Editing Frédéric Chopin (section)

====Decline====
{{main|Health of Frédéric Chopin}}
[[File:Frédéric Chopin.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Chopin, 1838]]
From 1842 onwards, Chopin showed signs of serious illness. After a solo recital in Paris on 21 February 1842, he wrote to Grzymała: "I have to lie in bed all day long, my mouth and tonsils are aching so much."{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=212}} He was forced by illness to decline a written invitation from Alkan to participate in a repeat performance of the Beethoven 7th Symphony arrangement at [[Sébastien Érard|Érard]]'s on 1 March 1843.{{sfn|Eddie|2013|p=8}} Late in 1844, [[Charles Hallé]] visited Chopin and found him "hardly able to move, bent like a half-opened penknife and evidently in great pain", although his spirits returned when he started to play the piano for his visitor.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=227}} Chopin's health continued to deteriorate, particularly from this time onwards. Modern research suggests that apart from any other illnesses, he may also have suffered from [[temporal lobe epilepsy]].<ref>Sara Reardon, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/31/AR2011013104713.html "Chopin's hallucinations may have been caused by epilepsy"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180722012952/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/31/AR2011013104713.html |date=22 July 2018 }}, ''[[The Washington Post]]'', 31 January 2011, accessed 10 January 2014.</ref>

Chopin's output as a composer throughout this period declined in quantity year by year. Whereas in 1841 he had written a dozen works, only six were written in 1842 and six shorter pieces in 1843. In 1844 he wrote only the [[Piano Sonata No. 3 (Chopin)|Op. 58 sonata]]. 1845 saw the completion of three mazurkas (Op. 59). Although these works were more refined than many of his earlier compositions, Zamoyski concludes that "his powers of concentration were failing and his inspiration was beset by anguish, both emotional and intellectual".{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=233}} Chopin's relations with Sand were soured in 1846 by problems involving her daughter [[Solange Dudevant|Solange]] and Solange's fiancé, the young fortune-hunting sculptor [[Auguste Clésinger]].{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§5 ¶2}} The composer frequently took Solange's side in quarrels with her mother; he also faced jealousy from Sand's son Maurice.{{sfn|Samson|1996|p=194}} Moreover, Chopin was indifferent to Sand's radical political pursuits, including her enthusiasm for the [[French Revolution of 1848|February Revolution]] of 1848.{{sfn|Walker|2018|pp=552–554}}

As the composer's illness progressed, Sand had become less of a lover and more of a nurse to Chopin, whom she called her "third child". In letters to third parties she vented her impatience, referring to him as a "child", a "poor angel", a "sufferer", and a "beloved little corpse".{{sfn|Jachimecki|1937|p=424}}{{sfn|Kallberg|2006|p=56}} In 1847 Sand published her novel ''Lucrezia Floriani'', whose main characters{{snd}}a rich actress and a prince in weak health{{snd}}could be interpreted as Sand and Chopin. In Chopin's presence, Sand read the manuscript aloud to Delacroix, who was both shocked and mystified by its implications, writing that "Madame Sand was perfectly at ease and Chopin could hardly stop making admiring comments".{{sfn|Walker|2018|p=529}}{{sfn|Miller|2003|loc=§8}} That year their relationship ended following an angry correspondence which, in Sand's words, made "a strange conclusion to nine years of exclusive friendship".{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§5 ¶3}} Grzymała, who had followed their romance from the beginning, commented, "If [Chopin] had not had the misfortune of meeting G. S. [George Sand], who poisoned his whole being, he would have lived to be Cherubini's age." Chopin would die two years later at thirty-nine; the composer Luigi Cherubini had died in Paris in 1842 at the age of 81.{{sfn|Szulc|1998|p=403}}