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Her appearance in Copenhagen made an epoch in the history of our opera; it showed me art in its sanctity: I had beheld one of its vestals." Jenny Lind was one of the few who regard art as a sacred vocation. "Speak to her of her art," says Frederika Bremer, "and you will wonder at the expansion of her mind, and will see her countenance beaming with inspiration.
Madame de Valentinois, called Diana of Poitiers, whom the King served and in whose name the mock chase was arranged, was not less content. Fredrika Bremer was born at Tuorla Manor-house, near Åbo, in Finland, on the 17th of August, 1801. In 1804 the family removed to Stockholm, and two years later to a large estate at Årsta, some twenty miles from the capital, which was her subsequent home.
"I saw her at the evening representation," says Fredrika Bremer. "She was then in the spring of life 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. She seemed to move, speak, and sing without effort or art. All was nature and harmony.
The moon rose and silvered with soft light the white stems of the birch-trees, which hung in graceful groups along the mountain sides. The young gipsy was beginning to yield to sleep when cries in the distance roused her into an impulse to fly. Hark! She knows the voices! They are those of Brémer, Fritz, and all the people of the farm searching for her!
Their merits, indeed, were precisely those which English readers might be supposed to appreciate. It may be interesting to note that in "The Neighbours," more than in any of her other works, Frederika Bremer drew from real life. Aged Mrs. Mansfeld is almost a literal portrait of one of her most familiar acquaintances. As for Francisca Werner, she is the authoress herself.
Frederika Bremer relates that daily she brought home handfuls of these blossoms to her chamber, and nightly they all disappeared. One morning she looked toward the wall of the apartment, and there, in a long crimson line, the delicate flowers went ascending one by one to the ceiling, and passed from sight.
It is delightful to escape to his creations from this universal prettiness, which seems to be the highest conception of the crowd of modern sculptors, and which they almost invariably attain. Miss Bremer called on us the other day.
I had just been speaking with the captain of the steam-boat and some of the passengers about the Swedish authors living in Stockholm, and I mentioned my desire to see and converse with Miss Bremer. "You will not meet with her," said the Captain, "as she is at this moment on a visit in Norway."
Miss Bremer listened with greater pleasure when he added, with the accent of conviction, that in any case equal right of inheritance would become law, sooner or later, amongst them. It existed in the spirit and tendency of all their legislation, and, besides, it was right. It was in the spring of 1859 that Miss Bremer set out for the East.
Very late, when the moon's rays became less brilliant, unable to stand out against her fatigue any longer, she sank down on the heath and fell fast asleep. She was four leagues from Dosenheim, near the source of the Zinzel. Brémer was not likely to come so far to look for her.
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