“Loud applause was heard throughout the hall. The success of the improviser exceeded the expectations of the listeners and his own expectations. As soon as a subject was assigned to him, lofty thoughts and touching feelings, dressed in full-voiced meters, burst from his lips like phantasmagoric visions from a magical altar. The artist did not think for a minute: in an instant a thought arose in his head, went through all the periods of its growth, and was transformed into expressions. The intricate form of the play, and poetic images, and a dandy epithet, and an obedient rhyme appeared at once...”