he request." All the arts
of persuasion are tried, from the pathetic to the playful, and a vein
of longing, not unmixed with sadness, runs through the whole, or rather
forms the basis of it. The tender commencement of the second part is
followed, as it were, by the several times repeated questions--Yes? No?
(Bright sunshine? Dark clouds?) But there comes no answer, and the
poor wretch has to begin anew. A helpless, questioning uncertainty and
indecision characterise the third mazurka. For a while the composer
gives way (at the beginning of the second part) to anger, and speaks
in a defiant tone; but, as if perceiving the unprofitableness of
it, returns soon to his first strain. Syncopations, suspensions, and
chromatic passing notes form here the composer's chief stock in trade,
displacement of everything in melody, harmony, and rhythm is the rule.
Nobody did anything like this before Chopin, and, as far as I
know, nobody has given to the world an equally minute and distinct
representation of the same intimate emotional experiences. My last
remarks hold good with the fourth mazurka, which is bleak and joyless
till, with the entrance of A major, a fairer prospect opens. But
those jarring tones that strike in wake the dreamer pitilessly. The
commencement of the mazurka, as well as the close on the chord of the
sixth, the chromatic glidings of the harmonies, the strange twirls and
skips, give a weird character to this piece.

The origin of the polonaise (Taniec Polski, Polish dance), like that of
the, no doubt, older mazurka, is lost in the dim past. For much credit
can hardly be given to the popular belief that it developed out of the
measured procession, to the sound of music, of the nobles and their
ladies, which is said to have first taken place in 1574, the year after
his election to the Polish throne, when Henry of Anjou received the
grandees of his realm. The ancient polonaises were without words, and
thus they were still in the time of King Sobieski (1674-96). Under
the subsequent kings of the house of Saxony, however, they were often
adapted to words or words were adapted to them. Celebrated polonaises of
political significance are: the Polonaise of the 3rd of May, adapted to
words relative to the promulgation of the famous constitution of the 3rd
of May, 1791; the Kosciuszko Polonaise, with words adapted to already
existing music, dedicated to the great patriot and general when, in
1792, the nation rose in defence