Beethoven's Letters 1790-1826, Volume 2

Excerpt

BEETHOVEN'S LETTERS.

216.
TO STEINER & CO.

The Adjutant's innocence is admitted, and there is an end of it!

We beg you to be so good as to send us two copies in score of the Symphony in A. We likewise wish to know when we may expect a copy of the Sonata for Baroness von Ertmann, as she leaves this, most probably, the day after to-morrow.

No. 3--I mean the enclosed note--is from a musical friend in Silesia, not a rich man, for whom I have frequently had my scores written out. He wishes to have these works of Mozart in his library; as my servant, however, has the good fortune, by the grace of God, to be one of the greatest blockheads in the world (which is saying a good deal), I cannot make use of him for this purpose. Be so kind therefore as to send to Herr ---- (for the Generalissimus can have no dealings with a petty tradesman), and desire him to write down the price of each work and send it to me with my two scores in A, and also an answer to my injunction about Ertmann, as early to-day as you can (presto, prestissimo!)--nota bene, the finale to be a march in double-quick time. I recommend the best execution of these orders, so that no further obstacle may intervene to my recovery.

L. VAN BEETHOVEN,
The best generalissimus for the good,
But the devil himself for the bad!

The Lieutenant-General is requested to send his Diabolum, that I may tell him myself my opinion of the "Battle," which is printed in the vilest manner. There is much to be altered.

THE G----S.

218.
TO TOBIAS HASLINGER.

MY GOOD ADJUTANT,--

Best of all little fellows! Do see again about that house, and get it for me. I am very anxious also to procure the treatise on education. It is of some importance to me to be able to compare my own opinions on this subject with those of others, and thus still further improve them. As for our juvenile Adjutant, I think I shall soon have hit on the right system for his education. Your

CONTRA FA,
Manu propria.

BEST OF ALL PRINTERS AND ENGRAVERS,--

Be kinder than kind, and throw off a hundred impressions of the accompanying small plate. I will repay you threefold and fourfold. Farewell!

Your

BEETHOVEN.

[Footnote 1: This is possibly the humorous visiting-card that Beethoven sometimes sent to his friends, with the inscription Wir bleiben die Alten ("We are the same as ever"), and on reversing the card, a couple of asses stared them in the face! Frau Eyloff told me of a similar card that her brother Schindler once got from Beethoven on a New Year's day.]

220.
TO BARONESS DOROTHEA VON ERTMANN.

Feb. 23, 1817.

MY DEAR AND VALUED DOROTHEA CECILIA,--

You have no doubt often misjudged me, from my apparently forbidding manner; much of this arose from circumstances, especially in earlier days, when my nature was less understood than at present. You know the manifestations of those self-elected apostles who promote their interests by means very different from those of the true Gospel....