HEINE AND LADY DUFF GORDON.

Otago Witness, Issue 2106, 5 July 1894, Page 41

HEINE AND LADY DUFF GORDON.

I In Heft Bof Vom Fels zum Meer, Herr S'gmund Munz has an interesting article on Heinrich Heine and Lady (Lucie) Duff GordoD, the mother of Mrs Janet Ross, the author of " Three Generations of English Women," «• Early Days Recalled," &o. HOW THEY FIRST MET. It wae at Boulogne, in August 1833, that Lucie Austin first made the acquaintance of Heine. She was then a child of 12, with large brown eyes and beautiful hair, and one day when she was sitting at the table d'hote she attracted the attention of Heine by the ease with which she conversed in German with her mother. He said to the child : " When you return to England, you may tell your friends you have seen Heinrich Heine." 11 And who is Heinrich Heine 1 " she replied ; whereupon he was greatly amused, and he explained that he was a German poet. Lucie and Heine soon became good, friends, and they spent hours on the pier together, the child singing him English ballads, and the poet telling her wild tales of all sorts of fishes and mermaid?, and of an old French fiddler who had a black poodle, and took three baths a day, and to whom the watersprites brought greetings from the North S?a. " Wenn ich an deinem Hause, Dcs Morgens voruber geh" is a poem in Heine's " Buch der Lieder," dedicated to his Eoglish child friend. THEIR BEOOND MEETING. Meanwhile 18 more years pass, and Lucie has become the wife of Sir Duff Gordon. In 1851 Lady Duff Gordon, now a woman of 30, was staying in the borne of Bartb6!emy St. Hilaire. at Paris, when she happened to hear that Heine waa living quite tear, in the Rue Amsterdam, and that he was ill and very poor. She sent to inquire whether he remembered the child to whom he had told such charming stories at Boulogne, and whether she might visit him. The dying poet desired to see her at once, and the two naturallyfell into reminiscences of the happy days at Boulogne. He reminded her of the billads she sang 18 years before; but Lady Daff Gordon was deeply moved by bis intense sufferings. His voice was weak, the ugh he spoke with remarkable vivacity. Clearly, his mind bad survived his body. HEINE ON FRENCH WOMEN. He raised bis powerless eyelidß with his thin, white fingers, and said : " Yes, Lucie has still the same large eyes. . .' . Little Lucie has grown up and has a husband. That is strange." He asked whether she was happy and contented, and he hoped she waa no* less happy now than she was merry as a child, She replied she was no longer so merry, but she was happy and contented ; to which Heine observed : That is nice. It does one good to see & woman who does not go about with a heart to be healed by all sorts of men, as the women in France do. The French women do not know what i 8 wrong with them ; they have no heart at "YOUB GODSHIP," In the autumn of 1855, Lady Duff Gordon spent two months in Paris. Heine bad re-" moved to the Champs Elysees, and there, too ( Lady Duff Gordon was staying. The poet, having heard of her arrival, scribbled Ifi pencil : —

Highly esteemed Goddess of Grea6 Britain ! I sent word by the servant that I am ready at any hour on any day to receive your godship. But I have waited in vain for such a heavenly vision. Do not delay any longer. Come to-day, come to-morrow, come often. You live so near the poor shadow in the Elysian Fields ! Do not let me have too long to wait. Herewith I send you the first four volumes of the French edition of my unfortunate works. Meanwhile I remain your godship's most obedient worshipper. — Heiniuch Heine. s

Not many minutes » after, his English friend was at his side. Sbe found him still on the mattress on which be was lying three years before. More ill be could not look, for his appearance was that of a dead person. He was truly but a shadow, but by sorrow and suffering his features had taken on a certain beauty. He welcomed her with the words :

I have 'now made my peace with the world and with God, who has sent you to me as tho beautiful angel of death. I shall certainly die soon. ... I hardly know why

I did not like the English, but I never really hated them I was once in England ; I lmcw nobody, and found London a very sad place, and tlie people in the streets intolerable. But England has avenged herself by sending me excellent friends— you, the good Milnes, and others Milnes was the poet and politician later known as Lord Houghton. FAREWELL. Lady Doff Gordon cannot praise too highly the way in which Heine bore his sufferings. He was glad when his complaints brought, tears to her eyes ; but if a joke of his made her laugh, he would rejoice even more. He begged her not to leave him or say farewell for ever. When he spoke German to her he addressed har with "Dv," but in French be called her " Madame "or " Vous." He declared she coal 3 always laugh from the heart, which the French could not. But it was not long before he had entered into his rest, and Lady Duff Gordon had to mourn his death.