the marriage with Clara had been so far melted away that he consented,
though with reluctance, to their union. The marriage took place quietly
at a little church in Schonfeld, near Leipzig. This year was one of the
most fruitful of Schumann's life. His happiness burst forth in lyric
forms. He wrote the amazing number of one hundred and thirty-eight
songs, among which the more famous are the set entitled "Myrtles," the
cycles of song from Heine, dedicated to Pauline Viardot, Chamisso's
"Woman's Love and Life," and Heine's "Poet Love." Schumann as a
song-writer must be called indeed the musical reflex of Heine, for his
immortal works have the same passionate play of pathos and melancholy,
the sharp-cut epigrammatic form, the grand swell of imagination,
impatient of the limits set by artistic taste, which characterize the
poet themes. Schumann says that nearly all the works composed at this
time were written under Clara's inspiration solely. Blest with the
continual companionship of a woman of genius, as amiable as she was
gifted, who placed herself as a gentle mediator between Schumann's
intellectual life and the outer world, he composed many of his finest
vocal and instrumental compositions during the years immediately
succeeding his marriage; among them the cantata "Paradise and the
Peri," and the "Faust" music. His own connection with public life
was restricted to his position as teacher of piano-forte playing,
composition, and score playing at the Leipzig Conservatory, while the
gifted wife was the interpreter of his beautiful piano-forte works as an
executant. A more perfect fitness and companionship in union could not
have existed, and one is reminded of the married life of the poet pair,
the Brownings. After four years of happy and quiet life, in which mental
activity was inspired by the most delightful of domestic surroundings,
an artistic tour to St. Petersburg was undertaken by Robert and Clara
Schumann. Our composer did not go without reluctance. "Forgive me," he
writes to a friend, "if I forbear telling you of my unwillingness to
leave my quiet home." He seems to have had a melancholy premonition that
his days of untroubled happiness were over. A genial reception awaited
them at the Russian capital. They were frequently invited to the Winter
Palace by the emperor and empress, and the artistic circles of the city
were very enthusiastic over Mme. Schumann's piano-forte playing. Since
the days of John Field, Clemen