lly made up his mind that he would be a composer; but he saw
clearly enough that, for the present, he must work, and work, too, not
for fame, but for bread.

A Good Samaritan

Musing on these things while still parading the streets, tired and
hungry, he met one Spangler, a tenor singer of his acquaintance, who
earned a pittance at the Church of St Michael. Spangler was a poor
man--but it is ever the poor who are most helpful to each other--and,
taking pity on the dejected outcast, he invited Haydn to share his
garret rooms along with his wife and child. It is regrettable that
nothing more is known of this good Samaritan--one of those obscure
benefactors who go through the world doing little acts of kindness,
never perhaps even suspecting how far-reaching will be the results. He
must have died before Haydn, otherwise his name would certainly have
appeared in his will.

Haydn Enskied

Haydn remained with Spangler in that "ghastly garret" all through the
winter of 1749-1750. He has been commiserated on the garret--needlessly,
to be sure. Garrets are famous, in literary annals at any rate; and is
it not Leigh Hunt who reminds us that the top story is healthier than
the basement? The poor poet in Pope, who lay high in Drury Lane, "lull'd
by soft zephyrs through the broken pane," found profit, doubtless,
in his "neighbourhood with the stars." However that may be, there, in
Spangler's attic, was Haydn enskied, eager for work--work of any kind,
so long as it had fellowship with music and brought him the bare means
of subsistence.

"Scanning his whole horizon
In quest of what he could clap eyes on,"

he sought any and every means of making money. He tried to get teaching,
with what success has not been recorded. He sang in choirs, played at
balls and weddings and baptisms, made "arrangements" for anybody who
would employ him, and in short drudged very much as Wagner did at the
outset of his tempestuous career.

Street Serenades

He even took part in street serenades by playing the violin. This last
was not a very dignified occupation; but it is important to remember
that serenading in Vienna was not the lover's business of Italy and
Spain, where the singer is accompanied by guitar or mandoline. It was a
much more serious entertainment. It dated from the seventeenth century,
if we are to trust Praetorius, and consisted of solos and concerted
vocal music in various forms, accompanied sometimes by full orchestr