Life of Henriette Sontag, Countess de Rossi.: with Interesting Sketches by Scudo, Hector Berlioz, Louis Boerne, Adolphe Adam, Marie Aycard, Julie de Margueritte, Prince Puckler-Muskau & Theophile Gautier. — John Shaqi
Life of Henriette Sontag, Countess de Rossi.: with Interesting Sketches by Scudo, Hector Berlioz, Louis Boerne, Adolphe Adam, Marie Aycard, Julie de Margueritte, Prince Puckler-Muskau & Theophile Gautier.
General
Life of Henriette Sontag, Countess de Rossi.: with Interesting Sketches by Scudo, Hector Berlioz, Louis Boerne, Adolphe Adam, Marie Aycard, Julie de Margueritte, Prince Puckler-Muskau & Theophile Gautier.
Sontag, Henriette, 1806-1854
Occupied, however, Madam, like all other people, as I am, I shall find
time to trace, with a rapid and truthful pen, those eminent qualities
which all admire in you. Endowed with beauty which attracts, grace which
fascinates, you also possess _esprit_ and native refinement, without
which every other quality loses its charm. You have a marvellous
talent--how shall I describe this! How can we explain by what natural
refinement, by what intellectual labor, you have made it at once so
grand and so touching! That ineffable voice, which goes directly to the
heart, and dwells for ever in the memory of those who hear it--those
ever-changing shades of expression--those bold and brilliant
embellishments created by good taste, softened by grace, and made
inimitable by art--you possess all. Oh, music of the spheres, of which
we dream but never hear!--you alone have revealed it, for you alone
possess that touching language, at once radiant and heart-thrilling, yet
penetrating, like all real beauty, like that divine essence whence you
emanate. When you appear on the scene, which you instantly transform
into a brilliant saloon, one would think he had been admitted by special
favor to one of those courtly representations given to indulge the
caprice of some great princess desirous of obtaining those numerous
wreaths you know so well how to wear.
How much admiration have you not excited in the different parts you have
filled, with equal inspiration and science! How have eyes and ears both
been charmed at the "Daughter of the Regiment"--a creation understood
and interpreted by yourself alone!--where, in spite of yourself, the
harmony of your gestures, the grace of your movements, give to the whole
character a mysterious poetry, which infects the very air around you!
With what inimitable art you represent that inimitable _Rosina_, at once
so innocent and so cunning, committing with such reckless grace those
little sins which make youth so happy, and revealing at the same time
the woman who attracts us by the qualities we love and the faults we
adore. Ah, whether you express either joy or sorrow, you charm
equally--like those privileged natures, you can feel everything, because
you can understand everything. You are merciful and
charitable--misfortune has never applied to you in vain--never has the
cry of the sufferer been listened to by you without reply. Succoring the
one, consoling the other, you give to misfortune at once your heart and
your gold. Benevolent, obliging, and generous, all those who come to you
are received with a gracious modesty which spares them many pangs. You
have so much memory for what is required of you--you forget so soon what
you give--you appear so happy to oblige--that you seem to be indebted to
those whom you serve. Artist and accomplished woman, you possess the
two endowments so rare in this world--immense talent and unlimited
appreciation. Heaven has given you two nobilities--that of ancestry and
that of the soul.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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