The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1191: Chapter 132: Uninvited Guest

Mendelssohn jumped off the carriage, and Liszt followed closely behind him.

Before he could reach Arthur’s side, Mendelssohn couldn’t wait to tell Arthur about the various adventures he had during this trip to Paris.

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

Everyone knows that although Heine had only moved to Paris a few years ago, he had already become quite famous in Parisian literary critique circles. However, his reputation in Paris wasn’t all positive, as evidenced by the complex relationship between him and Liszt.

Apart from Liszt, Heine also had a poor relationship with Vini, an old friend of Great Dumas. In Heine’s manuscript ”On Romanticism,” which was just handed over to the ”British Editor,” he ostensibly critiqued French Romantic literature but was actually sarcastically criticizing Vini’s indulgence in lyrical and exaggerated writing styles.

Furthermore, his relationship with his German compatriot Platen was equally bad. Heine bluntly described Platen as a passionate admirer of Ancient Greece and a member of the contemporary Sacred Band of Thebes. Anyone unaware of the context might think Heine was praising Platen.

But in fact, anyone with some knowledge of Greek history would know that Heine was actually implying that Platen had homosexual tendencies, since the Sacred Band of Thebes was composed of 150 couples of male lovers.

Nevertheless, despite his consistently vicious tongue, Heine still cherished his golden friendship with his old friend Arthur.

Especially when Mendelssohn handed over Arthur’s handwritten letter to Heine, the face of the usually cynical German poet shone with a saint-like glow of sincerity.

Perhaps the moment Heine saw Arthur’s letter and the check enclosed within was the happiest time for him in the past month or two.

Ever since Arthur left Paris, Heine’s days had become rather difficult.

First, he fell out with his old friend of over a decade, Berner, who was also a Jewish German nationalist, because he accepted financial support from the French Government.

Berner angrily accused Heine of being shameless, accepting the French Government’s funds violated the fundamental principles of being a German.

In return, Heine also mocked Berner, accusing him: though a patriot, he was a narrow-minded petite bourgeois radical.

Later, perhaps to justify accepting the French funds, Heine wrote in a new poem: ”Where books are burned, in the end, people will be burned too.”

If this sentence were uttered at another time in Paris, it might not be a big deal.

But the problem is that currently, the July Monarchy Government is tightening publication censorship in response to the assassination incident at Kaidao Sai Mansion, so this statement naturally attracted their attention. Because the sentence can easily be interpreted as a veiled critique of their recent censorship activities.

Moreover, anyone familiar with Heine knows that the poem actually doesn’t require much interpretation, as Heine was indeed criticizing France’s recent checks on books and newspapers.

However, due to Heine’s international reputation, the French Government was reluctant to openly trouble such a renowned poet who was cherished throughout Europe. But behind the scenes, they could still compel Heine to be silent by methods such as delaying the disbursement of his grants or instructing many Paris newspapers not to publish Heine’s work.

If not for this, no matter how thick-skinned Heine was, he wouldn’t have immediately sent Arthur a letter begging for help right after receiving his payment for ”On Romanticism.”

Arthur resolved Heine’s immediate crisis, and Heine naturally felt obliged to repay him generously.

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

The people at the Italian Theatre were thrilled to see Heine and Mendelssohn visiting personally, and they immediately promised to lend whatever actor they wished.

However, when Mendelssohn mentioned borrowing Giovanni Rubini, the Italian Theatre quickly backtracked.

The theatre staff first apologized to their guests and then politely informed them that while any actor at the theatre could be borrowed, Giovanni Rubini was the sole exception. This was because he was Europe’s leading tenor and a pillar of the Italian Theatre, as well as an actor personally favored by the theatre manager Mr. Rossini.

The flagship operas of the Italian Theatre, such as ”Cinderella,” ”Othello,” and ”Lady of the Lake,” all had Rubini playing major roles during their premieres, even though these shows are no longer new, and audiences could accept other male actors in these roles.

But recently, news of a Northern Italian States uprising came to Paris, which greatly excited Mr. Rossini as an Italian. Therefore, he was re-staging the opera ”William Tell,” based on Schiller’s poem of the same name.

”William Tell” tells the story of the Swiss independence hero William Tell, and Mr. Rossini hoped that through this opera, he could inspire Italy’s revolutionary fervor at this moment.

Thus, it was imperative that Giovanni Rubini play the leading role.

Moreover, even putting aside Mr. Rossini’s wishes, Rubini himself, being an Italian, also very much wanted to play ”William Tell” at this moment.