Dear Moscheles,—Here they are, wind instruments and fiddles, for the son and heir must not be kept waiting till I come,—he must have a cradle song with drums and trumpets and janissary music; fiddles alone are not nearly lively enough. May every happiness and joy and
5. Fac-simile of the Drawing in Mendelssohn’s Letter of Feb. 27, 1833. ([See page 54].)
blessing attend the little stranger; may he be prosperous, may he do well whatever he does, and may it fare well with him in the world!
So he is to be called Felix, is he? How nice and kind of you to make him my godchild in formâ! The first present his godfather makes him is the above entire orchestra; it is to accompany him through life,—the trumpets when he wishes to become famous, the flutes when he falls in love, the cymbals[16] when he grows a beard; the pianoforte explains itself; and should people ever play him false, as will happen to the best of us, there stand the kettledrums and the big drum in the background.
Dear me! but I am ever so happy when I think of your happiness, and of the time when I shall have my full share of it. By the end of April, at the latest, I intend to be in London, and then we will duly name the boy, and introduce him to the world at large. It will be grand!
To your Septet I look forward with no small pleasure. Klingemann has written out eleven notes of it for me, and those I like ever so much.