The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1883-06-02
Heine's widow.


dents ball she was young girl with q
round full face, large black eyes and
abundant hair, with beautiful white
teeth and laughing mouth; a real type
of the Partisan working girl, with hands
of an aristocratic distinction. What
captivated Heine was the voice of this
| girl; it was the voice of warbler who
| always sang in the high chorus. The
| voice of this warbler was for Henri
Heina source of eachantment until the
day of his death. In his long agony he
loved to repeat, How many times her
voice has recalled my soul at the mo-
ment when, really, i Seek it's fight to-
ward the unknown" With the devotion
and gaiety of her race she cared for him
who had given her his heart for her joy
GUS and clear prattle. Unfortunately
her voice was only able to bring out the
beauties of Nine de Sevigne's letters;
poetry was not her forte.
He had sent her some months to q
boarding school; but the only result
seems to have been that she was able to
astonish him by repeating long lists of
Egyptian kings. Thinking that she
ought to learn German she took lessons
from German exile, and she was very
proud when she could say to visitors
from the fatherland, "Nehmen Sic
Plat" IA phrase that is so difficult that
whenever she succeeded in pronouncing
it she laughed heartily. According to
Nine. Jaubert, in whose Souvenir"
there is an interesting essay on Heine,
Mathilde had never read any of ner hus-
bands writings. and did not even know
that he was poet. Lately" he said to
Nine Jaubert, "I have discovered in her
u vague idea that my name is printed in
review--but she does not know which
one." She was not quite so ignorant as
this, but she did ask Heine's friends
sometimes, whether he was really, as
people said, ssa very clever man, and
had written beautiful books" On one
occasion, as Heine wrote to Lowell, she
looked into the French translation of his
'Reisebllder." He saw that she at once
became pale and began trembling. She
lighted on passage in which he speaks
of himself as a lover; and Heine had to
pacify her by promising that in future
he would never make love even to imag-
mary maidens. It is feared that Heine
will be gravely censured by advocates of
the higher education of women; for the
intellectual darkness of his wife, far
from vexing him. afforded him constant
amusement; and he was delighted to
think that his fame as writer had moth
ing to do With her attachment to him.
Nine. Jaubert says that on his 'tmat-
tress.grave" he was s'horribly jealous"
and, on the authority of Heine's doctor.
she tells how the poor poet, haunted by
unjust suspicious gllded one night
| from his bed and crept to the door of his
wife's room, where he lay for long
time unconscious. No other biographer
| mentions this incident, or any incident
of the same kind; and when Heine ex-
pressed, or affected to express, anxiety
about his wife, he always did SO with a
| touch of humor. Yesterday" he said
| to German friend who visited him, ST
was very restless. My wife had dressed
and gone out at two o'clock, and had
promised to be back at four Half past
four comes, and she does not appear;
half past five comes, and she does moi
appear; half past six, half past seven
still she does not return. At eight my
fears increase. Could she, tired of the
sick man, have gone away with some
one? In my distress I send the maid
! into her room to see whether Cocotte the
parrot, is there. Yes, Cocotte is there
A stone falls from my heart, I breathe
again. Without Cocotte she would never
have left mep'
One night when Heine was seized will
one of those dreadful attacks which fin
ally Killed him, his wife clasped his
hand, warmed it in hers and caressel
him. She wept bitterly, and in a voic,
half-smothered in sobs, the poet heart
| hnr ssNn ~ L. IL
will you? You will have pity! I hav,
already lost my parrot this morning;
, you should die I should be too un
happyp' This" he afterwand said t.
, Nine. JauberI, twas an order; I obeyed
, and continued to live. You understand
my friend, that when I am given sucl
: good reasons"
However childlike. or childish, Nine
Heine may have been, ard whether he
husband was jealous or not, it is nc
true, as the Paris correspondent of tn
| Times asserts, that ''Heine's physics
and mental sufferings were aggravate
by the bitter consciousness of his blur
der" in marrying ner. They loved eac
other to the end and the few CLEANS G
!, happiness which inspired Heine wit
. courage to live he owed chiefly to hi
That she loved him ardently every on
: who saw them together testifes. "Fo
Mathilde," says Meissner, who kne
them intimately, "Heine was not, as fo
the rest of the world, great poet: to he
he was, what he did not seem to the rel
: of the world to be, the best, most affee
: tionate and upright of men. With teal
: in her eyes she. the smiling French
! woman, often told me stories of be
: Henri, which afforded the most touchin
= evidence of rare goodness of heart.
Mathilde was devout Catholic, an
went regularly every morning to mass
: In her presence Henri never uttered
word that might have. tended to shah
her faith; and he appears to has
!: thought that women need the support
i, strong religious conviction, althoug
g there is SO much irony in his expressio
9 of this opinion that it is difficult to NAL
!, out how far he intended it to be take
Il seriously.
i Heine did not marry his Mathilde u
J. til 1S41, several years after he first m,
: her. A certain Strauss of Frankfort hf
70 made some unpleasant remarks abo1
3 Heine's household in q letter write
lr from Paris to the Mayer Gazette. I'll
v poet, on the day before his marriag
If sent Theophile Gautier and Alphonsl
( Royer to demand an apology fro
% Strauss. The correspondent selected
i. his seconds Raspail, the chemist, and
r, German literary man named Kollo
q Strauss wished to fight with sabres, b
It Heine insisted for pistols. It took eig
o hours for the seconds to arrange for 4
n ofcn;r Cfroyzaa hoSifoio1 tSua ,,,y,