The Press.
London, England, 1854-06-17 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

in both these great artists of the power, or rather
practice, of exaggeration can never be mistaken
for weakness except by those men who (we use
Mr. Chorley's own words, as applied to the
genus pre-Raphaelite) are " gnarled and per-
verse."

Mr. Chorley is very hard upon Dr. Spohr—
unduly so, seeing how he lauds the composi-
tions of Meyerbeer, Liszt, Moscheles, and
Chopin. Mr. Chorley's crotchets would not
even allow him to visit Cassel, the shrine "of
" the talent, of the patriarch, of German compo-
" tuition." Nevertheless he gives a chapter
to the said patriarch's dispraise, and labours
Roundly to prove his music mechanical and
without melody, with what success we leave
posterity to decide.
As regards the merits and demerits of dra-
matic singers Mr. Chorley is barely a respect-
able critic. Oh the Amina of Jenny Lind he
bestows the higheSt praise : her acting in the
last scene suggested Ophelia to his mind " the
" most mournful" and almost the sweetest of
Shakspeake's creations ; and yet he is of opi-
nion that she is a genius of the second order
only.
Still less do we reaped his judgment when
he tells us that Mile. Lind was weak and con
ventlonal in Norind. Weak she may have
been, but Conventional she certainly was not :
her failure, if any, in the tart is to be attri
buted to the substitution of tender emotion
for that violence and coarseness with which
Mme. Grisi has identified the part in the eyes
of a London audience. We have always held,
erroneously no doubt, that Norma was one of
Mlle. Lind's most successful impersonations ;
and we have some satisfaction in knowing that
this opinion is entertained by one of the
greatest authorities of the day, an eminent
artist whose comparatively recent retirement
from the stage has left a void not easily to be
filled tit). Neither can ive pass over in si-
lence his attack on poor Jenny for singing
Mozart's songs in the Nozze according to
the literal text. In this course she was per
fectly justified first, because the melo-
dies and cadences are almost always
written with reference to the sense; and,
secondly, because the instrumental as
well as the vocal effects cannot be rendered
unless the composer's text be adhered to. For
our own part we consider Mlle. Lind the best
singer of Mozart we have ever heard in this
country, and the incompetency of Mr. Chorley
as a vocal critic becomes apparent when
we find him holding up Mme. Sontag, and
such a third rate as Mlle. Zerr, as exponents
of the true tradition of singing Mozart. We
well remember the effect, almost electrical,
that Mlle. Lind's singing of " Deh vieni non
tardar " produced on her audience, a wonder
ful contrast to the cold, unimpassioned manner
in which this touching simple melody was de-
livered a few months afterwards by Mme. Son-
tag, so disguised with graceless roulades and
unmeaning ornaments that had Mozart been
present he Might with propriety have uttered
Roshini's well-known criticism, " Non conosco
pin la mia musica."
Equally untrue is it, notwithstanding the
alleged authority of Mendelssohn, that Mlle.
Lind sang bad music the best. We will ven-
ture to affirm that she never achieved greater
triumphs than on the two occasions when she
sang in The Creation and Elijah in Exeter-hall.
Her execution of the music will be ever remem-
bered by all the performers, from the conduc
tor down to the youngest choir-boy, as one of
the most powerful and affecting exhibitions of
vocal talent the world ever witnessed.

The last chapter, entitled " The Last Days
of Mendelssohn," devoted to un account of
a visit paid to the composer in Switzerland,
is charmingly written, and by far the most
agreeable portion of the work. It is with feel-
ings of sincere admiration for Mr. Chorley's
literary talents that wo give the following ex-
tract, which, intetesting as it is to those who
were personal strangers to the composer, must
be doubly so to those who were on terms of
friendship with him:—
It was a grey, sullen, cold day, with passing showers,
making an awning necessary for the boat ; for by boat only
could we get to Ringenberg. There is something curiously
secluded and quiet in the aspect of its little grey church.
. . That day the church door chanced to be open;
and the organ was socewible. It is the work of a Venetian

569

maker—not super•excellent in tone, it may be suppose d
but its pretty, gay looking case, nevertheless, gives & certain
air of splendour and fascination to that remote place of
peasant worship. A peasant boy was presently found
willing, for a few batzrn, to blow the bellows as long as
Mendelssohn liked ; and he sat down,—l have since learned
for the last time that he ever sat down to an organ,—for the
pleasure of his three auditors. It seems to me now as if
he never could have played more nobly. After one or two
movements by Sebastian Bach, he began an improvisation
in C minor, which took the canonical tOrtu of s prelude and
fugue ; his fancy kindling as he went on, and his face lit np
by that serene and elevated smile, the highest and most
beautiful of its many expressions, which all who knew him
must remember,—while he drew forth those lung and rich
chains of sound which

"bring all heaven before the eyes,"
as old Milton sang. I feel, when I think of this organ-
playing, as if I had taken leave of the greatest music for
ever ; since, in that exercise of his art, the amount of
science he would bring was alum:tea by a radiant fancy,
often dispensed with on like occasions; the want of which
is supposed to be disguised by the glory of the sound, and the
skilful intertexttire of the parts. More perfectly, every
genial sympathy, every sense of calm practical approval,
could not be gratified. There was the true, gracious,
gifted man, old in experience, but young in the quickness
of his sensibilities, to be heard—that day, it seems to me,
more remarkably than ever. Ile was giving and receiving
pleasure without parade ; and from a store which had
never been fuller of the highest thoughts and the richest
fancies. Such things must come to an end ; but they are
never to be forgotten.
Mr. Chorley tells us in his preface that it
has been his fortune or misfortune to undergo
very few conversions. It has been his misfor-
tune. If he will only reason more and trust
less to himself he may yet achieve great things.

Theologia Germanica. Translated from the
German by Susanna Winkworth. London:

Longmans.
Tuts little book was edited by Dr. Pfeiffer
and translated from the German by Susanna
Winkworth, whilst tho Rev. Charles Kingsley,
in a short preface, answers for its orthodoxy,
and the Chevalier Bunsen addresses to tile
translator a letter stating what to him ap-
pears

to be the bearing of this work in particular upon the
present dangers and prospects of Christianity, as well as
upon the eternal interests of religion in the heart of every
man and woman.

The brief work thus heralded does not
make its appearance for the first time. Ori-
ginally discovered and published by Luther
in the year 1510, it ran through seventeen edi-
tions in his lifetime, and since then more than
forty have appeared in Germany alone, whilst
many translations have been made into French,
Flemish, and Latin. Its circulation and in-
fluence are not surprising. Luther classed it
amongst the highest of uninspired books, and
said, "that, next to the Bible and St. Au-
" gustine, no book hath ever come into my
" hands whence I have learnt, or would wish
" to learn, more of what God, and Christ, and
" man, and all things ate." The Chevalier
Bunsen differs only from Luther in ranking it
before St. Augustine and immediately next
to the Bible. Like several other works which
have largely influenced mankind, the name df
the author is unknown, but we learn from the
original preface that he was a Knight of St.
John, " a priest and a warden in the house
" of the Teutonic order in Frankfort," and
" a wise, understanding, faithful, righteous
" man." He belonged to that class of religion-
ists which sprung up in Germany in the four-
teenth century, and were known by the name
of the "Friends of God"; and this title they
based on the words of Scripture, " Henceforth
" I call you not servants . . . but . . friends."
The Friends of God were born of the times.
The mind of the world was moving, at first
slowly, hesitatingly, and as loth to renounce
obedience to, and cast off reverence for, that
which had been heretofore deemed authori-
tative and holy. But the Vicar of God, known
to be profligate as a man, was also suspected
of infidelity as a priest, and, it was currently
rumoured, derided in private the most sacred
doctrines of the Church over which he ruled.
A little later, and the civilised world saw
rival popes fulminating excommunications one
against the other ; spiritual generated tempo-
ral strife, and, both mingling together, spread
raging over Europe.
For nine years in the early part of the four-
teenth century Germany was convulsed by a
struggle for the imperial crown. The rivals
were Frederick of Austzia and Louis of Bavaria;

570

the former was supported by John XXII., the
legitimate Pope,who had transferred the seat
of the Papacy from the banks of the Tiber
to the Rhone; the latter, who was the cham
pion of reform in the Church, was upheld by a
majority of the princes of the empire. The
death of Frederick left his competitor without
a temporal opponent, but the Pope, with ponti-
ficial tenacity of purpose and ecclesiastical
vengeance, pursued him to the grave. The
dominions of Louis were laid under an in-
terdict: his subjects had to choose between al-
legiance to their Sovereign and the Supreme
Pontiff. Adherence to the latter was punished
by the sword of the magistrate—fidelity to the
former deprived them of the comforts of reli-
gion. Discord and disorder thus working in
fearful activity, the foundations of society were
loosened, and the fabric, shaken to its centre,
was rapidly resolving itself into the elements
whence it arose. And, as has so often singu-
larly occurred at similar epochs, external na
ture seemed to manifest sympathy with the
affairs of earth in portentous aberrations from
its ordinary course :

Lamentings heard i'the air; strange screams of death;
And prophesying, with accents lei rible,
•

some say, the earth

Was feverous, and did shake ;
and, heralded by earthquake, hurricane, and
famine, the Black Death, clothed in all its
mysterious terror, burst on Europe, carrying
desolation into its fairest regions. In these
events men saw the judgments of God. They
saw

the heavens, as troubled with man's sot,
Threaten his bloody stage.
As expiatory sacrifices some scourged them-
selves and prayed ; others burnt Jews ;
while a third, " remembering an old pro-
phecy," more rationally, because inno-
cently, " looked with hope for the re-
" turn of the great Emperor Frederick 11.
" to restore justice and peace in the world."
But neither through the simple faith in a sim-
ple tradition, nor the stripes self-inflicted and
endured, nor the death in torments of thou-
sands of Jews, did the deliverer come. Then
many grew desperate, authority wholly lost its
power, each judged for himself, and inflamed
and excited minds rushed, according to their
natural bias, into extremes of good or evil.
The good became saintlike, whilst the bad
rather resembled devils than men. Blas-
phemers, we learn from Ruysbroch of Brus-
sels, born and baptised in misery, abounded
five hundred years ago. They lived

in mortal sin, not troubling themselves about God or his
grace, but thinking virtue sheer nonsense, and the spiritual
life hypocrisy or delusion ; and hearing with disgust all
mention of God or virtue, for they are persuaded that there
is no such thing as God, or Heaven, or Hell ; for they ac-
knowledge nothing but what is palpable to the senses.

But others, instead of succumbing to despair,
turned, amid the storm of conflict, from the
surging tide of human passion, and sought
elsewhere for that peace which the world can-
not give :

They took refuge in God, and finding that to them he
had proved " a present help in time of trouble," " as the
shadow of a great rock in a weary land," they tried
to bring their fellow-men to believe and partake in a life
raised above the troubles of this world.
They associated themselves together, but

the association they founded was kept secret, lest,
through misconception of their principle, they might fall
under suspicion of heresy, and the Inquisition should put
a stop to their labours ; but they desired to keep themselves
aloof from everything that savoured of heresy or disorder.
And these were the friends of God :

Their distinguishing doctrines were self-renunciation,
—the complete giving up of self-will to the will of God ;
the continuous activity of the spirit of God in all believers,
and the intimate union possible between God and man ;
the worthlessness of all religion based upon fear or the hope
of reward ;—and the essential equality of the laity and clergy,
though, for the sake of order and discipline, the organisation
of the Church was necessary.

In the course of a few years they spread
down the rich valley of the Rhine from Basle
to Cologne, and extended eastwards into
Suabia, Bavaria, and Franconia. The associa-
tion numbered amongst its members persons
of eminence, including the widow of King
Andrew of Hungary, and many of knightly
rank. Foremost amongst their leaders was
Tauler, a Dominican monk of Strasbourg. who
spent his life in preaching along the Rhine,
and whose sermons are extant and widely
studied at this day. Tauler attributed much