DEAR RIES,--
The signs are wrongly marked, and many of the notes misplaced; so be careful! or your labor will be vain. Ch' a detto l' amato bene?
34.
TO HERR RIES.
DEAR RIES,--
May I beg you to be so obliging as to copy this andante [in the Kreuzer Sonata] for me, however indifferently? I must send it off to-morrow, and as Heaven alone knows what its fate may then be, I wish to get it transcribed. But I must have it back to-morrow about one o'clock. The cause of my troubling you is that one of my copyists is already very much occupied with various things of importance, and the other is ill.
35.
TO THE COMPOSER LEIDESDORF,--VIENNA.[1]
DORF DES LEIDES [VILLAGE OF SORROW--LEIDESDORF],--
Let the bearer of this, Herr Ries, have some easy duets, and, better still, let him have them for nothing. Conduct yourself in accordance with the reformed doctrines. Farewell!
BEETHOVEN
Minimus.
[Footnote 1: Date unknown. Leidesdorf was also a music-seller.]