[170] Thayer procured a copy of this letter in London along with the other Stumpff papers already mentioned. Only a fragment of the letter has been printed hitherto in the collections of Beethoven’s letters and that, in great probability, from the draft preserved by Schindler. The newspaper article referred to was printed in the “Modezeitung.”
[171] “Documents, Letters etc., relating to the Bust of Ludwig van Beethoven, presented to the Philharmonic Society of London, by Frau Fanny Linzbauer (née Ponsing). Translated and Arranged for the Society by Doyne C. Bell, London: Published for the Philharmonic Society by Lamborn Cock and Co., 63 New Bond Street, W. 1871.”
[172] Schindler had accompanied Beethoven’s application to Moscheles for relief with a personal letter in which he advised that the Philharmonic Society, in case it should accede to his request, explain to Beethoven that the amount would be sent to a responsible person in Vienna from whom it might be drawn by degrees according to his requirements; and that this precautionary step was taken “because, as they well knew, some of his relations who are with him do not act quite uprightly towards him”—a fling, of course, at the composer’s brother whom he so cordially hated; the nephew was not in Vienna.
[173] Among Mr. Thayer’s papers.
[174] The third operation was performed on February 2, not January 28, as Schindler says.
[175] Wolfmayer had commissioned him years before to write a “Requiem,” and paid him for it.
[176] Letter among Mr. Thayer’s papers.
[177] Neue Folge, 1871, p. 169 et seq.
[178] “Rabelais being very sick, Cardinal du Bellay sent his page to him to have an account of his condition; his answer was, ‘Tell my Lord in what circumstances thou findest me; I am going to leap into the dark. He is up in the cockloft, bid him keep where he is. As for thee, thou’lt always be a fool: let down the curtain, the farce is done.’” ... An author (Thov. His. de Jean Clopinel) who styles Rabelais a man of excellent learning, writes, that he being importuned by some to sign a will whereby they had made him bestow on them legacies that exceeded his ability, he, to be no more disturbed, complied at last with their desires; but when they came to ask him where they should find a fund answerable to what he gave; ‘as for that,’ replied he, ‘you must do like the spaniel, look about and search’; then, adds that author, having said, ‘Draw the curtain, the farce is over,’ he died. Likewise a monk (P. de St. Romuald, Rel. Feuillant) not only tells us that he ended his life with that jest, but that he left a paper sealed up wherein were found three articles as his last will: ‘I owe much, I have nothing, I give the rest to the poor.’ The last story or that before it must undoubtedly be false; and perhaps both are so as well as the message by the page; though Fregius (Comment. in Orat. Cic., tom. I) relates also that Rabelais said when he was dying, ‘Draw the curtain,’ etc. But if he said so, many great men have said much the same. Thus Augustus (Nunquid vitæ mimum commode peregisset) near his death, asked his friends whether he had not very well acted the farce of life? And Demonax, one of the best philosophers, when he saw that he could not, by reason of his great age, live any longer, without being a burden to others, as well as to himself, said to those who were near him what the herald used to say when the public games were ended, ‘You may withdraw, the show is over,’ and refusing to eat, kept his usual gaiety to the last, and set himself at ease. (Lucian)—From Peter Motteux’s Life of Rabelais prefaced to the English translation made by himself and Sir Thomas Urquhart.
[179] In a letter to Mr. Thayer which was found among Hüttenbrenner’s posthumous papers and printed in the “Gratzer Tagespost” of October 23rd, 1868.