I do not, of course, intend to throw any doubt upon the circumstance here stated, of Weber having shown the score of Euryanthe to Beethoven, yet there seems to be some doubt as to Weber not having been on good terms with Beethoven, the more so when Rellstab's accounts are taken into consideration.
I make some extracts from the Memoirs of this much-esteemed writer and critic. He says (March 24th, 1825), "My journey to Vienna had been decided upon..... yet, of all the fair promises the imperial city held out to me, there was none so exciting or so spirit-stirring as the supreme felicity which I felt at the thoughts of becoming acquainted with Beethoven."....
Rellstab, on his way to Vienna, calls upon C. M. von Weber at Dresden, and, on asking him for a letter of introduction to Beethoven, receives the following reply:—"Beethoven does not like epistolary communication, and thinks it quite as irksome to read, as to write letters, but you may bring him all sorts of kind and respectful messages from me verbally; to judge from the kind reception he gave me during my last stay at Vienna, in 1823, I should suppose he would remember me with every feeling of sympathy and attachment." Weber then proceeded to give me an account of his last visit to Beethoven, to which, of course, I listened with the greatest eagerness. "We had been to him several times," said he, "without having once been able to see him; he was out of humour, and shunning all human society, yet we at length succeeded in finding the propitious moment; we were shown in, and beheld him sitting at his writing-table, from which he did not however rise at once to give us a friendly welcome. He had known me for several years, so that I could at once enter into conversation with him, but suddenly he started up, stood upright before me, and, putting his two hands on my shoulders, he shook me with a kind of rough cordiality, saying, 'You have always been a fine fellow!' and with this he embraced me in the kindest and most affectionate manner.
"Of all the marks of distinction then shown to me at Vienna, of all the praise and fame I there earned, nothing ever touched my heart as much as this fraternal kiss of Beethoven's."—ED.
[49] See [Supplement No. II., Vol. II.]
[50] But not "tacitly," as M. von Seyfried asserts at p. 12 of his Biographical Particulars. In Austria there is no such thing as a tacit adoption; every adoption requires a legal confirmation in order to be valid.
[51] This was Dr. Bach, senior court-advocate and sworn notary, who has for the third time been elected Dean of the Faculty of the Law in the University of Vienna.
[52] For this interesting document I am indebted to my esteemed friend Dr. Bach. In his letter of the 9th of June, 1839, when he sent it to me, he expresses this wish:—"Not a trait of that great soul ought to be lost, because it proves that with an inexhaustible genius a noble spirit may be combined." He will perceive how strictly and how faithfully I have endeavoured in this work to comply with his wishes and the express desire of our mutual friend.
[53] It was only three years before his death that Mozart obtained an allowance of 800 florins, which was paid out of the privy purse of the Emperor Joseph, whose favourite he moreover was. We see how nearly alike were the fortunes of those two great geniuses in this particular.
[54] This axiom, which may no doubt find numerous champions to defend it, is not one that I could subscribe to; and I hope the reader may not consider the selection of anecdotes from Seyfried, Ries, and Wegeler, which I have made in Supplement Nos. IV. & V., Vol. II., an unwelcome addition to M. Schindler's work.—ED.