Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/491

This page needs to be proofread.

474

GOLDSCHMIDT.

Review. Of Putnam's Magazine, he was for a considerable time the piincipal editor, and always a con- tributor. Two volumes of critical and miscellaneous essays in this magazine have been collected under the title, " Out of the Past," 1870. Besides his almost continuous jour- nalistic labour, he has translated and edited Goethe's Autobiography," Zschokke's " Tales ; " "Undine;'* "Sintram and his Companions;" and compiled a " Handbook of Universal Biography" (1851 ; new ed. entitled '* CyclopaBdia of Bio- graphy." 1871) ; and has written, among other works, "A Popular View of the Doctrines of Fourier " (1844) ; " Constructive Democracy ;" and " Vala, a Mythological Tale " (1851). Many years ago he began an elaborate " History of France," of which only the first volume has been published. During the ad- ministration of President Polk he was Deputy Collector of New York, but subsequently entered the Re- publican party on its formation.

GOLDSCHMIDT, Madame, better known by her maiden name of Jenny Lind, is the daughter of a teacher of languages in Stockholm, in which city she was born Oct. 21, 1821. At three years of age she could sing correctly any piece she had once heard, and at nine she was placed by the advice of Madame Lundberg, a celebrated actress at Stockholm, under Croelius, a famous teacher of music. Count Piicke, manager of the Court Theatre, felt disinclined to act on CroeUus's re- commendation of his youthful pupil, on account of her want of personal attractions ; but after hearing her sing, he caused her name at once to be entered at the Musical Academy, where she made rapid progress. She acted repeatedly in children's parts on the Stockholm stage until her twelfth year, when her upper notes lost their sweetness. For four ye-ars she studied music theoreti- cally, until on one occasion, when the fourth act of Meyerbeer's '* Ro-

bert le Diable " was to be perf or

at a grand concert, and the hui

part of Alice was declined by

female vocalists of the city, £

the director of the a<»demy, apj

to Jenny Lind. Her perform

showed that every note of

register had recovered its p<

and purity, and she was gre

with enthusiasm. Her next sue

was in the part of Agatha, in " 1

schatz," and for a year and a

she continued the star of the o

at Stockholm. Having, by a S(

of concerts in the principal t<

of Norway and Sweden, obta

the means of going to Paris,

studied, not witiiout some prei

discouragement, under Garcia

year after her arrival in Paris

was introduced to Meyerbeer,

was anxious to engage her

Berlin, but she preferred retur

to her native city, where she en j

a great triumph on her reap]

ance. In 1844 she went to Dret

in 1845 sang at the fStes on

Ehine during the Queen of I

land's visit to Berlin, and a

wards at Frankfort, Cologne,

Vienna. She first appeared h*

a London audience in May,

as Alice, in "Robert le Dia

followed by a series of unparal

triumphs in the " Sonnamb

  • ' La Figlia del Reggimei

" Puritani," &c. She sang in

for the first time in a sacred oral

" Elijah," which was given at E;

Hall for the purpose of four

musical scholarships in honoi

Mendelssohn. She visited

York in 1860, under the auspic

Mr. Bamum, and was enthus

cally received, but dissolved

eng^agement prematurely in

and was married to M. Otto <

Schmidt, a skilful pianist and

ductor, and retired from the i

She reappeared in 1855, in

in 1863, and in 1864 for a lii

period. She has shown a gen.

disposition, and has been ii

mental in adding many thoui

of pounds to the charitable in