Chapter XVI (2)

Beethoven not only complained of Neate to Ries, but now wrote to Smart of him in such bitter terms that that gentleman suppressed the letter entirely except to show it to Neate himself, whose grief and astonishment at the injustice done him are but partly expressed in this next letter:

[Sidenote: NEATE DEFENDS HIMSELF AGAINST CENSURE]

London, October 29, 1816.

My dear Beethoven:

Nothing has ever given me more pain than your letter to Sir George
Smart. I confess that I deserve your censure, that I am greatly
in fault; but must say also that I think you have judged too
hastily and too harshly of my conduct. The letter I sent you some
time since, was written at a moment when I was in ~such~ a state
of mind and spirits that I am sure, had you seen me or known my
sufferings, you would have excused every unsatisfactory passage in
it. Thank God! it is now all over, and I was just on the point of
writing to you, when Sir George called with your letter. I do not
know how to begin an answer to it; I have never been called upon
to justify myself, because it is the first time that I ever stood
accused of dishonor; and what makes it the more painful is “that I
stand accused by the man who, of all in the world, I most admire
and esteem, and one also whom I have never ceased to think of, and
wish for his welfare, since I made his acquaintance.” But as the
appearance of my conduct has been so unfavorable in your eyes,
I must tell you again of the situation I was in previous to my
marriage.

* * * * *

I remain in my profession, and with no abatement of my love of
Beethoven! During this period I could not myself do anything
publicly, consequently all your music remained in my drawer unseen
and unheard. I, however, did make a very considerable attempt
with the Philharmonic to acquire for you what I thought you fully
entitled to. I offered all your music to them upon condition
that they made you a very handsome present; this they said they
could not afford, but proposed to see and hear your music, and
then offer a price for it; I objected and replied “that I should
be ashamed that your music should be put up by auction and bid
for!--that your name and reputation were too dear to me”; and I
quitted the meeting with a determination to give a concert and take
all the trouble myself, rather than that your feelings should be
wounded by the chance of their disapproval of your works. I was
the more apprehensive of this, from the unfortunate circumstances
of your Overtures not being well received; they said they had no
more to hope for, from your other works. I was not a Director
last season, but I am for the next, and then I shall have a voice
which I shall take care to exert. I have offered your Sonatas to
several publishers, but they thought them too difficult, and said
they would not be saleable, and consequently made offers such as
I could not accept, but when I shall have played them to a few
professors, their reputation will naturally be increased by their
merits, and I hope to have better offers. The Symphony you read
of in the “Morning Chronicle” I believe to be the one in C minor;
it certainly was not the one in A, for it has not been played at
a concert. I shall insist upon its being played next season, and
most probably the first night. I am exceedingly glad that you have
chosen Sir George Smart to make your complaints of me to, as he is
a man of honor, and very much your friend; had it been anyone else,
your complaint might have been listened to, and I injured all the
rest of my life. But I trust I am too respectable to be thought
unfavorably of by those who know me. I am, however, quite willing
to give up every sheet I have of yours, if you again desire it.
Sir George will write by the next post, and will confirm this. I
am sorry you say that I did not even ~acknowledge~ my obligation
to you, because I talked of nothing else at Vienna, as every one
there who knows me can testify. I even offered my purse, which you
generously always declined. Pray, my dear Friend, believe me to
remain,

Ever yours, most sincerely,
C. Neate.

Zmeskall, whose patience and forbearance were inexhaustible, had again provided his friend with servants--a man and his wife--and something was done towards making the lodging in the Sailerstätte ready to receive the nephew at the end of the quarter. But this was not yet to be. The circumstances explain the following little letter to Zmeskall of date November 3, 1816:

Dear Z. Your non-recommendation of the servants engaged by me I
can also not recommend--I beg of you at once to hand over to me
through Hr. Schlemmer the papers, testimonials, etc., which you
have from them. I have reason to suspect them of a theft. I have
been continually ill since the 14th of last month and must keep to
my bed and room. All projects concerning my nephew have foundered
because of these miserable persons.

[Sidenote: WRETCHED DOMESTIC CONDITIONS]

Further information is provided by the following letter to Giannatasio:

Valued Friend:

My household greatly resembles a shipwreck, or threatens to, in
brief I have been so swindled in reference to these people by one
who affects to be a connoisseur, moreover my recovery seems to be
in no hurry. To engage a steward whose exterior and interior is
unknown under such circumstances, and to leave the education of my
Karl to chance, I can never do, great as are the sacrifices which
in many respects I shall again be called upon to make, I therefore
beg you to keep my Karl again for this quarter, I shall accept your
suggestion regarding his cultivation of music to this extent that
Karl shall leave you 2 or even 3 times a week evenings at 6 o’clock
and remain with me till the next morning when he shall return to
you again by about 8 o’clock. Every day would be too taxing for
K. and for me, since it would always have to be at the same hour,
too wearisome and restricting. We shall discuss more in detail
during this quarter what would be most practicable and considerate
also for me, for, in view, unfortunately of the fact that my
circumstances are continually getting worse I must also use this
expression, if your residence in the garden had been better adapted
to my health, everything would more easily have been arranged. As
regards my indebtedness to you for the last quarter I must beg of
you to bring the matter directly to my attention as the bearer of
this has been blessed by God with a certain amount of stupidity
which one might not begrudge him if others were not affected by
it. Regarding the other expenditures for Karl during his illness
or matters connected with it, I beg of you to have patience for
a few days as I have large expenditures just now on all hands. I
should also like to know how I am to conduct myself toward Smettana
in view of his successfully accomplished operation. So far as his
compensation is concerned if I were rich or not in the condition
of all (except the Austrian usurers) whom fate has bound to this
country, I would not ask at all. I only mean an approximate
estimate. Farewell, I embrace you with all my heart, and will
always look upon you as the friend of myself and my Karl.

In November, Mr. Lonsdale wrote as follows in behalf of Mr. Birchall:

London, November 8, 1816.

Sir:

In answer to yours of the 1st October, I am desired by Mr. Birchall
to inform you, he is glad to find you are now satisfied respecting
his promise of paying you £5 ... in addition to what you before
received according to agreement; but he did not think you would
have delayed sending the receipt signed after the receipt of the
130 ducats merely because you had not received the £5 ..., which
latter sum was not included in the receipt. Till it comes Mr.
Birchall cannot, at any rate, enter into any fresh arrangement, as
his first care will be to secure those pieces he has already paid
you for, and see how they answer his purpose as a Music Seller
and without the receipt he cannot prevent any other Music Seller
from publishing them. In regard to the airs with variations, the
price of £30, which is supposed you mean for each, is considerably
more than he could afford to give, ever to have any hopes of
seeing them repay him--if that should be your lowest price--Mr.
Birchall will give up his idea of them altogether. The Symphony in
A will be quite ready for publication in a week; Mr. Ries (who has
kindly undertaken the inspection of your works) has it now looking
over--but it will not come out ~till the day comes~ you may appoint.

Mr. Birchall fears the Sonata in G and the Trio in B-flat have been
published in Vienna before his--he will be obliged to you to inform
him of the day, when you write, that they were published. I am
sorry to say, that Mr. Birchall’s health has been very bad for two
or three years back, which prevents him from attending to business
and as there are, I fear, but little hopes of his being much
better, he is less anxious respecting making ~any~ additions to his
catalogue than he otherwise would have been; he is much obliged
to you for the offer of the Sonata and the Trio, but he begs to
decline it for the reasons before mentioned.

Hoping to hear soon respecting the paper sent for your signature,

I am Sir, for Mr. Birchall, etc.
C. Lonsdale.

P. S. The Sonata in G is published and the Trio will be in a few
days. Is Mr. Beethoven’s opera of Fidelio published? Where and by
whom?

[Sidenote: END OF THE ENGLISH CONNECTION]

To this letter Beethoven sent an answer addressed to Mr. Birchall dated December 14, 1816, as follows:

Vienna, December 14, 1816.--1055 Sailerstätte.

Dear Sir:

I give you my word of honor, that I have signed and delivered
the receipt to the house, Fries and Co., some day last August,
who, as they say, transmitted it to Messrs. Coutts and Co., where
you’ll have the goodness to apply. Some error might have taken
place that instead of Messrs C. sending it to you, they have been
directed to keep it till fetched. Excuse this irregularity, but it
is not my fault, nor had I ever the idea of withholding it from
the circumstance of the £5 not being included. Should the receipt
not come forth at Messrs. C., I am ready to sign any other and you
shall have it directly with return of post.

If you find variations in my style too dear at £30, I will abate,
for the sake of your friendship, one-third, and you have the offer
of such variations as fixed in our former letters for £20 each air.

Please to publish the Symphony in A immediately, as well as the
Sonata and the Trio--they being ready here.

The grand opera Fidelio is my work. The arrangement for the
pianoforte has been published here under my care, but the score of
the opera itself is not yet published. I have given a copy of the
score to Mr. Neate under the seal of friendship and whom I shall
direct to treat for my account in case an offer should present.

I anxiously hope your health is improving. Give me leave to
subscribe myself, Dear Sir,

Your very obedient servant,
[Postmark, Dec. 31, 1816.] Ludwig van Beethoven.

This letter closed the correspondence; for upon the death of Mr. Birchall his successor, Lonsdale, did not deem the connection with the composer to be worth retaining. Letters to Zmeskall, Sir George Smart and Neate, in London, tell of incidents which make up the history of the latter part of the year 1816:

(To Zmeskall--December 16.)

Here dear Z. you will receive my friendly dedication[169] which I
hope will be a precious souvenir of our long-continued friendship
and be accepted as a proof of my respect and not as the end of a
long-spun thread (for you belong to my earliest friends in Vienna).
Farewell--Abstain from the decayed fortresses, the attack exhausts
more than those on the well preserved.

As ever,
Your friend,
Beethoven.

N.B. If you have a moment’s time please tell me how much a livery
will cost now (without cloak) with hat and boot money.

The most extraordinary changes have taken place, the man, thank
God, has gone to the devil, but on the other hand the wife seems
disposed to attach herself all the more closely.

(To Sir George Smart, dictated to Häring.)

Vienna, December 16, 1816.--1055 Sailerstätte, 3d Floor.

My dear Sir:

You honor me with so many encomiums and compliments that I ought to
blush, tho’ I confess they are highly flattering to me and I thank
you most heartily for the part you take in my affairs. They have
rather gone a little back through the strange situation in which
our lost--but happily recovered--friend Mr. Neate found himself
entangled. Your kind letter of 31 October, explained a great deal
and to some satisfaction and I take the liberty to enclose an
answer to Mr. Neate, of whom I also received a letter, with my
entreaties to assist him in all his undertakings in my behalf.

You say that the Cantata might serve your purpose for the Oratorios
and I ask you if you find £50 too much to give for it? I have had
no benefit for it whatever until now, but I still should not wish
to ask of you a price by which you might be a loser. Therefore we
shall name £40, and if your success should be great, then I hope
you will have no objection of adding the £10, to make the sum as
mentioned. The ~Copyright~ would be ~yours~ and I should only make
the condition of my publishing it ~here~ at a period, which ~you
will be pleased~ to appoint and not before. I have communicated
to Mr. Häring your kind intentions (good wishes) and he joins
with me in the expression of the highest regard, which he always
entertained for you.

Mr. Neate may keep the different works except the Cantata if
you accept it and I hope he will have it in his power with your
assistance to do something for me, which from my illness and from
the state of the Austrian finances would be very welcome.

Give me leave to subscribe myself with the greatest esteem and
cordiality,

Ludwig van Beethoven.

(Mr. Häring, at Beethoven’s dictation, to Mr. Neate.)

Vienna, December 18, 1816.

My dear Sir:

Both letters to Mr. Beethoven and to me arrived. I shall first
answer his, as he has made out some memorandums, and would have
written himself, if he was not prevented by a rheumatic feverish
cold. He says: What can I answer to your warmfelt excuses? Past
ills must be forgotten, and I wish you heartily joy that you
have safely reached the long-wished-for port of love. Not having
heard of you, I could not delay any longer the publication of
the Symphony in A, which appeared here some few weeks ago. It
certainly may last some weeks longer before a copy of this
publication appears in London, but unless it is soon performed at
the Philharmonic, and something is done for me afterwards by way
of benefit, I don’t see in what manner I am to reap any good. The
loss of your interest last season with the Philharmonic, when all
my works in your hands were unpublished, has done me great harm;
but it could not be helped, and at this moment I know not what to
say. Your intentions are good, and it is to be hoped that my little
fame may yet help. With respect to the two Sonatas, Op. 102, for
pianoforte and violoncello, I wish to see them sold very soon, as I
have several offers for them in Germany, which depend entirely upon
me to accept; but I should not wish, by publishing them here, to
lose all and every advantage with them in England. I am satisfied
with the ten guineas offered for the dedication of the Trio, and
I beg you to hand the title immediately to Mr. Birchall, who is
anxiously waiting for it; you’ll please to use my name with him.

I should be flattered to write some new works for the
Philharmonic--I mean Symphonies, an Oratorio, or Cantatas, etc. Mr.
Birchall wrote as if he wished to purchase my “Fidelio.” Please to
treat with him, unless you have some plan with it for my benefit
concert, which in general I leave to you and Sir George Smart, who
will have the goodness to deliver this to you.

The score of the opera “Fidelio” is not published in Germany or
anywhere else. Try what can be done with Mr. Birchall, or as you
think best. I was very sorry to hear that the three Overtures were
not liked in London. I by no means reckon them among my best works,
(which, however, I can boldly say of the Symphony in A), but still
they were not disliked here and in Pesth, where people are not
easily satisfied. Was there no fault in the execution? Was there no
party spirit?

And now I shall close, with the best wishes for your welfare, and
that you enjoy all possible felicity in your new situation of life.

Your true friend,

Ludwig van Beethoven.

[Sidenote: DR. KANKA’S HELP IMPLORED]

Toward the end of the month Beethoven wrote a lengthy letter to Dr. Kanka:

Vienna, December 28, 1816.

My very dear and honored friend:

To-morrow’s post-wagon will carry for you a Symphony by me in
score, the reported Battle Symphony in score, Trio and a Violin
Sonata and a few song pieces--I know that you feel in advance that
I am grateful for all that you do for me as lately also for the
quick remittance recently of my semi-yearly [dues]. But now again a
request, rather an imposition, yes even a commission. The city of
Retz, consisting of about 500 houses will appoint you as Curator
of a certain Johann Hamatsch in Prague, for heaven’s sake do not
decline such a simple judicial matter for thereby my poor little
nephew will finally receive a small fortune, of course the matter
will first have to be passed on by our magistracy here, inasmuch
as the mother will probably have some benefit of it, think of it
how much time these things will take, my poor unfortunate brother
died without seeing the end, for the courts have such care for
His Majesty, that the predecessor of the present syndicus of the
city of Retz wanted to pay my brother 5000 florins for 500 (x)
such are the honorable men which our amiable Christian monarch has
around him--the present syndicus is himself an honest and capable
man (for, if he wanted to he might have been like the former),
meanwhile the aforementioned Hamatsch in Prague (a tradesman) has
not yet given notice of his acceptance (N. B.--for 4 or 5 years).

The syndicus Bayer of Retz will therefore send you the Curatel
decree together with a copy of the bill of exchange from the
magistracy of Retz, I know much too well how small and trivial the
case is for a man of brains like yourself, if you do not think it
fitting, I beg of you to choose somebody for it and to promote the
matter as much as you can--but it would in every respect be better
if you would undertake it, perhaps a mere consultation with the man
(in Prague) would bring the matter to a conclusion.

xThe present syndicus needed only 30 days and as many nights to
extricate the matter from its former confusion in which it had been
left.

My nephew, so dear to me, is in one of the best institutions in
Vienna, displays great talent, but all this goes to my expense and
the Retz affair might enable me to spend a few hundred florins more
on the education of my dear nephew. I embrace you as one of my
dearest friends.

A little cantata, written in honor of Prince Lobkowitz, belongs to this month of December. An autograph copy was given some forty years afterwards to Dr. Ottokar Zeithammer, of Prague, by the aged widow of Beethoven’s friend Peters, who gives this account of its origin:

The copy of a little cantata which he (Beethoven) wrote for me to
be performed on the birthday of the Prince, now long dead, and
which--as he himself says--reached me after his death, was in
reality written by him and most daintily tied together with blue
ribbon.... The cantata consists only of a few reiterated words, we
can hardly say ~composed~ by himself, and originated when he heard
of the approaching birthday festival of the Prince when visiting
us. “And is there to be no celebration?” he asked, and I answered
him, “No.” “That will not do,” he replied; “I’ll hurriedly write
you a cantata, which you must sing for him.” But the performance
was never reached.[170]

The intended performance never took place, because Lobkowitz, born on December 7, 1772, died on December 16, 1816. And so he, too, disappears from our history. The foregoing receives all needful confirmation in this letter:

(To Peters.)

January 8, 1816.
[Should be 1817.]

Only yesterday did I hear from Hrn. von Bernard, who met me, that
you are here and therefore I send you these two copies, which
unfortunately were not finished until just at the time when the
death of our dear Prince Lobkowitz was reported. Do me the favor to
hand them to His Serene Highness, the first-born Prince Lobkowitz,
together with this writing, it was just to-day, I intended to look
up the cashier to ask him to undertake its delivery in Bohemia, not
having, in truth, believed anyone here.

I, if I may speak of myself, am in a state of tolerably good health
and wish you the same. I dare not ask you to come to me for I
should be obliged to ~tell you why~, and that I should not presume
to do as little as why you ~would not~ or ~would not desire~ to
come. I beg you to write the inscription to the Prince as I do not
know his given name--the 3rd copy please keep for your wife.

[Sidenote: THE COMING OF ANSELM HÜTTENBRENNER]

To the few names which this year have appeared in our narrative, there is still to be added one worthy of a paragraph: that of a wealthy young man from Gratz, an amateur musician and composer of that class whose idol was Beethoven--Anselm Hüttenbrenner, who came to Vienna in 1815 to study with Salieri, and formed an intimate friendship with Franz Schubert. His enthusiasm for Beethoven was not abated when the present writer, in 1860, had the good fortune to enjoy a period of familiar intercourse with him, to learn his great and noble qualities of mind and heart, and to hear his reminiscences from his own lips. That these, in relation to Beethoven, were numerous, no one will expect; since no young man of twenty-two years, and a stranger, could at the period before us be much with the master except as a pupil--and he took none--or in the position lately occupied by Oliva and soon to be assumed by Schindler; which of course was all out of the question with Hüttenbrenner.

I learned to know Beethoven [he relates] through the kindness of
Hrn. Dr. Joseph Eppinger, Israelite. The first time Beethoven was
not at home; his housekeeper opened to us his living-room and
study. There everything lay in confusion--scores, shirts, socks,
books. The second time he was at home, locked in with two copyists.
At the name “Eppinger” he opened the door and excused himself,
having a great deal to do, and asked us to come at another time.
But, seeing in my hand a roll of music--overture to Schiller’s
“Robbers” and a vocal quartet with pianoforte accompaniment, text
by Schiller--he took it, sat himself down to the pianoforte and
turned all the leaves carefully. Thereupon he jumped up, pounded
me on the right shoulder with all his might, and spoke to me the
following words which humiliated me because I cannot yet explain
them: “I am not worthy that you should visit me!” Was it humility?
If so it was divine; if it was irony it was pardonable.

And again:

A few times a week Beethoven came to the publishing house of
Steiner and Co. in the forenoon between 11 and 12 o’clock. Nearly
every time there was held there a composers’ meeting to exchange
musical opinions. Schubert frequently took me there. We regaled
ourselves with the pithy, often sarcastic remarks of Beethoven
particularly when the talk was about Italian music.

Hüttenbrenner remembered as a common remark in Vienna in those days that what first gave Beethoven his reputation on coming there twenty-four years before, was his superb playing of Bach’s “Well-Tempered Clavichord.”

Two or three minor notes will close the story of the year. In the concert for the Theatrical Poor Fund, in the Theater-an-der-Wien, September 8th, one of the finales to Beethoven’s “Prometheus” music was revived: “A glorious piece worked out in a masterly manner,” says a reporter; and the concert for the Hospital of St. Mark, on December 25, opened with his “Symphony in A, one difficult of execution, which was performed with the greatest precision under the direction of this brilliant composer.” More important was a proposition made early in the year by his old friend Hoffmeister in Leipsic, for a complete edition of his pianoforte works, which came to nothing and concerning which more in another connection. In July he received another series of songs from Thomson which, according to a letter in French to Thomson, dated January 18, 1817, he had already finished by the end of September.

[Sidenote: WORKS COMPOSED AND PUBLISHED IN 1816]

The works composed in 1816 are:

I. Pianoforte Sonata in A major, Op. 101, dedicated to Baroness
Dorothea von Ertmann.[171] Nottebohm’s researches place all the
sketches for the sonata in the years 1815 and 1816. (See, “Zweit.
Beeth.,” pp. 340 and 552 ~et seq.~)

II. Song: “Der Mann von Wort,” Op. 99.

III. Song-cycle: “An die ferne Geliebte,” Op. 98. The autograph
bears the inscription “1816 in the month of April.” Sketches from
1815 and 1816 are described by Nottebohm in “Zweit. Beeth.,” p. 334
~et seq.~

IV. March in D major, for military band; the autograph bears the
inscription in Beethoven’s hand: “March for the grand parade of the
Guard, by L. v. Beethoven, June 3, 1816.”

V. Cantata for the birthday of Prince Lobkowitz, composed for
Peters.

VI. Song: “Ruf vom Berge,” dated “December 13, 1816.”

The publications for the year were:

I. Song: “Das Geheimniss,” as a supplement for the “Wiener
Modenzeitung,” February 29, 1816.

II. Song: “An die Hoffnung,” Op. 94; by Steiner and Co., in
February.

III. “Wellington’s Sieg, oder die Schlacht bei Vittoria, in Musik
gesetzt von Ludwig van Beethoven. 91^{stes} Werk”; by Steiner and
Co., Vienna, in March.

IV. Canon: “Glück zum neuen Jahr”; by J. Riedel, Vienna, in May.

V. Song: “Die Sehnsucht,” words by Reissig; by Artaria in a
collection which appeared in June.

VI. Sonata for Pianoforte and Violin, Op. 96; dedicated to Archduke
Rudolph; Vienna, Steiner and Co., in July.

VII. Trio for Pianoforte, Violin and Violoncello, Op. 97; dedicated
to Archduke Rudolph; published by Steiner and Co., Vienna, on July
16.

VIII. Song: “Merkenstein,” Op. 100; dedicated to Count
Dietrichstein; Vienna, Steiner and Co., in September.

IX. Song: “Der Mann von Wort,” Op. 99; Vienna, Steiner and Co., in
November.

X. Song-Cycle: “An die ferne Geliebte,” Op. 98; dedicated to Prince
Lobkowitz; Vienna, Steiner and Co., in December.

XI. Symphony, No. 7, in A major, Op. 92; dedicated to Count Moritz
von Fries; Vienna, Steiner and Co., in December.

XII. Symphony, No. 8, in F major, Op. 93; Vienna, Steiner and Co.,
in December.

XIII. Quartet for Strings, F minor, Op. 95; dedicated to Zmeskall;
Vienna, Steiner and Co., in December.

XIV. Two Sonatas for Pianoforte and Violoncello, Op. 102. According
to a letter of Zmeskall’s dated January 20, 1817, these sonatas
were not published later than the works last mentioned, that is,
December, 1816. They were published by Simrock without dedication.
In the later edition published by Artaria in 1819, they are
dedicated to Countess Erdödy.

FOOTNOTES:

[162] The German original was acquired in 1913 at a sale of autographs by Mr. Richard Aldrich.

[163] Also in score.

[164] Published in 1909 by Leopold Schmidt in his “Beethoven Briefe an N. Simrock, etc.”

[165] Birchall.

[166] Salomon.

[167] The Prince Regent had never ordered this work nor had his permission to present and dedicate it to him been asked before sending it. Beethoven resented the fact that he had not been recompensed until the day of his death.

[168] Dr. Riemann, holding to his theory that the love-letter to the “Immortal Beloved” was written on July 6, 1812, changes Thayer’s concluding words to make them read: “That this cycle, which advances Beethoven so greatly as a song composer, was directed to the addressee of the love-letter of July 6, 1812, can be accepted as certain.”

[169] To the Quartet in F minor, Op. 95.

[170] This composition, solo and chorus, E-flat major, 4-4, forty-three measures long, had for a text only these words:

“Long life to our dear Prince
May he live!
May noble deeds be his loveliest calling,
Then shall he not forgo the loveliest reward.
May he live, etc.”

A copy of this, received many years ago from Dr. Edmund Schebek, is inscribed “Evening of April 12, 1822, before the birthday of His Ser. Prince Ferdinand Lobkowitz.” This young Prince completed his 25th year on April 13, 1822. It is clear, therefore, that this inscription refers to a performance, not to the composition of the little work.

[171] The anecdote told by Mendelssohn of Beethoven’s playing to relieve the sorrow of the Baroness has a complement in a document found among the posthumous papers of Thayer. On December 25, 1864, Thayer received a poem from Frau von Arneth (Antonie Adamberger) written by Gustav Frank, a production of no literary value but based upon an incident thus told in a note attached to it: After the burial of Baroness von Ertmann’s only child, the grief-stricken woman was unable to find the consolation which comes with tears. Greatly concerned thereat, her husband, General von Ertmann, took her to Beethoven, who without a word sat down to the pianoforte and played until the Baroness’s sobs testified that relief had come. Thayer endorsed on the copy of the poem which he made: “It is a fact in Beethoven’s and Frau Dorothea v. Ertmann’s intercourse.”