How to Impress the English
Leopold Mozart was eager to win the hearts of the English, and thought he knew just the way to do it.
1763-1764
King George III 1760-1820
Leopold Mozart was eager to win the hearts of the English, and thought he knew just the way to do it.
1763-1764
King George III 1760-1820
In 1763-64, Leopold Mozart spent fifteen months in England with his daughter Maria Anna (‘Nannerl’) and son Wolfgang, who turned nine during the visit. Leopold was much taken with King George III and Queen Charlotte, who treated the Mozarts like family, and he told his friend Johann Lorenz von Hagenauer, an Austrian businessman, that he was eager to win the affection of the English people too.
translated by Emily Anderson
To Lorenz Hagenauer, Salzburg
June 28th, 1764.
ON Friday, June 29th, that is, on the Feast of St Peter and St Paul, there will be a concert or benefit at Ranelagh* in aid of a newly established Hôpital de femmes en couche,* and who ever wishes to attend it must pay five shillings entrance.*
I am letting Wolfgang play a concerto on the organ at this concert in order to perform thereby the act of an English patriot who, as far as in him lies, endeavours to further the usefulness of this hospital which has been established pro bono publico.* That is, you see, one way of winning the affection of this quite exceptional nation.
translated by Emily Anderson
Ranelagh Gardens in Chelsea had recently opened as a rival to the older Vauxhall Gardens. For Horace Walpole’s eyewitness account of the new venture, see Ranelagh Gardens.
That is, a maternity hospital; Leopold may have been referring to the Westminster New Lying-In Hospital on Westminster Bridge Road, Lambeth, one of the first such hospitals in the country. The foundation-stone was laid in 1765 on the initiative of Dr John Leake; the establishment was later moved a short distance to York Road, and took the name General Lying-In Hospital. Joseph Lister joined the staff in 1879 as consulting surgeon; the hospital remained in service until 1971.
According to Measuring Worth, roughly £32 in today’s money.
Latin for ‘for the benefit of the people’. Unlike some other hospitals, the Lying-In Hospital in Lambeth was not founded for patients from a particular Church or religion, but open to all, and to married and unmarried women alike.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.