276.

TO HERR BLOeCHLINGER.

Moedling, Sept. 14, 1819.

85 florins enclosed.

DEAR SIR,—­

I have the honor to send you payment for the ensuing month, which begins on the 22d Sept., and I add 10 florins in order to provide for any unforeseen expenses, which you will please account for to me on the 12th October.  The following persons alone are to have free access to my nephew:  Herr von Bernard, Herr von Oliva, Herr von Piuss.

If any persons, exclusive of those I have named, wish to see my nephew, I will give them a letter to you, when you will be so obliging as to admit them; for the distance to your house is considerable, and those who go there can only do so to oblige me, as, for example, the bandage-maker, &c., &c.

My nephew must never leave your house without a written permission from me.  From this you will at once plainly perceive your line of conduct towards Carl’s mother.  I must impress on you the necessity of these rules (proceeding from the magistrates and myself) being strictly enforced.  You, dear sir, are too little experienced in these circumstances, however obvious your other merits are to me, to act on your own judgment in the matter, as you have hitherto done.  Credulity can in the present instance only lead to embarrassment, the result of which might prove injurious to you rather than beneficial, and this I wish to avoid for the sake of your own credit.

I hear that my nephew requires, or at all events wishes to have, a variety of things from me; he has only to apply to myself.  Be so good as to forward all his letters through Herr Steiner & Co., Pater Noster Gaessel, auf’m Graben.

Your obedient

BEETHOVEN,

Sole guardian of my nephew Carl Van Beethoven.

N.B.  Any outlay will be at once repaid.

277.

Vienna, Sept. 21, 1819.

In honor of the visit of Herr Schlesinger of Berlin.

[Music:  Four staves (SATB), B-flat major, 4/4 time, repeating. 
                                 Glaube und hoffe
                      Glaube und hoffe und hoffe
           Glaube und hoffe, Glaube und hoffe
Glaube und hoffe, ]

L. V. BEETHOVEN.

278.

TO HERR ARTARIA,—­VIENNA.

Oct. 1, 1819.

MOST EXCELLENT AND MOST VIRTUOUS OF VIRTUOSI, AND NO HUMBUG!

While informing you of all sorts of things from which we hope you will draw the best conclusions, we request you to send us six (say 6) copies of the Sonata in B flat major, and also six copies of the variations on the Scotch songs, as the author’s right.  We beg you to forward them to Steiner, in Pater Noster Gaessel, whence they will be sent to us with some other things.

In the hope that you are conducting yourself with all due propriety and decorum, we are your, &c.,

B——.