ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

CHAPTER X.

MUNICH SOCIAL LIFE.

BETWEEN Nuremberg and Munich there is exactly the same difference which exists between a natural flower and an artificial one; often the latter may surpass the former in beauty, but it is not alive, no sap vivifies it; it lasts longer, but for your admiring gaze it cannot thank you in perfume, which is its language; it is excluded from reality, from positive, present being, and does not, as it were, commune with you; it is lifeless, and yet not dead-(the thing is possible, though the distinction be a nice one). Nuremberg is a museum, a remains, whereas Munich is an animate town. What the one now is, the other may perhaps be some day; and whilst in the old Reichstadt, you admire the works of those who

are no more, in the capital of Bavaria you live amongst those whom you admire, and you feel that if to-day you delight in the creation of some masterspirit, to-morrow you can discourse with the master himself, and remount, led by him, to the sources of his own inspiration. There is in this near approach to the inventor of what has charmed you (when the man and the artist are upon the same level) something almost mysteriously delightful; and the modern German creators have that in common with their forefathers, that they do not stand themselves one inch below what they create. But I shall have to return more fully to this subject in the next chapter. We will now leave for the living blossom, Munich, the dried flower, Nuremberg, hardly regretting, though still impressed by

"The rapture of repose that's there."

At

Directly you begin to enter the more southern part of the country, you are struck by the increasing beauty of the female portion of the population. Nuremberg, this commences, and the faces that gleam from behind the white curtained bow-windows, and steal furtive glances in their little mirrors at the passers by in the street beneath, are worthy of the days when it is recorded that the noble youths of the empire found especial delight in the occasions which

brought the head of the State to this venerable city, "because of the great beauty of the damsels."

Nor does it stand alone; but the farther you penetrate into Bavaria, the more you see the proprietors of pretty faces seek to set them off to advantage. At Harburg, at Donauwörth, they cluster round the arriving trains, blonde, rosy, and rich in smiles, under the sable lace of their winged caps. It must be avowed, too, that their brothers and bridegrooms are meet companions for them, and look handsome enough in their broad hats and jackets overloaded with silver buttons. I suspect, if the truth were known, Father Danube, at Donauwörth, divided originally into so many arms, that he might be able to embrace all these nymphs of his soil.

In Augsburg, you begin to see the head-dresses of gold, those essentially Bavarian coiffures.* All is gold in Augsburg, and every market-place and

* In Munich these head-dresses are, say the scandalmongers, the cause of much that is no better than it should be. But if I state that every housemaid contrives to become possessed of one of these treasures, that its price is often fifty florins, and that her yearly wages rarely exceed that sum, I would have it distinctly understood that I intend that statement to militate far less against the severity of the Bavarian housemaids, than in favour of their inordinate passion for gold caps.

shop-window furnishes you with a living copy of the famous Goldschmied's Töchterlein. It is said some people see objects of one particular colour, and in France it is common enough to say of a painter: "il voit gris," as the absurd would-be philanthropical theories of a certain set of physiologists would persuade them an assassin sees red; but certain it is, that the Augsburgers see yellow, and that the aspect of gold has fascinated them, as the learned in magnetism say it is apt to do. Gold is at the bottom of their renown in history, and their very artists derive their inspiration from the precious metal.

This love of the gorgeous and the splendid extends to the capital also. Out of Paris, I know of no place where luxury is so widely diffused as in Munich, or where the attributes and accessories of society are so magnificent. The Austrian, with his once enormous revenues, does not, and never did, let his wealth emanate from him in festivities. No! he concentrates it around himself and his immediate belongings. He, like ourselves in England, spends his riches largely, fills his ancestral halls with guests, keeps up colossal hunting establishments, is surrounded by a numberless household, promotes agriculture and farming, gives liberally, does a world of good, but does not treat society like Danäe, and pour a golden shower over her shoulders. The

Hungarians (these are the two races of the continent, who have the greatest riches at command) quickly get through even the most countless hoards by play and a manner of life that recalls the habits of the very early ages of uncivilization; and if one wanted to show the instinctive aversion of the Magyars from what we are used, in politer lands, to consider the progress of mental cultivation, it would suffice to give a sketch of the habitual existence of a Hungarian Duke of Devonshire or Duke of Rutland.

The aristocracy of Munich, on the contrary, manifests, in its pleasures, the love of civilization carried almost to excess. Lordly, but elegant, lavish, but refined, there is an association of art with enjoyment that reminds one of the best days of Italy or Greece.

It is particularly in their balls and fêtes that the Grand Seigneurs of Bavaria evince the undeniable superiority of their taste. The example, it is true, is set them by the Court, and the masques given from time to time at the Palace, by the Ex-King and Queen, were worthy to take their stand beside those of the Escurial or of the Louvre, in the times of the House of Valois.

It can hardly be otherwise, will it be said, with such a palace, and the very splendour of the dwelling

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »