PAGANINI, Nicolo, the celebrated violinist, was born at Genoa in February, 1784. His father, Antonio, was by profession a packer of Portofranco, and being a lover of music, and having early perceived the fine disposition of his son for this art, placed him while a child to learn the violin. At the age of eight years his mother dreamed that an angel came to her, and revealed that her son would be a great performer. At this age, in fact, he composed, under the direction of his father, a sonata of so difficult a nature that none but himself could execute it. He also went three times a week to perform in one of the churches; and the next year, at the age of nine, was brought forward for the first time at the theatre, on which occasion he executed some variations of his own composition on the republican French air, La Carmagnole, being for the benefit of the celebrated soprano, Marchesi. He now took thirty lessons of Costa, the most skilful master of the violin at Genoa, after which his father took him to Parma to place him under Rolla. The master being sick, his wife requested the son and father to remain in a room near that where her husband was confined to his bed. Young Nicolo seeing a violin and new concerto lying on the table, played off the piece at sight in so wonderful a manner that Rolla would not believe it was performed by a child, until he saw him do it with his own eyes. He then told the young Paganini he could teach him nothing, and recommended him to go to Paer, who was then director of the conservatory of Parma, and who confided him to the care of Giretti, master of the chapel, who gave him three lessons a week in counterpoint for six months. Paganini then composed in the way of study, and without the instrument, twenty-four pieces for four hands. Paer then took so deep an interest in him that he gave him gratuitous instruction. Paganini afterwards visited with his father the principal cities of Northern Italy, where he gave concerts with great success. At fourteen he finally escaped from the severe tutelage of his father, and went with his brother to Lucca, where he gave a concert which created a profound sensation. He then travelled from city to city his own master, and was all the rage. In his twenty-first year he accepted a permanent situation at the court of Lucca. Besides directing the orchestra every time the royal family visited the opera, he played three times a week at court, and every fifteen days composed a grand concerto for the royal circle, at which was often present the reigning princess, Eliza Bacciocchi, the sister of Napoleon. "She never stayed," says Paganini, "to the end of my concerto; for when I came to the harmonic sounds she found her nervous system too strongly excited by them. Fortunately for me, there was another amiable lady who was not so much affected, and who never quitted the circle. Her passion for music made her pay some attention, and I thought that she would not always be insensible to the admiration which I had for her beauty. I promised one day to surprise her in the succeeding concert with a sonata, which would have reference to our attachment. At the same time I announced to the court a comic novelty or love scene. Curiosity was keenly excited when I presented myself with my violin deprived of the two middle strings, so that I had only the G and E. The first was to personate the lady, the second the man. It commenced with a species of dialogue which was intended to represent the caprices of an amorous friendship, or the little passions and reconciliations. The strings now gave out moans, sighs, and groans; now sported, laughed, or broke forth into the most drunken madness. The reconciliation terminated with a coda brillante. The composition pleased; the person for whom I had written it recompensed me with a sweet smile, and the Princess Eliza said to me, 'Since you have done so fine a thing on two strings, can you make us hear something marvellous on one?' Smiling at the remark I promised to do so; and after some weeks, on the day of St. Napoleon, I executed on the string G a sonata, which I entitled 'Napoleone.' It had an effect so captivating that a cantata of Cimarosa, which was executed the same evening, obtained scarcely the same applause. This led me to practise on one string only." Paganini then informs us that his passion for travelling seized him anew; his gains amounted already to twenty thousand francs, and he proposed to give a portion to his parents before leaving them. His father was not satisfied, and threatened to kill him if he did not give up the whole, which he thought but a poor compensation for the sacrifice he had made in educating his son. We believe the whole sum was dissipated by a tedious law process. In 1813 Paganini appeared at Milan, where for two or three years his concerts caused an immense sensation. His variations, called "The Witches," excited the most vivid enthusiasm; and whilst director of the Philharmonic Society of Milan, he contended successfully with the violinist Lafont. In 1816 he gave concerts at Venice, where he met with the great German violinist and composer, Spohr, whom he considered the first cantante violinist. In 1817 he was at Verona; in 1818 at Turin and Piacenza; in 1819 at Rome, Florence, and Naples; in 1821 at Rome; and in 1822 at Milan. At the Roman carnival in 1827 Pope Leo XII. decorated him with the grand order of the golden spur. He was then forty-three years of age, and had not been out of Italy. At Vienna the emperor gave him an honorary title, and the city decreed to him a medal. His travels through Germany were a triumphal march. The king of Prussia named him master of his chapel. England and France confirmed his unexampled success. In England his weird and mystical appearance (perhaps caused by early privations and subsequent excesses) gave rise to many marvellous and absurd stories about him, which had extensive currency, until they were fully refuted by his own explanations. Returning through France to Italy he purchased in 1834, at Parma, the villa Gajona, and in November of that year gave at Parma a concert for the poor (a thing he often did), and again set out upon a concert tour in Italy. In 1835 a nervous disorder obliged him to refrain almost from playing, and in the autumn of 1839 he became a confirmed invalid, and so weak that he could scarcely hold his instrument; recovering a little he went to Marseilles, where he found benefit in change of air. He went back to Paris, and from thence to Italy, where his illness so increased, that he died on the 27th May, 1840, at Nizza. His body was embalmed and deposited on his estate. Villa Gajona, church burial having been refused him because he had allowed no priest to visit him during his sickness. For explanations of Paganini's peculiar style and method, the reader is referred to the article in Fetis' Biographie Universelle, also to Notice sur le celebre violoniste Nicolo Paganini par M. J. Imbert de la Phaleque. His life and adventures too are given at great length in an octavo volume of above four hundred pages, Paganini's Leben und Treiben, by Professor Schottky of Prague.—E. F. R.
PAGE, William, D.D., born at Harrow in 1590, studied at Oxford, and in 1629 was master of the school at Reading, of which post he was deprived by the parliamentary commissioners. He was afterwards rector of East Locking, and died in 1663. He was author of "Justification of bowing at the name of Jesus," and a Reply to Prynne on the same subject; a translation of the Imitation of Christ; "The Peacemaker," &c.—B. H. C.
PAGES. See Garnier-Pages.
PAGET, Henry William, first marquis of Anglesea, a distinguished military officer, twice lord-lieutenant of Ireland, was the eldest of the children of Henry, first earl of Uxbridge, and was born on the 17th May, 1768. He entered the army in 1793, where he raised among his father's tenantry the 80th regiment, or Staffordshire volunteers. A lieutenant-colonel of the 16th dragoons in 1794, he joined the duke of York in Flanders, distinguishing himself highly, as again in the duke's unsuccessful expedition to Holland in 1799. A lieutenant-general in 1808, at the close of the year, he was sent with two brigades of cavalry to strengthen the force under Sir David Baird, which was to co-operate with Sir John Moore's. In Baird's advance movement to Sahagun (21st December, 1808) Lord Henry Paget, with four hundred horse, defeated a French cavalry force seven hundred strong, making more than one hundred and twenty prisoners in twenty minutes, and during the remainder of the campaign the superiority of the British cavalry commanded by him was incontestable. With it he covered the retreat of Sir John Moore to Corunna, and in the battle of that name his cavalry performed wonders. On the death of his father in 1812, he became earl of Uxbridge. After Napoleon's return from Elba, Lord Uxbridge was given the command of the cavalry in the duke of Wellington's army, and at Waterloo he led the brilliant attack of Somerset's brigade on an immense body of French infantry, supported by artillery. At the close of the battle, and by the side of the duke of Wellington, he was severely wounded, and his leg was amputated in the village of Waterloo. Five days afterwards he was created a marquis. In April, 1827, Lord Anglesea succeeded the duke of Wellington as master-general of the ordnance, and in March, 1828, he became viceroy of Ireland, aiding, during his brief tenure of the office, to procure catholic emancipation. He returned as lord-
