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Cornell University Library 
 ML 420.L74W73 
 
 Memoranda of the life of Jenny Lind / 
 
 3 1924 022 238 202 
 
II |l Cornell University 
 - y Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022238202 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Tear 1850, by 
 
 ROBERT E. PETERSON, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for 
 the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 
 
 DEACON AND PETERSON, Printers, 
 66, South Third Street. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 OF 
 
 JENNY LIND. 
 
 The visit of Jenny Lind to America, professionally 
 considered, is the first step in a new epoch. While St. 
 Petersburgh and Vienna were within the circle of de- 
 mand for the first talent in its prime, New York was, 
 hitherto, far without it. No singer, who could still 
 please a court and an European capital, thought yet of 
 a trip to the transatlantic Republic; and though some- 
 times, as in the case of Malibran, we have had great 
 celebrities here before they were famous, and oftener 
 still, have had them here after — in their dawn and in 
 their twilight — we had never seen one of the first mag- 
 nitude during her meridian. 
 
 It was time that our advances in wealth, civilization, 
 and the more refined arts, should be recognized, how- 
 ever, and time that all genius, which had homage to 
 pay to nations, and fame to ask from them, should turn 
 as promptly and eagerly to new and republican Ame- 
 rica, as to the monarchies of decaying Europe. We 
 might think, perhaps, that this recognition was due to 
 us long ago. It is true, there might have been an ear- 
 
b BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 ceaJed by rough speech and a morbid temper. Croelius 
 introduced his little pupil to the count, and asked him to 
 engage her as ' eleve for the opera.' ' You ask a foolish 
 thing,' said the count, gruffly, looking disdainfully down 
 on the poor little girl. ' What shall we do with that 
 ugly thing ? see what feet she has ! And then her face ! 
 She will never be presentable. No, we cannot take her. 
 Away with her '.' 
 
 " The music-master insisted, almost indignantly. 
 'Well,' exclaimed he at last, 'if you will not take her, 
 poor as I am, I will take her myself, and have her edu- 
 cated for the scene : and then such another ear as she 
 has for music is not to be found in the world !' 
 
 " The count relented. The little girl was at last ad- 
 mitted into the school for eleves, at the opera, and with 
 some difficulty a simple gown of black bombazine was 
 procured for her. The care of her musical education 
 was left to an able master, Mr. Albert Berg, director of 
 the song school of the opera. 
 
 " Some years later, at a comedy given by the eleves 
 of the theatre, several persons were struck by the spirit 
 and life with which a very young eleve acted the part of 
 a beggar girl in the play. Lovers of genial nature were 
 charmed, pedants almost frightened. It was our poor 
 little girl, who had made her first appearance, now about 
 fourteen years of age, frolicksome and full of fun as a 
 child. 
 
 "A few years still later, a young debutant was to 
 sing "for the first time before the public in Weber's 
 Freyschutz. At the rehearsal preceding the representa- 
 tion of the evening, she sang in a manner which made 
 
OF JENNY LIND. / 
 
 the members of the orchestra at once lay down their in- 
 struments to clap their hands in rapturous applause. It 
 was our poor, plain little girl here again, who now had 
 grown up and was to appear before the public in the role 
 of Agatha. I saw her at the evening representation. 
 She was then in the prime of youth, fresh, bright and 
 serene as a morning in May — perfect in form — her hands 
 and her arms peculiarly graceful — and lovely in her 
 whole appearance, through the expression of her counte- 
 nance, and the noble simplicity and calmness of her 
 manners. In fact she was charming. We saw not an 
 actress, but a young girl full of natural geniality and 
 grace. She seemed to move, speak, and sing without 
 effort or art. All was nature and harmony. Her song 
 was distinguished especially by its purity, and the power 
 of soul which seemed to swell in her tones. Her ' mezzo 
 voce' was delightful. In the night scene where Agatha, 
 seeing her lover come, breathes out her joy in rapturous 
 song, our young singer, on turning from the window, at 
 the back of the theatre, to the spectators again, was pale 
 for joy. And in that pale joyousness she sang with a 
 burst of outflowing love and life that called forth not 
 the mirth but the tears of the auditors. 
 
 " From this time she was the declared favorite of the 
 Swedish public, whose musical taste and knowledge are 
 said to be surpassed nowhere. And, year after year, 
 she continued so, though, after a time, her voice, being 
 overstrained, lost somewhat of its freshness, and the 
 public, being satiated, no more crowded the housewhen 
 she was singing. Still, at that time, she could be heard 
 singing and playing more delightfully than ever in Pamina 
 
8 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 (in Zauberflote) or in Anna Bolena, though the opera 
 was almost deserted. (It was then late in the spring, 
 and the beautiful weather called the people out to nature's 
 plays.) She evidently sang for the pleasure of the 
 song. 
 
 " By that time she went to take lessons of Garcia, in 
 Paris, and so give the finishing touch to her musical edu- 
 cation. There she acquired that warble in which she is 
 said to have been equalled by no singer, and which 
 could be compared only to that of the soaring and 
 warbling lark, if the lark had a soul. 
 
 " And then the young girl went abroad and sang on 
 foreign shores and to foreign people. She charmed 
 Denmark, she charmed Germany, she charmed Eng- 
 land. She was caressed and courted everywhere, even 
 to adulation. At the courts of kings, at the houses of 
 the great and noble, she was feasted as one of the gran- 
 dees of nature and art. She was covered with laurels 
 and jewels. "But friends wrote of her, ' In the midst of 
 these splendors she only thinks of her Sweden, and 
 yearns for her friends and her people.' 
 
 " One dusky October night, crowds of people (the 
 most part, by their dress, seemed to belong to the upper 
 classes of society,) thronged on the shore of the Bal- 
 tic harbor at Stockholm. All looked toward the sea. 
 There was a rumor of expectance and pleasure. Hours 
 passed away, and the crowds still gathered, and waited 
 and looked out eagerly toward the sea. At length a 
 brilliant rocket rose joyfully, far out at the entrance of 
 the harbor, and was greeted by a general buzz on 
 the shore. 
 
OF JENNY JCIND. \> 
 
 " ' There she comes ! there she is !' A large steamer 
 now came thundering on, whelming on its triumphant 
 way through the flocks of ships and boats lying in the 
 harbor, toward the shore of the ' Skeppsbero.' — 
 Flashing rockets marked its way in the dark as it ad- 
 vanced. The crowds on the shore pressed forward as 
 if to meet it. Now the leviathan of the waters was 
 heard thundering nearer and nearer ; now it relented, 
 now again pushed on, foaming and splashing ; now it 
 lay still. And, there on the front of the deck, was seen 
 by the light of lamps and rockets, a pale graceful young 
 woman, her eyes brilliant with tears, and lips radiant 
 with smiles, waving her handkerchief to her friends and 
 countrymen on shore. 
 
 " It was she again — our poor, plain, neglected little 
 girl of former days — who now came back in triumph to 
 her fatherland. But no more poor, no more plain, no 
 more neglected. She had become rich ; she had in her 
 slender person the power to charm and inspire multi- 
 tudes. 
 
 " Some days later, we read in the papers of Stock- 
 holm, an address to the public written by the beloved 
 singer, stating, with noble simplicity, that ' as she once 
 more had the happiness to be in her native land, she 
 would be glad to sing again to her countrymen, and 
 that the income of the operas in which she was this sea- 
 son to appear, would be devoted to raise a fund for a 
 school where eleves for the theatre would be educated to 
 virtue and knowledge.' The intelligence was received 
 as it deserved, and of course the opera was crowded 
 every night the beloved singer sang there. The first 
 
10 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 time she again appeared in ' Sonnambula,' (one of her 
 favorite roles,) the public, after the curtain was dropped, 
 called her back with great enthusiasm, and received her, 
 when she appeared, with a roar of hurrahs. In the 
 midst of the burst of applause a clear and melodious 
 warbling was heard. The hurrahs were hushed in- 
 stantly. And we saw the lovely singer standing with 
 her arms slightly extended, sowewhat bowing forward, 
 graceful as a bird on its branch warbling, warbling as 
 no bird ever did, from note to note — and on every one 
 a clear, strong, soaring warble — until she fell into the 
 retournelle of her last song, and again sang that joyful 
 and touching strain, 
 
 1 No thought can conceive how 1 feel at my heart.' 
 
 " She has now accomplished the good work to which 
 her latest songs in Sweden have been devoted, and she 
 is again to leave her native land to sing to a far remote 
 people. She is expected this year in the United States 
 of America, and her arrival is welcomed with a general 
 feeling of joy. All now heard of her whose history we 
 have now slightly shadowed out ; — the expected guest, 
 the poor little girl, of former days, the celebrated singer 
 of now-a-days, the genial child of Nature and Art, is 
 — Jenny Lind!" • 
 
 It may assist the reader in forming an imagination 
 frame for the above picture, to copy the following : — 
 
 A recent traveler in Sweden gives the following 
 animating description of the scenery of a certain region 
 in the native country of the Nightingale who is at pre- 
 sent delighting our people with the melody of her voice : 
 " It is a soft and quiet region. The fine rivers of Nor- 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 11 
 
 way are replaced by small voiceless streams. Little 
 sheets of water are very abundant — lonely and beauti- 
 ful, generally with a clear sandy bottom, a cottage or 
 two among trees by the distant shore — a little skiff to 
 convey the occupants to church or merry-making, and 
 sometimes a water-fowl rippling the wave in its undis- 
 puted progress from shore to shore. Now, that we 
 were almost as far north as the most northerly point of 
 the British Islands, we expected that vegetation would 
 become dull and flowerless ; but nothing could be more 
 delightful than the richness and variety of the wild blos- 
 soms that still adorn the wayside or gem the margin of 
 every lake. The splendid water-lily, among the most 
 lovely of all the floral ornaments of the north, is seen 
 in great profusion ; and, if we understand aright, the 
 natives give it a name whose signification is not unlike 
 that of the appellation by which it is known by the 
 Highlanders of Scotland, who, in Gaelic, speak of it 
 always by the very appropriate name ' drowned blades.' 
 The wild myrtle, with its waxen leaves, was now also 
 in full splendor. It grows in such abundance that the 
 woods, in many spots, are one blush of flowers. This 
 plant, and some^of its allied shrubs, usurp the place oc- 
 cupied by our heaths in Scotland and England, little of 
 these being seen here." 
 
 A sketch, with some other details, is given in the pro- 
 gramme of her concerts in New York : — 
 
 "Jenny Lind, this greatest of modern singers, was 
 born in Stockholm. Her parents filled a comparatively 
 humble position in life, and when Jenny first came into 
 the world nothing augured her future reputation. She 
 
12 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 ■was a lovely and modest child, and from her earliest 
 days was passionately fond of melody. Her first ac- 
 cents were almost made in music. One day, when she 
 was merely five or six years of age, a Swedish actress 
 heard the child singing, and was so surprised by the 
 almost marvelous purity of her voice and the talent and 
 native skill even then displayed by the child in its ma- 
 nagement, that she spoke of it to the Herr Croelius, a 
 music-master, then resident in Stockholm. He came 
 and heard the child sing, and instantly determined on 
 presenting her to the Count Piicke, as a candidate for 
 admission to the musical school attached to the Royal 
 Theatre, of which he was the manager. The Count 
 Piicke at first made some difficulties, but after hearing 
 her sing, was even more astonished than Herr Croelius 
 had been, and consented to her admission. She accord- 
 ingly entered the conservatory at this early age, and 
 was placed under the tuition of Erasmus Berg, a pro- 
 found and skillful musician. After studying under this 
 master for several years, the public were surprised one 
 evening at seeing a child appear in a vaudeville, in 
 which she had to sing. This child was Jenny Lind. 
 Such was her success, that she became a public favorite, 
 and after a short time, began to appear in opera. At 
 this period of her life, every thing seemed to bid fair 
 for the future, and the child looked forward to the day 
 in which she might hold a high position in her art. — 
 This, however was a dream which was destined to be 
 dispelled by a misfortune to which she had not looked 
 forward. It was the loss of her voice, when she was 
 about fourteen years of age. She was compelled to re- 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 
 
 tire from the theatre, and again practice her art alone, 
 and in the privacy of ner own apartments. 
 
 " At length her voice returned to her, but it was no 
 longer the voice which she once had, nor had it yet ac- 
 quired the wonderful beauty and purity which now 
 marks it. She now managed to go to Paris, and place 
 herself under the tuition of Signor Garcia, who, how- 
 ever, at first little foreboded the future eminence which 
 his pupil was to obtain. And very frequently has he 
 said : ' If Lind had more voice at her disposal, nothing 
 could prevent her becoming the greatest of modern sing- 
 ers ; but as it is, she must be content with singing second 
 to many who will not have one half her genius.' 
 
 " Her voice, nevertheless, gradually strengthened, and 
 she was at length summoned back to Stockholm. Here 
 she again entered the Theatre, and speedily became 
 again a public favorite in Sweden. But during her re- 
 sidence in Paris, she had made the acquaintance of Gia- 
 como Meyerbeer, the celebrated composer. This great 
 man had formed a friendship for Jenny, and e'er two 
 years had elapsed, she received an invitation from him 
 to join the opera at Berlin. To this she consented, 
 and soon after repaired to Berlin, in 1842 or 1843. — 
 We are unable to name the precise year, but it was in 
 one of these that she first appeared there. At the com- 
 mencement, she made little impression upon the public, 
 for her voice had not yet completely returned to her. — 
 One evening, however, when she was singing in Robert 
 le Diable, she felt that it had returned, and inspired by 
 the consciousness, sang the music of Mice with such a 
 force and power, combined with the sweetness to which 
 
14 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 the public had become accustomed, that she electrified 
 them and astonished Meyerbeer, who from that moment 
 regarded her as the first of modern singers. Every 
 thing was now changed for her. She rapidly progressed 
 in public estimation, and her reputation soon spread 
 through the whole of Germany, which at present is per- 
 haps the most musical nation in Continental Europe. — 
 Soon after this, a musical festival was held at Bonn, 
 upon the Rhine, and the Queen of England, who was 
 then on a visit to His Prussian Majesty, attended it. — 
 Jenny Lind was engaged at the festival, and the English 
 critics who attended it, wrote back such warm accounts 
 of her genius, that it was not difficult to foretell that 
 she would soon come to England. Accordingly, to- 
 ward the end of the year, M. Belinaye came to Berlin, 
 and through the medium of Lord Westmoreland, was 
 presented to Jenny Lind, whom he had the satisfaction 
 of engaging to appear, under Mr. Lumley's manage- 
 ment, the following season. 
 
 " Her success in England was such as at once to rank 
 her in the estimation of London as the very first of 
 modern singers, and this, too, at a season when Alboni 
 had made her first appearance there, and Viardot Gar- 
 cia had returned to the English stage in all the triumph 
 of a continental reputation. From this period her re- 
 putation has been unchanged. Incredible sums have 
 been paid for the purpose of hearing her — sums, in com- 
 parison with which the $225 paid for the first seat 
 which was on Saturday exposed to auction in the Castle 
 Garden, can indeed scarcely compare. She has sung 
 in Vienna and every capital of Germany with the same 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 15 
 
 extraordinary success. In Edinburgh, at the two con- 
 certs in which she sang, near £2000 were cleared above 
 every expense by Mr. Howard Glover, who was the 
 entrepreneur; and at her Majesty's Theatre crowds 
 have been in attendance round the pit and gallery doors 
 as early as three in the afternoon on the nights on which 
 she was to appear. She has sung before the Queen of 
 England repeatedly in private, and has indeed appeared 
 at all the Courts in Germany and northern Europe, ex- 
 cepting that of Russia ; nor has she been merely re- 
 ceived as a singer, but as a woman, the spotless virtue 
 of whose life and whose extraordinary and splendid 
 charities equally entitle her to the admiration and love 
 of the public. While she lives her talents and her 
 genius will constitute the highest of her claims to public 
 admiration, and after death she will be remembered by 
 those to whom her voice has been productive of so much 
 and such abundant advantage." 
 
 A writer in the Home Journal gives an outline of the 
 early struggles of Jenny Lind, which is still more com- 
 plete, and though there are the same events described 
 in this as in other portraitures of her which we copy, it is 
 best, perhaps, to give each artist's likeness of the great 
 songstress, without mutilation. Thus says the writer 
 we speak of: — 
 
 "The sons and daughters of song had, until very 
 recently, seemed, by a prescriptive and inalienable right, 
 to spring from the soil of Italy. The rich and mellow 
 climate of that delicious land had produced them so 
 abundantly, that it was almost at length believed to be 
 a right attached by nature to its warm and sunny shores. 
 
16 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 A change, however, had gradually come over earth, and 
 nature was slowly asserting her right to bestow her gifts 
 where and on whom she would. Some strong voices 
 found a birth in the laughter-loving land of France, and 
 some found one in sober and tranquil Germany. Even 
 England was not without them, and at length a change 
 was to destroy forever what had hitherto appeared to be 
 one of the fixed and immutable laws of nature. Sweden 
 was the country from which Jenny Lind took her birth. 
 
 "She was the child of two earnest and laborious 
 Swedes. Her father kept a school in Stockholm. There 
 was this exquisite warbler born. 
 
 " Scarcely had she attained the age of nine years, than 
 a Swedish actress named Madame Lundberg, heard the 
 child sing. Struck with what nature had done for her, 
 she introduced the child to Herr Croelius, a music-master 
 well known in Stockholm. The old man soon became 
 enthusiastic about her abilities, and presented her to 
 Count Piicke, at that time the manager of the Court 
 Theatre, requesting him to take the child under his pro- 
 tection. The Count measured the pale and gentle little 
 creature with astonished eyes, and asked Croelius to 
 what end such a request was made. Croelius persisted 
 in telling the Count that it would be a sin not to reach 
 forth his hand to such manifest talent, and at length Count 
 Piicke consented to listen. Already her voice possessed 
 that heart-searching quality by which it now exercises 
 so irresistible a spell. Count Piicke was overcome 
 and he decided that she should partake the advantages 
 of the Ecole Musicale attached to the Theatre Royal in 
 Stockholm. Here her studies were conducted by the 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 17 
 
 Herr Berg, a profound musician. Shortly after this, 
 Jenny commenced her career by appearing in the chil- 
 dren's parts in musical vaudevilles, and by her quaint 
 humor, and the striking originality of her musical style, 
 even then remarkable, soon became a public favorite. 
 She nevertheless pursued her studies with untiring ardor, 
 until she at length attained her thirteenth year. The 
 morning dawn of the girl's young life now became sud- 
 denly obscured. The high notes of her delicate voice 
 vanished. The middle and lower ones grew husky, and 
 vainly did her master essay to re-awaken the silver 
 tones-of his pupil. Under this deprivation, it was obvious 
 that she could no longer appear upon the stage, and, as 
 is usual with precocious prodigies, the former impression 
 made by her was speedily obliterated. Her musical 
 studies were nevertheless pursued with unremitting ardor 
 for the four years during which she completely slipped 
 from the public memory. It happened then, that in a 
 concert in which the fourth act of Meyerbeer's Robert le 
 Diable was to be performed, a singer for the part of Alice, 
 who has a short solo, was wanting. Herr Berg, re- 
 membering his pupil, thought that this attempt might be 
 ventured upon by her. She commenced the study of 
 the solo with a desponding and palpitating heart. But 
 on the evening of performance, the long-missing voice re- 
 appeared. The surprised public recognized the voice of 
 their former favorite, and the most tumultuous applause 
 followed her appearance. Herr Berg, overjoyed, went 
 to the management of the theatre, and, on the succeeding 
 day, had the pleasuse of informing the wonder-stricken 
 girl that she must, without delay, prepare herself to sing 
 
IS BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 the whole of Alice. In this character, at the age of 
 seventeen, Jenny Lind made her debut upon the operatic 
 stage in Stockholm. 
 
 " Her appearance in this character was a perfect tri- 
 umph. Jenny Lind was at once engaged as prima donna 
 by the management. 
 
 "Yet while singing in this position opera after opera, 
 who that has now heard her pearly fioritura -would be- 
 lieve that she was struggling hard with her master to 
 conquer the native inflexibility of her voice ? Such was, 
 however, the case, while, during eighteen months, she 
 was engaged in interpreting Euryanthe, Alice, The Ves- 
 tal, and other parts which required exertions that were 
 most violent for her comparative youth! 
 
 " She then determined on leaving Stockholm for Paris, 
 and placing herself under the tuition of Emanuel Gar- 
 cia. Declaring her intention to the directors of the 
 theatre, vindicating it by unanswerable reasons, the re- 
 solute maiden obtained the wished-for leave of absence. 
 Her parents did not attempt to dissuade her, and so the 
 girl departed for the French capital. Her first visit was 
 to her proposed instructor. Garcia received her kindly. 
 She sang. He listened to her, and when she concluded 
 the air, said calmly, ' My dear child, you have no voice, 
 or,' added he, correcting himself, 'you have had a voice, 
 and are going to lose it. Do not sing a note for three 
 months. Then give me another call.' Such was the 
 comfortless reply of him upon whose tuition had rested 
 all her hopes. She, however, would not return without 
 procuring from Garcia another trial. After the lapse of 
 the stipulated time, he found that her voice had im- 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 19 
 
 proved by its rest, and commenced his instructions. At 
 this time he was teaching a Mademoiselle Nissen. — 
 This lady possessed a fine voice, but no abilities suffi- 
 cient to make use of the advantages it placed within 
 her hands. Often did it make Jenny despond to hear 
 Garcia hold this lady up as an example. He was in- 
 deed wont to say, ' Had Jenny Lind Nissen's voice or 
 had Nissen Jenny's intellect, one of them would become 
 the greatest singer in Europe.' In the following year, 
 letters came from Stockholm requiring her return, and 
 the promise given to her parents before she left it, drew 
 her back. She was received with enthusiasm, and soon 
 gave her former admirers proofs of the ample use she 
 had made of her studies. Her reputation had now, 
 however, spread beyond Stockholm, and the subsequent 
 spring brought an invitation from Meyerbeer, with whom 
 she had become acquainted during her residence at 
 Paris, to assist at the opening of the opera in Berlin. 
 This invitation was accepted by her, and in August, 
 1844, she went to Dresden, where Meyerbeer was then 
 writing an opera, with the purpose of perfecting her 
 studies in the German language. This capital she quit- 
 ted for Berlin. 
 
 " Here she remained four months, during which time 
 her reputation extended with a speed and rapidity for 
 which we can find no parallel, and on her' last night's 
 appearance, previous to her return to Sweden, scarcely 
 was the curtain down, than the excited audience made 
 a rush upon the stage to bring her forward once more, 
 amongst the most enthusiastic cheers. During the fol- 
 lowing summer, she was invited to the Rhenish festival, 
 
20 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 which the king of Prussia was preparing for the Sove- 
 reign of Great Britain at Bonn. The Countess Rossi 
 — Henrietta Sontag — heard her, and emphatically pro- 
 nounced her the greatest singer of her time. From No- 
 vember, in this year, till the end of March, 1846, she 
 fulfilled her engagement for five months at the Theatre 
 Royal in Berlin. She then departed to Vienna. Here, 
 even, the enthusiasm exceeded that which had prevailed 
 in Berlin. 
 
 " It was after the Easter of 1847 that she appeared 
 in London. Here her success was decidedly greater 
 than it had anywhere yet been. The first opera given 
 by the management of Mr. Lumley for the new singer, 
 was Robert le Diable. Its success was terrific. Nor 
 was it so only upon the first night that she appeared. — 
 Articles of furniture and portions of dress were called 
 by her name. The enthusiasm was universal. We have 
 known such prices as £20 or £25 — amounting to $100 
 or 120 — paid for a single box at the opera on her night 
 of performance — a box, be it remembered, contains only 
 four seats — while four or five guineas have commonly 
 been paid for the purchase of a single stall. Indeed, in 
 the Provinces, where she went with Mr. Lumley, at the 
 close of the London season, the prices were not uncom- 
 monly much higher — fifteen guineas having been actu- 
 ally paid afEdinburgh to secure two places for the pur- 
 pose of hearing her. At this town two concerts were 
 given by Mr. Howard Glover and his brother. They 
 paid Mademoiselle Lind £1,000 for her services ; La- 
 blache received £200, and Gardoni £150. In addition 
 to this the orchestra had to be provided, and Balfe to 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 21 
 
 be paid ; yet the two entrefreneurs cleared above 
 £1,200 by the speculation. We have given these few 
 facts merely to show the success which attended Jenny 
 through this engagement. The English papers them- 
 selves may give us some idea of the enthusiasm with 
 which she w T as everywhere received. At the com- 
 mencement of this year, Mr. Barnum had taken steps 
 to secure her services on these shores. They were hap- 
 pily successful. It is true that he has engaged to pay 
 her an enormous sum — no less than $180,000, as we 
 understand, for a period of one hundred and fifty nights ; 
 we, however, anticipate that he will have no reason for 
 regretting that he has made her such a liberal offer. — 
 Certain it is that he will make money by it, and this 
 very largely. We love the children of song, and if we 
 make it worth the while of managers to indulge us with 
 fifth and sixth rate operatic artists, we can certainly pay, 
 and that largely, for the pleasure of listening, on our 
 own shores, to the greatest soprano that the world has 
 produced since the period at which Catalini was given 
 to it." 
 
 Another article in the Home Journal, thus dashes off 
 a crayon portrait of Jenny Lind as second soprano : — 
 
 " This wonderful songstress had, when a mere child, 
 a remarkably sweet and powerful voice. At the age 
 of ten she appeared upon the boards of the theatre, at 
 Stockholm. Vaudevilles were written for her and she 
 had, as some assert, appeared in Opera. Of this, how- 
 ever, we are by no means positive. We are well aware 
 that if any one attain an after-reputation, the wonders 
 of his or her childhood will be exaggerated beyond all 
 
22 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 the possibilities of common credence. It would, never- 
 theless, be impossible to doubt that she was a remark- 
 able child, when it is remembered with how deep an 
 expression of regret the loss of her voice, at the period 
 when it first broke, was followed on the part of the 
 principal residents in Stockholm. This took place when 
 Jenny was only in her thirteenth year. It was a bitter 
 trial. The girl, however, did not despair. She still 
 worked and studied on ; and finally, by her own labors 
 and the generous assistance of some of her friends, was 
 enabled to go to Paris for the purpose of obtaining les- 
 sons of Signor Garcia, then and still considered as the 
 greatest living teacher for those vocalists whose abilities 
 and tendencies decidedly fit them for the profession of 
 the stage. 
 
 " Garcia formed a very high opinion of the abilities 
 of Jenny Lind for her Art. He, however, had little or 
 none of her voice, nor did he think it could, possibly, to 
 any great extent, improve. Nay, he frequently advised 
 her altogether to turn her thoughts from the stage, as 
 he foresaw nothing but disappointment in store for her 
 when she should appear on it ! 
 
 " It is, nevertheless, impossible to influence genius. — 
 Jenny would not listen to him. She possessed no small 
 portion of that courage which is almost invariably the 
 accompaniment of high powers, and it induced her to 
 dare all and to try all which might conduce to her sub- 
 . sequent success. She remained under the tuition of 
 Garcia for more than a year. That she profited by it 
 all who hear her must feel, as she is now one of the 
 most cultivated singers we have ever listened to. Her 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 23 
 
 cadenze and furituri are all of her own composition, 
 and we may judge of their excellence when we know 
 that Garcia himself was accustomed to adopt and use 
 them as his own. She then bade her teacher adieu, and 
 prepared to return to Stockholm. Here she sung at the 
 Royal Theatre, which was then under the management 
 of Count Piicke. The deficiency of her voice was still, 
 however, painfully visible; more so, possibly, to herself 
 than it was to others ; and this, probably, induced her 
 to determine on leaving her native city, so bitterly did 
 she feel that she was no longer that which she had been 
 as a child, in public estimation, when with not one half 
 the knowledge which she now possessed, she had sung 
 in the theatre of that capital. In Paris she had become 
 acquainted with Meyerbeer, and now wrote to that com- 
 poser, begging him to procure her an engagement at 
 Berlin. Meyerbeer had always thought highly of her 
 talents, and was pleased to have the opportunity of do- 
 ing her a service. In less than a week he answered her 
 letter. It was, however, no great service that he was 
 at this period able to do her. All he had it in his power 
 to offer her was the position of second soprano at the 
 Royal Theatre. With this Jenny at once closed. She 
 bade her parents farewell, and with her eyes flooded 
 with the salt and bitter tears of her memories, departed 
 
 for Berlin. 
 
 " Nissen was then the prima donna. She knew Jenny 
 well, for she had formerly been her fellow-pupil under 
 Garcia, and the latter had often lamented both to her 
 and her companion 'that she had not Jenny's talents, or 
 that Jenny did not possess her voice,' so very strongly 
 
24 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 did he feel that Lind possessed that genius which can 
 alone create a great operatic singer. 
 
 "Jenny made no sensation. She appeared but in 
 secondary roles in accordance with the tenor of her en- 
 gagement, Adalgisa, in Norma, being the best of the 
 parts which fell into her hands. The critics noticed her 
 in a few lines. One of them pronounced her an actress. 
 Another praised the cultivation of her voice, and re- 
 gretted its want of power, but this was all. In spite 
 of this, however, she became a favorite with the ma- 
 nagement. Her untiring industry, and admirably modest 
 and unassuming temper won upon their favor. 
 
 She had now been in the theatre about four months, 
 when a large concert was given in the behalf of some 
 charity. In this concert the fourth act of Robert le 
 Diable was announced. Amongst the other portions of 
 this act is a short solo for Mice, and this solo was placed 
 in the hands of Jenny. What was the astonishment of 
 those who had on that night to sing with her, on notic- 
 ing a strange and marvelous change which had come 
 over the placid and quiet girl. Scarcely had she en- 
 tered the theatre, than it was noticed, by all who were 
 present, that her face was literally radiant with joy. — 
 On that evening she seemed truly beautiful. None could 
 divine what was the spell which had effected so striking 
 a change in the usually silent and timid maiden. Her 
 friends and companions questioned her, but she gave 
 them a quiet and evasive answer. She could not yet 
 trust her own fancies. They had to wait, dubious and 
 puzzled, for a solution of the mystery. Nor was it long 
 in coming. The first note that was struck by Jenny as 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 25 
 
 she commenced her air, apprised them that a singular 
 change had come over that small, and we had almost 
 said broken voice. It was now strong and clear, and as 
 its rich and brilliant notes rang through the walls of the 
 theatre, the audience were electrified. Its exquisite pu- 
 rity had increased upon what some one or two in the 
 corps dramatique remembered of that voice at Stock- 
 holm. Astonishment seized upon them. The side-scenes 
 filled with listeners, and when she ended the air that she 
 had commenced, the whole of the large audience was 
 for a moment silent, so astounded had they been by the 
 change which had now passed over her. Then they 
 burst into one long and loud shout of rapturous ap- 
 plause. Three times had she to appear before them and 
 to repeat that air, and the plaudits which fell from them 
 when she had at length, for the last time, ended it, were, 
 as it were, a seal stamped upon her excellence. The 
 public had found it out. No previous puffery had 
 brought the girl with a great name to reap a large har- 
 vest of scarcely genuine laurels. She had stood amongst 
 them comparatively unknown. 
 
 " From that hour Jenny has grown in greatness. — 
 Probably she has never sung better than she did on that 
 night. Inspired by the unexpected recovery of her 
 voice, she had poured forth all of her soul in it. It was 
 to her like the glad waking from some dark and trou- 
 bled dream, and in her delight and ecstasy she had 
 given the audience the whole unrivaled treasures of her 
 knowledge. 
 
 " We can figure to ourselves the fire and the passion 
 of the girl's vocalization when she first stood before the 
 3 
 
26 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 public, strong in the consciousness of her own powers, 
 and feeling that she held, unmistakably, in her hands 
 the spell under whose strength she was hereafter to en- 
 chant the world. This is one of the brightest hours in 
 the records of all genius — one of those hours of which, 
 when we hear or read, we lose ourselves in the wish 
 that we had such another in our own lives, on which to 
 rest our memory when it is worn out and fatigued by 
 the daily struggles with the cares of a busy and toil- 
 some existence." 
 
 Jenny Lind's career upon the continent of Europe 
 was rapid and triumphant. She had by the perfectness 
 of her early struggles with difficulty, left no room for 
 hindrances or adverse chances. In 1844, she appeared 
 at Berlin for the first time. She carried that critical 
 capital with a positive torrent of success. For four 
 months she was its idol. Thence she proceeded on a 
 tour through the towns of Northern Germany — success- 
 ful every where as no singer had been, before her. In 
 Hamburg a silver wreath was given her. At the time 
 of Victoria's visit to Germany, when festivals were given 
 on the Rhine, the Swedish songstress was the leading 
 object of enthusiasm. It was at this time that she was 
 first heard by Sontag, (the Countess Rossi), and by her, 
 and by the famous patron of music, Lord Westmoreland, 
 fairly and openly pronounced the greatest singer of the 
 age. The London Atheneum published a letter which 
 gives an idea of the enthusiasm at this period of hei 
 career : — 
 
OF JKNNY LIND. 27 
 
 Frankfort, October, 1846. 
 
 Md'lle Jenny Lind: — 
 
 " ' I wish somebody would kill Lady Kilgobbne ! ' was 
 the cry of Lady Morgan's heroines, when driven past all 
 patience by hearing perpetual panegyrics of an absent 
 leader of country fashion! — The race of travelers ' who 
 have music in their souls ' this year in Germany must be 
 ready to echo the same desire with regard to Md'lle 
 Jenny Lind. Since I have known the world of melody 
 I have encountered nothing of the curiosity and expec- 
 tation excited by her. Dine where you would during 
 the Frankfort Fair, you heard of Free Trade — and Jenny 
 Lind ; of Rail-roads — and, next of Jenny Lind ; of the 
 Spanish Match (what a pleasant old-comedy title for a 
 topic) — and, still, Jenny Lind ; of the Pope and the peo- 
 ple (and yet a more relishing novelty for all save the 
 Absolutists !) — and, always Jenny Lind ! When she was 
 coming — what she would sing — how much be paid — 
 who get the places— and the like. So that, what with 
 exigent English dilettanti flying at puzzled German 
 landlords with all sorts of Babylonish protestations 
 against disappointment and uncertainty, and native High 
 Ponderosities ready to trot in the train of the Enchan- 
 tress wheresoever she might please to lead — with here 
 and there a dark-browed prima donna bowing, Medea- 
 like, in the back ground, and looking daggers whenever 
 the name ' Questa Linda ! ' was uttered, — nothing, I re- 
 peat, can be compared to the universal excitement, — 
 save passages (' green spots in the memory of many a 
 dowager Berliner) when enthusiasts ran to drink cham- 
 pagne out of Sontag's shoe ! ' " 
 
28 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 For four months again — from December 1845, to 
 March 1846 — Jenny Lind was at Berlin, in an unabated 
 career of popularity. She went thence to Vienna, the 
 most difficult musical arena of Europe, and appeared 
 in the first performance of Meyerbeer's opera of Veilka. 
 Success attended her as usual ; and the audience was 
 aroused to the highest expressible degree of public 
 enthusiasm. At the close of this engagement she re- 
 turned again to her native city, and began to think of her 
 first visit to England. Of the good wishes that assisted 
 her to prepare for this, an able writer mentions one or 
 two of the most prominent : — 
 
 " The king of Prussia, who had been a frequent and 
 charmed listener to Mademoiselle Lind, and in whose 
 capital the title of ' Swedish Nightingale ' had been first 
 given her, expressed himself anxious for her success on 
 her visit to Great Britain, and wrote a letter to the 
 Court of St. James, in which he desired her Majesty, 
 Queen Victoria, to show ' every possible kindness to one 
 of the most modest, exemplary, and talented singers 
 which any time had yet produced.' King Oscar of 
 Sweden, too, took a warm interest in her behalf; and it 
 was from that estimable monarch that the singer heard 
 the earliest prophecy of that after success which was to 
 make her the most celebrated prima donna of modern 
 Europe. ' Go on as you have commenced, Mademoi- 
 selle Lind,' said the King, ' and I will tell you that your 
 reputation will not be limited to Germany or Sweden ; 
 you will enrapture the whole of the musical continent.' 
 Jenny's return was a bow, for words could not express 
 her feelings at the moment. They must have been plea- 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 29 
 
 surable ones, and, no doubt, she has often reverted to 
 them since the royal prophecy has been fulfilled, and 
 she has attained the highest point of fame and fortune." 
 With a brief intermediary engagement at Berlin, 
 Jenny now opened a correspondence with Mr. Bunn, the 
 manager of Drury Lane Theatre, in London, who had 
 first been awakened by the continental reputation of the 
 fair Swede, and had first written to offer her an engage- 
 ment. His offer wa's a liberal one, and it was accepted. 
 Subsequent better acquaintance with the arrangements 
 of the theatre, however, satisfied Jenny that the stipu- 
 lations she had bargained for, as to support by the other 
 singers, minor details etc. etc., would not be carried out. 
 She resolved, therefore, that the engagement was virtu- 
 ally null, and that her proper course was to consider it 
 void and abide the consequences. With her instinctive 
 nobleness of nature, however, she was unwilling to leave 
 herself open to any reproach of injury to Mr. Bunn's 
 interests, and she therefore made him the offer of com- 
 promise expressed in the following letter : — 
 
 " Vienna, February 28, 1.847. 
 " Sir, — I had the honor of receiving your letter of the 
 19th of December 1846, in which you pretend to have 
 to claim from me damages for my non-arrival in 1845. 
 You are perfectly conversant with my reasons for not 
 coming, and which rendered impossible my appearance 
 at your theatre. Besides, my arrival would have been 
 fruitless, since you had not at the time the opera of the 
 Teldlager' translated into English, nor the music which 
 I was engaged to sing. It is more than probable that 
 3* 
 
30 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 this affair brought before a court of justice would yield 
 you nothing ; but I am determined you shall not tax me 
 again with bad faith, however little I merit such a re- 
 proach ; and I offer to pay you the sum of a£2000 (two 
 thousand pounds,) on your returning the paper signed 
 by me, to the person I shall appoint for that purpose. 
 
 "As I shall, in any event, come to London, I should 
 prefer coming with the consciousness of having done all 
 that depended upon me, and I leave It to your, choice and 
 judgment whether you will prefer this arrangement to a 
 lawsuit, from which you would probably derive nothing. 
 
 "I have given to Mr. Edward Jennings, of No. 9, 
 Chancery-lane, all necessary and further instructions on 
 the present subject. 
 
 " I remain, etc., 
 
 "JENNY LIND. 
 
 "To Alfred Bunn, Esq., of the Theatre Royal, Drury- 
 Lane, London." 
 
 Mr. Bunn, at first refused the offer, but the dispute 
 was finally settled in March 1847, by his accepting it. 
 The following squib which appeared in one of the Lon- 
 don papers, upon the subject, may amuse the reader • — 
 
 JENNY LINDEN. 
 On Lind, when Drury's sun was low, 
 And bootless was the wild beast show, 
 The lessee counted for a flow 
 Of rhino to the treasury. 
 
 But Jenny Lind, whose waken'd sight 
 Saw Drury in a proper light, 
 Refused for any sum per night, 
 To sing at the Menagerie. 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 31 
 
 With rage and pain, in vain displayed, 
 Each super drew his wooden blade, 
 In fury half, and half afraid 
 For his prospective salary. 
 
 Sunn in a flaming frenzy flew, 
 And speedily the goose quill drew, 
 With which he is accustomed to 
 Pen such a deal of poetry. 
 
 He wrote the maiden, to remind 
 Her of a contract she had signed, 
 To Drury Lane's condition blind, 
 And threatened law accordingly, 
 
 Fair as in face in nature, she 
 Implored the man to set her free, 
 Assuring him that he should be 
 Remunerated handsomely. 
 
 Two thousand pounds she offer'd so 
 That he would only let her go : 
 Bunn, who would have her bond, said No ; 
 With dogged pertinacity. 
 
 And now his action let him bring, 
 And try how much the law will wring 
 From her, to do the handsome thing, 
 Who had proposed so readily. 
 
 The Swedish Nightingale to cage 
 He failed ; she sought a fitting stage, 
 And left him to digest his rage, 
 And seek his legal remedy. 
 
 Then shook the house with plaudits riven 
 When Jenny's opening note was given, 
 The sweetest Songstress under heaven 
 Forth bursting into melody. 
 
 But fainter the applause shall grow, 
 At waning Drury's wild beast's show 
 
32 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 And feebler still shall be the flow 
 Of rhino to the treasury. 
 
 The opera triumphs ! Lunnley brave 
 Thy bacon thou shalt more than save ; 
 Move, London, all thy kerchiefs wave, 
 And cheer with all thy chivalry. 
 
 ' T is night ; and still yon star doth run ; 
 But, all in vain for treasurer Dunn 
 And Mr. Hughes and Poet Bunn, 
 And quadrupeds and company. 
 
 For Sweden's nightingale so sweet, 
 Their fellowship had been unmeet, 
 The sawdust underneath whose feet 
 Hath been the Drama's sepulchre. 
 
 Jenny's departure from Stockholm, to try her star in 
 England was signalized by a very extraordinary demon- 
 stration" for so cold a people as the Swedes. Between 
 fifteen and twenty thousand people were assembled on 
 the quay to take leave of their worshiped countrywo- 
 man, military bands were stationed at intervals, and she 
 embarked amid cheers, music and tears. The rigging 
 of the vessels in the harbor were manned, and the hur- 
 rahs and waving of handkerchiefs continued as long as 
 the steamer was in sight, which bore her away. Her 
 last performance in her native city was in aid of the 
 funds of a charitable institution she had founded, and 
 the tickets of admission on this occasion were sold for 
 immense prices at auction. 
 
 She arrived in London on the 17th October, 1847.— 
 Her first few days were passed with her friend Mrs. 
 Grote, wife of a wealthy banker and Member of Par- 
 
OP JENNY LIND. 33 
 
 liament, and she subsequently took a furnished house at 
 Brompton, and lived in strict seclusion from society du- 
 ring her engagement. 
 
 The excitement of her arrival in London, is thus 
 sketched by a writer in the New Monthly Magazine : — 
 
 " On Saturday the 17th ult., a strange sensation came 
 over the inhabitants of London. Something had hap- 
 pened — what was it ? Was it in the air, or under the 
 earth ? Which class of the Rosicrucian spirits was at 
 work ? The salamanders — the sylphs — the naiads — the 
 gnomes? Nobody knew. There was a certain epi- 
 demic sensation perfectly unaccountable. 
 
 " Most people know that a divining-rod is a sort of 
 stick which is mysteriously affected by the presence of 
 certain subterranean things in its immediate vicinity, 
 perhaps by springs, perhaps by mineral formations. — 
 Fewer are the people who know that there are certain 
 human individualities who may be called living divining- 
 rods, and who, when approaching the object for which 
 they have a mysterious sympathy, are attacked by some 
 strange pain for which they are not able to account. In 
 this condition exactly were the whole of the Londoners 
 on the day, and at the hour in question. The banker in 
 his counting-house fancied for the instant that the chink 
 of the sovereigns formed itself into a light melody ; the 
 merchant saw the words of the bills that came due ar- 
 range themselves into a musical staff, decorated with 
 various notes from the stately semibreve to the flutter- 
 ing appoggiatura — the chimes of the Exchange clock 
 were heard to give a fuller and more musical sound, and 
 
34 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 there was something orchestral in the rattle of the cabs 
 and omnibuses. 
 
 " Gradually the sensation became more definite, and 
 there was a kind of notion that it proceeded from the 
 direction of Blackwall. Was the word 'Blackwall,' 
 sung by some ethereal spirit, which floated down Fen- 
 church-street and Cornhill, and then buzzed about the 
 colonnades of the Exchange, rejoicing in the encaustic 
 decoration ? We know not — we know that the persons 
 who had hitherto listened to melodious sovereigns, gazed 
 on commercial scores, and been entranced by sonorous 
 chimes, and harmonious cabs and omnibuses, were now 
 conscious, without knowing why, that something par- 
 ticular was going on at Blackwall. One gourmet was 
 of opinion that a marvel for the time of year had come 
 to pass, in the shape of an arrival of an unusual quan- 
 tity of white bait. 
 
 " Our readers who are aware that Jenny Lind arrived 
 at Blackwall on the 17th, at 2 P. M., will be able per- 
 fectly to account for all these strange phenomena. 
 
 " At about half-past seven o'clock on the evening of 
 the same day, a still more powerful sensation was felt 
 among the audience of Her Majesty's Theatre. If it 
 was a spirit that whispered about ' Blackwall ' at the 
 east-end, the same spirit now repairing to the brilliant 
 west, spoke distinctly 'Jenny Lind is in the house.' 
 How could the audience, under these circumstances, 
 attend to ' I due Foscari,' although Coletti played the 
 part of the old doge ? 
 
 "But what was the unfortunate old Foscari, and 
 what was the unfortunate young Foscari, when it was 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 35 
 
 known as a positive fact that Jenny Lind was in the 
 house ? To that small, fair-haired, innocent-looking, 
 unconscious lady on the first tier, were countless lor- 
 gnettes directed. The sole question was, 'Where is 
 Jenny Lind ?' The sole answer was, ' There is Jenny 
 Lind !' 
 
 " The sensations of the audience when they had ac- 
 tually seen Jenny Lind were — 
 
 " But stop. The prudent painter of the sacrifice of 
 Iphigenia feeling himself inadequate to express the grief 
 of the father, covered the face with drapery. Our arti- 
 cle terminates here. We would not venture to describe 
 the sensations of the persons who had seen Jenny Lind." 
 
 Another paper, the Illustrated News, thus graphi- 
 cally discoursed on the same subject : — 
 
 "Md'lle. Jenny Lind. — This celebrated artiste, in 
 spite of all predictions to the contrary, has now arrived 
 in this country. Perhaps no artist has ever created 
 such interest before her debut as Md'lle. Jenny Lind ; 
 the very uncertainty of her arrival giving additional 
 importance to every particular concerning her. Her 
 first appearance is anxiously awaited by all lovers of 
 art, and even by all those who, careless of art for its 
 own sake, are nevertheless swayed by the whim and 
 fashion of the moment. Her debut in England, so im- 
 portant an event in the life of an artist whose fame'is 
 now established beyond the reach of vicissitude, will, 
 singularly enough, take place in the part of Mice, in 
 ' Robert le Diable,' the same in a portion of which she 
 performed on the outset of her theatrical career, after 
 the years of discouragement which followed her pros- 
 
36 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 perous childhood. If this part, though containing de- 
 lightful music, is not very prominent as regards the 
 singing, it makes up for it as regards the acting. The 
 character of Alice is touching and beautiful, and calls 
 forth those dramatic resources which Md'lle. Lind pos- 
 sesses in the most extraordinary degree. If her acting 
 be art it is truly the perfection of art, which, we have 
 often heard, consists in concealing it. What is the 
 most extraordinary feature of her genius is its versatility. 
 Those who are acquainted with the story of her life, 
 and have watched, in her speaking countenance, the 
 depth of thought and intellect, and the profound sensi- 
 bility, which illuminate it, could hardly believe that 
 her comic power is equal to her tragic genius. La- 
 blache, who went to see her on her arrival, was amazed 
 at her power as a mimic. The opinion of this great 
 artist, of the voice of the Swedish prima donna, may be 
 instructing to our readers. He says that each note is 
 like a pearl, and on another occasion, he exclaimed that 
 hers was the ' singing of heaven.' She pronounced 
 Italian so well, that we hear she has even corrected the 
 prompter himself. In connection with the very elegant 
 compliment of Lablache, as stated above, there is cur- 
 rent an anecdote that tends to exhibit Jenny Lind in a 
 charming light. One morning, during the rehearsal at 
 her Majesty's Theatre, the songstress, recollecting what 
 Lablache had said respecting her voice, requested him 
 to lend her his hat. He readily complied, though at a 
 loss to guess the reason why the lady wanted it. 
 Taking it from the Signor, with a graceful courtesy, 
 Mademoiselle Lind went to another part of the stage, 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 37 
 
 and putting her mouth to the broad-brimmed chapeau, 
 sung a favourite air, to the astonishment of all near her. 
 When she had concluded she went off to Lablache, and 
 requesting him to go down on his knees, as she had a 
 valuable present for him, she returned the hat, with the 
 remark, that she had made him excessively rich, accord- 
 ing to his own showing, insomuch as she had filled 
 the familiar covering of his head with ' pearls.' There 
 was a charming simplicity in her manner at this time, 
 and her action had been so altogether unexpected, that 
 her fellow-professionals were delighted with her, while 
 as for Lablache, he seemed as full of ecstasy as he could 
 have been had he been presented with the veritable 
 things he had named." 
 
 The contest for tickets to her Majesty's Theatre, on 
 the night when Jenny Lind was to appear amounted al- 
 most to a mob. The London Times had pronounced 
 h'er the first soprano of her day, and rumor with its 
 thousand tongues had filled the air with her praises. 
 The history of the first appearance is thus given in one 
 of the papers : — 
 
 "First Appearance of Md'lle. Lind in 'Roberto 
 il Diavolo.' — It is barely possible to do justice to the ef- 
 fect produced on ourselves, in common with the concourse 
 of persons assembled on Tuesday and Thursday nights 
 at this theatre. We have arrived at a new stage of our 
 theatrical experience. A new perception of musical art 
 has burst upon us; it is as though we now learned for 
 the first time what singing really is, and have been, with 
 all our fancied knowledge and taste, groping, till now, 
 in darkness and error. The ' trick of voice,' the well- 
 4 
 
38 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 prepared bursts, the artistic ' effects/ -which we have 
 hitherto applauded to the skies, are discovered to be 
 only so many mistakes, and artists appear to have been 
 laboring all their lives to attain that which they were 
 better without. We have learned that the best way to 
 tread the stage is to seem wholly devoid of theatrical art ; 
 the best way to sing is to appear never to have learned. 
 All conventionalisms are overthrown, all traditions of the 
 operatic stage turned into contempt — and by what? By 
 the appearance of Md'lle. Jenny Lind at Her Majesty's 
 Theatre. An excitement almost unparalleled in thea- 
 trical annals has prevailed as to the appearance of the 
 Swedish cantatrice; the highest expectations were form- 
 ed, while on the other hand, there was a fear — not an 
 unnatural one — that she could not equal her immense 
 reputation, and come up to the ideal of those with whom 
 she had been, for so long a period, the topic of conver- 
 sation, and the object of extraordinary interest. This 
 fear was proved to be groundless — Jenny Lind has sur- 
 passed all expectation, because it had been impossible to 
 be prepared for something so startlingly new — so unlike 
 all we have heard before. Each one, it is true, formed 
 his own idea of the vocalist ; yet this always bore a cer- 
 tain resemblance to some bygone favorite, or to some 
 existing prima donna; most people expected, indeed, a 
 marvelous superiority in degree, but were unprepared 
 for the superiority in kind of talent which she possesses. 
 
 "To have attained the perfect control over her voice 
 
 that faultlessness, purity, and delicacy of execution 
 
 which she possesses, Md'lle. Lind must have studied ar- 
 duously ; but to such profit have been her studies, that 
 
OP JENNY LIND. 39 
 
 there is nothing in her singing to remind one of them. 
 Every thing she does appears spontaneous — and yet 
 there is never a fault. The same thing is remarkable in 
 her acting — every movement seems the impulse of the 
 moment ; yet, not for a second does she lose sight of the 
 identity of the character she impersonates — not for a 
 moment are her gestures otherwise than expressive and 
 graceful. Art, by her, has been only used to cultivate 
 nature — not for a moment to disguise it Were it possi- 
 ble to detect a flaw in the voice, or a slip in the execution 
 of Jenny Lind, her singing would still be resistless, for it 
 reaches the heart and touches the deepest chord of human 
 feeling ; but she h*, perhaps, never a weak moment ; at the 
 instant the listener, from the habit of hearing other artists, 
 expects the voice to become weak and fatigued, at that 
 moment it bursts forth in greater beauty than ever. Her 
 voice is astonishing. To the fullest, purest, sweetest 
 tone imaginable it unites a vibrating and penetrating 
 quality and makes its softest whisper audible, no matter 
 where the listener is seated; and that, when exerted to 
 its fullest extent, is truly glorious, and it may be distinct- 
 ly heard above the greatest din of the orchestra, and of 
 the voices of the other artists. 
 
 " We are not afraid of being considered extravagant in 
 our praise, at least by those who have witnessed Md'lle. 
 Lind's performance, for the delight of hearing something 
 so new and so natural has taken the most phlegmatic by 
 storm. Seldom has any theatre presented such a scene of 
 excitement and enthusiasm as Her Majesty's on the night 
 of her debut. Her reception was overpowering — that 
 said much for the fame which had preceded, and also, 
 
40 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 we think, for the universal good-will which Md'lle. Lind, 
 as an individual, had succeeded in inspiring — the feeling 
 of enthusiasm warmed, too, as it was, by the shrinking, 
 timid attitude of the young artist, as she was led forward 
 to receive such unusual plaudits, showed that public 
 expectation, after being raised so high, was fully grati- 
 fied, and even surpassed. We never heard any thing 
 more delicious than the sustained notes which commence 
 her first cavatina, Va dit die, full, clear, and bell-like, 
 then dying off into the faintest whisper. This song was 
 interrupted by a thunder of applause, above which, how- 
 ever could be heard the stentorian bravo of the great 
 Lablache, who, after sitting immovable in his box, like 
 one entranced, suddenly jumped up, as if unable to con- 
 trol his feelings, and applauded furiously. The charming 
 little romance, Quand le quitte la JTormandie was even 
 more rapturously applauded, each verse being encored. 
 At the conclusion of the last she gave the roulade, Jl 
 pliene voix, limpid and deliriously sweet, and finished 
 with a. shake so delicately, so softly executed, that each 
 one held his breath to listen, and the torrent of applause 
 at the ending baffled description. The scene with Ber- 
 tram was magnificently executed. Her passion of terror 
 was nature itself; and the last act, in which she struggles 
 to rescue Robert from the clutches of Bertram, as a spe- 
 cimen of dramatic power, was beyond praise. The house 
 to the close presented such a scene as has been rarely 
 witnessed. The crowded mass, waving hats and hand- 
 kerchiefs, stamping, knocking, shouting, and endeavoring 
 in every possible manner to show their delight, called 
 the vocalist three times before the curtain, with an en- 
 
OF JENK* LIND. 41 
 
 thusiasm we have never seen surpassed, and yet which 
 was no more than deserved." 
 
 So much for her singing — but of her acting another 
 critic thus speaks :— r- 
 
 " Hitherto we have but noticed the circumstances of 
 Md'lle. Lind's debut and the peculiarities of her voice 
 and style of singing, not being able to bestow equal at- 
 tention on that which is equally remarkable — her acting. 
 The part of Mice in ' Roberto il Diavolo,' is admirably 
 calculated to develop Jenny Lind's powers in this branch 
 of her art ; but words would fail us to describe the 
 completeness and perfection of her performance. From 
 beginning to end there is not a "gesture, not a move- 
 ment, not an inflection of voice, which is not charac- 
 teristic of the person she represents ; and yet these traits 
 escape her without being herself conscious of them — in 
 spite of herself, as it were — so thoroughly has she be- 
 come imbued with the sentiment of her. art. This per- 
 fection could never be obtained by study ; it is the 
 result of that marvelous and inexplicable power of 
 identifying oneself with imaginary characters and situa- 
 tions, which Shakspeare, Goethe, and some few gifted 
 beings here and there have possessed, and it is the very 
 height of dramatic art. 
 
 " The reading which Jenny Lind gives to the charac- 
 ter of Mice is exquisite ; the blending of almost angelic 
 innocence, of ingenuousness and feminine timidity, with 
 a rectitude that cannot comprehend evil, and a lion-like 
 courage in the cause of truth, forms one of the most 
 lovely portraitures ever presented on the stage. Jenny 
 Lind's expressive face gives the finishing stroke to the 
 4* 
 
42 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 picture. The want of symmetry of feature apparent in 
 it when in repose, renders only more irresistible and 
 fascinating that expression and intellect which endue 
 it when excited with a beauty that surprises and startles 
 the beholder, and the serene look of goodness and piety 
 which pervades it at times, render it angelic. Her jeu 
 muet is as remarkable as her delivery of any phrase of 
 passion or excitement, for one feeling chases another 
 across her face, and tells a whole history while she 
 utters not a word. Nor does expression reside in her 
 face alone ; the feeling of the moment seems to pervade 
 her whole person, and above all her arms and hands tell 
 a tale of themselves*. So perfectly does she identify 
 herself with her part, that it is difficult to persuade one- 
 self she can ever perform another than the one we see 
 her in. We can hardly, when witnessing her imper- 
 sonation of Alice, the country maiden, of whose rustic 
 simplicity and timidity she never loses sight in the mo- 
 ment of greatest excitement, imagine her to possess 
 sufficient intensity of passion for Norma, which is, 
 nevertheless, one of her best parts, or enough dashing 
 spirit for ' La Figlia del Reggimento,' which is another 
 — greater praise than this cannot be given. Every 
 portion of her impersonation of Alice from the first mo- 
 ment she enters, is equally admirable and well-sustained. 
 The most striking moments, however, are her clinging 
 to the cross, in fear of Bertram, and the last scene, 
 where her overpowering anxiety for Robert's safety, 
 mastering every other feeling, the despair with which 
 she sees that even the appeal in his mother's will is not 
 irresistible, and the scream of joy with which she pro- 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 
 
 43 
 
 nounces the words, ' E mezza notte !' rivet the specta- 
 tor's every look and thought. 
 
 " The popularity of this incomparable artiste seems 
 to increase. She was as enchanting as on every pre- 
 ceding occasion — having been most emphatically en- 
 cored in all the solos she sang during the evening ; and 
 the enraptured audience, not content with her singing 
 ' Quando lasciar la Normanden ' twice, she sung it a 
 third time, finishing with a beauteous cluster of the most 
 exquisite fioriture. At the conclusion of this truly 
 magnificent performance, she was summoned four times 
 before the curtain, when the stage was literally covered 
 with bouquets ; in fact, it was as much as Jenny Lind 
 and Staudigl could accomplish to take them off the 
 stage. 
 
 " If we consider the extraordinary excitement that 
 has taken place in London since the arrival of Md'lle. 
 Jenny Lind, the crowds that are nightly unable to obtain 
 admission, the anxiety of persons flocking from all parts 
 of the British dominions, and even the continent, to 
 witness her unrivaled performances, the number of times 
 Her Majesty and all the members of the Royal family, 
 accompanied by several foreign Princes, have been to 
 hear her, the unprecedented honor of Her Most Gracious 
 Majesty, who, on two occasions, threw splendid bou- 
 quets to the charming songstress — if we wonder at all 
 these circumstances, coupled with the number of times 
 she is called out every night she performs, the house 
 rising en masse to cheer and applaud her, accompanied 
 by every species of the most genuine and heartfelt ap- 
 plause — then we say the triumph of Jenny Lind has been 
 
44 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 the greatest on record. Who that has heard her will 
 ever forget her new and wonderfully executed fioriture 
 and that mezza voce shake, so close, so firm, so distinct, 
 and so dying away, that you are at a loss to know when 
 it was concluded ; which might be compared to a per- 
 son looking upon the sea, the boundary of which is 
 untraceable in the distance." 
 
 We must record all the varieties of Jenny Lind's 
 triumphs, and below we give a tribute to her excellence 
 in a comic part, " the Daughter of the Regiment," in 
 which she was especially successful : — 
 
 " On Thursday night, Donizetti's opera ' La Figlia 
 del Reggimento,' was performed for the purpose of in- 
 troducing Md'lle. Jenny Lind in a new role. She was 
 completely successful, and achieved another triumph. 
 Her Majesty, the Consort, her Majesty Queen Adelaide, 
 and the Grand Duke Constantine, honored the theatre 
 with their presence. 
 
 " ' La Figlia del Reggimento ' is the first opera 
 Donizetti wrote for the French stage, and was per- 
 formed at the Opera Comique during the seasons of 
 1839 and 1840. It has been subsequently performed in 
 almost every operatic theatre upon the Continent. 
 
 " This was the first opportunity Jenny Lind had of 
 displaying her comic powers, and the striking contrast 
 she exhibited in the two acts of this charming opera, 
 was indeed as remarkable as it was judicious and en- 
 chanting. 
 
 " Md'lle. Lind's performance of Maria setting aside 
 its surpassing beauty as a musical accomplishment, is 
 truly a wonderful piece of acting. That it should ex- 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 45 
 
 cite our deepest admiration for the lofty character of 
 Alice and engage our warmest sympathies in behalf of 
 the simple Amina, is not so astonishing as that, without 
 losing for an instant the truth of the impersonation, she 
 should so completely enlist our affections and tastes on 
 behalf of a character which, in other hands, would be 
 the reverse of elegant or refined — that of a suttler girl. 
 But, with Md'lle. Jenny Lind, whatever she undertakes, 
 it will always be so. There is an innate grace and dig- 
 nity of manner which never leaves her, and which 
 united to the winning archness, naivete, and naturalness 
 of her acting, forms the most fascinating combination. 
 The look of enjoyment in her face, communicates itself 
 to, and completely carries away her listeners ; and it is 
 the impression of all those who see her as Marie, how 
 thoroughly she relishes her part. A careless spectator 
 (but there are few such when she performs,) would lose 
 a great deal of the merit of her performance ; she must 
 be watched at every movement, to catch the ever vary- 
 ing expression of her features. The look of complete 
 enjoyment as she struts about the stage, singing her 
 regimental air — her naive coquetry with the old Ser- 
 jeant — the struggle between inclination and the sense of 
 duty, when studying the old-fashioned romance with the 
 Marquise; all these, and many others, are movements 
 which must be watched for ; and she may be watched 
 throughout, for never with Jenny Lind, as with other 
 artists, does the wandering eye and listless countenance, 
 in moments of repose, recall to mind the actress, and 
 destroy the illusion of the scene." 
 
 The opera of " Norma" has been always considered a 
 
46 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 test performance for a prima donna, and of Jenny Lind s 
 success in this, another London critic thus speaks : — 
 
 "Mademoiselle Lind is great in Norma, from first to 
 last. It is not a splendid burst here and there, which 
 constitutes the beauty of her performance; it is a fine 
 intellectual conception of the character which is sustained 
 throughout, not a look or gesture escaping her, but 
 which is in perfect keeping ; and this is not, we are con- 
 vinced, the effect of art, but of that marvelous power of 
 identifying herself with the character she performs, 
 which none possess to greater degree. From her first 
 entrance, beneath the calm dignity and inspired manner of 
 the priestess, may be traced the workings of a heart ill at 
 ease. Few things can exceed the beauty of her opening 
 recitative, terminating with those long dying notes, so in- 
 expressibly touching, in which no one can equal her. 
 The ' Casta Diva' is sung by her with a touch of sadness, 
 blending with the calm sweetness of the air. And let us 
 remark en passant, the few notes she throws in while the 
 chorus take up the strain. It is as if some bird of the 
 woods, in which the scene is laid, had broken in upon 
 the voice of the singers. It is only Md'lle. Lind who 
 can produce such effects as these. To the second part 
 of the 'Casta Diva,' she gives a totally different charac- 
 ter from the first. The one, calm and religious in its 
 expresion ; the second, where she calls Pollione, to mind, 
 is the outpouring of earthly passion. 
 
 "We must hasten over the intermediate scenes, splen- 
 didly given as they are by her, to that where she attempts 
 to murder her children. To this scene which has always 
 appeared to us one of gratuitous and unnatural horror, 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 47 
 
 she gives truth and probability. — Her face is blanched 
 and almost convulsed by agony; her wild look and 
 tottering step give indications of a brain almost distraught, 
 and she comes again and again to the attempt, like one 
 whose purpose (a purpose of madness, it is true,) has 
 been strongly taken, and whose mind has been worked 
 up to the dreadful act. Thus, the mother's love which 
 stays her hand is rendered more striking and powerful. 
 Never shall we forget the look of horror with which she 
 throws back her headj her hair falling backward also, 
 when she let her dagger drop. It is almost too true and 
 too painful. 
 
 "In the last scene she is splendid. The two duets 
 with Pollione, 'In mia mon alfin tu sei' and 'Mai cor 
 tradisti,' she gives with a passion, feeling, and dignity, 
 unsurpassed. Nothing can be more beautitul, too, than 
 the look of wild exultation which lights up her features 
 while preparing her vengande ; but it is when, after hav- 
 ing denounced herself, the remembrance of her children 
 comes across her, that her despair breaks all bounds, 
 and takes gestures, and movements, and tones, which 
 would melt the coldest heart. Here she reminded us of 
 some scene of Shakspeare. She is truly worthy to carry 
 out the inspirations of our immortal bard ; for hers is the 
 acting, as his is the language of nature, and will force its 
 way, despite all caviling and fault-finding, to every 
 heart that is susceptible of a spark of feeling. 
 
 "We do not speak of the encores, the calls before the 
 curtain she obtained, for all these are but feeble testimo- 
 nials to genius such as hers." 
 
 A correspondent of an American journal — an American 
 
48 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 in London — thus gives his impressions of hearing Jenny 
 Lind during this engagement at Her Majesty's The- 
 atre : — 
 
 " London, Friday, June 25, 1847. 
 " Having the fear of the American public before my 
 eyes, I dared not think of returning to the United States, 
 (so called,) without first seeing that greatest of all lions 
 the Swedish Nighingale. Jenny Lind, alias Jenny Lion, 
 alias Jenny Linnet, alias Jenny Nightingale, is the one 
 object of attraction in London just now, about which all 
 the fashion and fortune and taste of the metropolis centre 
 and gravitate, as by a universal and irrepressible instinct. 
 Even 'Ethiopian Serenaders' and 'Congo Melodists,' 
 have to ' clar de track' (to the tune of ' Out of de way, 
 Old Dan Tucker,') at her appearance, while the ' Bedouin 
 Arabs' leap out of her way like so many frightened 
 satyrs. In the full blaze of her fame, which mantles the 
 whole kingdom, and indeed lights up all Europe, other 
 luminaries, however bright, flicker and fade away like 
 rushlights in the sun. She towers up over the most 
 formidable rivals for popular applause — over the Ells- 
 lers, the Grisis, the Grahns, the Ceritos, the Taglionis, 
 like Jesse Hutchinson's ' High Rock ' of Lynn, over a 
 colony of potato hills. Her name is on every tongue, 
 and her fame in every trumpet. * * Believe it or 
 not, I have seen and heard Jenny Lind — stood upon my 
 mortal feet (and rather than not have seen her, would 
 have stood upon my immortal head,) for five English 
 hours, just to see her sweet face and hear her pure voice 
 through one fleeting opera. I went in company with 
 two young ladies, to whom in a rash moment I had 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 48 
 
 { offered myself,' (let no anti-bigamist get in a rage 
 before reading the three words) as a-^-pilot. We hur- 
 ried to the doors of the opera house nearly two hours 
 before the time of opening, and found them already be* 
 sieged by a crowd, in the midst of which we were like 
 rain drops in a maelstrom. We soon found ourselves 
 pressed together as if every person present had fully 
 resolved on leaving a full-length and indelible impression 
 of himself, not omitting a button or a thread, upon every 
 person with whom he could come in contact. The hug 
 of a bear would have been a luxury compared to the 
 embraces to which, without even the slight formality of 
 a presentation, all of us, without distinction of size, skin 
 or sex, were instantly subjected. — The only 'introduc- 
 tion * which the occasion seemed to offer, was the intro- 
 duction into your eyes, and between your ribs, and 
 among your corns, of every man's fists, elbows, knees, 
 or boots — as the case might be — which for the time 
 being he might find it convenient to force upon your 
 acquaintance. Within such circumstances we waited for 
 two mortal hours, each minute of which aspired to be 
 an hour on its own private account, and not without 
 some success — when all at once we heard a shout and a 
 crash, and the next instant were borne forward with 
 most ' indecent haste' through an interminable, crooked- 
 hearted gallery, as full of angles as a lawyer's brain. We 
 were now raised off our feet and hurried through the 
 air, walking upon nothing and finding it very hard ; 
 anon let down to be thumped against a stone wall like 
 battering-rams, squeezed through narrow passages as if 
 we were made of new putty and were just fit for cracks ; 
 5 
 
50 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 this moment poked in the eye by a poker in the shape 
 of what must have been an iron-brimmed hat, and the 
 next having the bridge of our nose so shaken that every 
 one of its ' sleepers ' were wide awake instantly and 
 trembling for life ; and finally being carried into the pit, 
 with a most pitiless rush, amid the screams and shrieks 
 of a thousand operating but most un-opera-like voices, 
 each of which seemed intent on belching its miserable 
 self out of existence. At last, though, we had some- 
 thing like order and quiet, 
 
 ' And silence, like a poultice, came 
 To heal the blows of sound. 
 
 " Each of my ladies having come out of the rush with 
 ' one shoe on and one shoe off' and one of them with 
 the skirt of her dress literally torn away, (so that she 
 had to appear in dimity instead of mouslin,) we were 
 detained in the lobby for a minute or two, and so lost 
 the chance — whiqh we had pretty well earned — of a 
 good seat and were obliged to put up with a very indif- 
 ferent seat. 
 
 " After a while there burst upon us the musical fire 
 and fury of the orchestra, a swelling column of sound 
 which, coming from nearly a hundred impatient instru- 
 ments all doing their loudest, produced such a perfect 
 hurricane of sound that when the final blast had spent 
 itself, and the furious bow had perpetrated its last scrape, 
 and the whole company of blowers and scrapers had 
 disappeared, mysteriously, amid echoing thunders of ap- 
 plause, (to ' wet their whistles ' and ' splice their main 
 braces') — the vast audience drew a long sigh which 
 came hard like a double tooth, and we all ' once more ' 
 
OF JENNY LXND. 51 
 
 — 'like Black Dan' on a memorable occasion, — breathed 
 freely. Then came the tinkle of a small bell, as of a 
 stray cow — then another not quite so modest, and then 
 — up went the blushing curtain as if ashamed of itself 
 for having waited so long revealing a whole troupe of 
 open-mouthed, imitation-foreigners, who instantly went 
 off into an elaborate series of the most excruciating 
 screams which the human throat (whose capacities in 
 that way appear to be unlimited) is capable of. All this 
 was increased and aggravated by the mad orchestra, 
 which having got 'wet' and ' spliced ' were now up (and 
 down) to any thing in the way of noise, and broke forth 
 upon the already wounded air with an amount of brazen 
 and cat-gut clatter which was perfectly astounding. 
 
 " The first act yelled and roared itself away in this 
 obstreperous fashion; the second began and continued 
 for a while, as if it was the ' same old coon ' — and then 
 gliding in like a star, beaming and beautiful, appeared 
 the genius of the evening, Jenny Lind. The moment 
 the first ray of light radiated from her glowing face, 
 every eye in that ' uncounted multitude ' shone like fire, 
 and a chorus of welcome came forth from their uplifted 
 voice which made the poor girl tremble 'like a reed 
 shaken in the storm.' The storm over, with her clear 
 blue eye bent on the stage, and the mellow light of her 
 countenance shaded by her soft tresses, the beautiful 
 songstress advanced toward the footlights, made her si- 
 lent and tremulous acknowledgments, exchanged a look 
 of confidence and joy with the rapt thousands before 
 her, and then with the ease, and freedom and grace, and 
 sweetness of a bird, she let out a stream of simple, clear, 
 
52 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 sustained melody, so natural, and so full of pathos and 
 beauty, that to receive it except in perfect silence would 
 have been actual sacrilege. And this was fit prelude 
 to what followed at the instant, and was continued from 
 time to time, (after the interruptions, and, too often, with 
 the insane ' accompaniments ' of the orchestra,) through- 
 out the evening. The opera was Roberto il Diavolo. — 
 In parts of it, and especially toward the close, her voice 
 was fuller and more powerful than at first ; though it 
 was, after all, the quiet yet rich and melodious cadences 
 of her exordium which touched me the most deeply. 
 
 " What enhanced the effect of the whole performance 
 was her childlike simplicity of expression and manner ; 
 her entire freedom from that distortion of countenance, 
 extravagance of costume, and wild, shrieky, pains-taking, 
 breath-catching effort at the unnatural and startling, 
 which renders most operatic performances so disgusting. 
 Whatever is the fact, how-much-or-little-so-ever the 
 quid pro quo has to do with Jenny Lind's singing, be the 
 connection between her bird-notes and bank-notes never 
 so intimate — one thing is plain, she appears to sing for 
 the same reason that the bird does, because she loves it ; 
 and when she gives her soul up to the mastery and mys- 
 tery (some would add, and mistress-y ,) of song, and 
 becomes inspired by its sacred influence, she seems ut- 
 terly lost to all sublunary thoughts, and her spirit soars, 
 on unfaltering wing, and with unbroken and exulting 
 voice, until, like the lark, she is lost to our sight, and 
 her voice comes trembling down to us from the still 
 depths above, like a stray note from some angelic choir. 
 
 " Oh, that her voice, like that of our charming Jlmeri- 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 
 
 53 
 
 can Songstress, (who can I mean but Abby Hutchin- 
 son ?) might be heard in the lowly cottages of the poor ; 
 in the muffled ear of the prison ; within the icy heart of 
 the alms-house ; at the gatherings of the people when 
 they are called together in the great behalf of down- 
 trodden and degraded humanity ; in the soul of the trem- 
 bling slave ; in the conscience of the guilty slave-holder ; 
 and of the poor sensualist and sot. It would speak a 
 language unto all, so full of faith, and hope, and charity 
 — so instinct with divine light and love, that its gentle 
 tones would pierce the hardest heart, and raise the most 
 drooping and desolate spirit. It is a voice — that voice 
 of Jenny Lind's — which might wake up the forgotten 
 harmonies of the most wretched heart, and lull to sleep 
 the fiercest passions which ever rent the human breast. 
 I ne'er shall listen to 'its like again,' I wish I could de- 
 scribe it ; but that were to utter it. It seemed to me 
 chiefly remarkable for its untaught simplicity and sweet- 
 ness of manner and the perfect purity of its tone. I 
 have heard voices of more power — more physical power 
 I mean — but never one of so fine quality. She has a 
 faculty of trilling, as it is called, or chirping, which is 
 most marvelous. At such times the 'shake' of her 
 voice — though continued for an incredible length of time 
 — is as gentle as if the crystal stream of her outgushing 
 melody were only made tremulous by a passing salute 
 from the soft breath of Heaven. A stream of sparkling 
 water, tripping over a pebbly bank, and singing its 
 pretty quavers to the wooing flowers, does not suggest 
 more of graceful and unlabored beauty than the trans- 
 parent flow of this Swedish Nightingale's voice as it 
 5* 
 
54 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 runs, upon silver foot, over the glad and yielding gamut. 
 So with all her movements which are grace and genius 
 personified. From the moment she lights, like a fairy, 
 upon the stage, till, upon the wings of some transport- 
 ing melody she is borne from our sight, every eye is 
 riveted upon her, and every heart hushes its small pulse 
 in silent admiration (I had well nigh written adoration) 
 of her graceful movements. 
 
 " I was interested to observe that although the Queen 
 herself entered the house during the opera, few persons 
 took any special notice of her. Here and there a dou- 
 ble-barrelled (be quiet, timid reader, not pistol, but) 
 opera-glass was aimed at her ; but as a rule of the opti- 
 cal power of the house, double-barrelled and single, 
 straight-eyed, squint-eyed and sheep-eyed, was expended 
 upon Jenny Lind." 
 
 ###### 
 
 Of all the artistes who had appeared in England in 
 Victoria's time, none had received from her majesty such 
 constant marks of admiring favor, while to this was 
 added the friendship of the Queen as a woman. At one 
 of her departures from Liverpool for Scotland, Victoria 
 (it is credibly stated) went down incognita to see her 
 off. The following corroboration of this familiar pre- 
 ference is from the New Monthly Magazine : — 
 
 " At her Majesty's concert, at which Md'lle. Jenny 
 Lind, in addition to Grisi, Alboni, Staudigl, and other 
 leading artists had the honor of singing, it was remarked 
 that the selection of music was by no means calculated 
 to elicit the powers of the Swedish Nightingale. But 
 in one piece, a solo, in which Md'lle. Lind was accora- 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 55 
 
 panied by Signor Costa on the piano-forte, it was further 
 remarked that (probably from the two distinguished 
 musicians not having been accustomed to perform toge- 
 ther) the accompaniment was injuring the effect of the 
 vocalism. Her Majesty's quick ear noted this, and 
 leaving her seat, the Queen walked up to Md'lle. Jenny 
 Lind, and apprised her that she was at perfect liberty to 
 select some composition in which she could accompany 
 herself. Jenny Lind profited by this gracious permis- 
 sion, and taking her seat at the instrument, sang some 
 Swedish melodies, which enchanted the whole court." 
 Macready's homage to her is thus described : — 
 " After Jenny Lind had been some time performing at 
 Her Majesty's Theatre, Macready decided upon wit- 
 nessing her performance. He accordingly dispatched a 
 polite note to Mr. Lumley, requesting a box. Lumley 
 had none to give for her next performance, as these 
 were already taken. He however sent the great trage- 
 dian one for the following night, the character which 
 Jenny would then have to support being, as luck would 
 have it, Alice, in Robert le Liable. — Macready was 
 there, and, unfashionable in his habits, as are all great 
 artists, contrived to be there previously to the rising of 
 the curtain. The charming Sicilienne, ' O, Fortune,' 
 sung by Robert, passed without exciting the slightest 
 sensation on Macready's part, who, to tell the truth, 
 possesses no great taste for music. However, when Jenny 
 came upon the stage, the tragedian listened, and when she 
 put forth the power of her delicate voice, in the tender 
 and sublime cavatina, known as ' Va dit-elle,' he felt 
 that he began to relish music. As those rich and meli- 
 
56 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 flous notes faded upon the house, he was seen applaud- 
 ing, and then, as if ashamed of himself, he again re- 
 lapsed into his usual stoicism of demeanor. It was in. 
 the second act that he was moved entirely out of his 
 usual self-possession. 
 
 " Her sublime duet with Bertram moved him into 
 passionate applause ; and when, with her last notes 
 ringing in his ears, she casts herself at the foot of the 
 cross, he could contain himself no more, but throwing 
 himself back in his box, he turned to his wife, who had 
 accompanied him, and said, 'She — is — an — angel. 5 He 
 was charmed and electrified. The enthusiasm clung to 
 him all that night. 
 
 " Next morning he drove out without ceremony to 
 Jenny's hermitage at Wimbledon, and sent up his card 
 — entire stranger as he was, in all but that which makes 
 genius with genius one kin. Jenny looked at it and 
 read the name — W. C. Macready. 
 
 " Orders were immediately given for his admittance, 
 and in a brief space of time the twain knew each other 
 as well as if they had been the friends of years. Ma- 
 cready told her how highly he had been the night before 
 delighted with her singing and acting — of course he laid 
 the greatest stress upon the singing, it being precisely 
 in that part of the performance of which the meanest 
 fiddler in an orchestra would be the better judge. This 
 mattered little. He had been startled from his equa- 
 nimity by it, and fortunately the language of praise is 
 never criticised. He then added that he himself was 
 generally allowed to be something of an actor, and that 
 it would gratify him exceedingly were she to accept an 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 57 
 
 invitation to witness his representation of one of Shak- 
 speare's characters. Jenny complied with the wish, and 
 commanded ' King Lear.' 
 
 " On the night appointed, Macready had one of the 
 best boxes in the Princesses' theatre, at which he was 
 then engaged, set apart for the operatic syren. She was 
 delighted with his performance, and applauded frequently 
 and appropriately. It got wind, however, that she was 
 in the house, and from that moment John Bull paid no 
 more attention to Macready. ' The star ' of the even- 
 ing was outshone by the brighter star that had entered 
 his hemisphere. Two or three times, indeed, the afore- 
 said John Bull tried to get up three cheers for the ex- 
 quisite songstress. — Public decorum and good sense, 
 nevertheless, prevailed, and the intended honor was 
 allowed to pass. The evening at last came to a close, 
 and with their usual pertinacity, the crowd waited out- 
 side the theatre to give her the cheers which they had 
 hitherto refrained from administering. Macready had 
 in the mean time come round to receive her compliments, 
 which were offered him with all the grace and frankness 
 which are so characteristic of the Swedish Nightingale, 
 and she gave her enthusiastic admirers the slip by step- 
 ping out at the stage door, at which Macready had 
 taken the precaution of ordering her carriage to be in 
 waiting. After cooling their feet for half an hour in 
 Oxford Street, the crowd condescended to go home, 
 deeply annoyed at so unwarrantable an interference with 
 their private pleasures." 
 
 At the close of the London engagement, a " testimo- 
 nial " was presented to Miss Lind by Mr. Lumley, the 
 
58 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 manager of the opera, as " a tribute of respect for her 
 noble qualities and genius, which have secured the ad- 
 miration of England." It was of pure silver, and nearly 
 three feet high. The composition represented a pillar 
 wreathed with laurels, at the foot of which were seated 
 three draperied figures, Tragedy, Music and Comedy. 
 The Art Union Journal says of it : — 
 
 " The cost of this testimonial, has been considerable ; 
 it is a liberal gift ; but it will be valued far beyond its 
 actual worth, as one of many proofs received by the ac- 
 complished lady, that her estimable character and high 
 moral worth, as well as her lofty genius, have been ap- 
 preciated in England. She will leave this country with 
 feelings of more than ordinary respect and affection. — 
 Her reception here has sunk deep into her heart ; the 
 more so, perhaps, because it exceeded in warmth her ex- 
 pectations ; and although her present intention is not to 
 appear on any stage except that of Stockholm, we trust 
 that the impression made upon her heart by the earnest 
 cordiality of the people of England, and the continued 
 liberality and courtesy of the lessee of Her Majesty's 
 Theatre, will induce her again to visit a country to 
 which she expresses herself fervently and gratefully at- 
 tached." 
 
 The provincial tours of Jenny Lind, and her visits to 
 Scotland and Dublin, were but repetitions of her tri- 
 umph in London. Excitement of delight could no far- 
 ther go. Having thus fairly conquered the British 
 Islands, Jenny, after an absence of two years returned to 
 her ever eager and constant worshipers at Berlin. A 
 critic says of this re-appearance : — 
 
OF JENNY L1ND. 59 
 
 ' Such spiritual and physical power, are the rarest re- 
 sources of her voice — so extraordinary a flexibility of the 
 organ, which has gained strength, especially in the up- 
 per register, and almost entirely lost the huskiness which 
 veiled (as the Italians say,) the mezzo region, — in short, 
 such virtuosita and perfection of singing are really won- 
 derful, and render the enthusiasm excited by the appear- 
 ance of this gifted woman easy of explanation." 
 
 Her return to Sweden, after this, proved her an ex- 
 ception to lack of " prophet-honor in a native country," 
 as the following account will fully show : — 
 
 "This delightful songstress creates quite as great a 
 furor in her own native city of Stockholm (if not 
 greater) as she has in foreign lands. On the 2nd instant, 
 she performed at the Royal Opera, Stockholm, and al- 
 though tickets were to have been sold at the theatre 
 office, from ten o'clock, on the preceding afternoon, at 
 about four, the Adolphus-place, where the Opera stands, 
 was already nearly crowded. At eleven the multitude 
 was such that the police interfered, and made the people 
 form en queue, but a little after midnight a compact mass 
 of persons made an irruption from the neighboring 
 streets, rushed on the queue, broke it, and actually be- 
 sieged the theatre. Nevertheless, the first crowd, re- 
 turned, attacked their aggressors, and in a few minutes 
 a desperate fist and foot combat followed. Several per- 
 sons were severely bruised on the occasion. Detach- 
 ments of infantry at length, with great trouble, succeeded 
 in clearing the Adolphus-place, and only two thousand 
 persons, or twice the number the theatre could hold, 
 were suffered to approach its office. In the course of 
 
60 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 the day tickets were paid for as high as fifty times what 
 they had cost at the office. Some of those for the am- 
 phitheatre first places were sold at 100 bank rix dollars, 
 or £22. The reception given to Jenny within the thea- 
 tre was most enthusiastic ; every known ' ovation ' was 
 conferred on her, including that of which Italy has re- 
 served to herself the privilege — the flying of pigeons in 
 the house. Much of this enthusiasm was no doubt cre- 
 ated by the admiration felt at her having on the previous 
 evening published in the journals a note stating that, in 
 order to give her native country a souvenir that might 
 last beyond her existence as an artiste, she had deter- 
 mined on devoting to the establishment of a school for 
 poor young persons of both sexes, born with happy dis- 
 positions, in which they should be gratuitously taught 
 music and the dramatic art, the whole of the profits of 
 an engagement which she had just concluded with the 
 Royal Opera, and which stipulates that she should sing 
 once a week in December, January, and February, on 
 condition of half of the whole receipts, on every night of 
 her appearance, being given to her, and of a half being 
 added to the prices of places. 
 
 " During last season at Stockholm, such was the eager- 
 ness to witness her performances that the places at the 
 theatre were put up at auction, and fetched prices which 
 would be extraordinary even here, but in Stockholm 
 were immense. With her share of the proceeds Md'lle. 
 Lind has established an asylum for the support of de- 
 cayed artists, and particularly of poor young girls who 
 as she was once, with a taste for the arts, find them- 
 selves without means of pursuing their study ; hoping, 
 
OP JENNY LIND. 61 
 
 no doubt, that amongst them may be found some, like 
 herself also, endowed with genius enough to conquer the 
 first position in art. One young Swedish maiden of 
 
 such promise has already appeared — Md'lle. E , and 
 
 Jenny Lind has given her six thousand francs to study 
 in Paris, under her former master, Emanuel Garcia. 
 
 " We will say no more as to the general history of 
 this great vocalist, who, in every capital she visited, has 
 excited not only the enthusiasm of the highest dilettanti, 
 but has won the affections of every class, and whose 
 truly admirable private character, marked by the great- 
 est beneficence, has been fully equal to the public posi- 
 tion she has attained as an artist. Hence has it arisen 
 that when she left Berlin and Vienna, although it was 
 in the middle of the night, the population had assem- 
 bled to bid her adieu, and drew her carriage beyond the 
 gates of the city. When she left Stockholm, six weeks 
 since, the quays were covered by her admiring country- 
 men; all the ships in the harbor were manned, and 
 amidst the playing of the bands of music she was con- 
 ducted to the steamer in which she embarked in the pre- 
 sence of the Queen of Sweden and her court." 
 
 In the Spring of 1848, Jenny returned to London, 
 and performed an engagement at the Queen's Theatre, 
 with the same excitement as before. The criticisms of 
 this visit to England would be repetitions, but of one per- 
 formance — a charity concert which she gave at Bromp- 
 ton — we must preserve the record. Mrs. S. C. Hall, 
 the celebrated authoress, had chanced to be her next 
 neighbor at Brompton, and as a certain Hospital for the 
 cure of Consumption, was an object in which she was 
 6 
 
62 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 much interested, she naturally expressed her views on 
 the subject to the Songstress, who was her friend. The 
 result is thus alluded to in the Art Journal : — 
 
 "It was announced by Mr. S. C. Hall at the Univer- 
 sity meeting of patrons and supporters of ' the Hospital 
 for Cure of Consumption,' that it is the intention of this 
 accomplished lady to give a concert for the benefit of 
 the charity, sometime toward the close of the season. 
 We have so often advocated in our columns the cause of 
 this Hospital, that it is unnecessary to detail its claims. 
 Although about seventy patients are now received within 
 its walls, and ' out-door ' relief is afforded to hundreds 
 daily, its means are sadly disproportionate to its wants ; 
 the object of Miss Lind is to assist in building an addi- 
 tional wing, to which her considerate generosity cannot 
 fail to contribute largely. In her own country the 
 genius of this lady has greatly aided many valuable cha- 
 rities ; some, indeed, it has entirely sustained ; we re- 
 joice that she will leave here a record of her sympathy 
 with the cause of the distressed. There are in London 
 numerous persons, who, entertaining objections to visit 
 a theatre, have been unable to hear her marvelous 
 voice ; the concert to which we refer will afford to all 
 such a means of intense enjoyment — probably the only 
 opportunity of which they will be enabled to avail them- 
 selves. They will not be as much gratified while merely 
 hearing her sing, as they would be when hearing her 
 sing and seeing her act, for her powers as an actress are 
 of the loftiest order ; it is, indeed, impossible to imagine 
 the art — if so it must be called — in greater perfection. In 
 her it is nature ; she is, in reality, for the time that which 
 
OP JENNY UND. 63 
 
 she appears ; and in each of her characters she is, con- 
 sequently, a fine study for the artist. It is something, 
 too, that her whole professional career has been in the 
 highest degree honorable ; those who know her in pri- 
 vate life speak of her with enthusiasm, because of qua- 
 lities of mind and disposition pre-eminently good — of 
 her domestic habits and those gentler virtues that seek 
 indulgences and rewards apart from crowds. Perhaps 
 a woman more unspoiled by adulation never existed ; 
 genius is but one of her many rare gifts, and it is not too 
 much to say, she values most those who most excite 
 affection and respect ; humble in all her aims, desires 
 and hopes. It is but right to add that the wishes of 
 Miss Lind, in reference to this charity, have been met in 
 the most cordial and liberal spirit by Mr. Lumley, who 
 has placed the concert-room of the opera and all its 
 appliances at her control. 
 
 "The concert, which took place on the 31st day of 
 July, was entirely free of all cost to the Hospital ; but 
 Miss Lind having taken the entire responsibility, the 
 concert produced a sum far beyond the anticipations of 
 the most sanguine ; and, in consequence of this increased 
 aid, the new wing of the building will be very soon pro- 
 ceeded with ; there are now seventy-four patients in the 
 Hospital; but it is intended for two hundred and fifty. 
 The Hospital is, as most of our readers know, a very 
 beautiful structure — in the true old English style. When 
 complete it will be one of the chief architectural orna- 
 ments of the Metropolis. 
 
 "The concert-room was 'full to overflowing:' it was 
 capable of containing 1000 persons seated ; a thousand 
 
64 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 tickets were sold and fifty in addition for standing 
 room ; of these 1000, there were about 250 in the boxes, 
 which were all let at ten guineas each: and nearly 600 
 tickets were disposed of at two guineas each : to ' re- 
 served seats.' Among the audience were many clergy- 
 men and others, who do not, upon principle, visit 
 theatres, and who gladly availed themselves of that 
 opportunity to enjoy a rare musical treat. The grati- 
 tude of the committee who conduct the affairs of the 
 Hospital, has been conveyed to Miss Lind ; and we have 
 reason to know she has received exceeding pleasure from 
 the announcement to name after her the first ward that 
 shall be built in the new wing — which her generous 
 assistance will enable them now to carry forward. The 
 committee, farther subscribed together a sufficient sum 
 to procure a beautiful salver of silver — manufactured by 
 Messrs. Smith, of Duke Street — upon which they en- 
 graved a picture of the Hospital : — finishing up the 
 centre and west wing, now occupied, .but leaving in 
 skeleton lines the eastern wing, not yet in existence, but 
 which (as we have intimated) will ere long be added to 
 complete the structure. The engraving was followed 
 by this inscription : — 
 
 " ' In the name of the sufferers relieved by her 
 bounty, this humble memorial of one of her noble actions 
 is presented to Jenny Lind, by the Committee of Ma- 
 nagement of the Hospital for Consumption, at Brompton, 
 London, as a slight token of their esteem and gratitude, 
 and in commemoration of the concert given by her on 
 the 31st day of July, 1848. On which occasion, through 
 the exertion of her unrivaled talents, £1,766 were added 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 65 
 
 to the funds of the charity, and a solid foundation laid 
 for completing the fabric — the unfinished condition of 
 which had attracted her generous sympathy.' 
 
 " The salver was presented to Miss Lind by a deputa- 
 tion of the committee : she expressed her thanks warmly 
 — in good English — and her great pleasure that she had 
 been the means of aiding a charity which she considered 
 the best, as well as the most needed, of all the many 
 charities of England. It is not the least gratifying part 
 of this affair, that soon after visiting the hospital, and 
 examining the whole of its arrangements with care, she 
 was called upon to recommend to its protection a young 
 countryman of her own, who had manifested indications 
 of consumption ; and to whom, of course, all the com- 
 forts and advantages of the hospital will be gladly and 
 gratefully rendered." 
 
 Jenny Lind's trip to Dublin was a tumultuous ova- 
 tion. Her concerts afterward at Birmingham, Man- 
 chester and Norwich, were an extension of the same 
 fever of delight. At Manchester she gave two charity 
 concerts in aid of the Infirmary at that place, and, as an 
 acknowledgment of her services on those occasions, the 
 people of Manchester presented her with a dressing-case 
 of great elegance, on the silver plate of which was the 
 following inscription : — 
 
 "To Mademoiselle Lind, through whose gratuitous 
 exertions, the munificent sum of £2,512 were re- 
 alized, toward the erection of an additional wing to the 
 Manchester Infirmary, this Dressing Case, with the 
 accompanying necklace of pearls, is presented by the 
 people, as a sincere token of gratitude for her generous 
 6* 
 
66 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 services, and with their best wishes for her welfare and 
 happiness." ■ ' 
 
 At the old city of Norwich, Jenny formed the friend- 
 ship of the excellent and talented Bishop of Norwich, 
 who has ever since been among her most cordial and 
 attached admirers. She accompanied the good ecclesi- 
 astic and his family in their drives, and was beloved 
 and cherished as an angel of goodness. On leaving Nor- 
 wich she was presented by the Bishop with a Bible, and 
 the Mayor, on behalf of the city, presented her with 
 a splendidly illustrated edition of "Milton's Paradise 
 Lost." 
 
 It was at this period that the great vocalist sang at 
 Birmingham, giving the proceeds, which amounted to 
 between six and seven thousand dollars, to the Queen's 
 Hospital ; and this made over sixty thousand dollars 
 that had been contributed by her to charitable objects, 
 within two months! She also sang gratuitously at 
 Leeds, for the benefit of the conductor and band who 
 had accompanied her in her musical tour ; and at Exeter 
 Hall for musical charities, to which she added large con- 
 tributions from her own purse ; and again for the benefit 
 of Mr. Balfe, the composer and leader of the orchestra. 
 Such a chronicle of charities as those of Jenny Lind 
 — were they all recorded together — would be unprece- 
 dented in the history of the world. 
 
 But the Swedish Songstress having become the pas- 
 sion of every class — royalty, aristocracy, musical dilet- 
 tanti, merchants, mechanics, sailors, soldiers, saints and 
 paupers — it was suddenly rumored that she was about 
 to quit the stage for ever, and become the idol of one 
 
OP JENNY LIND. 67 
 
 human being — a husband ! She consented, however, to 
 re-appear, while the speculations on this subject were 
 still afloat, and the following passages from the London 
 journals, show the feeling at the time : — 
 
 " Little did those, the most learned in discerning the 
 flickering lights and shades of theatrical enterprise, 
 dream last year that this season there should be such a 
 night when public curiosity would be more piqued as 
 regards Jenny Lind and the ' Sonnambula,' perhaps the 
 best, and also the most frequently repeated, of her parts, 
 more attractive than ever it was to the public. Now, 
 indeed, every one without as well as within, must feel 
 how much increased curiosity and interest must be ; 
 months having been spent in speculation upon the retire- 
 ment of Jenny Lind from the stage, the topic, ad nau- 
 seam, during this lapse of time, of every journal, of 
 every coffee-house, and every fire-side. 
 
 " The eagerness to behold the great Swedish vocalist 
 is the greater, as no one knows, up to this moment, 
 whether she retires this year or next — whether she will 
 sing six nights as agreed to, or unto the remainder of 
 the season. What may be most justly observed is, that 
 Md'lle. Lind has done that which was wise and just in 
 returning to the stage for a few nights, at all events; 
 and this entirely setting aside the interests of the great 
 establishment, which had suffered injury from her with- 
 drawal in exact proportion to its devotion to her. She 
 was born on the stage — on the stage she acquired her 
 fame and fortune — on the stage she gave the most useful 
 example of moral conduct, and through the stage she 
 alone acquired means of beneficence. 
 
63 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 " On the opening of the doors there was a headlong 
 rush of the well-dressed crowd, never seen anywhere 
 before Jenny Lind's nights. On the entrance of the 
 great vocalist, there was that applause, that cheering 
 and enthusiasm expressed in all possible manners, such 
 as, before her arrival in England, was never witnessed 
 at any theatre. Her voice was in its highest perfection ; 
 every phrase drew forth the whispered utterance, at 
 least, of general delight. After the first act Md'lle. 
 Lind was called for, but she did not come ; still the ap- 
 plause lasted ten minutes at least. At the close of the 
 next act, and at the final fall of the curtain, the enthu- 
 siasm knew no bounds, and the cantatrice was obliged 
 to obey the call from all parts of the house. She ap- 
 peared before the curtain, when she was hailed by 
 renewed plaudits and the showering of bouquets." 
 
 Another article thus touches the same topic : — 
 
 " In spite of war and rumors of war, and the gene- 
 rally unsettled state of public affairs, the London lovers 
 of music and patrons of the Italian Opera, are kept in 
 perpetual excitement. The gentle Swede is not yet mar- 
 ried, nor has she disappeared from the stage. On the 
 latter subject she has changed her mind — possibly on 
 the former, though we do not pretend to be informed. 
 At any rate, she re-appeared at the Queen's Theatre on 
 Thursday the 26th ult., giving rise to such a furor as 
 is rarely witnessed. 
 
 " Any one who had chanced to pass up the Haymar- 
 ket yesterday evening, between five and six, would have 
 at once perceived that Jenny Lind had returned to the 
 stage. Nothing short of such an occurrence could have 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 69 
 
 assembled, at that early hour, such crowds of seekers 
 for admission at the pit and gallery doors of Her Ma- 
 jesty "s Theatre. There were at that time — that is to 
 say, nearly two hours before the time fixed for opening 
 the doors — at least twice as many persons assembled as 
 the pit and gallery could accommodate. The crowd con- 
 tinued to increase every minute, until the time fixed for 
 the opening of the doors, and then the crush — we remem- 
 ber the crush on the memorable 4th of May, 1847, when 
 Jenny made her debut in the character of Alice ; we 
 remember the many subsequent crushes on every Jenny 
 Lind night for the last two seasons, but never have we 
 experienced such a crush as that of last night ! The 
 Sonnambula was the opera chosen for the occasion, and 
 when Jenny Lind appeared as Amina, looking the sim- 
 ple, artless, warm-hearted country maiden, as she alone 
 can look it, the whole house ' rose ' at her, as Kean was 
 wont to say ; never was there such a — reception is not 
 the word, it was the cordial meeting of friends rather 
 than a dramatic reception ; — such a warm-hearted wel- 
 come — such a burst of almost affectionate enthusiasm as 
 that with which she was greeted. She seemed deeply 
 affected, and her lips moved tremulously as though to 
 give expression to her acknowledgments." 
 
 The merry London Punch thus adds his quiz-testi- 
 mony to the same enthusiasm at this particular moment 
 of Jenny's career : — 
 
 " Mr. Pips, his Diary..— Saturday, May 5, 1849. — 
 To the Queen's House in the Haymarket to hear Jenny 
 Lind, whom every body do call the Swedish Nightin- 
 gale. Did go with a pit ticket. Went at 6 P. M., 
 
70 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 expecting a Crowd, and there a Mob of People already 
 at the doors, and some did say they had come as early 
 as Five. Got as close as I could to the Pit Entrance, 
 and the Throng increasing ; and by-and-by Ladies in 
 their Opera dresses standing without their Bonnets in 
 the Street. Many of them between the Carriage 
 Wheels and under the Horses' Heads ; and methinks I 
 never did see more Carriages together in my Life. At 
 last the Doors open ; which did begin to fear they never 
 would, and I in with the Press, a most terrible Crush, 
 and the Ladies screaming and their Dresses torn in the 
 Scramble, wherefore, I thought it a good Job that my 
 wife was not with me. 
 
 " With much ado into the Pit, the way being stopped 
 by a snob in a green jockey coat, and bird's eye neck- 
 cloth, that the Checktakers would not suffer to pass'. 
 The pit full in a twinkling, and I fain to stand where I 
 best might, nigh to Fop's Alley ; but presently a lady 
 fainting with the heat, and carried out, which was glad 
 of; I mean that I got her place. I did never behold 
 so much Company in the House before ; and every Box 
 full of Beauties, and hung with yellow Satin Curtains, 
 did show like a brave Picture in a Gold Frame ; which 
 was very handsome to look round upon while the Mu- 
 sicians were tuning. The Fiddles tuned, and the Over- 
 ture played, the Curtain up for the Opera ; which was, 
 the Sonnambula ; the part of Amina acted by Jenriy. 
 The Moment she came on the Stage the audience, STords 
 Ladies, and all, upon their Legs, shouting, Peering, 
 waving Hats and Handkerchiefs, and clapping Hands in 
 white Kid Gloves. But at last they silent, and let the 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 71 
 
 Nightingale sing ; and for certain she is a wonderful 
 Singer. It did amaze me to hear how easy and sweetly 
 she do thrill and warble the most difficult Passages ; 
 and I perceive that she has a rare Ability of Voice. 
 
 " But what did no less astonish me was her Acting, 
 it being as good as her Singing ; for she did seem to 
 forget herself in her part, instead of her part in herself; 
 which is the Mistake of most Opera Singers. To think 
 that she should draw the whole Town in Crowds toge- 
 ther to hear her sing a few pretty Sugarplum Melodies 
 and portray the Grief of a poor Peasant Wench cast off 
 by her lover ! But she do throw a Grace and Beauty 
 of her own into the Character and Musique ; which I 
 take to be the Mark of a true Genius. She made to 
 sing divers Songs twice over, and called upon the Stage 
 at the End of the Act, and again when the Opera was 
 finished ; when, good lack, to see the Nosegays and 
 Posies flung in Heaps upon the Stage ! She must needs 
 get a Mint of Money by her Singing ; but she has spent 
 a deal of it in Building Hospitals and I do wish (Hea- 
 ven forgive me!) I had all she had given away in 
 Charity." 
 
 Jenny finally came to her leave-taking of the English 
 stage, and it was understood to be a retirement from it 
 for ever as an actress. A writer thus describes this last 
 performance in London : — 
 
 "Jenny Lind took her leave of the stage last evening, 
 in the same character in which she made her debut two 
 years since, in that of Alice in Roberto II Diavolo. Not 
 even in the heyday of the public excitement to see Jenny 
 Lind do we remember a more striking scene than the 
 
72 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 Opera House presented last night. To say that the 
 place was crowded is inadequately to describe the suf- 
 focating density of the mass who filled the pit and gal- 
 leries ; and in the reserved portions of the theatre — the 
 boxes and stalls — every available nook and cranny was 
 filled. 
 
 " Her Majesty, Prince Albert, the Duchess of Kent, 
 were present, and all the rank and fashion of London 
 seemed to be collected there to pay the last tribute of 
 respect to Lind, on her secession (let us hope, not final) 
 from the lyric stage. It had been difficult to persuade 
 the public that she was really determined to leave ; but, 
 when the official announcement seemed to place the fact 
 beyond all present doubt, the general rush to witness 
 her last performance produced a concourse in the thea- 
 tre, and communicated an enthusiasm to the vast au- 
 dience such as we do not remember to have witnessed 
 on any similar occasion. The burst of cheering and the 
 general up-rising of the vast crowd bespoke an unani- 
 mity of feeling and an enthusiasm such as no performer 
 within the range of living experience, at least on the 
 lyric stage, has been able to excite. On such an occa- 
 sion we cannot criticise the performance ; we have too 
 deep a sense of the irreparable loss which the lyric 
 drama has suffered by the secession of Jenny Lind to 
 become critical. Be it therefore our task to record the 
 parting scene between Jenny Lind and the public at the 
 fall of the curtain. Boxes, pit, galleries, rose as with 
 one mind and purpose ; and in a few moments Lind came 
 forward, led by Gardoni, to receive new tributes of ap- 
 plause. She was visibly affected, yet shrunk from all 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 73 
 
 open expression of her feelings, and bowed reverently 
 to that public by whom she had been so long and so 
 affectionately cherished. Scarcely had she retired, when 
 another storm arose, more loud and peremptory than the 
 first; and again the fair singer appeared, led on by Bel- 
 letti. The same warm and enthusiastic applause was 
 renewed ; and the bouquets fell in showers. A third time 
 the call was made ; and now Jenny Lind came on alone, 
 trembling with suppressed emotion, bowing lowly, meek- 
 ly and reverently, and looking the farewell which cus- 
 tom denied her the opportunity of speaking. This time 
 the enthusiasm was so great, so prolonged, so entirely 
 beyond even the greetings to which she has been accus- 
 tomed, that her feelings became too strong to be re- 
 pressed, and her emotion found vent and her gratitude 
 expression in tears. Such was the scene of leave-tak- 
 ing last evening. Notwithstanding all that has passed 
 we can but indulge the hope that the leave-taking is not 
 indeed final, but that Jenny Lind may be induced again, 
 at no distant period, to resume the throne which she has 
 unnecessarily abdicated." 
 
 Jenny returned to Stockholm, and for the next year, 
 she lived in the seclusion she so much loves, singing 
 only occasionally at concerts for the relief of the poor. 
 It was soon noised about, however, that she was pro- 
 posing to come to America, and the following article, 
 from the Liverpool Times, gave credible information on 
 the subject : — 
 
 " There have been many reports in circulation as to 
 the intended visit of this amiable and gifted lady to the 
 United States. We are now enabled to state the facts 
 7 
 
74 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 and particulars on the best authority, that of a private 
 letter from Md'lle. Lind, and a perusal of the docu- 
 ments relating to the engagement, with which we have 
 been favored by Mr. Barnum's agent. The latter were 
 signed at Lubec on the 9th inst., and are in substance 
 as follows, omitting the sums of money out of deli- 
 cacy to Md'lle. Lind, with the remark that those al- 
 ready specified by some of our contemporaries are quite 
 incorrect. 
 
 "Mr. Barnum agrees to provide Md'lle. Lind, await- 
 ing maid, servant to superintend the baggage for herself 
 and party, to pay all traveling expenses, including those 
 of her companion (the amiable relative who accom- 
 panied her in England) a Secretary, and the professional 
 fees of M. Benedict and Signor Belletti, the musical con- 
 ductor and the vocalist, whom she has particularly se- 
 lected ; to place at her disposal in each city a carriage 
 and pair of horses, and to secure her a certain sum for 
 each concert or oratorio in which she shall sing. That 
 after seventy-five concerts, if Mr. Barnum shall have re- 
 alized a sum named, exclusive of all current expenses, 
 then, in addition to the first amount a further sum of 
 one-fifth of the nightly profits on the remaining seventy- 
 five concerts. 
 
 "We may state the terms given to Messrs. Benedict 
 and Belletti are very liberal — such as, in reference to Mr. 
 Benedict, could alone have tempted him from his emi- 
 nent position in the metropolis. Md'lle. Lind, on her 
 part agrees to sing in one hundred and fifty concerts, in- 
 cluding oratorios, within one year, if possible — or, if 
 not, within eighteen months; to have full control as 
 
OP JENNY LIND. 75 
 
 to the number of nights or concerts in each week, 
 and the number of pieces in each concert — the former 
 as ■wfell as the latter, to be conditional on her health 
 and safety of voice. In no case is she to appear in 
 opera. 
 
 " It is further proposed that the life of Mademoiselle 
 Lind, and that of each of her assistants shall be insured 
 for the full amount of their engagements ; in case of 
 death, half of the sum to be. paid to their heirs or as- 
 signs, the remainder to Mr. Barnum. The party to 
 leave for America the last week in August, or first week 
 in September. During the interim Md'lle. Lind will 
 remain on the Continent singing for various chari- 
 ties, and will pay a visit of some duration to Stock- 
 holm, her native city. The following is a copy 
 of the letter addressed by Mademoiselle Lind to Mr. 
 Barnum : — 
 
 " Lubec, 8th January, 1850. 
 
 " Sir : — At the request of your agent, Mr. , who 
 
 is now here, and whose object is, at the earliest oppor- 
 tunity, to advise you, I beg to state that I have this day 
 concluded to accept the terms made me for you, by him, 
 to the effect of visiting the United States of America 
 professionally, under your auspices, the details of which 
 are set forth in a formal mutual agreement ; and I can- 
 not but express my gratitude for the anxiety you and 
 your agent evince to render my intended tour replete 
 with comfort. Trusting the speculation may meet your 
 most sanguine expectations, is my most ardent desire ; 
 
76 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 and no endeavors to secure which shall he wanting (God 
 granting me health) on the part of, sir, 
 
 " Yours most respectfully, 
 
 "JENNY LIND. 
 " To P. T Barnum, Esquire, Iranistan Villa, Bridge- 
 port, Connecticut, United States. 
 
 (" True copy, witnessed by me, Jenny Lind.) " 
 
 " The ' Albion ' says, ■ ' we have set eyes on the con- 
 tract itself, with the fair Jenny's name appended thereto 
 in bold and legible round text. She receives one thou- 
 sand dollars per night, for one hundred and fifty nights. 
 Benedict, the pianist and composer, and Belletti, the 
 baritone singer, are to accompany her professionally, the 
 former receiving £5,000 sterling for his services, the 
 latter one half that sum." 
 
 The following letter from Mr. Barnum, communicated 
 soon after, to the American Press, gave authentic cer- 
 tainty of detail to this fair promise for America : — 
 
 "American Museum, Feb. 19, 1850. 
 " In regard to the engagement of Md'lle. Jenny Lind, 
 for America, I beg to state that I have this day ratified 
 the engagement made by my agent with this distin- 
 guished vocalist. It is true that in engaging Md'lle. 
 Lind and the musical associates whom she has selected 
 to accompany her, viz : the distinguished composer and 
 pianist, M. Julius Benedict, and the celebrated Italian 
 baritone vocalist, Giovanni Belletti, my agent went be- 
 yond any amount I had anticipated paying, but after all 
 the sums to be paid to these persons, enormous as they 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 77 
 
 may appear, are not so much as Miss Lind has been in 
 the habit of receiving for her services alone, nor do 
 Messrs. Benedict and Belletti receive from me more than 
 their distinguished talents are, at this moment, com- 
 manding in London. 
 
 " Perhaps I may not make any money by this enter- 
 prise, but I assure you that if I knew I should not 
 realize a farthing profit, I would yet ratify the en- 
 gagement, so anxious am I that the United States 
 shall be visited by a lady whose vocal powers have 
 never. been approached by any other human being, and 
 whose character is charity, simplicity, and goodness 
 personified. 
 
 " It is well known that Jenny Lind never received 
 less than £400 or $2,000 per night, for her own per- 
 sonal services, in Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, 
 Dublin, and the provincial towns in England, and that 
 she frequently received £600 per night. My agent saw 
 an offer to her of £6,000, or $30,000, to sing twelve 
 nights in England, which she declined ; also, an enor- 
 mous offer for the grand concerts at the Imperial Court 
 of Russia, an offer nearly double that of my own, which 
 she, for reasons, also declined. She was offered £1,200, 
 or $6,000, to sing in one concert, to be given at the 
 Great World's Convention of Art and Manufactures, in 
 Hyde Park, London, in 1851. It was further intimated 
 to her, from Queen Victoria, that her services would be 
 desired at about the same period, in a contemplated 
 grand sacred festival at Westminster Abbey, where the 
 tickets will be held from $25 to $100 each. Both of 
 these last offers she was induced to decline, in conse- 
 7* 
 
78 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 quence of her desire to visit America, as proposed by 
 my agent. 
 
 " Miss Lind has numerous better offers than the one 
 she has accepted from me ; but she has a great anxiety 
 to visit America ; she speaks of this country and its 
 institutions in the highest terms of rapture and praise, 
 and as money is by no means the greatest inducement 
 that can be laid before her, she has determined to visit 
 us. In her engagement with me, (which engagement 
 includes Havana as well as the United States,) she ex- 
 pressly reserves the right to give charitable 'concerts 
 whenever she thinks proper. 
 
 " Since her debut in England, she has given to the 
 poor, from her own private purse, more than the whole 
 amount which I have engaged to give her, and the pro- 
 ceeds of concerts for charitable purposes in Great Britain, 
 where she sung gratuitously, have realized more than 
 ten times that amount. 
 
 " During the last eight months she has been singing 
 entirely gratuitously,' for charitable purposes, and she is 
 jiow founding a benevolent institution in Stockholm, her 
 native city, at a cost of $350,000. 
 
 " A visit from such a woman, who regards her high 
 artistic powers as a gift from Heaven, for the ameliora- 
 tion of affliction and distress, and whose every thought 
 and deed is philanthropy, I feel persuaded will prove a 
 blessing to America, as she has to every country which 
 she has visited, and I feel every confidence that my 
 countrymen and women will join me heartily in saying, 
 ' may God bless her.' The public's obedient servant, 
 
 "P. T. BARNUM." 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 79 
 
 The time, between signing her American engagement 
 and her departure, was employed by Jenny Lind in 
 concerts on the Continent, mostly for charitable pur- 
 poses. She sang at Berlin, Bremen, and Gottingen, 
 with her unvarying success, and, at the last mentioned 
 place, the students formed a procession by torch-light in 
 her honor, gave her a serenade, and formed an escort 
 for her to Nordheim. 
 
 Her last songs on that side of the Atlantic were at 
 Liverpool, and, as the furor at that place was quite as 
 great as it has been in America, we copy, from one of 
 the papers of that city, the most rational account of her 
 appearance there : — 
 
 "Jenny Lind at the Liverpool Philharmonic. — 
 The first of these long and eagerly anticipated festivals 
 came off last night in the splendid new hall of the Phil- 
 harmonic Society. There were upwards of three thou- 
 sand persons present, including the orchestra. The 
 appearance of the hall, magnificently lighted, clustered 
 with beauty such as only Lancashire can boast, delight 
 and expectation animating every countenance, was some- 
 thing which the pen fails to describe. In all England, 
 perhaps in Europe, there is not such a beautiful edifice 
 devoted to musical performances as the Philharmonic 
 Hall, and on no previous occasion can we call to mind 
 so brilliant an assembly as that congregated last night 
 within its walls. The great spell of attraction was, of 
 course, Jenny Lind, the idol of Germany and England, 
 whose name has never once failed, since the beginning 
 of her triumphant career, whether announced in the 
 divine cause of charity, or offered as a simple medium 
 
80 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 of public amusement, to bring together the crowd — 
 whose virtues are even more dazzling than her genius, 
 unparalleled as that is — and whose successes have thrown 
 completely into the shade those of every other vocalist 
 of moden times. 
 
 " The knowledge that Jenny Lind was on the point of 
 leaving these shores, not to return for at least a twelve- 
 month — that some four-and-twenty hours after her second 
 and last performance would see her launched on the 
 bosom of the vast Atlantic, on her way to a distant, 
 though a friendly country — clothed the event with tenfold 
 significance and interest. That such a distinction as 
 Jenny Lind's last public appearance in England should 
 have been accorded to our town, in the face of munifi- 
 cent propositions from the great metropolis — the modern 
 Babylon — must be indelibly recorded as the brightest 
 page in the musical annals of Liverpool. With Mr. 
 Ludlow, the active and intelligent secretary of the Phil- 
 harmonic Society, and with the committee of that so- 
 ciety, who, with the indefatigable exertions of the agent 
 of Mr. Barnum, succeeded in persuading her to fold her 
 wings, arrest her flight for a few short days, and scatter 
 yet once more some of those silvery notes that, for three 
 or four years past, have been the enchantment of Europe. 
 With them, also, remains the credit of having invited 
 her to sing the Messiah of the great Handel, for the 
 first time in this country, and for the first time in our 
 language. That Jenny Lind has agreed to do this also 
 is generally known ; and Monday night will, if possible, 
 be a still more memorable occasion than that of yester- 
 day evening." 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 81 
 
 * # # # # 
 
 " The appearance of the 'Nightingale' was the signal 
 for a demonstration that beggars description. The 
 audience stood up to •welcome her, and such a volley of 
 cheers as rent the air was, perhaps, never before heard 
 within the walls of a theatre or concert-room. The 
 salvo was thrice reiterated, and at length the songstress, 
 who seemed almost overcome by the warmth of her 
 reception, was enabled to obtain silence, and began 
 to sing. 
 
 " The audience listened throughout with rapt atten- 
 tion, and at the end broke out into uncontrollable ap- 
 plause, which did not abate until the gifted vocalist had 
 re-appeared upon the platform, and acknowledged the 
 compliment by one of those guileless and winning salutes 
 that so peculiarly become her. This first song was quite 
 enough to convince the audience that Mr. Benedict had 
 exaggerated nothing in his account of the concert which 
 Jenny Lind gave for Vivier, at Baden-Baden, on the 
 6th instant. The voice of the ' Nightingale ' is as fresh 
 and penetrating, as sweet and flexible, as powerful and 
 mellow as hitherto, while her singing is more than ever 
 unrivaled. It may not be superfluous to state that 
 Md'lle. Lind has vastly improved in good looks. Her 
 long rest has been evidently beneficial. She is stouter 
 and fuller in the face, while, as well as we could make 
 out by the aid of a powerful glass, the paleness of her 
 cheek has become slightly tinged with the ruddy hue of 
 health, which confers an additional charm upon her 
 pleasing and intellectual countenance. 
 
 " We must not pass over another encore, and one not 
 
82 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 so arduous to comply with, which Mademoiselle Lind 
 obtained. We mean a very beautiful ballad by Mr. 
 Benedict, ' Take this lute,' composed purposely for the 
 accomplished songstress, and sung by her with immense 
 approbation at the London concerts. Md'lle. Lind's 
 pronunciation of the English tongue is exceedingly pure 
 and articulate, with just so much of accent as gives it a 
 special and fascinating quaintness. In the ballad style 
 — which can be said of very few dramatic singers — she 
 excels quite as remarkably as in the florid and bravura 
 school. There is a combination of simplicity and ear- 
 nestness in her manner that has a peculiar charm, while 
 the few cadences and ornaments she introduces only 
 serve to give increased sentiment and character to the 
 melody. Herein lies the secret of good ballad singing, 
 by which many who are exclusively devoted to that 
 style of art would do well to study and profit. Nothing 
 could be more hearty and spontaneous than the encore 
 awarded to this ballad, which was accompanied on the 
 piano-forte by Mr. Benedict himself. 
 
 " The last effort of Md'lle. Jenny Lind, and because 
 the last, perhaps the most captivating, was one of those 
 delicious Swedish melodies, which, from the lips of the 
 ' Nightingale,' may vie in characteristic beauty with 
 the national melodies of Scotland and Ireland, immor- 
 talized in history and poetry. 
 
 "Mademoiselle Lind accompanied herself, and, on 
 quitting the piano, the uproar was absolutely deafening. 
 Twice did the gifted songstress re-appear, but the ap- 
 plause still continuing, she once more came back, and, 
 tripping lightly across the platform, re-seated herself at 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 83 
 
 the piano. The silence was now as universal as the 
 noise had been, just previously. Every breath was held, 
 lest a single drop of the ' rain of melody ' should be lost. 
 This time Md'lle. Lind sang a pastoral love song, so 
 full of wild tenderness that it almost turned the torrent 
 of jubilant enthusiasm into a more sober stream of sad- 
 ness ; but when, flushed with triumph, she rose to take 
 her leave, every tongue was loosened in cheers, every 
 palm extended to beat against its neighbor, in honor of 
 the gifted and admirable artist who had afforded such 
 intense gratification to all present. It was really a 
 scene to remember." 
 
 The descriptions of Jenny Lind's departure from 
 Liverpool — with far more tumult of excitement on the 
 crowded wharves than ever distinguished Her Majesty's 
 movements at that place, are familiar already to our 
 readers. In connection with the just-quoted evidence 
 of England's full share in the Lindo-mania, however, 
 let us put on record here, articles from the leading 
 London papers, written just before, and giving reports 
 of her successes at the Queen's Theatre : — 
 
 The London Times says : — 
 
 " The stamp of royal appreciation was given to the 
 wondrous Jenny Lind on Tuesday evening, when Her 
 Majesty, having commanded the performance, proceeded 
 in state, as is usual on such occasions, to the theatre. — 
 This being the Queen's first ceremonial visit to any the- 
 atre this season, and also the first appearance of Md'lle. 
 Lind in the opera of Norma, no event — not excepting 
 the debut of this distinguished vocalist — has created such 
 a sensation amongst the fashionable and musical world 
 
84 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 for a length of time. Her Majesty, who was accompa- 
 nied by Prince Albert, dressed in a field marshal's uni- 
 form, appeared in the royal box attended by a brilliant 
 suite, precisely at eight o'clock. The box was fitted up 
 with crimson velvet hangings trimmed with gold, and 
 on a crimson stage or platform in front two yeomen of 
 the guards, with battle axes, stood at the right and left 
 of the box. On Her Majesty's entrance the national An- 
 them was commenced and the audience rising, presented 
 the most brilliant scene that can be conceived. The 
 number of foreign princes and ambassadors, covered with 
 superb orders and decorations ; the splendid military and 
 court costumes, and the quantity of diamonds worn by 
 the ladies, filled the boxes on the grand tier literally 
 with a blaze of splendor. Her Majesty's reception on 
 her entrance was most enthusiastic ; and at the conclu- 
 sion of the anthem, the acclamations were renewed, and 
 were graciously acknowledged by the Queen. The cha- 
 racter of Norma has hitherto been considered to belong 
 exclusively to Madame Grisi, whose powerful delinea- 
 tion of the proud Druidic priestess, rendered the assump- 
 tion of the part by another artiste a most daring attempt. 
 But though we have been accustomed to see and admire 
 Grisi's Norma, until admiration has almost become faith 
 in her great personation, there cannot be a question that 
 the character has two distinct and striking phases. — 
 Norma the haughty priestess — terrible in her wrath and 
 resentment — is opposed by Norma the pure woman, full 
 of love, pity, and maternal tenderness. These conflict- 
 ing traits are, however, so blended and interwoven in 
 the character, that the difficulty to the artiste lies in 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 85 
 
 giving to each its proper degree of force and intensity. 
 The physical and mental peculiarities of Grisi adapt her 
 for the delineation of strong animal passion, while the 
 truthfulness and natural sensibility of Jenny Lind fit her 
 for the development of spiritual grace and feminine 
 feeling. It may, therefore, be easily conceived how the 
 fierceness and tenderness of the character are divided by 
 these two artists — to Grisi belongs the dark, and to 
 Jenny Lind the bright side of the picture. In Noma's 
 first scene there was a degree of nervousness apparent 
 in Md'lle. Lind's voice, which, however, gradually dis- 
 appeared, and she gave the last line of the recitative — 
 
 ' Pace v'intimo — e il saero vischio io meto ' — 
 
 with extraordinary power and sweetness. In the sus- 
 tained note upon ' Pace ' her clear silvery voice poured 
 in a stream of the purest melody upon the ears of her 
 enraptured auditors. The celebrated ' Casta Diva ' was 
 a totally different reading from that of Grisi, the awful 
 majesty of the inspired priestess being less obvious than 
 the tenderness of the woman ; this latter feeling, how- 
 ever, obtained for Md'lle. Lind a decided triumph in the 
 cabbahtta, ' Ah bello a me ritorno,' in which she was 
 applauded to the echo, and recalled by general acclama- 
 tion at its conclusion. The tone of compassionating 
 sympathy that she threw into the exclamation, 'Ahi 
 sventura,' when Adelgisa confesses to her that she loves, 
 has never been surpassed on the stage ; and if her re- 
 proaches of Pollione were not so fiercely passionate, and 
 her action so physically terrible as Grisi's, there was in 
 her conception of the entire scene a deeper and more 
 profound expression of despair than the former ever gave 
 ft 
 
86 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 us an idea of. Her dismissal of Pollione was finely- 
 acted, and her attitude, when she interposes to prevent 
 him from drawing away Adelgisa, struck every one who 
 beheld it, by its extraordinary classic taste and dramatic 
 propriety.. It is in the second act, however, that Md'lle. 
 Lind's peculiar qualities as an actress and a singer place 
 her above her great competitor in the part. The ten- 
 derness of the mother struggling with the feelings of 
 the wronged woman were developed by her with exqui- 
 site truth and natural feeling. Nothing could be more 
 beautifully touching than her reconciliation with Adel- 
 gisa, in which scene occurs the popular duet, ' Si fino al 
 ' ore,' so charmingly sung that she was enthusiastically 
 called for at its conclusion. In the two last scenes she 
 achieved the crowning success of the night. Her agita- 
 tion when Pollione is brought before the assembled 
 priests in the temple, her returning love and tenderness, 
 her forgetfulness of her wrongs, and her resolve to save 
 her lover, if he will swear never more to see Adelgisa, 
 revealed to us new and beautiful traits in Norma's cha- 
 racter. The whispered eagerness with which she pro- 
 nounced the words, ' Giura, giura ! ' and her half-uttered 
 threat to sacrifice her children if he refuses, were 
 amongst the finest points in the opera. Her last scene, 
 when, self-condemned, she is about to die with Pollione, 
 was tragedy of the highest order. The intense agony 
 of the mother, kneeling at her father's feet, and implor- 
 ing him to protect her children, can only be spoken of 
 in terms of the highest admiration. The applause at 
 the fall of the curtain was tremendous, and obedient to 
 a general call, Md'lle. Lind made her appearance before ■ 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 87 
 
 the curtain with the other performers in the opera. In a 
 moment the stage was covered with houquets, and the 
 successful vocalist retired laden with floral honors. But 
 this appearance did not suffice for the enthusiastic au- 
 dience, who insisted on having her before the curtain 
 four times." 
 
 The following, is the judgment of the Musical 
 World :— 
 
 "All was now hushed silence and expectation for 
 Jenny Lind, and hundreds who came to doubt remained 
 to applaud. We have ever eschewed comparison in 
 matters of art ; two pictures may be painted of the same 
 subject, totally opposed in conception and development, 
 and yet be masterpieces. The illustrations of the Holy 
 Family of Rafael and Murillo, though both deemed the 
 loftiest inspirations of pictorial art, are, in drawing, and 
 coloring, and grouping, as antagonistic as light and dark- 
 ness — each have their own peculiar points of greatness, 
 each their several admirers. And thus is it with the 
 Norma of Jenny Lind and Madame Grisi ; the style of 
 the former has all the depth of sentiment, the inner 
 meaning, the feminine sensibility, the deep concentration, 
 the moral beauty of the Northern poesy ; the latter has 
 the fell determination, the iron spirit, the hot excite- 
 ment, the desolating power, and the terrible grandeur 
 of the sunny south. Jenny Lind is the betrayed and 
 heart-crushed woman ; Grisi, the jealous mistress, pant- 
 ing for vengeance for her wrongs. Jenny Lind is more 
 truthful and touching ; Grisi more queenlike and effec- 
 tive. We sympathize with Lind ; we wonder with Grisi. 
 With the fair Swede, we percieve the breaking up of 
 
88 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 the frozen lake, and its loosened waters ; with the dark 
 Italian, we tremble at the overflowing of the burning 
 lava. Both are terrible ; but the terror is produced by 
 different means. We are awe-stricken and oppressed by 
 Grisi; we are softened into womanish tears by Lind.— 
 When the startling fact is revealed to the Italian Norma 
 of the infidelity of the Roman cur Pollione, the flashing 
 eye, and the swelling form, reflect the fiery sense of 
 wrong, and the abused priestess writhes with the agony 
 of insulted love and woman's pride; the Swedish Norma 
 is literally crushed, buries her face in her hands to con- 
 ceal her grief, and her quick sense reveals to her the 
 quick visiting of the punishment, for vows disregarded, 
 and the debasement of her holy office. 'Vengeance 
 and blood ! ' shouts the Italian ; ' Ruin ! — misery ! ' groans 
 the Swede. The study and working out dramatic cha- 
 racter depend mainly on the temperament and idiosyn- 
 crasy of the artist. The violent will conceive it vio- 
 lently, the gentle gently. The great point is the exer- 
 cise of judgment, that the conception be built on the 
 general features of the poet's creation, and that the va- 
 rious parts not only assimilate but unite. This is the 
 keystone of the dramatic and lyrical art, and in this con- 
 sists very greatly the supremacy of Jenny Lind. Every 
 shade of feeling and expression is the result of deep re- 
 flection, aided by the sense of a natural propriety ; and 
 it is this close and intimate union which imparts that 
 irresistible charm to Jenny Lind which has chained Ger- 
 many and England to her triumphal car. The inge- 
 nuousness and fine simplicity, and the facility of execut- 
 ing the most intricate vocal embroidery, the never, even 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 89 
 
 in the most daring flights, wandering out of the key, a 
 fault too frequently indulged by almost all the great 
 Italian singers, are means that render any end attainable. 
 We feel that we are unable, upon one audition of so 
 difficult a character as Norma, to enter fully into its se- 
 veral merits. We shall seek another opportunity of 
 analyzing it ; yet we may at once affirm that, although 
 differing entirely from the delineation of preceding ar- 
 tists, it is truly admirable. When Jenny Lind entered 
 first upon the scene, the difference of costume, and the 
 difference of physical appearance, struck the audience as 
 a novelty. There was little of the inspiration of the 
 Druid priestess — instead of the usual stately gait, and 
 proud demeanor, there was more of nun-like repose — 
 and it was with a faltering and unsteady step that she as- 
 cended the sacred stone. The enunciation of the opening 
 words, ' Sediziose voce,' was more tremulous than steady, 
 and it was only when she had reached the eloquent ' Io 
 nei volumi arcani leggo del cielo,' that the shrinking 
 form dilated, and she became the inspired Pythoness. — 
 The ' Casta Diva ' assumed the air of a divine hymn, so 
 beautifully and so holily was it rendered. The arms 
 and head were upraised, and the entire frame became 
 transfigured. Jenny Lind sings this in the original key 
 of F ; Grisi has uniformly transposed it to E flat. The 
 florid rondo, 'Ah! bello a me rittoana,' was given with 
 great purity and power. At the conclusion of this scena, 
 the recall was vehement as it was unanimous, the Queen 
 and Prince Albert joining in the demonstration. In the 
 scena in which Adelgisa confides to Norma the secret of 
 her love for the Roman soldier, Jenny Lind was exqui- 
 8* 
 
90 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 site in her tenderness ; the utterance, in almost a whis- 
 per, of ' Oh ! rimembranza ! ' was full of the deepest and 
 most thrilling expression. The womanly affection ex- 
 hibited to the love-lorn Adelgisa, when, in a gush of 
 sympathy, she embraced her, was one of the most charm- 
 ing traits in the picture. In this duet a cadence was in- 
 troduced, perfectly astonishing for novelty of construc- 
 tion, and beauty of effect. But when she ascertains that 
 it is the father of her children that is seeking to corrupt 
 her friend, the sudden rigidity of the limbs, and the 
 deathly pallor of the countenance, were more truly ap- 
 palling than the most outrageous demonstration of melo- 
 dramatic rage ; and, in the subsequent trio, ' Oh, di qual 
 sel tu vittama,' in lieu of the overwhelming wrath and 
 the fiery passion of preceding artists, the frame seemed 
 to lose its power, the body rocked to and fro, like a tem- 
 pest-tossed bark, the limbs were palsied, and the totter- 
 ing gait and the reddened eye, all betokened the tearing 
 asunder the very fibres of her being; hope had departed, 
 life was as the arid desert, hopeless and springless. Yet 
 when Pollione, regardless of her agony, and flushed with 
 insensate passion, clasped the trembling form of Adel- 
 gisa, to bear her away, she bounded like the wounded 
 tigress on her assailant, and severed them at once ; and 
 the death warning ' Suon di Morte ! ' was given with a 
 painful hoarseness that seemed as though the heart's 
 blood were welling up into the throat, and impeding the 
 utterance the voice was lost in the fearful conflict, and 
 it was only by the ' action eloquent,' that the Druid 
 priestess was enabled to express the deep vengeance, and 
 the utter ruin of the traitor. The audience were ex- 
 
OP JENNY LIND. 91 
 
 cited to the utmost, and Jenny Lind was rapturously 
 summoned forth amidst the cheers of the audience. 
 
 " One of the grand points of the second act, but which 
 had hitherto been slightly considered, as it is not strongly 
 impressed by the composer, was the scene in which 
 Norma, distracted with her great suffering, enters with 
 the dagger to murder the objects of her illicit passion. 
 It is a scene rather for the great tragedian than the vo- 
 calist. The soliloquy, 'Dormono entrambi,' was won- 
 drously rendered. There was the all-absorbing intensity 
 of Rachel — the unsteady hand, the flickering light of 
 the eye, and the hurried approach to the couch where 
 lie the sleeping infants — the sudden retrogression, and 
 the ultimate burst of pity, softening the maternal heart 
 — and the shrieking out of the * Ah ! no — they are mine ! 
 my children !' may be classed amongst those memories 
 which fondly linger over the Lady Macbeth of Siddons 
 and the Medea of Pasta. The celebrated duet, ' Deh ! 
 con te li prendi,' afforded admirable opportunity for the 
 exhibition of the marvels of mere vocalization. The 
 last scene, in which she summons Oroveso and the Druids, 
 was specially admirable. The final interview with Pol- 
 lione, her shrinking dignity, and the undying love ex- 
 pressed in the enunciation of ' E non piu ti rivedro,' and 
 the confession of her crime, and the dying cadence of 
 the ' Son io !' were each and all so many living attesta- 
 tions of true genius. The last appeal to her father not to 
 suffer her innocent babes to suffer for her crimes, to * re- 
 member that his own blood in them flows,' was fraught 
 with tenderness and most touching pathos. When 
 dragged to the pile, still doth she cling to the robe of 
 
92 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA OF JENHY LIND. 
 
 Oroveso, and, with her latest breath, suffocatingly im- 
 plores his benediction for herself, and guardianship of 
 her children, the filial and maternal feeling conquering 
 the fear of death ! 
 
 " The stillness of the house was intense, but as the 
 curtain fell on the victim, the enthusiasm burst forth. The 
 audience rose as one body, and shouted for the Norma, 
 who was forced to appear four times amidst the cheers 
 of the entire audience, the Queen and Prince Consort 
 joining with hearty enthusiasm in the triumph. The 
 national anthem was again repeated, and the greetings 
 of the public by Her Majesty gracefully acknowledged >. 
 At the end of the divertissement, the Queen left the the- 
 atre, amidst the huzzas of her loyal subjects." 
 
PART II. 
 
 JENNY LIND IN AMERICA. 
 
 After a short and delightful passage, the steamer 
 Atlantic, Captain West, arrived at New York on a 
 Sunday morning, bringing Jenny Lind. The arrival 
 was looked for, and the dock and landing were crowded 
 with persons, curious to get a first sight of the great 
 songstress. Amid cheers and acclamations from the 
 hundreds gathered around the carriage in waiting for 
 her, she disembarked and was driven to her prepared 
 lodgings at the Irving House. Of the excitement kept 
 up for the few first days, the reader cannot here desire 
 a repetition, but, as the English critics have sketched 
 the events of this arrival with some pains, we will copy 
 their comments and satire, as curiosities worth preserv- 
 ing among the memoranda of this charming and admi- 
 rable woman's career. The London Athenaeum thus 
 discourses : — 
 
 " Jenny Lind in America. — The Americans do every 
 thing on a grand scale — even their enthusiasm. By 
 taking often, however, the very narrowest basis for the 
 gigantic superstructure, they contrive to give to their 
 enthusiasm a tipsy look. The whole people of New 
 York are now reeling to and fro under the Lind intoxi- 
 
 93 
 
94 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 cation. The event of the Swedish singer's touching 
 their shores marks an era in the history of that great 
 and go-ahead people. The arrival of Columbus in the 
 West was a less significant event. ' Alia Akbar, the 
 Caliph's in Meru.' ' Jenny 's in New York,' ' Jenny's 
 in America,' shout the papers — they can scarcely credit 
 their own great fortune. They go about asking one 
 another if it can be true. The Liverpool penny-a-lining 
 on the suject of the Nightingale — and yet more the Li- 
 verpool excitement if it were therein truly represented — 
 were something which made men turn away sick and 
 ashamed ; but even in Liverpool, though they did their 
 best, they have no notion of a folly on the American 
 dimensions. The genius of hyperbole seems here to 
 have exhausted itself on a negation. The gentle little 
 lady has come amongst them to sing a few of her pas- 
 toral airs ' for a consideration,' — and they greet her with 
 a perfect Niagara of welcome. We never remember 
 child's play performed before by such a company. The 
 whole thing looks like a vast ' make-believe.' America 
 seems to have no serious business in life ; and the whole 
 people — bishops, magistrates and all — are engaged in 
 a huge game of ' High Jinks.' 
 
 " Jenny landed on a Sunday — and the churches were 
 at once deserted for the new religion — for ' was she not,' 
 as their journals say, * raised up by the Great Spirit to 
 make the rest of the world humble, while they adore 
 his power ?' The heart of America had been looking 
 anxiously out for the Nightingale over the Atlantic, — 
 and the moment she came in sight America stood on 
 her head. She recovered her feet only by a somerset — 
 
OF JENNY L1ND. 95 
 
 and has been tumbling before the Swede ever since. 
 All the stars in the Union have dimmed before the star 
 of Jenny Lind. She walked like a conqueror from the 
 ship to the dock-gates under an arcade of evergreens — 
 and at its entrance the American eagle (stuffed) offered 
 her flowers. All New York hung around her chariot 
 on its way to the Irving House, where she was lodged 
 like a princess ; and at midnight thirty thousand persons 
 hovered about her hotel. At one in the morning, one 
 hundred and fifty musicians came up to serenade her, 
 led by seven hundred firemen, to pump upon the enthu- 
 siasm, we suppose, in case it should get red hot. 
 
 " There is no end to the incredible antics that are 
 played in presence of the simple event of a singer's ar- 
 rival in the Transatlantic capital. The papers, as if it 
 were the one important event of the age, have taken to 
 report her minutest movements ; and that they may put 
 order into the record — which covers columns upon 
 columns of their space— they have divided it into sec- 
 tions, headed ' First day,' ' Second day,' etc. They 
 had got as far as the tenth day at the last arrivals. 
 'Jenny Lind,' says the Weekly Herald, 'is the most 
 popular woman in the world at this moment, — perhaps 
 the most popular that ever was in it.' The same paper, 
 in terms which prove that all self-possession is gone in 
 presence of the subject, speaks of the ' Nightingale's ' 
 warblings as things ' which she spins out from her throat 
 like the attenuated fibre from the silkworm, dying away 
 so sweetly and so gradually, till it seems melting into 
 the song of the seraphim and is lost in eternity.' This 
 confusion between silk-worms and seraphim is highly 
 
96 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 American. The first ticket for Jenny Lind's first con- 
 cert sold for £45. It has become a distinction even to 
 be likely to hear her — and the papers actually publish 
 the names of those who have bought tickets. They 
 have also thought it worth while to print a fac simile 
 of the card which is to admit the public to hear her. 
 Barnum is recommended to keep ' shady ' during the 
 Lind's visit, — and after her departure to set himself up 
 as a show for having brought her. He is assured that 
 he will make money by it. (' Je ne suis pas la rose — 
 mats j'ai vecu pres d'elle.') Mr. Barnum has selected 
 a private secretary to help him during Jenny's stay in 
 America ; and the papers enter on a statement of the 
 qualifications which fit him so well for the situation, as 
 if he were a Secretary of State. Curiously enough, a 
 leading qualification is, that he has held military situa- 
 tions in Canada. The journals are not ashamed to feed 
 their columns with stories like the following : — 
 
 " ' Two or three ladies were on the balcony, but it 
 was too dark to distinguish whether Jenny was one of 
 the select party. The crowd, however, imagined she 
 was there, and that was sufficient for them. One of 
 the ladies, after eating a peach, threw the stone over 
 the balcony, when a tremendous rush took place to se- 
 cure what was presumed to be a precious memento of 
 the fair songstress, and a regular street fight nearly en- 
 sued. Another story freely circulated is, that a glove 
 of Jenny's has been picked up, and the fortunate finder 
 is charging (so it is reported) Is. for an outside kiss, and 
 2s. for an inside kiss of the article.' 
 
 " Seven hundred and fifty competitors contended for 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 97 
 
 the prize offered by Barnum for a song which Jenny is 
 to sing ; — and here is one of the strangest bits of all. 
 The song selected is one filled with fulsome adulation 
 of herself; and America having done in the matter what 
 she can by all her organs, Jenny Lind is finally set to 
 sing her own praises before New York assembled. This 
 is a superb piece of Americanism. It is curious to see 
 how the common purpose running through these songs 
 has suggested a common application of their various 
 themes. The thing is done after the manner of Moses 
 & Son — beginning with any subject the poet likes and 
 bringing Jenny in in the last verse. The papers publish 
 some of the rejected — offered by their authors by way 
 of shaming the judges. 
 
 "Now if Md'lle. Jenny Lind have a particle of the good 
 sense and simplicity of character which are ascribed to 
 her, the whole of these proceedings must affect her as 
 both painful and revolting. To be the goddess of a mad 
 worship like this can yield her no pleasure if she has 
 ever looked truth in the face. Gratitude for the warmth 
 of her welcome must be marred by shame for the actors 
 in it, and suffering for herself. Yet it must be avowed 
 that Md'lle. Lind seems to do her simplicities with a 
 somewhat suspicious consciousness, and to lend herself 
 designedly to the American sentiment — accepting the 
 altar which they have dressed for her, even while she 
 appears modestly to decline it. As the steamer which 
 bore her and her fortunes approached the city, the Ame- 
 rican flag waved from the shipping and from the public 
 buildings ; and Jenny Lind, kissing her hand to it, ex- 
 claimed, ' There is the beautiful standard of freedom, 
 9 
 
98 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 ■which is worshiped by the oppressed of all nations . 
 This was phrasing after the American fashion. They 
 played her ' Yankee Doodle/ and she asked them to 
 play it again. During her second rehearsal, somebody 
 had somehow found time to fire the battery guns in ce- 
 lebration of the admission of California into the sister- 
 hood of the States — and Jenny was interrupted ; but 
 she said she did not mind, ' as it was for the good of 
 the country.' That remains to be proved ; but not the 
 less was this remark another phrase nicely suited to the 
 time and place. But let us quote Md'lle. Lind's dialogue 
 with Mayor Woodhull : — 
 
 "Next came Mayor Woodhull, to tender the en- 
 chantress the welcome of the city of New York, and 
 then proceeded to shower compliments on Mademoiselle. 
 He said : — ' We have heard Malibran and other singers, 
 but we all know you are the Queen of Song.' 
 
 "Jenny Lind (interrupting ' him) — 'You frighten me. 
 Everybody frightens me with too much praise. I fear 
 I shall never come up to the expectations formed of me. 
 I have been spoiled by flattery twice before, and I fear 
 I shall be spoiled again.' 
 
 " Mayor — ' We know that you are accustomed to 
 this, and that it cannot injure you. We think you 
 worthy of it.' 
 
 " ' No it is always new to me. I cannot accustom 
 myself to it. There is too much friendship shown me. 
 I am full of imperfections, and if you continue to flatter 
 me in this way, I shall tremble when I come to sing.' 
 
 " This admission of imperfections in the full splendor 
 of her attributed divinity, reminds us pleasantly (we 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 99 
 
 speak it without meaning offence to Md'lle. Lind,) of a 
 certain well-known character, who declared himself to 
 be but a man, though a beadle. 
 
 " It is to be remembered, however, that the prepos- 
 terous part which Md'lle. Jenny Lind is made to play 
 in this Transatlantic demonstration, is not of her own 
 seeking ; and that even the record of what she is sup- 
 posed to say and do, must be received with great cau- 
 tion as reported by those who, bent on erecting her into 
 a goddess, of course desire to exhibit her as oracular. 
 Meantime, we know not what the next American arri- 
 vals can well bring us in the way of climax to all these 
 things — if it be not the announcement that Jenny Lind 
 has sung ' Yankee Doodle,' and that the Americans 
 have elected her as a separate and independent State 
 into the Union." 
 
 What "Punch" says of any event is- an important 
 historical record, and below follows his account of it, 
 published in London, October 5th : — 
 
 " Coronation of Jenny the First — Queen of the 
 Americans. — The moment it was known by what vessel 
 Jenny Lind was about to cross the Atlantic, we dis- 
 patched an efficient corps of reporters and correspondents 
 on board, who were present in various disguises about 
 the ship, for the purpose of watching every movement 
 of the Nightingale. One of our most esteemed contri- 
 butors might have been seen flitting about in a dread- 
 nought and sou'-wester, from spar to spar, and yard-arm 
 to yard-arm, dodging the delicious song-bird, as she 
 hopped from paddle-box to paddle-box, utterly regard- 
 less of wind and ^ave ; while a juvenile member of our 
 
100 BIOGRAPHICAL MKMOKANDA 
 
 extensive establishment was on board in the humble dis- 
 guise of a lob-lolli-boy. 
 
 "It has been erroneously supposed, that, because 
 Mademoiselle Jenny Lind was seen to leave Liverpool 
 waving her white handkerchief from the very top of the 
 deck-house over the companion, and was seen to enter 
 the American harbor waving the same white handker- 
 chief from the top of the same deck-house — it has been, 
 we say, erroneously though naturally supposed, that, 
 from the time of her starting to the moment of her arri- 
 val, Jenny Lind was constantly employed in the way in 
 which she is represented to have commenced and ter- 
 minated her journey. We are enabled to assure the 
 public, on the very best authority, that such is not 
 the case. 
 
 " The time occupied in the voyage passed very plea- 
 santly. Every evening there was a concert for the 
 benefit of somebody or other, concluding with one for 
 the benefit of the crew, which was somewhat marred by 
 the boisterous state of the weather. The piano was 
 soon set up to an inconveniently high pitch, the glasses 
 insisted in joining in, as musical glasses, without much 
 regard to harmony or effect, but keeping up a sort of 
 jingle during the whole time ; there was an occasional 
 accompaniment of wind and stringed instruments by Bo- 
 reas playing fearfully on the ropes of the rigging ; and 
 every now and then everything was rendered a great 
 deal too fiat by a too rapid running up of the ascending 
 scale, and coming very abruptly down again. 
 
 " The voyage having been safely got over, we come 
 now to the proceedings in America ; but we are bound 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 101 
 
 to say that our contemporaries have so fully occupied 
 the ground — and their own columns — that room is 
 scarcely left even for us to say anything. 
 
 "For some days hefore the steamer was expected, 
 New York was in a state of intense excitement, so that 
 when the ship actually came in sight, the only mode the 
 police had of keeping the enthusiasm of the crowd within 
 decent bounds, was, to check their cries by knocking 
 their breath — as far as practicable — out of their bodies. 
 Millions had their heads turned, and hundreds had their 
 heads broken, but all was of no avail; and in spite. of 
 the exertions of the constabulary to stave off the people 
 with their staves, the quays were in a state of dead lock, 
 from the throngs that covered them. As the vessel en- 
 tered the harbor, the Nightingale was seen perched on 
 the deck-house, supported on either side by Messrs. 
 Benedict and Beletti. Mr. Barnum, the enterprising 
 showman who has speculated in Jenny Lind, as he has 
 already done in Tom Thumb, and other popular idols, 
 was running a race along the pier with a Mr. Collins — 
 perhaps a rival showman — each holding an enormous 
 bouquet, and a fearful struggle took place as to which 
 should be the first to clamber up the paddle-box. Bar- 
 num made a desperate spring on one side, while Collins 
 took a terrific leap toward the other, and the latter 
 being more fortunate, or the more active of the two — or 
 perhaps he had been taking lessons in gymnastics be- 
 forehand of some India-rubber brothers — succeeded in 
 being the first to stand at the Nightingale's side, and 
 to present her with a nosegay twice the size of that 
 
 P,* 
 
102 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 which Barnum pushed into her hand a moment after- 
 wards. 
 
 " Either to see better, or to escape from the energetic 
 Collins and the frantic Barnum, ' Jenny Lind moved to 
 the larboard wheel-house,' and seeing the American flag, 
 the Nightingale — with a sly sense of humor, no doubt, 
 and a general recollection of all she had heard about the 
 slave-trade, and the treatment of Mr. Frederic Douglas, 
 the ' colored ' newspaper editor — exclaimed, ' There is 
 the beauutiful standard of freedom ; the oppressed of all 
 nations worship it.' 
 
 " As the ship neared the pier, every mast seemed to 
 be made of eyes, noses, and mouths ; every window was 
 a mass of heads ; and the roofs of the houses looked as 
 if they were slated with human beings, and had men and 
 women for chimney-pots. The Nightingale was so 
 struck with the respectability of a Yankee mob, that she 
 asked ' where the poor were ?' — intending, no doubt, if 
 there had been any poor, to have sung at once — sung 
 out from the top of the paddle-box — for their benefit. 
 
 " It now became time for Jenny Lind to land, and at 
 the pier gates was drawn up, in readiness, Barnum's 
 carriage. When one hears of a showman's carriage in 
 this country, one's mind naturally travels to a van into 
 which the public are invited, indiscriminately to ' walk 
 up ;' but such was not the vehicle in which Barnum was 
 prepared to receive his Nightingale. The horses were 
 figged out in a style well adapted to advertise the mu- 
 seum of which Barnum is proprietor ; and, though the 
 trappings were well calculated to act as trappings, and 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 103 
 
 catch the eye of the vulgar, good taste could not help 
 feeling that the ' caparisons' were ' odious.' The Night- 
 ingale entered the carriage with the assistance of Bar- 
 num, who then mounted the box, ordering his servant 
 to make a circuit toward Irving House, it being very 
 clear to all what he and his coachman were driving at. 
 The progress to Irving House was one tremendous crush 
 of beings, so densely packed together, that an exceed- 
 ingly ripe cheese, in spontaneous motion, is the only 
 thing to which it would bear comparison. 
 
 " The Times, having devoted a first leader of nearly 
 three columns to a digest of the proceedings — including 
 the telegraphing of Mrs. and Miss Barnum, who were 
 coming up from Cincinnati, the rush of bishops and 
 clergy, the crowd of 'fashionable ladies,' the deadly 
 scramble for the stone of the ' identical peach,' supposed 
 to have been eaten by Jenny Lind at dessert, the search 
 for a ' sensible old horse,' who must be a rare animal 
 among the tribe of senseless donkies in the States — 
 these things, we say, having been sufficiently dwelt 
 upon elsewhere, we think reiteration of the facts would 
 be superfluous. We are, however, expecting to re- 
 ceive telegraphic despatches of a somewhat startling 
 character, nor should we be surprised if the next 'Latest 
 from America,' should announce the dissolution of the 
 republic, and the proclamation of Jenny Lind as Queen 
 of the United States, with Barnum as Chief Secretary 
 for Foreign Affairs. — a post for which his long acquaint- 
 ance with such foreign affairs as Tom Thumb, the sea- 
 serpent, and other contents of his museum, renders him 
 fully qualified. 
 
104 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 " Our anticipations are realized ; the following is the 
 
 "LATEST FROM AMERICA JENNY LIND. 
 
 " By Electric Telegraph. 
 " Mr. Punch's Office, 85, Fleet Street. 
 
 " Within a minute of going to press, we have re- 
 ceived the following important intelligence from Liver- 
 pool : — 
 
 "'The Tarnation, Captain Smart, has just arrived 
 from New York, after five days' passage, and brings 
 the following authentic information. 
 
 " ' Jenny Lind does not return to Europe. On the 
 conclusion of her engagement (which will be consider- 
 ably shortened) with Barnum, Jenny will be crowned 
 Queen of the United States, the actual President politely 
 retiring. Jenny accepts office under contract always to 
 sing, in so many airs, to the people of the smartest na- 
 tion upon earth, what has been hitherto printed as 
 President's speeches. 
 
 " * Two stars and one stripe have been added to the 
 American flag : the stars are Jenny's eyes, and the stripe 
 a lock of Jenny's hair.' " 
 
 It will add agreeably to the variety of the last two 
 articles, to copy here a letter that was published at the 
 same time with them, written by a child of nature : — 
 
 " An Indian Chief's impression of Jenny Lind. — 
 Liverpool Correspondence of the Tribune. — Jiugust 16th, 
 1850. — I have just heard the identical and far-famed 
 Jenny Lind ! An hour ago her voice filled the largest 
 hall that I ever saw — the Philharmonic — containing be- 
 tween four and six thousand people. So great has been 
 the excitement here for these ten days, that everything 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 105 
 
 for sale has Jenny to it. Jenny is in everything — the 
 stores, the sales-rooms, and from the splendid halls to 
 the cellar — all, all things are baptized with the all-po- 
 tent name of the Swedish young squaw ! 
 
 " Last week it was said that all the seats had been en- 
 gaged, and that even the standing stalls were selling at 
 a premium. Not thinking I should be here so long, I 
 had not taken the precaution of previously procuring a 
 ticket ; and finding I had to be here on the same even- 
 ing she sang, yet otherwise engaged, I had to put my- 
 self against her singing with a lecture this evening. I 
 had a full house, and immediatly cut off my exercises in 
 order to go to the hall to get in. Yes, to try to get in! 
 O, presumption ; on what will I depend to get in ? was 
 a query which had to be solved first. The people who 
 crowded around me seemed to say that I could not, for 
 they had heard that the house was all in a suffocation. 
 Stepping into the carriage, I said, 'I will hear the far- 
 famed Jenny Lind this very night — drive on.' 
 
 " Going from the hall where I delivered an address to 
 an infatuated people, I had little time to conclude in 
 what way I had to get in. I had previously, during the 
 day, sent a note saying that the Indian chief would, 
 about nine o'clock be at the door, and desired a seat if 
 others had none, and the hour had already arrived. We 
 drove up. The house was besieged with people. A sea 
 of heads and shoulders ! Noise and confusion ! ' Who 
 is there ! ' ' The Indian Chief desires to get admittance,' 
 was the word given by my Arion. . ' Come in ! ' says 
 the man at the gateway, to my astonishment — and as I 
 was stepping out, two of my best friends in this city 
 
106 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 were by the door, who immediately took me by the hand, 
 and led me by the seats on the aisle — up to the very 
 next from the singers ! O ! I could hardly credit I was 
 in. The first song had already been sung, and there 
 was an intermission, during which I had the pleasure of 
 being shown all parts of the splendid Hall — and my 
 dress excited as much attention as any one there, for 
 Jenny Lind had not come out then. 
 
 " Soon the company of the society began to arrange 
 themselves — and the people settled. One or two pieces 
 were sung, and then came on the sight which my very 
 black eyes were aching to see. The last sound of the 
 chiming of an immense crowd subsided ; all eyes turned 
 toward the door of the closet where she was, and so 
 soon as the door opened, cheers, deafening cheers, filled 
 the Hall ! clapping of hands ! waving of handkerchiefs 
 by the ladies all over the house ! yet still I was not 
 moved. She bowed a most exquisite, modest bow! — 
 Her dress quite plain, yet gracefully made. Her hair — 
 no profusion of flowers, nor the wild extravagant tor- 
 ture of the hair. Her form is slender — a full chest — and 
 a mouth like that of the Hon. Henry Clay. She glanced 
 her blue eyes over the sea of heads. Her eyes sparkled 
 like stars glimmering in a cloudless sky. Her motions 
 were easy and natural. She sang. Her very first notes 
 thrilled through me. The immense house full of people 
 were in agony at some of her touching notes. O, what 
 unearthly and heaveidy music ! My soul, wrapt in 
 ecstasy, seemed borne on to the Garden of Eden. I 
 could appreciate the poet's words : — 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 107 
 
 "' Her deep and thrilling song 
 
 Seemed with its piercing melody to reach 
 
 The soul, and in mysterious unison, 
 
 Blend with all thoughts of gentleness and love.' 
 
 " Her voice echoed all over the house. Then arose 
 the maddeninng shout ; for a minute they cheered to get 
 her back ! Sure enough she came, and sung over the 
 same piece and then retired. I then could breathe freer, 
 for I had been holding my breath with intense interest 
 while she sang. 
 
 " A lady by my side sat motionless, like a statue, yet 
 the tears sparkled as they wound their way on her cheek, 
 with her breast heaving with emotion. Another, and 
 yet quite an aged gentleman, gazed with interest, the 
 perspiration rolling down his face ; he turns to his lady 
 and says : ' She sings like our poor Emma used to, be- 
 fore she died.' Both wept. 
 
 " Oh ! tell the poor classes all over the land, that this 
 far-famed vocalist was once an obscure girl — yes, a poor 
 girl. Let them imitate such examples, and be some- 
 thing while they live. 
 
 Yours, truly 
 
 KAH-GE-GA-GAH-BOWH. 
 
 (Otherwise George Copway.) 
 
 Of the great songstress's First Concerts in America, 
 there are almost as many accounts as there are newspa- 
 pers — but, of all which we have read, none seem to us 
 so appreciative, sympathetic and truthful, as those of 
 
108 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 Mr. Dwight, who was employed by the " Tribune " to 
 come from Boston, attend the concerts and describe 
 them. Mr. Dwight is a critical scholar in music, and a 
 poet and true man at heart, and he understood Jenny 
 Lind. We copy parts of his articles (signed "D.") in 
 which the reader will find what he would best like to 
 know on the subject : — 
 
 "Jenny Lind's first Concert is over, and all doubts 
 are at an end. She is the greatest singer we have ever 
 heard, and her success is all that was anticipated from 
 her genius and her fame. As this is something of an era 
 in our history of Art, we give a detailed account of 
 all that took place on the occasion. 
 
 "All the preparatory arrangements for the Concert 
 were made with great care, and from the admirable sys- 
 tem observed, none of the usual disagreeable features of 
 such an event were experienced. Outside of the gate 
 there was a double row of policemen extending up the 
 main avenue of the Battery grounds. Carriages only 
 were permitted to drive up to the gate from the White- 
 hall side, and pass off into Battery-place. At one time 
 the line of carriages extended to Whitehall and up State 
 street into Broadway. The order specified in yester- 
 day's Tribune was observed, hy which means everything 
 was accomplished in a quiet and orderly manner. The 
 Chief of Police, with about sixty men, came on the 
 ground at five o'clock, and maintained the most com- 
 plete order to the end. 
 
 "Mr. Barnum, according to promise, had put up a 
 substantial frame-work, and thrown an immense awning 
 over the bridge, which is some two hundred feet in 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 109 
 
 length. This was brilliantly lighted, and had almost 
 the appearance of a triumphal avenue on entering the 
 gate. 
 
 "There was an immense crowd on the Battery, clus- 
 tering around the gates during the whole evening, but 
 no acts of disorder occurred. When Jenny Lind's car- 
 riage came, but very few persons knew it, and no great 
 excitement followed. The principal annoyance was oc- 
 casioned by a noisy crowd of boys in boats, who ga- 
 thered around the outer wall of the Castle, and being by 
 their position secure from the police, tried to disturb 
 those within by a hideous clamor of shouts and yells, 
 accompanied by a discordant din of drums and fifes. — 
 There must have been more than two hundred boats and 
 a thousand persons on the water. They caused some 
 annoyance to that portion of the audience in the back 
 seats of the balcony, but the nuisance was felt by none 
 in the parquette. By ten o'clock they had either be- 
 come tired or ashamed of the contemptible outrage they 
 were attempting, and dispersed. We may here remark 
 that if the river police asked for by Chief Matsell had 
 been in existence, this attempt could not have been 
 made. 
 
 " On entering the Castle, a company of ushers, dis- 
 tinguished by their badges, were in readiness to direct 
 the visitors to that part of the hall where their seats 
 were located. Colored lamps and hangings suspended 
 to the pillars indicated at a glance the different divisions, 
 and the task of seating the whole audience of nearseven 
 thousand persons was thus accomplished without the 
 least inconvenience. The hall was brilliantly lighted, 
 
110 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 though from its vast extent the stage looked somewhat 
 dim. The wooden partition which was built up in place 
 of the drop curtain, is covered with a painting repre- 
 senting the combined standards of America and Sweden, 
 below which are arabesque ornaments in white and gold. 
 Considering the short time allowed for these improve- 
 ments, the change was remarkable. The only instance 
 of bad taste which we noticed was a large motto, worked 
 in flowers, suspended over the pillars of the balcony di- 
 rectly in front of the stage. ' Welcome, Sweet War- 
 bler,' (so ran the words,) was not only tame and com- 
 mon-place, but decidedly out of place. 
 
 " The sight of the grand hall, with its gay decoration, 
 its glittering lamps, and its vast throng of expectant au- 
 ditors, was in itself almost worth a five dollar ticket. — 
 We were surprised to notice that not more than one- 
 eighth of the audience were ladies. They must stay at 
 home, it seems, when the tickets are high, but the gen 
 tlemen go, nevertheless. For its size the audience was 
 one of the most quiet, refined and appreciative we ever 
 saw assembled in this city. Not more than one-third 
 were seated before seven o'clock, and when the eventful 
 hour arrived,- they were still coming in. A few of the 
 seats were not taken when the orchestra had assembled 
 and Mr. Benedict, who was greeted with loud cheers on 
 his appearance, gave the first flourish of his baton. 
 
 " The musical performances commenced with Jules 
 Benedict's Overture to his opera, The Crusaders, him- 
 self conducting the orchestra of sixty instruments. It 
 was an admirably balanced and effective orchestra, and 
 notwithstanding that we had to listen as it were round 
 
OF JENNY LIND. Ill 
 
 a corner, we felt, the unity and full force of its strong 
 chords, and traced the precise and delicate outline of its 
 melodies with a distinctness which proved that a clear 
 musical idea was there, too clearly embodied to be lost 
 even in that vast space. We liked the first half of the 
 composition best ; it had the dark shading and wild vigor 
 and pathos of Von Weber ; the allegro which set in upon 
 it was more in the light popular manner of Auber and 
 the French. Yet Mr. Benedict has proved his mastery 
 in this work, which the vast audience acknowledged 
 with very hearty plaudits. 
 
 " Signor Belletti was the next mark of expectation. 
 In one of Rossini's most ornate and florid bravura songs 
 (from Maometto Secondo) he produced a baritone of such 
 warm, rich, solid, resonant and feeling quality as we 
 perhaps have never heard in this country (though with- 
 out closer observation from the less remote position in 
 which a baritone naturally requires to be heard, we hardly 
 dare to place it above Badiali's;) while in refinement of 
 conception and of execution he left little to be desired. 
 
 " Now came a moment of breathless expectation. A 
 moment more, and Jenny Lind, clad in a white dress 
 which well became the frank sincerity of her face, came 
 forward through the orchestra. It is impossible to de- 
 scribe the spontaneous burst of welcome which greeted 
 her. The vast assembly rose as one man, and for some 
 minutes nothing could be seen but the waving of hands 
 and handkerchiefs, nothing heard but a storm of tumul- 
 tuous cheers. The enthusiasm of the moment, for. a time 
 beyond all bounds, was at last subdued, after prolong- 
 ing itself, by its own fruitless efforts to subdue itself, and 
 
112 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 the divine songstress, with that perfect bearing, that air 
 of all dignity and sweetness, blending a child-like sim- 
 plicity and half-trembling womanly modesty with the 
 beautiful confidence of Genius and serene wisdom of Art, 
 addressed herself to song, as the orchestral symphony 
 prepared the way for the voice in Casta Diva. A bet- 
 ter test piece could not have been selected for her debut. 
 Every soprano lady has sung it to us ; but nearly every 
 one has seemed only trying to make something of it, 
 while Jenny Lind was the very music of it for the time 
 being. We would say no less than that ; for the wisest 
 and honestest part of criticism on such a first hearing of 
 a thing so perfect, was to give itself purely up to it, 
 without question, and attempt no analysis of what too 
 truly fills one to have yet began to be an object of 
 thought. 
 
 " If it were possible, we would describe the quality 
 of that voice, so pure, so sweet, so fine, so whole and 
 all-pervading, in its lowest breathings and minutest fiori- 
 ture as well as in its strongest volume. We never heard 
 tones which in their sweetness went so far. They brought 
 the most distant and ill-seated auditor close to her. — 
 They were tones, every one of them, and the whole air 
 had to take the law of their vibrations. The voice and 
 the delivery had in them all the good qualities of all the 
 good singers. Song in her has that integral beauty 
 which at once proclaims it as a type for all, and is most 
 naturally worshiped as such by the multitude. 
 
 " Of those who have been before her we were most 
 frequently reminded of Madame Bishop's quality (not 
 quantity) of voice. Their voices are of metal somewhat 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 113 
 
 akin. Jenny Lind's had incomparably more power and 
 more at all times in reserve ; but it had a shade of that 
 same veiled quality in its lowest tones, consistently with 
 the same (but much more) ripeness and sweetness, and 
 perfect freedom from the crudeness often called clear- 
 ness, as they rise. There is the same kind of versatile 
 and subtile talent, too, in Jenny Lind, as appeared later 
 in the equal inspiration and perfection of her various 
 characters and styles of song. Hers is a genuine so- 
 prano, reaching the extra high notes with that ease and 
 certainty which make each highest one a triumph of 
 expression purely, and not a physical marvel. The 
 gradual growth and sostenuto of her tones ; the light 
 and shade, the rhythmic undulation and balance of her 
 passages ; the bird-like ecstasy of her trill ; the faultless 
 precision and fluency of her chromatic scales ; above all, 
 the sure reservation of such volume of voice as to crown 
 each protracted climax with glory, not needing a new 
 effort to raise force for the final blow ; and indeed all 
 the points one looks for in a mistress of the vocal art, 
 were eminently hers in Casta Diva. But the charm 
 lay not in any point, but rather in the inspired vitality, 
 the hearty, genuine outpouring of the whole — the real 
 and yet truly ideal humanity of all her singing. That 
 is what has won the world to Jenny Lind ; it is that 
 her whole soul and being goes out in her song, and that 
 her voice becomes the impersonation of that song's soul 
 if it have any, that is, if it be a song. There is plainly 
 no vanity in her, no mere aim to effect ; it is all frank 
 and real and harmoniously earnest. 
 
 " She next bewitched all by the delicate naivete and 
 10* 
 
114 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 sparkling espieghrie, interchanged with true love pathos, 
 of her duet with Belletti, from Rossini's I Turchi in 
 Italia, the music being in the same voice with that of 
 his ' Barber of Seville.' The distinct rapidity, without 
 hurry, of many passages, was remarkable in both per- 
 formers. But perhaps the most wonderful exhibition of 
 her vocal skill and pliancy, and of her active intimacy 
 with nature, was in the Trio Concertante, with two 
 flutes, from Meyerbeer's * Camp of Silesia.' Exquisitely 
 her voice played in echo between the tasteful flute-war- 
 blings of Messrs. Kyle and Siede. 
 
 " But do not talk of her flute-like voice ; the flute- 
 tone is not one a real voice need cultivate ; except where 
 it silvers the edges of a dark mass of orchestral harmony, 
 the flute's unmitigated sweetness must and should con- 
 trast with the more clarionet a-nd reed-like quality of a 
 voice as r-ich and human as that of Jenny Lind. 
 
 " Naturally the favorites of the evening were the two 
 national songs. Her Swedish ' Herdsman's Song ' was 
 singularly quaint, wild and innocent. The odd musical 
 interval (a sharp seventh) of the repeated loud call of 
 the cows, the joyful laugh, and the echo, as if her sing- 
 ing had brought the very mountains there, were ex- 
 tremely characteristic. This was loudly encored and 
 repeated ; and when again encored was of course an- 
 swered with her ' Greeting to America,' the National 
 Prize Song, written by Bayard Taylor, and set to a 
 vigorous and familiar style of music, well harmonizing 
 with the words, by Benedict. The greeting had a 
 soul in it, coming from those lips. We here give the 
 words : — 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 115 
 
 GREETING TO AMERICA 
 
 WOBDS BY BAYAED TAYLOB. MUSIC BY JULES BENEDICT. 
 
 I greet, with a full heart, the Land of the West, 
 
 Whose Banner of Stars o'er a world is unrolled ; 
 Whose empire o'ershadows Atlantic's wide breast 
 
 And opes to the sunset its gateway of gold ! 
 The land of the mountain, the land of the lake, 
 
 And rivers that roll in magnificent tide — 
 Where the souls of the mighty from slumber awake 
 
 And hallow the soil for whose freedom they died ! 
 
 Thou Cradle of Empire ! though wide be the foam 
 
 That severs the land of my fathers and thee, 
 I hear, from thy bosom, the welcome of home, 
 
 For Song has a home in the hearts of the Free ! 
 And long as thy waters shall gleam in the sun, 
 
 And long as thy heroes remember their scars, 
 Be the hands of thy children united as oue, 
 
 And Peace shed her light on the Banner of Stars ! 
 
 " We have now but to acknowledge the fine style 
 of Belletti's Largo al Factotum (though the gay bar- 
 ber's song always requires the stage,) and the admi- 
 rable orchestra performance of Weber's Overture to 
 Oberon. 
 
 "We are now sure of Jenny Lind, the Singer and the 
 Artist. Last night she was herself, and well accom- 
 panied, and gloriously responded to. But we have yet 
 to hear her in the kind of music which seems to us most 
 to need and to deserve such a singer — in the Agatha of 
 Ber Freyschutz, and in Mozart and the deep music of 
 the great modern German operas. 
 
 " At the close, the audience (who made no movement 
 to leave till the last note had been uttered) broke out 
 
116 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 in a tempest of cheers, only less vehement than those 
 which welcomed her in Casta Diva. She came for- 
 ward again, bowed with a bright, grateful face, and re- 
 tired. The cheers were now mingled with shouts of 
 ' Barnum i ' who at last came forward, and with some 
 difficulty obtained sufficient order to speak. ' My 
 friends,' said he, ' you have often heard it asked, 
 ' Where's Barnum ?' Amid the cheers and laughter 
 which followed this, we could only catch the words : 
 ' Henceforth you may say, Barnum's nowhere !' 
 
 " Mr. Barnum, after expressing his gratification at 
 the splendid welcome which had been given Md'lle. 
 Lind, stated that he would disclose a piece of news 
 which he could no longer keep secret, and which would 
 show how well that welcome was deserved. Md'lle. 
 Lind on Monday morning informed him, that it was her 
 intention to give her share of the nett proceeds of the 
 present concert, amounting to considerable more than 
 $10,000, to the various charities in this city. 
 
 "This announcement was the signal for another 
 storm. We did not count the number of cheers given, 
 but we never witnessed such a pitch of enthusiasm. 
 Mr. Barnum then proceeded to read the list of her do- 
 nations, interrupted at every name by a fresh burst of 
 applause : — 
 
 To the Fire Department Fund $3,000 
 
 Musical Fund Society ..... 2 000 
 Home for the Friendless ..... goo 
 Society for the Relief of Indigent Females . . 500 
 
 Dramatic Fund Association , k goo 
 
 Home for Colored and Aged Persons . . 500 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 
 
 
 Colored and Orphan Association . . . 
 
 500 
 
 Lying-in Asylum for Destitute Females . 
 
 500 
 
 New-York Orphan Asylum . 
 
 500 
 
 Protestant Half-Orphan Asylum 
 
 500 
 
 Roman Catholic Half-Orphan Asylum . 
 
 500 
 
 Old Ladies' Asylum .... 
 
 500 
 
 117 
 
 Total . . $10,000 
 
 " In case the money coming to her shall exceed this 
 sum, she will hereafter designate the charity to which it 
 is to be appropriated. Mr. Barnum was then about re- 
 tiring, when there was a universal call for Jenny Lind. 
 The songstress, however, had already taken her depar- 
 ture, and the excited crowd, after giving a few more 
 cheers, followed her example, and slowly surged out of 
 the Castle door, and down the canopied bridge, in a glow 
 of good-humor and admiration. A few disorderly va- 
 grants collected on the bridges leading to the Bath-honses, 
 hooted at the throng as it passed out, but everybody 
 went home quietly, with a new joy at his heart, and a 
 new thought in his brain." 
 
 " Jenny Lind's second concert on Friday night last, 
 was in every respect as complete a triumph as the first. 
 The audience numbered upward of seven thousand, fill- 
 ing the vast amphitheatre to the topmost circles of the 
 gallery. The sight of that dense sea of heads, from 
 either extremity of the balcony, reminded us of one of 
 Martin's grand, gloomy pictures, and the resemblance was 
 further increased by the semi-oriental appearance of the 
 hall, with its long, light pillars dropping from the centre, 
 as well as by the dimness of the illumination, the lamps, 
 
118 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 many and bright as they were, being lost in the immense 
 area of the building. 
 
 " The concert was a repetition of the first, with the 
 only difference that the orchestra volunteered the ' Wed- 
 ding March,' from Mendelssohn's ' Midsummer Night's 
 Dream,' whose short, crackling blaze of harmony re- 
 ceived full justice from the sure and well-tempered brass 
 instruments. Weber's overture to ' Oberon ' was finely 
 rendered, and the composition is as fine a specimen of 
 musical fairy-land as could be found before young Men- 
 delssohn dreamed Shakspeare's dream over in his own 
 way. 
 
 " In Jenny Lind, we still feel that it is not easy to 
 separate the singer from the person. She sings herself. 
 She does not, like many skilful vocalists, merely recite 
 her musical studies, and dazzle you with splendid feats 
 unnaturally acquired ; her singing, through all her ver- 
 satile range of parts and styles, is her own proper and 
 spontaneous activity — integral, and whole. Her magni- 
 ficent voice, always true and firm, and as far beyond 
 any instrument as humanity is beyond nature, seems 
 like the audible beauty of her nature and her character. 
 That she is an artist in the highest sense, is a question 
 long since settled, and any little incidental variation from 
 the bold and perfect outline of success in any special 
 effort, as the faltering of her voice from natural embar- 
 rassment in the commencing of Casta Diva that first 
 night, could not to a true listener at all impede the re- 
 cognition of the wonderful art which could afford a little 
 to humanity on so trying an occasion. For she was as 
 it were beginning her career anew ; literally to her was 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 119 
 
 this a new world ; and she felt for a moment as if in her 
 first blushing maidenhood of song. This second time 
 the hesitation of the voice in that commencement was 
 not felt. The note began soft and timid and scarce au- 
 dible, as the prayer of Norma might have done ; but 
 how it gradually swelled with the influx of divine strength 
 into the soul ! The grand difficulty in the opening an- 
 dante movement of Casta Diva lies in its broad, sustained 
 phrasing, in the long, generous undulation of its rhythm, 
 which with most singers drags or gets broken out 
 of symmetry. Jenny Lind conceived and did it truly. 
 The impassioned energy of the loud-pleading syncopated 
 cries in which the passage attains its climax ; the celes- 
 tial purity and penetrating sweetness of that highest note 
 afterward ; the exquisite cadenza to the andante ; and 
 the inspiring eloquence of the Allegro : Ah ! bello a me 
 ritorna, were far beyond anything we have had the for- 
 tune hitherto to hear. 
 
 "They that sat, or even stood, in Castle Garden 
 Tuesday night, may mark down a white day in their 
 calendar. In point of audience, programme, execution, 
 and inspiration, it was the greatest concert so far. If 
 anything more had been needed to confirm the impres- 
 sion which Jenny Lind had previously made on an Ame- 
 rican public, and to place her continued success beyond 
 the possibility of doubt, last night's experience certainly 
 supplied it. 
 
 " It was foreseen in the morning that the attendance 
 would be greater even than on Friday night. The Ame- 
 rican Museum and Hall's Music Store were beseiged 
 through the whole day and up to the very hour of com- 
 
120 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 mencement. At the former place the crowding for 
 tickets was tremendous, the very sidewalk in front being 
 blockaded most of the time. At seven o'clock, when 
 we took up the line of march for Castle Garden, both 
 sides of Broadway were thronged, and the main avenue 
 of the Battery was filled with a steady stream of per- 
 sons pressing into the Castle-gate. As on the first night, 
 a double line of policemen had been formed, which effec- 
 tually prevented all disorder. A few more lamps were 
 introduced into the hall, rendering its aspect much more 
 light and cheerful. By eight o'clock the vast hall was 
 crowded to overflowing. Scarcely a foot of space was 
 unoccupied ; from the very edge of the ceiling to the 
 orchestral platform in the centre, around the immense 
 span of the building, there was but one dense mass of 
 heads. We should, at a rough guess, estimate the num- 
 ber of the auditory at seven thousand. A much larger 
 proportion than on former nights were ladies, and for the 
 first time we caught glimpses of the fashionable society 
 from above Bleecker. It is worthy of note, that the 
 first and second concerts, immense as they were, were 
 composed almost entirely of the intelligent and appre- 
 ciative middle-class. 
 
 " Some disturbance was created by a rush to obtain 
 seats, made by those who had promenade tickets for the 
 balcony, the moment the orchestra began to collect. 
 This proceeding, in violation of the specified arrange- 
 ments, was most disgraceful. The ushers did all they 
 could to prevent it, but in spite of all their efforts, many 
 persons who arrived before the hour of commencement, 
 were deprived of their seats. It would be a good plan 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 121 
 
 to have a few policemen in the balcony, on future oc- 
 casions. 
 
 # # # * * 
 
 " And now for the ' Queen of Song,' — or, if so quali- 
 fying it will better suit the Italians, the Northern Queen 
 of Song. 
 
 " She commenced with one of the most tender and 
 graceful, and hereabouts least hackneyed airs of Bellini 
 the Qui la Voce from J Puritani. Her liquid purity of 
 voice and graceful gliding through its. flowery labyrin- 
 thine passages was to us not more remarkable than the 
 true but quiet fervor which animated it. Jenny Lind 
 shows no feeling ! and excites none ! draws no tears ! 
 True Art supplies the place of tears by touching the 
 emotions which are deeper and serener, and not a whit 
 less human. But of this more fully when we have 
 room. 
 
 " The splendid song from Mozart's ' Magic Flute,' 
 Non Paventar, brought into play the salient diamonds 
 of her highest voice, which arches like the tall shaft of 
 a fountain sparkling in the sun. — The introduction, a 
 bold, exhorting strain, in grandiose style, full of large 
 intervals, was given with a glorious fervor, and no lark 
 ever caroled more blithely or more at ease than her 
 voice, as it soared to F in alt ! Benedict's English bal- 
 lad, ' Take this Lute,' she sang with a simplicity and 
 pathos that won the audience completely ; and no part 
 seemed more genuine or more expressive than the diffi- 
 cult cadenza at its close. 
 
 " The rotnanza from Robert le Liable was, perhaps, 
 the most fascinating of her more studied performances. 
 11 
 
122 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 This, like all her brilliant things, if not impassioned in 
 the cheaper superficial sense, was at all events vital, and 
 from the soul. She is never mechanical, whatever you 
 may say about want of passion. Is any tragic pathos, 
 such as is ready on the smallest occasion, or on none, 
 more admirable and more inspiring, more from the in- 
 most soul, than is that gushing up of a full, glad, true 
 heart which is her native mood of song, and which was 
 so glorious last night in the Ah ! non Giunge from Son- 
 nambula ? The rapturous encore to this was answered 
 by the Swedish ' Herdsman's Song.' 
 
 " It was in the song from Mozart's ' Magic Flute,' 
 that we first fully knew the voice and art and soul of 
 Jenny Lind. She warmed to that music. It is narrow 
 criticism which imprisons such a singer within the par- 
 tial scope, albeit classical, of the Italian School ; ignores 
 that vital part of her which may exceed the conven- 
 tional requirements of such a school, and condemns what- 
 ever in her is most characteristic, and in contrast with 
 its models. It has been well said by those who make 
 the most intelligent reference to those models and that 
 school, that the style of the Swedish Nightingale is sui 
 generis, as marked as her own personality. True, you 
 would not say of her, in the conventional Italian sense 
 of the word, what is often said in first acknowledgment 
 of a good singer : ' She has style ' — meaning the one 
 style which is assumed as the standard. If we are to 
 limit style to that sense, Md'lle. Lind has more than 
 style ; she has genius — northern genius, to be sure, 
 which is precisely what she should have to make her 
 greatness genuine. Song is original in her ; and from 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 123 
 
 her singing -we drink in new life, after long satiety of 
 such passion-sweets as have become habits rather than 
 fresh inspirations in the delightful — we may almost say 
 perfected — but yet confined music of the Italians. 
 
 " It is, perhaps, too late to await the advent of a 
 Queen of Song from the warm South. The South has 
 had its turn ; it has fulfilled its mission ; the other end 
 of the balance now comes up. The Northern Muse 
 must sing her lesson to the world. Her fresher, chaster, 
 more intellectual, and (as they only seem to some,) her 
 colder strains come in due season to recover our souls 
 from the delicious languor of a music which has been so 
 wholly of the feelings, that, for the want of some intel- 
 lectual tonic, and some spiritual temper, feeling has de- 
 generated into mere sensibility, and a very cheap kind 
 of superficial, skin-deep excitability that usurps the name 
 of passion. 
 
 " We admire and feel and love the melody of Italy. 
 We reverence her native gift of song, her popular sensi- 
 bility to it. We have been again and again transported 
 by her best vocal artists who have visited these shores, 
 and they are not the best — the world-wide celebrities, 
 we have to confess, are only traditions to us — traditions, 
 however, to which we yield ourselves in full faith. From 
 what we have heard and experienced of Italian singing, 
 we know, as well as if we had heard Grisi, Pasta and 
 Rubini, that it is not in the genius of the Italian school, 
 to produce or hardly to appreciate such a new revela- 
 tion of song as this human nightingale or canary of 
 Sweden. 
 
 " Is this underrating the Italian music ? By no means. 
 
124 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 That is an established fact, and has its characteristic 
 ■worth. Equally so, but in a contrasted way, has the 
 music of the North, which, till this Nightingale appeared, 
 had found its utterance mainly through instruments and 
 orchestras. Now it finds worthy utterance in song. 
 But of its peculiar characteristics we must take another 
 time to speak." 
 
 " The Fifth Concert of Jenny Lind took place on Sa- 
 turday evening last. The Hall was completely 'packed', 
 from top to bottom, and not less than eight thousand 
 persons could have been within the Castle walls. From 
 seven till eight o'clock the audience poured into the gate 
 in one solid stream. 
 
 " The capacity of Castle Garden was fully tested at 
 the Sixth Concert on Tuesday night. It will hold from 
 eight thousand to nine thousand persons, and some have 
 even stretched the reckoning to ten thousand. We pre- 
 fer, however, the smallest figure, as within the bounds 
 of certainty, though, from the impression the eye took 
 in, the largest may be correct. Sure it is, at least, that 
 Castle Garden never before held so many mortal men 
 and women within its wide circle. When we entered, 
 at seven o'clock — borne in the gateway on a dense 
 stream of spectators — nearly every seat in the house 
 was occupied, about one-third of them by ladies. From 
 that time to the hour of commencement, the influx of 
 people was unbroken. At eight o'clock when the hold- 
 ers of promenade tickets were admitted, there seemed to 
 be. no end. to the rush. All disorder, as on Saturday 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 125 
 
 evening, was rendered impossible by the fact that there 
 •was not a vacant seat. 
 
 " All the standing room in the balcony and parquette 
 was soon filled, the aisles blocked up, the stairways co- 
 vered, and about five hundred stood on the outside bal- 
 cony, looking in through the doors and windows. The 
 hall was one solid mass of human beings — yet, notwith- 
 standing the great heat and fatigue which so many of 
 them were obliged to endure, the most thorough order 
 was preserved through the whole of the evening.. — 
 There was real sublimity in the scene, when Jenny Lind's 
 voice, after one of her brilliant soarings into the highest 
 heaven of melody, floated away into silence, and a hush 
 as complete as that of death fell upon the house. In 
 this respect, these Castle Garden concerts are unequaled 
 in moral grandeur, and we doubt much whether they 
 have ever been surpassed in Europe in hrilliancy and 
 magnitude. 
 
 "Jenny Lind — the centre to which all minds were 
 drawn — looked radiant with good spirits and a grateful 
 recognition of the splendid ovation bestowed upon her, 
 was received with a warmer and more hearty greeting. 
 
 " After retiring, when the echoes of her ' Herdsman's 
 Song' had ceased to reverberate through the hills, 
 Md'lle. Lind was again called forward ; yet still the 
 crowd seemed loth to leave. Mr. Barnum, who had 
 also been loudly summoned from all parts of the hall, 
 then came upon the stage and announced the gratifying 
 intelligence, viz : that the Seventh concert would be 
 given in the new Musical Hall on Monday, October 6, 
 and that the concerts would be continued thenceforth, 
 11* 
 
126 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 until all in this city and the neighboring regions have 
 had an opportunity to hear Md'lle. Lind. This an- 
 nouncement was received 'with cheers and every expres- 
 sion of satisfaction. Splendid as is the new Musical Hall, 
 and without its peer in the world, we doubt whether it 
 will ever give to the eye a spectacle so grand and im- 
 pressive as Castle Garden presented. 
 
 " We cling to these Castle Garden Concerts as events 
 the like of -which may not soon come again. The Night- 
 ingale may sing in halls of much more musical dimen- 
 sions, to audiences select and closely gathered within the 
 more immediate circle of her potency ; audiences not too 
 large to keep still, and halls where each accompanying 
 instrument may have some chance, as well as her mira- 
 culous voice, of a good hearing. But to Castle Garden 
 is reserved this sublime spectacle of a whole people, as 
 it were, worshiping at the shrine of Art, and receiving 
 the voice of Art as that of ' deep calling unto deep.' — 
 Jenny Lind is evidently most herself and most inspired 
 when she sings most for all. Hence every one at Cas- 
 tle Garden has been struck with a certain providential 
 fitness in that unique locality and spectacle of her first 
 American triumphs. Every one has blessed the acci- 
 dent ; and it is only preferring the spirit to the letter of 
 pure musical proprieties, to own that we would willingly 
 sacrifice something of mere musical effect to have her 
 concerts all continued on so large a scale. 
 
 " The triumph has been two-fold : first, the highest re- 
 finement of art, not only achieved but personified before 
 us ; and, secondly, to complete and justify the beauty 
 thereof, the widest possible and heartiest reception of it. 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 127 
 
 We have never witnessed in this practical and bustling 
 world, such an acknowledgment that art and beauty do 
 most intimately concern us all. 
 
 " With all this satisfaction from these concerts as great 
 popular events, no less than as exhibitions of art we 
 have still to ask ourselves : What lack we yet ? Not 
 any thing in the voice, the style, the inspiration of the 
 singer. Not that. We are no nearer to becoming con- 
 verts to the critics who call her cold, and talk of her 
 voice as Northern and impracticable, the despair of Gar- 
 cia, etc. But what we have found lacking, most espe- 
 cially at this last concert, was a programme of such 
 music as could engage the noblest energies of her whole 
 soul. In Saturday's programme there was scarcely a 
 piece which could be regarded as more than a graceful 
 and ingenious play of the voice. These pieces, to be 
 sure, as we have said in former notices, required talent, 
 and much more than mechanical talent, in the execution ; 
 but they could not, in the nature of the case, however 
 sung, fill up that 'void' of emotions, which we hear 
 talked about. They have proved the versatility of 
 Jenny Lind. Indeed, the graceful abandon with which 
 she gives herself to them is creditable to her humanity ; 
 for they are plainly not ambitious feats of skill with her, 
 but simply the easy exuberance of her glad artist nature ; 
 genius and character are often best revealed in play. — 
 These arts are her means, and not her ends. It would 
 be unjust to seek in them the whole significance of this 
 great musical and moral fact, called Jenny Lind. They 
 only show how exquisitely and completely she is fur- 
 nished for the nobler ends of art beyond all this, and to 
 
128 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 which she has already several times, but not uniformly, 
 addressed herself in the course of these concerts, always 
 succeeding when she tries. But the programmes have 
 been arranged with a too timid and exclusive eye to 
 gratifying public taste. The great singer has been al- 
 lowed comparatively few chances of doing her best 
 things, except in the way of skill. Only here and there 
 a fragment of the really great music has been given her 
 to interpret ; whereas only in the interpretation of such 
 can she be all herself to us. 
 
 " But to quit generalizing, the best thing, as music, in 
 the last concert, was the solid, picturesque overture to 
 Der Freyschutz — one of the half-dozen grandest over- 
 tures, of which those to Don Giovanni, Zavherflbte, Fi- 
 delio, and the ' Midsummer Might's Dream,' in its way, 
 are almost the only compeers. The other overture to 
 Zampa, is the most hackneyed, noisy, superficial, French- 
 novel-like composition of the sort now in vogue, and 
 ought to be abandoned to the lower class of theatres. — 
 Its introduction there was an unworthy exploitation of 
 the fine talents of so select an orchestra. Mr. Benedict's 
 March from ' The Crusaders,' what there was of it, was 
 a strong, spirited and richly harmonized production. It 
 must soon find its way into our streets, judging from the 
 enterprise of our musical bands. Hoffman, the young 
 pianist, is an artist in a high sense and degree, but on 
 this occasion "he was surely victimized. His Fantasia, 
 ascribed to Thalberg, was a barren and unprofitable dis- 
 play of ingenuity in all sorts of dare-devil variations on 
 'God Save the King,' 'Hail Columbia,' 'Yankee Doo- 
 dle, 5 etc., chopping the last two up together into a salad, 
 
OF JENNY L1ND. 129 
 
 by way of finale. Did the crowd listen any better than 
 they would have done to some genuine composition ? 
 
 " Signor Belletti sang the Cavatina from Gemma di 
 Vergy and the Barcarole from the 'Prison of Edinburg,' 
 (both pleasing compositions,) with all the acknowledged 
 beauty of his voice and style. There was a delicate hu- 
 mor on his side of the dramatic extravaganza, II Faan- 
 tico per la Musica. 
 
 " So much for the accessories. The nightingale her- 
 self commenced as usual with her most elaborate Italian 
 piece, and in the same form, namely an introduction and 
 a brilliant allegro. This time it was from Donizetti's 
 ' Elixir of Love : ' Prendi per me — a piece of ornate, 
 cold brilliancy, which scarcely required more than a bril- 
 liant, mechanical Laborde to make the most of it. It 
 displayed the marvelous voice and execution of Jenny 
 Lind, but her feeling is of too true and intelligent a kind 
 to affect much emotion in such music. If we confess 
 that our enjoyment was of the cool and passive sort, 
 shall we be construed as ascribing less soul than we once 
 did to the voice and art of Jenny Lind ? 
 
 "Her next piece was of the light style, but exqui- 
 sitely arch and comic — a pleasant musical curiosity, the 
 dramatic duet, above referred to, with Belletti. As the 
 subject was a music lesson, and the pupil a genius as 
 wild and talented as the master was mad, there was of 
 course a grand field for the display of all her vocal tours 
 deforce, etc. Never did we hear a trill so long, so soft, 
 so liquid and so even. It takes the skill of such an 
 artist to bring out the humorous truth and point of this 
 duet, which is the wayward trick of genius of always 
 
130 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 utterly refusing or magnificently transcending the les- 
 sons of its teacher. The ballad of Benedict's, ' By the 
 sad sea waves,' a composition of which we find it diffi- 
 cult to judge, was sung by her with earnestness and feel- 
 ing, but the voice became most sweet and touching when 
 it escaped the fetters of words and flowed out naturally 
 in its own cadenzas. The remainder of her role, so to 
 speak, consisted of the Echo Trio, with two flutes (again 
 a musical curiosity, and a very popular one,) in which, 
 too, by the way, we were struck by the rich and almost 
 reedlike quality of Mr. Kyle's low tones ; the Ah ! non 
 Giunge, and the Swedish Mountain Echoes: all of 
 which have now been heard several times before. To 
 her singing of them we need not add new notes of ad- 
 miration. Each in its way succeeds infallibly. If we 
 have not been able to disguise our longing for some 
 greater music, now that we have the world's greatest 
 singer who can give it to us, it has not been our pur- 
 pose to blame anybody for the programmes we have 
 had, or to deny that we have feasted full of beauty as 
 it was. " D." 
 
 We add one more article by this fine musician and 
 writer (Dwight,) descriptive of the concert in Boston : — 
 " Boston, Sunday, October 6th, 1850. 
 "Jenny Lind in Sacred Music. 
 
 " The Castle Garden Concerts were grand triumphs 
 in their way. In them we fully recognized a voice, a 
 style, a soul, a genius which justified the title, Queen of 
 Song. And yet so far as Jenny Lind could actually re- 
 veal her highest art and truest self in those promiscuous 
 and rather ad captandum programmes, they were more 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 131 
 
 matters of insight or of inference to some of her hearers, 
 than of positive and palpable observation to all. The 
 music which she sung, with very few exceptions, was not 
 equal to the singer. The meaning of her was not con- 
 tainable or conveyable in such slight vehicles. She was 
 by some called cold, expressionless, because the music 
 (we mean the composition) commonly gave so little to 
 express, compared with her capacity of feeling and ex- 
 pression, except it were her sound and never-failing sen- 
 timent of art and beauty, which ensured a grace, a 
 naturalness, a freedom, and a characteristic individuality 
 to whatsoever she attempted. At the time her voice 
 played heartily with musical imitations, echoes, and the 
 sparkling embellishments of the light operatic bravura, 
 like the mingling of the songs of forests full of birds, 
 avuQg&mov ytlcMfia.. At another she delivered with 
 the truest taste and feeling, such of the so-called classic 
 specimens of pure Italian opera of this day. In both, 
 her song Was natural and sympathetic ; she gave the 
 beauty of the music as it was never given out to us be- 
 fore ; but her soul knew of better and of deeper ; the 
 true music for her, was what she seemed to hear afar, as 
 those ' deep-set violet eyes ' habitually wandered off and 
 upward with a listening look. 
 
 " The Tribune wound up every notice with a call or 
 strong desire to hear her in great German music, whether 
 in the form of opera, song, or sacred oratorio. It was 
 intimated that the real depth and greatness of her genius 
 were to a great extent reserved for greater music ; that 
 she would pour her passion out in music like Von We- 
 ber's, and be a worthy and sublime interpreter to the 
 
132 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 great sacred melodies of Handel. A Boston audience 
 has had the happy privilege of first realizing these ex- 
 pectations. On Saturday night the Tremont Temple 
 was crowded with the most appreciating audience yet 
 assembled, to listen to these loftier efforts of her art, and 
 never have I shared so deep and pure enthusiasm with 
 so many. Every individual of those thousands will date 
 back to this, as one of the high and glorious hours of life. 
 Music never made in America such a triumphant asser- 
 tion of its power. The question of the deep feeling, the 
 high artistic imagination, Jhe genius of Jenny Lind was 
 as conclusively settled, as the unrivaled beauty of her 
 voice and execution, and her consummate taste had been 
 before. 
 
 " The first half of the concert comprised sacred music ; 
 the overture, however, that to Mozart's Clemenza di 
 Tito, was so only by adoption. That was followed by 
 the bass song ' Why do the Nations rage,' from Handel's 
 * Messiah,' sung in distinct English by Belletti, who sur- 
 prised us by his appreciation and mastery of the most 
 quaint and figurative style of Handel. 
 
 " Then came the most religious and sublime of songs : 
 ' I know that my Redeemer liveth.' Every face was 
 turned with the profoundest- interest to Jenny Lind, as 
 she came forward in the white garb of purity, and with 
 a look of modest innocence and faith. She commenced 
 the song firmly and confidently, and carried it through 
 with a lofty and sustained inspiration, which could dis- 
 pense with every ornament, and which we never heard 
 approached in any former rendering of that music. Those 
 tones, so sweet and noble, and sincere, so freighted with 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 133 
 
 meaning, and so elastic with great hope and trust, 
 seemed like the fit and chosen medium of that music and 
 that sentiment. We do not remember more than two 
 ornaments or rather variations from the literal text : and 
 these were most slight in themselves, most telling in 
 their connection : — once a short trill, which was per- 
 fectly elastic, and once, just before its close, a sudden 
 lighting from the clearest azure height of sound upon 
 the written note which lifted the whole strain at once 
 to an angelic rapture. The words ' The first fruits of 
 them that slept,' were given with an exquisitely sub- 
 dued and pensive tenderness. It is not extravagance to 
 say that so much soul and genius never before spake to 
 us in song. It was the religion of art, as well as art 
 employed on a religious subject. The whole audience 
 were inspired, transported, and the song was sung again 
 entire, with an expression enhanced by the perfect sym- 
 pathy she now felt in her audience. And all the senti- 
 ment and music of the song glowed in the sublime tran- 
 quillity of her face, as she stood, when her voice had 
 finished and the instruments were closing. Happy the 
 artist who could paint or daguerreotype that ex- 
 pression. 
 
 " After Signor Belletti's beautiful rendering of the 
 Pro Peccatis, Jenny Lind commenced another great 
 song, in a very difficult style, namely, 'On Mighty 
 Pens,' from the ' Creation.' And quite as fully as before 
 did she identify her luscious, sympathetic voice with the 
 fresh, child-like, graceful fervor of that music Her soul 
 seemed to go out to meet the happy sights and harmonies 
 
 of nature : the glorious sweep of the eagle, the cooing 
 10 
 
134 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 of the doves, the mingled melodies of birds, were all 
 alive and admirable, as exquisite tokens of the Father's 
 presence, in her rapturous labyrinth of song. She sang 
 that music con amore, and Hadyn's spirit, if it heard her, 
 must have inwardly rejoiced. 
 
 " The second part was secular and miscellaneous, com- 
 mencing with the overture to Massaniello and the song 
 of Dandalo in Cinderella, the fine appetizing grace and 
 honor of which music, Signor Belletti so completely ren- 
 dered, that he was compelled to repeat it. The Northern 
 Songstress then vindicated her claim to the dramatic and 
 impassioned, in the music from Der Freyschutz of the 
 scene where Agatha awaits her lover. The prayer was 
 ineffably sweet and tender, and the outburst of all her 
 reserved energies of voice and passion, when she hears 
 his footsteps, was magnificent and electrifying. This 
 was the true dramatic music for her ; in this her soul 
 found room as it could not in hackneyed and conven- 
 tionally classic Casta Divas. 
 
 " All questions about her being a great artist in all 
 the higher respects of expression, genius and imagina- 
 tion, was by this time clearly settled to the satisfaction 
 of all minds, but those whose fate it is to overlook those 
 glorious entities, when nearest and most actual. After 
 these great specimens of song, the lighter play of the 
 flute imitations and the Swedish echoes, came with a 
 charm and naturalness it never wore before. It seemed 
 the happy exuberance of a soul inspired by its great, 
 work, and filled with an electricity that must expand it- 
 self in graceful frolic fancies. " D." 
 
 On this same subject of Jenny Lind in Sacred Music, 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 135 
 
 the brother of the compiler of this volume has written, 
 in an article which we thus introduce : — 
 
 "Jenny Lind in Handel's Messiah. 
 
 " [Not feeling adequate to an appreciative criticism 
 of this highest lift of the angelic songstress's mission 
 among us, we have requested an account of it from a 
 highly educated Professor of Sacred Music, and we give 
 it below. We have a good deal to say, yet, about 
 Jenny Lind, who — unlike most celebrities, aggrandizes 
 with seeing and knowing more of. At present, we give 
 the parole of those better skilled. Thus says our pro- 
 fessional critic : — ] 
 
 " Sweet Jenny Lind, the divinely-sent (as we seriously 
 believe her,) preached us the most faithful sermon, last 
 Friday night, which we ever yet heard. Her text 
 was, ' I know that my Redeemer liveth :' ' Come unto 
 Him, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and He will 
 give you rest.' We say a faithful sermon, because she 
 meant what she sang : because her evident and con- 
 scious mission to proclaim these great truths, shone ear- 
 nestly and touchingly through all the music, all the ex- 
 citement and conspicuous display of the scene. 
 
 " And never were words accompanied with such sweet 
 attestation of themselves as those which, all so uncon- 
 sciously, fell from the lips of the pure and pious priestess 
 of the evening : ' How beautiful are the feet of them that 
 preach the gospel of peace, that bring good tidings of 
 glad things !' In her mouth, this text had a strange 
 and prophetic significance : we thought we had never 
 truly understood it before. There is an earthly beauty 
 attendant upon divine ministrations and marvelously so, 
 
136 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 we now find, when such a ministration is accomplished 
 through the agency of celestial music. 
 
 " The Oratorio of the Messiah was well performed. In 
 saying this we include the masterly performance of the 
 choruses, by the Harmonic Society, the ever-efficient 
 orchestra, and, with a few exceptions, the individual 
 solos. The Harmonic Society sang as though they 
 knew the music by heart, and could sing as well without 
 books as with. There is, by the way, a certain aban- 
 donment in the performance of music, where that music 
 is well-known, as possible, and as requisite, we may say, 
 to good chorus singing, as it is felt to be essential in solo 
 performances. No solos are really well performed, till 
 the mechanical execution, in itself considered, ceases to 
 occupy the mind or the attention. And this, we think, 
 equally true of a chorus. The members of the Harmonic 
 Society, if we mistake not, had this advantage. And 
 here let us express a passing thought : should there be 
 opportunity of hearing this Oratorio again, let such as 
 wish t > hear the full effect of these choruses, listen to 
 at least some, if they cannot all of them, from the second 
 gallery of Tripler Hall. The volume of sound is there 
 just double that at any other point of the building. The 
 chorus of l Wonderful Counsellor,' as we heard it from 
 this gallery, was, beyond expression, magnificent. 
 
 " But what shall we say of Belletti's singing ? for he 
 furnished us with an entirely new development of him- 
 self. We now well perceive that he is more than a 
 singer, he is a musician : he is more than an Italian 
 opera performer, he is a successful interpreter of Handel, 
 with all the superior intelligence and power of concep- 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 137 
 
 lion necessary thereto. We confess to a slight prejudice 
 against the mental and musical grasp of most Italian 
 singers. But this prejudice we yield in the present in- 
 stance. Belletti's manly, straight-forward, unaffected 
 and strong rendering of Handel's solos, was worthy of 
 all praise. We feared, as evidently he feared, at first, 
 the English text, with all its horrors of th's, and all its 
 offensive hissings and vowel sounds. But he gradually 
 lost his fears, as we did ours ; improving and smoothing 
 to the end. 
 
 " One circumstance forcibly struck us in the solo per- 
 formances of this Oratorio : the effect of school, and no 
 school, as displayed in the singing of Jenny Lind and 
 Belletti on the one hand, and Miss de Luce and Mr. Col- 
 burn on the other. Setting aside all special musical gifts, 
 and contrasting them only at just points of comparison, 
 we had, in the one case, an English articulation from 
 two foreigners, which, in spite of a slight accent, was 
 yet perfectly intelligible, clear and neat ; and on the 
 other, from two natives, a thick, blurred, slovenly Eng- 
 lish, perfectly unintelligible. And so, in all embellished 
 musical phrases, on the one hand, we had a square note- 
 for-note, severe execution, and on the other a hurried, 
 uneven, ambitious style, and from Mr. Colburn, particu- 
 larly, a Yankee twang, and a note-anticipating character 
 of performance, exceedingly offensive. This fault, by the 
 way, of putting in all sorts of unwritten appogiaturas, 
 to anticipate written notes, strikes us as being one of 
 the very worst, particularly as it is so quite unnecessary, 
 and is only an affected mannerism. Now, singing music 
 exactly as it is written, singing in tune, singing in time, 
 
 19* 
 
138 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA OF JENNY LIND. 
 
 and pronouncing the words neatly and correctly, are 
 certainly the first and simplest requisites of good sing- 
 ing, and demanded in the earliest, as most advanced 
 stage of musical progress. The air, ' He shall feed his 
 flock,' by Miss de Luce, was quite well and expressively 
 sung, however, and Mr. Colburn had a certain fire and 
 enthusiasm, of his own, which would have well adorned 
 an otherwise good performance. The only other notice-- 
 able defect was that of our friend the trumpeter, in the 
 accompaniment of Beletti's song, where his always, con- 
 spicuous instrument seemed even more than ordinarily so. 
 " But, to close upon the same grateful key on which we 
 began, Jenny Lind's great song (and difficult as great, 
 because the music is only effective when a great soul 
 and heart are behind it) ' I know that my Redeemer 
 liveth,' justified all anticipation. No words could have 
 been sung with stronger or more truthful expression. 
 We were particularly struck, however, with her peculiar 
 conception and rendering of that other exquisite song, 
 ' Come unto Him, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, 
 and ye shall find rest unto your souls.' There was a 
 bright and thrilling encouragement of tone thrown into 
 the first words, ' Come unto Him,' which pulled directly 
 and strongly upon the heart, and was like a resistless in- 
 fluence, moving the soul spiritually forward. In what 
 thoughtful heart was there not really, a momentary rea- 
 diness to — come ! particularly after that divine utterance 
 of the succeeding promise, a promise of ' Rest to the 
 soul !' Ah ! (we could not but think, at the close of 
 the performance,) this is strong preaching !" 
 
PAET III. 
 
 It may be interesting to the reader, perhaps, if we 
 give, in one connection, the impressions progressively 
 made upon one mind, (the compiler's own,) by Jenny 
 Lind, from the first hearing of her voice, to as much 
 knowledge of her professional excellencies, and as much 
 personal acquaintance,- as would ordinarily fall to the 
 lot of one of her numberless admirers, privileged with 
 a passing introduction. We will confine this Part of 
 the volume, therefore, to one mind's impressions from 
 seeing, hearing and incidentally conversing, with the 
 Swedish Songstress. Our first impression was thus de- 
 scribed, in the Home Journal, long before her proposed 
 visit to this country : — 
 
 " We chanced, summer before last, to be at one of 
 the German Baths, when Jenny Lind came thither, from 
 Frankfort on the Maine, to give a concert. Her au- 
 dience just about filled the easy chairs of the principal 
 Hall of the gambling-palace of the place, and the con- 
 cert was given at eleven in the forenoon of a temperate 
 summer's morning. We stood under the portico, when 
 the fair Swede alighted from an open carriage, and by 
 making one in the suite of a Spanish dame whose faint 
 floss of a raven moustache ruled the privileges and gal- 
 lantries of the place, we obtained a seat within two or 
 three feet of the piano at which stood the singers. — 
 
 139 
 
140 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 Mendelsshon the composer, (a man of the type of an An- 
 dover student of Divinity,) was among her attendants. 
 The concert lasted a couple of hours, and during that 
 time we drank, without drawing breath — not the music, 
 but Jenny Lind. We doubt whether we could have told, 
 that evening, what airs she sung. The music was the 
 least part of it. There was no loud enthusiasm. Jenny 
 Lind herself did not seem to be taking any pleasure in 
 the concert — for she was playing in opera to crowded 
 houses in Frankfort, and had come to the Baths (six 
 miles,) to give this concert for the gratification of the 
 Prince of Hessa-Homberg, whose family were in a pri- 
 vate box of the Hall Gallery. There was attention of 
 a peculiar kind — the ladies all studying her intensely, 
 like a puzzle they could not make out, but of which 
 they were dying to absorb the secret for their own use, 
 and the gentlemen leaning toward her with troubled and 
 thoughtful absorption, lips open, and heart and eyes 
 bent on her with abandoned entireness. She looks cold, 
 reserved, modest, timid. Her complexion is very pale, 
 her cheek bones high, her hair very abundant and of a 
 wavy blonde. Her bust is moderately full, and if she 
 has any one very great beauty, it is the admirable set- 
 ting of her head upon her shoulders — the lift, the poise 
 for different expression, the mingled self-respect and 
 humility expressed in it, being Nature's ne plus ultra of 
 the mould of woman. Her eyes, if we remember rightly, 
 have dark lashes, but of that we are not sure, nor of 
 what it is, in them, that calls up, in the heart of the be- 
 holder, a far-down and hitherto scarce suspected want, 
 the voice of which speaks from his better nature. How 
 
OP JENNY LIND. 141 
 
 so shrinking, so almost repelling, sn colorless and un- 
 sensuous looking a creature can impassion men of all 
 kinds to the degree she does, is wonderful indeed. Not 
 wonderful, however, if we admit that in all men's hearts 
 lurks a concealed angel of goodness, and that Jenny 
 Lind's countenance is the mirror which reflects and re- 
 veals it. She looks as if sin or guile were an utter im- 
 possibility of her nature, and yet as if she could love 
 with a devotion and self-sacrifice unsurpassable on earth. 
 After having once seen her, the worst man's heart, we 
 sincerely believe, drops to its knee on hearing but the 
 whisper of her name. 
 
 " We are not surprised at her triumphs, but, as we 
 said above, the plaudits of her are the responses of good 
 angels. Her voice, as well as we can remember it, is 
 deficient in strength. Its trills and extensions into si- 
 lence are the most wonderful things she does — her con- 
 tinuation upon the ear long after the expectation has 
 given over listening, being done with a skill that shows 
 the finest musical organization. If she were to sing un- 
 der a veil, however, we doubt whether any but accom- 
 plished musicians would be much excited by her." 
 
 The Letter which follows was addressed by the com- 
 piler of the present work, previous to the first concert, 
 to his partner in the editorship of the Home Journal :— 
 
 Highland Terrace, Sept. — 
 " Dear Morris : — The bundle of Jenny Lind docu- 
 ments which I received from you this morning — long 
 accounts of ' arrival,' columns of ' reception,' serenades, 
 speeches, anecdotes and personal descriptions — quite stirs 
 
142 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 the town mud at the bottom of my well of tranquillity. 
 I fear I shall not { settle '.again, this season — especially 
 with your insisting that I must come and take a hand in 
 the chronicle of this turmoil and its phenomena. But I 
 wish I could be left ' at pasture,' mind and body, a little 
 longer. I have heard the ' Swedish Nightingale ' — (you 
 remember the description of her which I sent you from 
 Germany,) — but there are nightingales in a lovely wild 
 glen, hereby, who might not sing twice, even for Bar- 
 num, and I should like to use Summer's ' free ticket,' 
 while I have it, to hear them. Art amid gutters, in ex- 
 change for Nature amid running brooks ! Heigho ! 
 
 " In this tumultuous reception which we are giving to 
 the pale Swede, there is, of course, some professional 
 management and some electrified and uncomprehending 
 popular ignorance, (as in what popular enthusiasm is 
 there not ?) but it is, in much the greater portion of its 
 impulse, signally creditable to our country. The lever 
 which works it is an admiration for her goodness. 
 Without her purity, her angelic simplicity, her munifi- 
 cence, and her watchful and earnest-hearted pity for the 
 poor and lowly — or without a wide and deep apprecia- 
 tion of these virtues by the public — she would have found 
 excitement, only at the footlights of the stage. Her 
 voice and her skill as an artist might have made her 
 the rage with ' the fashion.' But, while the Astor Place 
 Opera-house will hold all who constitute ' the fashion, 
 it would take the Park and all the Squares of the city to 
 hold those who constitute the rage for Jenny Lind. 
 No ! let the city be as wicked as the reports of crime 
 make it to be — let the vicious be as thick and the. taste 
 
OF JENNY Lltp. 143 
 
 for the meretricious and artificial be as apparently up- 
 permost — the lovers of goodness are the Many, the sup- 
 porters and seekers of what is pure and disinterested are 
 the substantial bulk of the People. Jenny Lind is, at 
 this moment, in the hearts of the majority of the popula- 
 tion of New York, and she is there for nothing but what 
 pleases the angels of Heaven as well. 
 
 " I shall have seen the great songstress upon two of 
 her professional errands — now, when she comes over 
 to be welcomed by the millions of a republic, and once 
 before, when she came to sing for the sovereign of one 
 of the petty principalities of Europe. The contrast 
 is, perhaps, worth noting, and there is little doubt that 
 the warm-hearted Jenny is much more at home where 
 she is. The Sovereign Grand Duke of Homberg, (at 
 the time I speak of, four or five years ago,) had a king- 
 dom of eight or ten miles square, wherein he held Couit 
 and waved a sceptre over a capital. His metropolis and 
 seat of government was the famous watering-place of 
 Homberg, not quite so large a town as Saratoga, and 
 supported almost entirely by the fashionables who resort 
 thither to gamble. The medicinal springs drew a few 
 invalids, and I was there as one of this small minority 
 — trying to get my workshop in order after the confusion 
 of a brain fever. 
 
 "It was understood, one evening, that Jenny Lind 
 would come over, the next day, from Frankfort — where 
 she was performing an engagement at the Opera — and 
 give a morning concert, to please His Highness, the 
 Grand Duke. There was no particular excitement pro- 
 duced by the news, and the gay company, all of whom 
 
144 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 were assembled as usual around the gambling-tables, (as 
 is the perfectly respectable usage of the place,) gave it 
 merely a passing mention. They would have been 
 much more excited with the arrival of a celebrated 
 gamester. 
 
 " As I reminded you just now, I gave you a descrip- 
 tion of that concert. My impression of the fair Swede 
 — whom I saw then, for the first time — was of a cold- 
 mannered and un-impulsive person, singing against her 
 will, and politely out of humor. The small audience 
 was largely sprinkled with persons of rank, and the old 
 Duke handed Jenny into his royal carriage after the con- 
 cert was over, and took her to the palace for a dejeuner 
 — for she was to return and sing at the Frankfort Opera 
 that evening — but I saw nothing that looked like plea- 
 sure in her countenance, nothing genial, nothing cordial. 
 The compliments and attentions of royalty and its court, 
 seemed to me, as I looked on, to be received by Jenny 
 like a perfectly transparent endurance of a bore. With 
 this in your mind, you will be able to form a comparison 
 — when you see Jenny Lind received by a New York 
 audience — between her taste for courtly homage and her 
 taste for the homage of a republic. 
 
 " Have you noted, by the way, a very republican ope- 
 ration that has been going on in New York during the 
 last month or two, and to which the Jenny Lind enthu- 
 siasm puts the finishing stroke ? I refer to the quiet 
 ease with which the luxury of the exclusives — Italian 
 music — has passed into the hands of the people. While 
 the Fashionable Few have been out of town, the Popu- 
 lar Many have walked in, and taken a look at the aris- 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 145 
 
 tocratic plaything left behind — fancied it — adopted it — 
 and now it is as much theirs as anybody's ! The Ha- 
 vana Company, after struggling through an up-to\\n 
 season, to audiences of two or three hundred, have had 
 a down-town season — with their usual patrons all in the 
 country — to audiences of two or three thousand ! Opera 
 music has, in a couple of months, become » popular 
 taste. Socially wonderful as this is, it is not unnatural. 
 An ear for music is neither the result of luxury nor re- 
 fined education. The mechanic is as likely to have it 
 as the banker — the sempstress as likely as the million- 
 naire's daughter. But such a transition could never 
 have happened in England. The hardened crusts be- 
 tween the different strata of society, would never let a 
 taste pass, with this marvelous facility, from one class 
 to another. It is a proof of the slightness of separation 
 between the upper and middle classes of our country — 
 of the ease with which the privileges of a higher class 
 pass to the use of the class nominally below — and marks 
 how essentially, as well as in form and name, this is a 
 land of equality. 
 
 " Accidental as this transfer of Italian music from 
 Astor Place to Castle Garden may seem to have been — 
 the transfer of a taste from the five hundred Few to the 
 fifty thousand Many — it marks an epoch, that would 
 equally have been an epoch without Jenny Lind, but 
 which, still, beautifully prepared the way for her advent, 
 and for the perpetuation of her triumph, such 'accidents' 
 of preparation have gone before all great spirits, intro- 
 ducing, for them, the epochs on whose tide they were 
 to float. I do not think this one can be lightly spoken 
 13 
 
146 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 of. Music is a sweetener of toil — a softener of suffering 
 — a helper of endurance, — a refiner of brutality — and if 
 Jenny Lind has come among us to set a seal on the uni- 
 versality of music, and make it the confirmed taste of 
 the People, her mission is not a trifling one, nor would 
 it seem undirected by a special Providence. The very 
 struggles, which the pure-minded Swede successfully 
 made, to separate her singing from acting — refusing to 
 make any contract for stage singing, and thus propi- 
 tiating tens of thousands in this country who are preju- 
 diced against Italian music, because it comes in that 
 exceptionable shape — would look lika a foresight of far- 
 seeing wisdom. We shall soon know what its first 
 operation is to be, but I fancy that it will open the way 
 for important changes in the demand and supply of 
 music, improving and bringing it within the means of all 
 classes, and that it will commence a softening and mel- 
 lowing influence on the hard practicality of our money- 
 making national character, forming, altogether, an era 
 which this admired maiden may well be blessed for in- 
 troducing. 
 
 " May the climate of our country treat her voice ten- 
 derly, and may she have health to receive, and inspira- 
 tion to measure and understand, all that the love and 
 admiration of an enthusiastic people will heap around 
 her, on this shore. 
 
 " With this sincere prayer, perhaps I had better dis- 
 miss lesser topics, and close my letter with an Adieu. 
 " Yours, N. P. W." 
 
 ♦ 9 
 
 The second record of our impressions was a descrip- 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 147 
 
 tion of h« First Concert in America, -which we con- 
 eeived to have been critically over-written-about, and 
 which was headed "To any Lady subscriber to the 
 Home Journal, who may wish for gleanings from that 
 first concert of Jenny Lincl, which the critics of the 
 daily papers have so well harvested : — " 
 
 " Highland Terrace, on the Hudson, Sept. 1850. 
 
 " Dear Madam : — My delight at Jenny Lind's First 
 Concert is sandwiched between slices of rural tranquillity 
 —as I went to town for that only, and returned the next 
 day — so that I date from where I write, and treat to 
 sidewalk gossip in a letter ' writ by the running brook.' 
 Like the previous 'Rural Letters' of this series, the 
 present one would have made no special call on your at- 
 tention, and would have been addressed to my friend 
 and partner — but, as he accompanied me to the concert, 
 I could not with propriety write him the news of it, and 
 I therefore address myself, without intermediation, to 
 the real reader for whom my correspondence is of course 
 always intended. Not at all sure that I can tell you any 
 thing new about the one topic of the hour, I will at least, 
 endeavor to leave out what has been most dwelt upon. 
 
 " On the road to town there seemed to be but one sub- 
 ject of conversation, in cars and steamers ; ahd ' Bar- 
 num,' ' Jenny Lind' and c Castle Garden ' were the 
 only words to be overheard, either from passengers 
 nround, or from the rabble at platforms and* landing- 
 places. The oddity of itf lay in the entire saturation of 
 the sea of public mind— from the ooze at the bottom, to 
 the ' crest of the rising swell ' — with the same un- 
 
148 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 commercial, un-political, and un-sectarian excitement. 
 When, before, was a foreign singer the only theme among 
 travelers and baggage-porters, ladies and loafers, Irish- 
 men and ' colored folks,' rowdies and the respectable 
 rich ? By dint of nothing else, and constant iteration 
 of the the three syllables 'Jenny Lind,' it seemed to 
 me, at last, as if the wheels of the cars flew round with 
 it — ' Jenny Lind,' ' Jenny Lind,' ' Jenny Lind ' — in 
 tripping or drawling syllables, according to the velocity. 
 " The doors were advertised to be open at five ; and, 
 though it was thence three hours to the beginning of the 
 concert, we abridged our dinner (your other servant, the 
 song-king and myself,) and took omnibus with the early 
 crowd bound downwards. On the way, I saw indica- 
 cations of a counter current — (private carriages with 
 fashionables starting for their evening drive out of town, 
 and several of the ruling dandies of the hour strolling 
 up, with an air of leisure which was perfectly expressive 
 of no part in the excitement of the evening) — and then 
 I first comprehended that there might possibly be a small 
 class of dissenters. As we were in time to see the as- 
 sembling of most of the multitude who had tickets, it 
 occurred to me to observe the proportion of fashionables 
 among them, and, with much pains-taking, and the aid 
 of an opera-glass, I could number but eleven. Of the 
 Five Hundred who give ' the ton,' this seemed to be 
 the whole representation in an audience of six thousand 
 '—a minority I was sorry to see, as an angel like Jenny t 
 Lind mly well touch the enthusiasm of every human 
 heart, while, as a matter of taste,.no more exquisite feast 
 than her singing was ever offered to the refined. There 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 
 
 149 
 
 should, properly, have been no class in New York: — at 
 least none that could afford the price of attendance — 
 that was not proportionately represented at that Concert. 
 The songstress, herself, as is easy to see, prefers to be 
 the 'People's choice,' and would rather sing to the 
 Fifty Thousand than to the Five Hundred — but she 
 touches a chord that should vibrate far deeper than the 
 distinctions of society, and I hope yet to see her as much 
 ' the fashion y as ' the popular rage ' in our republican 
 metropolis. 
 
 " Jenny's first coming upon the stage at the Concert has 
 been described by every critic. Several of them have 
 pronounced it done rather awkwardly. It seemed to me, 
 however, that the language of curtsies was never before 
 so varied — never before so eloquently effective. She 
 expressed more than the three degrees of humility — pro- 
 found, profounder, profoundest — more than the three de- 
 grees of simplicity — simple, simpler, simplest. In the im- 
 pression she produced, there was conviction of the su- 
 perlative of both, and something to spare. Who, of the 
 spectators that remembered Steffanoni's superb indiffe- 
 rence to the public — (expressed by curtsies just as low 
 when making her first appearance to sing the very solo 
 that Jenny was about to sing) — did not recognize, at 
 Castle Garden, that night, the eloquent inspiration there 
 might be, if not the excessive art, in a curtsy on the 
 stage ? I may as well record, for the satisfaction of the 
 great Good-as-you — (the ' Casta Diva ' of our country) 
 — that Jenny's reverence to this our divinity, the other 
 night, was not practised before kings and Courts. I 
 was particularly struck, in Germany, with the reluctant 
 13* 
 
150 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 civility expressed by her curtsies to the box of the Sove- 
 reign Grand Duke, and to the audience of nobles and 
 gamblers. In England, when the Queen was present, it 
 seemed to me that Jenny wished to convey, in her man- 
 ner of acknowledging the applause for her performance 
 of La Sonnambula, that her profession was distasteful 
 to her. In both these instances, there was certainly 
 great reserve in her ' making of her manners ' — in this 
 country there has, as certainly, been none. 
 
 " The opening solo of ' Casta Diva' was well selected 
 to show the quality of Jenny Lind's voice, though the 
 dramatic effect of this passage of Bellini's Opera could 
 not be given by a voice that had formed itself upon her 
 life and character. Pure invocation to the Moon, the 
 Norman Deity, as the first two stanzas are, the latter 
 half of the solo is a passionate prayer of the erring 
 Priestess to her unlawful love ; and, to be sung truly, 
 must be sung passionately, and with the cadences of love 
 and sin On Jenny's lips, the devout purity and implor- 
 ing worship and contrition, proper to the stanzas in 
 which the Deity is addressed, are continued throughout ; 
 and the Roman, who has both desecrated and been faith- 
 less to her, is besought to return and sin again, with 
 accents of sublimely unconscious innocence. To those 
 who listened without thought of the words, it was deli- 
 cious melody, and the voice of an angel — for, in its pa- 
 thetic and half mournful sweetness, that passage, on 
 such a voice, goes straight to the least expectant and 
 least wakeful fountain of tears — but it was Jenny Lind, 
 and not Norma, and she should have the air set to new 
 words, or to an affecting and elevated passage of Scripture. 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 151 
 
 " And it strikes me, by the way, as a little wonderful — 
 Jenny Lind being what she is, and the religious world 
 being so numerous — that the inspired Swede, in giving 
 up the stage, has not gone over to sacred music alto- 
 gether. It would have been worthy of her, as well as 
 abundantly in her power, to have created a Sacred Mu- 
 sical Drama — or, at least, so much of one, as the sing- 
 ing the songs of Scripture in costume and character. 
 Had the divine music of Casta Diva, the other night, for 
 instance, been the Lamentation of the Daughter of Jep- 
 tha, and had a background of religious reverence given 
 to the singer its strong relief, while the six thousand 
 listeners were gazing with moist eyes upon her, how im- 
 measurably would not the effect of that mere Operatic 
 music have been heightened ! With a voice and skill 
 capable of almost miraculous personation, and with a 
 character of her own which gives her the sacredness of 
 an angel, she might truly 'carry the world away,' 
 were the music but equal to that of the popular operas. 
 Is it not possible to originate this in our country ? With 
 hundreds of thousands of religious people ready to form 
 new audiences, when she has sung out her worldly mu- 
 sic, will not the pure-hearted, humble, simple, saint like 
 and gifted Jenny commence a new career of Sacred Mu- 
 sic, on this side the water? Some one told me, once, 
 that he had heard her sing in a private room, that beau- 
 tiful song, ' I know that my Redeemer liveth !' with 
 feeling and expression such as he had never before 
 thought possible. What a field for a composer is the 
 Bible ! For how many of its personages — Mary, Hagar, 
 Miriam, Ruth — might single songs be written, that, sung 
 
152 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 in the costume in which they are usually painted, and 
 with such action as the meaning required, would give 
 boundless pleasure to the religious ! The class is well 
 worth composing for, and they are well worthy of the 
 services of a sequestrated choir of the world's best sing- 
 ers — of whom Jenny Lind may most triumphantly be 
 the first. 
 
 " That Jenny Lind sings like a woman with no weak- 
 nesses — that there is plenty of soul in her singing, but 
 no flesh and blood — that her voice expresses more ten- 
 der pity than tender passion, and more guidance in the 
 right way than sympathy with liability to the wrong — 
 are reasons, I think, why she should compare unfavor- 
 ably with the impassioned singers of the opera, in opera 
 scenes and characters. Grisi and Steffanoni give better 
 and more correct representations of ' Norma,' both mu- 
 sical and dramatic, than she — and naturally enough. 
 It is wonderful how differently the same music may be 
 correctly sung; and how the quality of the voice — 
 which is inevitably an expression of the natural charac- 
 ter and habits of mind — makes its meaning ! It is one 
 of the most interesting of events to have seen Jenny Lind 
 at all — but, her character and her angelic acts apart, a 
 woman ' as is a woman' may better sing much of the 
 music she takes from operas. 
 
 " Of the ' Flute Song,' and the ' Echo Song,' the 
 papers have said enough, and I will save what else I 
 have to say of the great-souled maiden, till I get back to 
 my quarters in the city and have heard her again. 
 
 " Pardon the gravity of my letter, dear.Madam, and 
 believe me Your humble servant, N.' P. W." 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 153 
 
 The following appeared in a succeeding number of the 
 Home Journal, and though it is not directly descriptive 
 of the theme of this volume, yet it bears upon an event 
 of her career in this country, which has been very largely 
 written about : — 
 
 "Barnum's Prize, 
 " Of $200 for the best ' Welcome Song ' to Jenny Lind. 
 
 " The editor of the ' Morning Star,' in a gay article, 
 mentions the two editors of this paper, as leading com- 
 petitors for the above prize. As one of the two, (the 
 one who does not write this paragraph,) is the acknow- 
 ledged best song-writer of our country, and as his avowed 
 competition might prevent some one, less assured by suc- 
 cess, from trying his modest wing, it is proper, perhaps, 
 to correct the error of our polite neighbor, and say de- 
 finitely that neither Morris nor his partner will be among 
 the competitors. 
 
 " But let us express our respect for this class of com- 
 position, while the above disclaimer will serve us for a 
 text. Of all the shapes of the poetic faculty, we think 
 there is none to which the ' nascitur non fit ' is so appli- 
 cable. The song-writer, more than any other sort of 
 poet, must be a born poet. Like the distinction between 
 the sublime and the ridiculous, the difference between 
 the best song and the worst is a wall that only inspired 
 masonry can build, and where pathos ends and laughter 
 begins, is a line that can be drawn by Nature only,. It 
 is not altogether an inspiration of the fancy either. The 
 head alone may write other poetry, perhaps, but the 
 heart must have been there, when a good song was 
 
154 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 written. Unless there was a choke in the throat and a 
 moisture in the eye when a line was first murmured, it 
 will never move the listener when sung. 
 
 " Of course there are accidental combinations that help 
 to make a song-writer. Many a man could conceive 
 one, for instance, who lacks the musical ear to put it to- 
 gether. A tact at using brevity without impairing the 
 clear outline of the meaning, is necessary also, and so is 
 clear common sense to reject all that has not a truth 
 under it. But there is one quality more, without which 
 good songs could scarce be written, and though we have 
 always recognized it with admiration where it existed, 
 we scarce know how to define it. We refer to that se- 
 paration of progress, by which a man who has risen to 
 think with the few, continues to feel with the many. 
 To borrow an illustration from our military partner, the 
 mind is promoted, but the heart is left in the ranks. 
 Many a man of genius both thinks and feels, out of reach 
 of the majority of his fellow-creatures. Shelley did so 
 — Shakspeare did not, Burns did not, nor Campbell, nor 
 Moore. It is as creditable and admirable in common 
 life as in song-writing, we may as well add, however. 
 Keeping the heart akin to the every-day sympathies of 
 the mass, is as unusual amid wealth and honors, as amid 
 the cold elevations of the intellect, and equally shows 
 noble affectionateness of nature. 
 
 " We are running into an essay, when we intended 
 onlyilto write a paragraph. Let us close with a com- 
 mendation of the theme proposed by the liberal offerer 
 of the prize. Jenny Lind has led the life of an angel on 
 earth, and, for her purity and munificent charities, she 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 155 
 
 deserves an angel's 'welcome, while she has the lesser 
 claims of an unrivaled songstress and a woman of in- 
 domitable energy and uninterrupted loftiness of spirit. 
 In the path of life most thickly strewn with temptations, 
 and in the career of fame most thronged with the petty 
 and degrading passions, she has pursued her way with 
 steady and unobtrusive innocence, yet with wonderful 
 high-mindedness and strength of purpose. That so pure 
 and great a spirit should come out of the Nazareth of 
 her profession, is, we hope, a prophetic advent of a 
 higher standard, of character and estimation, for the 
 gifted in drama and song. 
 
 "N. P. W." 
 
 The following is the second " Letter " on the subject : — 
 
 " To THE LADY-SUBSCRIBER IN THE COUNTRY 
 
 " New York, Sept. — 
 
 " ONE-prefers to write to those for whom one has the 
 most to tell, and I have an ink-stand full of gossip about 
 the great Jenny, which, though it might hardly be news 
 to those who have the run of the sidewalk, may possibly 
 be interesting where the grass grows. Nothing else is 
 talked of, and now and then a thing is said which escapes 
 the omniverous traps of the daily papers. Upon the 
 faint chance of telling you something which you might 
 not otherwise hear without coming to town, I pu^my 
 ink-stand into the clairvoyant state, and choose you fot 
 the listener with whom to put it ' in communication.' 
 
 " Jenny has an imperfection — which I hasten to record. 
 That she might turn out to be quite too perfect for hu- 
 
156 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 man sympathy, has been the rock ahead, in her naviga- 
 tion of popularity. ' Pretend to a fault if you haven't 
 one,' says a shrewd old writer, * for, the one thing the 
 world never forgives is perfection.' There was really a 
 gloomy probability that Jenny would turn out to be that 
 hateful monstrosity — a woman without a fault — but the 
 suspense is over. She cannot mount on horseback with- 
 out a chair ! No lady who is common-place enough to 
 love, and marry, and give her money to her husband, 
 ever climbed more awkwardly into a side-saddle than 
 Jenny Lind. The necessity of finding something in 
 which she was surpassed by somebody, has been so pain- 
 fully felt, ' up town' that this discovery was circulated, 
 within an hour after it was observed, to every corner of 
 the fashionable part of the city. She occupies the pri- 
 vate wing of the New York Hotel, on the more secluded 
 side of Washington Place, and a lady eating an ice at 
 the confectioner's opposite, was the fortunate witness of 
 this, her first authenticated human weakness. Fly she 
 may ! (is the feeling now,) for, to birds and angels it 
 comes easy enough — but she is no horsewoman ! Fanny 
 Kemble, whom we know to be human, beats her at that ! 
 " Another liability of the divine Jenny has come to 
 my knowledge, though I should not mention it as a 
 weakness without some clearer light as to the suscepti- 
 bilities of the angelic nature. It was mentioned to a lady 
 friend of mine, that, on reading some malicious insinua- 
 tions as to the motives of her charities, published a few 
 days since in one of the daily papers of this city, she 
 wept bitterly. Now, though we mourn that the world 
 holds a man who would sd>f|pundlessly belie the acts of 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 157 
 
 a ministering angel, there is still a certain pleasure in 
 knowing that she, too, is subject to tears. We love her 
 more — almost as much more as if tears were human 
 only — because injustice can reach and move so pure a 
 creature, as it can us. God forbid that such sublime be- 
 nevolence, as this munificent singing girl's, should be 
 maligned again — but so might Christ's motive in raising 
 Lazarus have been misinterpreted, and we can scarce re- 
 gret that it has once happened, for we know, now, that she 
 is within the circle in which we feel and suffer. Sweet, 
 tearful Jenny 1 she is one of us — God bless her ! — sub- 
 ject to the cruel misinterpretation of the vile, and with 
 a heart in her angelic bosom, that, like other human 
 hearts, needs and pleads to be believed in ! 
 
 " I made one of the seven thousand who formed her 
 audience on Saturday night ; and, when I noticed how 
 the best music she gave forth during the evening was 
 least applauded, I fell to musing on the secret of her 
 charm over four thousand of those present — (allowing 
 one thousand to be appreciators of her voice and skill, 
 and two thousand to be honest lovers of her goodness, 
 and the remaining four thousand, who were also buyers 
 of five-dollar tickets, constituting my little problem.) 
 
 "I fancy, the great charm of Jenny Lind, to those 
 ■who think little, is, that she stands before them as an 
 angel in possession of a gift which is usually entrusted 
 only to sinners. That God has not made her a wonder- 
 ful singer and there left her, is the curious exception she 
 forms to common human allotment. To give away more 
 money in charity than any other mortal, and still be the 
 first of primas donnas ! To be an irreproachably mo- 
 14 
 
158 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 dest girl, and still be the first of primas donnas ! To be 
 humble, simple, genial -and unassuming, and still be the 
 first of primas donnas ! To have begun as a beggar- 
 child, and risen to receive more adulation than any 
 Queen, and still be the first of primas donnas ! To be 
 unquestionably the most admired and distinguished wo- 
 man on earth, doing the most good and exercising the 
 most power, and still be a prima donna that can be ap- 
 plauded and encored ! It is the combination, of superi- 
 orities and interests, that makes the wonder — it is the 
 concentrating of the stuff for half-a-dozen heroines in 
 one simple girl, and that girl a candidate for applause — 
 that so vehemently stimulates the curiosity. We are 
 not sufficiently aware, I have long thought, that the 
 world is getting tired of single-barrelled greatness. You 
 must be two things or more — a 'revolver' of genius — 
 to be much thought of, now. There was very much 
 such a period in Roman history. Nero found it by no 
 means enough to be an Emperor. He went on the stage 
 as a singer. With the world to kill if he chose, he must 
 also have the world's willing admiration. He slept with 
 a plate of lead on bis stomach, abstained from all fruits 
 and other food that would affect his voice, poisoned 
 Britannicus because he sang better than himself, and 
 was more delighted when encored than when crowned. 
 So sighed the Emperor Commodus for a two-story place 
 in history, and went on the stage as a dancer and gladi- 
 ator. Does any one suppose that Queen Victoria has 
 not envied Jenny Lind ? Does Washington Irving, as 
 he sits at Sunnyside, and watches the sloops beating up 
 against the wind, feel no discontent that he is immortal 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 159 
 
 only on one tack ? No ! no ! And it is in America 
 that the atmosphere is found (Oh prophetic E pluribus 
 unum /) for this plurality of greatness. Europe, in its 
 bigotry of respect for precedent, forgets what the times 
 may be ready for. Jenny Lind, when she gets to the 
 prompt, un-crusted and foreshadowing West of this 
 country, will find her six-barrelled greatness for the 
 first time subject to a single trigger of appreciation. 
 Queens may have given her lap-dogs, and Kings may 
 have clasped bracelets on her plump arms, but she will 
 prize more the admiration for the whole of her, felt here 
 by a whole people. It will have been the first time in 
 her career, (if one may speak like a schoolmaster,) that 
 the heaven-written philactery of her worth will have 
 been read without stopping to parse it. Never before 
 has she received homage so impulsive and universal — bet- 
 ter than that, indeed, for like Le Verrier's planet, she 
 was recognized, and this far-away world was vibrating to 
 her influence, long before she was seen. 
 
 " One wonders, as one looks upon her soft eyes, and 
 her affectionate profusion of sunny hair, what Jenny's 
 heart can be doing all this time. Is fame a substitute 
 for the tender passion ? She must have been desperately 
 loved in her varied and bright path. I saw a student at 
 Leipsic, who, after making great sacrifices and efforts to 
 get a ticket to her last concert at that place, gave it away, 
 and went to stroll out the evening in the lonely Rosen- 
 thal, because he felt his happiness at stake, and could not 
 bear the fascination that she exercised upon him. Or, is 
 her rocket of devotion divided up into many and more 
 manageable little crackers of friendship? Even that 
 
160 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 most impassioned of women, Madame George Sand, 
 says : — ' Si Von rencontrait une amitie parfaite dans 
 toute sa vie, on pourrait presque se passer d'amour.' 
 Do the devoted friendships, that Jenny Lind inspires, 
 make love seem to her but like the performance, to one 
 listener, of a concert, the main portion of whose pro- 
 gramme has hitherto been sufficient for many? We 
 would not be disrespectful with these speculations. To 
 see such a heaven as her heart untenanted, one longs to 
 write its advertisement of ' To Let.' Yet, it would take 
 polygamy to match her; for, half-a-dozen poets, two 
 Mexican heroes, several dry-goods merchants and a rising 
 politician, would hardly ' boil down ' into a man of gifts 
 enough to be worthy of her. The truth is, that all 'in- 
 stitutions' should be so modified as not to interfere with 
 the rights of the world at large ; and, matrimony of the 
 ordinary kind — (which would bestow her voice like a 
 sun-dial in a grave) — would rob the Public of its natural 
 property in Jenny Lind. But an 'arrangement' could 
 be managed with no unreasonable impoverishment of 
 her husband ; for, a month of her time being equal to a 
 year of other people's, her marriage contract might be 
 graduated accordingly — eleven months reserved to celi- 
 bacy and fame. It is a 'Procrustes bed' which cuts all 
 love of the same length, and what ' committee of refe- 
 rence ' would not award a twelfth of Jenny Lind as an 
 equivalent consideration for the whole of an average hus- 
 band ? 
 
 " There is an indication that Providence intended this 
 remarkable woman for a citizen of no one country, in 
 the peculiar talent she possesses as a linguist. A gen- 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 161 
 
 tleman who resided in Germany when she was there, 
 told me yesterday, that one of the delights the Germans 
 found, in her singing and in her society, was the won- 
 derful beauty of her pronunciation of their language. It 
 was a common remark that she spoke it ' better than a 
 German,' for, with her keen perception and fine taste, 
 she threw out the local abbreviations and corruptions of 
 the familiar dialect, and, with her mastery of sound, she 
 gave every syllable its just fullness and proportion. She 
 is perfect mistress of French, and speaks English very 
 sweetly, every day making rapid advance in the know- 
 ledge of it. 
 
 " Several of our fashionable people are preparing to 
 give large parties, as soon as the fair Swede is willing 
 to honor them with her company, but she is so beset, 
 at present, that she needs the invisible ring of Gyges 
 even to get a look at the weather without having ' an 
 audience ' thrown in. She can scarce tell, of course, 
 what civilities to accept, or who calls to honor her, and 
 who to beg charity, but her unconquerable simplicity 
 and directness, serve to evade much that would annoy 
 other people. 
 
 " Bless me, what a long letter! Adieu. 
 
 " Your servant, N. P. W." 
 
 The third letter was also addressed To the Lady Sub- 
 scriber in the Country : — 
 
 " Dear Madam, — It is slender picking at the feast 
 of news, after the daily papers have had their fill, and, 
 if I make the most of a trifle that I find here or there, you 
 14* 
 
162 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 ■will read with reference to my emergency. Put your- 
 self in my situation, and imagine how all the best gos- 
 sip of the village you live in, would be used up before 
 you had any chance at it, if you were at liberty to speak 
 but once in seven days ! 
 
 " The belated equinox is upon us. Jenny Lind, hav- 
 ing occasion for fair weather when she was here, the sun 
 dismissed his storm-train, and stepped over the equator 
 on tip-toe, leaving the thunder and lightning to sweep 
 this part of the sky when she had clone with it. She 
 left for Boston, and the deferred storm followed close 
 upon her departure, doing up its semi-annual ' chore ' 
 with unusual energy. The cobwebs of September were 
 brushed away by the most vivid lightning, and the floor 
 of heaven was well washed for Jenny's return. Octo- 
 ber and the New York Hotel are now in order for her. 
 
 " Pray what do the respectable trees, that have no 
 enthusiasms, think of our mania for Jenny Lind ? The 
 maniacs here, in their lucid intervals, moralize on them- 
 selves. Ready as they are to receive her with a fresh 
 paroxysm next week, the most busy question of this 
 week is ' what has ailed us ?' I trust the leisurely ob- 
 server of ' The Lorgnette ' is watching this analysis of a 
 crazy metropolis by itself, and will give it us, in a sepa- 
 rate number ; for it will describe a curious stage of the 
 formation of musical taste in our emulous and fast-grow- 
 ing civilization. I think I can discern an advanced step 
 in the taste of my own acquaintances, showing that peo- 
 ple learn fast by the effort to define what they admire. 
 But, of course, there is great difference of opinion. The 
 fashionables and foreigners go ' for curiosity ' to the Lind 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 163 
 
 concerts, but form a steady faction against her in con- 
 versation. The two French editors of New York, and 
 the English editor of the Albion — (unwilling, perhaps, 
 to let young and fast America promote to a full angel, 
 one who had only been brevetted an angel in their older 
 and slower countries,) — furnish regular supplies of am- 
 munition to the opposition. You may hear, at present, 
 in any up-town circle, precisely what Jenny Lind is not 
 — as convincingly as the enemies of the flute could show 
 you that it was neither a clarionet nor a bass viol, neither 
 a trombone nor a drum, neither a fife, a fiddle, nor a bas- 
 soon. The only embarrassment her dissecters find, is in 
 reconciling the round, full, substantial bcfdy of her voice, 
 with their declarations that she soars out of the reach of 
 tangible sympathy, and is aerially incapable of express- 
 ing the passion of the every day human heart. ' She 
 sings with mere organic skill and without soul,' says 
 one, while another proves that she sings only to the soul 
 and not at all to the body. Between these two opposing 
 battledores, the shuttlecock, of course, stays where Bar- 
 num likes to see it. 
 
 " The private life of the great Jenny'is matter of al- 
 most universal inquisitiveness, and the anecdotes afloat, 
 of her evasions of intrusion, her frank receptions, her in- 
 dependence and her good nature, would fill a volume. 
 She is so hunted that it is a wonder how she finds time 
 to remember herself — yet that she invariably does. No- 
 thing one hears of her is at all out of character. She is 
 fearlessly direct and simple in everything. Though 
 ' The People ' are not impertinent, the bores who push 
 their annoyances under cover of representing this her 
 
164 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 constituency, are grossly impertinent ; and she is a sa- 
 gacious judge of the difference between them. A charm- 
 ing instance of this occurred just before she left Boston. 
 Let me give it you, with a mended pen and a new para- 
 graph. 
 
 'Jenny was at home one morning, but, having indis- 
 pensable business to attend to, gave directions to the 
 servants to admit no visitors whatever. Waiters and 
 maids may be walked past, however, and a fat lady 
 availed herself of this mechanical possibility, and entered 
 Jenny's chamber, declaring that she must see the dear 
 creature who had given away so much money. Her 
 reception was civilly cold, of course, but she went into 
 such a flood of tears, after throwing her arms around 
 Jenny's neck, that the Nightingale's heart was softened. 
 She pleaded positive occupation for the moment, but said 
 that she should be at leisure in the evening, and would 
 send her carriage for her weeping admirer, if she could 
 come at a certain hour. The carriage was duly sent, 
 but it brought, not only the fat lady, but three more 
 female admirers, of most unpromising and vulgar exte- 
 rior. They were shown into the drawing-room, and in 
 a few minutes, Jenny entered from an adjoining room, 
 followed by half-a-dozen professional persons with whom 
 she had been making some business arrangements. 
 
 " ' How is this ?' said the simple Swede, looking around 
 as she got into the room ; ' here are four ladies, and I 
 sent for but one !' 
 
 " They commenced an apology in some confusion. 
 
 " ' No, ladies, no !' said Jenny, ' your uninvited pre- 
 sence here is an intrusion. I cannot send you away, 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 165 
 
 because you have no escort ; but your coming is an im- 
 pertinence, and I am very much troubled by this kind 
 of thing.' 
 
 " The three intruders chose to remain, however, and 
 taking seats, they stayed out their fat friend's visit — 
 Jenny taking no further notice of them till their depar- 
 ture. As they got up to go, the singer's kind heart was 
 moved again, and she partly apologized for her recep- 
 tion of them, stating how her privacy was invaded at all 
 hours, and how injurious it was to her profession, as well 
 as her comfort. And, with this consolation, she sent 
 them all home again in her carriage. 
 
 " To any genuine and reasonable approach, Jenny is 
 the soul of graciousness and kindness. An old lady of 
 eighty sent to her the other day, pleading that she was 
 about to leave town, and that her age and infirmities 
 prevented her from seeing Miss Lind in public, but that 
 she wished the privilege of expressing her admiration of 
 her character, and of resting her eyes upon one so good 
 and gifted. Jenny immediately sent for her, and, ask- 
 ing if she would like to hear her sing, sang to her 
 for an hour and a-half, with the simplicity of a child de- 
 lighted to give pleasure. It is the mixture of this undi- 
 minished freshness and ingenuousness, with her unbend- 
 ing independence and tact at business, which show this 
 remarkable creature's gifts in such strong relief. Na- 
 ture, who usually departs as Art and Honors come in, 
 has stayed with Jenny. 
 
 " Of course, the city is full of discontented stars that 
 have been forced to 'pale their ineffectual fires' before 
 this brighter glory, and lecturers, concert-singers, pri- 
 
166 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 mas-donnas and dancers are waiting the setting of the orb 
 of Jenny Lind. We are promised all sorts of novelties, 
 at her disappearance, and of those, and of other events 
 in this busy capital, I will duly write you. 
 
 "Your servant, N. P. W." 
 
 The following article was written for the Home Jour- 
 nal, the week after : — 
 
 " Private Habits and Manners of Jenny Lind. 
 
 " If it were revealed to us that God had sent an angel 
 to earth, upon a mission of charity which required money 
 to fulfill — and if we were to recognize the identity and 
 presence of that angel, by the good which is being done, 
 the pure character of the ministering agent, and the ce- 
 lestial simplicity of the substitute for a letter of credit — 
 who would hesitate to see these three identifications in 
 the charities, the purity, and the voice of Jenny Lind ? 
 In most of the eminence and distinction of this world, 
 there is some lifted corner of the enveloping robe of glory 
 which discloses an under-garment ' of the earth, earthy. 
 In Jenny Lind's character, as well as in her schemes of 
 benevolence, there seems no enveloping motive or pur- 
 pose, which would not serve purely for an angel's wear. 
 Before showing — (as some chance information enables 
 us to do) — where the hem of the Swedish angel's unsoiled 
 robe of conduct touches the ground, let us refresh the 
 memory of the reader with the view of her brilliant ces- 
 tus of good works, as outlined in the letter [already given 
 — pp. 66-68.] of the gentleman who has engaged her 
 to sing in this country. 
 
OF JENNY LIND 167 
 
 " With this really sublime view of her exercise of 
 power, (through her gold-commanding gift of credit from 
 God,) let us now contrast the striking and yet philoso- 
 phically consistent humilities of a glimpse at her ordi- 
 nary life. 
 
 " During her two years' engagements in London, 
 Lind hired the suburban residence of a stout and worthy 
 citizen, taking his furniture, his carriage and coachman, 
 his servants and house-belongings, of all descriptions, on 
 rent. The only addition that she made to the usual 
 service of the establishment, was the attendance of an 
 English chaplain, who, upon the open lawn of the gar- 
 den, whenever the weather would in any way permit, 
 or otherwise in the drawing-room, performed the devo- 
 tions of the English Church for the assembled household. 
 The coachman, as is the custom in England, had accom- 
 modations for his family in a wing of the stables ; and 
 his wife, the mother of two or three young children, was 
 employed as ' washer and ironer.' While, with proffers 
 of attention and acquaintance from the rank and fashion 
 of London, the fair Swede was unavailingly beset — a 
 kind of tribute to her genius and character which she 
 consistently and unvaryingly refused — the family of the 
 honest coachman were commonly enjoying the much- 
 sought privilege. While Duchesses and Countesses were 
 being refused at her door, she was oftenest seated in the 
 centre of the haymow, her favorite resort for every hour 
 of leisure, tending the coachman's baby, or teaching the 
 older ones to read! On this humble family all her 
 every-day affections seemed to be expended. When 
 away, concert-singing at Birmingham or Liverpool, she 
 
168 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 wrote to them daily as if to her own family, and with a 
 tenderness of broken English which was as touching as 
 it was curious. These letters were lent and shown to 
 the neighbors and others, and the friend (of our own) 
 who had seen them and gives us these particulars, says 
 that no daughter could have written home more fami- 
 liarly and affectionately. The coachman's wife still 
 wears, stitched to the sleeve of the calico gown in which 
 she works, and changed and re-stitched carefully to 
 every dress she puts on, a most costly diamond bracelet, 
 her parting keepsake from Jenny Lind ! It would be a 
 hard extremity of poverty that would induce her to part 
 with it. 
 
 " The famous opera-singer had been more than a year 
 the tenant of Mr. C , and the staid and elderly citi- 
 zen had never seen her. He had his lodgings in town, 
 near his place of business, and he sent his clerk to Bromp- 
 ton quarterly to receive the rent, replying, with a bluff 
 disavowal of all knowledge of opera singers, to such of 
 his friends as made the natural inquiries of curiosity. 
 Some question occurring, however, at one of these quar- 
 terly settlements, which an agent could not very well 
 
 dispose of, it became necessary that Mr. C should 
 
 call on his tenant in person. The stout landlord's ac- 
 count of his visit very much amused his friends. He 
 had expected an uncomfortable degree of pretension and 
 ceremony. The servant at the door showed his old 
 master to the drawing-room, and the next minute, ' Miss 
 Lind ' came running in from the garden, with dress un- 
 hooked behind, hair not very smooth, (these particulars 
 are second-hand from the first narrator,) and as cordial 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 169 
 
 as the oldest friend he had in the world. She seized 
 him by his two hands, crowded him down into a large 
 arm-chair, insisted upon knowing why he had not been 
 to see her during the long time she had been in his 
 house, and finally seated herself on the floor at his feet, 
 to talk over matters. Quite overcome with this last 
 condescension, the deep-down chivalry of the honest 
 Englishman was aroused, and, dropping on one knee, he 
 declared he could not sit in a chair while she sat on the 
 floor. At this, the unceremonious Jenny jumped up, 
 and, taking Mr. C.'s two hands, drew him to a window 
 seat, and squeezed herself (for he is a very fat man) into 
 the recess by his side — 'and a very tight squeeze it was,' 
 added the old gentleman in telling the story. Here she 
 pulled from her pocket contract and receipts, and pro- 
 ceeded to business, which was soon settled ; and the 
 landlord took his leave, delighted with Jenny Lind, but 
 not quite sure that he had been in full possession of his 
 senses. 
 
 "Just before the celebrated singer left this residence, 
 a lady who had been brought in contact with her by 
 some circumstance of neighborhood, and who had con- 
 ceived a strong affection for her, asked, one day, some- 
 thing as a keepsake. Jenny flew to her dressing-room, 
 and brought down jewels and costly articles of dress, 
 and eagerly begged her to choose anything she possessed ; 
 but an article of value was not what the lady wished or 
 could accept. It was with the greatest difficulty that 
 the impulsive Swede could be made to agree to let the 
 keepsake consist of only the bouquet of flowers that she 
 had worn in ' La Fille du Regiment.' Her generosity 
 15 
 
170 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 and simplicity seem beyond taint or qualification by 
 knowledge of the world. 
 
 " The above particulars, showing the admired cele- 
 brity off her pedestal, as they do, will by no means di- 
 minish the interest of her reception in America. The 
 qualities of character which they reveal, are appreciated, 
 and earnestly looked for, by the largest and best class 
 of our country people — the unostentatious and plain- 
 hearted. Her coming among us will be that year's most 
 noted event, in all probability, and we only trust that 
 a prophetess, whose whole mission, with her gold- amass- 
 ing powers, seems one of pure benevolence, may not be 
 disparaged, for her humble simplicities of ordinary life 
 — as was the prophet Elisha, for healing Naaman with 
 the humble waters of Israel, when ' Abana and Pharpar,' 
 the more aristocratical waters of Damascus, would have 
 been so much more * in keeping with his character.' 
 
 "N. P. W." 
 
 The following was next written, descriptive of Jenny 
 Lind's " Return to New York :"— 
 
 Quite the most beautiful sight that we ever 
 
 saw, in the way of an audience, was Tripler Hall — just 
 full — on the night of the first Concert of this Second 
 Series. We had seen the hall before — but it needed the 
 crowd to realize the full beauty of the architecture, as 
 it needs water to show the proportions of the fountain's 
 basin ; and we may add, (without seeming visionary,) 
 that, filled with the presence of Jenny Lind, it was a 
 fairer place to look on, than when the most conspicuous 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 171 
 
 object in its midst was the projecting stomach of Signor 
 Bochsa. ' Over everything,' says Emerson, ' stands its 
 demon or soul ; and, as the form of the thing is reflected 
 by the eye, so the soul of the thing is reflected by a 
 melody.' 
 
 " We were pained to see, when the fair songstress 
 came forward to the lights, that her fatigues, for the 
 past two or three weeks, had made their mark upon her. 
 She looked pale and worn, and her step and air were 
 saddened and un-elastic. This continued, even to the 
 end of her second performance,' and we began to have 
 apprehensions that she was too indisposed to be equal 
 to her evening's task: But, with the Cavatina from the 
 Sonnambula, the inspiration came. She sang it newly, 
 to our ear. It seemed as if she had, heretofore, sung 
 always with a reserve of power. This was the first 
 time that she had seemed (to us) to give in to the cha- 
 racter, and allow her soul to pour its impassioned ten- 
 derness fully upon the dramatic burthen of the music. 
 Could any one, who heard that overpowering flood of 
 heart-utterance, (conveying the mournfulness of a wrong- 
 fully accused woman singing in her dream,) doubt, after- 
 wards, the fervor and intensity of the nature of Jenny 
 Lind ? More eloquent and passionate, sounds came never 
 from human lips, we are well persuaded. If she ever 
 lacks in the ' passionateness ' called for by Italian music, 
 or suffers by comparison with Grisi and others in this 
 respect, we shall believe, hereafter, that it is only be- 
 cause she cannot consent to embark passionateness on 
 the tide of the character she represents. A Lucrezia 
 Borgia's ' passion ' for example, she would not portray 
 
172 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 ■with a full abandonment — a Sonnambula's she would 
 Her capability of expressing feeling — pure feeling — to 
 its uttermost depth and elevation, is beyond cavil, it 
 seems to us. 
 
 " We found, after Jenny Lind had gone from the city, 
 on her first visit, that we retained no definite remem- 
 brance of her features. We had nothing by which we 
 could assure ourselves whether one likeness was more 
 true than another ; and, indeed, no one of them — not 
 even a daguerreotype — was reasonably like our feeling oi 
 what a likeness should be. We determined, this time, 
 first to study the lineaments, by themselves, and then, if 
 possible, to see how so marvelous a transformation was 
 brought about, as is necessary to present to the eye her 
 frequent looks of inspiration and even of exalted beauty. 
 Our close scrutiny satisfied us, that it is only by looking 
 at her features separately, that any degree of truthful- 
 ness can be found in the daguerreotype likenesses which 
 have been published. The entire look, taken in connec- 
 tion with the rest of her figure, though she only stands 
 before the audience, waiting the completion of the pre- 
 lude to her song, represents a totally different image 
 from the one your mind has received by looking at her 
 picture. It is fortunate that it is so — careless as she is 
 about letting any body picture her as he pleases. She 
 comes to every eye with a new impression. All the en- 
 gravings in the world do not anticipate for you any por- 
 tion of the novelty of a first sight of her. So, as long 
 as she sings, there will be no exhaustion to the freshness 
 of her impression upon audiences. 
 
 " Heavy as Jenny Lind's features are, there is no su- 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 173 
 
 perfluity, in repose, which does not turn out to have been 
 very necessary to the expression in excitement. That 
 so massive a nose can have the play of the thin nostrils 
 of a race-horse, is one of the startling discoveries you 
 make, in watching her as she sings. Her eyes are, per- 
 haps, beautiful at all times — and it struck us as their 
 peculiarity that they never become staggered with her 
 excitement. From the highest pitch of rapt bewilder- 
 ment for the listener, those large, steadfast eyes return to 
 their serene, lambent, fearless earnestness — as if there 
 sat the angel entrusted with the ministry she is exercis- 
 ing, and heaven lay in calm remembrance behind them. 
 And the same rallying power is observable in the action 
 of the under lip, which contorts with all the pliability 
 and varying beauty of the mouth of the Tragic Muse, 
 and, from its expressive curves, resumes its dignity of 
 repose with an ease and apparent unconsciousness of ob- 
 servation, that is well worthy of study by player or. 
 sculptor. It is curious, how, in all the inspired changes 
 of this mobile physiognomy, however, its leading imprint, 
 of an utter simplicity of goodness, is never lost. She 
 does not sublimate away from it. Through the angel of 
 rapt music, as through the giver of queenly bounties, is 
 seen honest Jenny Lind. She looks forever true to the 
 ideal for which the world of common hearts has consent- 
 ed to love her. N. P. W." 
 
 We add a short paragraph on " The Portraits of Jenny 
 Lind : "— 
 
 " There is great competition to be the painter of 
 
 Jenny Lind. Mr. Barnum, we understand, has engaged 
 15* 
 
174 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 a portrait for his palace of Iranistan, and -we are permit- 
 ted to mention only the fact — not the artist. The appli- 
 cations are numerous for the honor of limning her ad- 
 mired countenance. We should suppose Garbeille might 
 make a charming statuette of Jenny Lind curtsying. It 
 is then that she is most unlike anybody else, and, where 
 character is to be seized, Garbeille is the master. 
 George Flagg is admirable at cabinet portraits, (half 
 the size of life,) and has lately finished one of Fanny 
 Kemble, which is a superb piece of design and color. 
 He would paint her well. 
 
 " It seems to us that no one, of the dozen engravings 
 purporting to represent Jenny Lind, has any reasonable 
 likeness to her, as we have seen her. And, indeed, the 
 longer we live, the more we are convinced that people 
 see the same features very differently, and that one face 
 may make two as different impressions on two beholders, 
 as if they had been all the while looking on two differ- 
 ent faces. To our notion, Jenny Lind has never been 
 painted truly. We have seen fifty likenesses of her — in 
 Germany, France, England, and Nassau-street — and the 
 picture in our mind's eye is the likeness of quite another 
 woman. 
 
 " The truth is, that God never yet lit the flame of a 
 great soul in a dark lantern ; and, though the divine 
 lamp burning within Jenny Lind may not be translucent 
 to all eyes, it is, to others, perfectly visible through the 
 simple windows of her honest face, and could be painted 
 — by any artist who could see past the putty on the sash. 
 Her living features seem to us illuminated with an ex- 
 pression of honest greatness, sublimely simple and un- 
 
OP JENNY LIND. 175 
 
 conscious, and in no picture of her do we see any trace 
 of this. It is a face, to our eye, of singular beauty — 
 beauty that goes past one's eye and is recognized within 
 — and the pictures of her represent the plainest of com- 
 monplace girls. Why, a carpenter's estimate, with the 
 inches of her nose, cheeks, lips and eyes, all cyphered 
 up on a shingle, would be as true a likeness of her as 
 most of these engravings. Have we no American artist 
 who can give us Jenny Lind's face with its expression ? 
 
 "N. P. W." 
 
 In another number of the Home Journal occurs the 
 following description of Daniel Webstek, under the 
 spell of Jenny Lind's music : — 
 
 " We had a pleasure, the other evening, which we feel 
 very unwilling not to share with every eye to which 
 there is a road from the point of our pen. Three or four 
 thousand people saw it with us ; but, as there are per- 
 haps fifty thousand more, to whom the pleasure can be 
 sent by these roads of ink, those three or four thousand, 
 who were so fortunate as to be present, will excuse the 
 repetition — possibly may thank us, indeed, for enlarging 
 the sympathy in their enjoyment. In these days of mag- 
 netism, life seems to be of value, only in proportion as we 
 find others to share in what we think and feel. 
 
 " It was perhaps ten minutes before the appearance of 
 Benedict's magic stick, and, in running our eye musingly 
 along the right side of the crowded gallery of Tripler 
 Hall, we caught sight of a white object with a sparkling 
 dark line underneath, around which a number of persons 
 
176 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 were just settling themselves in their seats. Motionless 
 itself, and with the stir going on around it, it was like a 
 calm half moon, seen over the tops of agitated trees, or 
 like a massive magnolia blossom, too heavy for the breeze 
 to stir, splendid and silent amid fluttering poplar-leaves. 
 We raised our opera-glass, with no very definite expec- 
 tation, and, with the eye thus brought nearer to the ob- 
 ject, lo ! the dome over the temple of Webster — the fore- 
 head of the great Daniel, with the two glorious lamps 
 set in the dark shadow of its architrave. Not expecting 
 to see the noble Constitution-ist in such a crowd, our 
 veins tingled, as veins will with the recognition of a sud- 
 den and higher presence, and, from that moment, the in- 
 terest of the evening, to us, was to see signs of the sus-r 
 ceptibility of such a mind to the spells of Jenny Lind. 
 Slight they must be, of course, if signs were to be seen 
 at all ; but the interest in watching for them was no less 
 exciting — very slight variations, of the ' bodies ' above 
 us, repaying fully the patient observation of the astrono- 
 mer. 
 
 " The party who had come with Mr. Webster were 
 'his lady ' — (the Americanism of that synonym for * wife,' 
 grew out of our national chivalry to woman, and, let us 
 cherish it) — the newly-elected Governor of the State and 
 his lady, and General Lyman. They sat in the centre of 
 the right hand side of the First Gallery, and, behind them, 
 the crowd had gathered and stood looking at this dis- 
 tinguished party with deferential curiosity. Republican 
 politeness had done what the etiquette of a Court would 
 do — stationed one of the masters of ceremony, with his 
 riband of office, to pay special attention to these honored 
 
QF JENNY LIND. 177 
 
 strangers — and it chanced to bring about a pleasant inci- 
 dent. It was from a wish Mr. Webster expressed, acci- 
 dentally overheard by this attendant and conveyed im- 
 mediately to Jenny Lind that she was induced to vary 
 the opera music of the programme, by the introduction 
 of a mountain song of her own Dalecarlia. The au- 
 dience, delighted with the change, were not aware, that, 
 for it, they were indebted to a remark of the great ' sky- 
 clearer,' thus spirited away from the cloud-edge of his 
 lips. 
 
 " We must remind the reader, here, that to the cultiva- 
 tion of the voice, Mr. Webster's delivery shows that he 
 has never paid attention. From other and sufficient ad- 
 vantages, probably, he has never felt the need of it. 
 His ear, consequently, is uneducated to melody ; and, in 
 the rare instances when he has varied his habitual and 
 ponderous cadences by a burst in a higher key, he has 
 surpassed Art with the more sudden impassioning of Na- 
 ture. Though, in reading a speech of Webster's, there 
 are passages where your nostrils spread and your blood 
 fires, you may have heard the same speech delivered, 
 with no impression but the unincumbered profoundness 
 of its truth. To use what may seem like a common- 
 place remark, he is as monotonous as thunder — but it is 
 because thunder has no need to be more varied and mu- 
 sical, that Webster leaves the roll of his bass unplayed 
 upon by the lightning that outstrips it. 
 
 "We were not surprised, therefore, that, to the over- 
 tures and parts of Operas which formed the first two- 
 thirds of the evening's entertainment, Webster was only 
 courteously attentive. He leaned back, with the stately 
 
173 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 repose which marks all his postures and movements, and, 
 conversing between-whiles with his friends on either side, 
 looked on, as he might do at special pleading in a court 
 of Law. It was at the close of one of those tangled 
 skeins of music with which an unpractised brain finds it 
 so difficult to thread the needle of an idea, that he made 
 the remark, overheard by the attendant and taken im- 
 mediately to Jenny Lind : — 'Why doesn't she give us one 
 of the simple .mountain-songs of her own land ?' 
 
 " The mountain-song soon poured forth its loud begin- 
 ning, impatiently claiming sympathy from the barren 
 summits that alone listen where it is supposed to be sung. 
 The voice softened, soothed with its own outpouring — 
 the herdsman's heart wandered and left him singing for- 
 getfully, and then the audience, (as if transformed to an 
 Ariel that ' puts a girdle round the earth,') commenced 
 following the last clear note through the distance. Away 
 it sped, softly and evenly, a liquid arrow through more 
 liquid air, lessening with the sweetness it left behind it, 
 but fleeing leagues in seconds, and with no errand but to 
 go on unaltered till it should die — and, behold ! on the 
 track of it, with the rest of us, was gone the heavy- 
 winge.d intellect of Webster ! We had listened with our 
 eyes upon him. As all know who have observed him, his 
 habitual first mark of interest in a new matter, is a pull 
 he gives to the lobe of his left ear — as if, to the thought- 
 intrenched castle of his brain, there were a portcullis to 
 be lowered at any welcome summons for entrance. The 
 tone sped and lessened, and Webster's broad chest grew 
 erect and expanded. Still on went the entrancing sound, 
 altered by distance only, and changeless in the rapt alti- 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 179 
 
 tude of the cadence — on — far on — as if only upon the 
 bar of the horizon it could faint at last — and forward 
 leaned the aroused statesman, with his hand clasped over 
 the balustrade, his head raised to its fullest lift above his 
 shoulders, and the luminous caverns of his eyes opened 
 wide upon the still lips of the singer. The note died — 
 and those around exchanged glances as the enchantress 
 touched the instrument before her — but Webster sat mo- 
 tionless. The breathless stillness was broken by a tu- 
 mult of applause, and the hand that was over the gal- 
 lery moved up and down upon the cushion with uncon- 
 scious assent, but the spell was yet on him. He slowly 
 leaned back, with his eyes still fixed on the singer, and, 
 suddenly observing that she had turned to him after 
 curtsying to the audience, and was repeating her ac- 
 knowledgments unmistakably to himself, he rose to his 
 feet and bowed to her, with the grace and stateliness of 
 the monarch that he is. It was not much to see, per- 
 haps — neither does the culmination of a planet differ, 
 very distinguishably, from the twinkle of a lamp — but 
 we congratulated Jenny Lind, with our first thought, 
 after it, at what is perhaps her best single triumph on 
 this side the water, the sounding of America's deepest 
 mind with her plummet of enchantment. 
 
 " The ' Echo,' and the ' Pasture Song ' equally de- 
 lighted Mr. Webster, and, after each of them, he passed 
 his broad-spread hand from his brow downwards, (as- 
 sisting his seldom aroused features, as he always does, 
 in their recovery of repose and gravity,) and responded 
 to the enthusiasm of the friends beside him, with the 
 pine-tree nod which, from his deep-rooted approbation, 
 
180 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 means much. Let us add, by the way, (what we heard 
 very directly,) that Mr. Webster, who is peculiar for the 
 instant completeness with which he usually dismisses 
 public amusements from his mind — little entertained by 
 them, and never speaking of them in conversation, when 
 they are over — talked much of Jenny Lind after the 
 concert, remarking very emphatically, among other 
 things, that it was a new revelation to him of the cha- 
 racter and capability of the human voice. The angelic 
 Swede — alone with many memories, as she will be, some 
 day — may remember with pleasure what we have thus 
 recorded. N. P. W." 
 
 The London Times, ever on the look-out to find mat- 
 ter for disparagement of this country, thus discourses on 
 the subject of Jenny Lind's reception in America : — 
 
 " It is the peculiar boast of the modern republic, that 
 the public opinion of her free and enlightened citizens 
 reigns with undisputed and absolute sway. Eschewing 
 the enormous faith of many made for one, she has adopted 
 for herself the creed that the few are made for the many. 
 On every subject, in every township throughout the 
 States, the opinion of the majority is final, conclusive, 
 and indisputable. The majority are everything — the 
 minority nothing. Nor is the supremacy of the many 
 confined to those subjects which may legitimately be 
 termed matters of opinion. There is no right, however 
 sacred, no privilege, however unquestionable, which an 
 individual may not, at any time, in this freest of all the 
 nations of the earth, be called upon to sacrifice at the 
 summons of public opinion." * * * 
 
OP JENNY LIND. 181 
 
 " Any one impressed with these reflections must have 
 perused with a painful interest the accounts which have 
 from time to time appeared in this journal, of the Lindo- 
 mania in New York. It is humiliating to a nation, 
 which boasts that it leads the van of human improve- 
 ment, so little capable of appreciating the relative dig- 
 nity and merit of different talents and employments, as 
 to bow down in prostrate adoration at the feet of a wo- 
 man, who, after all, is merely a first-rate vocalist. Syd- 
 ney Smith reminds the Pennsylvanians that there are 
 some things worth living for besides gin-sling and sherry- 
 cobbler ; and we should have thought, but for our ex- 
 perience to the contrary, that it were needless to have 
 informed the countrymen of Franklin, Washington, and 
 Channing, that there are things more worthy the ad- 
 miration of a great people, than the power of producing 
 sweet sounds." * * * * 
 
 "The inference is a sad one. That which can be 
 done by a private adventurer, may with more ease be 
 accomplished by the leader of a faction. The same arts 
 which make a singer's popularity, may create the politi- 
 cal capital of a President or a Secretary. The deliberate 
 substitution of prejudice for reason and experience, may 
 be applied to measures as well as to music. It is much 
 to be feared that the same reckless system of exaggera- 
 tion, the same intense vulgarity of means and littleness 
 of ends, is to be found in the Senate as in the orchestra. 
 Who cannot see, in the angry and inflated tone of Ame- 
 rican political controversy, and its constant straining 
 after dramatical effect, the career of men to whom the 
 most important measures, the most sacred interests, and 
 16 
 
182 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 the most stirring appeals, are matters of the same indif- 
 ference, as the comfort and quiet of Jenny Lind to Mr. 
 Barnum, when compared to the acquisition of a single 
 cent?" 
 
 " Now — (we ask the members of our profession) — 
 would any writer, so incorrect in his facts, so silly in his 
 inferences, and so very middling in his style and in his 
 moralizings, get employment, at a dollar a week, on any 
 newspaper in America ? Would any paper, that had a 
 reputation to make, venture to publish a ' leader ' so 
 shallow and inconsequential ? 
 
 " We mention such mediocrities, at all, only to vindi- 
 cate our country's appreciation of Jenny Lind from the 
 aspersion above quoted. We put it to our readers — do 
 we see, in the great Songstress, ' a woman who, after 
 all, is merely a first-rate vocalist V Is her ' first-rate 
 vocalism ' what is drawing love to her from every warm 
 heart in the land ? Do we not analyze the character, 
 the qualities, motives, impulses, influences, and moral 
 purity of our object of admiration, while we admire ? 
 Has England any one woman to send over — even 
 Victoria herself — who would receive a tithe of the 
 blessing and honor which Americans pay to Jenny Lind 1 
 Would Grisi (who, most people think, sings better than 
 she,) receive a hundredth part of the welcome and re- 
 ward ? Is it not the unexampled goodness, the courage- 
 ous simplicity and nature, the benevolence, which is so 
 more than queenly that there is no word for it, the large- 
 heartedness in all things, the touching humility and an- 
 gelic loveliness of Jenny Lind — these, and the American 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 183 
 
 appreciation for these — that create the ' Lindomania,' 
 sneered at by the great organ of English prejudice and 
 pomposity ? 
 
 " Ay — let us go on loving Jenny Lind ! Let us pre- 
 serve and deepen our recognition and appreciation of 
 her ! Let us wait till wc see a better woman, before 
 we take her from the shrine where we honor her more 
 and better than England honors her Queen. Let Ame- 
 rica be the country of fresh impressibility, where 
 there is no crust of corruption, for genius or greatness 
 from another land to break through, but where all who 
 come are sure to be received kindly, judged fairly and 
 promptly, and rewarded liberally according to desert. 
 In no country (we thank Heaven that we can truthfully 
 say,) has Jenny Lind, in all her gifts and qualities, been, 
 ever before, so completely recognized, and so thoroughly 
 at home. 
 
 "N. P. W." 
 
PART IV. 
 
 ANECDOTES, APPRECIATIVE CRITICISMS, INCIDENTS, 
 ETC. ETC. ETC. 
 
 Jenny Lind is once more among us — God 
 
 bless her ! — and we wish we had a more deferential me- 
 dium than a paragraph wherewith to announce her 
 movements, for she should scarcely be named but in a 
 blessing or a prayer. Instead of a criticism upon her 
 voice, or her successes, let us record a new act of her 
 angelic benevolence — which she has striven with all her 
 ingenuity to keep secret, but which came to us through 
 a private source, authentically, though by the merest 
 accident — and so prepare, once more, the hearts of hei 
 audience to hear her. During her first visit here, a 
 Swede called, and sent up a note in his native language, 
 requesting to see her. Sh'e did not remember the name, 
 as she read it, but when the young man came in, she at 
 once remembered his countenance — an old playfellow, 
 when they were children together at school. She in- 
 quired his circumstances. He is a cabinet-maker, residing 
 with his wife and children at Brooklyn. The next day 
 Jenny Lind drove over, and made the wife of her old 
 schoolfellow a long visit. Again the next "day, just 
 before leaving the city for Boston, she went again. The 
 16* 185 
 
1S6 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 husband was not at home. She gave, to the wife, a note 
 for him — he opened it on his return — it contained a 
 sweetly worded request that he would allow her to give 
 to his children a memento of their father's school friend- 
 ship with Jenny Lind. The ' memento ' was a check for 
 ten thousand dollars. This anecdote, we assure our rea- 
 ders, is correct in all its particulars. 
 
 " The fashionables say it is impossible to get a visit 
 from Jenny Lind. It reminds us — with the above cir- 
 cumstance — of a proverb we have somewhere seen : — 
 * The rich draw friends to them — the poor draw an- 
 gels.' " — Home Journal. 
 
 The following was made known by Madame Solari, 
 the lady who received the benefaction :— 
 
 " This lady, in a violent effort at some concert, broke 
 a blood-vessel, and was ordered by her physician imme- 
 diately to the South of France, as the only chance for 
 life. Having no reliance but her voice for a livelihood, 
 she was in the greatest despair, when in the midst of 
 her hurried preparations for departure, the carriage of 
 Jenny Lind stopped at her door. ' I have come to quar- 
 rel with you, haughty child,' she said. 'You told me 
 nothing of this, and might have chanced to go away 
 without my seeing you. You will want money. Take 
 this (giving her two notes of £100. each) and remember, 
 wherever you are, that friends have but one purse. God 
 bless you.' 
 
 " Frequently has she been known to pass almost un- 
 noticed from her residence, as if to make a visit, has 
 been traced into the back lanes and cottages of the poor, 
 
OF JENNV LIND. 187 
 
 ascertaining and relieving their wants. Several times, 
 indeed, she has been-warned by her more intimate friends 
 to avoid so much liberality, as that which she has been 
 in the constant habit of exercising, as many received her 
 bounty who were totally unworthy of it ; but she would 
 reply, ' Never mind ; if I relieve ten, and one is worthy, 
 I am satisfied.' 
 
 Catalina's visit from Jenny Lind is thus described : — 
 " A few days before her death, while she was sitting 
 in her saloon, without any presentiment of her approach- 
 ing end, she received a visit from an unknown lady, who 
 declined giving her name to the servant. On being 
 ushered into her presence, the stranger bowed before 
 her with a graceful yet lowly reverence, saying, ' I am 
 come to offer my homage to the most celebrated canta- 
 trice of our time, as well as to the most noble of women ; 
 bless me, madam, I am Jenny Lind !' Madame Catalini, 
 moved even to tears, pressed the Swedish nightingale to 
 her heart. After a prolonged interview they parted, 
 each to pursue her appointed path — the one to close her 
 eyes with unexpected haste, upon earth, with all its 
 shifting hopes and fears — the other to enjoy fresh tri- 
 umphs, the more pure and happy, as they are the fruit 
 not only of her bewitching talent, but also of that ex- 
 cellence which wins for her in every place the heartfelt 
 homage of esteem and love." 
 
 " Immediately after her retirement, innumerable ru- 
 mors were circulated concerning her matrimonial engage- 
 ments. At one time it was a young clergyman — at 
 
188 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 another a nobleman, but it was finally settled that a Mr. 
 Harris, a relative of Mrs. Grote, wife of the eminent 
 banker, was to be the happy man. — This obtained ge- 
 neral belief, from the fact that Jenny Lind had for some 
 time been resident with and partaker of the elegant hos- 
 pitalities of Mr. Grote. On the 15th of May, she ob- 
 tained her passport from the Swedish Minister, and left 
 London. The press were full of conflicting accounts 
 concerning her departure and marriage. One paper 
 affirmed on the best authority, that she had been mar- 
 ried by special license at St. Goorge's ; another kneio 
 that she was married in Birmingham ; another at Mr. 
 Grote's mansion. But no. The Nightingale had flown 
 without a mate. Thus left the scene of her great tri- 
 umps — the greatest artist, and one of the noblest women 
 the world has known, most probably never to return, 
 but certainly never to be forgotten. Jenny Lind arrived 
 at her home at Stockholm shortly after, where she was 
 received as only she could be ; she lived in that retire- 
 ment in which she delights. 
 
 " She is an accomplished needlewoman, and loves 
 nothing better than to pass her mornings in the quiet and 
 natural occupations of her sex ; either in tambour-work- 
 ing or netting, or in some other graceful and tranquil 
 lemployment. Never possibly would you meet or know 
 any one who more thoroughly and wholly partook of all 
 the gentler and more feminine characteristics of the 
 homely woman. This, perhaps, has added more to the 
 effects produced by her splendid and surpassing talents 
 than any of her other qualities. It naturally endeared 
 itself to the English nature, when brought into contrast 
 
OF JENNY L1ND. 189 
 
 ■with the restless and more perverse nature of other pub- 
 lic singers. 
 
 " Saving Sontag, none perhaps have ever borne such 
 a reputation, as a private individual, as that -which has 
 been accorded Jenny, a reputation, too, which has •won 
 her the greater love wherever she has been known. 
 Grisi has had her lovers, and is even now living with 
 the last of them, Mario, while her husband is separated 
 from her. Scandal even touched Pisaroni, who in her 
 day bore the reputation of being the ugliest woman ever 
 seen upon the Italian stage. Nor was Malibran free 
 from the whispers and anecdotes, which destroy a cha- 
 racter for virtue. Indeed, with the exception, as we 
 before said, of Sontag, not a singer has appeared in 
 France or England, and earned a high and striking name 
 by the force of her genius, who has not afforded the 
 public the evil influence of her example. This justified 
 the enthusiasm of the public in favor of Jenny Lind, and 
 given her a name more illustrious, even for her virtues, 
 than for the genius which has made her the greatest of 
 living vocalists." 
 
 JENNY LIND VISITING THE BLIND. 
 
 " This distinguished stranger, yesterday paid a visit of 
 more than ordinary interest to the Asylum for the Blind 
 on Thirty-fourth street. All notice of her intended visit 
 had been carefully kept from the inmates of the institu- 
 tion, none of whom, not even the Superintendent, Mr. 
 Chamberlain, being aware of her purpose till she was 
 presented to him by Mr. John Jay, who, with his family 
 and one or two friends, attended her. This secrecy had 
 
190 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 been observed lest Miss Lind's desire to give the pupils a 
 substantial pleasure, should be frustrated by a crowd of 
 visitors, -whom the knowledge of her purpose would at- 
 tract to the place, and who had other opportunities of 
 hearing her sing to better advantage. 
 
 "The party arrived at the Asylum about half-past 
 twelve, and upon her expressing a willingness to sing to 
 the pupils a few of her songs, Mr. Chamberlain directed 
 the bell to be rung. In about five minutes the party was 
 asked into the chapel, where we found the school assem- 
 bled, all ignorant as yet of the purpose of this unusual 
 summons. There were about one hundred and thirty of 
 these unfortunates, whose eyes 
 
 ' Bereft of light, their seeing had forgot,' 
 
 and who strove in vain to gratify the intense curiosity 
 under which their restlessness and intent expressions 
 showed they were laboring. 
 
 "When Mr. Chamberlain announced to them the gene- 
 rous compliment, which Miss Lind was about paying them, 
 there was a general expression of surprise and delight. 
 Her fame had obviously preceded her into this abode of 
 darkness, and every one of its stricken inmates seemed 
 to appreciate the privilege that was in store for them, 
 and the wide distinction of her to whom they owed it. 
 
 " After laying aside her hat and gloves, Miss Lind 
 then proceeded to the piano, and commenced one of her 
 most choice melodies, the name of which does not occur 
 to us. At first, all other emotions among the pupils 
 seemed to be swallowed up in surprise, from which they 
 did not recover fully even in the second piece. They 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 191 
 
 seemed to be painfully intent upon every note that fell 
 from her lips, betraying in the play of their features and 
 changes of color, their susceptibility to the variable effects 
 of the music. 
 
 " The third piece she sang was the Song of the Bird- 
 ling. By this time, the pupils began to realize what had 
 happened, and to understand that the famous Jenny Lind 
 had come and was actually singing to them. They now 
 gave themselves up wholly to the pleasure of the music, 
 and when they listened to the vocal feats which have 
 made the Bird Song so popular, they seemed worried 
 that they had no way of adequately expressing their de- 
 light. They could hot exchange with each other looks- 
 of admiration, and they had never learned how other 
 audiences are accustomed ' to wreak their feelings upon 
 expression 7 in the concert room. It was curious to 
 watch the smile of pleasure creep over their faces, and 
 give place betimes to. a stern or sad expression, according 
 to their relative susceptibilities, all strongly contrasted 
 with the comparatively passive features of those who have 
 all their senses perfect to share the labor of observation 
 and the pleasure of enjoyment. When Miss Lind arose 
 from the piano, the pupils no longer attempted to restrain 
 their expressions of delight, but spoke to each other 
 about her singing with as much enthusiasm as if they had 
 just awakened to the pleasures of a new sense. 
 
 " We then were invited to walk through the institu- 
 tion, and it was gratifying to perceive that, though our 
 visit had not been anticipated, the most perfect neatness 
 and order seemed to pervade the establishment. The 
 pupils thronged about Miss Lind wherever she moved 
 
192 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 and were perfectly happy when she took them, as she 
 did a great many, by the hand and addressed them. All 
 who were presented to her, testified, in their quaint and 
 artless ways, the deepest sensibility and gratitude for her 
 attention. One little girl, of about sixteen, to whom 
 our eyes had been attracted during the singing, by her 
 absorbed and delighted expression of countenance, and 
 by a particularly small pair of hands, which she held 
 quietly in her lap, urged her way modestly through the 
 crowd of her companions, and said, jokingly, that she 
 wanted to see Jenny Lind. Miss Lind took hold of her 
 delicate little hand, and said, 'Poor thing, I wish you 
 could see the sky.' — ' Oh ? ' said the girl, promptly, ' I 
 shall see that in heaven, and I shall see you there, too" 
 — 'But, ' said Miss Lind, ' you may have a much higher 
 place there than I.' The ready response, though con- 
 fused and rather inarticulate, of the little girl, imported 
 that none but angels would occupy higher seats in hea- 
 ven than Miss Lind. To another pupil who approached, 
 she said, placing her hands upon her shoulders, 'Are 
 you entirely blind ?' — ' Yes ' was the reply. ' Cannot 
 you see at all ? — cannot you see me ?' — ' No,' said the 
 girl ; ' but hearing is the greater blessing now.' 
 
 " In reply to some inquiries about musical culture in 
 the institution, Mr. Chamberlain informed us that vocal 
 and instrumental music were taught quite extensively. 
 The piano and the organ, and a variety of wind instru- 
 ments, were used by the pupils of one or both sexes, a 
 fine band had been organized, and a number of the gradu- 
 ates were employed as organists in churches. He then 
 invited two of the young ladies to perform on the piano 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 193 
 
 and to sing. No young debutante was ever more delighted 
 at receiving an invitation to sing in the presence of roy- 
 alty, than were these poor things at the opportunity of 
 performing before Jenny Lind, and it is but just to them 
 to say, that their execution was very creditable. 
 
 " The pleasure which her visit had conferred upon the 
 school was so great, that Miss Lind intimated a dispo- 
 sition to visit them again if she could possibly find the 
 time. She left about two o'clock, having given in the 
 course of a single hour, to these stricken sufferers, as 
 Mr. Chamberlain very gracefully remarked to them at 
 the close of the singing, ' a gratification, the like of 
 which they had never enjoyed before and in all probabi- 
 lity would never enjoy again.' 
 
 " We have seen Miss Lind on many occasions, when 
 she was receiving the rapturous applause of thousands, 
 but we never saw her appear to such advantage as when 
 she stood the cynosure of this throng of blind children, 
 upon whom she was dispensing with infinite grace, her 
 tenderness and sympathy." — N. Y. Evening Post. 
 
 One of the most eloquent and admired clergymen of our 
 country, Rev. Mr. Peabody of Boston, thus records his 
 impressions of Jenny Lind, in the Christian Register: — 
 
 " We had the great gratification of attending the first 
 concert of Jenny Lind, and without professing to be mu- 
 sical critics, and without encroaching on the poetical, 
 metaphorical, and enthusiastic phrases which seem in 
 danger of being exhausted and worn out by her ad- 
 mirers, we feel impelled, like Our neighbors, to describe 
 the impression made upon us. 
 17 
 
194 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 "In many respects, it was certainly different from 
 what we had anticipated. The accessories of the concert 
 were unfortunate. The Tremont Temple is entirely un- 
 suited to musical entertainments. There is so little re- 
 bound to the voice, that it seems as if the walls must be 
 lined with cotton ; while under the deep, low galleries, 
 its finer tones are lost. In addition to this, the orchestra 
 was of an inferior description. It played out of time 
 and out of tune. The admirable leadership of Benedict, 
 and the remarkable singing of Belletti, were not suffi- 
 cient to overcome these difficulties. It shows Jenny 
 Lind's power, that she overcame them triumphantly. 
 
 " What we did not expect, she owes very much to her 
 personal appearance. Whatever she may be by day, 
 under the blaze of gas-light, she gives the impression of 
 possessing, not beauty perhaps, but a singular, and most 
 winning loveliness both of features and manner. It is 
 hard to describe her. She looked as if she had just 
 stepped down out of a poem. Our readers may have 
 seen some young girl whose approach seemed always to 
 awaken pleasant and kindly feelings in the whole circle 
 around her — all fretted and gloomy fancies vanishing 
 away from before her, as if she were a happy presence — 
 a sudden sunshine, — breaking into the room. Jenny 
 Lind has', beyond almost any one that we ever saw, a 
 countenance which possesses this indefinable charm. 
 She had not been on the stage five minutes, before the 
 audience were converted into her personal friends — not 
 admirers so much as friends. Every one was prepared 
 to be pleased with any thing she did. Had she broken 
 down a dozen times, no one would have believed it, but 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 195 
 
 would have thought her failure more charming than the 
 success of any one else. How it was, we know not, but 
 while she was on the stage, the idea of a concert-room 
 and its exhibitions and its artistic accompaniments, va- 
 nished, while there stood before us, in the midst of friends, 
 a young person of most natural, frank, graceful, simple 
 manners, and a countenance luminous with sunshiny, 
 womanly, affectionate thoughts and emotions. We are 
 confident that to this, and to her character, of which 
 her appearance seems to be the natural expression, she 
 owes more than is sometimes thought. 
 
 " But the singing was undoubtedly remarkable. It 
 seemed to us the union of perfect art and perfect nature — 
 both so perfect that it became a kind of glorified nature. 
 In the case of the great singers whom we have heard, 
 they have always appeared to be artists. The art was 
 the prominent thing. In this case we forgot art, we lost 
 all idea of criticism, and leaned back and abandoned our- 
 selves to the enjoyment. It was a very charming young- 
 woman singing most exquisitely, so exquisitely that it 
 never occurred to the hearer but that it was as easy and 
 as natural as a bird's song, or the music of a child in the 
 Sabbath twilight of a summer evening. In most cases 
 the music is everything and the woman nothing ; in this 
 case the woman was more than the music. It was a 
 beautiful, happy-hearted girl, full of unconscious genius, 
 singing without pretension or effort, as if it were from a 
 joyous love of singing. After the concert you think 
 more of Jenny Lind than of her song. You feel that her 
 music is only a small part of herself. 
 
 " The remarkable peculiarities of her singing, to us, 
 
196 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 were the equal excellence of her voice on the highest 
 and lowest notes ; its wonderful flexibility and power, 
 enabling her to sing, without apparently the least exer- 
 tion, the most difficult passages , and the absolute cer- 
 tainty and completeness which characterized every note. 
 Nothing was left unfinished, there was no failure, and all 
 was done with such ease, as to leave behind the feeling 
 of delight which follows any thing which is perfect of 
 its kind. 
 
 " The impression she makes depends we think, not on 
 any single excellence, but on the harmony and unity of 
 voice, manner, look, joined to the most perfect culture. 
 We think it a memorable occasion to have listened to 
 her. ' A thing of beauty is a joy forever.' We fear 
 that we shall not for some time listen with pleasure to 
 ordinary singing. We never expect to see again in pub- 
 lic, one who unites such remarkable qualities both as an 
 artist and a woman. 
 
 "Why she pleases, it is hard to tell. She interests 
 people much in the same way as a flower or a tree. No 
 one can tell why it is beautiful, but every one feels it to 
 be consummately so. So with Jenny Lind's looks and 
 singing ; — different persons would describe her different- 
 ly, but all alike feel that she is gifted in some way with 
 a winning and irresistible charm, which attracts alike, 
 young and old, the uncultivated and cultivated. No one 
 will doubt her wonderful endowments, except those who 
 attempt to analyze them ; and then only, as one doubts 
 the beauty of a flower after it is torn into fragments." 
 
 One other anecdote which we have heard of her is so 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 197 
 
 pleasing and contrasts so favorably with that which we 
 know of other vocalists that we cannot refrain from giv- 
 ing it to our readers. We believe it occurred at Lin- 
 coln. Possibly we may be mistaken in the locality but 
 we are not in the incident. One morning — as we believe, 
 the morning previous to her concert — Jenny Lind was 
 taking a ramble in the neighborhood of that city. She 
 had prolonged her walk somewhat beyond its usual 
 length, and entered the cottage of a poor laborer, to 
 ask permission to rest there. It was cheerfully accorded 
 by the wife, who ere much time had elapsed was in a 
 flood of gossip with her temporary guest. She detailed 
 to her all her difficulties and all her troubles, and inte- 
 rested her visitor warmly in the thousand miseries of her 
 .local menage. The good woman then began to talk 
 about Jenny, in total ignorance that she was addressing 
 the songstress herself. She told her many things apocry- 
 phal, and otherwise, which she had heard of her gene- 
 rosity, and amused her by the comments which she 
 made upon them. Jenny Lind, who was meanwhile 
 nursing her youngest child, asked her whether she would 
 like to hear her attempt to sing one of Jenny's best airs. 
 The good woman replied that she should be delighted, 
 as she could then jndge something of the manner in 
 which Jenny herself would sing it. The stranger ac- 
 cordingly sang one of her own charming and delicious 
 Swedish ballads to the delighted cottager, who was loud 
 in her pleasure for a gratification it is much to be doubt- 
 ed whether any but Jenny Lind's most intimate friends 
 ever before had. " And now," said the stranger, rising, 
 " tell any one who asks you, that you have heard Jenny 
 17* 
 
198 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 Lind." At the same time she placed something in the 
 hands of the poor woman. 
 
 Such was her astonishment and delight, however, that 
 she burst out in thanks for the unexpected pleasure, for- 
 getting even to look at what the lady had given her. 
 She scarcely knew what she said or did. Meanwhile 
 Jenny had kissed the child she had been nursing, and 
 escaped from the cottage. And what was the astonish- 
 ment of the poor cottager, on finding that she had placed 
 five sovereigns in her hand. She ran to the door of her 
 humble dwelling to repeat her thanks a thousand-fold. 
 But her visiter was already out of sight, and she was 
 left with the memory of the Swedish ballad and the 
 money — it may be doubted whether the last, however, 
 were not the most acceptable gift to her poverty — to 
 bless the name of the kind-hearted stranger who had " 
 listened to the history of her little woes with so much 
 patience and bribed her by her song to a brief forgetful- 
 ness of them. 
 
 In Dr. Cumming's Apocalyptic Sketches — not a very 
 likely book, one would think, to supply us with theatri- 
 cal anecdotes — there is a story of Jenny Lind, which 
 may be cited in connection with this matter : — " A sing- 
 er, whose performances have recently made a very great 
 impression on the public mind, and whose personal pu- 
 rity and worth are equal to her artistic talents, made a 
 remark to a friend of mine, who told me of it. ' It is 
 not me they admire, but my voice; and that cannot 
 make me happy, though it gives them delight.' We 
 do not believe the case really to be as it is stated by 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 199 
 
 Jenny Lind ; for no artist has ever attracted so much 
 personal interest towards herself, irrespectively of the 
 art of which she is so wonderful an exponent ; but the 
 anecdote is worth quoting as an illustration of the un- 
 satisfying nature of that artistic success, which simply 
 raises admiration of the thing done, and excites no inte- 
 rest in the doer." 
 
 THE RUSSIAN, THE PICKPOCKET, AND JENNY LIND. 
 
 A young and wealthy Russian officer was sent over 
 here in May, 1847, on an affair of much importance ; a 
 few days only were allowed him to transact the busi- 
 ness. It was the eve of that musical insanity, the debut 
 of Jenny Lind. Our Russian shared the anxiety of the 
 million to be present ; , but, on applying tor a ticket, he 
 found they had been all sold. He tried the music shops, 
 &c, but without success. He offered £20 for a stall, 
 to no purpose. This was desperate, he was to leave 
 London the next day, therefore the offer of procuring a 
 stall for Jenny Lind's second appearance was useless to 
 him. The stranger was no common-place person ; he 
 resolved, coute qui coute, to try every possible means to 
 gain his object, and accordingly, went early and sta- 
 tioned himself at the principal entrance to her Majesty's 
 Theatre. Here he addressed several who were waiting 
 for the opening of the doors, and offered a handsome 
 sum for the relinquishment of their admission in his favor, 
 but all were inflexible. Money was no object ; no Rus- 
 sian gold could have atoned to them for the loss of the 
 Swedish Nightingale's rich notes, and our friend had 
 almost begun to despair, when, all at once, he felt an 
 
200 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 attempt at his pocket. He quickly put his hand behind 
 him, in time to catch hold of the thief, who had fully- 
 succeeded in extricating his note-case, as it was actually 
 in his possession. Our friend, who was a muscular young 
 man, immediately seized the delinquent by the collar, 
 and being a tolerably good English scholar, signified 
 his intention of delivering him over to the police. The 
 poor wretch pleaded extreme poverty, but this would 
 not do ; a wife on a bed of sickness, but this was equally 
 unsuccessful ; at the details of three starving children 
 (the traveler was a young father) the pickpocket com- 
 pletely succeeded in molifying his captor.- "Well," said 
 he, " I forgive you, but only on one condition ; as you 
 are so expert in the extraction of property, you must im- 
 mediately procure for me one of these gentlemen's pock- 
 et-books ; if it should contain an admission for the opera 
 to-night, I will allow you to depart unmolested, with 
 the addition, perhaps, of a trifle for your wife and chil- 
 dren ; but mind I shall have my eye upon you, and at 
 the least appearance of your attempting to escape me, I 
 shall give you in charge of the police." The man cheer- 
 fully undertook the commission ; and in a few minutes 
 our Russian friend was in possession of a handsome 
 pocket-book containing the much-craved for stall-ticket. 
 Admonishing the light-fingered gentleman to be more 
 honest in future, and presenting him with a handsome 
 gratuity for his wife and family, he very soon lost sight 
 of his professional friend in the opening rush into the 
 
 theatre. The next morning Mr. , a respectable old 
 
 merchant, retired from business, was at breakfast, and 
 was describing to a friend his disappointment the night 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 201 
 
 before in not hearing Jenny Line], in consequence of his 
 having been robbed of his pocket-book at the entrance 
 to her Majesty's Theatre, -when the servant brought in a 
 small parcel accompanied by a note. On opening the 
 parcel, what was Mr. 's astonishment when he dis- 
 covered the stolen pocket-book exactly in the same state 
 as when he lost it, except that, in place of the single- 
 stall admission, it now contained a ticket for a box on 
 the grand tier for the next night of Jenny Lind's per- 
 formance. The note contained the following words : — 
 " Sir, — Pray accept the enclosed box-ticket as a small 
 atonement for your disappointment yesterday evening. 
 Having offered the sum of twenty pounds unsuccessfully 
 for a stall, I enclose you that sum for the use of yours. 
 Hoping you will enjoy the treat of which I so unce- 
 remoniously deprived you, believe me, dear Sir, your 
 very obliged, Fanatico." The note contained a cheque 
 for twenty pounds. — Musical World. 
 
 The British papers, some of them, amuse themselves 
 very much with the accounts, (greatly exaggerated as 
 they often are,) sent out from this side of the water, and 
 pretending to describe the manifestations of our people 
 towards Jenny Lind. But the laugh is not all on their 
 side, by any means. In a recent London print we find 
 the following anecdote of Jenny, while she was residing 
 in that metropolis : — 
 
 " Being on one occasion slightly indisposed, it was 
 proposed that she should try the water cure, and the 
 hydropathic establisment, Sudbrook-park, near Rich- 
 mond was the place suggested. This got wind in cer- 
 
202 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 tain quarters, and in a day or two the directors were as- 
 tonished to receive from numbers of individuals of rank 
 and wealth, proposals to enter the establishment imme- 
 diately. Some were affected with premonitory symptoms 
 of rheumatism, and all thought a week or two's water 
 treatment would be peculiarly efficacious in their cases, 
 especially when united with pure air and cheerful society, 
 and they requested to know if all the patients did not 
 meet at the same table. 
 
 " The director was delighted, and foresaw a large ac- 
 cession of those watery enthusiastics who never cease 
 declaiming on the tranquil delights of the wet sheet, and 
 the boisterous exhilaration of the douche bath. But, alas ! 
 some trifling circumstance altered Jenny's plans, and the 
 visit to Sudbrook was abandoned. More extraordinary 
 cures than hydropathy ever performed, took place imme- 
 diately. Rheumatisms fled with the rapidity of a charm, 
 and the only nervousness exhibited by the ladies was lest 
 they should be taken at their words, and subject to hy- 
 dropathic discipline." 
 
 At Bremen, it appears, after a performance, she be- 
 came aware of an intention on the part of the crowd to 
 draw her in her carriage. 
 
 As she desired to avoid the annoyance, she requested 
 the manager, who was a corpulent unwieldly bulk of 
 humanity, to precede her in her own carriage, which was 
 in waiting, while she would slip off in some private con- 
 veyance. Jenny's carriage had scarcely moved, when it 
 was invested by a band of students, who, in spite of the 
 remonstrances of the driver, unhitched the horses, and 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 203 
 
 attaching themselves to the vehicle, dragged it along 
 with shouts of triumph. 
 
 The complaisant big gentleman in the inside, believed 
 this demonstration to be intended as a compliment to 
 himself, for having secured the services of Miss Lind. 
 While congratulating himself on this evidence of his im- 
 mense popularity, the carriage drew up before the hotel, 
 and the manager descended, bowing and smiling under 
 a profuse shower of elegant bouquets, which rained upon 
 him from all directions. When the bloods discovered 
 that, instead of the aerial form of Miss Lind, they had 
 been hauling three hundred and fifty pounds of solid 
 masculine flesh, through the muddy streets, their rage 
 knew no bounds. Their shouts of admiration turned to 
 yells of revenge. They rushed upon the oily gentleman 
 to mob him, but he succeeded in toddling into the ho- 
 tel, nearly dead with fright, just in time to save his 
 bacon. 
 
 JENNV LIND AT THE SWEDES' CHUB.CH IN PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 • A sensation of no ordinary character was created 
 in Southwark yesterday, by the visit of Md'lle. Jenny 
 Lind to the Protestant Episcopal Church of Gloria 
 Dei, in Swanson-street, below Christian, better known 
 as the " Old Swedes' Church." The congregation in 
 attendance was very large, and the crowd in the vicinity 
 of the church also large. An excellent discourse was 
 delivered by the pastor, Rev. J. C. Clay, from the text, 
 " What shall I do to inherit eternal life ?"— and the 
 choir was full and effective. At the close of the ser- 
 vices, Md'lle. Lind received the greetings of numerous 
 
204 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 descendants of the pioneer emigrants from her own na- 
 tive land, who settled upon the banks of the Delaware, 
 on the hunting-grounds of the Weccacoes, and were the 
 original founders of the time-honored edifice, within 
 the sacred walls of which she had been permitted to 
 worship. Md'lle. Lind responded to the congratulations 
 and welcome she received in an expressive and silent 
 manner. The associations of the place, and the warmth 
 of her reception, affected her to tears. She expressed 
 her most heartfelt gratification at her visit. — Phil. JV. 
 American. 
 
 " Apropos to the Lind lunacy," writes the London ■ 
 Correspondent of the Liverpool Albion, "it is said that 
 Carlyle is about to bring out a Latter Day Pamphlet, 
 on it, as he regards it as the crowning proof of the fatu- 
 ous cant and quackeries he has been denouncing, unex- 
 ampled since the day the Roman monarch gave his horse 
 gilt oats, and made him secretary of state, and portend- 
 ing a swift return to the universal abasement which pre- 
 ceded the degeneracy of the Lower Empire. However, 
 it is quite a lark to see what a vulture the Stockholm 
 goldfinch is proving to the English warbler. As long 
 as her name is on the wing, there's no use in any other 
 bird uttering a note, for such notes will produce no cash, 
 and well they know it. London is as destitute of vocal 
 music at the present time as if a general quinsy had per- 
 manently made the acquaintance of the whole English 
 operatic corps, if any of that awkward squad be still 
 alive, which is a matter no one seems to care a farthing 
 about, though some delirious individuals appear to be- 
 
OP JENNY LIND. 205 
 
 lieve that the public are very much concerned therein 
 indeed." 
 
 The artists of Stockholm have just completed a medal 
 in honor of their great countrywoman, Jenny Lind. 
 
 " It is now about eight weeks since Jenny Lind ar- 
 rived in this country. During that time she has given 
 concerts which have produced nearly $200,000, and 
 contributed to various benevolent objects about $18,255, 
 viz. : — to New York Societies, $10,000 ; to Boston do., 
 $7,255 ; to the Chicago Swedish Church, $1000. What 
 may have been the amount of her private charities, we 
 have no means of knowing, but doubtless it is consider- 
 able." — Noah's Messenger. 
 
 [A Boston clergyman, on the Sunday before Jenny 
 Lind's departure, thus glorified her in his sermon : — J 
 
 " Why is it that everybody loves that singing lady, 
 now giving concerts in our city ? Not on account of 
 the matchless skill of her performances — not because of 
 the bird-like sweetness of her tones, but because, like 
 the Saviour of the world, she goes about doing good ; 
 because, by her many acts of disinterested benevolence, 
 she shows that she loves everybody." 
 
 The London correspondent of the Herald tells a story 
 of the independence of the Swedish singer. It seems 
 that it was known that she was to pass through a Ger- 
 man town, and a couple of amusement mongers hired 
 18 
 
206 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 the only public hall there, and fitted it up in anticipa- 
 tion of engaging the Swedish Nightingale for a concert. 
 They even went so far as to sell several hundred tickets, 
 at exorbitant prices, for the concert in embryo. As 
 soon as Jenny arrived, this pair of speculators called on 
 her, and inquired what they should pay for her services 
 one night at a concert : 
 
 " I do not wish to sing for you," replied Jenny Lind. 
 
 " But we will pay you liberally for your services." 
 
 " I do not wish to sing for you," replied the renowned 
 cantatrice. 
 
 "We have already engaged and fitted up a hall, and 
 sold tickets at high prices, and we will pay you three 
 thousand dollars to sing for us one night." 
 
 " I cannot sing for you." 
 
 " Name your own price — and we will give it." 
 
 " I will not sing for you," was the inexorable reply 
 of Jenny. 
 
 The gentlemen could scarcely conceal their indigna- 
 tion, as they remarked : 
 
 " This decision of yours almost ruins us. We have 
 expended $700 in decorating the hall, and making ar- 
 rangements for a concert, at which we had no doubt 
 you would sing." 
 
 Jenny Lind immediately counted out $700 and placed 
 it in their hands, at the same time expressing the hope 
 that they were satisfied, "inasmuch," she added, "as 
 your arrangements have been made without my know- 
 ledge or consent." 
 
 The managers expressed themselves satisfied and 
 withdrew. 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 207 
 
 The next day Jenny Lind announced a concert for 
 the benefit of the poor in that town. The receipts 
 amounted to several thousand dollars, every farthing of 
 •which was devoted to charity. 
 
 JUST LIKE HER. 
 
 On learning that some of the members of her New 
 York orchestra were in indigent circumstances, Jenny 
 generously made them a substantial donation. 
 
 THE WRONG BOX. 
 
 A good story is told of a party of students who gave 
 a serenade, as they supposed, to Jenny, at Berlin. It was 
 shortly after the production of Norma, when the furor 
 run high, and the fair songstress was the idol of the 
 hour. The students attached to this university, had 
 participated in the enthusiasm excited by the young 
 songstress. They determined upon serenading her, and, 
 on the night selected for the purpose, repaired to her 
 hotel, about eleven o'clock, or perhaps somewhat later. 
 After performing a serenade in their most approved man- 
 ner, the students separated with three hearty cheers, 
 which thundered along the neighboring streets, more 
 than four hundred of these young men and boys having 
 been present. Their efforts, however, had been totally 
 wasted, as regarded the fair singer, she having, but the 
 day before, moved to a little residence beyond the Thier- 
 garten ; and, at the same time, was probably sleeping 
 off the fatigue produced by her performance, or, at any 
 rate, sleeping in perfect ignorance of the enthusiasm 
 shown by her youthful admirers. 
 
208 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 CHARACTERISTIC. 
 
 A pretty incident occurred a few evenings since, 
 which it gives us peculiar delight to chronicle, because 
 it shows the kind-heartedness of Jenny Lind. A poor 
 Swedish girl, a domestic in a family, resident in Rox- 
 bury, was induced to call on her far-famed country- 
 woman, for sake of lang-syne. Jenny received her with 
 the utmost kindness, and detained her several hours, 
 talking about " home," and other matters, and in the 
 evening took her in her carriage to the concert, gave her 
 a seat, and sent her back to Roxbury in a carriage at 
 the close of the performances. 
 
 ENTHUSIASM. 
 
 A young lady, at the first concert given by Jenny 
 Lind in Boston, was so carried away by Jenny's singing 
 of " I know that my Redeemer liveth," that she is re- 
 ported to have exclaimed in a burst of enthusiasm, " O, 
 I would be her waiting-maid, if I could only be always 
 near her '." 
 
 The following are the three songs, in which Jenny 
 Lind has been most effective : — 
 
 THE BIRD'S SONG. 
 
 Birdling ! why sing in the forest wide ? 
 
 Say why ! say why ! 
 Call'st thou the Bridegroom or the Bride ? 
 
 And why ? and why ? 
 " I call no Bridegroom — call no Bride, 
 Although I sing in forest wide, 
 
 Nor know I why I'm singing." 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 20i) 
 
 Birdling 1 Why is thy heart so blest ? 
 
 O say ! say ! 
 Music overflowing from this breast ! 
 
 say ! say ! 
 " My heart is full, and yet is light, 
 My heart is glad in day or night, 
 
 Nor know I why I'm singing." 
 
 Birdling ! Why sine you all the day? 
 
 O tell ! tell ! 
 Do any listen to thy lay ? 
 
 O tell ! O tell ! 
 " I care not what my song maybe, 
 Now this, now that, I warble free, 
 
 Nor know, yet must be singing." 
 
 THE PASTURE SONG. 
 
 Come hither, come hither, my pretty herd ! 
 
 Hu ah ! hu ah ! hu ah ! hu ah ! hu ah I 
 
 Come bull and cow and weanling brood, 
 
 And hasten to taste of the evening food, 
 
 For night with her shade creeps darkening onj 
 
 Ring shrilly horn on the mountain round, 
 
 And follow my cattle the welcome sound ; 
 
 Hu ah ! hu ah ! hu ah ! 
 
 To grateful abundance my flock now speed ye. 
 
 Long beside where hearth fires burn 
 
 My love has waited my return ; 
 
 Soon I clasp the treasure, 
 
 In ecstasy of pleasure 
 
 Paradised upon her arm, 
 
 No care can grieve, no ill can harm. 
 
 Come hither, come hither, &c. 
 
 Soon the simple bread I eat, 
 And of the sober cup partake, 
 
 18* 
 
210 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 That hath greater flavor, 
 Than a court's affected savor ; 
 I have learnt where'er I roam, 
 No joys exist to equal home. 
 
 Come hither, come hither, &c. 
 
 THE HERDMAN'S MOUNTAIN SONG. 
 
 Here the misty mountain 
 
 Hearkens to my evening song ; 
 Barren misty mountain 
 
 Hearkens to my evening song ; 
 Toward the peaceful valley, 
 Happy spot ! I gaze and long. 
 Onward flies my view, 
 Toward the distant bluej 
 Fraught with hopeful prayer 
 That she dwell beneath heaven's care. 
 
 THE JENNY LIND METEOK. 
 
 We stated in our last budget of items concerning 
 Jenny's movements, that, in company with Professor 
 Everett, she, after spending a pleasant evening, visited 
 the observatory of the University, at Cambridge, and 
 took a survey of the starry heavens through the large 
 telescope. The Transcript relates this incident of the 
 visit : — 
 
 " Saturn had not yet risen, and Jenny retired from the 
 telescope waiting for his advent with his ring. At last 
 he was announced as having risen, and Mademoiselle 
 Lind again took her stand by the telescope. Scarcely 
 was she looking through it than a brilliant meteor rushed 
 across the face of the heavens, exactly opposite the end 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 211 
 
 of the telescope. It passed with singular rapidity and 
 left visible its track in the atmosphere long after it had 
 passed. The appearance was immediately noted down 
 by the Custodian of the Observatory, this having been 
 by far the brightest meteor which had been visible there 
 for eight or nine years. Possibly it may be taken as an 
 omen of the singular and extraordinary reputation as a 
 vocalist, which is to attend the great singer on her pro- 
 gress through this country." — JV*. Y. Express. 
 
 Prof. Bond, in a communication published in the Bos- 
 ton Traveller, concerning the great meteor of Sept. 30th, 
 says that his attention was called to this phenomenon 
 by Miss Jenny Lind, who happening at the time of its 
 first appearance to be looking at the planet Saturn 
 through the great Equatorial Telescope, nearly in the 
 direction of the meteor's path, was startled by a sudden 
 flash of light, no doubt much concentrated by the pow- 
 er of the glass. Probably not more than a second of 
 time intervened before the meteor exploded. From ob- 
 servations made upon it, it is ascertained that the vertical 
 height of this meteor above the surface of the earth was 
 about fifty miles, and its distance from Cambridge one 
 hundred miles in a northeasterly direction. 
 
 JENNY LIND. 
 
 Boston, Tuesday, Oct. 1. 
 At four o'clock to-day Md'Jle. Lind was waited upon 
 at the Revere House by Gov. Briggs, Lieut. Gov. Reed, 
 and the Executive Council of the State of Massachu- 
 setts. She entered into a long and animated conversa- 
 tion with these gentlemen, principally on the subject of 
 
212 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 Education, and remarked that man's happiness here and 
 hereafter depended upon the acquisition of a sound moral 
 and religious training, and that, holding these opinions, 
 she considered it her duty to contribute all in her humble 
 power to furnishing the means of acquiring these bless- 
 ings, more particularly to those of her country people 
 who were unable to impart them to their offspring. — 
 Boston Paper. 
 
 A correspondent of the Philadelphia Bulletin writes 
 that caricatures on American subjects abound in Paris. 
 One of them represents a smooth-faced, portly citizen 
 of Philadelphia, easily to be recognized by his broad 
 brimmed, low crowned hat, and the straight collar of his 
 coat. He is followed by several negroes, each labelled 
 "$1,000." He is a Friend going to the theatre where 
 Jenny Lind is to sing, and taking money enough to buy 
 a box ticket. A second picture represents a man mount- 
 ed on a bench, and gesturing and crying like an auc- 
 tioneer. " Buy, ladies and gentlemen ! going at half 
 price, for almost nothing. Two lots, one is solid as a 
 rock, the other as good as bread. Buy, buy !" Saying 
 this, he touches with his hammer a placard on the front 
 of a house, and, with his hand, the head of a woman 
 kneeling at his feet, with a rope around her neck and 
 wisp of straw in her hand. It is an American, who 
 wishes to sell his store and wife to be able to buy a 
 ticket for one of Jenny Lind's concerts. A third, paints 
 a vast number of young and old men, women, respectable 
 fathers, and mothers of families, and grave judges, all 
 kneeling and extending their clasped hands. Yet they 
 
OP JENNV LIND. 213 
 
 are not in a chapel of the Holy Virgin, nor even before 
 the miraculous portrait at Rimini during one of its fits 
 of eye rolling, but in one of the concerts of Miss Jenny. 
 In another, we see the notes from the throat of the fair 
 songstress dancing and curling upwards like wreaths of 
 smoke in the air. A crowd of Americans are rushing to 
 seize them, with the laudable desire of bottling them up 
 for the admiration of future generations — in the struggle 
 they jostle and knock each other down and tumble to- 
 gether in rare confusion. But one gets a sol and another 
 a fa. Another, for their name is legion, makes the 
 honorable members of Congress turn themselves into 
 horses, for the purpose of forming a team worthy to 
 draw the carriage of the Swedish Nightingale. 
 
 Henry Tuckerman, one of our most refined gentlemen, 
 and sweetest poets, writes thus : — 
 
 TO JENNY LIND. 
 
 A melody with Southern passion fraught 
 
 I hear thee warble : 'tis as if a bird 
 By intuition human strains had caught, 
 
 But whose pure breast no kindred feeling stirred. 
 Thy native Bong the hushed arena tills, 
 
 So wildly plaintive, that I seem to stand 
 Alone, and see, from off the circling hills, 
 
 The bright horizon of the North expand ! 
 High art is thus intact; and matchless skill 
 
 Born of intelligence and self-control, — 
 The graduated tone and perfect trill 
 
 Prove a restrained, but not a frigid soul ; 
 Thine finds expression in such generous deeds, 
 That music from thy lips for human sorrow pleads ! 
 
 H. T. T. 
 
214 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 THE SWEDISH SONGSTRESS AND HER CHARITIES. 
 
 BY MKS. L. H. SIGOURNEY. 
 
 Blest must their vocation be 
 Who with tones of melody, 
 Charm the discord and the strife 
 And the railroad rush of life, 
 And with Orphean magic move 
 Souls inert to life and love. 
 But there's one who doth inherit 
 Angel-gifts and angel-spirit — 
 Bidding tides of gladness flow 
 Through the realms of want and woe, 
 'Mid lone age and misery's lot — 
 Kindling pleasures long forgot, 
 Seeking minds oppressed with night, 
 And on darkness shedding light : 
 She, the seraph's speech doth know, 
 She hath done their deeds below, 
 So, when o'er this misty strand 
 She shall clasp their waiting hand, 
 They will fold her to their, breast, 
 More a sister, than a guest. 
 
 A LEAF FROM JENNY LIND'S LOG-BOOK. 
 
 For the Allion. 
 
 THE DEPARTURE— CAPE CLEAR. 
 Slowly and softly fades the evening light, 
 
 And Erin's hills are sinking from the view ; 
 To all my heart holds dear, good night, good night ! 
 
 Old World, I breathe to thee a fond adieu. 
 
 A CALM NIGHT— ON DECK. 
 Now o'er the broad Atlantic sweeping, 
 
 We merrily, merrily bound along ; 
 Our hearts and eyes are vigil keeping, 
 
 Inspired by music, dance, and aong. 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 215 
 
 Whilst Luna's lamp on high is burning, 
 
 And ocean slumbers as a lake, 
 Our prow is silver furrows turning, 
 
 And diamonds sparkle in our wake. 
 
 A STORM. 
 
 The storm is out ! the petrel breasts the wave, 
 'Mid emerald mountains set in pearly spray; 
 
 Where many a gallant heart has found a grave, 
 Our noble vessel ploughs her foamy way. 
 
 SANDY HOOK LIGHT. 
 
 What's yonder star, that studs the ocean ? 
 
 What light is glimmering o'er the sea ? 
 Why, O my heart, this soft emotion ? 
 
 "Land ho I" — the birthplace of the free ! 
 
 THE BAY. 
 
 Welcome, great city of the West, 
 
 I see thy spires in distance gleaming; 
 While o'er thy haven's peaceful breast 
 
 Thy glorious flag is proudly streaming. 
 
 Hail, beauteous land, with strength arrayed, 
 
 Land of the patriot, hero, sage ! 
 In youth with such foundations laid — 
 
 What might is promised to thine age ! R. B. 
 
 A POET S TRIBUTE. 
 
 The following tribute to the matchless singer and to 
 him whose well-directed enterprise has secured to the 
 New World the rare pleasure of hearing her, is from the 
 pen of the most distinguished female poet of our coun- 
 try : — Tribune. 
 
216 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 JUSTICE. 
 
 To the Editor of the Tribune : 
 
 " The praises of her who has taught us the melody of 
 the nightingale, and the benevolence of the seraph, is in 
 every mouth. Their admiration, who have been admit- 
 ted to her society, and felt the power of simple good- 
 ness, unalloyed by self, it is impossible either to utter or 
 to repress. 
 
 " This is as it should be. It proves that this great 
 people, so intent on acquisition, so bewildered at times 
 by the rapidity of their own progress, have not for- 
 feited the capacity of appreciating excellence in a new 
 form, and on such a scale as the world has never before 
 seen. 
 
 " Still, the individual as well as the public mind is 
 prone, amid the tides of enjoyment, to overlook their 
 instrument and source. We sail on the bosom of the 
 broad river to its estuary, nor speak of its fountain amid 
 the distant hills. We transmit our thoughts and wishes 
 through the tension of the telegraphic wires, and forget 
 the man who discovered and rules that strange mystery, 
 'playing with Leviathan as with a bird, and binding 
 him for the maidens.' 
 
 "The benefit conferred on our community by the 
 coming of Jenny Lind, arresting it in the absorption of 
 money-getting pursuits, and binding it together as one 
 great, thrilling, uplifted heart, is like a new and higher 
 sense of existence. The harvest of her exertions show- 
 ered upon the needy, the sorrowing, the desolate, aiding 
 the holy temple to uplift its spire, and the school to 
 gather the little ones under its brooding wing, to all 
 
A , OF JENNY LIND. 217 
 
 future generations, marks an unparalleled era in the his- 
 tory of beneficence. 
 
 " While we are the recipients of this high and unique 
 class of gratifications, we should sometimes remember 
 him who has brought them within our reach. It has 
 been said that the gain of gold is his full recompense. 
 This he has deserved by the risk and boldness of his en- 
 terprise, as well as his liberal expenditure. But this is 
 not sufficient. Mr. Barnum merits the thanks of all who 
 have listened to the Swedish Songstress, or been cheered 
 by her charities. No one who has beheld the perfect 
 order of her vast and delighted. audiences — the clock- 
 work precision with which they are seated, and the quiet 
 dignity of their egress, or contrasts it with gatherings for 
 similar purposes at Exeter Hall, the thunder of a congre- 
 gated London police, and their shoutings to overrule 
 confusion, and the collision of carriages, can fail to per- 
 ceive the pervading influence of a remarkable mind, as 
 well as the coincidence of a remarkable people. While, 
 therefore, we are made happier and better by our pre- 
 sent privilege, let us not omit a just tribute to him 
 through whose efforts and invitation, this angelic guest 
 has been induced to visit our shores." 
 
 The American enthusiasm about Jenny Lind is thus 
 sensibly handled by a writer in the Courier and En- 
 quirer : — 
 
 " Some of our exchanges find matter for reproach 
 
 in the intense enthusiasm that has been excited in our city 
 by the great Swedish Songstress. They think it indi- 
 cates a frivolous, flighty turn of mind, quite out of keep- 
 
21S BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 ing with the solid dignity of American character. They 
 are willing enough to concede a good degree of merit to 
 the distinguished stranger, but yet they will have it that 
 she is making about as much a fool of us as Dulcinea did 
 of Don Quixotte. Now, our good brethren may fancy 
 themselves possessed of superior gravity and wisdom, 
 but there is many a self-styled philosopher that ought to 
 wear motley. We maintain that the homage to Jenny 
 Lind which has been so freely bestowed in this city, and 
 which, we doubt not, will be as freely bestowed through- 
 out the country, does our people the highest honor. It 
 has sprung from the noblest emotions and most generous 
 impulses of the human heart. It is the tribute which man 
 in his best estate always spontaneously renders to tran- 
 scendent worth. It has its origin in that better part of 
 our nature, which, according to the greatest of ancient 
 philosophers, would yield to virtue, if she appeared in- 
 carnate on the earth, its supreme devotion. It is another 
 proof that our application to practical pursuits has not 
 made us the cold, soulless, utilitarian earthworms they 
 have said, and that we are capable of a higher worship 
 than that of the ' almighty dollar.' It is another de- 
 monstration that the spirit of art and of poetry, aye, and 
 of true chivalry too, can find a place in the hearts of a 
 people whose physical energies are doing the work of 
 giants. It is true, that in the course of our history, we 
 have been occasionally betrayed into ovations that were 
 undeserved. It is true that we have sometimes paid 
 honors to those who were only worthy of dishonor. 
 But because worthlessness has received what was not its 
 due, is Worth to go without a tribute ? Must wreaths 
 
OF JENNY LINT). 219 
 
 and garlands cease to be, because flowers were strewed 
 on the tomb of Nero ? But, as a general thing, the 
 American people do discriminate, and discriminate well, 
 too, in their welcomes to the favorites of the Old World. 
 Jenny Lind has been greeted with a reception such as 
 no other stranger ever obtained, precisely because she is 
 the most worthy of it. An artist, who is as decidedly the 
 Queen of Tragedy as Jenny Lind is the Queen of Song, 
 will, it is said, ere long arrive at our shores. The style of 
 her greeting, we are sure, will prove that the American 
 people can and do draw substantial moral distinctions ; 
 that, though the genius be equal, they are disposed to 
 make a world-wide difference between the selfishness and 
 the wantonness of the French actress, and the charity and 
 purity of the Swedish songstress. It may be true that 
 this vehement admiration for Jenny Lind has, at times, 
 manifested itself in a way that was not in exact good 
 taste. No one but a cynic, however, will harshly criti- 
 cise these little irregularities. When enthusiasm fills the 
 soul, and natural emotions rule the hour, it cannot be ex- 
 pected that the formalities of artificial life will be very 
 punctiliously observed. At such times spontaneous im- 
 pulse must have a little indulgence ; and it is to be judged 
 in much the same spirit that the warm-hearted Jenny 
 herself exhibited when she checked the lash of the belea- 
 guered driver with the exclamation, " Stop ! they are my 
 friends, and have come to see me." And it is this spirit 
 and intention, as now displayed, that reflect honor upon 
 our people. We pity the man whose pulse has not 
 bounded in joyous sympathy, at hearing the high, im- 
 pulsive irrepressive shafts of exultation with which the 
 
220 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 
 
 people have hailed, and are still hailing, the possessor of 
 so much genius and virtue. How infinitely superior are 
 these tributes to true glory, gushing in all their freshness 
 and freedom from the purest depths of the human soul, 
 to the heartless obsequiousness, and counterfeit lip hom- 
 age with which rank and wealth are flattered ? In these 
 days of cold, formal fashion, and hard, mechanical rou- 
 tine, it is refreshing to behold an honest burst of genuine 
 glowing enthusiasm. We do not wonder that such a 
 display of feeling has gladly stirred the heart of Jenny 
 Lind, and that she has bowed before our huzzaing throngs 
 as she has never bowed before the starred nobility of 
 Europe. Considering the wildly passionate admiration 
 which she has so universally and so justly excited among 
 us, the proprieties of life have thus far been remarkably 
 well preserved. There has been no disposition evinced 
 here in the streets, as by the students of Berlin, to take 
 the horses from her carriage, and deliriously drag her 
 home from the scene of her triumphs ; nor within doors 
 has there been any of that brutal violence and indescri- 
 bable turmoil that so often occurred at her concerts in 
 England. There has been enthusiasm — vehement, rous- 
 ing enthusiasm — but it has almost uniformly been mani- 
 fested in a way appropriate in itself, and gratifying to its 
 object. If the same degree of propriety be observed in 
 other cities as has been in New York, -our republican 
 reputation will run little risk of discredit. On the other 
 hand, we are sure that this manifestation of American 
 homage to one of the most glorious creatures the world 
 has yet seen, will be remembered and admired as long 
 as the name of Jenny Lind lives in history. Honor, 
 
OF JENNY LIND. 221 
 
 honor, honor, then we say, to her who sings like the 
 angels — whose purity is as stainless as the snow of her 
 own native hills — whose charity droppeth as bounteously, 
 and yet as gently as the dew of heaven — in genius a St. 
 Cecilia, the idol of the rich, arid in goodness a St. 
 Theresa, the servant of the poor." 
 
 19* 
 
MR. BENEDICT. 
 
 It •would be wrong to conclude these Memoranda of 
 Jenny Lind's history, and visit to America, -without 
 placing here, for present preservation, the sketch given 
 in the pamphlet published by Mr. Barnum, of the position 
 abroad, and of the productions of her friend and profes- 
 sional companion, Mr. Benedict. We may precede the 
 sketch by mentioning that this man of true genius, 
 though a German, is sufficiently at home in the English 
 language, to have distinguished himself in English litera- 
 ture, and that his Lecture on the Life and Character of 
 Mendelsohn, delivered before a Society at Camberwell, 
 is one of the very best productions of the time. The 
 tributes presented to him by the musicians whom he leads, 
 and the universal regard conceived for him by all with 
 whom he converses, show us that it is not an ordinary 
 musical leader whom we have among us. In the tumult 
 of admiration to the angelic visitant whom he accom- 
 panies, we must take care not to forget, that it is only 
 so elevated an errand that could draw, from his import- 
 ant career abroad, so distinguished a man, and that we 
 owe him a generous acknowledgment of what he himself 
 adds to our delight in Jenny Lind's visit. The brief 
 biography we speak of, thus proceeds : 
 
 " This celebrated composer is a native of the town of 
 Stuttgart, in Germany. While yet a boy he exhibited so 
 decided a passion for music, that his parents determined 
 
 223 
 
224 SKETCH OF THE 
 
 on indulging his inclinations. He was accordingly placed 
 under the tuition of Hummel, at Weimar. Under the 
 care of this master he made an improvement so rapid that 
 in the winter of 1820 he left him to pursue his studies as 
 a pianist and composer at Dresden, with Carl Maria Von 
 Weber. For more than four years did Benedict remain 
 with this illustrious master, treated more as a beloved 
 son than as a mere student. During this period of his 
 life, he accompanied Weber both to Berlin and Vienna 
 to witness the first performance of his chef d'ceuvres the 
 Freyschutz and the Euryanthe. In Berlin it was that 
 he became acquainted with Mendelsohn, then a boy, 
 and formed a lasting friendship with the author of St. 
 Paul and the Elijah. At Vienna he was also introduced 
 to the immortal Beethoven, and obtained through Weber's 
 influence and his own talents, the position of musical di- 
 rector to the Italian Opera. At this time he was scarce- 
 ly seventeen years of age. Barbaja, who was then its 
 manager, also conducted the theatres of Naples and 
 Milan, and shortly after proposed to Benedict to 
 take the position of Mtestro di Capella at Naples, in the 
 theatres San Carlo and Fondo. This was in the spring 
 of 1825. In this position Benedict remained for more 
 than four years. In 1830 he became acquainted with 
 Malibran. This great singer took a warm interest in 
 Benedict's career, and formed a high opinion of his talents. 
 She accordingly urged him to accompany her to England. 
 His departure was, however, deferred in consequence of 
 his engagement to a young Neapolitan lady (whom he 
 subsequently married,) until 1835, when he arrived in 
 England. His first concert stamped his reputation. It 
 
LIFE OF JULIUS BENEDICT. 225 
 
 indeed gave him an European celebrity which he has ever 
 since maintained. At this concert Malibran and Grisi, 
 for the first time, sung together. This was in the cele- 
 brated Duet from Andronico. Subsequently, he appear- 
 ed as conductor of the Opera Buffa, at the St. James 
 Theatre, and was afterwards engaged for a number of 
 years as the musical director of the Drury Lane and Co- 
 vent Garden Theatres. During this time he produced 
 several operas, and it will scarcely be out of place in this 
 brief biography to enumerate his more important works. 
 In 1827 he produced the Giacinta ed Ernesto at Naples, 
 in the Fondo. In 1830 the management of the San 
 Carlo produced I Portoghesi in Goa. The first of these 
 works was an opera buffa, and the second an opera seria, 
 each of them being in two acts. In 1836, Un anno ed 
 un giorno, a charming little opera buffa, in a single act, 
 was given to the public. After his arrival in London, the 
 first opera which he produced, was the Gipsy's Warn- 
 ing. This was in 1838. It was only in two acts, but 
 such was the sweetness of the melodies and the art dis- 
 played in the instrumentation of the opera, that it at 
 once stamped his reputation, and when in 1844, The 
 Brides of Venice, a grand opera in four acts, was pro- 
 duced by the management of Drury Lane — he had al- 
 ready been recognized as one of the greatest composers 
 then in the country at his adoption. Since this he has 
 produced but one opera, called The Crusaders, at the 
 same theatre. The talent displayed in this work con- 
 firmed his reputation. 
 
 " The arrangements and direction of the musical Festi- 
 vals in London, Norwich and Liverpool, have also been 
 
226 SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF JULIUS BENEDICT. 
 
 intrusted to him, and he is probably the only conductor 
 in England who is as -well known and as well appre- 
 ciated in the Provinces, as he is in London itself. 
 
 In 1847, he was introduced, as we have heard, to 
 Mademoiselle Jenny Lind, who made her first appearance 
 as a singer of sacred music in England, at the perform- 
 ance of Mendelsohn's Elijah, at the Exeter Hall, on the 
 15th December, 1848, under the direction of Mr. Bene- 
 dict. This performance, which was given by a committee 
 of Mendelsohn's personal admirers, with the view of 
 providing a fund for the purpose of instituting two scho- 
 larships in the name of the deceased Master, at Leipsic, 
 proved eminently successful, and deserves commemorating 
 as the first introduction of Jenny Lind to the English 
 public in a new branch of her career. From this time 
 he has gradually become more intimate with Mademoi- 
 selle Lind, and being honored with her friendship and 
 confidence, has been induced by her to accept the en- 
 gagement offered him by Mr. Barnum, to accompany 
 her on her visit to these shores. We believe that this 
 engagement could not have been more wisely offered. 
 Certain are we that it could have been offered to no one 
 more distinguished by his general attainments in his art, or 
 better calculated to shine at the side of Jenny Lind, 
 whether he is considered and valued as an instrumental 
 performer, a conductor or a musical composer. 
 
 It may not be amiss to state in conclusion, that Mr. 
 Benedict is the Pianist to their Royal Highnesses the 
 Princess Augusta and Mary of Cambridge, the Princesses 
 of Weimar, and Hohenlohe, nieces to the late Queen 
 Adelaide. 
 
ADDENDUM 
 
 As our work is just issuing from the press, we have 
 had occasion to write an article in reply to one which 
 appeared in the " Courrier des Etats Unis," and we 
 think it worth while to add it thus disconnectedly, to 
 the present volume : 
 
 ART'S CRITICISM OF NATURE. 
 
 Reply to a French writer's description of Jenny Lind's 
 manners at a private party in New York. 
 
 The stars shine by the light their elevation still ena- 
 bles them to receive from the day that has gone past — 
 and, though there would be a severity in limiting ordi- 
 nary belles to shine in the evening only according to the 
 lofty position given them by their course through the 
 morning, it is but just, that those whose mornings so lift 
 them above us that they would shine in heaven itself, 
 should at least be looked up to with that appreciative 
 deference, which we give more to stars than to lights 
 we can trim and brighten. We have expressed, in this 
 similitude, why a late severe criticism of Jenny Lind's 
 manners and appearance at an evening party in New 
 York society, seems to us as inappreciative and irrever- 
 ent as it is inaccordant with our own observation of what 
 it describes. Our friend, M. de Trobriand, who wrote 
 it, has, in many previous articles, expressed the same 
 
 227 
 
228 • ADDENDUM. 
 
 national pique and national want of sympatny with the 
 Northern Songstress and Benefactress. She has refused 
 to sing in Paris, it is true. She has openly avowed her 
 distaste for French customs and standards. She knew, 
 doubtless, when our friend was presented to her, that he 
 was a Frenchman, and the editor of a French paper 
 which had invariably disparaged and ridiculed her ; and, 
 when he spoke to her in three languages, (as he did,) 
 and she answered only in monosyllables, (as was the case,) 
 he could (reasonably, we think) have attributed it to 
 something beside dullness. A fashionable belle might 
 have put aside a national prejudice, to be agreeable to 
 an elegant nobleman brought up at a Court — but it would 
 have been very unlike honest and simple Jenny Lind. 
 For the monosyllables to our friend it is easy to account, 
 thus, without blame to her. For those she gave to 
 others, there is still a better apology, if one were needed 
 — but, let us precede what we wish to say of this, by 
 translating the passage to which we are replying : — 
 
 " Jenny Lind danced very little — but once, if I remem- 
 ber rightly, and without evincing any of that ardor of 
 movement which people had pleased themselves by 
 gratuitously according to her. She talked as little, and, 
 take it all together, her celebrity would not have been 
 so great, if her singing had been as disappointing as her 
 personal appearance. We must be excused if we follow 
 her, with pen in hand, even into the drawing-rooms, 
 where she found herself in contact with a public less 
 numerous but more select, and if we put upon their guard, 
 for the future, those who believe, upon hearsay, in the 
 brilliant sayings, the enchanting graces, the affable re- 
 
ADDENDUM. 229 
 
 ception of courtesies, etc., etc., of Miss Lind, as seen by 
 the naked eye, and without the illusion of an opera-glass. 
 When she ceases to sing, and begins to converse, the 
 celebrated Swede becomes extremely national again. 
 She has, in her voice, but two favorite notes, which she 
 never varies, they say, but for the privileged, and to 
 which she adheres, with a persistence which ordinary 
 martyrs cannot break through — and these two notes are 
 Yes and JVo." 
 
 In all the countries where she has been, Miss Lind has 
 invariably avoided gay and fashionable society, dividing 
 what leisure she could command, between a few friends 
 chosen with reference to nothing but their qualities of 
 heart, and the visits of charity to institutions or individuals 
 she could benefit. Pleasure, as pursued in " the first so- 
 ciety," seems wholly distasteful to her. In New York, 
 however, great dissatisfaction had been expressed at her 
 refusals of invitations, her non-delivery of letters of in- 
 troduction which were known to have been given to her 
 in England, and her inaccessibility by " the first people," 
 This troubled her, for she feels grateful to our country 
 for the love poured forth to her, and is unwilling to 
 offend any class of its citizens, high or low. From a 
 lady, therefore, with whom she had formed a very inti- 
 mate and confiding friendship, she accepted an invitation 
 to an evening party, to be given the day after her last 
 concert in this city. It was at this party that M. de 
 Trobriand describes her, in the article from which we 
 have quoted above. The country villa at which it was 
 given is the most tasteful and sumptuous residence in the 
 neighborhood of New York, and a select company from 
 20 
 
230 ADDENDUM. 
 
 the most refined circles of society was there to meet her. 
 Before giving our own impression of how she appeared 
 at this party, it may be, not only just, but instructive, 
 to tell how she had passed the day of which this was 
 the evening. 
 
 It was the morning after her closing Concert, and 
 among the business to be attended to, (in the winding 
 up of a visit to a city where she had given away $30,000 
 in charity,) was the result certified to in the following 
 report : 
 
 The undersigned, a Committee named by Miss Lind to divide the 
 appropriation of the sum of five thousand and seventy-three dollars 
 and twenty cents, ($5,073,20,) the proceeds of the Morning Concert 
 recently given by that lady for charitable purposes, have distributed 
 the said fund as follows : 
 New-York, Nov. 26, 1850. 
 
 C. S. WOODHULL, 
 R. BAIRD, 
 R. B. MINTTJRN, 
 WM. H. ASPINWALL, 
 JOHN JAY. 
 
 To the Society for Improving the Condition of the Poor $1,000 00 
 " Society for Relief of Widows with Poor Children 300 00 
 " Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum 300 00 
 
 " Female Assistance Society .... 300 00 
 
 « Eastern Dispensary ..... 250 00 
 
 " Northern Dispensary ..... 250 00 
 
 " Eye and Ear Infirmary .... 250 00 
 
 " Hebrew Benevolent Society - - - - 200 00 
 " Home Branch of the Prison Association - 200 00 
 
 " Home for Destitute Children of Seamen - - 200 00 
 " Institution for Education and Care of Homeless and 
 
 Destitute Boys .... i00 00 
 
 " Relief of poor Swedes and Norwegians in the city of 
 
 New York, per the Rev. Mr. Hedstrom - 273 20 
 
ADDENDUM. 231 
 
 To the distribution of Swedish Bibles and Testaments in 
 
 New-York .... . 200 00 
 " Brooklyn Orphan Asylum .... - 250 00 
 " Relief of the Poor of Williamsburgh - - 100 00 
 " Relief of the Poor of Newark - - - - 100 00 
 " Relief of the Poor of Jersey City - - 100 00 
 " National Temperance Society - - 200 00 
 " Relief of the Poor at the Five Points, by the Tem- 
 perance Association, Rev. Mr. Pease, President 200 00 
 " American Temperance Union ... 100 00 
 " St. George's Society 200 00 
 
 Total .... $5,073 20 
 
 There was also another matter which formed an item 
 in the " squaring up " of her New York accounts on that 
 day. A paragraph had reached her, making mention of 
 a Swedish sailor who had perished in endeavoring to 
 save the lives of passengers on the wreck of a vessel. 
 Jenny Lind had sent to the Swedish Consul to make in- 
 quiries whether he had left a family. His widow and 
 children were found by Mr. Habicht, and Jenny had 
 sent him five hundred dollars for their use. This was 
 mentioned by the Consul to a lady, who mentioned it to 
 us, and by this chance alone it becomes public. 
 
 But, while all these sufferers were receiving her bounty, 
 and she was settling with Banks and Managers for the 
 payments — what else was her life made up of, on that day ? 
 
 It was half past nine in the morning, and three ser- 
 vants of the Hotel, and two of her own servants, had 
 been ordered to guard her rooms till she could eat her 
 breakfast. Well-dressed ladies cannot be stopped by 
 men servants, in this country, however, and her drawing- 
 room was already half full of visitors " on particular 
 
232 ADDENDUM. 
 
 business," who had crowded past, insisting on entrance. 
 Most of them were applicants for charities, some for 
 autographs, some to offer acquaintance, but none, of 
 course, with the least claim whatever on her pocket or 
 her time. A lady-friend, who was admitted by her ser- 
 vant, saw the onslaught of these intruders, as she rose 
 from her breakfast, — (fatigued and dispirited as she 
 always is after the effort and nervous excitement of a 
 concert) — and this friend was not a little astonished at 
 her humble and submissive endurance. 
 
 First came a person who had sent a musical box for 
 her to look at, and, as she " had kept it," he wanted 
 the money immediately. Jenny knew nothing of it, but 
 the maid was called, who pointed to one which had been 
 left mysteriously in the room, and the man was at liberty 
 to take it away, but would not do it, of course, without 
 remonstrance and argument. Then advanced the lady- 
 beggars, who, in so many instances, have " put the screw 
 to her " in the same way, that, without particularizing, 
 we must describe them as a class. Tc> such unexamined 
 and unexpected applications, Miss Lind has usually offered 
 twenty or thirty dollars, as the shortest way to be left 
 to herself. In almost every instance, she has had this 
 sum returned to her, with some reproachful and dispa- 
 raging remark, such as — "We did not expect this pittance 
 from you .'" " We have been mistaken in your character, 
 Madam, for we had heard you were generous !" " This, 
 from Miss Lind, is too little to accept, and not worthy 
 of you !" " Excuse us, we came for a donation, not for 
 alms !" — these and similar speeches, of which, we are 
 assured, Jenny Lind has had one or more specimens, 
 
ADDENDUM. 233 
 
 every day of her visit to New York ! With one or two 
 such visitors, on the morning we speak of, were mingled 
 applicants for musical employment; passionate female 
 admirers who had come to express their raptures to her ; 
 a dozen ladies with albums ; one or two with things they 
 had worked for her, for which, by unmistakable tokens, 
 they expected diamond rings in return ; one who had 
 come indignantly to know why a note containing a poem 
 had not been answered ; and constant messages, mean- 
 time, from those who had professional and other 
 authorized errands requiring answers. Letters and notes 
 came in at the rate of one every other minute. 
 
 This sort of " audience " lasted, at Miss Lind's rooms, 
 ■all day. To use her own expression, she was " torn in 
 pieces" — and it was by those whom nothing would 
 keep out. A police force would have protected her, but, 
 while she habitually declined the calls and attentions 
 of fashionable society, she was in constant dread of 
 driving more bumble claimants from her door. She sub- 
 mitted, every day, to the visits of strangers, as far as 
 strength, and her professional duties, would any way 
 endure — but, as her stay in a place drew to a close, the 
 pressure became so pertinacious and overwhelming as to 
 exceed what may be borne by human powers of attention, 
 human spirits and human nerves. Her imperfect acquaint- 
 ance with our language, of course, very materially in- 
 creased the fatigue — few people speaking simply and 
 distinctly enough for a foreigner, and, the annoyance of 
 answering half-understood remarks from strangers, or of 
 requesting from them a repetition of a question, being a 
 
 20* 
 
234 ADDENDUM. 
 
 nervous exercise, for six or eight hours together, which 
 the reader will easily allow to be " trying." 
 
 But — though we have thus explained how there were 
 excuse enough for, ever so monosyllabic a reception of 
 introductions, by Jenny Lind, that evening — our own 
 impression of her address and manners was very different 
 from that of the gay Baron. Let us tell, in turn, what 
 we saw, though our discourse is getting long, and though 
 our rule is never to put private society into print except 
 as hominy comes to market — the kernel of the matter, 
 with no clue to the stalk that bore it, or the field in 
 which it grew. 
 
 The party was at a most lovely villa, ten miles from 
 town, on the bank of the Hudson, and the invitations 
 were to an " At Home, at five P. M." We were some- 
 what late, and were told, on reaching the drawing-room, 
 that Jenny Lind had just danced in a quadrille, and was 
 receiving introductions in a deep alcove of one of the 
 many apartments opening from the hall. The band was 
 playing delightfully in a central passage from which the 
 principal rooms radiated; and, while the dance was still 
 going on beyond, and the guests were rambling about in 
 the labyrinths of apartments crowded with statuary, 
 pictures, and exotic trees laden with fruits and flowers, 
 there was a smaller crowd, continually renewed, at the 
 entrance of the alcove which caged the beloved Night- 
 ingale. 
 
 Succeeding, after a while, in getting near her, we 
 found her seated in lively conversation with a circle of 
 young ladies, and, (to balance M. de Trobriand's account 
 of her monosyllabic incommunicativeness,) we may ven- 
 
ADDENDUM. 235 
 
 ture to add that she received us with a merry inquiry as 
 to which world we came from. This was apropos of the 
 " spirit-knockings " which we had accompanied her to 
 visit a few days before, and a remark of her own, a 
 moment or two after, was characteristic enough to be 
 also worth recording. We had made a call on the same 
 " Spirits " since, and proceeded to tell her of the inter- 
 view and of a question we asked them concerning herself 
 — her love of fun, and ready wit, commenting with droll 
 interruptions as the narrative went on. We named the 
 question at last : — " Has Jenny Lind any special talent 
 which she would have developed but for the chance 
 possession of a remarkable voice ; and if so, what is it ?" 
 
 ".And the spirit said it was making frocks for poor 
 little children, I suppose," was her immediate anticipa- 
 tion of the reply — uttered with an expression of arch 
 earnestness, which confirmed us in the opinion we have 
 gradually formed, that the love of the comic and joyous 
 is the leading quality in her temperament. 
 
 Miss Lind complained repeatedly of great exhaustion 
 and fatigue, during the evening, and, (as a lady remarked 
 who had seen her frequently in private,) looked "as if 
 she could hardly sustain herself upon her feet." During 
 the time that we remained near her, there were constant 
 introductions, and she was constantly conversing freely 
 — though, of course, when three or four were listening 
 at a time, there must have been some who received only 
 " monosyllables " of reply. We noticed one thing, 
 however, which we had noticed before, and which 
 we safely record as a peculiarity of Miss Lind's — per- 
 haps the one which has jarred upon the Parisian percep- 
 
236 ADDENDUM. 
 
 tions of our courtly friend. She is a resolute non-con- 
 formist to the flattering deceptions of polite society. She 
 bandies no compliments. If a remark is made which 
 has no rebound to it, she drops it with a "monosyllable," 
 and without gracing its downfall with an insincere smile. 
 She affects no interest which she does not feel — puts an 
 abrupt end to a conversation which could only be sus- 
 tained by mutual pretence of something to say — differs 
 suddenly and uncompromisingly when her sense of truth 
 prompts her so to do — repels, (instead of even listening 
 silently to,) complimentary speeches — in fact is, at all 
 times, so courageously and pertinaciously honest and 
 simple, that " society," as carried on in " the first cir- 
 cles," is no atmosphere for her. If she were an angel 
 in disguise, on a mission to this world, (which we are 
 by no means sure she is not,) we should expect the ele- 
 gant M. de Trobriand — I'homme comme il faut, belong- 
 ing to a Court of Exiled Royalty — to describe her pre- 
 cisely as he does. 
 
 But our friend has written one more sentence, against 
 which we must put a tableau en vis-a-vis. He says : — 
 " Her celebrity would not have been what it is, very 
 certainly, if her singing had ever produced as much dis- 
 appointment as her personal appearance." Let us con- 
 clude this very long discourse, (which we hope our friends 
 have Niblo-fied with a "half hour for refreshment" at 
 some convenient betweenity,) with a picture of Jenny 
 Lind, as we saw her, a few minutes before she took leave, 
 on the evening of the party : — 
 
 The dancing and drawing-rooms were deserted, and 
 the company were at supper. Miss Lind, too tired to 
 
ADDENDUM. 237 
 
 stand up with the crowd, had been waited on hy one of 
 the gentlemen of the family, and now sat, in one of the 
 deep alcoves of the saloon farthest removed from the 
 gay scene, with one of the trelliced windows, which look 
 out upon the park, forming a background to her figure. 
 We sought her to make our adieux, presuming we should 
 not see her again before her departure for the South, 
 and chance presented her to our eye with a combination 
 of effect that we shall remember, certainly, till the dawn 
 <* f another life throws a twilight over this. An intimate 
 friend, with kind attentiveness, was rather preserving her 
 from interruption than talking with her, and she sat in a 
 posture of careless and graceful repose, with her head 
 wearily bent on one side, her eyes drooped, and her 
 hands crossed before her in the characteristic habit which 
 has been seized by the painters who have drawn her. 
 There was an expression of dismissed care replaced by 
 a kind of child-like and innocent sadness, that struck us 
 as inexpressibly sweet — which we mentally treasured 
 away, at the time, as another of the phases of excessive 
 beauty of which that strong face is capable — and, as we 
 looked at her, there suddenly appeared, through the 
 window behind, half concealed by her shoulder, the 
 golden edge of the just risen moon. It crept to her 
 cheek, before she had changed the attitude in which she 
 indolently listened to her friend, and, for a moment, the 
 tableau was complete, (to our own eye as we stood mo- 
 tionless) — of a drooping head pillowed on the still bosom 
 of the Queen of Night. It was" so startling, and at the 
 same time so apt and so consistent, that, for an instant, 
 it confused our thoughts, as the wonders of fairy transi- 
 
238 ADDENDUM. 
 
 tions confuse realities in the perceptions of a child — but 
 the taking of a step forward disturbed the tableau, and 
 we could, then, only call her own attention and that of 
 one or two gentlemen who had come up, to the bright 
 orb lifting behind her. The moment after, she had said 
 good-night, and was gone — little dreaming, in her weary 
 brain, that she had been made part, by Nature, at one 
 of the fatigued instants just past, in a picture — than 
 which an angel, thoughtfully reposing in heaven, could 
 scarce have been more beautiful ! 
 
 Parts of the foregoing, of course, we should never 
 have unlocked from our casket of memories, but as a 
 counterbalance to different impressions of the same ad- 
 mired object, recorded by a pen we are fond of. There 
 is another purpose that portions of the article may serve, 
 however — the making the Public aware how pretended 
 charity-seekers, and intrusive visitors, persecute and 
 weary the noble creature who is now sojourning in the 
 country, and the showing through how much difficulty 
 and hindrance she accomplishes her work. We would 
 aid, if we could, in having her rightly understood while 
 she is among us. N. P. W. 
 
ROBERT E. PETERSON, 
 BOOKSELLER AND PUBLISHER, 
 
 N. W. CORNER OF FIFTH AND ARCH STREETS," 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, 
 
 Invites attention to the following valuable works, 
 just published: 
 
 THE CLOSING SCENE, 
 
 OR, 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND INFIDELITY CONTRASTED, 
 
 IN THE LAST HOURS OF REMARKABLE PERSONS, 
 BY THE REV. ERSKINE NEALE, M. A., 
 
 RECTOR OP KIKTON, SUFFOLK ; 
 
 Author of the " Bishop's Daughter," " Self Sacrifice," "The Life 
 Book of a Labourer," &c. Sec. 
 
 Two Series in one Volume. 
 
 Notices from English papers. 
 
 "Each chapter gives not only the closing scene, but some interest- 
 ing acts of the drama in which the individual written has played so 
 prominent a part. It is as interesting as it is instructive ; it has 
 been happily conceived and well executed." — Sherborne Journal. 
 
 "In the small but rich volume now before us is presented a series 
 of 'closing scene-*,' wherein the reader m.iy te-t the vaunted superi- 
 ority of the ' Freethinker,' by comparing his death-bed with that of 
 the Christian ; and so well has the author, or more properly speak- 
 ing, the compiler, discharged his task, that we cannot but accord 
 him our highest meed of approbation." — Times. 
 
 "This most interesting and instructive little volume will find its 
 destined place on the shelves of many a domestic as well as public 
 library, and will often be referred to Dy those who read for higher 
 purposes than mere passing amusement ; thougheven as ministering 
 to innocent recreation of the mind, it is rich in resources. It will 
 attain, we venture to predict, a still higher and rare distinction ; it 
 will be one of t/te few books of those whose husbanded funds do 
 not permit them to possess Tnaiiy." — Dorsetshire Chronicle. 
 
" The prince and the poet, the philosopher — the divine and the 
 politician — the novelist and the historian — furnish each his quota to 
 the grand moral which it is the object of the author to work out ; 
 and we think that he has fully and faithfully acquitted himself of his 
 task. The volume presents a series of lithographic sketches, which 
 cannot fail to interest the general reader; simply, yet earnestly and 
 gracefully written, free from the slightest taint of affectation. We 
 commend to our readers this very agreeable and interesting vol- 
 • ume." — Church and State Gazette. 
 
 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. BENJAMIN DOER, D. D., 
 
 RECTOR OF CHRIST CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 THIKD EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED. 
 12mo., cloth, 75 cts. 
 
 The following is an extract from a letter written by the Rt. Rev. 
 Bishop Potter to the Publisher, under date of August 13, 1850, 
 acknowledging receipt of " The Churchman's Manual" and " The 
 History of a Pocket Prayer Book." 
 
 " 1. now beg leave to express the unmingled satisfaction with 
 which I have looked over these judicious, temperate, and able ex- 
 positions of the faith, worship, and discipline of our Church. I 
 trust that they are destined to reach a still wider circulation; and 
 I cordially recommend them to the notice of all who would become 
 acquainted with the true principles of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church in the United States." 
 
 I do not hesitate to say that it will fully sustain the title which it 
 bears, and deserves to be in the hands of every Churchman. As a 
 family book for the instruction of Christian households in "the prin- 
 ciples of the doctrine of Christ" — as a parish and Sunday school 
 library book for the engagement and edification of the young — as a 
 tractate to be put into the hands of all who are inquiring for "the 
 truth as it is in Jesus" — as a guide to " the Gospel in the Church," 
 so that all may read, so plain that all must understand it— thoroughly 
 scriptural, practical, spiritual, — I commend it to the widest circula- 
 tion, and implore for it the blessing of the Lord. 
 
 GEORGE W. DOANE, 
 Bishop of the Diocese of New Jersey. 
 
 From the Sunday School "Visitor, 
 
 This excellent volume seems to unite all suffrages in its approval. 
 
 Dr. Dorr has clearly shown in reference to the Protestant Episcopal 
 
 Church that her doctrines are evangelical, her ministry apostolic 
 
 and her^worship primitive and scriptural. The work before us is 
 
written in a truly Christian spirit. It can give offence to no one 
 "who feels a real desire to inquire after the truth as it is in Jesus. 
 
 From the Utica Gospel Messenger. 
 The prevailing excellence of Mr. Dorr's manual consists, as we 
 think, in the distinct and unequivocal manner in which his several 
 subjects are presented. They are brought forward under the fol- 
 lowing divisions : 
 
 Doctrines' of the Church; Ministry of the Church; Wor- 
 ship of the Church; With an appendix containing three chapters 
 on Bowing at the name of Jesus ; on Christ's descent into Hell ; 
 on the word " Catholic" in the Creed. 
 
 We say to our readers get the book. Use it as a family vol- 
 ume, and let the young especially study and understand it. Every 
 Churchman — ay, every one who desires to know what the Church 
 is, should have one. 
 
 From the Episcopal Recorder. 
 It will be found a work of an interesting and useful character for 
 those who are inquiring into the peculiar claims and characteristics 
 of the Episcopal Church. It is compiled in a Christian and ex- 
 cellent temper. 
 
 From the Protestant Episcopalian— by late Rev. J. W. James. 
 
 Church people, and inquirers about our Zion, if they take this book 
 and steadily peruse it, will find themselves frequently'Bay.ing, "this 
 is the very thing we wanted." To embrace all these subjects in a 
 book of its size, it was necessary to study condensation and brevity; 
 the author has done this and more : he has not indulged himself in 
 spinning theories, in rounding sentences ; but has evidently designed 
 to explain and to instruct. 
 
 It may be safely and profitably put into the hands of any whose 
 hearts are just becoming sensible of religious duties. We should be 
 very much pleased if we could present acopy to every acquaintance 
 we have. 
 
 From the Charleston Gospel Messenger. 
 Among the many excellent books, which leave all without excuse 
 who choose to continue in ignorance of our Church, we know of 
 none more likely than this, to answer the end designed by its author, 
 of giving "some such compendious views of the doctrines, minis- 
 try, and worship of the Church" as may be " put into the hands of 
 those who have neither time nor inclination to read voluminous 
 works, that they may see at once what the Church has taught on 
 these subjects." To such persons, and indeed to every one who 
 would meet with the truth well expressed, and in few words, this 
 manual may be warmly commended. 
 
4 
 THE HISTORY 
 
 OF A 
 
 POCKET PRAYER BOOK, 
 
 WRITTEN BY ITSELF. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. BENJAMIN, DOER, D. D., 
 
 RECTOR OF CHRIST CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED. 
 
 16mo , cloth, 50 cts. 
 
 From the Banner of the Cross — by Bp. Doane, under the name of 
 "A Country Parson." 
 
 In taking up this little volume, after several editions, now greatly 
 enlarged and materially improved, we seem to be looking into the 
 face of a dear old friend. Wesetoul with him again on his event- 
 ful journey, in all confidence that he will bring us out at the right 
 place, and well satisfied that if the road be longer than it was, wc 
 shall only have so much more of his pleasant and instructive com- 
 pany. We really do not know a little volume so well filled to go 
 out wilh our missionaries into "the new countries," or to follow 
 the laiihful pastor in his daily round in any of our established 
 pari.-hes., urban or rural ; and for young people — we have tried it 
 on our own — it is scarcely less interesting, and a sight more pro- 
 fitable than Robinson Crusoe. It is a striking peculiarity, and a 
 strong recommendation of this little volume, that though woven 
 together with a thin, a graceful thread of ficiion, the staple is all 
 facts — the characters, those of the author's acquaintances, parish- 
 ioners and friends, and the incidents mostly such as have really 
 occurred in his own eventful pilgrimage. Such we know to have 
 been, among many others, "the Union Church" and "the Lay 
 reading," the visits to the Oneida Indians, first in the Slate of New 
 York, and then at Green Bay, and the conversion wilh the good 
 lady, who did not think she had such a naughty thing in her house 
 as a book written by a Churchman, when nearly all the volumes 
 in her library were such. The case of the Congregational minis- 
 ter, who found the Prayer Book " just the Ihing" to furnish bis ex- 
 tempore prayers, is familiar to all who have read Dr. Chandler's 
 interesting life of Dr. Johnson. To all who know any thing of 
 our domestic missions, the names of Davenport, Phelps, and 
 '^Father Nash" will be as "household words." And many a 
 time and oft have we sat delighted at the feet of that venerated 
 mother in Israel, now wilh God, whose Saturday school (still 
 flourishing in kindred hands and a kindred heait,) forms the charm 
 of the fifteenth chapter. The author has enjoyed singular oppor- 
 tunities of acquaintance with the Church in all places and under 
 
all vicissitudes, and possesses a happy talent for relating what he 
 has seen and turning it to good account. Simplicity, earnestness 
 and devotion are blended in his little book with good taste and 
 sound practical sense. To many it will be instructive, interesting 
 to all. It deserves the widest circulation, and wherever it goes, 
 will subserve the best interests of truth and piety. 
 
 From the North American and Gazette, July 29, 1850. 
 Dr. Doer's Works. — An accident has delayed our notice of 
 the two well known works by the Rev. Dr. Dorr, — The Church- 
 man's Manual, and The History of a Pocket Prayer Book, — of 
 both which, revised and enlarged by the author, a third edition 
 has been recently issued by the publisher, Robert E. Peterson, 
 Fifth and Arch streets. These books, which carry with them the 
 strongest commendations of Bishop Doane, and the warm advocacy 
 of various religious periodicals of high character, have attained to 
 great popularity, and very large numbers of them have been, and 
 continue to be sold. They are, indeed, beautiful and attractive 
 little works, which cannot but long maintain their hold upon the 
 public favor. 
 
 From the Banner of the Cross. 
 We are happy to welcome a third edition, in such attractive 
 form, of a book which has done so much good by extending a truer 
 sense of the great worth and excellence of the Prayer Book. We 
 have seldom known a happier instance of the use which may be 
 made of a sober imagination, in adding attraction and interest to 
 plain truth. 
 
 THE PRINCIPAL PROPHECIES AND TYPES 
 OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, 
 
 WITH THEIR FULFILMENT; ARRANGED IN THE VERY 
 WORDS OF SCRIPTURE, 
 
 FOR THE USE OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS 
 
 BY THE REV. BENJAMIN DORR, D. D., 
 
 RECTOR OF CHRIST CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 " The testimony of Jesus ia the Spirit of Prophecy." — Rev. xix. 10. 
 From The Bonner of the Cross. 
 The Author of this little Work seems to have the happy faculty, 
 no mean one, of giving us just such books as we want for the 
 Church's use. He doe's not seem to be moved by the mere love of 
 Authorship, that worst form of self-love, but he bestows his labor 
 upon a work to meet some want in the Church. Every teacher 
 must have felt the need of some assistant in this department of 
 Biblical instruction. We speak now of those plainer Prophecies 
 whose fulfillment is a clear exposition of their meaning. Herein, the 
 
 1* 
 
Word of God must be " its own interpreter." And in this just view 
 it is presented by the Author of his little Work. The Principal 
 Prophecies and Types are given in one column, and then in another 
 Iheir fulfilment is presented in the language of the inspired Writers. 
 This best of expositions is not diluted or confused with needless 
 comment or labored disquisitions. The Teacher, with very little 
 trouble, can add all that is necessary, such as the time elapsing be- 
 tween the Prophecy and its fulfillment, &c. The Book is addressed 
 " to the Superintendents and Teachers of Sunday Schools and Bible 
 Classes." It is in a form and of a size well suited to its design. — 
 This may be most properly expressed by the Author in the following 
 brief "Preface." 
 
 The design of this work is to store the minds of the young 
 with the principal texts of the Old Testament which relate to the 
 coming and offices of our Redeemer, together with such passages 
 of the New Testament as show their fulfilment. It was prepared 
 for the Sunday Schools and Bible Classes connected with the 
 parish under the author's charge. The manner of using it has 
 been to give out as many verses as could be conveniently com- 
 mitted to memory at one time, and make these the subject of in- 
 struction and examination by the teachers in their respective classes. 
 The same lesson is repeated each Sunday in the monlh; and on the 
 last Sunday afternoon, when the children are catechized by the 
 Rector, " openly in the church," they are questioned on the lesson 
 of the preceding Sundays, and such explanations and illustrations 
 are given, as lime will permit, or as the subject may require. 
 
 After many years trial of this mode of Biblical instruction, con- 
 nected with the catechising of the young in the presence of the 
 congregation, lhe author has found it highly beneficial in his own 
 parish, and he doubis not that most parochial ministers would find 
 it equally useful in theirs. 
 
 He indulges the hope, at least, that this arrangement of the Pro- 
 phecies and Types, relative to the Messiah, will be a help to Teach- 
 ers in their endeavours to lead the lambs of Christ's fold to those 
 good pastures and those well-springs of salvation, where they 
 may be so nourished up in all virtue and godliness, that, "when 
 the Chief Shepherd shall appear, they may receive a crown of 
 glory that fadelh not away." 
 
 Philadelphia, June 22, 1850. 
 
 From the Christian Observer. 
 This a very convenient manual for the aid of Sunday School 
 teachers and pupils, in acquiring a knowledge of lhe prophetical 
 and typical portions of Scripture, which have been fulfilled. 
 
 From the Christian Chronicle, July 31, 1850. 
 The Principal Prophecies and Types of the Old Testa- 
 ment, with their fulfillment.— This is a small cheap book of 
 about 75 pages, got up for lhe use of Sunday Schools by Dr. Ben- 
 jamin Dorr, of this city. It will throw much light on many obscure 
 passages, and will he found exceedingly valuable to the pupils of 
 Sabbath Schools. 
 
THE PASTOR'S WIFE. 
 
 A MEMOIR OF MRS. SHERMAN, 
 
 OF SURREY CHAPEL, LONDON. 
 EDITED BY HER HUSBAND, THE REV. JAMES SHERMAN, 
 
 PASTOR OF SUKREV CHAPEL. 
 
 WITH PORTRAIT. 
 Second Edition — 12mo., cloth, $1. 
 
 This work is admitted by all who have read it to be the best bi- 
 ography ever written ; the following are a few of its many recom- 
 mendations : 
 
 From the Philadelphia Christian Observer. 
 
 This is an interesting memoir of a Christian lady, whose life 
 was a bright illustration of the hallowed influences of the gospel 
 in the culture and development of all that is lovely and of good 
 report in female character. In the words of the Christian Witness 
 — It is " one of the most tender, beautiful, instructive, and edifying 
 narratives, that for a long time has come under our notice." 
 
 From the Episcopal Recorder. 
 Few Christians will rise from the perusal of this interesting 
 portrait of a Pastor's Wife without uttering the wish that such 
 mothers in Israel were increased a thousand fold. 
 
 From the Presbyterian. 
 Her well sustained spirit in affliction and her triumph in death, 
 illustrates the genuineness of the religious principles which were 
 the main-spring of all her actions. We can commend the memoir 
 as possessing more than usual interest, and as having intrinsic 
 claims to the popularity it has already received. 
 
 From the New York Evangelist. 
 There is much instruction to be derived from the volume, and 
 much powerful incentive to faith and religious zeal. Mrs. S. vi- 
 sited Grafenberg and the water cure establishment there ; and the 
 record of her journeys and experience is very ably made and re- 
 markably interesting. We can commend the work to Christian 
 women as highly suggestive, pleasing and profitable. 
 
 From the Pennsylvania Inquirer. 
 It contains a memoir of Mrs. Sherman, of Surrey Chapel, by her 
 husband, and is said to form one of the most tender, beautiful, in- 
 structive and edifying narratives that ever appeared from the 
 press. It indicates and displays all the virtues and graces of the 
 Christian character. 
 
8 
 
 From the New York Literary World. 
 It exhibits a career of activity in the duties connected with an 
 English Dissenting Chapel, and is varied by a tour on the Continent 
 through Germany in search of health, with a residence at Grafen- 
 berg. The details of the latter establishment, with Priesmtz at its 
 head with the traveling incidents in Prussia, are of considerable 
 interest; a representation of the Continent from a point of view 
 not taken by ordinary tourists. 
 
 THE RELATION BETWEEN THE 
 
 HOLY SCRIPTURES 
 
 AND SOME PARTS OF 
 
 GEOLOGICAL SCIENCE. 
 
 By Rev. JOHN PYE SMITH, D. D., L. L. D., F. R. S., &F. G. S., 
 Divinity Tutor in the Protestant Dissenting College at Homerton, 
 Member of the Philological, Ethnological, Microscopical, 
 and Palseontological Societies ; and Honorary Member 
 of the Natural History Society of Devon and Corn- 
 wall, and of the Washington, U. S. National 
 Institute for the Promotion of Science: 
 from the fourth London edition, great- 
 ly enlarged. 
 Octavo, cloth, $1,50. 
 
 From the English Papers. 
 
 Devoted to the truths of Revelation no less than to those of sci- 
 ence, and regarding them both as proceeding from the same Divine 
 source, he (the Author) will allow of no compromise, distortion or 
 subterfuge, with respect to either. — Annals and Magazine of 
 Natural History. 
 
 It places the justly esteemed aulhor in the very first rank of scien- 
 tific and philosophical theologians, and has already procured the en- 
 rolment of his name among the members of two of the most learned 
 societies in Great Britain. — Lancaster Guardian. 
 
 From the Charleston Medical Journal and Review, Vol. 5, May 
 1850, No. 3, page 341.— Foot-note to Letter to the Rev. J . Bachman, 
 D. D., on the Question of Hybridity in Animals considered in refer- 
 ence to the Unity of the Human Species. By Samuel George Mor- 
 ton, M. D., Penna. and Edinb.— I regard this (Relation between 
 Scripture and Geology, by the Rev. J. Pye Smith, L. L. D., 4th 
 edition,) among the most instructive volumes that has issued from 
 the press since the revival of letters, and for this reason— that it 
 
constitutes a link between Religion and Natural Science — studies 
 which have hiiherlo been as isolated as if they were incompatible 
 with each other. 
 
 From the North American and Gazette. 
 This is a work of such established character, and it has obtained 
 so much favor and popularity with the religious reading public 
 that it would seem superfluous to add to its praise. We may re- 
 peat, however, the opinion of a friend, a scientific gentleman, of 
 this city, of the highest European as well as American reputation, 
 who says of Dr. S.'s book that it is " one of the most instructive 
 volumes that has issued from the press since the revival of letters." 
 Mr. Peterson's edition is a handsome one, with clear, large type, 
 and it is reprinted from the fourth London edition, greatly enlarged. 
 
 From the Christian Observer. 
 " Geology has claims upon the regard of all enlightened and 
 pious minds." The truth of this remark, uttered by the author of 
 the standard work before us, in advance of the science of the age, 
 many years since, is at length generally admitted. And we are 
 gratified to see a new, handsome and enlarged edition o( his valu- 
 able work, to advocate these claims, before the Christian public in 
 this country. The enterprising publisher has issued a new edition 
 of it in handsome style, which will no doubt be rewarded by the 
 liberal patronage of the public. 
 
 From the Bnnner of the Cross. 
 Dr. Pye Smith, who is " Divinity Tutor in the Protestant Dis- 
 senting College of Homerton," holds a high rank both as a The- 
 ologian and Scientific scholar. The subject of his work is an im- 
 portant one at the present time, when Geological Science attracts 
 so much attention, and when its results are sometimes arrayed 
 against the teachings of revelation. Against ibis evil this work, by 
 . an author who holds to " the certain and infallible truth of all that 
 is taught in the Holy Scriptures, when taken in its own genuine 
 sense," will prove a useful safeguard. It also presents, in an 
 agreeable ana popular form, a good view of the discoveries in 
 Geological Science, a subject on which it is the duty of Christians 
 to inform themselves in order that advantage may not be taken of 
 their ignorance. 
 
 From the Presbyterian. 
 We are very well pleased to see the reprint of this well known 
 work, now in its fourth edition abroad; for although the learned 
 author has pushed his speculations beyond our views of fact, he 
 has a profound reverence for divine revelation, and maintains that 
 geology attests the truth of the divine word. His works are there- 
 fore worthy of being studied by those who are desirous of pursu- 
 ing inquiry in the regions of speculation with a safe guide. 
 
10 
 THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK. 
 
 BY A LADY OF PHILADELPHIA, 
 
 A PRACTICAL HOUSEWIFE. 
 
 12mo., 75 ots. 
 
 The only Cook Book worthy of a Housekeeper's perusal. — Graham's Mag. 
 
 This work contains almost exclusively American dishes. It is 
 very rich in receipts for pastry, tea and sweet cakes and pre- 
 serves. Great pains have been taken to make the receipts clear, 
 concise and practical, and it is confidently believed that the Na- 
 tional Cook Book will supersede all others — and prove an inval- 
 uable assistant to all housekeepers. 
 
 From Graham's Magazine. 
 
 This is, on all sides, admitted to be the very best of the many 
 cook books that have been issued by the press of late years. The 
 editor, be she whom she may, understands the art of preparing a 
 delicious meal, of any material, it seems, and our taste has passed 
 favorable judgment upon a fruit cake of most inviting look, and of 
 quality the best. A lady in whose, judgment we have the most un- 
 bounded confidence, pronounces this " the only cook book worthy of 
 a housekeeper's perusal." 
 
 Next to the intellectual feast, which is spread before the readers 
 of Graham each month, we suppose, will come a snug breakfast, 
 a glorious good dinner, or a cozy palate-inviting supper of birds, 
 with mushrooms. Now, without Peterson's Cook Book, the meal 
 cannot be perfection. Of this we feel convinced. 
 
 From the Saturday Evening Post, July 6, 1850. 
 
 The National Cook Book, by a Lady of Philadelphia, a Prac- 
 tical Housewife. Published by Robert E. Peterson, N. W. corner 
 of Fifth and Arch streets, Philadelphia. 
 
 Here is a book that we can confidently recommend to our lady 
 readers, as one that will give great satisfaction — as our female ac- 
 quaintances who have examined into its merits, speak of it in the 
 very highest terms. It is not, as so many of the receipt books are, 
 filled with receipts that are entirely useless to nine-tenths of the 
 American housekeepers; but is a book calculated for the American 
 taste, and plain but substantial and generous mode of living. Great 
 care has been used in the wording of the receipts ; so that they 
 may neither be too diffuse, nor too concise. 
 
 The receipts for the sick room, some sixty in number, have been 
 prepared according to the directions of eminent physicians of this 
 cilv, and are an exceedingly valuable portion of the book. 
 
 The book itself is got up in a plain, substantial, serviceable 
 style, calculated for use rather than ornament — and we predict 
 will soon become, in fact as well as in name, the National Cook 
 Book. 
 
11 
 
 From the Dollar Newspaper. 
 This is ihe best bound and most handsomely printed of all the 
 cook books that have yet come under our notice, and what is more 
 important for the great majority of those for whom it is intended, 
 ilb^ecipes are more practical and better adapted to the circum- 
 stances and conveniences of housekeepers than any other. They 
 are' generally drawn up in a concise and simple manner, and so 
 plainly worded, that those least skilled in cooking, may compre- 
 hend IheftH. It thus avoids the great defect of similar works,, 
 which often" so mystify, by the use of French, and other unusual 
 terms, that plain people are oftener perplexed than instructed in 
 their perusal. Another commendable quality of this volume is, 
 the recipes ar£"adapted to utensils in common use in almost every 
 family, yfe are quite sure our lady readers will like it. 
 
 From Sarlain's Magazine. 
 The National Cook Book.— By a Lady of Philadelphia. — 
 " The proof of the pudding, is in the eating," says the proverb. 
 By analogy, the proof a cook-book is in the cooking, and we are 
 prepared, by sweet experience, to say that a fruit-cake " baked 
 after one of the receipts in the National Cook-Book," is one of the 
 finest of its kind we have ever tasted. Of the general merits of 
 the "National Cook-Book," it is not meet that we, personally 
 should have an opinion, but we are instructed by the " power be- 
 hind the throne,'' who has been studying it ; to say that in her opi- 
 nion, it is more praeticajly useful for ordinary housekeepers than 
 any she has seen. 
 
 From Scott's Weekly Paper, August 3. 1850. 
 The National Cook Book. — The ladies of our household have 
 been testing the recipes in this book for the past month, and they 
 agree in pronouncing it the very best practical cook book that 
 ever came under their notice. They have tried many, but to the 
 National Cook Book they award high praise for- the economy and 
 excellence of its recipes. 
 
 From the Morning Post, (Pittsburgh) July 9, 1850. 
 Here is a book for the ladies, worth a thousand magazines filled 
 with fashion plates. Nothing makes home more happy and com- 
 fortable than a pleasant wife and a well cooked meal. Let husbands, 
 who are fond of wholesome living, buy this book for their wives. 
 
 From the Philadelphia Inquirer, June 19, 1850. 
 The National Cook Book. — Mr. R. E. Peterson, N. W. cor- 
 ner of Fifth and Arch streets, has just published a volume with 
 this title. It is by a Lady of Philadelphia, a practical housewife, 
 and contains no less than 578 recipes for making and cooking soups, 
 fish, vegetables, sauces, pastry, sweet dishes, cakes, preserves, 
 medicines for the sick, and miscellaneous preparations. The 
 work is the result of many years experience; and the author has 
 

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