Kubba and Young (1998), describing the same episode, noted that this illness has even endangered Chopin’s life25. Chopin was described as “frail, slim, with sunken cheeks”. He was said to “die early as many geniuses before him did”, and he was always coming after physical activity “tired and without any breath”26. On February 12th 1826 Chopin writes to his friend Jan Bialoblocki that he is sick (as “everybody else”) and his glands are swollen27. However, Chopin fully recovers from this ailment and his swollen glands (that were interpreted by some authors as cervical lymphadenopathy28) are healed by September 1826 without sequelae. His later episodes of illness tend to take the same course – always a full recovery, but the next strike of a disease follows after some time.
On November 2nd 1826, in another letter to Jean Bialoblocki29, Chopin writes that he is not going to school and that he finds it a pinnacle of absurdity to rest for six hours a day, while the German and Polish-German doctors have prescribed him as many walks as possible. This letter also gives a glimpse into Chopin’s treatment: emetic drinks (upon a prescription by Dr. Malcz) and a diet of oatmeal. Chopin’s therapies will be further discussed in Chapter, “”.
In 1830, Chopin left Warsaw for a trip, including Vienna, Munich, and Stuttgart, to Paris. One of his Viennese encounters, a professor of music, Václav Würfel (1790 – 1832) suffered from tuberculosis. Chopin’s nose swelled embarrassingly with a prolonged cold and at times even forced him to cancel concerts30. However, Wilfred (2010) argued that there is no evidence that Chopin, aged twenty-one, was in “poor health or affected by the illness that would plague him in later life”31.
In Paris (1831) Chopin had an episode of hemoptysis and fever but recovered very quickly32. On Christmas Day, 1831, he wrote to his friend of many years (and once a love interest) Titus Woyciechowski, « [O] utwardly I am cheerful but inside me I am tortured with all sorts of forebodings.” Chopin does not associate his premonitions with any particular physical ailment, but subsequent letters speak of ill health with increasing frequency33. No known medical records dated 1832 through 1835 shed further light on Chopin’s health34. He seems to have has a quiet phase for nearly five years and this is probably the happiest period of his life. Various sources show that between autumn of 1835 (following a resort stay in Karlsbad) and autumn of 1838, Chopin has had bouts of bronchitis and suppurative laryngitis. Though those bouts always resolved, they recurred again after some time35.
According to those sources, in autumn of 1835, Chopin suffered of cough, fever and hemoptysis36. Most likely, his condition was unusually serious at that time and Chopin may have suffered from depression. This was the time when he composed his famous “Funeral March” from his “Sonata in B Flat Minor” and prepared his testament.
In February 1837, Chopin caught an “acute grippe” with high fever and hemoptysis. At the same time he also experienced hallucinations, hearing “knocking on his door and seeing death standing there”37. Around that time Chopin met Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin (better known under her artistic name George Sand), a famous French novelist. This acquaintance has evolved into an intimate relationship.
The November 1838 trip to Mallorca together with George Sand and her children became a disaster. This journey was described by Sand in a book “[битая ссылка] Un hiver à Majorque” (A Winter in Mallorca). According to her, Chopin had all signs of pneumonia and the island inhabitants grew suspicious and distant to the couple, as they believed that Chopin has had a contagious disease. The fact that Sand and Chopin were not married did not help their popularity among Mallorcans either. That is why it was all but impossible to obtain a better dwelling than the one where Chopin and Sand have stayed. Both two-story chambers they occupied at the monastery Sa Cartoixa de Jesús Natzarè in Valldemossa were barely heated and damp. Sand wrote that Chopin coughed up sputum “by the bowlful”. That winter Chopin was seen by at least three Mallorcan doctors. As George Sand recollected, the recommended treatment included application of plasters at various intervals during the day and consumption of milk. However, no milk was available there38 – likely due to the resentment of local inhabitants who did not want to have a potentially contagious patient to be around. In addition of all those hardships and his health continuing to deteriorate, Chopin’s piano has got stuck with the Spanish customs, so he did not compose much till the end of December 1838: “Meanwhile my manuscripts are sleeping whereas I cannot sleep”39
But already by mid-January 1839, Chopin sends the Preludes op. 28 to Fontana with an instruction to pass them to Mr. Pleyel, a music publisher40. A very productive phase followed and Chopin wrote, corrected or finalized during his stay on Mallorca following works, to name a few: Polonaise in C-minor, op. 40, Mazurka in E-minor, op. 41 no. 2, Scherzo in C-sharp minor, op. 39 (drafts), Nocturne in G-minor, op. 37, no., Tarantella op. 43 (draft), and Sonata in B flat minor, op. 3541. Most of those pieces were done by Chopin which has not yet fully recovered from the disease on “a poor Mallorcan piano…”42
Later in 1838 he experienced pulmonary problems again43. After three months on the island, Chopin and Sand with her children left Mallorca on the 13th of February 1839. On their way back to Paris, in Marcel, Chopin recovered, at least for a while. His strength was back, there were no more hemoptysis and he started to gain weight again44. Nevertheless the very same author, referring to G. Sand, says that for the next few years, Chopin continued to have cough bouts with dyspnea and intermittent fevers. Sand’s recollections show that he was then never absolutely well and experienced a slow progressive decline in his health.
Chopin was successfully treated with ‘oats and honey’ and often “courses of belladonna. which he continued to take through most of his life”45. Belladonna has centuries-long history of use as a medicine46, however it is not clear who, when, and for what purpose exactly prescribed or recommended it to the pianist. Kuzemko (1994) argues that a diet may have had a positive influence on the course of Chopin’s disease, citing the composer’s letter to his parents from Berlin, written on September, 27, 182847: “I am quite well… as long as I avoid meats, sauces, soups”48. However, this very same letter is quoted differently by another source (text in bald – VW):
“I am quite well, and have seen all that [was] to be seen. I shall soon be with you again. In a week, from the day after tomorrow, we shall embrace […] I count among the great events of my visit here the second dinner with the scientists, which took place the day before the conclusion of the Congress, and was really very lively and entertaining. Several very fair convivial songs were sung, in which all the company joined more or less heartily. Zelter conducted, and a large golden cup, standing on a red pedestal, in front of him, as a sign of his exalted musical merits, appeared to give