With it, he was king over worlds of his own. Poor man, he had little enough in this!—At a manufacturing town in England there is a gravestone, on which the epitaph records "one Claudius Phillips, whose absolute contempt for riches, and inimitable performance on the violin, made him the admiration of all that knew him!" Logical conjunction of opposite eulogies! In proportion, Genius, to thy contempt for riches will be thy performance on thy violin!
Gaetano Pisani's talents as a composer had been chiefly exhibited in music appropriate to this his favourite instrument, of all, unquestionably, the most various and royal in its resources and power over the passions. As Shakespeare among poets, is the Cremona among instruments. Nevertheless, he had composed other pieces of larger ambition and wider accomplishment, and, chief of these, his precious, his unpurchased, his unpublished, his unpublishable and imperishable opera of the "Siren." This great work had been the dream of his boyhood—the mistress of his manhood; in advancing age "it stood beside him like his youth." Vainly had he struggled to place it before the world. Even bland, unjealous Paisiello, Maestro di Capella, shook his gentle head when the musician favoured him with a specimen of one of his most thrilling scenas. And yet, Paisiello, though that music differs from all Durante taught thee to emulate, there may—but patience, Gaetano Pisani!—bide thy time, and keep thy violin in tune!
Strange as it may appear to the fairer reader, this
