In a
fortnight he had written fifty pages of the pianoforte score, as well as
the _motifs_ for the whole work, and the music of half the first act.
Then madness came. On 20 September he was seized while he was working at
the great recitative of Manuel Venegas in the first act.
He was taken to Dr. Svetlin's private hospital in Vienna, and remained
there until January, 1898. Happily he had devoted friends who took care
of him and made up for the indifference of the public; for what he had
earned himself would not have enabled him even to die in peace. When
Schott, the publisher, sent him in October, 1895, his royalties for the
editions of his _Lieder_ of Moerike, Goethe, Eichendorff, Keller, Spanish
poetry, and the first volume of Italian poetry, their total for five
years came to eighty-six marks and thirty-five pfennigs! And Schott
calmly added that he had not expected so good a result. So it was Wolf's
friends, and especially Hugo Faisst, who not only saved him from misery
by their unobtrusive and often secret generosity, but spared him the
horror of destitution in his last misfortunes.
He recovered his reason, and was sent in February, 1898, for a voyage to
Trieste and Venetia to complete his cure and prevent him from thinking
of work.
Pages:
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254