by Sue Corbett
Jenny Lind was born on October 6, 1820 at Stockholm, and is said to have evinced musical talent and a beautiful voice in her fourth year. Mdlle Lundberg, the famous dancer, heard the child in her ninth year, and induced her parents to send her as a pupil to the school of singing attached to the Court Theatre of her native city. Berg and Crölius were her first masters, and she made her debut as Agatha in Der Freischütz at Stockholm in 1838, playing also Euryanthe, Alice in Robert le Diable, and Spontini’s La Vestale with signal success. But although she pleased the public she failed to satisfy herself, and in 1841, when her engagement at Stockholm had expired, she went to Paris, to place herself under Manuel Garcia, with whom she studied for several months, and appeared once at the Grand Opéra in 1842, but without success. It is said that this disappointment induced her to make a vow never to sing in Paris again, and this she strictly kept, although tempting offers were not wanting at a later period when her fame had become European. In another sense, however, her stay in Paris was to have important consequences. Meyerbeer heard her, and discovered the rich promise which the Parisian public had failed to see, and it was through his means that she obtained the engagement at the Berlin Opera, from which her international celebrity may be said to date. This was in 1844, when Jenny Lind appeared in Meyerbeer’s The Camp of Silesia, the principal soprano part of which had been specially written for her. Here her success was instantaneous. The public greeted her as the “Swedish Nightingale” and Moscheles, who happened to be in Berlin, and later on in London became one of her warmest friends, speaks of her in a letter to his wife:—“Jenny Lind has truly enchanted me. She is unique of her kind, and the air with two obbligato flutes is perhaps the most incredible thing in the way of bravura that can be heard anywhere.” This testimony from a highly competent musician may be supplemented by that of a still greater one, Mendelssohn, who wrote:—
“In my whole life I have not seen an artistic nature so noble, so genuine, so true as is that of Jenny Lind. Natural gifts, study, and depth of feeling I have never seen united in the same degree; and although one of these qualities may have been more prominent in other persons, the combination of all three has never existed before.”
The posthumous fame of a singer could not rest on a safer basis than such words from such men. It is true that other contemporary critics are not always equally favourable. The author of “Musical Recollections of the Last Half Century,” who witnessed Jenny Lind’s debut in London, declares that “to my ear she invariably sang somewhat sharp, and I could by no means consider any prima donna to be a great artist who was only positively successful in four operas — Roberto, La Sonnambula, La Figlia del Reggimento, and Le Nozze di Figaro, her Norma having been a complete failure.” The charge of the lady’s continually singing sharp may be safely dismissed in the face of ample evidence to the contrary, but the fact of her répertoire being somewhat limited cannot altogether be denied. Jenny Lind as a stage singer was a vocal artist rather than the interpreter of great dramatic emotions. It is true that her acting as Alice in the scene at the Cross is spoken of as a carefully-studied performance, but some competent witnesses whom we have consulted agree in saying that Jenny Lind belonged to the class of soprani leggieri who sing first and act afterwards. It is quite true that her and the public’s favourite operas required more singing than acting; at the same time it is an interesting subject for speculation how Jenny Lind and some of her famous contemporaries would have acquitted themselves in the more dramatic style which has since come into vogue. That her own bias was not really for the stage is sufficiently proved by the fact that she left the opera as early as 1849, her last appearance “on any stage” as Alice in Robert le Diable taking place on March 18 of that year.
Henceforth she confined herself exclusively to the concert platform, and there she gained laurels even greener and more lucrative than those of the earlier stages of her career. Her singing of Swedish songs was in its way unequalled; these simple ditties became the rage of the town, and Moscheles and other fashionable composers of the day transferred them to the piano. But still greater triumphs were in store for the artist in oratorio. Her singing in Mendelssohn’s Elijah still lives in the memory of those who heard it. The first performance in England of Schumann’s Paradise and the Peri, with Jenny Lind as the principal soprano, which was given at the Hanover-square Rooms in the presence of the Queen (July, 1856), was also a memorable incident in the great artist’s career.
Jenny Lind’s first appearance on the London stage took place at Her Majesty’s Theatre on May 4, 1847, and was preluded by every art of réclame then in fashion. Two rival managers, Lumley and Bunn, went to law over her, and one of them recovered heavy damages, afterwards reduced, in the Court of Queen’s Bench. The lady’s Continental successes and her private virtues, her charity, and her childlike innocence, were canvassed by the newspapers with a fullness of detail which would do credit to modern journalism of a certain class. No wonder that on the eventful evening the house was crowded, and the tickets were retailed by the agents at fabulous prices. The “Jenny Lind fever,” already alluded to, raged during that and the following season with unabated violence, taking the form of portraits printed on handkerchiefs, fans, and similar objects. One chronicler even mentions “Jenny Lind potatoes,” called so from the blue specks on their skins, because the prima donna had blue eyes. Mr Chorley, the well-remembered critic, says:—
“From the first moment till the end of that season (1847) nothing else was thought about, nothing else talked about, but the new Alice, the new Sonnambula, the new Maria in Donizetti’s charming comic opera — his best. Pages could be filled by describing the excesses of the public. Since the days when the world fought for hours at the pit door to see the seventh farewell of Siddons nothing had been seen in the least approaching the scenes at the entrance of the theatre where Mdlle Lind sang. Prices rose to a fabulous height. In short, the town, sacred and profane, went mad about ‘the Swedish Nightingale.’ ”
The fame of Sweden as the home of operatic songbirds has, it may be parenthetically stated, been fully sustained since then by such artists as Madame Nilsson and Mdlle Arnoldson, the promising débutante of last season. In 1850 Jenny Lind went to America under the auspices of Mr Barnum, and accompanied by Mr, afterwards Sir, Julius Benedict. Here she remained for two years giving concerts under Mr Barnum’s management, and later on on her own account, and the profits realized by her were fabulous, being variously stated as £20,000 and $3,000,000. It was at Boston, on February 5, 1852, that she married Mr Otto Goldschmidt, the well-known composer, whom she had previously known at Hamburg, and who assisted her at her concerts. Readers of Mr Bayard Taylor’s autobiography will remember the amusing incident of the ode written in connexion with Mdlle Lind’s triumphs and conferring upon the poet a celebrity the reverse of agreeable. Returned to Europe, the young couple settled first at Dresden and afterwards at Wiesbaden and Hamburg. In 1856, however, Jenny Lind once more appeared on the English concert platform; and England she finally made her home. Living in comparative retirement from society, the great artist gathered round her a circle of admiring friends, and never lost her interest in the two chief objects of her life, music and charity. A writer in “Grove’s Dictionary” states that —
“The whole of her American earnings was devoted to founding and endowing art scholarships and other charities in her native Sweden; while in England, the country of her adoption, among other charities she has given a whole hospital to Liverpool and a wing of another to London. The scholarship founded in memory of her friend Felix Mendelssohn also benefited largely by her help and countenance; and it may be said with truth that her generosity and sympathy were never appealed to in vain by those who had any just claims upon them.”
Of late years Madame Lind-Goldschmidt was actively interested in the Bach Choir, as long as it was conducted by her husband, and she was seen at the head of the soprani at each of the concerts given by that institution. She also held, as already mentioned,
a professorship of singing at the Royal College of Music. Her holidays she loved to spend at a house bought by her on the slope of the Malvern Hills, and it was here that she died, surrounded by her husband and her family.
Jenny Lind, opera singer, was born on October 6, 1820. She died on November 2, 1887, aged 67
FRANCES MARY BUSS
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HEADMISTRESS AND PIONEER OF WOMEN’S EDUCATION
DECEMBER 25, 1894
We regret to announce the death of Miss Frances Mary Buss, which took place yesterday, at the age of 67. She was the eldest child and only surviving daughter of the late Mr R. W. Buss, painter-etcher, and one of the illustrators of the “Pickwick Papers.” She received her education in a private school, which was attended by the daughters of many artists who lived in the neighbourhood of Camden-town. When she left school as a pupil she continued as a teacher, but after a time joined her mother in a school which had been opened in Kentish-town, and secured a good number of pupils. During this time she availed herself of certain classes which were formed in Queen’s College. She received certificates of proficiency in several subjects, this being at the time the only channel through which such testimonials could be given. The present headmistress of Cheltenham Ladies’ College was also a student at these classes. It was in the year 1850 that the school in Kentish-town was moved to a larger house in Camden-street, and under the auspices of the Rev David Laing, who secured for it the interest of Canon Dale, assumed the name of the North London Collegiate School for Ladies. The increase of pupils was rapid, and soon another house was required to accommodate them.
When the Cambridge University local examinations were opened to girls in 1863, and offered an outside test by which the education of girls could be proved, Miss Buss was foremost among those who availed themselves of this advantage, and her pupils commenced that series of successes which has been continued to the present time. In 1864 an application was made by Miss Davies and Miss Bostock to the Schools Inquiry Commission that girls’ schools should be included in the inquiry, with the view of obtaining endowments for the education of girls. This application being granted, Miss Buss was summoned as a witness, and gave much striking evidence. The Commission reported in 1868, and stated that, with but few exceptions, of which the North London Collegiate School for Ladies was one, the provision for the education of girls was quite inadequate.
About this time the Brewers’ Company were contemplating the foundation of a school for girls in St Pancras, as in that parish they had large estates. When the matter came before the Charity Commissioners, it was suggested that it would be better to help an established school than to create a rival, and to this the members of the Court cordially assented. The North London Collegiate School for Ladies had been removed from Camden-street to more spacious premises in the Camden-road, and in the houses thus vacated the Camden School for Girls recently founded by Miss Buss was located. A trust was formed for carrying on the schools as the North London Collegiate and Camden Schools for Girls, and it was these schools that were chosen as the recipient of the Brewers’ bounty. Subsequently a scheme was framed which received the sanction of her Majesty in Council. By means of the endowment provided by the Brewers’ Company, supplemented by the Clothworkers’, the governing body constituted under this scheme were able to secure a suitable freehold site for the two schools, and on them to erect suitable buildings. Besides this a provision was made for scholarships and other purposes. With this equipment the two schools were able to offer a liberal education for girls such as had hitherto not been attainable.
But the influence of Miss Buss’s work in education stretched far beyond the boundaries of her own two schools, even in these earlier days. When the Girls’ Public Day School Company began its excellent work of establishing first-grade girls’ schools throughout the country the North London Collegiate School was taken as the model to be visited and studied at the outset by newly-appointed head mistresses. Among the first to take advantage of the women’s colleges at Cambridge was a contingent of pupils from Miss Buss’s school. In the earlier years this contingent sometimes formed as much as one-third of the total number of Girton College, and scholarship winners from North London have always been conspicuously present on the College roll and in the Tripos lists. Miss Buss, with Miss Davies, Miss Clough, and Miss Beale, are known to this generation as the veteran leaders in the movement for the higher education of women.
In 1870 the University of London provided special examinations for women, and it was a pupil of the school over which Miss Buss so ably presided who took the first certificate that was obtained. In 1879 the University in the most complete sense was opened to women, and since then North London scholars have taken a full share of the honours made available for women.
Miss Buss has taken an active part in all movements for the development both of the profession of teachers and of the art of teaching. The Head Mistresses Association was one of the earliest organizations of the kind, and its formation was largely due to her energy and her insight into the needs of her time. She was also one of the most active promoters of the Teachers’ Guild, to which she gave much of her time and labours, and she was a zealous worker on the council of the College of Preceptors, of which she held the diploma of Fellow. She was ardent in her aspirations for the development of scientific educational principles, and the “Maria Grey” and still more the Cambridge Training Colleges for Women owed much to her support and assistance in their initial stages. Moreover, she maintained the principle that the teacher should be trained for her work in the most effective of all effective ways, by requiring that all her more recently appointed assistants should be trained.
But the effect of the work and influence of Frances Mary Buss was much more than can be sketched in a summary of the facts of her life’s work. It can only be gauged by the devoted admiration of her co-workers in every field, the colleagues of her own school who shared daily her inspiration, the mistresses of other schools who gladly came to her for counsel, and the great multitude of girls and young women who have enjoyed the inestimable benefits of an education under the stimulus of her great personality.
The funeral will take place on Monday next; the first part of the service will be at Holy Trinity Church, Clarence-road, Kentish-town, at 10 o’clock, and the interment at Theydon Bois at 2 o’clock.
Frances Mary Buss, educationist, was born on August 16, 1827. She died on December 24, 1894, aged 67
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI
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POET OF GRACE AND DELICACY AND SISTER OF DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI
JANUARY 1, 1895
We regret to record the death of Miss Christina Georgina Rossetti, the poet, who passed quietly away at her residence in Torrington-square on Saturday. The cause of death was cancer. Two years ago Miss Rossetti underwent an operation, and during the past five months she had been a great sufferer. Her nurse was the only person present when she died. The funeral will take place to-morrow. There will be a memorial service at Christ Church, Woburn-square, at 11 a.m., and the interment will take place at Highgate Cemetery later in the day.
Miss Rossetti was the youngest of a family all of whose members attained distinction in literature. Her father, Gabriele Rossetti, an Italian poet, critic, and man of letters, was born at Vasto, in the Abruzzi — then forming part of the kingdom of Naples — in 1783, and died in London in 1854. He had escaped to England after the constitutional struggle with Ferdinand in 1821. Settling down in London, he published various original works as well as critical dissertations on Dante, and he also taught the Italian language and literature. His wife (who died in 1886) was Frances Mary Lavinia Polidori, sister of Byron’s travelling physician. The Rossettis had four children — namely, Maria Francesca, author of “A Shadow of Dante,” &c., who was born in 1827 and died in 1876; Gabriel Charles Dante, usually known as Dante Gabriel, the famous poet and artist, who was born in 1828 and died in 1882; William Michael, the critical writer and editor of Shelley, who was born in 1
829, and who still survives; and Christina Georgina, whose death we announce to-day.
Miss Rossetti was born in Charlotte-street, Portland-place, London, on December 5, 1830. She was educated at home, under her accomplished mother’s tuition, and early became a member of the Church of England. In her opening years she furnished evidence of inherited genius; and it is stated that while still quite a child she wrote verses, “remarkable not only for sweetness and purity of feeling, but also for genuine singing impulse and a keen sense of fitness in the means of expression.” Before she was 17 a little volume of her poetry, entitled “Verses by Christina G. Rossetti, dedicated to her Mother,” was privately printed by her maternal grandfather, Gaetano Polidori, who kept a printing press for his own convenience at his residence in London. In 1830, under the nom de plume of “Ellen Alleyne,” she contributed to the Germ, the well-known but short-lived organ of the Pre-Raphaelites, Dante Rossetti, Holman Hunt, Thomas Woolner, and others. She also contributed fugitive poems to various other magazines. Her first published work in book form, “Goblin Market and other Poems,” appeared in 1862, and it immediately established her reputation as one of the most promising poets of the day. It was followed in 1866 by “The Prince’s Progress and other Poems.” The poem which gave the title to this volume was, perhaps, the most important and ambitious of her lengthier efforts, but it lacked the spontaneity of her shorter pieces.
Her next venture was in prose. It appeared in 1870, and was entitled “Commonplace, and other Short Stories.” While not possessing the remarkable beauty and originality of her verse, this work still manifested real elevation and purity of thought and diction. “Sing-Song, a Nursery Rhyme Book,” was published in 1872, and “Speaking Likenesses” — couched in quasi-allegorical prose — in 1874. Both these volumes were illustrated by Mr Arthur Hughes, and were specially written for children. The devotional element had been conspicuous in Miss Rossetti’s earliest poetical works, and it was further exemplified in 1874 by a work exclusively devotional, “Annus Domini; a Prayer for each day of the year, founded on a text of Holy Scripture.” A collected edition of her poems, which included besides a considerable number of new compositions, was brought out in 1875. Then came two religious works in prose — “Seek and Find,” and a double series of “Short Studies of the Benedicite” — issued in 1879. In 1881 appeared “A Pageant and other Poems,” and the same year also witnessed the production of another prose work, “Called to the Saints: the Minor Festivals Devotionally Studied.” In 1883 appeared “Notes on the Commandments,” and two years later a work of a similar kind, but in alternate prose and verse, entitled, “Time Flies: a Reading Diary.” A new edition of the “Goblin Market, the Prince’s Progress, and other Poems,” was published in 1884; and again in 1890 the majority of Miss Rossetti’s poems were re-issued in a collected form. Several of her lyrics were set to music, and cantatas for two of her longer poems — “Goblin Market” and “Songs in a Cornfield” — were composed by Mr Aguilar and Professor Macfarren.