39.

TO MESSRS.  ARTARIA & CO.[1]

Vienna, June 1, 1805.

I must inform you that the affair about the new quintet is settled between
Count Fries and myself.

The Count has just assured me that he intends to make you a present of it; it is too late to-day for a written agreement on the subject, but one shall be sent early in the ensuing week.  This intelligence must suffice for the present, and I think I at all events deserve your thanks for it.

Your obedient servant,

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN.

[Footnote 1:  The quintet is probably not that in C, Op. 29, dedicated to Count v.  Fries, previously published in 1803 by Breitkopf & Haertel [see No. 27].  It is more likely that he alludes to a new quintet which the Count had no doubt ordered.]

40.

TO MADAME LA PRINCESSE LIECHTENSTEIN, &C.[1]

November, 1805.

Pray pardon me, illustrious Princess, if the bearer of this should cause you an unpleasant surprise.  Poor Ries, my scholar, is forced by this unhappy war to shoulder a musket, and must moreover leave this in a few days, being a foreigner.  He has nothing, literally nothing, and is obliged to take a long journey.  All chance of a concert on his behalf is thus entirely at an end, and he must have recourse to the benevolence of others.  I recommend him to you.  I know you will forgive the step I have taken.  A noble-minded man would only have recourse to such measures in the most utter extremity.  Confident of this, I send the poor youth to you, in the hope of somewhat improving his circumstances.  He is forced to apply to all who know him.

I am, with the deepest respect, yours,

L. VAN BEETHOVEN.

[Footnote 1:  Communicated by Ries himself, who, to Beethoven’s extreme indignation, did not deliver the note.  See Wegeler’s work, p. 134.  The following remark is added:—­“Date unknown; written a few days before the entrance of the French in 1805” (which took place Nov. 13).  Ries, a native of Bonn, was now a French subject, and recalled under the laws of conscription.  The Sonata, Op. 27, No. 1, is dedicated to Princess Liechtenstein.]

41.

TO HERR MEYER.[1]

1805.

DEAR MEYER,—­

Pray try to persuade Herr v.  Seyfried to direct my Opera, as I wish on this occasion to see and hear it myself from a distance; in this way my patience will at all events not be so severely tried as when I am close enough to hear my music so bungled.  I really do believe that it is done on purpose to annoy me!  I will say nothing of the wind-instruments; but all pp.’s, cresc., discresc., and all f.’s and ff.’s may as well be struck out of my Opera, for no attention whatever is paid to them.  I shall lose all pleasure in composing anything in future, if I am to hear it given thus.  To-morrow or the day after I will come to fetch you to dinner.  To-day I am again unwell.