Beethoven, the Man and the Artist Part 21

304. "He is a base man who does not know how to die; I knew it as a boy of fifteen."

(In the spring of 1816, to Miss f.a.n.n.y Giannatasio del Rio, when Beethoven felt ill and spoke of dying. It is not known that he was ever near death in his youth.)

305. "A second and third generation recompenses me three and fourfold for the ill-will which I had to endure from my former contemporaries."

(Copied into his Diary from Goethe's "West-ostlicher Divan.")

306.

"My hour at last is come; Yet not ingloriously or pa.s.sively I die, but first will do some valiant deed, Of which mankind shall hear in after time."--Homer.

("The Iliad" [Bryant's translation], Book XXII, 375-378.)

(Copied into his Diary, 1815.)

307. "Fate gave man the courage of endurance."

(Diary, 1814.)

308.

"Portia--How far that little candle throws his beams!

So shines a good deed in a naughty world."

(Marked in his copy of Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice.")

309.

"And on the day that one becomes a slave, The Thunderer, Jove, takes half his worth away."--Homer.

("The Odyssey" [Bryant's translation], Book XVII, 392-393. Marked by Beethoven.)

310.

"Short is the life of man, and whoso bears A cruel heart, devising cruel things, On him men call down evil from the G.o.ds While living, and pursue him, when he dies, With scoffs. But whoso is of generous heart And harbors generous aims, his guests proclaim His praises far and wide to all mankind, And numberless are they who call him good."--Homer.

("The Odyssey" [Bryant's translation], Book XIX, 408-415. Copied into his diary, 1818.)

G.o.d

Beethoven was through and through a religious man, though not in the confessional sense. Reared in the Catholic faith he early attained to an independent opinion on religious things. It must be borne in mind that his youth fell in the period of enlightenment and rationalism. When at a later date he composed the grand Ma.s.s in honor of his esteemed pupil Archduke Rudolph,--he hoped to obtain from him a chapelmastership when the Archduke became Archbishop of Olmutz, but in vain,--he gave it forms and dimensions which deviated from the ritual.

In all things liberty was the fundamental principle of Beethoven's life.

His favorite book was Sturm's "Observations Concerning G.o.d's Works in Nature" (Betrachtungen uber die Werke Gottes in der Natur), which he recommended to the priests for wide distribution among the people. He saw the hand of G.o.d in even the most insignificant natural phenomenon.

G.o.d was to him the Supreme Being whom he had jubilantly hymned in the choral portion of the Ninth Symphony in the words of Schiller: "Brothers, beyond you starry canopy there must dwell a loving Father!"

Beethoven's relationship to G.o.d was that of a child toward his loving father to whom he confides all his joys as well as sorrows.

It is said that once he narrowly escaped excommunication for having said that Jesus was only a poor human being and a Jew. Haydn, ingenuously pious, is reported to have called Beethoven an atheist.

He consented to the calling in of a priest on his death-bed.

Eye-witnesses testify that the customary function was performed most impressively and edifyingly and that Beethoven expressed his thanks to the officiating priest with heartiness. After he had left the room Beethoven said to his friends: "Plaudite, amici, comoedia finita est,"

the phrase with which antique dramas were concluded. From this fact the statement has been made that Beethoven wished to characterize the sacrament of extreme unction as a comedy. This is contradicted, however, by his conduct during its administration. It is more probable that he wished to designate his life as a drama; in this sense, at any rate, the words were accepted by his friends. Schindler says emphatically: "The last days were in all respects remarkable, and he looked forward to death with truly Socratic wisdom and peace of mind."

[I append a description of the death scene as I found it in the notebooks of A. W. Thayer which were placed in my hands for examination after the death of Beethoven's greatest biographer in 1897:

"June 5, 1860, I was in Graz and saw Huttenbrenner (Anselm) who gave me the following particulars: ...In the winter of 1826-27 his friends wrote him from Vienna, that if he wished to see Beethoven again alive he must hurry thither from Graz. He hastened to Vienna, arriving a few days before Beethoven's death. Early in the afternoon of March 26, Huttenbrenner went into the dying man's room. He mentioned as persons whom he saw there, Stephen v. Breuning and Gerhard, Schindler, Telscher and Carl's mother (this seems to be a mistake, i.e. if Mrs. v. Beethoven is right). Beethoven had then long been senseless. Telscher began drawing the dying face of Beethoven. This grated on Breuning's feelings, and he remonstrated with him, and he put up his papers and left (?).

"Then Breuning and Schindler left to go out to Wohring to select a grave.

(Just after the five--I got this from Breuning himself--when it grew dark with the sudden storm Gerhard, who had been standing at the window, ran home to his teacher.)

"Afterward Gerhard v. B. went home, and there remained in the room only Huttenbrenner and Mrs. van Beethoven. The storm pa.s.sed over, covering the Glacis with snow and sleet. As it pa.s.sed away a flash of lightning lighted up everything. This was followed by an awful clap of thunder.

Huttenbrenner had been sitting on the side of the bed sustaining Beethoven's head--holding it up with his right arm His breathing was already very much impeded, and he had been for hours dying. At this startling, awful peal of thunder, the dying man suddenly raised his head from Huttenbrenner's arm, stretched out his own right arm majestically--like a general giving orders to an army. This was but for an instant; the arm sunk back; he fell back. Beethoven was dead.

"Another talk with Huttenbrenner. It seems that Beethoven was at his last gasp, one eye already closed. At the stroke of lightning and the thunder peal he raised his arm with a doubled-up fist; the expression of his eyes and face was that of one defying death,--a look of defiance and power of resistance.

"He must have had his arm under the pillow. I must ask him.

"I did ask him; he had his arm around B.'s neck." H. E. K.]

311. "I am that which is. I am all that was, that is, and that shall be.

No mortal man has ever lifted the veil of me. He is solely of himself, and to this Only One all things owe their existence."

(Beethoven's creed. He had found it in Champollion's "The Paintings of Egypt," where it is set down as an inscription on a temple to the G.o.ddess Neith. Beethoven had his copy framed and kept it constantly before him on his writing desk. "The relic was a great treasure in his eyes"--Schindler.)

312. "Wrapped in the shadows of eternal solitude, in the impenetrable darkness of the thicket, impenetrable, immeasurable, unapproachable, formlessly extended. Before spirit was breathed (into things) his spirit was, and his only. As mortal eyes (to compare finite and infinite things) look into a shining mirror."