[65] He merely saw two representations, one of which was the Barber of Seville, but without hearing a word of them. At his desire the score was sent to his lodgings, and after he had looked through it he made this curious remark:—"Rossini would have been a great composer if his master had oftener given him a sound flogging."
[66] I am so fortunate as to possess the original score of this work. Reminding Beethoven of the fate of the Kyrie in the grand Mass, and apprehensive that this score might also be used by his servants as waste paper for wrapping up boots and shoes, I asked him for it, and he gave it to me, attaching no higher value to such a gift than an ordinary sheet of paper. In the year 1823 his manuscripts fared precisely as they had done twenty years earlier, as M. Ries remarks (p. 113). All of them lay about in the utmost confusion, and any one that chose might take away what he pleased unmolested. May not this indifference towards the productions of his genius, the value of which, however, he well knew, be considered as the strongest proof that in his mind there was no trace of conceit, self-importance, or even egotism? In whom has the like ever been seen?
[67] Afterwards King of Saxony.
[68] The kind Archduke was needlessly concerned. When Beethoven was quite well, he went in general only with great reluctance to his illustrious patron and scholar; nay, he was ill in imagination whenever he heard that the Archduke was coming to town. He was accustomed to call the giving of lessons in this case "court-service," and what ideas he connected with that term it is easy to guess. On the other hand, his dislike to give systematic instruction made matters still worse. We discover in all this the very same "ill-tempered donkey," as at the time when he lived at Bonn. Then again the lessons of this Archduke required preparation on the part of the instructor, and also some regard to the toilet;{****} hence it was so hard a task for him to go to the Imperial palace, but one above which, in this case, he could not set himself.
{****} Any restraint experienced by Beethoven in his intercourse with the Archduke can only have originated in his own aversion to giving lessons. Nothing could be generally more urbane or less ceremonious in the matter of exactions as to toilet, than was this distinguished patron of music. I may be permitted, perhaps, to recall a personal instance of this: on waiting upon the Archduke for the purpose of presenting him with a copy of the Duet in E flat (Op. 47), which I had the honour of dedicating to him, I found him, to my surprise, in his ecclesiastical Cardinal's robes, in which I had never, till then, seen him. His usual affability of manner, however, remained unchanged. He took up the copy with eagerness, and, hardly allowing himself time to glance over it, said, "Let us try it." This was done as soon as said. I knew not whether most to admire the clever manner in which he played this composition at sight, or at the disparity of the persons engaged in its execution—not in rank only, but in costume; for it was impossible, as often as my eye glanced downwards towards the pedal, not to be struck by the sight of his red stockings side by side with my black ones.—ED.
[69] These letters are addressed to the Kappellmeister Hofmeister, who, under the firm of Hofmeister and Kühnel, Bureau de Musique, commenced the correspondence in the year 1800 with his friend Beethoven. That firm afterwards changed its designation, though retaining all its copyrights, to A. Kühnel Bureau de Musique: the business was next transferred, with the same proviso, to C. F. Peters, of whose heirs it was purchased by me in 1828, likewise with all the copyrights.—C. G. S. Böhme.
[70] The German word stechen signifies both to engrave and to sting: hence arises in the original a pun which cannot possibly be conveyed in the translation.
[71] A ducat is about ten shillings English money.—ED.
[72] Wenzel Müller.
[73] It is remarkable that Beethoven, even at that time, should manifest in these lines so correct a notion of musical copyright. Though no man of business, he perceived that the purchaser of the original melody must at the same time have a right of property of all arrangements, if copyright is to be maintained inviolate.