Scan 462
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1875
21 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1'Paganini, the first time I saw and heard him, and the first moment 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 a-kimbo 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, bust, and the raised hand of the wonderful musician, with his instrument at his chin, just going to commence, and looking exactly as I have described him.
3'His hand
4Loading the air with dumb expectancy
5Suspended, ere it fell, a nation's breath.
6He smote; and clinging to the serious chords
7With god-like ravishment, drew forth a breath
8So deep, so strong, so fervid, thick with love—
9Blissful, yet laden as with twenty prayers,
10That Juno yearn'd 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 seemed
16Too feeble, or, to melancholy eyes,
17One that has parted with his soul for pride
18And in the sable secret liv'd forlorn.'
20'To 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
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