Willingly, as I am convinced that under
all circumstances you will have every reason to be satisfied with
his activity and with whatever he does. Mendelssohn, whom he met
in Switzerland two years ago, has made him his exclusive editor
for France, and I, for my part, am just going to do the same. It
would be a real satisfaction to me if you would entrust some of
your manuscripts to him, and if these lines should help in making
you do so I know he will be grateful to me.
Yours ever, in true and lively friendship,
F. Liszt
Lyons, May 21st, 1845
44. To George Sand.
[Autograph in the possession of M. Alfred Bovet at Valentigney. -
A friendship of long years subsisted between Liszt and France's
greatest female writer, George Sand. At her home of Nohant he was
a frequent guest, together with the Comtesse d'Agoult. Three
letters which he wrote (in 1835 and 1837) for the Gazette
Musicale - clever talks about Art, Nature, Religion, Freedom,
etc. - bear George Sand's address.]
Without wishing to add to your other inevitable troubles that of
a correspondence for which you care little, allow me, dear
George, to claim for myself your old indulgence for people who
write to you without requiring an answer, and let me recall
myself to you by these few lines through M. Benacci. Their
ostensible object is to recommend the above-mentioned Benacci, so
that you, in your turn, may recommend him more particularly to
Chopin (and I may add in parenthesis that I should abstain from
this negotiation were I not firmly persuaded that Chopin will
never regret entering into business relations with Benacci, who,
in his capacity of member of the firm of Troupenas, is one of the
most important and most intelligent men of his kind); but the
real fact of the matter is that I am writing to you above all -
and why should I not confess it openly? - for the pleasure of
conversing with you for a few moments. Therefore don't expect
anything interesting from me, and if my handwriting bothers you,
throw my letter into the fire without going any further.
Do you know with whom I have just had endless conversations about
you, in sight of Lisbon and Gibraltar? With that kind, excellent,
and original Blavoyer, the Ahasuerus of commerce, whom I had
already met several times without recognising him, until at last
I remembered our dinners at the "Ecu" (Crown) at Geneva, and the
famous Pipe!
During the month's voyage from Lisbon to Barcelona we emptied I
cannot tell you how many bottles of sherry in your honor and
glory; and one fine evening he confided to me in so simple and
charming a manner his vexation at being unable to find several
letters that you had written to him in Russia, I think, and which
have been stolen from him, that I took a liking to him, and he
did the same to me. The fact is that there could not possibly be
two Blavoyers under the sun, and his own person is the only
pattern of which he cannot furnish goods wholesale, for there is
no sort of thing that he does not supply to all parts of the
globe.
A propos of Lisbon and supplies, have you a taste for camellias?
It would be a great pleasure to me to send you a small cargo of
them from Oporto, but I did not venture to do it without knowing,
in case you might perhaps have a decided antipathy to them.
In spite of the disinterestedness with which I began this letter,
I come round, almost without knowing how, to beg you to write to
me. Don't do more than you like; but in any case forgive me for
growing old and arriving at the point when noble recollections
grow in proportion as the narrowing meannesses of daily life find
their true level. Yes, even if you thought me more of a fool than
formerly, it would be impossible for me to hold your friendship
cheap, or not to prize highly the fact that, somehow or other, it
has not come to be at variance nor entirely at an end.
As the exigencies of my profession will not allow me leisure to
return so soon to Paris, I shall probably not have the
opportunity of seeing you for two years. Towards the middle of
July I go to Bonn for the inauguration of the Beethoven Monument.
Were it not that a journey to the Rhine is so commonplace, I
should beg you to let me do the honors of the left and of the
right bank to you, as well as to Chopin (a little less badly than
I was able to do the honors of Geneva!). My mother and my
children are to join me at Cologne in five or six weeks, but I
cannot hope for such good luck as that we might meet in those
parts, although after your winters of work and fatigue a journey
of this kind would be a refreshing distraction for you both.
At the close of the autumn I shall resume my duties at Weymar;
later on I shall go to Vienna and Hungary, and proceed thence to
Italy by way of Constantinople, Athens, and Malta.
If, therefore, one of these fine days you should happen to be in
the humor, send me a word in reply about the camellias; if you
will send your letter to my mother (20, Rue Louis le Grand) I
shall get it immediately. In every way, count upon my profound
friendship and most respectful devotion always and everywhere.
Lyons, May 21st, 1845
F. Liszt
45. T Abbe De Lamennais
[Autograph in the possession of M. Alfred Bovet at Valentigney.]
Oh no, there is not, and there never could be, any indiscretion
from you towards me.
