ill recognise
the "clever [geistreiche], musical Dr. Hermann Franck," the friend of
many musical and other celebrities, the same with whom Mendelssohn used
to play at chess during his stay in Paris. From Hiller I learned
that Franck was very musical, and that his attainments in the natural
sciences were considerable; but that being well-to-do he was without
a profession. In the fifth decade of this century he edited for a year
Brockhaus's Deutsche allgemeine Zeitung.

In the following letter which Chopin wrote to Franchomme--the latter
thinks in the autumn of 1833--we meet with some new names. Dr. Hoffmann
was a good friend of the composer's, and was frequently found at his
rooms smoking. I take him to have been the well-known litterateur
Charles Alexander Hoffmann, [Footnote: This is the usual German, French,
and English spelling. The correct Polish spelling is Hofman. The forms
Hoffman and Hofmann occur likewise.] the husband of Clementina Tanska,
a Polish refugee who came to Paris in 1832 and continued to reside there
till 1848. Maurice is of course Schlesinger the publisher. Of Smitkowski
I know only that he was one of Chopin's Polish friends, whose list
is pretty long and comprised among others Prince Casimir Lubomirski,
Grzymala, Fontana, and Orda.

[Footnote: Of Grzymala and Fontana more will be heard in the sequel.
Prince Casimir Lubomirski was a passionate lover of music, and published
various compositions. Liszt writes that Orda, "who seemed to command a
future," was killed at the age of twenty in Algiers. Karasowski gives
the same information, omitting, however, the age. My inquiries about
Orda among French musicians and Poles have had no result. Although the
data do not tally with those of Liszt and Karasowski, one is tempted to
identify Chopin's friend with the Napoleon Orda mentioned in Sowinski's
Musiciens polonais et slaves--"A pianist-composer who had made himself
known since the events of 1831. One owes to him the publication of a
Polish Album devoted to the composers of this nation, published at Paris
in 1838. M. Orda is the author of several elegantly-written pianoforte
works." In a memoir prefixed to an edition of Chopin's mazurkas and
waltzes (Boosey & Co.), J.W. Davison mentions a M. Orda (the "M."
stands, I suppose, for Monsieur) and Charles Filtsch as pupils of
Chopin.]

It was well for Chopin that he was so abundantly provided with friends,
for, as Hiller told me, he could not do without com