P.S.—When you see Mademoiselle Ingeborg Stark, please give her my very affectionate remembrances. If her journey from Paris should bring her back by Weymar she would be sure to find me there; for, in spite of what the papers say, which, among other fancies, have taken it into their heads to make me travel hither and thither, I shall not stir from here for several months, but continue to work my best—if only to prove to the "kindly critic" and the idlers that it is very much to be regretted that I should have taken it into my head to turn composer!—This recalls the proverb, "On devient cuisinier, mais on nait rotisseur!"
[There does not seem to be any equivalent to this proverb in English: the nearest approach to it is, perhaps, "A poet is born, not made.">[
227. To Dr. Franz Brendel
Dear Friend,
It is of great consequence to me not to delay any longer the publication of my "Gesammelte Lieder." Forgive me, therefore, if today I am somewhat troublesome to your friendship..—.
It seems to me that the best plan would be if, before you confer with Herr Schulze, you would first have a consultation with Klemm, and come to a thorough understanding on the matter with him. [Liszt evidently wished to have the songs engraved first at his own cost, and to let Klemm undertake the sale on commission.] Beg him also, in my name, to show a friendly sympathy to the work. The songs can hold their ground in their present form (regardless of the criticism of our choking and quarrelling opponents which will infallibly follow!); and if a few singers could be found, not of the raw and superficial kind, who would boldly venture to sing songs by the notorious non-composer, Franz Liszt, they would probably find a public for them.
I think I told you that a couple of them made a furore in certain salons which are very much set against me, as posthumous songs of Schubert, and were encored!—Of course I have begged the singer to carry the joke on further.
Klemm need not therefore be in the least ashamed of undertaking the publication of the work in a friendly spirit.
Best thanks beforehand for your kind trouble in this matter—and ever faithfully yours,
F. Liszt