performer and composer; and finally studied
counterpoint at Parma under Ghiretti and the celebrated maestro Paer. He
now took an engagement at Lucca, where he chiefly associated with
persons who at the gaming-table stripped him of his gains as quickly as
he acquired them. He there received the appointment of director of
orchestra to the court, at which the Princess Elisa Bacciochi, sister of
Napoleon I., presided, and thither invited, to the full extent of her
means, superior talent of every kind. In 1813 he performed at Milan;
five years after, at Turin; and subsequently at Florence and Naples. In
1828 he visited Vienna, where a very popular violinist and composer,
Mayseder, asked him how he produced such new effects. His reply was
characteristic of a selfish mind: "_Chacun a ses secrets_" In that
capital, it is affirmed, he was imprisoned, being accused of having
murdered his wife. He challenged proofs of his ever having been married,
which could not be produced. Then he was charged with having poignarded
his mistress. This he also publicly refuted. The fact is that he knew
better how to make money than friends, and he raised up enemies wherever
his thirst for gold led him. Avarice was his master-passion; and, second
to this, gross sensuality.

The year 1831 found Paganini in Paris, in which excitable capital he
produced a sensation not inferior to that created by the visit of
Rossini. Even this renowned composer was so carried away, either by
the actual genius of the violinist or by the current of popular
enthusiasm, that he is said to have wept on hearing Paganini for the
first time. He arrived in England in 1831, and immediately announced a
concert at the Italian Opera House, at a price which, if acceded to,
would have yielded L3,391 per night; but the attempt was too
audacious, and he was compelled to abate his demands, though he
succeeded in drawing audiences fifteen nights in that season at the
ordinary high prices of the King's Theatre. He also gave concerts in
other parts of London, and performed at benefits, always taking at
these a large proportion of the proceeds. He visited most of the great
towns, where his good fortune still attended him. He was asked to play
at the Commemoration Festival at Oxford, in 1834, and demanded 1,000
guineas for his assistance at three concerts. His terms were of course
rejected.

Paganini died at Nice, in 1840, of a diseased larynx ("phthisie
laryngee"). By his will, dated