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364
Popular salco.
FILLIPPO PALMA:
OR
THE POWER OF MUSIC.
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY C. GROBE.
The rich old miser and pawnbroker, Grilfo,
was about to close his store, and retire to his
solitary sleeping department. He threw a
quick searching glance about him—pianos,
guitars, household furniture of every kind
and description, which the necessities of the
poor, or the extravagance of the rich had
gathered there, strewed the room in strange
confusion.
After a cautious survey of the whole, and
satisfying himself that no thief was concealed
within who could despoil him of his hoarded
treasures, he turned to close the door, when
a young man stepped upon the threshold.
His elegant mantle only partially concealed
the richness of his dress, and the symmetry
of his form: he might have been about twen
ty-five years of age, and with all looked so
gay and glad, and life-loving, that the old
miser drew back amazed. Gracefully lifting
his hat, he disclosed a profusion of glossy,
raven curls, and a face that might have serv
ed a painter for an Adonis or Endymion.
His eye fell upon the grave, parchment like
features of the old usurer, and though he
could not restrain a smile, yet he failed to
banish the traces of care which saddened his
brow.
“Bravo, my young lord,” exclaimed Grif
fo, “I call you a man of your word —I have
always said that the noble lords of Rome,
and, indeed, all Italy might safely take for
their model Signor Fillippo Palma —none
knows so well as he how to live —how to
circulate his money, and none so punctual to
return a borrowed loan.”
“It grieves me much, Signor Griffo, that
this time I so illy deserve the praise with
which you overwhelm me, —I know that to
day I should have repaid that small sum.”
“ Small sum! sTnall sum! You owe me
a hundred ducats, and to-day I counted upon
it; I lent it, too, without a pledge, bethink
you, upon your honest face, but certainly
you have brought it, with interest, and you
wish to joke with me.”
“Would to God it were so,” rejoined Fil
lippo, “but believe me, we singers carry
empty purses while the Carnival lasts, our
opera manager cannot pay us until the
shrovetide is over, and we must live too : for
this I am come to beg you to double the loan,
and let me have another hundred ducats upon
my honest face.”
“ The and take me! if that is not a
joke,” said the astonished Griffo; “do you
think I have found my money or stolen it,
that I can throw it after you as you scatter
your light songs among the silly crowd?
No, no, I will teach you better —1 have your
bond, and if I cannot jingle both money and
interest in my purse this day, you shall go
to the debtor’s prison, and there celebrate
your Carnival, unless, indeed, your manager
or the foolish song-loving rabble of Rome
will redeem you.”
“Pray, listen to reason. Signor Griffo : if
you should stand me upon my head, not a
single ducat would fall out of my pocket—
wait only until the carnival is over, and you
shall see : the manager will then pay me my
arrears, and perhaps, also, 1 shall be the
bridegroom of a rich lady, whose love I seek
now to woo: I do entreat you, good Griffo,
let me have the money —draw up the bond,
and I will sign it.”
“A wife!” said Griflo, thoughtfully, “a
widow, perhaps —an heireps; who is she,
and how far has the matter gone ?”
“Not yet so far as you think ; neither do
I know who she is; I have seen her only
twice, but more is not necessary to fall des
perately in love—and once in love, the thing
is soon finished, for she seems to be unmar
ried, and, to all appearances, is blessed with
every earthly good.”
“ i will listen to you no longer, you young
mad-cap; you shall go to prison, to-day, if
vou cannot give me full satisfaction, or fur
nish me responsible security and hereupon
the old niggard flew into a paroxysm of rage,
and poured forth a perfect torrent of curses,
all of which Fillippo received with the most
impurturbahle gravity. Resolved upon ob
taining the loan, and hoping to gain his point
as soon as the storm hau passed by, Fillippo
meanwhile stepped up to an open piano, and
began to play a favorite Aria, which had
lately gained him much applause. Seeing,
however, that Griffo*s wrath was rather in
the flow than the ebb, he seated himself, and
began to sing the Aria, which he supported
with a vigorous accompaniment. He had at
@©®lF!2lß[aio &II if gIBA IE ¥ ©ASSdfdfiE.
, first no other intention than to show his firm
resolution, and to appear as unembarrassed
and as much at his ease as possible; but
when he perceived, that the old man listened
with delighted astonishment, instead of hum
i ming lightly and carelessly as before, he be
gan to sing in a style worthy Fillippo Palma,
the most celebrated singer of his time. A
mirror, hanging opposite, reflected the face
of the miser, and Fillippo watched with anx
ious interest the varying emotions which
passed through his soul, and waked and
warmed into life his stern, rigid features.
At first, the muscles of his face relapsed and
expanded as the full deep tones trembled
through the Hall; then, as the swelling
waves of rich melody rose and sank in wild
sport and play, the angular features gradual
ly formed themselves into a sweet smile, and
the man of gain, who had until now listened
only to the sound of gold, stood spell-bound;
a light was in his leaden, soulless eye, and
his lips trembled. It was as though an an
gel of beauty had touched him with his ma
gic wand, so complete was the transforma
tion ; the clear rich tones of melody fell upon
his soul, as the warm bright rays of the sun
upon the earth, after a long rainy season.
As Palma at last, with lively emotion and
brilliant passages, drew towards the close,
Griflo could no longer remain quiet in his
corner : he strove to express, by the motion
of his limbs, the spirit of the music; noise
lessly he moved, that he might not, by an
unlucky step, interrupt the sweet-toned stream
of enchanting melody. As the Aria conclud
ed, and Griflo stood panting, wiping the per
spiration from his forehead, the singer step
ped up to him with a smile, and said :
“How is it, Signor Griffo? will you loan
me the ducats, now ? or will you at least lis
ten to my explanation, and not interrupt me
with your curses ?”
“Curse! I curse?” No, heaven forbid!
The money I will count out to you directly,
my son : you are a magician—you have be
wjtched me, upon your honest face, or your
golden voice—l loan it without interest, if it
must be so.”
“ No, no, that is more than l ask, my
worthy sir; be assured, you do me a great,
favor, which I shall not forget after the Car
nival, when I am a happy bridegroom, and a
rich man.”
Fillippo quickly gathered up the money—
vanished through the street door, and Griflo
awoke as from a heavy dream to a conscious
ness of what he had done. At first, he
seemed to repent his generosity ; then, shak
ing his grey locks, involuntarily exclaimed:
“He has a voice! He can sing and be
witch with his songs : he shall teach my
Elisetta.” •
The Carnival was brilliant and magnifi
cent, but passed far too quickly for Fillippo.
He had not as formerly celebrated it with his
gay companions: he was seeking his un
known loved one amid th n crowd of masks,
and too often found himself sadly deceived.
His gold at last engaged an old woman to
bring information of her, and also deceive all
watching eyes which guarded the beautiful
unknown: through her he received a few
lines from the lady, containing, however,
neither yes nor no, but a promise to meet him
on the coming Sunday. True, he had seen
and spoken with her at Mokkoli's, on the
evening of the last day of the carnival, and
confessed his love; but, while he listened to
hear the sweet words of life that trembled un
expressed upon her lips, the dense crowd
separated him from the fair one, and instead,
the bravos of a hundred mocking voices
greeted him, as they looked on and boister
ously applauded the farce.
Fillippo sat in his lonely room in sorrow
and silence, when the door suddenly opened,
and Griffo stood before him. the sight of
whose face immediately recalled his uncan
celled obligation, and struck new terror to
the unhappy lover. The object of his visit, i
however, was by no means such as Fillippo I
had anticipated : he came to assure his young j
friend that the sweet strains of his golden j
song was floating yet through his brain, and !
to request that he would give his daughter
lessons, and teach her those charming mclo-’
dies, with which she might gladden and beau-!
tify his old age. Palma was not more sur
prised at this request than at the news that
he had a daughter, whom he had never seen
nor heard of, though he had been a long time j
a regular customer of the old man. Then !
Griffo told him how, long years ago, the per
suasions of his friends had induced him to
marry, and how, in a years time, his young
wife died, leaving him a daughter, whom the |
tender care of a prudent aunt had reared.
“ I have had notice,” added he, “that ma
ny flatterers and idlers, attracted by her beau
ty, seek to ensnare the girl—so it is doubly
necessary that she should be suitably em-
ployed, that evil may not take root in the soil
of her heart.” ‘
The next evening, in compliance with Grif
fo’s request, Fillippo was on the spot at the
appointed hour, and followed him with no
little curiosity into the upper apartments of
his lodgings. Who shall describe his aston
ishment, when, from a side door, entered the
long sought unknown object of his love.
Forgetting all else, he threw himself at her
feet, seized her beautiful hand, and covered
it with kisses, which she very graciously re
ceived, believing the approbation and con
sent of her father had already been gained.
But it was far otherwise : while the young
ones abandoned themselves to joy and delight ,
the old man foamed with anger and rage, and
a storm of imprecations soon convinced the
lovers of the true state of the case. All
seemed lost—Griflo seized the girl, and led
her into the next room, and was about to
kick Fillippo out the door, when, suddenly,
the remembrance came to him, how, on a for
mer occasion, he had, by the mysterious might
of music, subdued and conquered the terrible
anger of the old churl, he quickly seeded
himself at the open piano, and if before he
had been singing in joke, this time he sang
with the earnestness of desperation, and not
in vain. Orpheus won from the miser his
Eurydice, and became his son-in-law. No
son of song, since Fillippo Palma, has ever
won from a miser gold, far less an Elisetta.
®l)c (!?nglisl) KHacjajincs.
THE HASHISH.
The Hashish, ( Cannabis Indica,) possess
es the extraordinary power to produce what
is called in the Levant, where the properties
of the drug have long been known, a fanta
sia. The following extract from an article
in Chambers Journal, will give the reader
an idea of some of its singular effects. The
article referred to is not surpassed in interest
by any thing in DeQuincy's Confessions of
an Opium Eater. It may be found entire
inLittell’s Living Age for Feb. 3d, 1849.*
Os those who have experienced the effects
of the hashish in France, some have describ
ed their sensations in print. Amongst these
is Theodore Gautier, one of the most distin
guished writers of the day. He has, in the
newspaper edited by Emile de Gerardin, “La
Presse,” given the following testimony of its
singular influence :
“The Orientalists,” says he, “have, in
consequence of the interdiction of wine,
sought that species of excitement which the
western nations derive from alcoholic drinks.
The love of the ideal is so dear to man, that
he attempts, as far as he can, to relax the
ties which bind the body to the soul; and as
the means of being in an ecstatic state are
not in the power of all, one person drinks for
gayety, another smokes for forgetfulness, a
third devours momentary madness—one un
der the form of wine, the others under that
of tobacco and hashish.”
He then proceeds to say, that a few min
utes after swallowing some of the prepara
tion. a sudden overwhelming sensation took
possession of him. It appeared to him that
his body was dissolved, that he had become
transparent. He clearly saw in his chest
the hashish which he had swallowed, under
the form of an emerald, from which a thou
sand little sparks issued. His eyelashes
were lengthened out indefinitely, and rolled
like threads of gold around ivory balls, which
turned with an inconceivable rapidity.—
Around him were sparklings of precious
stones of all colors, changes eternally produ
ced, like the play of the kaleidoscope. He,
every now and then, saw his friends who
were round him disfigured—half-men, half- i
plants, some with the wings of the ostrich, 1
which they were constantly shaking. So j
strange were these, that he burst into fits of j
laughter; and to join in the apparent ridicu- j
lousness of the affair, he began throwing the j
cushions in the air, catching and turning
them with the rapidity of an Indian juggler!
One gentleman spoke to him in Italian, which
the hashish transposed into Spanish. After
a few minutes, he recovered his habitual
calmness, without any bad effect, without
headache, and only astonished at what had
passed. Half ar at had scarcely elapsed,
before he fell ag in under the influence of
the drug. On this occasion, the vision was
more complicated and more extraordinary.
In the air there were millions of butterflies,
confusedly luminous, shaking their wings
like fans. Gigantic flowers, with chalices of
crystal, large peonies upon beds of gold and
silver, rose and surrounded him with the
crackling sound that accompanies the explo
sion in the air of fire-works. His hearing
; acquired new power: it was enormously d?
veloped. He heard the noise of ?]?
Green, red, blue yellow sounds, reached £
in waves. A glass thrown down, the ere?
mg of a sofa a word pronounced low. vibiai
ed and rolled within him like peals of thun
der. His own voice sounded so loud, that hi
leaved to speak, lest he should knock do?
the walls, or explode like a rocket \\ n
than five hundred clocks struck the hour
with fleeting, silvery voice; and every obier
touched gave a note like the harmonica
| the iEohan harp. He swam in an ocean of
sound, where floated, like isles of light. eo me
of the airs of “Lucia di Lammeimuir'’
the “ Barber of Seville.” Never did Ij m i] ar
bliss overwhelm him with its waves: he was
lost in a wilderness of sweets; he Mas not
himself; he was relieved from consciousness
that feeling which always pervades the mind’
and for the first time he comprehended what
might be the state of existence of elementary
beings, of angels, of souls separated from the
| body : all his system seemed infected with
the fantastic coloring in which he was
plunged. Sounds, perfume, light, reached
him only by minute rays, in the midst of
which he heard magnetic currents whistling
along. According to his calculation, this
state lasted about three hundred yeays; for
the sensations were so numerous and so hur
ried, one upon the other, that a real appre
ciation of time was impossible. The par
oxysm over, he was aware that it had only
lasted a quarter of an hour.
A case, taken down in notes immediately
after its occurrence, may be relied on as per
fectly authentic, and as giving a notion of the
varied nature of the influence of hashish.
The individual, aware of its effects, not by
experience, but by what he had heard, hav
ing swallowed some of the drug, sat down to
the dinner-table; and beginning the dinner in
a true French style, ate some oysters, and
then suddenly burst into a loud fit of laugh
ter, which soon ceased. He was calm again,
until the dessert was placed on the table,
when he suddenly seized a large spoon, to
defend himself against a preserve of fruits,
which he fancied was going to fight a duel
with him, and then, with a shout of laughter,
he rushed from the dining room. He seated
himself in the saloon, at the piano-forte, and
commenced an air, which was suddenly put
a stop to by a horrible vision. The portrait
of his brother, which hung over the instru
ment, became animated, and presented him a
three-pronged staff, terminated by three lan
terns —one red, one green, and one white.
, This apparition returned frequently in the
course of the evening. Whilst seated on the
sofa, he exclaimed, suddenly, “ vVhy bind
my limbs? I feel that I become lead! Oh,
how heavy lam !” He was taken by the
hands to lift him, when he fell upon the
ground upon his knees, as if about to pray-
Being lifted up, a sudden change came over
him. He took the shovel from the fire-place
to dance the polka; he imitated the voice and
the gestures of the actors he had lately seen.
He fancied himself at the opera; the people,
the noise, the lights, elevated his spirits to
their highest pitch. He gesticulated, made a
thousand incoherent speeches, and rushed in
to the next room, which was not lighted up.
Something frightful then came over him: he
fell into an immense well; it was unfathom
able ; he tried to lay hold of the stones that
projected on the sides of the well, hut they
fell with him into the aby’ss. The sensation
was painful, but of short duration, and again
the scene of the opera appeared. He spoke
of persons whom he had not seen for years:
spoke of a dinner at which he had been pre
sent five years before, although he was con
scious that he was at home, and that all he
then saw had passed a long time before, yet
he saw before him two persons whom he had
then met. But a bliss that could not be de
scribed was the sight of an infant in a sky ol
blue and silver, with white wings bordered
by roses: he smiled, and showed two beauti
ful teeth. He was surrounded by children
with Mings, and flying in a blue sky, but
they were not equally lovely. These all
rapidly vanished, after being a source of m*
finite delight; and suddenly the hashish call*
ed up the land of lanterns. There were peo
ple, houses, trees, formed of lanterns, in P
allel rows: these lanterns marched, danced,
and jumped about; in the midst of them ap
peared the three lanterns, which belonged to
his brother’s fork. One brilliant light seem
ed superior to all ; this was evidently produ
ced by a piece of coal in the fire-place, f° r
w hen it was extinguished, the light disap
peared with it. On drinking a glass of lem
onade, the baths of the Seine rose up jr J
view, where, with difficulty r he was save<
from drowning. A thousand fantastic vis
ions floated across the mind during the thro*
hours of its influence, and there was a mix