ys remain, &c., &c.

466.

TO HERR MOSCHELES.

Vienna, Feb. 22, 1827.

DEAR MOSCHELES,--

I feel sure that you will not take amiss my troubling you as well as Sir G.
Smart (to whom I enclose a letter) with a request. The matter is briefly
this. Some years since, the London Philharmonic Society made me the
handsome offer to give a concert in my behalf. At that time I was not, God
be praised! so situated as to render it necessary for me to take advantage
of this generous proposal. Things are, however, very different with me now,
as for fully three months past I have been entirely prostrated by that
tedious malady, dropsy. Schindler encloses a letter with further details.
You have long known my circumstances, and are aware how, and by what, I
live: a length of time must elapse before I can attempt to write again, so
that, unhappily, I might be reduced to actual want. You have not only an
extensive acquaintance in London, but also the greatest influence with the
Philharmonic; may I beg you, therefore, to exercise it, so far as you can,
in prevailing on the Society to resume their former intention, and to carry
it soon into effect.

The letter I enclose to Sir Smart is to the same effect, as well as one I
already sent to Herr Stumpff.[1] I beg you will yourself give the enclosed
letter to Sir Smart, and unite with him and all my friends in London in
furthering my object. Your sincere friend,

BEETHOVEN.

[Footnote 1: Stumpff, a Thuringian maker of harps, came to Vienna in 1824,
recommended to our _maestro_ by Andreas Streicher in a letter of Sept. 24,
in these words:--"The bearer of this is Herr Stumpff, an excellent German,
who has lived for thirty-four years in London. The sole reason of his going
to Baden is to see you, my revered Beethoven, the man of whom Germany is so
proud. Pray receive him in a kind and friendly manner, as beseems the saint
to whose shrine the pious pilgrim has made so long a journey." In 1826 he
presented Beethoven with the English edition of Handel's works in 40 folio
volumes, which the _maestro_ constantly studied during his last illness.
Gerhard v. Breuning, when a youth of fourteen, either held up the separate
volumes for him, or propped them against the wall.]

467.

TO SCHINDLER.

The end of February, 1827.

When we meet we can discuss the mischance that has befallen you. I can send
you some person without the smallest inconvenience. Do accept my offer; it
is, at least, som