Books › Old violins, 1905 › scan 207
Scan 207
Old violins, 1905
21 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 185. See the scan on archive.org.
1first time he struck a note, seemed literally to strike it, to give it a blow. The house was so crammed that, being among the squeezers in the standing-room at the side of the pit, I happened to catch the first glance of his face, through the arm akimbo of a man who was perched up before me, which made a kind of frame for it; and there, on the stage in that frame, as through a perspective glass, were the face bent and the raised hand of the wonderful musician, with the instrument at his chin, just going to commence, and looking exactly as I described him—
3—'His hand,
4Loading the air with dumb expectancy,
5Suspending ere it fell a nation's breath,
6He smote, and clinging to the serious chords,
7With godlike ravishment drew forth a breath
8So deep, so strong, so fervid thick with love,
9Blissful yet laden as with twenty prayers,
10That Juno yearned with no diviner soul
11To the first burthen of the lips of Jove.
12Th' exceeding mystery of the loveliness
13Sadden'd delight, and with his mournful look,
14Dreary and gaunt, hanging his pallid face
15'Twixt his dark flowing locks, he almost seem'd
16Too feeble, or to melancholy eyes
17One that has parted with his soul for pride,
18And in the sable secret lived forlorn.'
20To show the depth and identicalness of the impression which he made upon everybody, foreign or native, an Italian, who stood near me, said to himself after a sigh, 'O Dio!' and this had not been said long when another person in the same manner exclaimed, 'O Christ!' Musicians pressed forward from behind the scenes to get as close to him as possible, and they could not sleep at night for thinking of him."
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