as I read one of my stories; and when on the last day I was
+there, I took leave, the mother said that he must give me his hand,
+adding, that probably a long time must pass before he would see me
+again, the boy burst into tears. In the evening, when Mosen came into
+the theatre, he said to me, "My little Erick has two tin soldiers; one
+of them he has given me for you, that you may take him with you on your
+journey."
+
+The tin soldier has faithfully accompanied me; he is a Turk: probably
+some day he may relate his travels.
+
+Mosen wrote in the dedication of his "John of Austria," the following
+lines to me:--
+
+  Once a little bird flew over
+    From the north sea's dreary strand;
+  Singing, flew unto me over,
+    Singing M rchen through the land.
+  Farewell! yet again bring hither
+    Thy warm heart and song together.
+
+Here I again met with Mayer, who has described Naples and the
+Neapolitans so charmingly. My little stories interested him so much
+that he had written a little treaties on them for Germany, Kapellmeister
+Pott, and my countryman Jerndorff, belong to my earlier friends. I made
+every day new acquaintance, because all houses were open to me through
+the family with whom I was staying. Even the Grand Duke was so generous
+as to have me invited to a concert at the palace the day after my
+arrival, and later I had the honor of being asked to dinner. I received
+in this foreign court, especially, many unlooked-for favors. At the
+Eisendeckers and at the house of the parents of my friend Beaulieu--the
+Privy-Counsellor Beaulieu, at Oldenburg, I heard several times my little
+stones read in German.
+
+I can read Danish very well, as it ought to be read, and I can give to
+it perfectly the expression which ought to be given in reading; there
+is in the Danish language a power which cannot be transfused into
+a translation; the Danish language is peculiarly excellent for this
+species of fiction. The stories have a something strange to me in
+German; it is difficult for me in reading it to put my Danish soul into
+it; my pronunciation of the German also is feeble, and with particular
+words I must, as it were, use an effort to bring them out--and yet
+people everywhere in Germany have had great interest in hearing me read
+them aloud. I can very well believe that the foreign pronunciation in
+the reading of these tales may be easily permitted, because this foreign
+manner approaches, in this instance, to the childlike; it gives
+a natural coloring to the reading. I saw everywhere that the most
+distinguished men and women of the most highly cultivated minds,
+listened to me with interest; people entreated me to read, and I did so
+willingly. I read for the first time my stories in a foreign tongue,
+and at a foreign court, before the Grand Duke of Oldenburg and a little
+select circle.
+
+The winter soon came on; the meadows which lay under water, and which
+formed large lakes around the city, were already covered with thick
+ice; the skaters flew over it, and I yet remained in Oldenburg among
+my hospitable friends. Days and evenings slid rapidly away; Christmas
+approached, and this season I wished to spend in Berlin. But what are
+distances in our days?--the steam-carriage goes from Hanover to Berlin
+in one day! I must away from the beloved ones, from children and old
+people, who were near, as it were, to my heart.
+
+I was astonished in the highest degree on taking leave of the Grand
+Duke, to receive from him, as a mark of his favor and as a keepsake, a
+valuable ring. I shall always preserve it, like every other remembrance
+of this country, where I have found and where I possess true friends.
+
+When I was in Berlin on the former occasion, I was invited, as the
+author of the Improvisatore, to the Italian Society, into which only
+those who have visited Italy can be admitted. Here I saw Rauch for the
+first time, who with his white hair and his powerful, manly figure,
+is not unlike Thorwaldsen. Nobody introduced me to him, and I did not
+venture to present myself, and therefore walked alone about his studio,
+like the other strangers. Afterwards I became personally acquainted
+with him at the house of the Prussian Ambassador, in Copenhagen; I now
+hastened to him.
+
+He was in the highest degree captivated by my little stories, pressed me
+to his breast, and expressed the highest praise, but which was honestly
+meant. Such a momentary estimation or over-estimation from a man of
+genius erases many a dark shadow from the mind. I received from Rauch my
+first welcome in Berlin: he told me what a large circle of friends I had
+in the capital of Prussia. I must acknowledge that it was so. They were
+of the noblest in mind as well as the first in rank, in art, and in
+science. Alexander von Humboldt, Prince Radziwil, Savigny, and many
+others never to be forgotten.
+
+I had already, on the former occasion, visited the brothers Grimm, but I
+had not at that time made much progress with the acquaintance. I had not
+brought any letters of introduction to them with me, because people had
+told me, and I myself believed it, that if I were known by any body
+in Berlin, it must be the brothers Grimm. I therefore sought out their
+residence. The servant-maid asked me with which of the brothers I wished
+to speak.
+
+"With the one who has written the most," said I, because I did not know,
+at that time, which of them had most interested himself in the M rchen.
+
+"Jacob is the most learned," said the maidservant.
+
+"Well, then, take me to him."
+
+I entered the room, and Jacob Grimm, with his knowing and
+strongly-marked countenance, stood before me.
+
+"I come to you," said I, "without letters of introduction, because I
+hope that my name is not wholly unknown to you."
+
+"Who are you?" asked he.
+
+I told him, and Jacob Grimm said, in a half-embarrassed voice, "I do not
+remember to have heard this name; what have you written?"
+
+It was now my turn to be embarrassed in a high degree: but I now
+mentioned my little stories.
+
+"I do not know them," said he; "but mention to me some other of your
+writings, because I certainly must have heard them spoken of."
+
+I named the titles of several; but he shook his head. I felt myself
+quite unlucky.
+
+"But what must you think of me," said I, "that I come to you as a total
+stranger, and enumerate myself what I have written: you must know me!
+There has been published in Denmark a collection of the M rchen of all
+nations, which is dedicated to you, and in it there is at least one
+story of mine."
+
+"No," said he good-humoredly, but as much embarrassed as myself; "I have
+not read even that, but it delights me to make your acquaintance; allow
+me to conduct you to my brother Wilhelm?"
+
+"No, I thank you," said I, only wishing now to get away; I had fared
+badly enough with one brother. I pressed his hand and hurried from the
+house.
+
+That same month Jacob Grimm went to Copenhagen; immediately on his
+arrival, and while yet in his travelling dress, did the amiable kind man
+hasten up to me. He now knew me, and he came to me with cordiality. I
+was just then standing and packing my clothes in a trunk for a journey
+to the country; I had only a few minutes time: by this means my
+reception of him was just as laconic as had been his of me in Berlin.
+
+Now, however, we met in Berlin as old acquaintance. Jacob Grimm is one
+of those characters whom one must love and attach oneself to.
+
+One evening, as I was reading one of my little stories at the Countess
+Bismark-Bohlen's, there was in the little circle one person in
+particular who listened with evident fellowship of feeling, and
+who expressed himself in a peculiar and sensible manner on the
+subject,--this was Jacob's brother, Wilhelm Grimm.
+
+"I should have known you very well, if you had come to me," said he,
+"the last time you were here."
+
+I saw these two highly-gifted and amiable brothers almost daily; the
+circles into which I was invited seemed also to be theirs, and it was my
+desire and pleasure that they should listen to my little stories, that
+they should participate in them, they whose names will be always spoken
+as long as the German _Volks M rchen_ are read.
+
+The fact of my not being known to Jacob Grimm on my first visit to
+Berlin, had so disconcerted me, that when any one asked me whether I had
+been well received in this city, I shook my head doubtfully and said,
+"but Grimm did not know me."
+
+I was told that Tieck was ill--could see no one; I therefore only
+sent in my card. Some days afterwards I met at a friend's house, where
+Rauch's birth-day was being celebrated, Tieck, the sculptor, who told me
+that his brother had lately waited two hours for me at dinner. I went
+to him and discovered that he had sent me an invitation, which, however,
+had been taken to a wrong inn. A fresh invitation was given, and I
+passed some delightfully cheerful hours with Raumer the historian, and
+with the widow and daughter of Steffens. There is a music in Tieck's
+voice, a spirituality in his intelligent eyes, which age cannot lessen,
+but, on the contrary, must increase. The Elves, perhaps the most
+beautiful story which has been conceived in our time, would alone be
+sufficient, had Tieck written nothing else, to make his name immortal.
+As the author of _M rchen_, I bow myself before him, the elder and The
+master, and who was the first German poet, who many years before pressed
+me to his breast, as if it were to consecrate me, to walk in the same
+path with himself.
+
+The old friends had all to be visited; but the number of new ones grew
+with each day. One invitation followed another. It required considerable
+physical power to support so much good-will. I remained in Berlin
+about three weeks, and the time seemed to pass more rapidly with each
+succeeding day. I was, as it were, overcome by kindness. I, at
+length, had no other prospect for repose than to seat myself in a
+railway-carriage, and fly away out of the country.
+
+And yet amid these social festivities, with all the amiable zeal and
+interest that then was felt for me, I had one disengaged evening; one
+evening on which I suddenly felt solitude in its most oppressive form;
+Christmas-eve, that very evening of all others on which I would
+most willingly witness something festal, willingly stand beside a
+Christmas-tree, gladdening myself with the joy of children, and seeing
+the parents joyfully become children again. Every one of the many
+families in which I in truth felt that I was received as a relation, had
+fancied, as I afterwards discovered, that I must be invited out; but
+I sat quite alone in my room at the inn, and thought on home. I seated
+myself at the open window, and gazed up to the starry heavens, which was
+the Christmas-tree that was lighted for me.
+
+"Father in Heaven," I prayed, as the children do, "what dost thou give
+to me!"
+
+When the friends heard of my solitary Christmas night, there were on the
+following evening many Christmas-trees lighted, and on the last evening
+in the year, there was planted for me alone, a little tree with its
+lights, and its beautiful presents--and that was by Jenny Lind. The
+whole company consisted of herself, her attendant, and me; we three
+children from the north were together on Sylvester-eve, and I was the
+child for which the Christmas-tree was lighted. She rejoiced with the
+feeling of a sister in my good fortune in Berlin; and I felt almost
+pride in the sympathy of such a pure, noble, and womanly being.
+Everywhere her praise resounded, not merely as a singer, but also as a
+woman; the two combined awoke a real enthusiasm for her.
+
+It does one good both in mind and heart to see that which is glorious
+understood and beloved. In one little anecdote contributing to her
+triumph I was myself made the confidant.
+
+One morning as I looked out of my window _unter den Linden_, I saw a man
+under one of the trees, half hidden, and shabbily dressed, who took a
+comb out of his pocket, smoothed his hair, set his neckerchief straight,
+and brushed his coat with his hand; I understood that bashful poverty
+which feels depressed by its shabby dress. A moment after this, there
+was a knock at my door, and this same man entered. It was W----, the
+poet of nature, who is only a poor tailor, but who has a truly poetical
+mind. Rellstab and others in Berlin have mentioned him with honor; there
+is something healthy in his poems, among which several of a sincerely
+religious character may be found. He had read that I was in Berlin, and
+wished now to visit me. We sat together on the sofa and conversed: there
+was such an amiable contentedness, such an unspoiled and good tone of
+mind about him, that I was sorry not to be rich in order that I might do
+something for him. I was ashamed of offering him the little that I could
+give; in any case I wished to put it in as agreeable a form as I could.
+I asked him whether I might invite him to hear Jenny Lind.
+
+"I have already heard her," said he smiling; "I had, it is true, no
+money to buy a ticket; but I went to the leader of the supernumeraries,
+and asked whether I might not act as a supernumerary for one evening in
+Norma: I was accepted and habited as a Roman soldier, with a long sword
+by my side, and thus got to the theatre, where I could hear her better
+than any body else, for I stood close to her. Ah, how she sung, how she
+played! I could not help crying; but they were angry at that: the leader
+forbade and would not let me again make my appearance, because no one
+must weep on the stage."
+
+With the exception of the theatre, I had very little time to visit
+collections of any kind or institutions of art. The able and amiable
+Olfers, however, the Director of the Museum, enabled me to pay a rapid
+but extremely interesting visit to that institution. Olfers himself
+was my conductor; we delayed our steps only for the most interesting
+objects, and there are here not a few of these; his remarks threw light
+upon my mind,--for this therefore I am infinitely obliged to him.
+
+I had the happiness of visiting the Princess of Prussia many times; the
+wing of the castle in which she resided was so comfortable, and yet like
+a fairy palace. The blooming winter-garden, where the fountain splashed
+among the moss at the foot of the statue, was close beside the room in
+which the kind-hearted children smiled with their soft blue eyes. On
+taking leave she honored me with a richly bound album, in which, beneath
+the picture of the palace, she wrote her name. I shall guard this volume
+as a treasure of the soul; it is not the gift which has a value only,
+but also the manner in which it is given. One forenoon I read to her
+several of my little stories, and her noble husband listened kindly:
+Prince P ckler-Muskau also was present.
+
+A few days after my arrival in Berlin, I had the honor to be invited to
+the royal table. As I was better acquainted with Humboldt than any one
+there, and he it was who had particularly interested himself about me, I
+took my place at his side. Not only on account of his high intellectual
+character, and his amiable and polite behavior, but also from his
+infinite kindness towards me, during the whole of my residence in
+Berlin, is he become unchangeably dear to me.
+
+The King received me most graciously, and said that during his stay
+in Copenhagen he had inquired after me, and had heard that I was
+travelling. He expressed a great interest in my novel of Only a Fiddler;
+her Majesty the Queen also showed herself graciously and kindly disposed
+towards me. I had afterwards the happiness of being invited to spend
+an evening at the palace at Potsdam; an evening which is full of rich
+remembrance and never to be forgotten! Besides the ladies and gentlemen
+in waiting, Humboldt and myself were only invited. A seat was assigned
+to me at the table of their Majesties, exactly the place, said the
+Queen, where Oehlenschl ger had sat and read his tragedy of Dina. I read
+four little stories, the Fir-Tree, the Ugly Duckling, the Ball and
+the Top, and The Swineherd. The King listened with great interest, and
+expressed himself most wittily on the subject. He said, how beautiful he
+thought the natural scenery of Denmark, and how excellently he had seen
+one of Holberg's comedies performed.
+
+It was so deliciously pleasant in the royal apartment,--gentle eyes were
+gazing at me, and I felt that they all wished me well. When at night I
+was alone in my chamber, my thoughts were so occupied with this evening,
+and my mind in such a state of excitement, that I could not sleep.
+Everything seemed to me like a fairy tale. Through the whole night the
+chimes sounded in the tower, and the aerial music mingled itself with my
+thoughts.
+
+I received still one more proof of the favor and kindness of the King
+of Prussia towards me, on the evening before my departure from the city.
+The order of the Red Eagle, of the third class, was conferred upon me.
+Such a mark of honor delights certainly every one who receives it.
+I confess candidly that I felt myself honored in a high degree.
+I discerned in it an evident token of the kindness of the noble,
+enlightened King towards me: my heart is filled with gratitude. I
+received this mark of honor exactly on the birth-day of my benefactor
+Collin, the 6th of January; this day has now a twofold festal
+significance for me. May God fill with gladness the mind of the royal
+donor who wished to give me pleasure!
+
+The last evening was spent in a warm-hearted circle, for the greater
+part, of young people. My health was drunk; a poem, Der M rchenk/nig,
+declaimed. It was not until late in the night that I reached home, that
+I might set off early in the morning by railroad.
+
+I have here given in part a proof of the favor and kindness which
+was shown to me in Berlin: I feel like some one who has received a
+considerable sum for a certain object from a large assembly, and now
+would give an account thereof. I might still add many other names, as
+well from the learned world, as Theodor, M gge, Geibel, H ring, etc.,
+as from the social circle;--the reckoning is too large. God give me
+strength for that which I now have to perform, after I have, as an
+earnest of good will, received such a richly abundant sum.
+
+After a journey of a day and night I was once more in Weimar, with my
+noble Hereditary Grand Duke. What a cordial reception! A heart rich in
+goodness, and a mind full of noble endeavors, live in this young prince.
+I have no words for the infinite favor, which, during my residence here,
+I received daily from the family of the Grand Duke, but my whole heart
+is full of devotion. At the court festival, as well as in the familiar
+family circle, I had many evidences of the esteem in which I was held.
+Beaulieu cared for me with the tenderness of a brother. It was to me
+a month-long Sabbath festival. Never shall I forget the quiet evenings
+spent with him, when friend spoke freely to friend.
+
+My old friends were also unchanged; the wise and able Sch/ll, as well as
+Schober, joined them also. Jenny Lind came to Weimar; I heard her at the
+court concerts and at the theatre; I visited with her the places which
+are become sacred through Goethe and Schiller: we stood together beside
+their coffins, where Chancellor von Muller led us. The Austrian poet,
+Rollet, who met us here for the first time, wrote on this subject a
+sweet poem, which will serve me as a visible remembrance of this hour
+and this place. People lay lovely flowers in their books, and as such, I
+lay in here this verse of his:--
+
+Weimar, 29th January, 1846.
+
+  M rchen rose, which has so often
+    Charmed me with thy fragrant breath;
+  Where the prince, the poets slumber,
+    Thou hast wreathed the hall of death.
+
+  And with thee beside each coffin,
+    In the death-hushed chamber pale,
+  I beheld a grief-enchanted,
+    Sweetly dreaming nightingale.
+
+  I rejoiced amid the stillness;
+    Gladness through my bosom past,
+  That the gloomy poets' coffins
+    Such a magic crowned at last.
+
+  And thy rose's summer fragrance
+    Floated round that chamber pale,
+  With the gentle melancholy
+    Of the grief-hushed nightingale.
+
+It was in the evening circle of the intellectual Froriep that I met, for
+the first time, with Auerbach, who then chanced to be staying in Weimar.
+His "Village Tales" interested me in the highest degree; I regard them
+as the most poetical, most healthy, and joyous production of the young
+German literature. He himself made the same agreeable impression
+upon me; there is something so frank and straightforward, and yet so
+sagacious, in his whole appearance, I might almost say, that he looks
+himself like a village tale, healthy to the core, body and soul, and his
+eyes beaming with honesty. We soon became friends--and I hope forever.
+
+My stay in Weimar was prolonged; it became ever more difficult to tear
+myself away. The Grand Duke's birth-day occurred at this time, and after
+attending all the festivities to which I was invited, I departed. I
+would and must be in Rome at Easter. Once more in the early morning, I
+saw the Hereditary Grand Duke, and, with a heart full of emotion, bade
+him farewell. Never, in presence of the world, will I forget the high
+position which his birth gives him, but I may say, as the very poorest
+subject may say of a prince, I love him as one who is dearest to my
+heart. God give him joy and bless him in his noble endeavors! A generous
+heart beats beneath the princely star.
+
+Beaulieu accompanied me to Jena. Here a hospitable home awaited me, and
+filled with beautiful memories from the time of Goethe, the house of the
+publisher Frommann. It was his kind, warm-hearted sister, who had shown
+me such sympathy in Berlin; the brother was not here less kind.
+
+The Holstener Michelsen, who has a professorship at Jena, assembled a
+number of friends one evening, and in a graceful and cordial toast for
+me, expressed his sense of the importance of Danish literature, and the
+healthy and natural spirit which flourished in it.
+
+In Michelsen's house I also became acquainted with Professor Hase, who,
+one evening having heard some of my little stories, seemed filled with
+great kindness towards me. What he wrote in this moment of interest on
+an album leaf expresses this sentiment:
+
+"Schelling--not he who now lives in Berlin, but he who lives an immortal
+hero in the world of mind--once said: 'Nature is the visible spirit.'
+This spirit, this unseen nature, last evening was again rendered visible
+to me through your little tales. If on the one hand you penetrate deeply
+into the mysteries of nature; know and understand the language of birds,
+and what are the feelings of a fir-tree or a daisy, so that each seems
+to be there on its own account, and we and our children sympathize with
+them in their joys and sorrows; yet, on the other hand, all is but the
+image of mind; and the human heart in its infinity, trembles and throbs
+throughout. May this fountain in the poet's heart, which God has lent
+you, still for a time pour forth this refreshingly, and may these
+stories in the memories of the Germanic nations, become the legends of
+the people!" That object, for which as a writer of poetical fictions, I
+must strive after, is contained in these last lines.
+
+It is also to Hase and the gifted improvisatore, Professor Wolff of
+Jena, to whom I am most indebted for the appearance of a uniform German
+edition of my writings.
+
+This was all arranged on my arrival at Leipzig: several hours of
+business were added to my traveller's mode of life. The city of
+bookselling presented me with her bouquet, a sum of money; but she
+presented me with even more. I met again with Brockhaus, and passed
+happy hours with Mendelssohn, that glorious man of genius. I heard
+him play again and again; it seemed to me that his eyes, full of soul,
+looked into the very depths of my being. Few men have more the stamp
+of the inward fire than he. A gentle, friendly wife, and beautiful
+children, make his rich, well-appointed house, blessed and pleasant.
+When he rallied me about the Stork, and its frequent appearance in my
+writings, there was something so childlike and amiable revealed in this
+great artist!
+
+I also met again my excellent countryman Gade, whose compositions have
+been so well received in Germany. I took him the text for a new opera
+which I had written, and which I hope to see brought out on the German
+stage. Gade had written the music to my drama of Agnete and the Merman,
+compositions which were very successful. Auerbach, whom I again found
+here, introduced me to many agreeable circles. I met with the composer
+Kalliwoda, and with K hne, whose charming little son immediately won my
+heart.
+
+On my arrival at Dresden I instantly hastened to my motherly friend,
+the Baroness von Decken. That was a joyous hearty welcome! One equally
+cordial I met with from Dahl. I saw once more my Roman friend, the
+poet with word and color, Reineck, and met the kind-hearted Bendemann.
+Professor Grahl painted me. I missed, however, one among my olden
+friends, the poet Brunnow. With life and cordiality he received me the
+last time in his room, where stood lovely flowers; now these grew over
+his grave. It awakens a peculiar feeling, thus for once to meet on
+the journey of life, to understand and love each other, and then to
+part--until the journey for both is ended.
+
+I spent, to me, a highly interesting evening, with the royal family, who
+received me with extraordinary favor. Here also the most happy domestic
+life appeared to reign--a number of amiable children, all belonging to
+Prince Johann, were present. The least of the Princesses, a little girl,
+who knew that I had written the history of the Fir-tree, began very
+confidentially with--"Last Christmas we also had a Fir-tree, and it
+stood here in this room!" Afterwards, when she was led out before the
+other children, and had bade her parents and the King and Queen good
+night, she turned round at the half-closed door, and nodding to me in a
+friendly and familiar manner, said I was her Fairy-tale Prince.
+
+My story of Holger Danske led the conversation to the rich stores of
+legends which the north possesses. I related several, and explained the
+peculiar spirit of the fine scenery of Denmark. Neither in this royal
+palace did I feel the weight of ceremony; soft, gentle eyes shone
+upon me. My last morning in Dresden was spent with the Minister von
+K/nneritz, where I equally met with the most friendly reception.
+
+The sun shone warm: it was spring who was celebrating her arrival, as
+I rolled out of the dear city. Thought assembled in one amount all the
+many who had rendered my visits so rich and happy: it was spring around
+me, and spring in my heart.
+
+In Prague I had only one acquaintance, Professor Wiesenfeldt. But a
+letter from Dr. Carus in Dresden opened to me the hospitable house of
+Count Thun. The Archduke Stephan received me also in the most gracious
+manner; I found in him a young man full of intellect and heart.
+Besides it was a very interesting point of time when I left Prague. The
+military, who had been stationed there a number of years, were hastening
+to the railway, to leave for Poland, where disturbances had broken out.
+The whole city seemed in movement to take leave of its military friends;
+it was difficult to get through the streets which led to the railway.
+Many thousand soldiers were to be accommodated; at length the train was
+set in motion. All around the whole hill-side was covered with people;
+it looked like the richest Turkey carpet woven of men, women and
+children, all pressed together, head to head, and waving hats and
+handkerchiefs. Such a mass of human beings I never saw before, or at
+least, never at one moment surveyed them: such a spectacle could not be
+painted.
+
+We travelled the whole night through wide Bohemia: at every town stood
+groups of people; it was as though all the inhabitants had assembled
+themselves. Their brown faces, their ragged clothes, the light of their
+torches, their, to me, unintelligible language, gave to the whole a
+stamp of singularity. We flew through tunnel and over viaduct; the
+windows rattled, the signal whistle sounded, the steam horses snorted--I
+laid back my head at last in the carriage, and fell asleep under the
+protection of the god Morpheus.
+
+At Olm tz, where we had fresh carnages, a voice spoke my name--it was
+Walter Goethe! We had travelled together the whole night without knowing
+it. In Vienna we met often. Noble powers, true genius, live in Goethe's
+grandsons, in the composer as well as in the poet; but it is as if the
+greatness of their grandfather pressed upon them. Liszt was in Vienna,
+and invited me to his concert, in which otherwise it would have been
+impossible to find a place. I again heard his improvising of Robert! I
+again heard him, like a spirit of the storm, play with the chords: he
+is an enchanter of sounds who fills the imagination with astonishment.
+Ernst also was here; when I visited him he seized the violin, and this
+sang in tears the secret of a human heart.
+
+I saw the amiable Grillparzer again, and was frequently with the kindly
+Castelli, who just at this time had been made by the King of Denmark
+Knight of the Danebrog Order. He was full of joy at this, and begged me
+to tell my countrymen that every Dane should receive a hearty welcome
+from him. Some future summer he invited me to visit his grand country
+seat. There is something in Castelli so open and honorable, mingled with
+such good-natured humor, that one must like him: he appears to me the
+picture of a thorough Viennese. Under his portrait, which he gave me, he
+wrote the following little improvised verse in the style so peculiarly
+his own:
+
+  This portrait shall ever with loving eyes greet thee,
+    From far shall recall the smile of thy friend;
+  For thou, dearest Dane, 'tis a pleasure to meet thee,
+    Thou art one to be loved and esteemed to the end.
+
+Castelli introduced me to Seidl and Bauernfeld. At the Danisti
+ambassador's, Baron von L/wenstern, I met Zedlitz. Most of the shining
+stars of Austrian literature I saw glide past me, as people on a railway
+see church towers; you can still say you have seen them; and still
+retaining the simile of the stars, I can say, that in the Concordia
+Society I saw the entire galaxy. Here was a host of young growing
+intellects, and here were men of importance. At the house of Count
+Szechenye, who hospitably invited me, I saw his brother from Pest, whose
+noble activity in Hungary is known. This short meeting I account one
+of the most interesting events of my stay in Vienna; the man revealed
+himself in all his individuality, and his eye said that you must feel
+confidence in him.
+
+At my departure from Dresden her Majesty the Queen of Saxony had asked
+me whether I had introductions to any one at the Court of Vienna, and
+when I told her that I had not, the Queen was so gracious as to write
+a letter to her sister, the Archduchess Sophia of Austria. Her imperial
+Highness summoned me one evening, and received me in the most gracious
+manner. The dowager Empress, the widow of the Emperor Francis I., was
+present, and full of kindness and friendship towards me; also Prince
+Wasa, and the hereditary Archduchess of Hesse-Darmstadt. The remembrance
+of this evening will always remain dear and interesting to me. I read
+several of my little stories aloud--when I wrote them, I thought least
+of all that I should some day read them aloud in the imperial palace.
+
+Before my departure I had still another visit to make, and this was to
+the intellectual authoress, Frau von Weissenthurn. She had just left a
+bed of sickness and was still suffering, but wished to see me. As though
+she were already standing on the threshold of the realm of shades, she
+pressed my hand and said this was the last time we should ever see each
+other. With a soft motherly gaze she looked at me, and at parting her
+penetrating eye followed me to the door.
+
+With railway and diligence my route now led towards Triest. With steam
+the long train of carriages flies along the narrow rocky way, following
+all the windings of the river. One wonders that with all these abrupt
+turnings one is not dashed against the rock, or flung down into the
+roaring stream, and is glad when the journey is happily accomplished.
+But in the slow diligence one wishes its more rapid journey might
+recommence, and praise the powers of the age.
+
+At length Triest and the Adriatic sea lay before us; the Italian
+language sounded in our ears, but yet for me it was not Italy, the land
+of my desire. Meanwhile I was only a stranger here for a few hours; our
+Danish consul, as well as the consuls of Prussia and Oldenburg, to whom
+I was recommended, received me in the best possible manner. Several
+interesting acquaintances were made, especially with the Counts
+O'Donnell and Waldstein, the latter for me as a Dane having a peculiar
+interest, as being the descendant of that unfortunate Confitz Ulfeld
+and the daughter of Christian IV., Eleanore, the noblest of all Danish
+women. Their portraits hung in his room, and Danish memorials of that
+period were shown me. It was the first time I had ever seen Eleanore
+Ulfeld's portrait, and the melancholy smile on her lips seemed to say,
+"Poet, sing and free from chains which a hard age had cast upon him,
+for whom to live and to suffer was my happiness!" Before Oehlenschl ger
+wrote his Dina, which treats of an episode in Ulfeld's life, I was at
+work on this subject, and wished to bring it on the stage, but it was
+then feared this would not be allowed, and I gave it up--since then I
+have only written four lines on Ulfeld:--
+
+  Thy virtue was concealed, not so thy failings,
+  Thus did the world thy greatness never know,
+  Yet still love's glorious monument proclaims it,
+  That the best wife from thee would never go.
+
+On the Adriatic sea I, in thought, was carried back to Ulfeld's time and
+the Danish islands. This meeting with Count Waldstein and his ancestor's
+portrait brought me back to my poet's world, and I almost forgot that
+the following day I could be in the middle of Italy. In beautiful mild
+weather I went with the steam-boat to Ancona.
+
+It was a quiet starlight night, too beautiful to be spent in sleep. In
+the early morning the coast of Italy lay before us, the beautiful blue
+mountains with glittering snow. The sun shone warmly, the grass and the
+trees were so splendidly green. Last evening in Trieste, now in Ancona,
+in a city of the papal states,--that was almost like enchantment! Italy
+in all its picturesque splendor lay once more before me; spring had
+ripened all the fruit trees so that they had burst forth into blossom;
+every blade of grass in the field was filled with sunshine, the elm
+trees stood like caryatides enwreathed with vines, which shot forth
+green leaves, and above the luxuriance of foliage rose the wavelike
+blue mountains with their snow covering. In company with Count Paar from
+Vienna, the most excellent travelling companion, and a young nobleman
+from Hungary, I now travelled on with a vetturino for five days:
+solitary, and more picturesque than habitable inns among the
+Apennines were our night's quarters. At length the Campagna, with its
+thought-awakening desolation, lay before us.
+
+It was the 31st of March, 1846, when I again saw Rome, and for the third
+time in my life should reach this city of the world. I felt so happy,
+so penetrated with thankfulness and joy; how much more God had given me
+than a thousand others--nay, than to many thousands! And even in this
+very feeling there is a blessing--where joy is very great, as in
+the deepest grief, there is only God on whom one can lean! The first
+impression was--I can find no other word for it--adoration. When day
+unrolled for me my beloved Rome, I felt what I cannot express more
+briefly or better than I did in a letter to a friend: "I am growing here
+into the very ruins, I live with the petrified gods, and the roses are
+always blooming, and the church bells ringing--and yet Rome is not
+the Rome it was thirteen years ago when I first was here. It is as if
+everything were modernized, the ruins even, grass and bushes are cleared
+away. Everything is made so neat; the very life of the people seems to
+have retired; I no longer hear the tamborines in the streets, no longer
+see the young girls dancing their Saltarella, even in the Campagna
+intelligence has entered by invisible railroads; the peasant no longer
+believes as he used to do. At the Easter festival I saw great numbers of
+the people from the Campagna standing before St. Peters whilst the
+Pope distributed his blessing, just as though they had been Protestant
+strangers. This was repulsive to my feelings, I felt an impulse to kneel
+before the invisible saint. When I was here thirteen years ago, all
+knelt; now reason had conquered faith. Ten years later, when the
+railways will have brought cities still nearer to each other, Rome will
+be yet more changed. But in all that happens, everything is for the
+best; one always must love Rome; it is like a story book, one is always
+discovering new wonders, and one lives in imagination and reality."
+
+The first time I travelled to Italy I had no eyes for sculpture; in
+Paris the rich pictures drew me away from the statues; for the first
+time when I came to Florence and stood before the Venus de Medicis, I
+felt as Thorwaldsen expressed, "the snow melted away from my eyes;" and
+a new world of art rose before me. And now at my third sojourn in Rome,
+after repeated wanderings through the Vatican, I prize the statues far
+higher than the paintings. But at what other places as at Rome, and to
+some degree in Naples, does this art step forth so grandly into life!
+One is carried away by it, one learns to admire nature in the work of
+art, the beauty of form becomes spiritual.
+
+Among the many clever and beautiful things which I saw exhibited in the
+studios of the young artists, two pieces of sculpture were what most
+deeply impressed themselves on my memory; and these were in the studio
+of my countryman Jerichau. I saw his group of Hercules and Hebe, which
+had been spoken of with such enthusiasm in the Allgemeine Zeitung and
+other German papers, and which, through its antique repose, and its
+glorious beauty, powerfully seized upon me. My imagination was filled
+by it, and yet I must place Jerichau's later group, the Fighting Hunter,
+still higher. It is formed after the model, as though it had sprung from
+nature. There lies in it a truth, a beauty, and a grandeur which I am
+convinced will make his name resound through many lands!
+
+I have known him from the time when he was almost a boy. We were both of
+us born on the same island: he is from the little town of Assens. We met
+in Copenhagen. No one, not even he himself, knew what lay within him;
+and half in jest, half in earnest, he spoke of the combat with himself
+whether he should go to America and become a savage, or to Rome and
+become an artist--painter or sculptor; that he did not yet know. His
+pencil was meanwhile thrown away: he modelled in clay, and my bust was
+the first which he made. He received no travelling stipendium from
+the Academy. As far as I know, it was a noble-minded woman, an artist
+herself, unprovided with means, who, from the interest she felt for the
+spark of genius she observed in him, assisted him so far that he reached
+Italy by means of a trading vessel. In the beginning he worked in
+Thorwaldsen's atelier. During a journey of several years, he has
+doubtless experienced the struggles of genius and the galling fetters of
+want; but now the star of fortune shines upon him. When I came to Rome,
+I found him physically suffering and melancholy. He was unable to bear
+the warm summers of Italy; and many people said he could not recover
+unless he visited the north, breathed the cooler air, and took
+sea-baths. His praises resounded through the papers, glorious works
+stood in his atelier; but man does not live on heavenly bread alone.
+There came one day a Russian Prince, I believe, and he gave a commission
+for the Hunter. Two other commissions followed on the same day.
+Jerichau came full of rejoicing and told this to me. A few days after
+he travelled with his wife, a highly gifted painter, to Denmark, from
+whence, strengthened body and soul, he returned, with the winter, to
+Rome, where the strokes of his chisel will resound so that, I hope, the
+world will hear them. My heart will beat joyfully with them!
+
+I also met in Rome, Kolberg, another Danish sculptor, until now only
+known in Denmark, but there very highly thought of, a scholar of
+Thorwaldsen's and a favorite of that great master. He honored me by
+making my bust. I also sat once more with the kindly K chler, and saw
+the forms fresh as nature spread themselves over the canvas.
+
+I sat once again with the Roman people in the amusing puppet theatre,
+and heard the children's merriment. Among the German artists, as well as
+among the Swedes and my own countrymen, I met with a hearty reception.
+My birth-day was joyfully celebrated. Frau von Goethe, who was in
+Rome, and who chanced to be living in the very house where I brought
+my Improvisatore into the world, and made him spend his first years of
+childhood, sent me from thence a large, true Roman bouquet, a fragrant
+mosaic. The Swedish painter, S/dermark, proposed my health to the
+company whom the Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians had invited me to meet.
+From my friends I received some pretty pictures and friendly keepsakes.
+
+The Hanoverian minister, K stner, to whose friendship I am indebted
+for many pleasant hours, is an extremely agreeable man, possessed of no
+small talent for poetry, music, and painting. At his house I really saw
+for the first time flower-painting elevated by a poetical idea. In one
+of his rooms he has introduced an arabesque of flowers which presents
+us with the flora of the whole year. It commences with the first spring
+flowers, the crocus, the snow drop, and so on; then come the summer
+flowers, then the autumn, and at length the garland ends with the red
+berries and yellow-brown leaves of December.
+
+Constantly in motion, always striving to employ every moment and to see
+everything, I felt myself at last very much affected by the unceasing
+sirocco. The Roman air did not agree with me, and I hastened, therefore,
+as soon as I had seen the illumination of the dome and the _girandola_,
+immediately after the Easter festival, through Terracina to Naples.
+Count Paar travelled with me. We entered St. Lucia: the sea lay before
+us; Vesuvius blazed. Those were glorious evenings! moonlight nights! It
+was as if the heavens had elevated themselves above and the stars were
+withdrawn. What effect of light! In the north the moon scatters silver
+over the water: here it was gold. The circulating lanterns of the
+lighthouse now exhibited their dazzling light, now were totally
+extinguished. The torches of the fishing-boats threw their
+obelisk-formed blaze along the surface of the water, or else the boat
+concealed them like a black shadow, below which the surface of the water
+was illuminated. One fancied one could see to the bottom, where fishes
+and plants were in motion. Along the street itself thousands of lights
+were burning in the shops of the dealers in fruit and fish. Now came a
+troop of children with lights, and went in procession to the church of
+St. Lucia. Many fell down with their lights; but above the whole stood,
+like the hero of this great drama of light, Vesuvius with his blood-red
+flame and his illumined cloud of smoke.
+
+I visited the islands of Capri and Ischia once more; and, as the heat
+of the sun and the strong sirocco made a longer residence in Naples
+oppressive to me, I went to Sarrento, Tasso's city, where the foliage of
+the vine cast a shade, and where the air appears to me lighter. Here I
+wrote these pages. In Rome, by the bay of Naples and amid the Pyrenees,
+I put on paper the story of my life.
+
+The well-known festival of the Madonna dell' Arco called me again to
+Naples, where I took up my quarters at an hotel in the middle of the
+city, near the Toledo Street, and found an excellent host and hostess.
+I had already resided here, but only in the winter. I had now to see
+Naples in its summer heat and with all its wild tumult, but in what
+degree I had never imagined. The sun shone down with its burning heat
+into the narrow streets, in at the balcony door. It was necessary to
+shut up every place: not a breath of air stirred. Every little corner,
+every spot in the street on which a shadow fell was crowded with working
+handicraftsmen, who chattered loudly and merrily; the carriages rolled
+past; the drivers screamed; the tumult of the people roared like a sea
+in the other streets; the church bells sounded every minute; my opposite
+neighbor, God knows who he was, played the musical scale from morning
+till evening. It was enough to make one lose one's senses!
+
+The sirocco blew its boiling-hot breath and I was perfectly overcome.
+There was not another room to be had at St. Lucia, and the sea-bathing
+seemed rather to weaken than to invigorate me. I went therefore again
+into the country; but the sun burned there with the same beams; yet
+still the air there was more elastic, yet for all that it was to me
+like the poisoned mantle of Hercules, which, as it were, drew out of me
+strength and spirit. I, who had fancied that I must be precisely a child
+of the sun, so firmly did my heart always cling to the south, was forced
+to acknowledge that the snow of the north was in my body, that the snow
+melted, and that I was more and more miserable.
+
+Most strangers felt as I myself did in this, as the Neapolitans
+themselves said, unusually hot summer; the greater number went away. I
+also would have done the same, but I was obliged to wait several days
+for a letter of credit; it had arrived at the right time, but lay
+forgotten in the hands of my banker. Yet there was a deal for me to see
+in Naples; many houses were open to me. I tried whether the will were
+not stronger than the Neapolitan heat, but I fell into such a nervous
+state in consequence, that till the time of my departure I was obliged
+to lie quietly in my hot room, where the night brought no coolness. From
+the morning twilight to midnight roared the noise of bells, the cry
+of the people, the trampling of horses on the stone pavement, and the
+before-mentioned practiser of the scale--it was like being on the rack;
+and this caused me to give up my journey to Spain, especially as I was
+assured, for my consolation, that I should find it just as warm there as
+here. The physician said that, at this season of the year, I could not
+sustain the journey.
+
+I took a berth in the steam-boat Castor for Marseilles; the vessel was
+full to overflowing with passengers; the whole quarter-deck, even the
+best place, was occupied by travelling carriages; under one of these I
+had my bed laid; many people followed my example, and the quarter-deck
+was soon covered with mattresses and carpets. It blew strongly; the wind
+increased, and in the second and third night raged to a perfect storm;
+the ship rolled from side to side like a cask in the open sea; the waves
+dashed on the ship's side and lifted up their broad heads above the
+bulwarks as if they would look in upon us. It was as if the carriages
+under which we lay would crush us to pieces, or else would be washed
+away by the sea. There was a lamentation, but I lay quiet, looked up at
+the driving clouds, and thought upon God and my beloved. When at length
+we reached Genoa most of the passengers went on land: I should have been
+willing enough to have followed their example, that I might go by Milan
+to Switzerland, but my letter of credit was drawn upon Marseilles and
+some Spanish sea-ports. I was obliged to go again on board. The sea was
+calm; the air fresh; it was the most glorious voyage along the charming
+Sardinian coast. Full of strength and new life I arrived at Marseilles,
+and, as I here breathed more easily, my longing to see Spain was again
+renewed. I had laid the plan of seeing this country last, as the bouquet
+of my journey. In the suffering state in which I had been I was obliged
+to give it up, but I was now better. I regarded it therefore as a
+pointing of the finger of heaven that I should be compelled to go to
+Marseilles, and determined to venture upon the journey. The steam-vessel
+to Barcelona had, in the meantime, just sailed, and several days must
+pass before another set out. I determined therefore to travel by short
+days' journeys through the south of France across the Pyrenees.
+
+Before leaving Marseilles, chance favored me with a short meeting with
+one of my friends from the North, and this was Ole Bull! He came from
+America, and was received in France with jubilees and serenades, of
+which I was myself a witness. At the _table d'h te_ in the _H tel des
+Empereurs_, where we both lodged, we flew towards each other. He told
+me what I should have expected least of all, that my works had also many
+friends in America, that people had inquired from him about me with the
+greatest interest, and that the English translations of my romances had
+been reprinted, and spread through the whole country in cheap editions.
+My name flown over the great ocean! I felt myself at this thought quite
+insignificant, but yet glad and happy; wherefore should I, in preference
+to so many thousand others, receive such happiness?
+
+I had and still have a feeling as though I were a poor peasant lad over
+whom a royal mantle is thrown. Yet I was and am made happy by all this!
+Is _this_ vanity, or does it show itself in these expressions of my joy?
+
+Ole Bull went to Algiers, I towards the Pyrenees. Through Provence,
+which looked to me quite Danish, I reached Nismes, where the grandeur
+of the splendid Roman amphitheatre at once carried me back to Italy. The
+memorials of antiquity in the south of France I have never heard praised
+as their greatness and number deserve; the so-called _Maison Quar e_ is
+still standing in all its splendor, like the Theseus Temple at Athens:
+Rome has nothing so well preserved.
+
+In Nismes dwells the baker Reboul, who writes the most charming
+poems: whoever may not chance to know him from these is, however, well
+acquainted with him through Lamartine's Journey to the East. I found him
+at the house, stepped into the bakehouse, and addressed myself to a
+man in shirt sleeves who was putting bread into the oven; it was Reboul
+himself! A noble countenance which expressed a manly character greeted
+me. When I mentioned my name, he was courteous enough to say he was
+acquainted with it through the Revue de Paris, and begged me to visit
+him in the afternoon, when he should be able to entertain me better.
+When I came again I found him in a little room which might be called
+almost elegant, adorned with pictures, casts and books, not alone French
+literature, but translations of the Greek classics. A picture on the
+wall represented his most celebrated poem, "The Dying Child," from
+Marmier's _Chansons du Nord_. He knew I had treated the same subject,
+and I told him that this was written in my school days. If in the
+morning I had found him the industrious baker, he now was the poet
+completely; he spoke with animation of the literature of his country,
+and expressed a wish to see the north, the scenery and intellectual life
+of which seemed to interest him. With great respect I took leave of a
+man whom the Muses have not meanly endowed, and who yet has good sense
+enough, spite of all the homage paid him, to remain steadfast to his
+honest business, and prefer being the most remarkable baker of Nismes to
+losing himself in Paris, after a short triumph, among hundreds of other
+poets.
+
+By railway I now travelled by way of Montpelier to Cette, with that
+rapidity which a train possesses in France; you fly there as though
+for a wager with the wild huntsman. I involuntarily remembered that at
+Basle, at the corner of a street where formerly the celebrated Dance
+of Death was painted, there is written up in large letters "Dance of
+Death," and on the opposite corner "Way to the Railroad." This singular
+juxtaposition just at the frontiers of France, gives play to the fancy;
+in this rushing flight it came into my thoughts; it seemed as though the
+steam whistle gave the signal to the dance. On German railways one does
+not have such wild fancies.
+
+The islander loves the sea as the mountaineer loves his mountains!
+
+Every sea-port town, however small it may be, receives in my eyes a
+peculiar charm from the sea. Was it the sea, in connexion perhaps with
+the Danish tongue, which sounded in my ears in two houses in Cette, that
+made this town so homelike to me? I know not, but I felt more in Denmark
+than in the south of France. When far from your country you enter a
+house where all, from the master and mistress to the servants, speak
+your own language, as was here the case, these home tones have a
+real power of enchantment: like the mantle of Faust, in a moment they
+transport you, house and all, into your own land. Here, however, there
+was no northern summer, but the hot sun of Naples; it might even have
+burnt Faust's cap. The sun's rays destroyed all strength. For many years
+there had not been such a summer, even here; and from the country round
+about arrived accounts of people who had died from the heat: the very
+nights were hot. I was told beforehand I should be unable to bear the
+journey in Spain. I felt this myself, but then Spain was to be the
+bouquet of my journey. I already saw the Pyrenees; the blue mountains
+enticed me--and one morning early I found myself on the steam-boat. The
+sun rose higher; it burnt above, it burnt from the expanse of waters,
+myriads of jelly-like medusas filled the river; it was as though the
+sun's rays had changed the whole sea into a heaving world of animal
+life; I had never before seen anything like it. In the Languedoc canal
+we had all to get into a large boat which had been constructed more for
+goods than for passengers. The deck was coveted with boxes and trunks,
+and these again occupied by people who sought shade under umbrellas.
+It was impossible to move; no railing surrounded this pile of boxes and
+people, which was drawn along by three or four horses attached by long
+ropes. Beneath in the cabins it was as crowded; people sat close to each
+other, like flies in a cup of sugar. A lady who had fainted from the
+heat and tobacco smoke, was carried in and laid upon the only unoccupied
+spot on the floor; she was brought here for air, but here there was
+none, spite of the number of fans in motion; there were no refreshments
+to be had, not even a drink of water, except the warm, yellow water
+which the canal afforded. Over the cabin windows hung booted legs, which
+at the same time that they deprived the cabin of light, seemed to give a
+substance to the oppressive air. Shut up in this place one had also the
+torment of being forced to listen to a man who was always trying to say
+something witty; the stream of words played about his lips as the canal
+water about the boat. I made myself a way through boxes, people, and
+umbrellas, and stood in a boiling hot air; on either side the prospect
+was eternally the same, green grass, a green tree, flood-gates--green
+grass, a green tree, flood-gates--and then again the same; it was enough
+to drive one insane.
+
+At the distance of a half-hour's journey from Beziers we were put on
+land; I felt almost ready to faint, and there was no carriage here,
+for the omnibus had not expected us so early; the sun burnt infernally.
+People say the south of France is a portion of Paradise; under the
+present circumstances it seemed to me a portion of hell with all its
+heat. In Beziers the diligence was waiting, but all the best places were
+already taken; and I here for the first, and I hope for the last
+time, got into the hinder part of such a conveyance. An ugly woman in
+slippers, and with a head-dress a yard high, which she hung up, took her
+seat beside me; and now came a singing sailor who had certainly drunk
+too many healths; then a couple of dirty fellows, whose first manoeuvre
+was to pull off their boots and coats and sit upon them, hot and dirty,
+whilst the thick clouds of dust whirled into the vehicle, and the sun
+burnt and blinded me. It was impossible to endure this farther than
+Narbonne; sick and suffering, I sought rest, but then came gensdarmes
+and demanded my passport, and then just as night began, a fire must
+needs break out in the neighboring village; the fire alarm resounded,
+the fire-engines rolled along, it was just as though all manner of
+tormenting spirits were let loose. From here as far as the Pyrenees
+there followed repeated demands for your passport, so wearisome that
+you know nothing like it even in Italy: they gave you as a reason, the
+nearness to the Spanish frontiers, the number of fugitives from thence,
+and several murders which had taken place in the neighborhood: all
+conduced to make the journey in my then state of health a real torment.
+
+I reached Perpignan. The sun had here also swept the streets of people,
+it was only when night came that they came forth, but then it was like a
+roaring stream, as though a real tumult were about to destroy the
+town. The human crowd moved in waves beneath my windows, a loud shout
+resounded; it pierced through my sick frame. What was that?--what did
+it mean? "Good evening, Mr. Arago!" resounded from the strongest voices,
+thousands repeated it, and music sounded; it was the celebrated
+Arago, who was staying in the room next to mine: the people gave him a
+serenade. Now this was the third I had witnessed on my journey. Arago
+addressed them from the balcony, the shouts of the people filled the
+streets. There are few evenings in my life when I have felt so ill as on
+this one, the tumult went through my nerves; the beautiful singing which
+followed could not refresh me. Ill as I was, I gave up every thought of
+travelling into Spain; I felt it would be impossible for me. Ah, if I
+could only recover strength enough to reach Switzerland! I was filled
+with horror at the idea of the journey back. I was advised to hasten as
+quickly as possible to the Pyrenees, and there breathe the strengthening
+mountain air: the baths of Vernet were recommended as cool and
+excellent, and I had a letter of introduction to the head of the
+establishment there. After an exhausting journey of a night and some
+hours in the morning, I have reached this place, from whence I sent
+these last sheets. The air is so cool, so strengthening, such as I have
+not breathed for months. A few days here have entirely restored me, my
+pen flies again over the paper, and my thoughts towards that wonderful
+Spain. I stand like Moses and see the land before me, yet may not tread
+upon it. But if God so wills it, I will at some future time in the
+winter fly from the north hither into this rich beautiful land, from
+which the sun with his sword of flame now holds me back.
+
+Vernet as yet is not one of the well-known bathing places, although it
+possesses the peculiarity of being visited all the year round. The most
+celebrated visitor last winter was Ibrahim Pacha; his name still lives
+on the lips of the hostess and waiter as the greatest glory of the
+establishment; his rooms were shown first as a curiosity. Among the
+anecdotes current about him is the story of his two French words,
+_merci_ and _tr s bien_, which he pronounced in a perfectly wrong
+manner.
+
+In every respect, Vernet among baths is as yet in a state of innocence;
+it is only in point of great bills that the Commandant has been able to
+raise it on a level with the first in Europe. As for the rest, you live
+here in a solitude, and separated from the world as in no other bathing
+place: for the amusement of the guests nothing in the least has been
+done; this must be sought in wanderings on foot or on donkey-back among
+the mountains; but here all is so peculiar and full of variety, that the
+want of artificial pleasures is the less felt. It is here as though the
+most opposite natural productions had been mingled together,--northern
+and southern, mountain and valley vegetation. From one point you will
+look over vineyards, and up to a mountain which appears a sample card
+of corn fields and green meadows, where the hay stands in cocks; from
+another you will only see the naked, metallic rocks with strange crags
+jutting forth from them, long and narrow as though they were broken
+statues or pillars; now you walk under poplar trees, through small
+meadows, where the balm-mint grows, as thoroughly Danish a production
+as though it were cut out of Zealand; now you stand under shelter of the
+rock, where cypresses and figs spring forth among vine leaves, and see a
+piece of Italy. But the soul of the whole, the pulses which beat audibly
+in millions through the mountain chain, are the springs. There is
+a life, a babbling in the ever-rushing waters! It springs forth
+everywhere, murmurs in the moss, rushes over the great stones. There is
+a movement, a life which it is impossible for words to give; you hear a
+constant rushing chorus of a million strings; above and below you, and
+all around, you hear the babbling of the river nymphs.
+
+High on the cliff, at the edge of a steep precipice, lie the remains of
+a Moorish castle; the clouds hang where hung the balcony; the path along
+which the ass now goes, leads through the hall. From here you can enjoy
+the view over the whole valley, which, long and narrow, seems like a
+river of trees, which winds among the red scorched rocks; and in the
+middle of this green valley rises terrace-like on a hill, the little
+town of Vernet, which only wants minarets to look like a Bulgarian town.
+A miserable church with two long holes as windows, and close to it a
+ruined tower, form the upper portion, then come the dark brown roofs,
+and the dirty grey houses with opened shutters instead of windows--but
+picturesque it certainly is.
+
+But if you enter the town itself--where the apothecary's shop is, is
+also the bookseller's--poverty is the only impression. Almost all the
+houses are built of unhewn stones, piled one upon another, and two or
+three gloomy holes form door and windows through which the swallows
+fly out and in. Wherever I entered, I saw through the worn floor of
+the first story down into a chaotic gloom beneath. On the wall hangs
+generally a bit of fat meat with the hairy skin attached; it was
+explained to me that this was used to rub their shoes with. The
+sleeping-room is painted in the most glaring manner with saints, angels,
+garlands, and crowns _al fresco_, as if done when the art of painting
+was in its greatest state of imperfection.
+
+The people are unusually ugly; the very children are real gnomes; the
+expression of childhood does not soften the clumsy features. But a few
+hours' journey on the other side of the mountains, on the Spanish side,
+there blooms beauty, there flash merry brown eyes. The only poetical
+picture I retain of Vernet was this. In the market-place, under a
+splendidly large tree, a wandering pedlar had spread out all his
+wares,--handkerchiefs, books and pictures,--a whole bazaar, but the
+earth was his table; all the ugly children of the town, burnt through by
+the sun, stood assembled round these splendid things; several old women
+looked out from their open shops; on horses and asses the visitors to
+the bath, ladies and gentlemen, rode by in long procession, whilst
+two little children, half hid behind a heap of planks; played at being
+cocks, and shouted all the time, "kekkeriki!"
+
+Far more of a town, habitable and well-appointed, is the garrison town
+of Villefranche, with its castle of the age of Louis XIV., which lies a
+few hours' journey from this place. The road by Olette to Spain passes
+through it, and there is also some business; many houses attract your
+eye by their beautiful Moorish windows carved in marble. The church
+is built half in the Moorish style, the altars are such as are seen
+in Spanish churches, and the Virgin stands there with the Child, all
+dressed in gold and silver. I visited Villefranche one of the first
+days of my sojourn here; all the visitors made the excursion with me, to
+which end all the horses and asses far and near were brought together;
+horses were put into the Commandant's venerable coach, and it was
+occupied by people within and without, just as though it had been a
+French public vehicle. A most amiable Holsteiner, the best rider of the
+company, the well-known painter Dauzats, a friend of Alexander Dumas's,
+led the train. The forts, the barracks, and the caves were seen; the
+little town of Cornelia also, with its interesting church, was not
+passed over. Everywhere were found traces of the power and art of the
+Moors; everything in this neighborhood speaks more of Spain than France,
+the very language wavers between the two.
+
+And here in this fresh mountain nature, on the frontiers of a land whose
+beauty and defects I am not yet to become acquainted with, I will close
+these pages, which will make in my life a frontier to coming years,
+with their beauty and defects. Before I leave the Pyrenees these written
+pages will fly to Germany, a great section of my life; I myself
+shall follow, and a new and unknown section will begin.--What may it
+unfold?--I know not, but thankfully, hopefully, I look forward. My whole
+life, the bright as well as the gloomy days, led to the best. It is like
+a voyage to some known point,--I stand at the rudder, I have chosen my
+path,--but God rules the storm and the sea. He may direct it otherwise;
+and then, happen what may, it will be the best for me. This faith is
+firmly planted in my breast, and makes me happy.
+
+The story of my life, up to the present hour, lies unrolled before me,
+so rich and beautiful that I could not have invented it. I feel that I
+am a child of good fortune; almost every one meets me full of love and
+candor, and seldom has my confidence in human nature been deceived.
+From the prince to the poorest peasant I have felt the noble human heart
+beat. It is a joy to live and to believe in God and man. Openly and full
+of confidence, as if I sat among dear friends, I have here related the
+story of my life, have spoken both of my sorrows and joys, and have
+expressed my pleasure at each mark of applause and recognition, as I
+believe I might even express it before God himself. But then, whether
+this may be vanity? I know not: my heart was affected and humble at the
+same time, my thought was gratitude to God. That I have related it is
+not alone because such a biographical sketch as this was desired from me
+for the collected edition of my works, but because, as has been already
+said, the history of my life will be the best commentary to all my
+works.
+
+In a few days I shall say farewell to the Pyrenees, and return through
+Switzerland to dear, kind Germany, where so much joy has flowed into my
+life, where I possess so many sympathizing friends, where my writings
+have been so kindly and encouragingly received, and where also
+these sheets will be gently criticized, When the Christmas-tree is
+lighted,--when, as people say, the white bees swarm,--I shall be, God
+willing, again in Denmark with my dear ones, my heart filled with the
+flowers of travel, and strengthened both in body and mind: then will new
+works grow upon paper; may God lay his blessing upon them! He will
+do so. A star of good fortune shines upon me; there are thousands who
+deserve it far more than I; I often myself cannot conceive why I, in
+preference to numberless others, should receive so much joy: may it
+continue to shine! But should it set, perhaps whilst I conclude these
+lines, still it has shone, I have received my rich portion; let it set!
+From this also the best will spring. To God and men my thanks, my love!
+
+Vernet (Department of the East Pyrenees), July, 1846.
+
+H. C. ANDERSEN.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The True Story of My Life, by
+Hans Christian Andersen
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRUE STORY OF MY LIFE ***
+
+***** This file should be named 7007.txt or 7007.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/7/0/0/7007/
+
+Produced by Eric Eldred; Juliet Sutherland,the Project
+Manager--a DP text
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+  www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887.  Email
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/7007.zip b/7007.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0fc2624
--- /dev/null
+++ b/7007.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cd56a81
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #7007 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7007)
diff --git a/old/8hcan10.zip b/old/8hcan10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e3bae73
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/8hcan10.zip