264 ARTISTS AND AUTHORS time. His atelier in Copenhagen was visited daily ; he therefore felt himself more comfortable and undisturbed at Nysoe. Baron Stampe and his family ac- companied him to Italy in 1841, when he again visited that country. The whole journey, which was by way of Berlin, Dresden, Frankfort, the Rhine towns, and Munich, was a continued triumphal procession. The winter was passed in Rome, and the Danes there had a home in which they found a welcome. The following year Thorwaldsen was again in Denmark, and at his favorite place, Nysoe. On Christmas eve he here formed his beautiful bas-relief, " Christ- mas Joys in Heaven," which Oehlenschlaeger consecrated with a poem. The last birtnday of his life was celebrated here ; the performance of one of Holberg's vaudevilles was arranged, and strangers invited ; yet the morning of that day was the homeliest, when only the family and the author of this memoir, who had written a merry song for the occasion, which was still wet on the paper, placed themselves outside the artist's door, each with a pair of tongs, a gong, or a bottle on which they rubbed a cork, as an accompaniment, and sung the song as a morn- ing greeting. Thorwaldsen, in his morning gown, opened the door, laughing ; he twirled his black Raphael's cap, took a pair of tongs himself, and accompanied us, while he danced round and joined the others in the loud " hurra ! " A charming bas-relief, " The Genius of Poetry," was just completed ; it was the same that Thorwaldsen, on the last day of his life, bequeathed to Oehlen- schlaeger, and said, " It may serve as a medal for you." On Sunday, March 24, 1844, a small party of friends were assembled at the residence of Baron Stampe, in Copenhagen. Thorwaldsen was there and was unusually lively, told stories, and spoke of a journey that he intended to make to Italy in the course of the summer. Cahn's tragedy of " Griseldis " was to be performed for the first time that evening at the theatre. Tragedy was not his favorite subject, but comedy, and particularly the comedies of Holberg ; but it was something new that he was to see, and it had become a sort of habit with him to pass the evening in the theatre. About six o'clock, therefore, he went to the theatre alone. The overture had begun ; on entering he shook hands with a few of his friends, took his usual seat, stood up again to allow one to pass him, sat down again, bent his head, and was no more ! The music continued. Those nearest to him thought he was only in a swoon, and he was borne out ; but he was numbered with the dead. The mournful intelligence of his death soon spread through the country and through all lands ; funeral dirges were sung and funeral festivals were arranged in Berlin and Rome ; in the Danish theatre, whence his soul took its flight to God. there was a festival ; the place where he sat was decorated with crape and laurel wreaths, and a poem by Heiberg was recited, in which his greatness and his death were alluded to. The day before Thorwaldsen's death the interior of his tomb was finished, for it was his wish that his remains might rest in the centre of the court-yard of the museum ; it was then walled round, and he begged that there might be a marble edge around it, and a few rose-trees and flowers planted on it as his monument.
