Chérubin

“ I wrote the music at Égreville.
His Serene Highness the Prince of Monaco heard that Le Chérubin was set to music, and he remembered Le Jongleur de Notre Dame which he had welcomed so splendidly and which I had respectfully dedicated to him. He had M. Raoul Gunsbourg propose to me that the first performance be given at Monte Carlo. It is not difficult to imagine with what enthusiasm I accepted this offer. Mme. Massenet and I went again to that ideal country in that fairy-like palace of which we have retained such imperishable memories. ”

“ She was one of the most charming women of her time, and pleased every one who saw her by her appearance, her elegance, and the kindliness of her nature. She was accompanied by her little son, Elzéar de Sabran, who little thought of the part he was destined to play in politics later on; for the present, he contented himself with learning the part of Chérubin in the Mariage de Figaro, the Princesse Charles studying Suzanne, and Madame de Sabran the part of the Countess, for after the return from Spa the play was to be acted at Bel Œil. ”

“ The rôles in which she has most nearly approached the ideal are perhaps Mélisande, Jean (Le Jongleur de Notre Dame) , Sapho, Thais, Louise, Marguerite (in Gounod's Faust) , Chrysis (in Aphrodite) , and Monna Vanna. I cannot speak personally of her Tosca, her Orlanda, her Manon, her Violetta, or her Chérubin (in Massenet's opera of the same name) . I do not care for her Carmen as a whole, and to my mind her interpretation of Salome lacks the inevitable quality which stamped Olive Fremstad's performance. ”

“ The "Mariage de Figaro," of Beaumarchais, has acquired importance apart from its merits as a comedy, both from its political history and from its good fortune in being set to immortal music. The plot is poor and intricate, but the dialogue is uniformly sparkling, and two of the characters will live as typical. In Cherubin we have the dissolute boy whose vice has not yet wrinkled into ugliness, best known to English readers under the name of Don Juan, but fresher and more ingenuous than Byron's young rake. ”

“ You cannot have seen and heard Pauline Lucca, or you would not ask this question.
Cherubino is by no means the most important person in the plot of the Nozze. But he strikes the keynote of the opera. His love is the standard by which we measure the sad, retrospective, stately love of the Countess, who tries to win back an alienated husband. By Cherubino we measure the libertine love of the Count, who is a kind of Don Juan without cruelty, and the humorous love of Figaro and his sprightly bride Susanna. ”

“ Vieuxboys should tell me she do it as well now as he did see her twenty Years ago! Pretty, to hear her sing "Venite, inginocchiatevi" where she do make Cherubino kneel down on the Cushion before the Countess, and put him on a Girl's Cap, and pat his Chin and Face. ”

“ As an instance of Cherubini's curt wit, the following little conversation is cited:—
One day a friend handed a score to Cherubini, saying it was by Mehul. After looking it over he exclaimed:—
"It is not Mehul's; it is too bad to be his."
"Then will you believe me if I tell you it is mine?" said the visitor, and Cherubini replied:—
"No! It is too good to be yours." ”

“ Don Basilio comes in search of the Count, but promptly begins his pleas in behalf of his master. Receiving nothing but indignant rejoinders, he twits Susanna with loving the lad, and more than intimates that Cherubino is in love with the Countess. Why else does he devour her with his eyes when serving her at table? And had he not composed a canzonetta for her? Far be it from him, however, to add a word to what "everybody says." "Everybody says what?" demands the Count, discovering himself. A trio follows ("Cosa sento!") ”

“ Once, indeed, his having learned the violin as a child was the means of saving his life. Independently venturing out at night, he was arrested by a roving band of drunken Sansculottes, who were seeking musicians to conduct their street chants. Somebody recognised Cherubini as a favourite of court circles, and, when he refused to [Pg 243] lead their obscene music, the fatal cry, “The Royalist, the Royalist!” buzzed through the crowd. At this critical moment another kidnapped player thrust a violin in Cherubini’s hands and persuaded him to yield. ”

“ I would therefore much prefer that you repeated the quartet you have just played!” I was very much astonished at this remark, and did not understand it until I afterwards ascertained that Cherubini was quite unacquainted with the German masterpieces of this kind of Mozart and Beethoven—and at the utmost had once heard a quartet by Haydn at Baillot’s soirées. As the other persons present coincided with Cherubini’s wish, I consented the more readily, as in the first execution of it, some things had not gone altogether well. ”

“ I shall put him under my pupil Halévy, to work at counterpoint and fugue."
Cherubini's view was that the Italian school followed the only orthodox system of music, as laid down by Palestrina, whereas the Germans look upon Sebastian Bach as the high priest of harmony.
Far from being discouraged by this decision, I was only too delighted.
"All the better," said I to myself; and to my mother, later on, "It will be great advantage to me. I can choose the best points of both the great schools. It is all for the best." ”

“ The house of Cherubini [writes Veron in his "Memoires d'un Bourgeois de Paris"] was open to artists, amateurs, and people of good society; and every Monday a numerous assembly thronged his salons. All foreign artists wished to be presented to Cherubini. During these last years one met often at his house Hummel, Liszt, Chopin, Moscheles, Madame Grassini, and Mademoiselle Falcon, then young and brilliant in talent and beauty; Auber and Halevy, the favourite pupils of the master; and Meyerbeer and Rossini. ”

“ Although the harp in ancient times was the favorite instrument of a pious king, it should for all that be banished from the church, because it is wholly unfit for the severe style which is the only one suitable for that edifice.
But will you believe it, when I assure you that even the worthy master Cherubini himself, has allowed himself to be led away by this bad example, and his masses exhibit in many places a theatrical style. It is true that he makes amends for it in those places with superior music, full of effect ”

“ Méhul was Gluck’s greatest disciple—he was directly encouraged and aided by Gluck—and even surpassed his master in musical science.
Cherubini’s Médé and Les deux journées were produced in 1797 and 1800, respectively. The latter ‘shows a conciseness of expression and a warmth of feeling unusual to Cherubini,’ says Mr. Hadow; at any rate it is better known to-day than any of the other works, and not infrequently produced both in France and Germany. It is opéra comique only in form, for it mixes spoken dialogue with music—its plot is serious. ”

“ This magnificent system of defence should above all be put in active operation in the apartment of your wife; never let her curtain her bed in such a way that one can walk round it amid a maze of hangings; be inexorable in the matter of connecting passages, and let her chamber be at the bottom of your reception-rooms, so as to show at a glance those who come and go.
The Marriage of Figaro will no doubt have taught you to put your wife's chamber at a great height from the ground. All celibates are Cherubins. ”

“ Thus, if the Firmament gave forth the sound of f, the Sun gave f an octave higher up and the Moon gave f an octave higher still. Saturn, Venus and the Earth gave g in these three octaves, and Jupiter, Mercury and the Antichthon gave c in these three octaves also, while Mars gave d in the lowest octave by itself. And if that is what these orbs are ‘quiring to the young-eyed cherubins,’ I do not much regret ‘this muddy vesture of decay’ that hinders me from hearing it.
If the heavenly bodies went round in circles, their notes would never vary, as the distances would always be the same ”

“ Moriaz. There, my dear count, I congratulate you sincerely. I had the pleasure to meet here the future Countess Larinski. She is adorable! It is an exquisite nature, hers—a true poet’s wife. She must have brains, discernment; she has chosen you—that says everything. As to her fortune, I dare not ask you if she has any; you would turn away from me in disgust. Do idealists trouble their heads with such vile questions?”
She leaned towards him, and, fanning herself excitedly, added: “These poor idealists! they have one misfortune.”
“And what is that, princess?” ”

“ If old Lady Crewkerne derived a grim satisfaction from the absolute possession of the nine days’ wonder, Cheriton was one of the proudest and happiest men in London. He took to himself the whole merit of the discovery.
“I assure you,” he declared to a circle of the elect, “that blind old woman would never have seen the likeness. It was quite providential that I happened to look in and point it out.”
In matters of art Cheriton’s taste was really fastidious. And in addition to his other foibles no man was more susceptible to beauty. ”

“ Chermside?" she forced herself to ask.
"Nursing his broken head," was the brutal reply. "You mustn't set any store on having him for a travelling companion. He's going to make the voyage on the silent system, in a cabin of his own. I can't have an impetuous young lunatic like him loose on such a quiet ship as the Cobra."
"It was Mr. Chermside who attacked the crew of the launch just now?"
"No other, but mark you, he never had the ghost of a chance. Bully Cheeseman is equal to taking on half a dozen such shavers as that, and with his pretty temper it's a wonder he didn't shoot. ”

“ That eloquent and acute biographer, Edmund Lodge, thus truly gives the character of Lord Herbert of Cherbury. "Of that anomaly of character by the abundance and variety of which foreigners are pleased to tell us that our country is distinguished, we meet with few examples more striking than in the subject of this memoir—wise and unsteady; prudent and careless; a philosopher, with ungovernable and ridiculous prejudices; a good humoured man, who even sought occasions to shed the blood of his fellow creatures ”

“ A friend introduced him to the writings of Herbert, that very Herbert whom he had been taught to look upon with so much terror and odium. Their perusal operated a complete revolution of his mind; and, in little more than a year from his flight from Cherbury, he had become an enthusiastic votary of the great master, for his violent abuse of whom he had been banished from those happy bowers. The courage, the boldness, the eloquence, the imagination, the strange and romantic career of Herbert, carried the spirit of Cadurcis captive. ”

“ Herbert though himself a pattern of humility, was younger brother of the celebrated Lord Herbert of Cherbury, whom Horace Walpole abuses for his beauty and gallant bearing, tinctured it must be allowed, with affected notions of high birth. But the gay philosopher of Cherbury lived in the last days of chivalry, and had their light but gleamed upon Walpole, he would, in all probability, have borne the very qualities which he so loudly censures in Herbert. The pastor Herbert's wife was nearly related to Lord Danby, so that the caution which we have quoted was perhaps requisite. ”

“ Two of us should remain here while the third boldly enters into the cities to make inquiries."
"I'll go," said Chick.
"No, indeed; you're too young and too small," objected Para Bruin.
"But I'm just a regular child, while you're a rubber bear and John Dough's a gingerbread man," said the Cherub. "They wouldn't think anything of my being here; but if either of you two go there's liable to be trouble."
"The Cherub is wise for one so young," observed John. "Therefore we will let the child visit the cities and report to us. ”

“ Lord Cherbury felt more reconciled than he had been before to the diminution of his fortune; he yet retained sufficient for the comforts, and many of the elegancies of life. The splendor he lost was insignificant in his eyes; his present situation proved happiness could be enjoyed without it, and he knew it was equally disregarded by Amanda. He asked himself,
“———What was the world to them— Its pomps, its pleasures, and its nonsense all, Who in each other clasp, whatever fair High fancy forms, or lavish hearts can wish?” ”

“ Cherbourg (40) , a French port and arsenal in the dep. of Manche, opposite the Isle of Wight, 70 m. distant, on the construction and fortifications of which immense sums were expended, as much as eight millions; the fortifications were begun by Vauban.
Cherbuliez, Victor, novelist, critic, and publicist, born at Geneva, of a distinguished family; professor of Greek at Geneva; holds a high place, and is widely known, as a writer of a series of works of fiction; b. 1826.
Cher`ibon (11) , a seaport of Java, on the N. of the island.
Cherith, a brook E. of the Jordan, Elijah's hiding-place. ”

“ When you left us you were a mere youth.”
“And now?”
“And now you have the air of a young man; but, I beg of you, where have you come from? I thought you were in the heart of Transylvania.”
“It is possible to return from there, as you see. Three days ago I arrived in Paris and flew to Maisons-Lafitte. Mme. De Lorcy, who bears the double insignia of honour of being my aunt and the godmother of Antoinette—I beg your pardon, I mean Mlle. Antoinette Moriaz—informed me that you were in ill-health, and that your physician had sent you to Switzerland, to Saint Moritz, to recruit. ”

“ Yes, Cheriton was a cool hand. Indeed, so much so that Caroline Crewkerne was a little inclined to doubt his bona fides.
“I have not seen the creature in tears yet,” said she three days after that memorable night in which the compact was made.
“Do not let us commit the indiscretion, my dear Caroline,” said the happy wooer, in his most musical manner, “of acting prematurely. I have always been a believer in laissez faire. If things are going obviously right, why disturb them? The creature rejoices like a lark in her youth, her companions, and her mountains. I am too old for mountains myself. ”