Mein Neffe Karl Soll alleiniger Erbe seyn, das Kapital meines Nachlasses soll jedoch Seinen natürlichen oder testamentarischen Erben zufallen.
Ludwig van Beethoven mp.
Wien am 23 März 1827.
According to Gerhard von Breuning, signatures were necessary to several documents—the will, the transfer of the guardianship of the nephew to von Breuning and the letter of January 3, which also made a testamentary disposition of Beethoven’s property. These signatures were all obtained with great difficulty. The younger von Breuning places the date on March 24th. After von Breuning, Schindler and the dying man’s brother had indicated to Beethoven, who lay in a half-stupor, that his signature was required they raised him as much as possible and pushed pillows under him for support. Then the documents, one after the other, were laid before him and von Breuning put the inked pen in his hand. “The dying man, who ordinarily wrote boldly in a lapidary style, repeatedly signed his immortal name, laboriously, with trembling hand, for the last time; still legibly, indeed, but each time forgetting one of the middle letters—once an h, another time ane.”
“Comœdia Finita Est.”
On the day which saw the signing of the will, Beethoven made an utterance, eminently characteristic of him, but which, because of an interpretation which it has received, has caused no small amount of comment. The date is fixed as March 23rd by Schindler’s letter to Moscheles of March 24th in which he says: “Yesterday he said to me and Breuning, ‘Plaudite, amici, comœdia finita est’.” Though the phrase does not seem to be a literal quotation from any author known to have been familiar to Beethoven, it is obviously a paraphrase of something which he had read. According to Schindler and Gerhard von Breuning the words were uttered in a tone of sarcastic humor. Schindler and Dr. Wawruch (though the latter was not present) agree in saying that he made the speech after receiving the viaticum, and it is this circumstance, coupled with the deduction that the dying man referred to the sacred function just performed, which greatly disturbed the minds of some of his devout admirers. It needed not have done so; the phrase is almost a literary commonplace and its significance has never been in question.[178]
When Beethoven’s friends saw the end approaching, they were naturally desirous that he receive the spiritual comfort which the offices of the Roman Catholic church offer to the dying and it was equally natural that Beethoven, brought up as a child of the church though careless of his duties toward it, should, at the last, be ready to accept them. Johann van Beethoven relates that a few days after the 16th of March, when the physicians gave him up for lost, he had begged his brother to make his peace with God, to which request he acceded “with the greatest readiness.” Confirmation of this is found in Dr. Wawruch’s report. Wawruch, it will be remembered, had, at the beginning of his studies, intended to enter the priesthood. At the crisis described by Johann he says he called Beethoven’s attention to his impending dissolution “so that he might do his duty as a citizen and to religion.” He continues:
With the greatest delicacy I wrote the words of admonition on a sheet of paper.... Beethoven read the writing with unexampled composure, slowly and thoughtfully, his countenance like that of one transfigured; cordially and solemnly he held out his hand to me and said: “Have the priest called.” Then he lay quietly lost in thought and amiably indicated by a nod his “I shall soon see you again.” Soon thereafter Beethoven performed his devotions with a pious resignation which looked confidently into eternity and turned to the friends around him with the words, “Plaudite, amici, finita est comœdia!”
Wawruch was not present at the time when the words were spoken. Schindler’s account, in a letter to the “Cäcilia” dated April 12, 1827, and printed in that journal in May, is as follows:
On the day before (the 23rd) there remained with us only one ardent wish—to reconcile him with heaven and to show the world at the same time that he had ended his life a true Christian. The Professor in Ordinary [Wawruch] therefore wrote and begged him in the name of all his friends to receive the holy sacrament; to which he replied quietly and firmly (gefasst), “I wish it.” The physician went away and left us to care for it.