shadow of britain

Chapter 556 Uninvited Guest

Mendelssohn jumped out of the carriage, and Liszt followed him.

Before he even reached Arthur, Mendelssohn couldn't wait to tell him about all the adventures that had happened during his trip to Paris.

When Mendelssohn and Liszt arrived in Paris, they first went to see Heine.

Everyone knows that although Heine has only lived in Paris for a few years, he has already become famous in the literary and art critic circles in Paris. However, his reputation in Paris is not entirely positive, which can be seen from his grievances with Liszt.

In addition to Liszt, Heine also had a bad relationship with Dumas' old friend Vigny. In "On Romanticism", which Heine had just delivered to the editorial department of "The Liberty", although this guy was openly criticizing French romantic literature, he was actually making fun of Vigny for indulging in a lyrical and exaggerated writing style.

In addition, he had an equally bad relationship with his fellow German Platten. Heine bluntly said that Platten was a passionate lover of ancient Greece and a member of the modern-day Theban Sacred Army. If someone who didn't know the inside story heard this, most people would think that Heine was praising Platten.

But in fact, anyone who knows a little about Greek history will know that this guy is actually implying that Platten has homosexual tendencies. Because the Sacred Legion of Thebes in ancient Greece was composed of 150 pairs of homosexual couples.

However, although this guy's mouth is as vicious as ever, he still values ​​his golden friendship with his old friend Arthur.

Especially when Mendelssohn handed Arthur's handwritten letter to Heine, the face of this always cynical German poet suddenly shone with the piety of a saint.

Perhaps the moment Heine saw Arthur's handwritten letter and the check enclosed in the letter was the happiest moment in the past one or two months.

Heine's life immediately became difficult after Arthur left Paris.

He first fell out with his old friend of more than ten years, Bernard, who was also a Jewish German nationalist, because he accepted funding from the French government.

Bernard scolded Heine for being shameless, saying that accepting funding from the French government went against his bottom line as a German.

Heine was equally sarcastic about Bernard, accusing him of being a narrow-minded petty-bourgeois radical despite being a patriot.

Afterwards, Heine may have felt that he had to justify the French funding, so he wrote this line in a new poem: Wherever people set fire to books, there will eventually be people setting fire to people.

If this sentence were said in normal Paris, it might not be a big deal.

But the problem is that the July Monarchy government is currently using the assassination at the Kaidaosai Mansion to step up the censorship of publications. Heine's words at this time will certainly attract their attention. Because this sentence can easily make people think that Heine is secretly poking at their recent work.

What's more, people who are familiar with Heine know that there is no need to make any further associations with this poem. Heine is actually criticizing France's recent censorship system.

However, due to Heine's international reputation, the French government was reluctant to publicly embarrass this European-renowned poet. But secretly, they could still force Heine to shut up by not disbursing grants on time and telling many newspapers in Paris not to use Heine's articles.

Otherwise, no matter how thick-skinned Heine was, he would not have sent a letter for help to Arthur right after receiving the remuneration for "On Romanticism".

Arthur helped Heine solve his urgent problem, so naturally he would also stand by Arthur.

As soon as Heine received the letter, he led Mendelssohn and others to the Italian Theater in Paris.

When the people from the Italian theater saw Heine and Mendelssohn coming to visit them in person, they immediately patted their chests and told them that they could just ask for any actor they wanted to borrow.

However, when Mendelssohn said he wanted to borrow Giovanni Rubini, the Italian Theater immediately backed out.

The theater staff first apologized to the guests, and then politely informed them that any actor in the theater could be borrowed, except Giovanni Rubini, because this first tenor in Europe was the pillar of Italian theater and the exclusive actor of the theater manager Mr. Rossini.

The Italian theater's signature operas "Cinderella", "Otello" and "The Lady of the Lake" were all premiered with Rubini as the leading actor. Although these plays are no longer fresh, the audience can accept other male actors replacing them.

But unfortunately, news of an uprising in the northern Italian states came from Paris recently. This news made Mr. Rossini, who is an Italian, very excited, so he is re-arranging the opera "William Tell" based on Schiller's poem of the same name.

"William Tell" tells the story of William Tell, the Swiss independence hero. Mr. Rossini hopes that at this moment, he can inspire Italy's revolutionary enthusiasm through this opera.

Therefore, this play had to be starred by Giovanni Rubini.

Moreover, even if we put aside Mr. Rossini's wishes, Rubini is also an Italian, and he himself also hopes to play "William Tell" at this moment.

Heine and Mendelssohn were disappointed when they heard the news, but they also knew that they could not force others on such matters.

However, although he hit a wall with the Italian theater, Heine quickly came up with a new solution.

In Paris today, there are three great tenors on the opera stage: Giovanni Rubini, Adolphe Nouri and Gilbert Dupre.

Since Roubini doesn't work, why not try to invite Nouri and Dupree?

Among them, Nouri once met Arthur.

When Arthur, Dumas, Heine and Andersen were dining at the Vaele Hotel, they ran into Nuri who was meeting with Mazzini and Garibaldi.

However, since Heine and Nuri were not very familiar with each other, it was natural for Heine to lead Mendelssohn and others to find Dumas.

Dumas had fought alongside Nouri during the July Revolution of 1830, so there was some revolutionary friendship between the two.

In addition, since Dumas opened the theater, the two had financial ties, so Heine naturally thought that Dumas's connections would most likely be able to deal with Nouri. At Heine's suggestion, the group quickly rushed to Dumas's wholly-owned theater on Temple Avenue - the Historic Theater.

According to Mendelsohn, when they broke into the backstage of the theater, the guy was slumped in his chair and flirting with his latest actress, Miss Mary Dolores.

When Dumas saw everyone coming, he was frightened at first, but the black gentleman, who was used to big scenes, quickly regained his usual calmness.

He warmly entertained all the visiting friends and said that he had recently hired three chefs. Since everyone was here, they should not rush to leave and should come to his house for dinner tonight.

After Mendelssohn explained his purpose to Dumas and told him the love story of Mr. Schumann and Miss Wieck, Dumas cheered and said that this was simply a modern version of "Romeo and Juliet" and asked him to let him know if he could be of any use to him.

When Dumas heard that he was needed to help contact Nouri, he told everyone that Nouri had left Paris in a hurry after performing the ballet "La Sylphide" at the Historical Theater the night before.

Dumas originally planned to invite Nouri to dinner, but he refused. According to the principal tenor of the Paris Opera and professor of tragic lyric acting at the Paris Conservatory, his cousin in Montpellier was getting married in a few days, so he had to hurry back to attend the wedding.

But Dumas joked that he would not believe Nuri's lies, and asked Heine if he remembered what he saw when he and Arthur had dinner at the Vaele Hotel that day. Nuri was involved with Young Italy, and the time he went to the wedding coincided with the time when the Italian uprising took place. Who knows, this guy might actually be escorting ammunition for Young Italy.

What Dumas said cannot be said to be speculation, because Nouri had a long history in this regard. Not only did he participate in the July Revolution with Dumas, during which he defended the barricades while singing the "Marseillaise", but Nouri was also closely related to the Belgian Revolution in 1830.

On August 1830, 8, the eve of the Belgian Revolution, Nouri was performing the premiere of The Dumb Girl of Portici in Brussels, the capital of Belgium. In that scene, Nouri's Masaniello had a duet called "Amour sacré de la patrie" (Sacred Love of the Fatherland).

Because of Noori's over-the-top singing, or perhaps because he did it on purpose, the duet succeeded in arousing strong resonance in the audience, especially the patriotic sentiment contained in it. During the performance, the audience began to get restless, and when the performance ended, this restless mood quickly turned into anger against Belgium's overlords, the Dutch.

These audiences spread this sentiment throughout Brussels, like a spark on the prairie that spread like wildfire overnight.

Although it is a bit of an exaggeration to say that Nouri caused the Belgian Revolution, the Paris Opera's principal tenor definitely played a role in igniting the powder keg.

Dumas analyzed Nuri's whereabouts to Heine and the others in a very clear and logical manner, but as he was speaking, the fat black man suddenly froze, and only then did he realize that something was wrong.

Italy has revolted, Young Italy has made a revolution, and even Nouri has participated in such a big event. Why is Alexandre Dumas still sitting in Paris waiting to die?
Dumas hurriedly wanted to see the guest off, but everyone present saw what the fat man was trying to do.

Everyone tried to persuade him, but no one could persuade him.

That afternoon, Dumas arranged the work for the next few days at the Historic Theatre, then hitched his carriage and headed south to Italy for the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont.

Seeing that he wanted to die, Heine jumped into his car, and Mendelssohn and Liszt also came up to help.

But Dumas obviously came prepared. Not only did he go by himself, but he also brought along three new cooks he had hired.

Perhaps because of his learning at Scotland Yard, Dumas carefully planned to kidnap Heine, Mendelssohn and Liszt.

However, he did not intend to capture the three friends' able-bodied men. Instead, he would wait until the carriage left Paris and then find a country inn to drop them off in case these guys tried to ruin his plans again.

But what no one expected was that not long after the carriage left Paris, when they passed the first village, they ran into the tenor that everyone was dreaming about - Mr. Adolphe Noori.

Dumas jumped out of the carriage to greet him and started asking Nuri about the Italian Revolution.

The dusty Nouri was frightened by Dumas' question and gestured to him to speak in a lower voice.

Then he pointed to his carriage and whispered a few words in Dumas' ear.

In just a moment, everyone saw that the excited smile on Dumas' face disappeared, and was replaced by an indescribable solemnity.

Dumas had a brief conversation with Nouri, then jumped back into the carriage and told Heine and the others that he would not go to Italy this time, but would go to Göttingen with them.

The journey was bumpy all the way, and no matter what everyone asked, Dumas didn't say a word.

It was not until the carriage passed Prussia and entered the Kingdom of Hanover that Dumas confessed to them: "The Italian Revolution has failed. Mr. Nouri's carriage is carrying several young Italian members whom he rescued from the border. Heinrich, you know one of them. Do you remember the name Giuseppe Garibaldi? We had dinner together, and he also drank with me, Louis, and Arthur."

At this time, everyone understood what had happened.

But for Heine, traveling with the members of Young Italy was not the worst.

The worst thing is that this poet who was banned by Prussia and Austria was actually brought back to Germany by that damn Dumas.

Although the Kingdom of Hanover would definitely not arrest him, Heine's heart was never at ease on the way to Göttingen.

Arthur's eyes widened when he heard this. He lowered his voice and asked, "You are just kidding! Where are Heinrich, Alexander, and the people from Young Italy now? Are they in your car?"

Mendelssohn also knew that this was a difficult thing to accept. He smiled shyly and said, "Sorry, Arthur, we didn't expect things to turn out like this. But don't worry, we have hidden them well. They are staying in a hotel next to the Göttingen Police Station."

Fiona covered her mouth and said, "Next to the police station? You guys didn't believe the nonsense that the more dangerous the place, the safer it is, right?"

Arthur gritted his teeth and cursed, "Needless to say, this bad idea must have come from that bastard Alexander. Felix, take me to see them right away!"

(End of this chapter)