There is a falling off in his compositions the following year, which is generally attributed to the breaking of his engagement with the Countess Therese.  That he should have suffered to such an extent on this account, is at least open to question.  His art was of more importance to him than any other fact in life.  It was only by a complete surrender of everything else that he achieved what he did in it.  He had many bitter disappointments at different periods of his life, which, however, did not take him away from his work.  At all events, he gave no sign, contrary to his usual habit.  He was reticent on the subject of his compositions, but was not averse to talking of his troubles.  A man so entirely given over to one idea, as was Beethoven, could hardly take such a step as marriage at the age of forty, thereby changing his whole course of life.  The passion for creating had grown to such an extent, that he became impatient of everything which interfered with it.  It is possible that the Countess Therese, noting this, felt that there would be little chance for happiness in such a union, and wisely broke it off.  He could not have been considered eligible in any event by a family like the Brunswicks, noted for extravagant living and a desire to occupy a prominent place in society.  Beethoven’s income was never large.  It was at times insufficient for his simple wants, owing to his ignorance of the value of money.  That he managed to fall in love with a frequency only equalled by his impetuosity, must be admitted.  But when the question came fairly before him, marriage or music, he had but one course.  His art was a jealous mistress which would brook no rival.  If he took the breaking of his engagement so much to heart that it interfered with his work, how was it possible, we may ask, for him to have made violent love to Bettina Brentano during this summer of 1810?  Within two years afterward he was as badly smitten with Amalie Seebald the singer.  We can only reiterate the former statement, music was his one passion, in this he was supreme.  His art had so strong a hold on him that nothing else could come between.  These love affairs were episodes in his social life.  They were as episodical with the ladies concerned, who later, generally married in their own station, and, let us hope were happy ever afterward.

The artistic temperament will account for these rhapsodies.  Ill health in this period probably had as much to do with his lessened productivity as anything else.  Schindler states that he had been on bad terms with his stomach for many years of his Vienna life.  Confirmation of this is to be found in Beethoven’s letters in which complaints about stomach and intestinal troubles are frequently met with in these years.  These gastro-intestinal disturbances which so afflicted him had their origin in the chronic liver trouble to which he finally succumbed.

In the spring of 1812 he resolved by the advice of his physician to try the baths of Bohemia, and we find him at Toeplitz, one of many notabilities, who were spending the summer at this place.  Here he made the acquaintance of Goethe whom he held in great esteem.  It was here also that he met Amalie Seebald of whom mention has already been made.  She was a fine singer, and a beautiful, amiable woman of considerable talent.  Beethoven wrote the following in her album: