Probably if he had secured the happy home life for which he so often longed, we should have been the losers, for he might truly have said, with Heine—
“Out of my great sorrows I make the little songs.”
When he made his will at Heiligenstadt he believed himself to be dying. At the close of it came this prayer—
“O Providence, let once a day of pure happiness shine upon me!”
That prayer was granted, and he found many days of pure happiness by the side of the Countess Therese of Brunswick, the aunt of the faithless Julie.
Countess Therese was the right woman for him, and nobody knows why their marriage did not take place. They were certainly betrothed, and Therese’s brother Franz was Beethoven’s most intimate friend. To him the Sonate Appassionata was dedicated, surely the grandest tribute that could be paid to any friendship. It was written during the composer’s visit to the Brunswicks’ estate in Hungary in the summer of 1806, and probably was intended as a message for Therese, which her lover could not trust himself to deliver.
Soon after leaving the Brunswicks Beethoven wrote to the Count—
“Dear, dear Franz! Only a line to tell you that I have made good terms with Clementi. Two hundred pounds I am to get, and over and above I can sell the same works again in Germany and France. Further, he has given me other orders, so that I may reasonably hope to attain the dignity of a true artist in early years. Kiss thy sister Therese, and tell her that I am afraid I shall become famous before she has erected a monument to me.”
At the same time, July, 1806, the much-discussed love-letter was written. This letter was found, after his death, among Beethoven’s papers, with the portrait of the Countess Therese, which is reproduced in this number of The Girl’s Own Paper. The original is an oil-painting, and on the back of it is written (in German of course):—
“To the rare genius, the great artist, the good man, from T. B.”