Produced by Charles Franks, John Mamoun <mamounjo@umdnj.edu>
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician, Volume 2 (of 2)
Frederick Niecks
Third Edition (1902)
1836—1838.
THE loves of famous men and women, especially of those connectedwith literature and the fine arts, have always excited muchcuriosity. In the majority of cases the poet's and artist'schoice of a partner falls on a person who is incapable ofcomprehending his aims and sometimes even of sympathising withhis striving. The question "why poets are so apt to choose theirmates, not for any similarity of poetical endowment, but forqualities which might make the happiness of the rudesthandicrafts-man as well as that of the ideal craftsman" hasperhaps never been better answered than by Nathaniel Hawthorne,who remarks that "at his highest elevation the poet needs nohuman intercourse; but he finds it dreary to descend, and be astranger." Still, this is by no means a complete solution of theproblem which again and again presents itself and challenges ouringenuity. Chopin and George Sand's case belongs to the smallminority of loves where both parties are distinguishedpractitioners of ideal crafts. Great would be the mistake,however, were we to assume that the elective affinities of suchlovers are easily discoverable On the contrary, we have hereanother problem, one which, owing to the higher, finer, and morevaried factors that come into play, is much more difficult tosolve than the first. But before we can engage in solving theproblem, it must be properly propounded. Now, to ascertain factsabout the love-affairs of poets and artists is the very reverseof an easy task; and this is so partly because the partiesnaturally do not let outsiders into all their secrets, and partlybecause romantic minds and imaginative litterateurs are alwaysbusy developing plain facts and unfounded rumours into wonderfulmyths. The picturesqueness of the story, the piquancy of theanecdote, is generally in inverse proportion to the narrator'sknowledge of the matter in question. In short, truth is only toooften most unconscionably sacrificed to effect. Accounts, forinstance, such as L. Enault and Karasowski have given of Chopin'sfirst meeting with George Sand can be recommended only to thosewho care for amusing gossip about the world of art, and do notmind whether what they read is the simple truth or not, nay, donot mind even whether it has any verisimilitude. Nevertheless, wewill give these gentlemen a hearing, and then try if we cannotfind some firmer ground to stand on.
L. Enault relates that Chopin and George Sand met for the firsttime at one of the fetes of the Marquis de C., where thearistocracy of Europe assembled—the aristocracy of genius, ofbirth, of wealth, of beauty, &c.:—
The last knots of the chaine anglaise had already been untied, the brilliant crowd had left the