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Carolyne von Iwanowska was born near Kiew, Russian Poland, in February, 1819. When she still was young her parents separated, and she divided her time between them.
Her mother possessed marked social graces, travelled much, was a favorite at many courts, and, as a pupil of Rossini's in singing, was admired by Spontini and Meyerbeer, and was sought after in the most select salons, including that of Metternich, the Austrian chancellor. From her Carolyne inherited her charm of manner.
Huneker says of Liszt and the Comtesse d'Agoult: "Every one knows that he was as so much dough in her hands." So, in a more than different way, we shall find him who had slain his hecatomb of hearts helpless in the power of his one great love. Again he is first compelling, then compelled. February 8, 1819, in Monasterzyka in Kiev, Carolyne von Ivanovska was born.
The prince was a handsome but otherwise commonplace man, and not at all the husband for this charming, mentally alert and finely strung woman. The one happiness that came to her through this marriage was her daughter Marie. Liszt came to Kiew on a concert tour in February, 1847. He announced a charity concert, for which he received a contribution of one hundred rubles from Princess Carolyne.
The same month Carolyne invited him to visit her at one of her country seats, Woronince. Brief correspondence already had passed between them. To his fifth note he adds, as a postscript, "I am in the best of humor . . . and find, now that the world contains Woronince, that the world is good, very good!" The great pianist continued his tour to Constantinople.
None the less, the struggles went on for the freedom of Princess Carolyne. In 1859 her daughter, Marie, was married to Prince Constantin zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, aid-de-camp and later grand steward of the Austrian emperor. Now that the daughter was safely disposed of, the princess took active steps for her own freedom.
"Nor goods, nor gold, nor godlike splendor; Nor house, nor home, nor lordly state; Nor hollow contracts of a treach'rous race, Its cruel cant, its custom and decree. Blessed, in joy and sorrow, Let love alone be." The lady who according to Liszt daily greeted him with these significant lines was the Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein.
To quote La Mara again: "From this marriage the Princess Carolyne gained only one happiness: the birth of a daughter, the Princess Marie, on whom she centred the glowing love of her heart." While the two fathers-in-law lived, the children-in-law were kept together; but the old men soon went their way.
Then the other half of the year, she was the ward of her "beautiful, lovely, elegant" mother, who doted on society, and introduced her daughter to the capitals and the salons of Europe. So, says La Mara, "under constantly changing surroundings, now in the midst of the world, now in the deep solitude, Carolyne von Ivanovska lived her first years."
She died at Frankfort, May 19, 1896, and is buried beside her husband in Bonn. Franz Liszt and his Carolyne In the famous Wagner-Liszt correspondence, Liszt writes from Weimar, under date of April 8, 1853, "Daily the Princess greets me with the lines 'Nicht Gut, noch Geld, noch Göttliche Pracht." The lines are from "Götterdämmerung," the whole passage being
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