heard on any note or in any scale--by even speaking some word, for
which she would not trouble herself to study a right musical emphasis
or inflection--provided, only, she succeeded in continuing to arrest the
attention. Hence, in part, arose her extraordinary success in "Fidelio."
That opera contains, virtually, only one acting character, and with her
it rests to intimate the thrilling secret of the whole story, to develop
this link by link, in presence of the public, and to give the drama the
importance of terror, suspense, and rapture. When the spell is broken
by exhibiting the agony and the struggle of which she is the innocent
victim, if the devotion, the disguise, and the hope of Leonora, the
wife, were not for ever before us, the interest of the prison-opera
would flag and wane into a cheerless and incurable melancholy. This
Mme. Schröder-Devrient took care that it should never do. From her first
entry upon the stage, it might be seen that there was a purpose at her
heart, which could make the weak strong and the timid brave; quickening
every sense, nerving every fiber, arming its possessor with disguise
against curiosity, with persuasion more powerful than any obstacle, with
expedients equal to every emergency.... What Pasta would be in spite
of her uneven, rebellious voice, a most magnificent singer, Mme.
Schröder-Devrient did not care to be, though nature, as I have heard
from those who heard her sing as a girl, had blessed her with a fresh,
delicious soprano voice."


II.

Her fame so increased that the Fräulein Schröder soon made an art-tour
through Germany. Her appearances at Cassel in the spring of 1823, in
such characters as _Pamina_ and _Agathe_, produced a great sensation.
At Dresden she also evoked a large share of popular enthusiasm, and her