5 ([return])
[ A. M. Z., I., p. 147.]
6 ([return])
[ This idea was very prevalent, and was not altogether rejected by Niemetschek, who, remarking on his early death, adds: "if indeed it was not purposely hastened" (p. 67). Detouche relates it to Sulp. Boisserée (I., p. 292. Mar. Sessi was convinced of its truth. N. Berlin Mus., 1860, p. 340). Even the widow says in a letter to Reg. Rath Ziegler, of Munich (August 25, 1837', that her son giving no signs of his father's greatness, would therefore have nothing to fear from envious attempts on his life. p. 285):[ 4 ]—]
7 ([return])
[ Mozart's diseased fancies were made the grounds for shameful suspicions of Salieri, who was said to have acknowledged on his deathbed having administered poison to Mozart (cf. A. M. Z., XXVII., p. 413). Carpani exonerated Salieri in a long article (Biblioteca Italiana, 1824), and brought forward medical testimony that Mozart's death was caused by inflammation of the brain, besides the assertions of Salieri's attendants during his last illness, that he had made no mention of any poisoning at all. Neukomm also, relying on his intimacy both with the Mozarts and with Salieri, has energetically protested against a calumny (Berlin, allg. mus. Ztg., 1824, p. 172) which no sane person would entertain. The grounds on which the rumour was discredited by Kapellmeister Schwanenberg of Braunschweig, a friend of Salieri, are peculiar. When Sievers, then his pupil, read to him from a newspaper the report of Mozart's having been the victim of the Italian's envy, he answered: "Pazzi! non ha fatto niente per meritar un tal onore" (A. M. Z., XXI., p. 120. Sievers, Mozart u. Sussmayr, p. 3). Daumer has striven to support the untenable conjecture that Mozart was poisoned by the Freemasons (Aus der Mansarde, IV., p. 75). Finally, the report of the poisoning furnished the subject of a dreary novel, "Der Musikfeind," by Gustav Nicolai (Arabesken für Musikfreunde, I. Leipzig, 1825).]
8 ([return])
[ Wiener Morgen-Post, 1856, No. 28.]
9 ([return])
[ This is on the authority of the widow's petition to the Emperor.]