Schindler describes the administration of the sacrament, which Beethoven received with edification, and adds that now for the first time he seemed to believe that he was about to die; for “scarcely had the priest left the room before he said to me and young von Breuning, ‘Plaudite, amici, comœdia finita est. Did I not always say that it would end thus?’” (“Habe ich nicht immer gesagt, dass es so kommen wird?”) Here there is agreement with Wawruch, but, to Gerhard von Breuning, Schindler said that Beethoven made the remark at the conclusion of a long consultation after the physicians had gone away; and this is confirmed by Gerhard von Breuning. In 1860 Anselm Hüttenbrenner wrote:[179]
It is not true, as has been reported, that I begged Beethoven to receive the sacrament for the dying; but I did bring it about at the request of the wife of the music-publisher Tobias Haslinger, now deceased, that Beethoven was asked in the gentlest manner by Herr Johann Baptist Jenger and Madame van Beethoven, wife of the landowner, to strengthen himself by receiving holy communion. It is a pure invention that Beethoven spoke the words “Plaudite, amici! Comœdia finita est!” to me, for I was not present when the rite was administered in the forenoon of March 24, 1827. And surely Beethoven did not make to others an utterance so completely at variance with his sturdy character. But on the day of her brother-in-law’s death Frau v. Beethoven told me that after receiving the viaticum he said to the priest, “I thank you, ghostly sir! You have brought me comfort!”
Hüttenbrenner is confirmed by Johann van Beethoven, who wrote in his brief review of his brother’s last illness that when the priest was leaving the room Beethoven said to him, “I thank you for this last service.”
Incidents of the Final Struggle
Beethoven received the viaticum in the presence of Schindler, von Breuning, Jenger and the wife of his brother Johann. After the priest had taken his departure he reminded his friends of the necessity of sending a document ceding the proprietary rights of the C-sharp minor Quartet to the Schotts. It was drawn up and his signature to it, the last which he wrote, was attested by Schindler and Breuning. He also spoke of a letter of thanks to the Philharmonic Society of London and in suggesting its tenor, comprehended the whole English people with a fervent “God bless them!” About one o’clock the special shipment of wine and wine mixed with herbs came from Mayence, and Schindler placed the bottles upon the table near the bed. Beethoven looked at them and murmured, “Pity, pity—too late!” He spoke no more. A little of the wine was administered to him in spoonfuls at intervals, as long as he could swallow it. Towards evening he lost consciousness and the death-struggle began. It lasted two days. “From towards the evening of the 24th to his last breath he was almost continually in delirio,” wrote Schindler to Moscheles. We have a description from Gerhard von Breuning:[180]
During the next day and the day following the strong man lay completely unconscious, in the process of dissolution, breathing so stertorously that the rattle could be heard at a distance. His powerful frame, his unweakened lungs, fought like giants with approaching death. The spectacle was a fearful one. Although it was known that the poor man suffered no more it was yet appalling to observe that the noble being, now irredeemably a prey to the powers of dissolution, was beyond all mental communication. It was expected as early as the 25th that he would pass away in the following night; yet we found him still alive on the 26th—breathing, if that was possible, more stertorously than on the day before.
The only witnesses of Beethoven’s death were his sister-in-law and Anselm Hüttenbrenner. From the latter we have a description of the last scene.[181]
When I entered Beethoven’s bedroom on March 26, 1827 at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, I found there Court Councillor Breuning, his son, Frau van Beethoven, wife of Johann van Beethoven, landowner and apothecary of Lenz, and my friend Joseph Teltscher, portrait painter. I think that Prof. Schindler was also present.
Gerhard von Breuning says that Beethoven’s brother was in the room, and also the housekeeper Sali; Schindler adds a nurse from Dr. Wawruch’s clinic. No doubt all were present at one moment or another; they came and went as occasion or duty called. Hüttenbrenner says that Teltscher began drawing the face of the dying man, which grated on Breuning’s feelings and he made a remonstrance, whereupon the painter left the room. Then Breuning and Schindler went away to choose a spot for the grave. Hüttenbrenner continues: