“Prince! what you are you owe to chance and birth.  What I am, I am through myself.  There has been, and will yet be thousands of princes, but there is only one Beethoven."[A]

[A] Frimmel’s Beethoven.

It was raining when he left the castle, and the manuscript of the Appassionata Sonata, hastily packed, became water-soaked and blurred; it bears the marks of that night’s journey to the present day.

Some difficulty was experienced in procuring his passport for Vienna.  It could readily have been obtained by having recourse to Prince Lichnowsky, but Beethoven would not permit this.  The matter was finally arranged, and he proceeded on his journey.  He nursed his wrath all the way, and on reaching his quarters in Vienna, his first act was to smash a bust of the Prince which stood on a bookcase.

Although a reconciliation was effected later, the old cordial relations were never restored.  There were times when the Prince called on Beethoven and was not received, when the latter was not in the mood for seeing him.  Through his wilfulness, Beethoven lost the annuity which the Prince had settled on him on his coming to Vienna.  The initiative in this matter was probably taken by Beethoven himself, as may be inferred from a letter he writes to a friend two years later:  “My circumstances are improving without having recourse to people who treat their friends insultingly.”

The winter of 1806-7 was a period of great activity for Beethoven, although a felon on his finger must have stopped all work for a while.  Some important works were published, notably the Eroica Symphony and the Appassionata Sonata.  Along with acceptances came commissions, so that his finances appear to have been in a flourishing condition for the time.

Beethoven’s engagement to the Countess Brunswick was entered into with the consent of her brother.  Count Brunswick, who was the only one permitted to share the secret.  Every precaution was taken to prevent a knowledge of it coming to the ears of Therese’s mother, who would not for a moment have listened to an argument leading to a possible union of her daughter with the poor musician.

That Beethoven had marriage in mind is evident from the fact that he once got so far as to write to Bonn for a copy of his baptismal certificate as a necessary preliminary.  He wrote in his note-book on the subject as follows:  “Oh God!  Let me attain her who is destined to be mine and who shall strengthen me in virtue.”  But it never got any further.  The secrecy so strictly enjoined, must have been specially unpleasant to a man of Beethoven’s temperament.  The opposition that was sure to be developed on the part of the Countess’s family may have reverted on his sense of pride to such an extent as to lead him to sacrifice his love to it.  He always had his work to fall back on.  In the end, his art took precedence of all other considerations; while it permitted friendship, the serenity of which might aid him in his life-work, it excluded love, which might become a rival.  His concept of life was to live simply, to entertain no project which would in any way divert his mind from his work.  No mere desires of self were to be considered.