Omaha daily bee., 1885-02-13
AUTHORSHIP UNDER DIFFtCULr
TIES.
How Some of the Most Noted Litera.
tours Worked While Victims
of Disease.

Harper's Bazaar.
Heinaich Helne, the sweetest singer
Germany has ever produced, wrote HE
"Romancero' under circumstance OF
great suffering. When ~Iatalyz ed and
noarly bliLd, he wrote a woven web Of
satire and pathos, in which he spared
nothing, not ever his own rtcked and
anguished flame. "My body he said,
has gone to rack and rain, so that almost
nothing is left but my voice, and my bed
reminds me of the mel,dious grave Of the
e%nchanter Merlin, which is in the forest
of Broceliande, in Brit aoy, beneath Lofty
oaks, whose topmost branches blaze up
like green flame to the sky. Alb, col
league Merlin, l envy you these trees
aud their fresh waving boughs, for no
green leaf %rustles here in my mattress
grave-a grave without rest, death with
out the privileges of the dead, who have
no need to wits either letter rs
or books. l have been meas
used for my coffin some time
age, and my obituary written, but / die
so slowly that this becomes a tedious
affair fer myself, as we'll as for NY
friends. Patience, however; there is an
end to everything, One morning you
will find the book closed where the
puppet-show of my humor so often
amused you.,' One night, indeed it was
so, but not until hs had endured his
"mattress grave" for eight long, weary
years. One night he moved into that
last aud best bed, where "the wesiy are
at rest"
! 1t has been commended that when the
disease of which the s%utlsrer 10 dying
IL consumption, or some disease which,
between paroxysms Of pain, leaves spaces
OF ease and rest, il is nothing wonderful
that good work should be done. Some of
the best Of Paley's wo;ks were written
under euch conditions, and some Of the
best of shelley's. Crabb Robinson said
thst Goethe never had an sfllction
which he did ros turn into a poem. Mr..
Phillip Gilbert Hammerton has noted q
very peculiar efrsc which the act of
composition had upon Word worth.
When Engaged In composing "The
White Doe of Rylstone," he received a
wound In his foot, and observed thst the
conjunction Of his literary labors
increased the irritation of the
wound, whereas by suspend
ing his work he could dimini.h it. Ab.
solute rest produced perfect cure. In
connection with this incident he re-
marked that poetic excitement, accom-
panied by protrscted labor in compost
ton, always brought on moro or less bed
lily arrangement. He preserved him'elf
from permanently IN INJURIOUS consequences
by excellent habit of life.
1t Is curious that times of illness, when
the eyes swim and The head shakes, are
oftelt mes itch In suggestion. If the
mind is naturally poetic, the hours are
by nc means waited. Such wal the con
dltion of Mr.. Green, the historian, who
literally died in harness. Few pages in
lite rary history are so touching as the
preface in which Mrs. Green tells the
history of The Conquest of England.
When he had finished the fourth volume
of his History Of the English People
there was a pause in the advance of the
lung dlsea,e which afflicted him. Eager
for fresh work, he bagsn to shape new
planr, but early in the spring of 1881 he
fell i'll sgain. "In the extr, nifty of ruin
and defeat he found a higher fidelity and
a perf.c str length Most men give up
their work when their end comes near,
but Mr.. Green Is said to have worked ali
the harder because his days were num-
bered, and stIove to obtain and diff.
fuse as much light as possible before the
coming of the night. "Under the shad-
ow of death the conquest Ct England
was begun" and the night came before
1t vas finished. The death of Mark
Pat,ison was equally sad, for in one of
his last letters he wrote: at Is hard to
feel my physical powers ebbing away,
while my intellectual powers were never
more vigorous. l have gathered with
infinite palms the materials fer my great
work, but they will all be wasted for l
shall not live to finish it and no one else
will find the clew."
Blindness would seem an insuperable
drawback to writing, yet Pres Oft, the
historian of Mexi,o and Perd owe rcame
the difficulty into witch he was plunged
by the failure of his sight. While a
student In Harvard college one oil his
FELLOWSHIP dents threw a crust Of b1eld at
him, which struck n Q If his ey es, and
deprived it almost wholly of sight, VIII c
the other wa, sympathetlcally Effected.
When writing a history of Spain his eye
gave away, and prevented him from
reading. His literary enthusiasm, how
WAS too strong to be quenched even
by this calamity; hs engaged a reader,
dictated copious notes and from these
notes constructed his history, making In
his minds The necessary corrections.