Ludwig van Beethoven
    Den Sie wenn Sie wollten
    Doch nicht vergessen sollten.

    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Whom if you would
    Forget, you never should.

It may be said in passing, that she was not the last to whom Beethoven yielded his susceptible heart.  It would make a long list were it arranged chronologically, from the early Bonn days to his forty-fifth year.

[Illustration:  Fac-simile of a letter from Beethoven to Amalie Seebald, written by Toeplitz; during the summer of 1812.  The autograph, from which the fac-simile is obtained, is in the Lenox Library, New York, and was photographed for this work by permission of the librarian.]

[Transcriber’s note:  The letter reads thus (words that I’m not sure of are marked with asterisks) “Es geht schon liebe A. besser wenn Sie es anstaendig heissen, allein zu mir zu kommen, so koennen Sie mir eine grosse Freude machen, ist [a]ber dass Sie dieses unanstaendig finden, so wissen Sie, wie ich die Frejheit aber Menschen ehre, und wie Sie dies heuer hierin und in andren Faellen handeln moegen nach ihren Grund fuer zueinander wie Muehe, mich finden Sie nur gut und als

“Ihren Freund
Beethoven”]

An incident of his visit at Toeplitz, showing Beethoven’s humility and kindliness will bear narrating, as it was characteristic of the man.  It relates to a stern parent, a lovely daughter, an ardent wooer.  The first two characters of the dramatis personae, were the innkeeper, at whose house Beethoven dined, and his daughter.  The part of lover was taken by Ludwig Loewe, an actor, while Beethoven’s part in the little drama is not much more important than that of scene-shifter.  Loewe was a man in good standing, and came from a family of some prominence, but the father objected to him and forbade the daughter speaking to him.  It appears that Beethoven was in the habit of coming late for dinner, so the plan was hit upon that Loewe was to take dinner late also, at which hour, the other guests having eaten and gone, and business being over for the time, the father was not apt to be around to interfere.  “All the world loves a lover.”  Beethoven was an interested spectator of the little comedy, no doubt casting occasional friendly glances in the direction of the young couple.  The father finally appeared on the scene, ordered the actor to leave the house, and forbade him coming there any more.  At this crisis the lovers were in despair, that is for a while.  Love laughs at locksmiths, as we know, and it had not got so far as that yet.  Loewe, with the resources of a true lover, managed to meet Beethoven accidentally away from the inn, and looked at him so intently that he was rewarded by an answering nod of recognition from the master.  The ice being broken, the actor disclosed his troubles.  Meeting with sympathy, he was emboldened to ask him to deliver a letter to Fraeulein Therese.  To this Beethoven agreed, and, taking the letter, started to go, thus closing the interview.  But Loewe was not so easily gotten rid of.  With an embarrassed manner, he managed to convey to Beethoven the fact that there would be an answer.  “So!  And you wish me to deliver it?  Well, meet me here to-morrow;” and so Beethoven became the go-between for the lovers during the remainder of his stay in Toeplitz.