The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-07-17 00:00:00

36

This is a strange reception, sir, that my friends
have given you. Allow me to explain our position.
We are a party of amateur players, delighting in
tragedy, comedy, or burletta, and performing French,
German, and Italian with the greatest impartiality.
To-day we have met here for the purpose of rendering
Die Burgoineistre, but unfortunately have lost the
services of our chief actor' (here he pointed to a gen-
tleman whom I had not before observed, and who was
lying upon Some cushions in the shade of a lime-tree).
' Our friend, who insisted upon walking part of the
way, has sprained his ankle, and is utterly incapaci-
tated for his theatrical duties. We have no other who
can take his place, and if you would favour us by taking
the character of Herman at so short a notice, we
should all be most heartily obliged by your kindness.'
There was something very winning in this gentle-
man's address—something very new and vivacious in
the situation—some very pretty bright-eyed girls
among the company ; so I entered heart and soul into
their little enterprise, and was received with acclama-
tions as a newly enrolled member of their society.
It happened, fortunately, that I knew a little of the
comedy in question. I had seen it twice or thrice
upon the stage at Frankfort, and had read it more
than once while staying at a dreary village where
there was scarcely any books to be got—therefore I
did not feel quite so nervous as I otherwise might.
And it was well that. I needed no great preparation,
for in a very moments after my arrival the audience
was marshalled in front ; the actors were assembled at
the back of the theatre ; the signal was given; and
the play began.
I need not now stop to tell you what the piece was
like, or whether the plot was sparkling, moving, or
profound. It is enough if I say that our spectators
wept and smiled alternately ; that our performers were
all cordially in earnest ; and that your humble servant
acquitted himself very creditably, considering that it
was his first appearance upon any stage, and that he
had to act with the book in his hand the whole time.
The gentleman to whom the theatre seemed to belong ;
a fair and dignified lady, whom I conjectured to be
his wife ; a plain but intelligent-looking woman with
dark eyes ; and the disabled performer, lying still upon
cushions, occupied the front places upon the turf.
Behind them sat the rest of the party, and the ser-
vants stood or leaned against the trees at the back.

I noticed, by the way, that our heroine, a lovely
young woman, with the sweetest voice I ever remember
to have heard, seemed particularly concerned for the
invalid; that her eyes were certain to stray towards him
at every pause in the dialogue ; that a gesture of ap-
plause from his hand sent the quick colour flying to
her cheeks ; and that in all her love-speeches and soli-
loquies—especially in the former, where she should
have addressed herself exclusively to me—her attention
was sure to wander in that highly inappropriate direction.
At length the curtain fell ; we joined the rest of the
party upon the grass ; the servants busied themselves
in spreading a cold collation on a shady bank under
the lindens ; and we fell into a lively and general con-
versation. We were very merry. We jested; we laughed;
we chinked our glasses together ; and the slender-
necked Rhine-bottles went swiftly round.
The invalid nicknamed me his deputy, and challenged
me to take wine with him.
Your health, Herr Deputy,' said he, gaily, as he
drained the glass. This .old Johannisberger is like
a poem of Schiller's or Wieland's—the older it is, the
higher its flavour. Viva it vino.
You do not include Kotzebue in the compliment,
Wolfganc, !' said our entertainer, with a meaning smile.
Kotzebue I' echoed the other with a wry face. Kot-
zebue ! I should say not, indeed. He is more quack
than poet, and. more conceited than a peacock. He
finds only himself wherever he goes ; and when he
arrives at a place, he gives himself not the slightest
trouble about heaven or earth, air or water, animal or
vegetable. He beholds nothing but 'his own sayings
and doings ; even at Tobolsk, he is perfectly certain
that all the people are occupied either in translating
his plays, studying, acting, or, at the very least re-
hearsing them 1'
There was something remarkable in the appearance
of this young man, and I could not keep from looking
at him as he lay extended on the grass, his fine head
resting on his hand. His countenance was both hand-
some and intelligent, his nose and mouth beautifully
formed, his forehead high, and his eyes a brilliant

SUPPLEMENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

black, like those of an Italian. Yet it was scarcely so
much the actual features, as the noble character and
expression of his physiognomy, that most impressed
me ; and I listened to his impetuous and earnest
speaking with an interest for which I was puzzled to
account.

' Kotzebue,' said the plain lady, who was now seated
next to me, ' is the delineator of manners rather than
of men.'

Say the delineator of crime, Madame !' exclaimed
the other. The corruption and profligacy of the
higher classes is the line in which Kotzebue excels.
True beauty of character possesses no charm for him ;
and man as he ought not to be, is held up before us,
in preference to man as he should be. Kotzel4ue can-
not appreciate the true grandeur of the mission of the
human being upon earth. Man was the first dialogue
that nature held with God.

It would be impossible for me to describe the im-
pressive tone in which these last words were uttered.
They thrilled through my frame like the vibration of a
string, and I observed that the rest were all listening
respectfully, and looked similarly affected.
Woolfgang requires every writer to possess so much
originality,' said the gentleman, that nothing pleases
him. I often congratulate myself that I never at-
tempted to manufacture a play or a poem, for I know
he would have criticised it without mercy !'
Originality is but a word,' said the excitable Wolf-
gang, who seemed to delight in startling paradoxes.
' There is no originality. The greatest genius will
never be worth much, if he pretends to draw entirely
from his own resources. There are some philosophers
who fancy, that by remaining shut up in their study
for thirty years without once looking into the world,
andexclusively occupied in sifting their own poor brains,
they shall find an exhaustless spring of original, grand,
and useful conceptions ! Do you know what comes
out ? Clouds : nothing but clouds !'
For all that,' said the lady whom they called
Madame, there can be no genius without some of
that originality which you affect to despise.'
`Pray then, Madame, can you tell me what genius
is, if it be not the faculty of seizing and turning to ac-
count everything that strikes us ; of co-ordinating and
breathing life into all the materials that present
themselves ; and of taking here marble, there brass,
and building a lasting monument with them ? A work
of genius puts into requisition the works of nature and
man, supplied by a thousand different persons and a thou-
sand different things. The learned, the ignorant, the
wise, and the foolish, bring to it unconsciously the offer-
ing of their thoughts and their experience. They sow the
harvest which is reaped by the poet, thephilosopher, the
historian, and a great literary chef-d'ceuvre is an aggre-
gation of beings taken from the whole of nature, and
bearing the name of Plato or Shakspeare. Believe me, to
be great we must be social. Hercules needs to be fed ;
and it is only by mingling with astrologers, botanists,
chemists, mathematicians, builders—whom you will.=
that the author can collect his raw materials. It is for
this reason we find the most truly great characters
surrounded by their fellow-men, Plato and Socrates
were no hermits ; and Bacon, Camoens, Boccaccio,
Dante, were dwellers in cities.

' There, I believe you to be in the right,' said
Madame, smiling. ' For myself, I confess lam only
vulnerable on the side of Paris, and I think I owe
much to that weakness.'

Much ! nay, Madame, go one step further, and say
—all. It were impossible to say where, or in what
object, or trade, or science, ideas the most foreign and
opposite to that object, trade, or science, may not be
derived. I have seen minerals, mosses, fishes even,
that have afforded me the most valuable psychological
and physiological hints. These things are the Signa-
tures of Nature, and he who can decipher them may
well afford to dispense with the Written and the
Spoken.'

It is true,' observed the other young man, who
seemed to listen rather than converse—' it is true that
a yet undefined chain of relationship appears to run
from art to art, from science to science, by which- the
one illustrates and mysteriously interprets the other.
Thus I have seen a painting that affected me like a
poem ; and have heard music that reminded me of
places seen in youth, and, until then, forgotten.'
Architecture is frozen music,' said Madame, viva-
ciously.
He whom they styled Wolfgang lookedup in delight-

'
ed approbation. A charmingEfinjuagLYe, ind~ but,
claimed ; and one I have sometimes fel
never been ableto express. For instance, wilteiool;
Strasburg Cathedral, I was utterly oven" cam,
the solemnity and grace of its proportions. ,ed they
tions of infinite order and harmony pre ~.se'?",,; ir
selves to me, and I found them einhoa"; to,c4j
relation of countless beautifully executed Pa'recl4l
great, consistent, systematic Whole.
...,rosii'Are
there a new revelation of the simple, eternal' joelookt:"
laws of nature. It was as if I were listenia,
noble psalm-tune or chorale by Bach a r oftelthe
with all its harmonies built up one above tile
one sublime unity—or as if I were obser
demonstration of a mathematical problem:A..o.4lP
Many singular instances of the relaVetiol)
sounds and colour have been recorded,' 04;J'
gravely. I believe a great book upon the e
of the arts is yet to be written.' ijst
Not only upon the connection of the altole ;et
the connection of the arts with man, and,Amtlie
the connection of man with nature,' sa*,,treti,
gentleman. For my part, I never see "joill 00
mountain but I feel as if it asserted some aC 91)etes
with me—as if it were a part and parcel °
f and
being. The analogies existent between inner .1
nature are strange and universal. 4.,01°V
Do not omit the analogies between nay,— eoo
I pray you,' cried Wolfgang eagerly.
tions in this field are so infinite, that they a tolcej,
for even the indulgence of humour. Let
the tory
the parasitical plants : how much of the ti
the ludicrous, the bird-like, is observable
characteristics ! Their flying seeds perch ur 01'
flies on some tree, and feed upon it till thePle POt
grown. Look only at yonder pear-tree hi l'ibittii;
see there, rooted in the bark, and growing. 'aisnl7
a branch, from the rough trunk, clings the 1,1 cot' t),
from which birdlime is made. It is not eve,,,poP6l,ll'
with fastening itself as a guest, but it °°.,:;)%ol`tri
pear-tree to supply it with wood from 'Val 9"
stance. The moss and fungi upon trees he'„°
same class. Those lindens under which Y‘'''
a short time since, abound' -. . ,h 0; jolg
He paused suddenly, his eyes fixed ill ,--eecl
of which he was speaking. We all iwrintel'A
taneously, and saw that his dideourse Nos, ; Fori,
by the apparition of a tall man, stand-I°l sallipiel‘
between our circle and the trees in questioce" in, eo
watching our proceedings with a countellaill,icr,2o°
wonder and admiration were ludicrously °4 ye"
who was devouring every syllable of the
with eager attention. 006
Whom have we here P' exclaimed onto ¢r
rather haughtily, and looking annoyed at :
,
our pleasant discussion. 1)°(% roil
Atelf
I laughed, and I believe coloured up, °Le " 1
really did present a somewhat absurd fitylorioe,
Why, that gentleman is a friend of Piirieet,4 aqice
my German tutor—and he is here to —410`,,f rso
came hither for the purpose of passing' a at, 0"-ring
the forest, and we agreed to make this sPoonle lace
of rendezvous. I had then no idea of e',;,cecl the
pleasant a party. lam sure I have eo.)" D°
repilea,sol;
ing very much.'
You are post obliging to sayher yollr.tailso
ing ; and we are all greatly indebted fether foe beeo
ante upon the stage. Perhaps it was rauid 111406
that we did meet, as otherwise you ° ,rour
very hungry by this time. Pray, irlylYbJerger.,;a si 3
come over and take a glass of Johaullis.ch he mod, 030
I beckoned to Muller to advance, w°'his hallr sec,e
slowly and bashfully, with his hat ill had oeve
ha to te
bowing profoundly at every step• and,
him so ceremonious or nervous look-befo so foe
los f
truth, I felt really vexed to see hit?. new alio t,
Pray approach, Mein Her said TAY t
vn 110 Sea'Swill
ance, still very distantly. ua, . r ‘lOll
take of such refreshment as we wne. boe'
you, and no table but the sward ;iiyaevte....,"l pasty
winegoblet
f—t h at— ions
bem niosetstgrivace
est coniusoi
stammered the professor iu the dee? What c Tooye
iysouylv)iullr
Your most gracious Highness.' y turn ay.
mean m
I started—coloured UP 111 'hat to 5 e
Pd
from one to the other—and knew not abic
The prince smiled. ir a dign'''Jiptrou,,,te
I suppose; he said, with an a as,
6 .that
todos '
had not previously assumed,
myself; but it was not my intent-I°n

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