File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Isaac Appleton Jewett, 4 November 1839 (08ac1828-00c6-4cfc-9672-1024205d4f88).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-009#017

Boston Nov 4th 1839.
Dear Jewett
We are all perfectly enchanted with this long-waisted German angel Herr Rakemann; enchanted is the word – for he certainly is a little pocket-magician in his ways. He brought a letter to us from Mrs Oelricks & came one evg to tea & played for us most obligingly – an hour or two. I had no idea such a soul inhabited any piano as his electric fingers summoned forth; a whole chorus of fiends & angels burst out from the imprisoning wood & every instrument, as well as every sound in Nature, seemed to me to have its echo there. How his fingers devour the keys & what surges of sound roll over them from the heavy ground-swell of the bass to the exquisite foam-like sparkling, tickling treble. He gave us a gorgeous composition of Thalberg’s – which Tom calls the Venetian school in music & some of those delicious Nocturnes in which a sentiment is expressed – my pet wish in music & how satisfactorily illustrated. How lark-like is that soaring of the bird – or “like a swarm of golden bees –“ & how liquid that flowing of the brook into the full Sea. Several parties have been made for him here - & all the musical people are in a phrenzy [sic]. Miss Otis the most rabid enthusiast for la musica that we have shook her turban like a mandarin the other night & herself nearly into an ague of ecstasy. I hope his Concert tonight will be brimming tho’ he has hardly been puffed enough. [p. 2] He played the other night at Mrs Tom Curtis’ to two crowded drawing-rooms & all were as much charmed with his gentle, modest manners as his wonderful talent. After one of those dazzling, triumphant, exciting Thalberg creations, when you fancy every nerve in his body must be tingling in sympathy with the nerves of the piano, he rises so quietly, throws down his eyes like a girl & emits a gentle smile at the echoing bravas – as if he had been simply grinding an organ. Modest, droll, little Knorra audaciously asserted that he was equal to Thalberg – for tho’ lacking the genius had even greater delicacy & sentiment of touch. That is what chiefly charms me – the heart-tones he elicits-; the piano-spirit seems a human spirit at his bidding & I should think would pine, now to find its master & then lose him. I look with pity & awe at ours since he drew such tones therefrom & expect to hear its strings breaking. Your letters betray a shocking restlessness; do you fancy, Signore, that the delightful excitement of shifting one’s position, of skimming the cream off mind & matter which a traveler does is to endure a life-time? You have got too cosmopolitan for your own comfort, unless you intend to spend your days like the wandering Hebrew. Resign yourself to be bored; to see your hour-glass run the commonest sand & not diamond dust, which no Emperor can secure, much less an American citizen. Think over Jean Paul’s Preface to Fixlein & find for yourself some snug lark-nest – with an occasional flight into the empyrean - & ponder this sage axiom of his. “Little joys refresh us constantly like house-bread & never bring disgust; and great ones, like sugar bread, briefly, & then bring it” –
Tuesday. A propos of dear Jean Paul that priggish, pedantic Prof. Ticknor. to whom I had lent the book – exclaimed against him, last [p. 3] night when Rakemann’s sweet melodies had put me in peace with all mankind, for what forsooth? because ‘he wrote in such bad taste”! Wat a petit-maitre criticism – worthy his librarian mind where every thought is bound neatly, labelled for use, - dull prosaic tomes with no illuminated pages. I wont abuse him tho’ for he has a right to his own individuality & moreover has the best library in town & keeps open house where I hope to enjoy much pleasant chat this winter. The concert was very brilliant & fashionable as many bright eyes as the Italian Opera can show, if not so many diamonds, “rained influence” upon the modest pianist – whose last magnificent piece Variations by Herz of ‘Suona la tromba’ is yet leaping, caroling & thundering in my ears. He surely has 10 familiar imps cache under his nails; with what a diamond point he touches one separate note in the midst of the whole cascades of trills! Mr Austin (who takes this) can tell you how thoroughly we enjoyed this rare treat – he comes an arch tempter to lure you to that “dear dangerous land.” Read the Knight in Italy & beware, unless you have resolved – we are put into this tread-mill life to enjoy & not to do. However you say you are doing; by the way – dont make me patroness of any of your “though-children” as you call ‘em. I consider myself too juvenile to enact the role of godmother & have already been hoisted into such a public notoriety by a certain impertinent friend of mine you wot of that I am entirely disgusted with the honor. If what you are writing was commenced at Stockbridge it were much fitter to dedicate it to your tender-hearted Mrs Willard (to whom I did write a very sweet note for her nice fries - not having time to see her) as she directly or indirectly influenced its well or ill being with her food & presence. Does not this frosty [p. 4 bottom] weather clutch at your patience – but after such a delicious Indian summer do we deserve any thing better? Ungrateful wretches that we are the first foul day, after a month of undimmed sunshine, sponges away the blue from our souls as from the sky – & we blaspheme, with abusing the meagre Present, if bad, so unequally balanced with praise if good. I always sermonize to you because you take it so patiently I believe. Emmeline & I meet daily & walk much over our Mill-dam where the feet spring along on boards better than hard pavements - & where water, hills, picturesque mills & sailing craft, kindled by a mellow Autumn [p. 4 top] sunset – refresh us for this prosaic city-life again. I went to see Forest the other night in Richelieu – a most mangled piece of rant & bombast; his physical, coarse-grained acting utterly unfit for the finesse of the character; his thundering, giant voice in such ridiculous contrast with the trembling, feeble frame it lodged in. People cant be got to patronize the theatre here. A transparent-handed, “interesting young man” Mr Simmons (you knew in College) has been reading Shakespeare at lectures to overflowing houses, but if he spouted the same on the stage – empty boxes w’d repay him.
[p. 1 cross] He has wit enough to ‘fool us to the top of our bent.’ By the way Mrs Bent is blooming like “a dead flower pot” &c & her gentle sister Dora is worthy a city salon having cut her awkward country Poressor. Uncle Sam is having his entry immortalized by a German artist & he & Mrs A introduced therein as the genii loci. Is that good Latin? Poor Maria, who is a non pareille of excellence & cleverness is working herself into a consumption I fear. That such a noble girl should bear the drudgery of life when such a useless, unworthy pieces of home furniture as I & many in my station live in luxurious ease – is a mystery that knocks at the very gate of heaven & gets no answer alas! I am glad you know Foresti; he has no little talent & can flow most eloquently if properly uncorked. Thank Mr Ward, please, for sending me his life of Sclesinger -; you are mistaken in thinking I have the honor of his acquaintance – I have been introduced but never exchanged 3 syllables with yr enthusiastic friend. Has not his sister a “sout gong” to be tapped upon? If I do not read his Memoir let him think of the illusstrious [sic] Unread “whose name is legion.” Do you know Mrs Mason is engaged to a German Counsellor at Pottsdam? Why dont you marry Miss Harding & re-install her in that lovely English-like place of theirs at Springfield – which they sell for lack of gold? There is a prize to labour for – nothing like a distant object in this life to pull people up & along. Yrs F.E.A.
Addressed: I. A. Jewett Esq. / 58 Walker St. / N. York. / Favored by / Mr Austin.
Addressed, pencil note: Care of S. Austin jr.
Endorsed: and / Nov 6th 39

• Keywords: frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; correspondence; isaac appleton jewett; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1839 (1011/002.001-009); (LONG-FileUnitName)