e
10th of March, and, along with the desire to seek forgetfulness of the
grievous loss he had sustained in a change of scene, decided him at
last to accept the pressing and unwearied invitations of his Scotch and
English friends to visit Great Britain. On April 2 the Gazette musicale
announced that Chopin would shortly betake himself to London and pass
the season there. And before many weeks had passed he set out upon his
journey. But the history of his doings in the capital and in other parts
of the United Kingdom shall be related in another chapter.

CHAPTER XXX.

DIFFERENCE OF STYLE IN CHOPIN'S WORKS.----THEIR CHARACTERISTICS
DISCUSSED, AND POPULAR PREJUDICES CONTROVERTED.----POLISH NATIONAL MUSIC
AND ITS INFLUENCE ON CHOPIN.----CHOPIN A PERSONAL AS WELL AS NATIONAL
TONE-POET.--A REVIEW OF SOME OF HIS LESS PERFECT COMPOSITIONS AND OF
HIS MASTERPIECES: BOLERO; RONDEAU; VARIATIONS; TARANTELLE; ALLEGRO DE
CONCERT; TWO SONATAS FOR PIANOFORTE (OP. 38 AND 58); SONATA (OP. 65)
AND GRAND DUO CONCERTANT FOR PIANOFORTE AND VIOLONCELLO; FANTAISIE;
MAZURKAS; POLONAISES; VALSES; ETUDES; PRELUDES; SCHERZI; IMPROMPTUS;
NOCTURNES; BERCEUSE; BARCAROLE; AND BALLADES-----THE SONGS.----VARIOUS
EDITIONS.

Before we inquire into the doings and sufferings of Chopin in England
and Scotland, let us take a general survey of his life-work as a
composer. We may fitly do so now; as at the stage of his career we have
reached, his creative activity had come to a close. The last composition
he published, the G minor Sonata for piano and violoncello, Op. 65,
appeared in October, 1847; and among his posthumous compositions
published by Fontana there are only two of later date--namely, the
mazurkas, No. 2 of Op. 67 (G minor) and No. 4 of Op. 68 (F minor),
which came into existence in 1849. Neither of these compositions can
be numbered with the master's best works, but the latter of them is
interesting, because it seems in its tonal writhings and wailings
a picture of the bodily and mental torments Chopin was at the time
enduring.

A considerable number of the master's works I have already discussed in
Chapters III., VIII., and XIII. These, if we except the two Concertos,
Op. II and 21 (although they, too, do not rank with his chefs-d'oeuvre),
are, however, for us of greater importance biographically, perhaps also
historically, than otherwise. It is true, we hear now and then of some
virtuoso playing the Variations, Op. 2, or the Fanta