The old goose is the bearer of this.  She has given you the quills, and you have again told an untruth.  Alas! farewell.  I await your report about the book.  She is going to-day to Katel, so she will have very little time for her stupid blundering.  May the Lord one day deliver me from her! Libera me Domine de illis, &c.

431.[1]

DEAR SON, DEAR BOY,—­

Do not omit the point about “the happiness.”  I know from my experience of the late Lichnowsky, that those so-called great personages do not like to see an artist, who is at all events their equal, prosperous. Voila le meme cas, votre Altesse, sometimes in the context V.A.  The address “a son Altesse Monseigneur le Prince,” &c., &c.  We cannot tell whether he may have that weakness or not.  A blank sheet ought to follow with my signature.  You might add that he must not regard the newspaper trash, the writers of which, if I chose, would loudly trumpet forth my merits.  The Quartet did indeed fail the first time that it was played by Schuppanzigh; for on account of his corpulence he requires more time than formerly to decipher a piece at a glance, and many other circumstances concurred in preventing its success, which were indeed predicted by me; for although Schuppanzigh and two others receive pensions from royal personages [Rasumowsky], their quartet-playing is not what it was when all four were in the habit of constantly playing together.  On the other hand, it has been six times performed in the most admirable manner by other artists, and received with the greatest applause; it was played twice over in one evening, and then again after supper.  A violinist of the name of Boehm means also to give it at his benefit, and I must now let many others have it.

Mention the Grand Quartet in your letter to Peters at Leipzig; lose no time about this, and desire him to send me an early reply.  Mischances of this kind cannot well be avoided, and we must appear rather coy.  Seal the enclosed letter to my brother and send it to the post.  Desire the tailor in the Kaerntnerstrasse to get lining for trousers for me, and to make them long and without straps, one pair to be of kerseymere and the other of cloth.  The great-coat can be fetched from Wolf’s.  The shoemaker’s shop is in the “Stadt” in the Spiegelgasse, in front when coming from the Graben.  His name is Magnus Senn, at the Stadthaus, No. 1093.  Call on Hoenigstein [a banker] and be candid, that we may really know how this wretch has acted; it would be wise to ascertain this before the letter to Galitzin is sent off.  It is probable that something else may be found for you this winter, but we can talk over the matter.  Before coming here on Saturday call on Zinbrachen in the Naglergasse about the knives, which you can send at once; the old woman made a fine mess of it!  When driving home yesterday I met Clement, Holz, Linke, and Rtschaschek [Rzehatschek] in Neudorf; they had all been to call on me while I was in town.  They wish to have the Quartet again.  Holz drove straight back here from Neudorf and supped with me in the evening, when I gave him the Quartet to take back with him.