In Bohemia with Du Maurier | Page 5

in my father's album--that showed talent enough
and to spare, but his artistic aspirations were soon to meet with a
serious check. His eyesight suddenly gave him trouble, and before long
put a stop to his studies at atelier or academy. He was not to become a
painter, as he had fondly hoped, but as we now know, he was to work

out his destiny in another direction. With the simplest of means he was
to delineate character, and everyday drops of ink, when filtered through
his pen, were to emerge in quaint or graceful shapes, wit, satire, and
sentiment taking their turns to prompt and guide that pen.
[Illustration: _From du Maurier's painting._]
In those days we called all that caricaturing, and caricature he certainly
did; mainly me and himself. From the first he imagined he saw a
marked contrast between us. His nose was supposed to be turned up,
and mine down, whereas really neither his nor mine much deviated
from the ordinary run of noses; my lower lip certainly does project, but
his does not particularly recede, and so on. But the imaginary contrast
inspired him in the earliest days of our acquaintance, and started him
on the warpath of pen-and-inking. He drew us in all conceivable and in
some inconceivable situations. "Moscheles and I," he says on one page,
"had we not been artists, or had we been artistically beautiful; then
again, if we were of the fair sex, or soldiers, or, by way of showing our
versatility, if we were horses." In that page he seems to have focussed
the essence of our characteristics, whilst appearing only to delineate our
human and equine possibilities. Poor F., one of our German friends,
fares badly, a donkey's head portraying him "s'il était cheval."
[Illustration: MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ DU
BEAU SEXE.]
[Illustration: SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ BEAUX.]
In consequence of the growing trouble with his eyes, du Maurier left
Antwerp for Malines, to place himself under the care of an eminent
oculist who resided within easy reach of that city. That blessed
blister--"ce sacré vésicatoire," as he calls it, is one of the doctor's
remedies.
[Illustration: MOSCHELES ET MOI SI NOUS N'AVIONS PAS ÉTÉ
ARTISTES.]
[Illustration: SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ CHEVAUX.]
[Illustration: F. S'IL ETAIT CHEVAL.]
The sketch shows how it is being applied by a devoted Sister of Mercy.
[Illustration: SI NOUS AVIONS ÉTÉ MILITAIRES.]
In those days railway travelling was not as rapid as it is now, but one
could get from Antwerp to Malines in about an hour, a circumstance
which I frequently turned to account. Du Maurier's mother had come to

live with him, his sister joining them for a short time, and the home in
quiet old Malines soon became a sort of haven of rest. I spent many a
happy day and night there, on which occasions I am bound to say that
the piano, requisitioned by me for some special purposes of musical
caricature, detracted somewhat from the restfulness of the haven.
However that may have been, such intrusion was never resented; my
Swedish prima donna, or my qualifications as a basso profondo, or a
brass-bandsman, were always treated with the greatest indulgence by
the ladies, and my high soprano flourished and positively reached
unknown altitudes under the beneficent sunshine of their applause. (For
all that I never attempted Chopin's "Impromptu.")
[Illustration: "CE SACRÉ VESICATOIRE."]
[Illustration: ISABEL DU MAURIER.]
Then du Maurier would sing the French "romance" or the English song,
or he would "dire la chansonnette," and what with his sympathetic
tenor and his intuitive knowledge of music, he seemed to be able to
express more than many who had had the advantage of a musical
training. A few old letters of his remind me that we were audacious
enough to write verses and music, he doing the former, I the latter.
"Here's something I particularly want you to do," he writes. "Take
strong coffee, inspire yourself, think of your 'Ideal,' and compose some
very pretty music to the enclosed words, with which Rag's ideal flame
has inspired Rag--_surtout_, let it be as good as possible, with
accompaniment _à l'avenant_. An alteration in the music of each stanza
would render the gradation of energy expressed in the words, 'Je
compte sur toi.'" (How du Maurier came by the name of "Rag" I must
tell later on.) Then follow the words:--
CHANSON.
_D'apres un barde Britannique_.[1]
Les sources vont à la rivière Et la rivière à l'océan; Les monts
embrassent la lumière, Le vent du ciel se mêle au vent; Contre le flot, le
flot se presse; Rien ne vit seul--tout semble, ici, Se fondre en la
commune ivresse.... Et pourquoi pas nous deux aussi? Vois le soleil
étreint la terre, Qui rougit d'aise à son coucher-- La lune