Volume I Part 14 (1/2)
”He soon conceived for the handsome seductive woman a passion, which seemed to have deprived his otherwise clear mind of all common sense and reason, and which neither the flood of aduish Vain were all his efforts to conceal it In a very short tieneral rerave anxieties of his friends; involved hireeable positions; lowered his character, without the slightest coed him down into an abyss beyond hope of rescue
”The new opera-director was soon lodged in the house of the careless husband of the light woman She herself may have had some inclination for the man But as soon as she felt her true power over him, she held out her fair hand only to lead him into a life of torment
”The woed in her train, against his better reason, to country excursions, suppers, balls, at which, whilst he watched her every look, her every breath, to discover her slightest wish, although nigh dead with fatigue, she would be bestowing her attention on other ain he would scour the town, in scorching heat or drenching rain, frequently sacrificing the only moments he could snatch fro, or some dainty, which she desired, and which was difficult to obtain; and on his return she would receive him perhaps with coldness and toss the prize aside Sometimes, when the proof became too evident that she had duped, deceived, betrayed him, the scenes between the tere fearful; and then she would cleverly find ht to be jealous, and thus turn the tables on hiht, in every action, in everyever present--'Hoill she receive lected, are to be found the la heart over her unworthiness; and again, but a few hours later, expressions of delight that she had s terrible in the bitter slavery to which his better nature was condemned by this wild passion One day he writes: 'A fearful scene The sweetest dream of my life is over Confidence is lost for ever The chain is broken,' On the next: 'A painful explanation I shed the first tearsfrom me This reconciliation has cleared the thunder froain: 'My drea loved I , and never say one word; and when some other man is mentioned, burst out in ecstasy I will do all I can to please her; but I s in my own heart, and work--work--work!'” It was in the fall of 1813--_prosit omen!_--that Von Weberto her whorapher calls ”the rotten plant,” and wrote in a note-book: ”I found Calina with Therese, and I could scarcely conceal the fearful rage that burned in y like this: ”No joy without her, and yet with her only sorrow”
Cupid has always been jealous of the cook On Therese's birthday, Carl presented her with a double gift, first a gold watch with a cluster of trinkets, each of them a sy very rare and costly in Prague--oysters Therese glanced--obbled the oysters
Carl's love had survived his jealousy of Calina, but he could not endure a rivalry with mollusks As his son explains: ”On a sudden the scales fell froht he not rather have said, the shells?
Lacking even this ogress for an idol, poor Carl was lonely indeed Even music turned unresponsive, and success was only ashes on his tongue
Then faith gave hie hienius toddling after the frou-frou of her skirts, but she began to prize hi interested looks in another direction Noas her turn to writhe with jealousy, and to writhe in vain Her storms and tirades had more effect upon him than his pleas had had upon her But whereas she had formerly been _insouciante_ and amused at his pain, her pain hurt him to distraction, broke down his health, and drove hiht recover his strength When he went away, he carried with hiret, sweetened, or perhaps ee of new hope But he could not know that he had reached the end of the worthless pages of his life, and that the new leaf was to be inscribed with a story of happiness, which was by no means untroubled, but yet was constructive happiness, worth-while happiness
In the year 1810 his opera ”Sylvana” had been sung, as I have said, with Caroline Brandt in the title role When, in 1813, he was given the direction of the opera at Prague, though he fell into the clutches of the Brunetti, he had unconsciously prepared hi for the very first member of his new company this same Caroline Brandt, who happened to write him that she happened to be ”at liberty,” as they say
Like Carl hihter of a tenor, and appearing on the stage at the age of eight
She is described as ”sray eyes and fair wavy hair, and a peculiar liveliness in her e and tender heart, electrified with a teenuine skill, ”her sense of grace and beauty in all things infallible” She did not appear at the theatre in Prague until the first day of January, 1814 She bore a curious resemblance to Therese Brunetti in a fresher edition, and was not long in giving that lady a sense of uneasiness The oysters, as we have seen, had given the Brunetti the _coup de disgrace_
Caroline won the poor director's gratitude first by being quick to adopt suggestions, and to rescue hi about the head of an operatic lad to undertake tasks, and slow to show professional jealousy She lived in seclusion with hernobleh the Brunetti advised her to accept the advances of a certain banker, saying: ”He is worth the trouble, for he is rich”
Having failed to drag Caroline into her own ga the better air of her presence As we have seen, she drove him almost to distraction, and sent him a wreck to the baths in Friedland
Caroline's mother had permitted Von Weber to pay his court to her, and her father and brother had found his intentions worthy Caroline had not hesitated to confess that her affection was groith Carl's But what she had seen of his life with the Brunetti, and what she ave her pause Therefore, when Carl went away for his health, he took with hiht--who may--make me happy” ”The absence of threeand daily letters; his were all of yearning, while hers were led with fear, lest he be, as she wrote hi the baths, he went on to Berlin, arriving there August 3d in the very ferue
He was s from Koerner's ”Leier und Schwert” These choruses for hout the Fatherland, as they still are sung
But fro voice of the nation, he was dragged back to the depths by the little hand and the little finger-nails of Caroline, who could be jealous enough to suspect that not all the adoration Von Weber was receiving from the women of Berlin was pure and impersonal patriotise of theirs could have hope of success, unless she left the stage This sacrifice of herself and her career and her large following arant Her combined reluctance to sacrifice her all, and her jealous fears that he would not find her all in all, at last led her to write hiive up their dream, and break their troth
In his first bitterness at this inopportune huar in the honey of royal favour, he wrote furiously to Gansbacher, ”I see now that her views of high art are not above the usual pitiful standard--na soup, meat, and shi+rts” To another friend, Lichtenstein, he wroteday by day I live like a drunkenof ice, and spite of his better reason would persuade hiround I love with all my heart and soul; and if there be no truth in her affection, the last chord of my whole life has been struck I shall still live on,--ain, never ue with an anxious heart, and took up in person a new battle for Caroline's hand They were agreed upon the subject of affection, but wrangled upon the clauses in the treaty of , Weber took care of her iven her, he announced that he himself would sell the tickets at the box-office, and he spent a whole day bartering his quick wit and his social influence, for increased prices
Such public devotion brought scandal buzzing about the ears of the two
But still Caroline would not give up her career, nor Weber his opinion of stage s, ”The Lyre and the Sword,” were a cause of disagreement, for Caroline, like so many women, deified Napoleon, and her lover's lyric assaults upon hie; while to him her adoration of that personified prairie-fire, who had devastated the Fatherland, was treason The Brunetti, being well out of the running, Caroline found new cause of jealousy in the newly engaged actress, Christine Bohler Indeed, Carl and Caroline did little but fight and make up for months, until even Caroline was convinced that one of the two ue, at least for a period of probation It was Carl who left, and in a condition of almost complete spiritual collapse
How little music has to do with one's state of mind,despair, he co” He settled in Munich, and continued to correspond with Caroline, writing her the ging her to write hith told upon his spirits, and gradually stifled his creativeness
At length it becaain, and on the eve of his ho he received a letter fro in vain to write She was now convinced that they e This blow sth even for wrath; he could only write in abject :