Wilhelm came to Natalie’s mansion with Felix, to visit seriously ailing Mignon, and heard the shocking news from the Doctor. Is there any solace or consolation for us to find that she breathed her last breath in front of Wilhelm and was held firmly in the arms of the grief-stricken Wilhelm?
The story is inexorably heading to her final moment…

Natalia then took Felix by the hand, saying she would lead the child to Mignon, and prepare her for the entrance of her friend.
The Doctor, now alone with Wilhelm, thus proceeded: “I have wondrous things to tell you; such as you are not anticipating. Natalia has retired, that we might speak with greater liberty of certain matters, which, although I first learned them by her means, her presence would prevent us from discussing freely. The strange temper of the child seems to consist almost exclusively of deep longing:
The desire of revisiting her native land and the desire for you, my friend, are, I might almost say, the only earthly things about her. Both these feelings do but grasp towards an immeasurable distance, both objects lie before her unattainable.
The neighborhood of Milan seems to be her home: in very early childhood she was kidnapped from her parents by a company of rope-dancers. A more distinct account we cannot get from her, partly because she was then too young to recollect the names of men and places; but especially because she has made an oath to tell no living mortal her abode and parentage.
For the strolling party, who came up with her when she had lost her way, and to whom she so accurately described her dwelling, with such piercing entreaties to conduct her home, but carried her along with them the faster; and at night in their quarters, when they thought the child was sleeping, joked about their precious capture, declaring she would never find the way home again.
On this, a horrid desperation fell upon the miserable creature; but at last the Holy Virgin rose before her eyes, and promised that she would assist her. The child then swore within herself a sacred oath, that she would henceforth trust no human creature, would disclose her history to no one, but live and die in hope of immediate aid from Heaven. Even this, which I am telling you, Natalia did not learn expressly from her; but gathered it from detached expressions, songs and childlike inadvertencies, betraying what they meant to hide.

Wilhelm called to memory many a song and word of this dear child, which he could now explain. He earnestly requested the Physician to keep from him none of the confessions or mysterious poetry of this peculiar being.

“Prepare yourself,” said the Physician, “for a strange confession; for a story with which you, without remembering it, have much to do; and which, as I greatly fear, has been decisive for the death and life of this good creature.”
“Let me hear,” said Wilhelm; “my impatience is unbounded.”
“Do you recollect a secret nightly visit from a female,” said the Doctor, “after your appearance in the character of Hamlet?”
“Yes, I recollect it well,” cried Wilhelm blushing, “but I did not look to be reminded of it at the present moment.”
“Do you know who it was?”
“I do not! You frighten me! In the name of Heaven, not Mignon surely? Who was it? Tell me, pray.”
“I know it not myself.”
“Not Mignon, then?”
“No, certainly not Mignon: but Mignon was intending at the time to glide in to you: and saw, with horror, from a corner where she lay concealed, a rival get before her.”
“A rival!” cried our friend: “Speak on, you more and more confound me.”
“Be thankful,” said the Doctor, “that you can arrive at the result so soon through means of me. Natalia and I, with but a distant interest in the matter, had distress enough to undergo, before we could thus far discover the perplexed condition of the poor dear creature, whom we wished to help. By some wanton speeches of Philina and the other girls, by a certain song which she had heard Philina sing, the child’s attention had been roused; she longed to pass a night beside the man she loved, without conceiving anything to be implied in this beyond a happy and confiding rest.
A love for you, my friend, was already keen and powerful in her little heart; in your arms, the child had found repose from many a sorrow; she now desired this happiness in all its fullness. At one time she proposed to ask you for it in a friendly manner; but a secret horror always held her back. At last, that night and the excitement of abundant wine inspired her with the courage to attempt the adventure, and glide in to you on that occasion.
Accordingly she ran before, to hide herself in your apartment, which was standing open; but just when she had reached the top of the stairs, having heard a rustling, she concealed herself, and saw a female in a white dress slip into your chamber. You yourself arrived soon after, and she heard you push the large bolt.
“Mignon’s agony was now unutterable: all the violent feelings of a passionate jealousy mingled themselves with the unacknowledged longing of obscure desire, and seized her half-developed nature with tremendous force. Her heart, which hitherto had beaten violently with eagerness and expectation, now at once began to falter and stop; it pressed her bosom like a heap of lead; she could not draw her breath, she knew not what to do; she heard the sound of the old man’s harp, hastened to the garret where he was, and passed the night at his feet in horrible convulsions.”
The Physician paused a moment; then, as Wilhelm still kept silence, he proceeded: “Natalia told me, nothing in her life had so alarmed and touched her as the state of Mignon while relating this: indeed, our noble friend accused herself of cruelty in having, by her questions and management, drawn this confession from her, and renewed by recollection the violent sorrows of the poor little girl.
“‘The dear creature,’ said Natalia, ‘had scarcely come so far with her recital, or rather with her answers to my questions, when she sank all at once before me on the ground and with her hand on her bosom piteously moaned that the pain of that excruciating night was come back. She twisted herself like a worm upon the floor; and I had to summon all my composure, that I might remember and apply such means of remedy for mind and body as were known to me.”’
“It is a painful predicament you put me in,” cried Wilhelm, “by impressing me so vividly with the feeling of my manifold injustice towards this unhappy and beloved being, at the very moment when I am again to meet her. If she is to see me, why do you deprive me of the courage to appear with freedom? And shall I confess it to you? Since her mind is so affected, I perceive not how my presence can be advantageous to her. If you, as a Physician, are persuaded that this double longing has so undermined her being as to threaten death, why should I renew her sorrows by my presence, and perhaps accelerate her end?”
“My friend,” replied the Doctor, “where we cannot cure. it is our duty to alleviate; and how much the presence of a loved object tends to take from the imagination its destructive power, how it changes an impetuous longing to a peaceful looking, I could prove by the most convincing instances. Everything in measure and with purpose! For, in other cases, this same presence may rekindle an affection nigh extinguished. But do you go and see the child; behave to her with kindness, and let us wait the consequence.”
Natalia, at this moment coming back, bade Wilhelm follow her to Mignon. “She appears to feel quite happy with the boy,” observed Natalia, “and I hope she will receive our friend with mildness.” Wilhelm followed, not without reluctance: he was deeply moved by what he had been hearing; he feared a stormy scene of passion. It was altogether the reverse that happened on his entrance.
Mignon, dressed in long white women’s clothes, with her brown copious hair partly knotted, partly clustering out in locks, was sitting with the boy Felix on her lap, and pressing him against her heart. She looked like a departed spirit, he like life itself: it seemed as if Heaven and Earth were clasping one another. She held out her hand to Wilhelm with a smile, and said: “I thank thee for bringing back the child to me: they had taken him away, I know not how, and since then I could not live. So long as my heart needs anything on earth, thy Felix shall fill up the void.”
The quietness, which Mignon had displayed on meeting with her friend, produced no little satisfaction in the party. The Doctor signified that Wilhelm should go frequently and see her; that in body as in mind she should be kept as equable as possible. He himself departed, promising to return soon…

Mignon often asked to be of their society; and this they granted her with greater readiness, as she appeared to be again accustoming herself to Wilhelm, to be opening her heart to him, and in general to have become more cheerful and contented with existence. In walking, being easily fatigued, she liked to hang upon his arm. “Mignon,” she would say, “now climbs and bounds no more; yet she still longs to mount the summit of the hills, to skip from house to house, from tree to tree. How enviable are the birds; and then so prettily and socially they build their nests too!”
Ere long it became habitual for her to invite her friend, more than once every day, into the garden. When Wilhelm was engaged or absent, Felix had to take his place; and if poor Mignon seemed at times quite loosened from the earth, there were other moments when she would again hold fast to father and son, and seem to dread a separation from them more than anything beside.
Natalia wore a thoughtful look. “We meant,” said she, “to open her tender little heart, by sending for you hither. I know not whether we did prudently.” She stopped, and seemed expecting Wilhelm to say something. To him also it occurred that by his marriage with Teresa, Mignon, in the present circumstances, would be fearfully offended: but in his uncertainty he did not venture mentioning his project; he had no suspicion that Natalia knew of it…

Natalie and Wilhelm were about to leave the Hall, when they heard the children running hastily along the passage, and Felix crying: “No, I! No, I!”
Mignon rushed in at the open door: she was foremost, but out of breath, and could not speak a word. Felix, still at some distance, shouted out: “Mamma Theresa is come!” The children had run a race, as it seemed, to bring the news. Mignon was lying in Natalia’s arms, her heart was beating fiercely.
“Naughty child,” said Natalia; “art thou not forbidden violent motions? See how thy heart is beating!”
“Let it break!” said Mignon with a deep sigh: “it has beat too long.”
They had scarcely composed themselves from this surprise, this sort of consternation, when Theresa entered. She flew to Natalia; clasped her and Mignon in her arms. Then turning round to Wilhelm, she looked at him with her clear eyes, and said: “Well, my friend, how is it with you? You have not let them cheat you?” He made a step towards her; she sprang to him, and hung upon his neck. “O my Theresa!” cried he.
“ My friend, my love, my husband! Yes, forever thine!” cried she, amid the warmest kisses.
Felix pulled her by the gown, and cried: “Mamma Theresa, I am here too!” Natalia stood, and looked before her: Mignon on a sudden clapped her left hand on her heart; and stretching out the right arm violently, fell with a shriek at Natalia’s feet, as dead.

The fright was great: no motion of the heart or pulse was to be traced. Wilhelm took her on his arm, and hastily carried her away; the body hung lax over his shoulders. The presence of the Doctor was of small avail: he and the young Surgeon, whom we know already, strove in vain. The dear little creature could not be recalled to life.
Natalia beckoned to Theresa: the latter took her friend by the hand and led him from the room. He was dumb, not uttering a word; he durst not meet her eyes. He sat down with her upon the sofa, where he had first found Natalia.
He thought with great rapidity along a series of fateful incidents, or rather he did not think, but let his soul be worked on by the thoughts which would not leave it. There are moments in life, when past events, like winged shuttles, dart to and fro before us, and by their incessant movements weave a web, which we ourselves, in a greater or less degree, have spun and put upon the loom.
“My friend, my love!” said Theresa, breaking silence, as she took him by the hand: “Let us stand together firmly in this hour, as we perhaps shall often have to do in similar hours. These are occurrences, which it takes two united hearts to suffer. Think, my friend, feel that thou art not alone; show that thou lovest thy Theresa by imparting thy sorrows to her!”
She embraced him, and drew him softly to her bosom: he clasped her in his arms and pressed her strongly towards him. “The poor child,” cried he, “used in mournful moments to seek shelter and protection in my unstable bosom: let the stability of thine assist me in this heavy hour.” They held each other fast; he felt her heart beat against his breast; but in his spirit all was desolate and void; only the figures of Mignon and Natalia flitted like shadows across the waste of his imagination.

Natalia entered. “Give us thy blessing!” cried Theresa: “Let us, in this melancholy moment, be united before thee!” Wilhelm had hid his face upon Theresa’s neck: he was so far relieved that he could weep. He did not hear Natalia come; he did not see her; but at the sound of her voice his tears redoubled. “What God has joined I will not part,” she answered, smiling; “but to unite you is not in my power; nor am I gratified to see that sorrow and sympathy seem altogether to have banished from your hearts the recollection of my brother.” At these words, Wilhelm started from Theresa’s arms.
“Whither are you going?” cried the ladies. “Let me see the child,” said he, “whom I have killed! Misfortune when we look upon it with our eyes is smaller than when our imagination sinks the evil down into the recesses of the soul. Let us view the departed angel! Her serene countenance will say to us that it is well with her.”
As his friends could not restrain the agitated youth, they followed him; but the worthy Doctor with the Surgeon met them, and prevented them from coming near the dead. “Keep away from this mournful object,” said he; “and allow me, so far as I am able, to give some continuance to these remains. On this dear and singular being I will now display the beautiful art not only of embalming bodies, but of retaining in them a look of life. As I foresaw her death, the preparations are already made; with these helps I shall undoubtedly succeed. Give me but a few days, and ask not to see the child again till I have brought her to the Hall of the Past.”
The young Surgeon had in his hands that well-known case of instruments. “From whom can he have got it?” Wilhelm asked the Doctor. “I know it very well,” replied Natalia: “he has it from his father, who dressed your wounds when we found you in the forest.”
“Then I have not been mistaken! I recognised the band at once!” cried Wilhelm. “O get it for me! It was this that first gave me any hint of my unknown benefactress. What weal and woe will such a thing survive! Besides how many sorrows has this band already been, and its threads still hold together! How many men’s last moments has it witnessed, and its colours are not yet faded! It was near me in one of the fairest hours of my existence, when I lay wounded on the ground, and your helpful from appeared before me, and the child whom we are now lamenting sat with its bloody hair, busied with the tenderest care to save my life!”
It was not long that our friends could converse about this sad occurrence; that Theresa could inquire about the child, and the probable cause of its unexpected death: for strangers were announced; who, on making their appearance, proved to be well-known strangers. Lothario, Jarno and the Abbé entered. Natalia met her brother: among the rest, there was a momentary silence. Theresa, smiling on Lothario, said: “You scarcely expected to find me here; of course, it would not have been advisable that we should visit one another at the present time: however, after such an absence, take my cordial welcome.”
Lothario took her hand, and answered: “If we are to suffer and renounce, it may as well take place in the presence of the object whom we love and wish for. I desire no influence on your determination; my confidence in your heart, in your understanding and clear sense, is still so great, that I willingly commit to your disposal my fate and that of my friend.”…

THE ABBÉ called them, in the evening, to attend the obsequies of Mignon.
The company proceeded to the Hall of the Past; they found it magnificently ornamented and illuminated.
The walls were hung with azure tapestry almost from ceiling to floor, so that nothing but the friezes and socles, above and below, were visible.
On the four candelabra in the corners, large wax-lights were burning; smaller lights were in the four smaller candelabra placed by the sarcophagus in the middle.
Near this stood four Boys, dressed in azure with silver; they had broad fans of ostrich feathers, which they waved above a figure that was resting upon the sarcophagus.
The company sat down:

According to Abbe, Marchese, the friend of Natalie’s late uncle, to arrive in the next few days needs an interpreter for German language. Wilhelm might travel to Germany with him, then Natalie was silent.
But Wilhelm would take Felix, his foster son, with him, it was undecided.
The Marchese appeared, he was a man not yet advanced in years, a well-made, agreeable Lombardy type. As a young man he had come across the Uncle, who was considerably older than he, in the army and in business affairs, subsequently they had travelled across a large part of Ilaly together, and the works of art which thes Marchese found again here had been brought and procured to his presence and during many happy times that he still remembered well…

In the evening the Abbe invited the company to attend Mignon’s obsequies… Choir:...
Boys:...
The Abbe rose from his seat and stepped behind the coffin, ‘It is the decree of the man who prepared this quiet resting place,’ he said, ‘that each new arrival should be received with solemnity…We know of little to say about the child whom we are burying here. Where she came from is still unknown; We do not know her parents and we can only estimate her age. Her deeply reserved heart scarcely allowed us to guess her innermost concerns, nothing was clear about her, nothing revealed, except her love for the man who saved her, from the hands of a barbarian.
This tender affection and lively gratitude seemed to be the flame which consumed the oil of her life, the doctor’s skill could not preserve her noble life nor could the most caring friendship prolong it,
Step nearer, my friends, and see the miracle of art and care!’
He lifted the veil, and the child was lying in her angel garment as if asleep in a very pleasing position. Everyone stepped up and admired this replica of life.
Only Wilhelm remained seated in his chair unable to remain composed; what he felt, he was not allowed to think, and every thought seemed to wish to destroy his feeling.
For the sake of Marchese the speech had been made in French.
He came up with the others and examined the figure attentively:
The Abbe continue: ‘This loving heart, which was so withdrawn from human beings, was constantly turned to her God with holy trust. Humility, indeed a tendency towards outward self-abasement seemed inborn in her. She held zealously to the Catholic religion in which she had been born and brought up. She often expressed the quiet wish with to rest on consecrated ground, and following the customs of the Church we have consecrated this marble receptacle and the small amount of earth which has been concealed in her pillow. With what passion did she in her final moment kiss the picture of the Crucified One which is very gracefully reproduced with many hundred points on her delicate arms!’ While saying this, he exposed her right arm, and a crucifix accompanied by various letters and signs could be seen by bluish upon the white skin.
The Marchese examined this new phenomenon at close quarters. ‘Oh, God!’ He cried out, as he raised himself up and lifted his hands towards heaven, ‘Poor child! Unhappy niece! Do I find you again here? What a grieving joy it is to find you again here, you whose loss we had accepted so long ago, this dear, good body, which for a long time we thought hd become a prey of the fishes, dead, it is tru, but preserved! I am attending your funeral which is so splendid in its external form and is becoming even more splendid because of the good people who are accompanying you to your resting place. And when I can speak again,’ he said with broken voice, “ I shall thank them.’ Tears prevented him from saying any more.
By the pressure of a spring, the Abbe caused the body to be lowered into the depths of the marble…
The Abbe and Natalielrf the Marchese, Wilhelm, Theresa and Lothario out, and it was not until the singing had completely ceased to sound that they were once more beset with full force by grief, observations, thoughts and curiosity, and they longed to return again to that element.

여기에 한가지 추가할 사항이 있습니다. 미뇽의 장례식에서 생긴 일입니다.
그곳에 Marchese 즉 후작 한분이 Natalie의 삼촌의 옛 친구로서 방문하였지요. 그 지역 Italy관광이 목적이었고, 또 귀족들이 즐겼듯이 미술품 관람내지 매입하려고 왔습니다.
그 분이 독일어에 능통치 못하여 혹시 Wilhelm이 대동할것은 Abbe는 고려하였을 때입니다. 그가 아 단체와 함께 지나면서 자연스럽게 마침 방금 거행된 미뇽의 장례절차에 참가하다가 놀라운 발견을 하였습니다. 여러분 내가 노력하여서 이 책 원본에 몇 곳을 찾아서 영문을 실었는데, 여기에 한글번역도 해보겠으니, 연습삼아서 원문을 읽어보세요. 이걸 알게 된 많은 사람들은 눈물을 참을 수없었다고 합니다. 그래서 이곳 미뇽이야기 5편에 이 추가한 곳이 있으니 그곳도 찾아보세요.

대수도원장에 의하면 내털리의 별세한 숙부의 친구인 후작이 수일이내에 곧 도착한다고 하면서, 독일어 통역을 필요로하여서, 마이스터가 그와함께 독일여행을 할수도있다고 알렸는데, 내털리는 아무말도 하지 않았다.
그러나 마이스터는 그의 양자인 Felix를 네리고 다녀야겠기에, 그것은 결정되지 않았다. 후작이 도착하였는데, 그는 연배가 그다지 높지 않았고, 건강하였고, 북편 지역인 모습이었다.
젊었을 때 그는 숙부를 만났고, 숙부는 그보다 훨씬 연노하였고, 궁에서 그리고 사업차 많은 지역의 이탈리아를 함께 여행하였고, 예술품을 수집하였고, 행복하였던 시절을 기억하고 있었다.

대수도원장은 저녁때 미뇽의 장례식에 참가하도록 방문객을 초대하였다.
대수도원장은 자리에서 일어나, 관뒤로 걸었다. 그는 말하기를, ‘모든 새 도착자는 근엄으로 받아드려야 함이 이 조용한 휴식처를 준비한 사람의 법령입니다…우리는 우리가 매장하는 아이가 누구인지 전혀 모르고 있습니다. 그 아이가 어더서 왔는지도 알려지지 않았습니다. 우리는 그 아이의 부모도 모르고, 그아이의 나이는 오로지 추측할 뿐입니다.
그녀의 깊은 내성적인 마음은 우리에게 그녀의 가장 깊은 관심을 겨우 추측하도록 하였고, 아무것도 그 아이에 관하여 확실한게 없습니다. 그녀가 자신을 야만인의 손으로부터 구조해준 사람에 대한 사랑외에는 아무것도 들어나지 않았습니다.

이 연악한 사랑과 적극적인 감사함은 그녀 삶의 기름을 다 소모하는 불길이었고, 의사의 시술이 그녀의 고귀한 생을 보존할 수없었고, 또한 가장 보살펴주는 우정도 그것을 연장할 수없었지요. 친구들이여, 좀 더 가까이 오십시요. 그리고 예술과 보살핌의 기적을 보세요!’
그리고 그는 씌우개를 들었다. 아이는 천사의 옷속에서 마치 잠든 듯 가장 편한 자세로 누워있었다. 모두 일어나서 걸어갔고, 이 생명의 복제품을 찬양하였다.
오로지 마이스터는 의자에 앉아있었고, 그가 느끼는 것을 수습할 수없었으며, 사고를 항수도 없었고, 그리고 모든 생각이 그의 감정을 파괴하기 원하였다.
후작을 위해서 연설은 불어로하였다. 그는 다른사람들과 함께 와서 몸매를 세심하게 검사하얐다.

대수도원장은 추도문(追悼文)을 계속하였다: ‘인류로부터 퇴출된 이 사랑스런 마음은 신성한 신뢰로써 항상 그녀의 God으로 향하였습니다.
겸손, 진실로 외부로향한 자기 비하(卑下)의 경향은 그녀가 타고났지요. 그녀는 태어나고 양육된 카톨릭 신앙을 열광적으로 갖고 있었습닌다.
그녀는 자주 성화된 땅에서 쉬고자하는 조용한 소원을 표현하였고, 교회관습에 따라 우리는 이 대리석용기와 그녀 벼개속에 숨겼던 작은 흙을 성화하였습니다. 어떤 정열을 갖고 그녀는 마지막 순간에, 그녀의 연약한 팔에 수백반점으로 대단히 우아하게 재생한 십자가에 못박힌 분의 그림에 입 맞추었던가!’ 이 말을 할 때 그는 그녀의 오른 팔과 흰 피부에 푸른 색으로 보이는 여러가지 글자와 부호를 동반한 예수상을 들어냈다.

그 후작은 이 새로운 현상을 가까운 거리에서 조사하였다. ‘오, 하느님! ‘ 그는 부르짖고, 몸을 일으켜서, 두 손을 하늘을 향하여 들었으며, ‘불쌍한 아이야! 불행한 질녀야! 내가 너를 여기서 다시 찾았는가? 여기서 너를 다시 찾으니 그 얼마나 슬퍼하는 기뿜이냐! 그렇게 오래전에 우리가 받아드린 너의 너의 상실을, 이 귀중한 아름다운 몸이 물고기의 먹이가 되어서 죽었다고 생각하였다. 그러나 사실이 이렇게 잘 보존되었구나! 너를 너의 휴식처로 동반하는 이 좋은 사람들 때문에 이렇게 외형이 찬란하구나! 내가 다시 말할 수있을 때,’ 그는 끊어진 음성으로 말하였다, ‘ 나는 그들 모두에게 감사하겠다.’ 눈물때문이 그는 이 이상 말함이 멈추었다. 그 후작은 이 새로운 현상을 가까운 거리에서 조사하였다. ‘오, 하느님! ‘ 그는 부르짖고, 몸을 일으켜서, 두 손을 하늘을 향하여 들었으며, ‘불쌍한 아이야! 불행한 질녀야! 내가 너를 여기서 다시 찾았는가? 여기서 너를 다시 찾으니 그 얼마나 슬퍼하는 기뿜이냐! 그렇게 오래전에 우리가 받아드린 너의 너의 상실을, 이 귀중한 아름다운 몸이 물고기의 먹이가 되어서 죽었다고 생각하였다. 그러나 사실이 이렇게 잘 보존되었구나! 너를 너의 휴식처로 동반하는 이 좋은 사람들 때문에 이렇게 외형이 찬란하구나! 내가 다시 말할 수있을 때,’ 그는 끊어진 음성으로 말하였다, ‘ 나는 그들 모두에게 감사하겠다.’ 눈물때문이 그는 이 이상 말함이 멈추었다.
용수철 압력에 의하여 대수도원장은 그녀의 몸을 대리석 깊이로 내려왔다…
대수도원장과 Natalie는 후작, 마이스터, Theresa 그리고 Lothario를 밖으로 인도하였고, 그 찬송가가 끝날 때까지 그들은 비애, 관찰, 사색 그리고 호기심에 의하여 총력에 거듭 더욱 시달렸고, 그들은 거듭 그 근본성분으로 돌아가고자 하였다?

Mignon and Wilhhelm


Ambroise Thomas - Overture “Mignon”


Louis Cazette & Suzanne Brohly - Mignon - YouTube


Kwan Ho Chung – February 21, 2020