Hugo von Hofmannsthal suffered a terrible nervous breakdown that began the month of November 1899, right at the turn of the century, though his despair did not have to do with this turn.
His distress had to do with love and marriage.
This pain lasted a year and a half.
He published, in 1902, his Lord Chandos—which became my Handel.
In 1978, after a new depression had come and also made itself at home in those long nights only winter can devise, I started drafting a response to the letter from Lord Chandos.
In Hofmannsthal’s prodigious account, written in 1901, Lord Chandos’s letter is dated August 22, 1603 (A.D. 1603 diesen 22 August), when he was in Rome. I invented a letter dated April 23, 1605, which I then attributed to Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, in response to the letter from Lord Chandos of 1901/1603.
Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount of Saint Alban, to Philip, Lord Chandos, April 23, 1605, I have let the seasons drag on. I have left unanswered the letter you addressed to me two years ago, which you wrote at the end of the summer. Even if the time to apologize is long past, I nevertheless ask for your pardon. Age, worries, duties, pleasures too, even the accumulation of wealth, laziness still more, please understand, I shall say no more, it all means nothing, but it all does gnaw the hours. Even, sometimes, life seems bitten
