284.—SCHUMANN'S MADNESS.
The border-land between great genius and insanity is narrower than we sometimes realize. Some of the great minds in the music life have passed over the dividing line; some have come back to a correct mental balance, but others suffered this mental affliction until relieved by the Grim Reaper.
It is not generally known that Hans von Bülow spent some time in an asylum. But such was the case, and the rest and quiet restored his tired and slightly unbalanced mind to its usual strength.
Next to Beethoven in intensity of thought and feeling, stands Robert Schumann. It was perhaps the continual habit of mental concentration and overtaxing his physical 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.