|
VI
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
I Arrive, Via Heine and Miss Mary Pope, at Coral
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
a youth I derived my tastes and prejudices from
the writings of Heinrich Heine. I became addicted
to Heine because I had an aunt who kept an ex-
|
||
|
|
|||
|
cellent
table. This estimable relation's cook made something of a favourite of
me, and to his day the gingered pike, the sour-sweet carp, the
home-smoked Vistula salmon, the Polish mushrooms, the goose-cracking paté, are
a delicious remembrance. To continue in the enjoyment of these
delicacies I felt it necessary to fall in with the cultured tastes of
my aunt, who eulogised Heine as the wisest man of his age and likewise
the naughtiest. She never tired of quoting him and knew most of his
witty sayings by heart. It was thus, through my gustatory sense, that I
too came to know and love Heine, and liked him none the less for
discovering that he was an epicure who would have appreciated my
reasons for making his better acquaintance.
Now, my first impressions of spoken English were largely influenced by Heine's remark that English was "the hiss of egoism" (der Zischlaut des Egoismus). And
47
|
|||
|
|
|||