[Life of Chopin by Franz Liszt]@TWC D-Link book
Life of Chopin

CHAPTER IV
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During the only excursion which he made with a hope that the mildness of a Southern climate would be more conducive to his health, his condition was frequently so alarming, that more than once the hotel keepers demanded payment for the bed and mattress he occupied, in order to have them burned, deeming him already arrived at that stage of consumption in which it becomes so highly contagious We believe, however, if we may be permitted to say it, that his concerts were less fatiguing to his physical constitution, than to his artistic susceptibility.

We think that his voluntary abnegation of popular applause veiled an internal wound.

He was perfectly aware of his own superiority; perhaps it did not receive sufficient reverberation and echo from without to give him the tranquil assurance that he was perfectly appreciated.

No doubt, in the absence of popular acclamation, he asked himself how far a chosen audience, through the enthusiasm of its applause, was able to replace the great public which he relinquished.

Few understood him:--did those few indeed understand him aright?
A gnawing feeling of discontent, of which he himself scarcely comprehended the cause, secretly undermined him.


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