The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-22

but Mr.. Brandes asserts that this was to q
much less extent the result Of dissipa-
ton than Is generally believed, for "Heine
is a real fdnfdron des rices, given to per-
petual boasting of his own depravity. He
was attacked by the disease which Is 80 fire.
quently the fate of those who heve lived
lives. of unbroken mental productivity
An affection Of the spine, with paralysis,
first of the eyelids and in course Of tirne
Of almost the whole body, consigned him to
that mattress grave in Paris, where he
lay for nearly eight, years"
Heine's life, which can neither be called
q great nor a happy one, falls Of itself into
two distinctly defined parts-the life in
Germany till the revolution Of July, and
The life in Paris, from 1881 till His death
in 1855. His youthful years in Germany
were passed under the oppression of the
political reaction against Liberal ideas
and his "Reisebilder" won popularity as an
expression Of the general political dis
satisfaction. Heine soon made up his
mind, however, thatit was useless to NEEDLE
with politics in Germany. The revolution
Of July having put new life into every
thing, Heine flew on to Paris. settled there,
and was kept there by the embargo placed
upon his works in all the States OF the Cor
man Confederation. The Guizot Govern
ment secretly gave him the SINAI pension
which enabled him to live in comp ~arative
comfort. His acceptance OF this gratuity
laid him open to accusations, which, al
though Mr.. Brandes will not pronounce them
altogether g~roundless.' he deems in many
respects quite ,lnjusti6able. 1t must be
borne in mind that Heine did not under
stand the art of making or keeping money.
Many thousands Of pounds sterling must
have been made by the sale Of his books.
but be himself made over the most profit
able Of them all in payment of an OLD debt
Of fifty Louis dor and was all his life de-
pendent on the unwilling assistance of his
rich uncle. "If he and il the little Partisan
grisette whom he married had had more
idea of economy 1t might have been I'M
necessary for him to accept Government
support. The fact of his accepting il no
doubt occasionally prevented him from
oriticising the French Ministry freely in
German newspapers, but 1t had no other
bad result, and least Of all did it induce him
to write anything he did not mean. On
the contrary, from French soil he, waged
uninterrupted, unremitting intellectual
warfare against the European reaction.
Our author sees in him Byron's great sue
oessor: "Only a few years after the sword
Of sarcasm welded in the cause of liberty
had slipped from the hands OF the dying
Byron, 1t was seized by Heine, who welded
1t for a whole generation with equal skill
and power
Forthe lastseight years, however, it was
J a; mortally wounded man by whom the
sword was welded. Yet at no time did
Heine write tr,Ier. more i~ncisive, more
brilliant verse than when he lay nailed
to the low, broad bed of torture in Paris.
Never has a great productive mind borne
superhuman. suffering with more courage
and endurance. Seldom has the power
bestowed over the body been displayed
so Enthusiastically by a human intellect.
"To bear such agonies as his in close-lipped
siIenoe would lave been admirable; but
to create, to bubble over with sparkling,
whimsical jest and mockery, to let his spirit
wander the world round in chlrming and
profound reverfe. while he himself lay
crippled, almost l~ifeless on his couch-this
was great" Again: He lay there shrunk
TO O. ekeleton, with his eyes closed, his
limbs almost moveless, his noble features
painfully e~maoiated: the white, perfectly
formed hands were nearly Transparent;
al, times, when he spoke, a Mephistophelian
smile passed over, the suffering, martyr
like face. At last, as in the case of Tith-
onus Of old, all that really remained Of the
man was his voics; but it was a voice
Of many notes. Of many WITNESSES, many
jests.'
A pleasant impression Of Heine's spiritual
condition toward the end of his martyrdom
is conveyed by the circumstance that he
who had been the most wanton tongued
Of men and poets on the subject OF love
changed during his illness into the tender
est and most spiritual laureate Of that
passion, The last year of his life was
sweatened by the admiration and devotion
Of the young and, beautiful woman who,
though of German birth, made her APP
pearanoe as a French authoress under the
psaudonyrn of Camille Selden. She was
then, we. are told, about rs, blue eyed,
fair haired, and 80 charming and attrao-
tive that she won Heine's heart the first
time she visited him. Soon he could not
hive without her; he was miserable If a few
fdays passed without his seeing her, though
he was often in, such pain that he was
| obliged to request her to delay her visit,
It lie in the poems and letters to her, pub
lished' after Heine's death, that are found
the ~fervency. depth and fulness and ex-
! a~ltatien Of the passion which had been
wanting in the rest of his love poetry,
He calls her his spiritually affianced bride,
whose life is bound up with his by the will
81 fate. United, they would have known
what happiness is; separated, they are
! doomed to misery. The stanza beginning,
@Ioh weiss es jetzt, is translated as follows
by BoWring:
+, know IL now. BY hesvenl it's thou,
whom ! have lovedl How Bitter now,
The moment we are Joined forever.
TO fnd the hour when we must sever.
tn rwelcome must az once give way
" To sad farewell!
What Mr.. Brandes would regard as a
great, mystic ep~ithalamium, the poem
which celebrates the nuptials Of the e
poet with the passion flower that bloss oms
on his grave. is a hymn Of resignation in
| the presence Of Death. We refer, of course,
to the verses beginning "Du warst die
Blume. du geliebtes Kind" which perhaps
might be EngIished thus:
q That nouhr vert thou. beloved onei