Tomorrow morning I have to leave for two months. If you should be
so good as to write to me before my return, please address
always, 61, Rue de Provence. My mother will take care that I have
your kind letter.
8. To his Mother
[From a copy, by Mr. Vladimir Stassoff of St. Petersburg, the
original of which is in Russia. The letter in itself is
unimportant, but it is the only one to Liszt's mother which the
editor could get, and gives a fresh proof of the devotion of the
artist to his mother.]
Dear Mother,
Please send me at once, without any delay, the Pianist's
Glossary, which you will get at Lemonier's, Rue de l'Echelle.
Simply put it in a cover, and put it in the post (General
Office), and I shall get it, at latest, by Monday or Tuesday. -
Address to Mr. Hermann Cohen, Grande Rue, No. 8.
[Cohen was a frequently mentioned pupil and favorite of Liszt's
who was born at Hamburg in 1820, much thought of as a pianist in
Paris, and immortalised as "Puzzi" by George Sand ("Lettres d'un
Voyageur"); he followed Liszt to Geneva, and gave lessons there.
In 1850 he entered the order of Carmelites, and, under the name
of Pater Augustin, died in Berlin in January 1871, whither he had
gone with French prisoners.]
I have an immense deal to do this morning, so that I have barely
time to tell you that I love you with all my heart, and that I
rejoice above everything at the prospect of seeing you again
soon - that is to say, in six or eight months.
F. Liszt
You will hear of me from Mr. Pinondel, who passed a day with us.
9. To the Abbe F. de Lamennais, La Chenaie
[Autograph in the possession of Mr. Marshall in London.]
[Paris, May 28th, 1836 - according to the stamp of the post
office]
Dear and venerable Father,
I shall expect you. Whatever sorrow there is in the depth of my
soul, it will be sweet and consoling to me to see you again.
You are so wonderfully good to me! and I should suffer so much by
being so long away from you! -
Au revoir then, once more - in eight days at latest it will be,
will it not? I do nothing else than keep expecting you.
Yours, with the deepest respect and most sincere devotion,
F. Liszt
10. To Mademoiselle Lydie Pavy, of La Glaciere, Lyons
[Autograph in the possession of M. Etienne Charavay in Paris.]
St. Gervais, August 22nd [1836].
Your postscript deserves a punishment, and here it comes dated
from St. Gervais. I do not know whether your charming sister-in-
law, Madame Pavy, will consider this stamp of St. Gervais worthy
to appear in her collection; be that as it may, it gives me no
less a pleasure to converse a little with you who are always so
charming, so versatile, so excellent, and, permit me to say, so
kind to me.
Mademoiselle Merienne, whom I saw only quite lately (for you must
know that during the whole month of July, of glorious memory, I
have barely condescended to go down once or twice to Geneva; I
was living in a little bit of a house on the mountain, whence,
let me say parenthetically, it would have been quite easy for me
to hurl sermons and letters at you); Mademoiselle Merienne (what
shall I say to you after such an enormous parenthesis?), somewhat
like (by way of a new parenthesis) those declaimed discourses of
Plantade or Lhuillier, which put a stop to music whilst
nevertheless admitting that there is such a thing, whether at the
beginning or at the end - Mademoiselle Merienne - au diable
Mademoiselle Merienne! You guess by this time that she gave me
tidings of you, that she is a delightful and enchanting person,
that she makes admirable portraits, and that mine, amongst
others, has been a wonderful success. Etc., etc., and always
etc...
And yet I do wish to talk to you about this good Mademoiselle
Merienne, for she said a heap of charming things to me for your
sake, which will certainly not astonish you. But how to set about
it after all this preamble of parentheses? Ah, I have it! - In
three or four weeks I shall come and knock at your door. - And
then? Well, then we will chatter away at our ease. So much the
worse for you if you are not satisfied with my cunning stratagem.
Now let us talk business; yes, seriously, let us talk business!
Has your brother returned from his journey? And is he well? And
has no accident happened to him on the way? You are surprised,
perhaps, at my anxiety; but by-and-bye you will understand it
without difficulty, when I have explained to you how terribly
interested I am in the fact of his journey being safely
accomplished.
Just imagine that at this moment I have only 200 fr. in my purse
(a ridiculously small sum for a traveler), and that it is M. Pavy
who is to be my financial Providence, considering that it is to
him that my mother has confided my little quarterly income of a
thousand francs. Now at this point I must entrust you with a
little secret, which at present is only known to two individuals,
Messrs. Paccard and Roger (charming names for confidants, are not
they?), and which I beg you to make known as quickly as possible
to your brother. It concerns a little scrap of paper (which these
rogues of bankers call a draft, I believe), for a thousand
francs, by which Messrs. Paccard and Roger are authorized by my
signature, which is at the bottom, to demand the above sum of a
thousand francs (which my mother entrusted to M. Pavy in Paris)
from M. Pavy, junior, living at La Glaciere at Lyons, after the
22nd of August, 1836.
A thousand pardons for troubling you with these details, but I
should never have had the courage to write direct to your
brother, on account of my profound ignorance in money matters.
