fort, less his worldly interest, and nothing his artistic progress; but, on the contrary, always embarrassed him with unavailable advice, inconsiderate remonstrance, and other uncongenial interference, besides a continual drain upon his pecuniary resources.
In 1802 he had a severe illness, that left him in one of those fits of deep despondency to which, without such additional aggravation, his isolated situation rendered him subject. In this state he wrote a will, bequeathing all his possessions to his brothers, and exhorting them to deal tenderly with his memory, urging his infirmity in extenuation of the eccentricities with which they habitually reproached him.
In April, 1803, he produced the "Mount of Olives." This oratorio, to be rightly estimated, must not be classed with those that have been written for England, which, embodying a totally different sentiment, are cast in as different a mould, and produce their effects by as different means; in accordance with the spirit of his church—for Beethoven, though a free-thinker, was imbued with the formulæ in which he had been reared and by which he was surrounded—it represents the personal agony of the Saviour, and in the truthfulness of this representation, in its dramatic personality, lies its chief merit. Throughout the work we have proof, as ample as in "Adelaide," and in "Ah perfido," of the feeling for true vocal effect which has been denied to the composer, and hence we must account, by other causes than the want of this, for the unvocal character of some of his later writings.
Bernadotte, then ambassador at Vienna, suggested to Beethoven, in the course of this year, the composition of a grand instrumental work in honour of Napoleon. His republican feeling caught fire at the proposal, and he entered upon the task with the determination to produce a masterpiece that should stand in art, as its hero does in history—the sun of a system. He spent the greater part of a year upon the composition, and wrought in it the first great manifestation of his individuality, fulfilling to the utmost the highest intention he could have formed with regard to it, and constructing in it a monument to his own genius that can never perish. The noblest and best that belongs to music characterizes this colossal effort, and if the greatness of Beethoven, as an artist, were to be epitomised in a single work, this work would represent it all. The completed score was about to be forwarded to the first consul; the title-page was headed "Buonaparte," at the bottom of the leaf was written "Luigi van Beethoven;" and the author was considering the form of words that should link these extraordinary names, when he learned that Napoleon had assumed the crown of empire. Enraged at this, as though at a personal grievance, so entirely had he identified himself with the subject, he tore the intended title-page in pieces, threw the manuscript of his outraged imaginings upon the ground, and would not for many months allow the work to be named. It was subsequently purchased by Prince Lobkowitz, at whose residence it was first performed, and now it was that it received the title of "Sinfonia Eroica," with the superscription "Per festegiare il sovvenire d'un gran uomo."
His next great work was the opera of "Leonore," which was produced in November, 1805, but seven days after the entry of Napoleon's troops into Vienna. Its non-success was the natural consequence of the political excitement of the time, of the absence from the city of the principal lovers of music, including the Lichnowsky family, and of the theatre being attended almost entirely by French officers, who probably did not understand the language, and certainly could not comprehend the music; and it was, accordingly, withdrawn after the third performance. The opera had been written under engagement to the manager of the theatre, who provided Beethoven with a lodging during the time of its composition, which being, however, as distasteful to him as three others he rented at the same time (this matter of residence was one about which he was especially capricious), he wrote the work at the village of Hetzendorf, and it was now produced with the first overture—that published after his death as Op. 138, and commonly known by the name of "Leonore Fidelio."
Fortunately for art, the English theatrical custom of regarding original non-success as total failure prevailed not in Vienna, and the opera was accordingly reproduced in March, 1806, with some advantageous modification of the libretto, when it was well received; but in consequence of disputes between the composer and the manager and singers, it was again laid aside after three representations; in the interim, since the first production, the great overture in C (known by the name of "Leonore"), as well as the second overture (Op. 139), which is a sketch for this, had been written, and it was with this grand composition that the opera was reproduced. When Prince Lichnowsky returned to Vienna, one of his first cares was for Beethoven's opera; accordingly a meeting took place at his house to discuss the remodelling of the work, when the composer was, with extreme difficulty, persuaded to omit a duet and a trio, in which the love of Marzelline for Fidelio and the jealousy of Jaquino were exhibited, probably to rewrite the songs of Pizarro and Florestan, to insert the march, and to compose the fourth overture (that in E, known by the name of "Fidelio"); the libretto was now reduced from three into two acts, the name of the opera was changed to "Fidelio," and in this altered form it was again reproduced in 1807, to meet with that success which has stamped it a classic of the lyrical stage; on this occasion, Mesdms. Milder and Marconi, personated Leonore and Marzelline, and MM. Röckel and Meyer, Florestan and Pizarro. M. Lenz assigns 1814 as the date of the fourth overture, but the authority for the above account is more satisfactory. To describe the merits of this masterpiece, would greatly surpass the present limits; the chief are its all-powerful dramatic character, and the gradual growth of the intensity of its expression with the progress of the action; it is rendered difficult of comprehension to a general public by the minuteness of the expression, which necessitates in the hearers, not only a knowledge of the broad sentiment, but of the very words of the text, each one of which has its meaning illustrated in the music. This quality, which induces the very perfection of "Fidelio" as a work of art, has had the baneful influence upon recent productions of suggesting a corrupt style, in which the principles of composition are sacrificed to the pretence of expression, and music ceases to be music to become mere declamation. Whoever would exalt this style, by referring it to the work under consideration, must be insensible to the technical beauties of that work, which transcend even the beauty of its expression, and forget that means are essential to an end. In 1806, while he was corresponding with the Countess Guicciardi, Beethoven wrote the Symphony in B flat, the epitome of a happy love in the many phases of its enthusiasm, finding, in this indulgence of his innermost feeling, a relief from the vexations occasioned by his opera, by his uncertain health, and even by his deafness. In the years following the final production of "Fidelio," he wrote successively that glorious manifestation of will and power, the Symphony in C minor, and that musical idyl which truthfully tells us how deep was his love of nature, the "Sinfonia Pastorale." He had already, in his overture to Coriolanus, and in each of the overtures to his opera, proved the power of music independently of words to embody a definite expression, as distinct from the undefined, if not undecided sentiment of the instrumental works of previous composers; and in the last-named work, where the character is didactic instead of dramatic, where the expression is of his own feelings, not of those of the persons of his story, this power is evinced with equal success. In these two symphonies an important originality of the form is to be noticed, as conducing to the effect of unity in an extensive instrumental work, the conjunction, namely, of several movements.
In 1809 Beethoven was offered the appointment at Cassel of kapellmeister to Jerome Buonaparte, king of Westphalia, with a salary of 600 ducats, and an equipage; such an engagement, with the independence it was to secure, and the opportunities it was to open, was most desirable to the already world-acknowledged artist; but so highly was his merit prized, and so cordial was the feeling in his interest, that the Archduke Rudolf, Prince Lobkowitz, and Prince Kinsky—perpetual honour be to them for their illustrious liberality—subscribed together to pay him an annual pension of 4000 florins, with the condition, which he accepted, that he should not hold an office out of the Austrian dominions; and the composer was thus placed in a position to be indifferent to every consideration in his works, but the advancement of his art. A circumstance connected with this incident strongly exemplifies Beethoven's suspicious character, his readiness to take offence, and his generous zeal to atone for it. Young Ries, to whom he had given a thousand proofs of friendship, on being told that his master had refused the appointment at Cassel, wrote to ask his permission to apply for it for himself. His repeated letters to this effect received no reply; equally in vain he sought to speak to him, until an accidental meeting gave him an opportunity, when Beethoven disdainfully retorted—"Do you presume to think that you could fill an
