Page:Anecdotes of Great Musicians.djvu/292

280  and mental energies that hastened the painful malady that caused his death. Some twelve years before this occurred, he began to be afflicted with excruciating pains in the head, sleeplessness, and other troubles caused by a disarrangement of the mental and nervous systems, such as fear of death and strange auricular delusions.

A visit to Italy and its relaxation from work gave him some relief and he returned to Germany; and during the three years that followed he penned some of his finest works, such as his Second symphony, "The Rose's Pilgrimage" and music to Byron's "Manfred." For eight years after this Italian journey Schumann was continually occupied with composition and directing concerts, but during the latter part of this period the pain in his head had so increased as to make him unaccountable for his actions. In fact, at one time in 1854, he attempted to end his life by jumping into the river Rhine. The malady now seized him with a grasp that was loosened only for short intervals.

In spite of the loving care of Madame Schumann, who was a celebrated pianiste and one of the ablest exponents of his works, this great composer was obliged to end his days, in 1856, in a private insane asylum near Bonn, the birth-place of Beethoven.  

We are told that "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," or something to that effect. The famous composers evidently believed this, for not only do we find in some of their serious works comical touches, but several of them, and those the greatest, too, have written works that are entirely humorous in their character.

Of the comical touches we might mention the three bassoon notes in Beethoven's Sixth, or Pastoral, symphony. Here we might imagine some old bassoonist