WHIMS OF GREAT MEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 7002, 26 April 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

WHIMS OF GREAT MEN.

Some amusing features from the lives of celebrated men have been brought together by a German writer. Auber wrote on horseback; it was not possible for him to write in any other place than Paris, however beautiful another residence might be, and however many attractions it might offer. Adam composed best when he lay, with his clothes on in bed, aud showed as great antipathy to all landscape beauty as love to his cats. The same antipathy to all natural beauty is charged to Donizetti, who always slept when he went upon a journey, when he should have given his attention to the Tomantic scenery of Switzerland and Italy. Cimarosa could not write without having a lot of friends around him, with whom he kept up an active conversation about art matters. Sacchini'a train of thongbt was interrupted when his cats did not play their antics upon his writing desk. Sarti could only become inspired in a room without furniture, and whioh was dimly lighted. Spontini could only compose in the dark, and Meyerbeer composed best during violent thunder storms, under the roof of bis house. Salieri gained his inspiration while he walked quickly through the streets filled with a human throng, meantime eating a great quantity of confections. Haydn, in order to compose, sat in a soft arm chair, with his gaze directed to heaven. Glnck composed in the open air,-best in the glaring sunshine. He liked champagne by his work, andgesticulated very violently, as if he were an actoron the boards. Handel wandered in the churchyard, and. when he wished to become inspired he sat himself down in one corner of it, whioh was shaded by weeping willows. Psesielio composed in bed, and did not leave it until he had finished a whole operatic scene or act. Mebul was a great worshipper of flowers, and often fell into silent reverie in observing them. He felt happiest in a quiet garden. Mozart gained his inspiration from reading Homer, Dante, Petrarch. Verdi must read passages fromShakspear, Goethe, Schiller, Ossian and Victor Hugo. Schiller inspire d his mu9ic by the smell of rotten apples, which he kept constantly in his desk; besides this, he liked to live among-surroundings corresponding to the subject on which he worked. When he wrote the last act to Mary Stuart he had his servants clothed in blaok; and so long as he worked on Wallenstein he neglected no review or other military spectacle, and at home his wife must sing battle pieces for him. Goethe loved to have plastic works of art before him as he wrote. It is known in the creation of his Iphigenia he had the image of an antique female before him in order to see if that which he made his heroine say would suit the features before him. Jean Paul replenished his ideas while .taking a walk, and drank a glass of beer now and then on the way. In writing he loved the strong smell of flowers.. - Herr von Kleist worked with great difficulty, and when he made poetry it was as if he had a conflict with an invisible fiend. Just the opposite was the case of Father Wieland. In making" his poems he trilled a lively song, and sometimes would spring up from his work and cut a caper in the air. Eotzebue, in the composing of his dramas, was also actor. He himself acted single scenes in his study. It is related that when Sand murdered him, his little son, as he saw him reel and then writhe upon the ground, cried to his mother : " See, mamma, father plays comedy again J" Burger, the immortal poet of Leonora, is said to have whistled street songs as he wrote his verses on paper. His conversation is said to have been obscene. Hoiderlin was often found crying when he composed his poems. Similar things are said of the French romance writer,_ Lafontaine. His wife found him before his writing desk, swimming in tears. " Oh, it is too sad," he sighed. "It don't go at all," he sobbed ; "I am still in the first volume." Mattison wrote his poems by moonlight, while standing at the window, Lamartine wrote his best things in the morning, before breakfast, while sitting before the fire.