nce Radziwill--acknowledgments of the dedication to him
of the Trio, Op. 8--which Adam Kozuchowski brought to Chopin in 1833.
[FOOTNOTE: M. Karasowski, Fryderyk Chopin, vol. i., p. 65.]

Frederick was much liked by his school-fellows, which, as his manners
and disposition were of a nature thoroughly appreciated by boys, is
not at all to be wondered at. One of the most striking features in
the character of young Chopin was his sprightliness, a sparkling
effervescence that manifested itself by all sorts of fun and mischief.
He was never weary of playing pranks on his sisters, his comrades,
and even on older people, and indulged to the utmost his fondness for
caricaturing by pictorial and personal imitations. In the course of a
lecture the worthy rector of the Lyceum discovered the scapegrace making
free with the face and figure of no less a person than his own rectorial
self. Nevertheless the irreverent pupil got off easily, for the master,
with as much magnanimity as wisdom, abstained from punishing the
culprit, and, in a subscript which he added to the caricature, even
praised the execution of it. A German Protestant pastor at Warsaw, who
made always sad havoc of the Polish language, in which he had every
Sunday to preach one of his sermons, was the prototype of one of the
imitations with which Frederick frequently amused his friends. Our
hero's talent for changing the expression of his face, of which
George Sand, Liszt, Balzac, Hiller, Moscheles, and other personal
acquaintances, speak with admiration, seems already at this time to have
been extraordinary. Of the theatricals which the young folks were wont
to get up at the paternal house, especially on the name-days of their
parents and friends, Frederick was the soul and mainstay. With a good
delivery he combined a presence of mind that enabled him to be always
ready with an improvisation when another player forgot his part. A
clever Polish actor, Albert Piasecki, who was stage-manager on these
occasions, gave it as his opinion that the lad was born to be a great
actor. In after years two distinguished members of the profession in
France, M. Bocage and Mdme. Dorval, expressed similar opinions. For
their father's name-day in 1824, Frederick and his sister Emilia wrote
conjointly a one-act comedy in verse, entitled THE MISTAKE; OR, THE
PRETENDED ROGUE, which was acted by a juvenile company. According to
Karasowski, the play showed that the authors had a not inconsiderabl