rites
in French drawing-rooms. It was Nourrit who popularized the songs of
Schubert, and otherwise softened the French prejudice against modern
German music. In private life this great artist was so witty, genial,
and refined, that he was a favorite guest in the most distinguished and
exclusive _salons_. When Duprez was engaged at the opera it severely
mortified Nourrit, and, rather than divide the honors with a new singer,
he resigned his position as first tenor at the Academie, where he so
long had been a brilliant light. His farewell to the French public,
April 1, 1837, was the most flattering and enthusiastic ovation ever
accorded to a French artist, but he could not be induced to reconsider
his purpose. He was professor of lyric declamation at the Conservatoire,
but this position, too, he resigned, and went away with the design of
making a musical tour through France, Germany, and Italy. Nourrit, who
was subject to alternate fits of excitement and depression, was maddened
to such a degree by a series of articles praising Duprez at his expense,
that his friends feared for his sanity, a dread which was ominously
realized in Italy two years afterward, where Nourrit was then singing.
Though he was very warmly welcomed by the Italians, his morbid
sensibility took offense at Naples at what he fancied was an unfavorable
opinion of his _Pollio_ in "Norma." His excitement resulted in delirium,
and he threw himself from his bedroom window on the paved court-yard
below, which resulted in instant death. Nourrit was the intimate friend
of many of the most distinguished men of the age in music, literature,
and art, and his sad death caused sincere national grief.

As a singer and actor, Nourrit had one of the most creative and
originating minds of his age. He himself never visited the United
States, but his younger brother, Auguste, was a favorite tenor in New
York thirty years ago.

The part of _John of Leyden_ in "Le Prophete," whose gestation covered
many years of growth and change, was originally written for and in
consultation with Nourrit, just as that of Fides in the same opera was
remolded for and by suggestion of Pauline Viardot. Yet the opera did not
see the light until Nourrit's successor, Duprez, had vanished from the
stage, and his successor again, Roger, who, though a brilliant singer,
was far inferior to the other two in creative intellectuality, appeared
on the scene. Chorley asserts that Du-prez was the only ar